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Top Five Books of 2022
In no particular oder, here are my top five reads from this past year, books that have stayed with me and I know will do for some time. I have three fiction here, one non-fiction and a travelogue.
I'm not normally into anything vaguely…

Writing a Poem a Week for a Year
Published by Nine Arches Press and edited by Jo Bell and guest poets, this wonderful book is a year of poetry-writing prompts.
I can't quite remember when it first came on to my radar - possibly through a podcast. But I am now up to…

A Year Of Reading Outside My Ethnicity - Results + Reflections
Towards the end of 2020, I decided to spend the following year reading outside my ethnic group. If you'd like to see my original blog post and the intention I set, click here. The vast majority of books published globally are written by authors…

May I touch your hair?
I recently read a book by Aja Barber called Consumed which caused me to take a long, hard look at the clothes I wear, their provenance, and how the clothing industry is helping to fuel the climate crisis. I've really never been into fashion…

July - September reading Authors of Colour
Looking back at my reads from April - June, it appears I read a whole lot more then than the July - September months. I'm not entirely sure why; I would have thought I'd had more time for reading over the summer holidays. Perhaps it was because…

A Year of Reading Authors of Colour
I decided towards the end of 2020 that in 2021 I would read books only by authors of colour / BAME authors. I made this decision after realising that only a tiny proportion of my shortlisted favourite books from 2020 fell into the BAME category.…

Poems of a Teenage Girl
Last year, I spied a book in the window of my local bookshop, How to Grown your own Poem by Kate Clanchy.
I loved the cover and the title and often use poetry to help my students with creative literacy, so decided to treat myself to…

📚Top Ten Books of 2020📚
I read quite a lot of books, so it wasn't at all easy to narrow this list down to ten. I have also discovered the joys of audiobooks this year which has significantly bumped up my book intake. I spent some time writing out my long list, crossing…

My 5 favourite books from the first half of 2018
'Someone reading a book is a sign of order in the world.' Mary Ruefle
Over the past six months as I have been travelling round India, I have been reading and reading and reading. Not that this is any different from normal, but what has been…

Lucy Paget: Living Bravely and Creatively
It is hard to know how to describe Lucy Paget, so wide-ranging are her skills. Perhaps polymath would be the best word for her: Writer, Osteopath, Business Owner, Yoga teacher, Nutritional Herbalist, Chef...the list goes on. Lucy has helped…