By the Seaside
I love seaside books. Books about long empty beaches, old towns stuck in time and mysterious things that wash up on beaches. Or pop out of clam shells, like the toy twins discovered by young Mary in William Nicholson’s practically perfect The Pirate Twins. Published in 1929, around the time of Hergè’s Tintin in … Continue reading
I’m not much of a beach reader. It’s hard to get as comfortable as I need to really lose myself in a good book. There’s no perfect position. If I lean on one elbow, the book flaps away in the other hand as the entire right side of my body slowly goes to sleep. Lie … Continue reading
‘Even if Einstein thought it was theoretically possible to travel in time, he never proved it, and if all the minds at the great universities haven’t managed to do it yet, then the likelihood of a 1920’s bungalow managing to invent a time machine, unaided, is very, very small. Time travel is far too complicated … Continue reading
There are some children’s books I feel slightly uncomfortable reading. Not because I’m embarrassed to be reading a children’s book per se, but because I’m so far from the intended readership I feel a little voyeuristic. Susie Day’s Bluebell Jones might be a good example of this, dealing as it does with a girl on … Continue reading
So far I've been looking at wonderful vintage children's books about the seaside and more contemporary titles that look at fast fading childhood memories. So this week I thought I'd share some brilliant contemporary books featuring really bold heroines as they face coming of age – and the more dangerous coming of the tide… The … Continue reading
Two more things I love about the seaside: Weird attractions and twice hourly puppet shows starting at a quarter past and a quarter to the hour. Neil Gaiman delivers both of these in the Comical Tragedy, or Tragical Comedy of Mr. Punch. The story takes place in, what Morrissey would describe as the seaside … Continue reading
