feather_ghyll

OVERVIEW: 2025 summary

2026-01-07T08:51:47Z

I'll be writing about the books I read or reread, any films or TV shows that I posted about, and tennis.

I read 55 books (I think), which is up on last year. ( Read more... )

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REREAD: The Four Graces

2025-11-05T17:50:19Z

The Four Graces: D.E. Stevenson. Collins, 1946

It’s over two decades since I first read this book, and I’d honestly forgotten that I owned it and had read it. It introduces us to the Grace family, but is connected to the Miss Buncle/Mrs Abbot books, which I’ve read subsequently.

I was going to say that ( Read more... )

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REREAD: The Dragonfly Pool

2025-09-05T19:01:51Z

The Dragonfly Pool: Eva Ibbotson, 2008, Macmillan Children’s Books.

( Read more... )

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REVIEW: The Thursday Murder Club (film)

2025-08-28T08:17:59Z

The Thursday Murder Club (2025) Rated: 12A
Directed by: Chris Columbus
Screenplay by: Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, based on the nove by: Richard Osman
Starring: Helen Mirren, Piers Brosnan, Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley

This is well made and entertaining, it features lots of big names in the British acting firmament, some things have been dropped or tweaked for the running time, and maybe some of the characters flattened, but that’s what you expect with adaptations. I saw it in the cinema – as I don’t have Netflix, I was glad to catch it in my local arthouse cinema. I believe it’s on a short, limited run in British cinemas, at least. It is worth it for the communal chuckles, because it’s a film that sets out to entertain, and then it remembers that it is about real murders, ( Read more... )

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OVERVIEW: Towers in the Mist

2025-08-13T08:56:45Z

I bought Towers in the Mist by Elizabeth Goudge at the same time as I bought ‘The Heart of the Family’, discussed here, so I felt obliged to read it. But I won't be buying any more of Goudge's books from this point on. This is a historical novel, with an imaginary family, the Leighs, replacing a real-life family in Elizabethan Oxford and interacting with some historical figures. It starts with ( Read more... )

I hope to post more about books in the near future.

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REVIEW: The Secret Country

2025-03-22T17:13:32Z

The Secret Country: Pamela Dean, Firebird (Penguin), 2003

This is Volume One of the Secret Country trilogy, first published in the 80s, and as it ends at a satisfying resting point, but with much left unresolved, I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next. Dean is the author of ‘Tam Lin’, which adapted and updated the ballad, setting the story at an American college in the 1970s, and which I rated very highly. (I’ve also read ‘The Dubious Hills’ by her, but not posted about it.)

Readers of children’s fantasy books will be familiar with the concept ( Read more... )

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OVERVIEW: 2024 summary

2025-01-04T12:26:57Z

I read a couple fewer books than last year (47, I think.) As usual, the vast majority were by women and new to me. Most of the children’s books I read were of a higher standard than last year, probably because I’d bought them online (mainly in 2021-22) with greater intentionality than when I physically went into charity shops or second-hand bookshops.

I only read one book by any of the big four, ( Read more... )

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REVIEW: Seven Sisters at Queen Anne's

2024-08-22T10:00:38Z

Seven Sisters at Queen Anne’s: Evelyn Smith. Blackie, my copy is inscribed 1933

Seven sisters? Yes, the scenario set out in the book’s title is a lot, ( Read more... )

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REVIEW: The Quiet Girl (2022)

2024-04-21T15:22:30Z

The Quiet Girl
Original title: An Cailín Ciúin (2022) Rated: 12A
Written by: Claire Keegan, Colm Bairéad
Directed by: Colm Bairéad
Starring: Catherine Clinch, Andrew Bennett, Carrie Crowley

This is a rich, character-driven film that was quite recently up for a Best Foreign Language Oscar, as it’s mainly in Irish Gaelic, ( Read more... )

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REVIEW: The Guides in Hanover Lane

2024-01-21T15:39:12Z

The Guides in Hanover Lane: Anne Bradley. Lutterworth Press, 1958. My copy is inscribed 1967.

Once lockdown started, I decided to try to buy books, especially girls own books, online by authors that I’d thought highly of. One of those was Anne Bradley, author of Katherine at Feather Ghyll, the book that gave me the name of this blog.

It feels as though it’s been a while since I’ve read a Guide book. In truth, I always think of books about Guides as Guiding propaganda, in that the authors are trying to promote the movement as A Good Thing for their readers, either Guides themselves or prospective Guides. But when the story is well written and the characters are engaging, that doesn’t matter.

( Read more... )

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REVIEW: The Swallows' Flight

2024-01-08T20:01:52Z

The Swallows’ Flight: Hilary McKay. Macmillan, 2021

This book mainly follows four humans and a dog. We are introduced to ( Read more... )

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OVERVIEW: 2023 highlights

2024-01-04T12:39:02Z

I see I'm getting round to this a day earlier than last year. Perhaps 'summary' is a better description than 'highlights.'

I read 49 books in 2023, a decent increase on last year, thanks in part to the Good Thing that happened at the end of April. The vast majority were by women and new to me, and had mainly been bought (mostly online) in 2020. But I returned properly to charity shops and bookshops, so I bought more random books, which have gone on my 'to be read' pile.

Most of the children’s books I read were Girls Own books, although a lot were mediocre and some subpar, and I didn’t bother posting about them (be grateful I didn’t review ‘A Girl Governess’ by A.E. Ward.) ( Read more... )

Here's hoping the best for 2024.

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REVIEW: Flowering Spring

2023-12-15T19:57:56Z

Flowering Spring: Elfrida Vipont. Oxford University Press, 1960

I wish I’d read the books in this continuity in order. I read ‘The Lark in the Morn’ a while ago, and there are two books and several years between that and this. I was very muddled while I read the first few chapters as a result. ( Read more... )

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REREAD: The Star of Kazan

2023-08-19T15:06:47Z

The Star of Kazan: Eva Ibbotson, Macmillan, 2004.

I didn’t remember much about this book (only the fate of Rocco the horse, really) so rereading this almost felt like reading a new book, except it had that sense of things proceeding as they ought as so much of Ibbotson’s writing does, and some of that came from dim memories of first reading it. (This was the my post about it at the time, which also discusses ‘Blue of the Sea’ by L.T. Meade.)

This is the story of ( Read more... ) [Edited somewhat: 28/8/25.]

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REVIEW: The Pearl Thief

2023-02-12T15:28:07Z

The Pearl Thief: Elizabeth Wein, Bloomsbury, May 2017

This prequel to ‘Code Name Verity’ and ‘Rose Under Fire’ is both mystery and coming-of-age tale, in which Julie Beaufort-Stuart (or Lady Julia if you must) is spending a last summer at Strathfearn, where she and her big brothers would come for holidays. Julie is ( Read more... )

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OVERVIEW: 2022 highlights

2023-01-05T09:57:45Z

Happy new year! Here's my 2022 in books, tennis and some other things.

( Read more... )

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REVIEW: Lavender at the High School

2022-11-12T14:13:53Z

Lavender at the High School: E. C Mathews, Blackie

At its best, this was an absorbing read. ( Read more... )

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REVIEW: Waistcoats and Weaponry

2022-06-19T15:06:47Z

Waistcoats and Weaponry: Gail Carriger
Finishing School Book the Third, Atom, 2004

As I’ve said before, I enjoy this series, following Miss Sophronia Temminnick of Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing School in a streampunk Britain with supernatural elements. I have to admit that ( Read more... )

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OVERVIEWS: Odds and ends

2022-05-21T12:50:03Z

Over the past couple of months, there were two books that I read that I considered posting a review of here, namely, 'Twice Freed' by Patricia St. John (a reread) and 'Miriam' by Jane Edwards (a Welsh language book). ( Read more... )

Ha, I did have something to say!

As for ‘Barbara - Called Binkie’, well, I ploughed on with the collection, mainly shorter multi-chapter stories. ( Read more... )

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OVERVIEW: 2021 highlights

2022-01-06T16:53:52Z

It's about time I posted this, as I’m now in the process of taking down the Christmas decorations.

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OVERVIEW: 2020 highlights (?)

2021-01-04T16:43:02Z

( Read more... )

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REVIEW: The Santa Klaus Murder

2020-12-31T14:51:07Z

The Santa Klaus Murder: Mavis Doriel Hay The British Library (Crime Classics) 2015

I had thought that the only fictional books Doriel Hay had had published were the duology I’ve reviewed previously, but having come across this, apparently not. That and its seasonality appealed. I meant to read it last Christmas, but failed, so made sure I managed to this year. Well, I started on Boxing Day.

( Read more... )

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REVIEW: The School at Skelton Hall

2020-08-13T16:05:50Z

The School at Skelton Hall: Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Girls Gone By Publishers, 2008

I almost feel unworthy of posting my reaction to ‘The School at Skelton Hall’, because after I read it, I went back to read Ruth Jolly’s considered introduction for this GGBP edition, which discusses the plot, setting and the creation of a new school by E B-D for the second time in a career that spawned the famous Chalet School. My mind had kept stumbling over the similarity between Skelton and Skeleton! So please read what follows with that in mind. ( Read more... )

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AN OVERVIEW and A REFLECTION

2020-05-03T17:54:05Z

The Secret Shore : Lillie Le Pla

This book has to have been influenced by ‘The Secret Garden’. (Disclaimer: I haven’t investigated the publishing dates.)

Despite her Scottish name, Sheila McLeod is ( Read more... )

And a reflection, based on these ‘unprecedented times’, I haven’t been a very mindful reader when it comes to the influence of the Spanish flu pandemic on writing from 1918 onwards. I know I’ve talked about the shadow of the first world war on characters in books set in the twenties, but not so much the impact of the pandemic e.g. on attitudes towards hygiene illness and mortality. One example might be here in my review of 'A Head Girl's Difficulties.'

The Great British Sewing Bee has started back, and I am watching it, but via iPlayer, so I expect to post about that at some point.

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REVIEW: The Big House

2020-04-14T15:54:40Z

The Big House: Helena McEwen (Bloomsbury, 2000)

I very much admired Invisible River, therefore I got this book and it was next on my ‘To read’ pile, but when I started it, I was regretting not skipping it, because it opens with the narrator as a grieving woman. She’s at the big house of the title, on the verge of selling it, and the bulk of the novel is her memories of a year from her childhood there. It’s bookended by a brief return to the present.

Given everything that’s going on, I was not in the mood for literary fiction, where there is no plot, about what seemed to be a family with serious mental ill-health, as you can imagine. Fortunately, the childhood section is much more successful and balanced. ( Read more... )

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