In 1518 in Strasbourg a peculiar plague broke out. Suddenly members of the public were dancing for days and couldn’t stop. In fact, as John Waller says in his fascinating history A Time to Dance, A Time to Die, this was not the first time that this happened in Europe and nor was it the … Continue reading My 12 in 12 Challenge – October – History – Book 4

Quite a lot of the history books I have on my to-be-read pile are about WW2 – in fact, there were so many that I spent a whole month just reading WW2 books and didn’t exhaust the supply. East West Street by Philippe Sands is a memoir and history book all in one concentrating on … Continue reading My 12 in 12 Challenge – October – History – Book 3

Globe by Catharine Arnold is not just a book about Shakespeare’s theatre but is actually a wider look at the beginning of established theatres, theatre companies and commercial theatre in London in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. It’s a period that I know something about, I have read/seen many of the plays she … Continue reading My 12 in 12 Challenge – October – History – Book 2

A fascinating look at the history of rock lighthouses

Moving house may have a detrimental effect on my reading

A gripping thriller where all is not what it seems

Lauren Pailing doesn't always die - there are other realities

A fast paced thriller set in the 1930s

Bulgarians grannies meet the music industry - it will never be the same again

How one man's life is important