Lesley, Author at Allison & Busby

A gift of a story

30 April, 2013

Books are the great present-conumdrum-solution. Whether buying for fashionista or fisherman (both actual cases on my Christmas shopping list), what other shop could you duck into with a pretty good chance of present-purchasing success? So, it seems a no-brainer to me to sprinkle some of that bookish magic into the humble greetings card… While strolling […]

World Book Night – cheers!

22 April, 2013

Tomorrow is World Book Night, the annual celebration of books and reading that seeks to share the passion for literature with those who don’t regularly read. It’s a damn fine cause and there are some great books on the list this year across a broad range of genres, full list here. There are events going […]

There are treasured books, and then there are those that hold treasure…

15 April, 2013

I’m a peddler in the cliché that books enrich your life. They take you to amazing places and times, introduce you to ideas and people you would never normally meet and can improve your life in measurable (education, jobs etc) and immeasurable ways. And then I came across this story via The Huffington Post about […]

The gift that keeps on giving

9 April, 2013

Am I the only one to think that birthdays and Christmases can be a slightly underwhelming experience for bibliophiles? Don’t get me wrong, anything that puts a fresh tome into my eager hands is not to be sniffed at, but the voucher/Book Token route and, in my case, the ‘Would Like to Read’ list my […]

Big Kids

4 April, 2013

When we heard about the What Kids Are Reading poll, which our very own Rachel Caine topped, it didn’t surprise me that Roald Dahl was #1 in the Most Read list. As a child of the 80s, Dahl was an integral part of my reading diet. He was also responsible for my one and only […]

Get Thee a Wife! (or The Search for a Literary-inspired Wedding Venue)

2 April, 2013

‘Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.’ As You Like It My thoughts this past week have been on issues wedding-related: scheduling, planning travel and, of course, pondering frocks. While my brain was in wedding mode I […]

Coming to a tunnel near you?

19 March, 2013

I’m all in favour of the technology that has made me a more frequent library user. Online catalogue, check. Online reservation for when I spot a review, check. I would never read half of what I hear about otherwise. And, of course, online renewal – thank goodness, otherwise I’d have been beggared by overdue fines. […]

Ding, dong the book is far from dead

12 March, 2013

It seems fair to say that it’s the sign of a good book when it inspires countless spin-offs and adaptations, so by that reckoning L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a stonkingly-good read. I must admit I haven’t read the original story but feel like I’ve done the literary equivalent of osmosis […]

Breakfast of champions

1 March, 2013

Recently breakfast has been much discussed in the A&B office. For a start, I have become quite evangelical about granola. I swear I’m super-powered after a bowl, Lesley to the power of N, if you can stomach such a thought. Then, Chiara has been making my mouth water (even more than usual) by describing her […]

Journeying with a book

18 February, 2013

There are times when I can’t physically read a book (at the gym; squashed like a sardine on the train or tube; the radio is even on as I fall asleep) but, easily bored person that I am, I must have an audio book or similar on the go at these times. Almost as good […]

Upgrade your average Reading Weekend

5 February, 2013

If you’re like me, you can sometimes picture yourself back on holiday by simlply conjuring up the book you were reading while lounging on the beach, or while catching a connecting flight. A mention of Joyce Carol Oates will make me recall reading We Were the Mulvaneys on a blissful week in Greece. The last […]

Attention! Mind the gap and the virtuoso

21 January, 2013

I’m a just little late coming to this article, but back in 2007 The Washington Post did a little experiment involving world-famous violinist Joshua Bell busking incognito at Washington DC’s L’Enfant Plaza metro station. Bell is a virtuoso and he was playing a Stradivarius for which he reportedly paid $3.5 million. He was recognised by […]

Please look after this outfit…

17 January, 2013

There are some great things out there in the ether of the inter-google-web and I’m happy to share one blog that ticks two major internet pastimes of mine: books (of course), and pretty things either of the clothing or accessories variety. Fiction to Fashion satisfies that urge you’ve had to dress up in homage to […]

In a blue mood…

10 January, 2013

It’s January. It’s still ridiculously dark when I emerge from the house each day. And the Christmas decorations have been put away. Boo! To add to my doldrums, a fresh week has brought a fresh announcement of a budget cut. While there are obviously more dire stories out there, the fact that the blue plaque […]

From Wonderland to Neverland to Theatreland

3 January, 2013

It’s the start of a new year and the office is abrim with optimistic resolutions. Sophie is leading the charge with her post covering exercise (a 10k race on the horizon), self-improvement (more poetry reading) and social (more live music ). Similarly, among my let’s-see-how-long-this-lasts resolutions is to see more theatre in 2013. Working in […]

Christmas reading: The Radio Times

20 December, 2012

This Christmas time I have accumulated a tottering (or should that be teetering?) TBR pile. And that’s before I get my itchy fingers on any of the obvious books-shaped parcels underneath the tree. But I don’t hold out much hope of crossing many of these beauties off before the end of January for the simple […]

Have yourself a Dickens little Christmas

13 December, 2012

As we reach the end of 2012, the bicentennial year of Charles Dickens’ birth, we’re in the true Dickensian season: there’s hoar frost on the trees and people are scurrying through the city’s streets desperate to reach a cosy corner. If Dickens is the man for putting you in the mood for the festive season, […]

A literary soundtrack

4 December, 2012

If someone was to ask you what the soundtrack to your childhood was, what would you answer? In my case, a motley collection of Take That, Michael Jackson and one-hit wonders from the Now albums would vaguely conjure up the atmosphere of my early years, and give you an inkling of my under-developed music tastes. […]

Good things come in small packages Vs. Big is beautiful

30 November, 2012

We all know that the size of a book is no indication of how good a read it’s going to be, although there is something deeply satisfying about settling into a chunky read and breaking the spine: you’re committed to that book from that point on, in my opinion. But with Christmas approaching, I’m on […]

Once upon a time, in a land far far away…

20 November, 2012

My theme for this week is fairytales. Everywhere I’ve looked a big, bad wolf or a witch with a malevolent gleam in her eye has caught mine. First off, I picked up Philip Pullman’s retelling of Grimm’s Tales, an author I admire greatly for His Dark Materials trilogy. Check out a beautiful animation of the […]

A picture’s worth a thousand words

16 November, 2012

At the beginning of November I finished a book that gave me the heebie-geebies: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I didn’t set out to read an unsettling book in the run up to Halloween, I freely admit to being a wuss on the scary movie front, but while browsing in my local Waterstones I […]