Book Bag blog

Susan's writing archive, brought into the new site.

Recovered posts from the previous Book Bag blog are now indexed here beside the video catalogue, author pages, festival calendar and Baggies archive.

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2026-05-18 Essex Dogs Rrrraarr! During my stint at the Oxford Literary Festival 2026, I chaired 17 events, which nearly killed me. No, it was fun… but since many of the events involved two authors, the total list of books to read was 26 – … Continue reading →

2025-11-14 Life lessons from a master There are bed books, train books, sofa books, kitchen table books, but only a special sort of disposable artefact is a bath book. A long soak is made even more pleasurable with a good read, but steam ruins the paper. … Continue reading →

2025-06-06 Be More Bernhardt Last week I caught the last performance in Thames Ditton of the touring one-woman show ‘C’est La Vie: Sarah Bernhardt and Me’, and what a treat it was. Written and performed by Hilary Tones, the play opens wtih an apprehensive … Continue reading →

2025-05-08 Deserts of Vast Eternity Maggie, in the final story in ‘Mystery Lights’ by Lena Valencia, observes that ‘With something so impossible [the unexplained disappearance of a child], your brain filled those logical gaps.’ Characters grasp for explanations when faced with the inexplicable: alien abductions, … Continue reading →

2025-03-11 The Guy from Villiers Street Streams of people trot down an unassuming thoroughfare running from the Strand to reach Embankment underground station, without ever stopping to consider its history. Close by Villiers Street are Duke Street, Buckingham Street and George Street, all commemorating the extraordinary … Continue reading →

2025-02-01 Bodies hard and soft A Greek fisherman hauls up a woman’s body in his net, but this is no murder mystery; C Michelle Lindley’s debut novel The Nude opns with the recovery of an ancient marble statue, a discovery which sets art historians across … Continue reading →

2024-08-16 Lost in Ibiza I interviewed Rebecca Frayn, along with her novelist father Michael, earlier in the summer at the wonderful Idler Festival, which takes place each year at Fenton House in Hampstead. I thought I’d put together a few comments on her novel, … Continue reading →

2023-01-25 Oh, Julian… Beyond sad to hear about the disappearance of Julian Sands, who is still lost at time of writing, having not returned from a snowy hike in Los Angeles. I was only chatting to him three months ago, at a party … Continue reading →

2021-07-25 Bryant and May forever! In preparation for my Guardian interview with Christopher Fowler of 10 July regarding the winding-up of his long-running Bryant and May mystery series, I headed back to 2003 for their very first case. In Full Dark House (the press release … Continue reading →

2021-03-21 Who the heck was Lothar? Lockdown has impelled me towards books I might not have read under other circumstances. Long books, about complicated topics. Books that require a bit of thought. I had a copy of Simon Winder’s ‘Lotharingia’ (Picador) knocking about, having heard him … Continue reading →

2021-02-13 A Letter from Sylvia Thoughts on reading the Complete Letters of Sylvia Plath The Plath-Hughes story just keeps on giving. An essay in the Cambridge Companion to Sylvia Plath bemoans ‘the severe limitations of the published editions’ of the Letters so far (this was … Continue reading →

2020-11-27 Mad monk on the loose Lockdown felt like a good time to take on a big reading challenge, but even so Frances Yates’s ‘Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition’ (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964) was heavy going. It traces the progression of Renaissance thought from … Continue reading →

2020-09-30 From the Attic 4: A Pelican in the Wilderness Isabel Colegate’s ‘Orlando King’ trilogy was republished by Bloomsbury in one volume this summer to enthusiastic reviews. It reminded me to dig out her 2002 work of non-fiction, ‘A Pelican in the Wilderness’ (HarperCollins) subtitled ‘Hermits, Solitaries and Recluses’. It’s … Continue reading →

2020-08-31 Rock, Roll ‘n’ Ritual I was amused to see on a visit to Hastings last year for the literary festival, a sign in a pub named after its most infamous resident, Aleister Crowley, for a karaoke night wittily named (if memory serves) ‘Sing What … Continue reading →

2020-06-21 Down to the bone I needed something to read that didn’t feel like work. It wasn’t that I hadn’t enjoyed recent novels; but it had been a little while since I’d felt that irresistible pull of a great story that keeps you up far … Continue reading →

2020-04-25 The Morbid Ingenuities Sometimes I’m embarrassed how long I leave a book lying around before reading it. A quick look at ‘Inside The Wicker Man’ (Macmillan £14.99) shows it was published in 2000. Edward Woodward was still alive (he provided the foreword), as … Continue reading →

2020-03-29 A Journal of the Plague Year Suddenly, it seemed urgent to read one particular none-more-black item that had been on my shelf for quite some time. Not only is the subject matter super-relevant, there’s now acres of free time in which to tackle it. Actually, it’s … Continue reading →

2019-11-25 Lit on the Rock ‘Is this your first time in Gib?’ locals are wont to ask. Actually, no, it’s the second time I have been involved in the Gibunco Gibraltar Literary Festival, to give it its full title, the last being two years ago. … Continue reading →

2019-09-25 From the Attic 3: Journeys to the Underworld A survey of classical sites in Italy associated with the ancient Sibyls, this is a really odd work from a woman who was a publishing phenomenon in the late Eighties. Fiona Pitt-Kethley came to attention as a poet whose racy … Continue reading →

2019-09-11 A Curious escapade The Curious Arts festival moved this year to a new venue and combined with the Byline Festival for a three-day extravaganza of ideas in the woods. Stunning setting. I was with the New River Press poets, taking part in an … Continue reading →

2019-08-03 Recent literary (and other) adventures I’ve wanted to go to the Ledbury Poetry Festival for some time and after bumping into the festival’s artistic director Chloe Garner at the T S Eliot prize party finally got my wish. I was invited to interview Ali Smith … Continue reading →

2019-07-07 From the Attic 2: In the Orchard, The Swallows A haunting 2012 novella from Peter Hobbs, the author of the Impac Prize-shortlisted ‘The Short Day Dying’ and the short story collection ‘I Could Ride All Day in my Cool Blue Train’. Hobbs never wastes a word in this bleak … Continue reading →

2019-06-23 A Walk for Yeats’s Birthday June 13 is the birthdate of William Butler Yeats and poet Niall McDevitt, artist Julie Goldsmith and I celebrated with a walk through central London taking in various spots of Yeatsian significance. We began our wander at Woburn Walk just … Continue reading →

2019-02-07 The Life of Stuff When did tidying become a thing? Marie Kondo’s current series on Netflix is strange but compelling; a radiantly happy-seeming elf trots into people’s messy homes and transforms them. Or rather, after she’s skipped about a bit talking about sparking joy, … Continue reading →

2018-10-25 From the Attic 1: The House of Sight and Shadow Over years of being a literary journalist, books have come into my hands that I haven’t got round to reading. In many cases I never will; but every so often I pick something up to while away a few hours. … Continue reading →

2018-07-02 Castle creeping It’s taken me at least a year to re-read ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’. Of course I’ve read a lot of other things in the meantime, but Ann Radcliffe’s 1794 gothic whopper is an easy book to put down, and I … Continue reading →

2018-04-20 Victorian Vamps My chat with Joanne Harris (Oxford Lit Fest, last entry) prompted me to dig out an early of hers that I’d never read – ‘Sleep, Pale Sister’ (Transworld), a slice of Victorian gothic that preceded ‘Chocolat’, the novel that made … Continue reading →

2018-03-26 Puritans, wit and magic at the Oxford Literary Festival I made four visits this week to the Oxford Lit Fest, chairing four remarkable authors. This meant a lot of rushing up and down from Paddington, memorising the route: Slough (where I always think ‘Come friendly bombs and fall on … Continue reading →

2017-05-01 Being Kind in Bhutan I have a particular fondness for yoga transformation stories so a quick look at Emma Slade’s Set Free: A life-changing journey from banking to Buddhism in Bhutan (Summersdale £9.99) immediately appealed. Slade worked in banking as an analyst, living in … Continue reading →

2017-02-15 My Literary Valentine In the past for my annual evening of Valentine-inspired readings, I’ve featured Anti-Valentines (enjoyably bilious) and Legendary Lovers (Abelard and Heloise, Ovid, Elizabeth and Leicester). But if I was pushed to explain the theme this year, perhaps I’d have to call … Continue reading →

2016-09-19 Shorelines – Estuary Festival 2016 I spent the weekend at an arts festival in an extraordinary venue – the imposing Tilbury Cruise Terminal on the north bank of the Thames, where the Windrush docked in 1948. Shorelines, the two-day offshoot of Estuary 2016, which runs … Continue reading →

2016-08-03 Dirty, Pretty Girls Emma Cline’s debut The Girls has created a stir this year, having gained a huge advance, a film option and high-level praise. The reviews, while appreciative, were somewhat muted and having read the book (no, devoured it) I can understand … Continue reading →

2016-05-05 Dread in Venice I love occult-themed novels and novels set in Venice, so it’s amazing I’ve had Amanda Prantera’s The Cabalist (Bloomsbury) kicking about for so long. Prantera is due a renaissance – it happened to the wonderful Deborah Levy so why not her? Prantera’s … Continue reading →

2016-04-25 Authors Club Best First Novel Award 2016: The Shortlist At a lunch last week, members of the Authors Club met to debate the shortlist of this year’s award – always a lively occasion. This year’s discussion was brisk and amicable. Some titles could be discarded quickly, having just squeaked on to … Continue reading →

2016-04-14 A Frankenstein breakfast… and lunch… and tea Pretty much every month from now on till April 2024 marks the anniversary of something significant in the lives of those hectic, high-achieving younger Romantics. But this summer’s anniversary is special even by their standards. From May to July 1816 … Continue reading →

2015-12-31 Best and Worst of 2015 Festivals: People have been telling me to go to Port Eliot for ages; this is the year I finally made it. Everyone was right; it is blissful. I was chairing a few events but as ever the best festival moments … Continue reading →

2015-12-21 Learning to fly Having heard actor and author William Parker read at the Polari Literary Salon at the South Bank, and chatted with him a couple of times there, I was intrigued enough to take a look at his novel The House Martin. It … Continue reading →

2015-12-15 Come, chill death… Having strong Vancouver connections I am always on the lookout for fiction or poetry based around my second city. So when I got an email from Parthian books and noticed that the banner ad was for something called Burrard Inlet … Continue reading →

2015-01-03 HIstory takes over Judging is well underway for this year’s BFNA (Best First Novel Award), administered by the Authors Club. As ever, the process prompts all sorts of conclusions about the year in publishing, at least as far as debuts are concerned. The … Continue reading →

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