About Us
Hello. So, this is us.
Sarah
I read challenging literature in the vain hope that one day it might improve my writing. I love Proust, Virginia Woolf and Dorothy Richardson, contemporary authors like Will Self and Anne Tyler – and my latest obsession is Icelandic noir. When I’m not reading and writing, I report on football via the medium of knitting, because if I don’t who will?
I share my messy home with a husband, two children, a dog and a cat. We live in West Wales which is like heaven but with perpetual rain. My ideal job would be Head Taster in a crisp factory and when I grow up I’d like to be a minimalist, but if it means selling my books you can forget it.
Lucy
I’m a biscuit-eater, excessive stationery-purchaser, single-mother, average-embalmer, sky-starer, sporadic health-enthusiast, appalling handwriting-owner, compulsive notebook-filler who lives in the north of Scotland.
Most of my day is spent defending, and trying to change attitudes, towards seagulls and pigeons. Because I love them.
Lucy
Sarah
Hi! I have found you through twitter!! I love books and look forward to following you!!
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Hello Lisa, nice to meet you 🙂
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I noticed that you two (Sarah and Lucy) are from Britain. My two favorite poets are T.S. Eliot and Gerard Manley Hopkins. It seems like Eliot is better known than Hopkins (maybe in the States). Is Hopkins well-known in Britain? My guess is that more people know about Hopkins in Britain than in the States.
Here is an excerpt from Hopkins’ “The Wreck of the Deutschland” that I thought you would like:
Away in the loveable west, 185
On a pastoral forehead of Wales,
I was under a roof here, I was at rest,
And they the prey of the gales;
She to the black-about air, to the breaker, the thickly
Falling flakes, to the throng that catches and quails 190
Was calling ‘O Christ, Christ, come quickly’:
The cross to her she calls Christ to her, christens her wild-worst Best.
Many years ago I was reading a critical analysis of Hopkins’ work. The writer said that “The Wreck of the Deutschland” is the most complete poem in the English language. That’s quite a statement. I might agree (as I think on Milton’s “Paradise Lost”.)
“The Wreck of the Deutschland”
http://www.bartleby.com/122/4.html
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Hi Tim! Hopkins isn’t as well known as other poets here either, but then he was well-behaved, and people seem to know a lot more about Byron, and Dylan Thomas, and basically anyone who liked a drink and a scandal. I used to live in one of the Cinque Ports close to where the SS Deutschland went down, and some of the nuns who drowned were buried nearby. It’s said local people went out and raided the wreck, which doesn’t surprise me!
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Hopkins is better known in Ireland, because, surprise surprise, he converted to Catholicism and became a Jesuit priest. This cemented him firmly into the Irish educational syllabus, a veritable returned prodigal son!
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Yep, that’ll do it! 😉
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Hi Lisa *waves* 🙂
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Lovely to meet you – and thanks for the follow. I look forward to following your blog.
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Nice to meet you,too 🙂 You have some great photos on your blog, I’ve wanted to go to Copenhagen!
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Thanks for the follow! And I love your writing style! Shall look forward to reading your posts 🙂
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Hi Barbara 🙂 Nice to meet you!
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Hi Barbara! *waves* 🙂
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Hi! Thanks for following me 🙂 looking forward to following you too and catching up on your posts.
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Hello, and right back at ya 😉
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Hiya! 🙂
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“I’m a biscuit-eater, excessive stationery-purchaser….” I love this intro! Just wanted to drop in and say ‘hi!’ Looking forward to reading more posts!!
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Thanks, and hello to you, too 🙂 I’d forgotten I’d said that! Good job for my arteries I love stationery, if not I’d spend all my money on biscuits and books 😉
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Biscuits are great!! Books are as well
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Hi Lucy and Sarah! I’ve nominated you both for the Liesbter Award! https://bayzbooks.wordpress.com/tag/liebster-award/
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Thank you! I’m ashamed to say I’m gonna need to go and find out what that is, but being nominated for anything is always great 😀 Chocolate all round!
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Hi there! and thank you! I’m also embarrassed not to know what that is, so i’ll be off for a quick nosey now to find out, but anything that gets Lucy dishing out the chocolate is fine by me! 🙂
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Ah, that feeling when you find a new blog and every post is fantastic! Love the premise and your voices.
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Hello! And aw shucks, bless you. That’s a very nice thing to say 🙂
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Hiya! Thank you, Laura, that’s so nice of you 🙂
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Thank you for visiting my blog ladies 🙂
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We love used books, and often have a pencil handy ourselves 😉
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Not to forget the smell (fragrance?) of old books. Intoxicating!
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And the things found inside, bus tickets and photographs, receipts used as bookmarks. 🙂
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hello! nice to meet you 🙂
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Nice to ‘virtually’ meet you too, Sarah 🙂
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Sarah, is there a way to contact you about your knitted Charlotte Bronte? My reasons are complicated but cooooool.
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Ooo, intriguing! You can contact me at sarahivinson@hotmail.com 🙂
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Hi there! I think your blog is great and have put you on my list for a Blogger Recognition Award here at https://uselessbookclub.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/and-the-blogger-recognition-award-goes-to/
Keep it up!
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Thanks! 😀 I shall now run and see what it’s all about 🙂
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Great post….Sarah, I’d love to be a taste-tester for a UK chocolate factory, It would be ‘Charlies Chocolate Factory’ all over again. And, Lucy; I’m not even going to ask about the embalming, just leave me to my imagination, please.
Thank you for the visit. Travel safe on your life’s path. 😀
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Fair enough, chocolate is a far nicer subject than embalming, to be sure!
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Lol 😀
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Found you through Twitter – can’t resist a wink at Bulgakov and the weather is gloomy here as well. How can I subscribe to your blog? I’m on WordPress as well, so it should be easy but I can’t figure it out.
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Hello and welcome! 🙂 Yes wordpress has lost the little thing at the top for following, and it’s not a box that appears at the bottom right hand side when you scroll. However, I’m following you, so when I pop up in your notifications you’ll be able to follow me back there 🙂
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Hello ladies! I thought of Sarah today (and don’t ask me how I found it) but I saw a book called “Knit Your Own Kama Sutra”. Should you grow tired of your current literary friends, the Kama Sutra is still a form of literature. It was rated 2 of 5 stars for explicitness. Two stars! That does spark the imagination, no? 🙂
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Sarah needs to do this! She’s much better at knitting than me, if I attempted knitting people in Karma Sutra poses they’d look like as if they were born in a nuclear power plant!
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Hahaha – I just snorted my tea reading that! Knit your own Kama Sutra? I would die laughing. It’s time to start stock-piling tins – the world has officially gone mad! 🙂
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Just discovered your blog – loved what I’ve seen so far. Even more exciting – Sarah is just down the road from me (relatively speaking) since I live near Cardiff. So rare to find anyone from Wales in the book blogosphere….
Lucy – I’m looking for someone to do a guest post on Scottish literature for my The View From Here series. Would you be interested? here’s a link that explains it http://bookertalk.com/world-literature/the-view-from-here/
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Hello, and thanks! And I shall definitely check out the link 🙂
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Sut mae! and Diolch! I love Cardiff, and every time I visit I’m tempted to move there if only for the majestic wonder of the Cardiff Waterstones. It’s so huge you could get lost in it, or even move in without anyone noticing. The Carmarthen branch is like a shoebox in comparison *sigh*. 🙂
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Nice to meet you both! Thanks for following my blog, look forward to reading more from yours:)
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Hello, thank you and the same same to you too, happy blogging! 😀
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I have nominated you to take part in the 3 Day Quote Challenge! Post an inspiring, meaningful of memorable quote for 3 consecutive days and nominate others to take part too! To see how it works click here: readandreview2016.wordpress.com
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I just found your blog when BookerTalk linked to your page. Skimming through your front page, I see that I will enjoy your site; your book choices are great, especially David Copperfield and Haunting of Hill House! I recently discovered the old black and white film The Haunting, which is based on Jackson’s novel. It’s very good. I’m over at grabthelapels.com if you want visit. Cheers!
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Hello, and thanks! I will have to check out the film, I’ve only heard good things 🙂
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Hello, thanks for the follow, your blog looks great, love books, so will follow with interest 🙂
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Thanks 🙂 Nice to meet you!
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