“What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally got it right? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” Part One: Early Lives The novel […]
English literature
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
“I exist!” – Ruby Lennox Chapter 1: Conception The novel opens with Ruby Lennox narrating her own conception in 1951, blending dark humor with a sharp observation of […]
English literature
The Long Song
“You do not know me yet. My son Thomas, who is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary at this place in a narrative to give the […]
English literature
Kidnapped
“There are two things that men should never weary of—goodness and humility.” Chapter 1: I Set Off Upon My Journey to the House of Shaws David Balfour, a […]
English literature
The Children’s Book
“All the best stories are but one story in reality—the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times—how to escape.” […]
English literature
The Mirror and the Light
“The fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the […]
English literature
Bring Up the Bodies
“The dead are unseeing, unhearing. The dead are not our business. They cannot be reached, they cannot be touched, they cannot be spoken to.” Part One: Falconry Thomas […]
English literature
Wolf Hall
“Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning, and when you come back that night he’ll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks’ tongues, and all […]
English literature
The Stranger’s Child
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Part One: Two Acres (1913) The novel opens in 1913 at the affluent Stanmore household, “Two Acres,” […]