Monday 18 October 2010

A new blogging adventure!


To my dear Bloomsbury Bell readers, some of you may already know that I have landed a new blogging gig for The Lady magazine's website. I am hoping that it will give me a more structured approach to my writing as I now have a copy deadline once a fortnight! Essentially, it will be more about my move to Oxford and the challenge and adventure that living here is turning out to be after being in London for eight years. You can read it here and all feedback is welcome so let me know what you think!

But, Bloomsbury Bell will very much remain alive and will retain its focus on books and general literary bits and bobs. The last few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind - I went home to Chichester at the weekend for my mother's mouthwatering roast dinner (and to see friends and family of course!) which was lovely. It's funny that even though I haven't lived there for a decade I still feel a sense of homecoming when we arrive in the city. I know every tree, every road, every building and the familiarity is so strong that it induces a sense of ownership. I see it as mine somehow and I feel comforted every time I return. It's a similar feeling to revisiting a book that had a massive impact upon you when you read it for the first time. In my head I connect the feeling with reading Howards End. Perhaps because the feeling that Mrs Wilcox has for the house is exactly my feeling towards Chichester. Are there any places or books that inspire these feelings within you?

As the nights are drawing in I have been stockpiling books and I bought a new hotwater bottle as I am planning to stay in and spend the winter reading. I have fallen behind my reading target for this year as moving and all sorts of things have got in the way. But, wintry evenings are the perfect motivation for cosying up and hiding away from the world with a good book.

12 comments:

  1. The image of staying in with a good book and a hot water bottle is making me smile! Congratulations on your new project!

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  2. Your new gig sounds inspiring: have fun! And, yes, what a wonderful wintry vision. ::sigh::

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  3. And wintry mornings are good for staying in bed reading too. Somehow reading in bed feels productive.

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  4. Congratulations. I'd like to see more bloggers reviewing books in the media and less journalists!

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  5. Oooh how exciting! I love the Lady magazine, I always peer through the windows of their London offices when I go by. Ahem. Your column is beautifully written and I am excited to hear more about the adventure of you and your aprons!

    Sounds like you're sorted for the winter - marvellous - and I know exactly what you mean about places and books you can just settle right back into. The city where I (first) went to university will always feel like home to me... and book-wise, it's things I read when I was young: Anne of Green Gables, the Secret Garden, Ballet Shoes... and then Rebecca, I Capture the Castle... many more, but all containing worlds very far removed from my own life...I think a little contrast is needed to feel like you've really immersed yourself in another land.

    Ooh - have just impulse-purchased a copy of The Bell based on the recommendations I've read on your blog - it will be part of my own cosy winter reading this year!

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  6. Congratulations again!

    I only lived somewhere different for a year, but whenever I go past it, which sadly isn't much, it always brings back so many memories. It was a uni student sort of life, and so free.

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  7. Fantastic new gig, congratulations!

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  8. Congratulations on the Lady blog gig. That's brilliant.

    I think the idea of spending winter reading is wonderful: I'm going to turn the air con colder, don my slippers and cashmere and join you.

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  9. Congratulations! I shall be reading both now!

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  10. Naomi!! That's fantastic! Congratulations on the new gig and I shall be adding that site to my favourites. It just so happens that I had a copy of The Times here recently with an article about the owners of The Lady. Trouble between the matriarch and her daughter-in-law, the grand one thinks the other has put too many articles about 'willies' in the magazine...hilarious!

    For some reason, tramping through the woods always has me wanting to run home and read something by Jane Austen.

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  11. Congratulations on the new blog! I will definitely stop by it

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  12. Congratulations on the new venture! I'll be reading and enjoying it!

    I'm considering having a Winter Of Re-Reading, as my TBR pile has shrunk madly recently and that really appeals...

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