Book review: The Stories of English by David Crystal

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The Stories of English book cover

Way back when Tim and I were first dating, we bonded over our interest in English language and he recommended I read David Crystal. Crystal is a linguist who has been studying and writing books about the English language since 1964. He lectured for decades at the University of Reading, which is where both Tim and I went, though sadly he was not there during our time. Crystal is rightly beloved as someone who is incredibly knowledgable, does important original research, and is able to make his field completely fascinating to the lay reader.

So I read a few of Crystal’s books 20-odd years ago, loved them and yet somehow his bestseller The Stories of English sat on my TBR for, well, 20 years. I finally picked it up last year and was reminded how great Crystal is. I was constantly quoting bits to Tim and our friends. That said, this book is denser than I remember the other Crystal books I’ve read having been and it took me a few months to get through.

This book is about the development of the English language, from the origins of Old English in the 5th century CE to the effects of the Internet on modern English. Crystal’s thesis is that this is not one single story, but many overlapping stories. And there is not, and never was, one single English language – it has always been multifarious. Which is a thesis I can get behind.

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Book review: Monkey Grip by Helen Garner

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Monkey Grip book cover

Tim is a fan of Helen Garner and has been telling me to read her for ages so I finally gave her a chance. As I should have known, I completely agree that she is excellent.

I didn’t want to start in the same place Tim did. Garner’s most famous book is This House of Grief, a true crime story about the murder of three children. It is apparently stunningly well written but I don’t think I will ever feel able to read that.

Monkey Grip was her first novel, based on her own life in Melbourne in the 1970s. The degree to which it is or is not fictionalized has caused Garner some negative press over the decades since its publication. But as she points out in this essay, even if she did just edit her own diaries and change all the names – she wrote those diaries in the first place. This is still original writing by her. And it really is original.

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January 2026 reading round-up

January 2026

Well, it has been quite a month. Art is good. Emergency hospital trips are not. The relentless rain here in Bristol ruled out any chance of aurora spotting and the world news continues to be largely terrible.

Thank goodness for books and films and photography and music. And awesome friends. And delicious food. And did I mention our friends are awesome?

Tim and I had an excellent long weekend in London, where we saw both the RSC production of My Neighbour Totoro – which is as sweet and beautiful and funny and sad as the film – and the Theatre Royal production of Othello, starring David Harewood and Toby Jones. Which is as heartbreaking and brutal and mesmerising as it should be with such amazing actors.

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TV review: The Durrells

Still from TV show The Durrells

Soon after we moved to Bristol, I stumbled across three of the books from the Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell in beautiful matching Faber editions. Tim bought me the missing fourth book and in 2012 I embarked on reading this complex tale of love, politics, friendship and betrayal in Egypt written in the 1950s. I loved them. I loved the language, the settings, the obfuscation of multiple layers of narration. Ever since, I have intended to read more by Durrell and learn more about him.

A couple of years ago I became aware there was a TV show called The Durrells (ITV, 2016–2019) and wondered if it could be about the same man. Well – yes and no. I’m three seasons in, so I’m enjoying it. But what have I really learned?

Lawrence Durrell was the eldest of four children (technically five, but one sister died very young) born in India to British parents. When their father died, Lawrence was already in the UK at boarding school. His mother Louisa decided to move to the UK with her three younger children. After an unhappy few years, all five of them moved to Corfu in 1935. (Right now, in a cold wet January, it is easy to sympathise with the idea to leave Britain for sunnier climes.)

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2025 reading stats and top reads

books read chart 2025

It’s that time again when I click on the stats tab in Storygraph and share some facts and figures about my reading over the last year. In 2025 I read 82 books, or 21,773 pages. Way back last January, when I was recovering from my shoulder operation, I was reading very short books that I could manage one-handed. So I’m relieved to see that by the end of the year, my average book length was a respectable 265 pages.

One stat that surprises me is that 30 of the books I read this year are in a series. Then again, if you sneak a look ahead to my top five, two of them are in series. 

book stats 2025

From my own records, I see that I read 21 works in translation. The 82 books were set in 25 different countries (not counting space/fantasy locations), and were written by authors from 20 different countries. That’s a decent spread.

I don’t want to set myself any goals this year, aside from continuing to read widely. I want to give myself freedom to jump into any topics or challenges that arise without feeling that it leaves me too busy to read my own dang books. I’m just happy that in my mid-40s I am continuing to read a lot and continuing to enjoy it.

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December 2025 reading round-up

Christmas 2025

Well, happy New Year’s Eve folks. I hope those of you who get a few days off at this time of year have enjoyed them. We had a very lovely small Christmas, and an even quieter few days of Twixtmas.

I was lucky enough to get my usual stack of books from friends and family. And more than a week of quiet time to largely devote to reading. My TBR may be roughly the same size as this time last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, but its composition does change. I’ve stopped feeling guilty about owning so many unread books. If nothing else I’m supporting writers financially by continuing to buy their work/ask for books to constitute the majority of my presents.

I’ve also watched an inordinate number of films this month. Top ranking among them are The Holdovers, Feast of Seven Fishes, Wake Up Dead Man and Night Moves. Oh, and yesterday we finally watched Double Indemnity, which is just as good as you might expect of a screenplay co-written by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder.

I’ve spent this afternoon curled up reading Arsène Lupin short stories but now it’s time to make dinner, drink wine, watch Jools Holland and see in 2026. Happiest of new years to all of you.

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Book review: The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

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The galaxy and the ground within book coverI think the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers is my favourite science fiction of this past decade. So I’m a little sad that I’ve read them all now. But the fourth and final part, The Galaxy and the Ground Within, is pleasingly excellent.

In this novel, three strangers are passing through a small habitat dome on a planet called Gora while they await their turn entering a wormhole to continue their journeys. A disaster leaves them temporarily trapped with just each other, their host and her young child. The visitors are all different species, living very different lives. They have expectations and prejudices to deal with, as well as concerns about their delayed journeys.

Pei is captain of a cargo ship, an Aeluon who was introduced in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Aeluons largely communicate by changing the colour and patterns of their fur. They don’t have vocal cords but most have an implant that enables them to approximate speech sounds.

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K-drama review: Chocolate

Chocolate K-drama poster
The characters Lee Kang (left), Moon Cha-yeong (centre) and Lee Joon (right) all have decent character development in Chocolate.

I love a TV show that centres food, so the K-drama Chocolate (JTBC 2019–2020) sounded ideal. It’s about a doctor and a chef who reconnect as adults after meeting briefly as children. It’s a sweet and surprisingly moving story. With lots of delicious-looking food.

Lee Kang (played as an adult by Yoon Kye-sang) is raised in the small seaside town of Wando. His mother runs a restaurant, his father died when he was a baby. They’re happy, but one day his rich grandmother shows up and announces she wants him to come to live with her in Seoul.

Next time we meet Kang, he’s abandoned his dream to become a chef and is working as a doctor for the hospital his grandmother’s company owns. He’s constantly pitted against his cousin Lee Joon (Jang Seung-jo, from Snowdrop) and picked on by his aunt and uncle. He seems grouchy and difficult with everyone except his room mate and best friend Kwon Min-seong (Teo Yoo).

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November 2025 reading round-up

In some ways it has been an ideal November – mostly very cold and sunny with blue skies, with just the occasional intense storm. I’ve taken the dog for some lovely walks and read some great books.

I also saw Wet Leg live, who were awesome of course. And I went to the Bristol Drama School production of Kae Tempest’s Brand New Ancients, which I found powerful (though the friend I went with was less convinced). Tim also took me to the cinema to see the new Running Man film, which I really enjoyed.

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Book review: Resist: Stories of Uprising edited by Ra Page

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Resist book cover

Earlier this month I watched a group of masked protestors (or technically counter-protestors) march towards a riot police cordon chanting “Anti-Fascisto”. They were trying to prevent the police from protecting a (thankfully small) protest led by “Bristol Patriots” against a hotel housing asylum seekers. It was a powerful moment to witness. And I realised I knew a lot of the history behind it thanks to the book I was in the middle of reading.

Resist: Stories of Uprising edited by Ra Page is a collection of short stories and essays about moments in British history when people rose up in protest. From Boudicca’s rising in 60/61 to Grenfell Tower in 2017, there’s a whole range of stories. People have revolted for many different reasons in many different ways, and most were countered with violent pushback.

These examples were not always successful protests in the eyes of the people protesting. “The done thing” by Luan Goldie explores the Ford Dagenham Women’s Strike 1968 through a modern-day scene of an old woman who participated in the strike and doesn’t want to talk about it. The strike was a major news story that probably contributed to equal pay legislation, but at the time there was a lot of disillusionment and guilt among the strikers as technically they capitulated and accepted a lesser pay offer. And of course, we know the residents of Grenfell Tower were not listened to in their many complaints and concerns before the horrific fire.

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