Last month I finally managed to make my book lover’s pilgrimage to the Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company. Almost—but not quite—the legendary bookshop that first published James Joyce’s Ulysses (the original shop, owned by Sylvia Beach, was at a different location and closed for good in 1941), the modern Shakespeare and Company is still a unique bookshop.

The shop is staffed at least in part by a team of enthusiasts, who work there in return for the use of one of the beds that are tucked discreetly between the bookcases. (Keep reading …)

Although all writers are different (or so we like to believe), there are a few reference books that are all but indispensable to all of us. As a first post in the Writer’s Bookshelf category, here’s a list of three books that no writer can do without. Whether you’re a novice writing a science fiction epic, or an experienced professional writing a pacy crime thriller, the following should always be within arm’s reach: (Keep reading …)

Peanuts is something you come back to. You revisit it in progressive stages, as you would an elderly relative; when you’re a child, they’re just a warm, friendly hug and the biscuits. When you’re a teenager they’re somebody who complicates family gatherings and about whom things are said in the kitchen, and then later they become an incredibly fascinating person with a unique life and a hundred stories…which you’ll never hear, because they’ve just passed away. (Keep reading …)