Parenting. It’s a daily battle – but does it have to be? In ‘The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will be Glad That You Did)’, psychotherapist Phillipa Perry explores parent-child relationships with a view to encouraging parents to relate more effectively to their children. What’s it about? I’m going to […]
There are many times when I’d love to know what my son is thinking. What is he thinking when he completely ignores me repeatedly calling his name? (Has he heard me or is he too absorbed in his play?) What about when he says, “Mummy…” then falls silent for a full minute, before repeating the […]
How’s your relationship with the drug in your living room? I have an uneasy relationship with TV. There are a few programmes I like but I never watch it by myself, because there’s always so much else to do that I can’t justify the time. However, my husband watches it every evening, either concentrating on […]
When a loved one takes their own life, we are stunned. Even if it was expected – and often it isn’t – we wonder how they can have taken themselves away from us. Dr Jo-Ann Rowland sought to investigate some of the whys by focusing on a specific sub-set of one community with a high […]
Sleep. We know we need it, yet most of us probably don’t get enough of it. As a society I think we’re probably pretty good at ruefully acknowledging the why we don’t get enough: maybe we had to stay up late to prepare for an important presentation the next day; maybe we work long, late […]
You know a book is good when you start reading it again by accident. I picked up ‘dummy’ to refresh my memory before committing myself to starting this review…and emerged midway through chapter two, having giggled and chuckled so much that my husband felt compelled to leave the comfort of the sofa and TV to […]
Have you ever really *listened* to the lyrics of your favourite song? If you have, do they make any sense? If they don’t, or even if there’s just room for confusion, then maybe the artist/s involved should expect to receive a letter soon: Derek and Dave Philpott are on the case and they’re determined to […]
Meet Shaun. He loves books, discovering bookish treasures and the annual book festival in Wigtown. He does not love customers who openly browse Amazon whilst in his shop, (especially when they “whisper” to their companion that, yes, it is cheaper online,) or customers who complain about his prices, (amusingly, he raises the price of a […]
I enjoy books about books so I was delighted to receive this for my birthday. A book about libraries had to be about books, right? There are lots of books on the front cover and the author’s a novelist. Well, not quite. This book is more about people, hence the subtitle, ‘true stories and curious […]
The role of social media in publishing continues to fascinate me. Take Sergeant Colin Taylor. He was detective constable on the beautiful Isles of Scilly for around seven years. Scilly has approximately 2,600 inhabitants, yet Colin’s humorous Facebook and Twitter posts from his social media accounts amassed 60,000 followers. This level of demand for his […]