About

I enjoy reading and writing and decided one way to combine the two was to start a blog. Television has been one of my enduring interests, although there are huge gaps in my viewing – I didn’t ever see Dallas, Dynasty or even Twin Peaks, although I was impressed by the depiction of Crystal and Alexa from one of the shows in a wonderful Christmas Pantomime  in London in the 1980s.

My writing includes short articles and lengthier works about television programs (reality and fictional) and a wide range of fiction as part of my interest in popular culture. One study, ‘Women As Adventurers’ (1996) looks at popular fiction by Rona Jaffe, Marge Piercy, Zoe Fairbairns, Betty Burton and Maeve Binchy. Another, ‘The Troublesome Woman: A Study of Barbara Pym’s Novels and Short Stories‘ (2012) considers Barbara Pym as an author with a feminist intent– contrary to many of her readers’ understanding of her novels. My most recent work about television is in Women, Law and Culture (ed. Jocelynne Scutt, 2016).

My book, adapted from my PhD, The Reality behind Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women The Troublesome Woman Revealed was published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2023. My most recent publication is in The Denning Law Journal 2024 Vol 33 p 391-398, a review of Superman’s Not Coming Our National Water Crisis and What We the
People Can Do About It, Erin Brockovich and Suzanne Boothby, Pantheon Books 2021, Kindle version. http://www.ubplj.org/index.php/dlj

Travel and politics are also amongst my interests, and these will be included in the blog. One of my longer political works is ‘Women’s Labour: Women’s Power’ (1999).

 Another section is dedicated to my four and a half years in the UK from 2011 to 2015. This began as an informative journey for anyone about to embark on the experience of living in the UK as a resident and tourist. Covid 19 has made much of what I had to say redundant so my reading associated with my experiences has become the focus. This is being updated very slowly. A Journey through Countries and Books – update- very, very slowly. I have become caught up with book reviewing, reading and writing for this is enjoyable but time consuming.

The blog is arranged so that the book reviews Books: Reviews and television comments Television: Comments appear on separate pages. Some book reviews appear amongst longer commentary and articles. These I have given separate pages in Further Commentary and Articles about Authors and Books. Further Commentary and Articles about Authors and Books* The material in Book Reviews and Television Comments can be located by date. The Home Page Home Page lists the books, categorised as fiction or non-fiction, and the dates on which they appear. This information is also in the weekly blog, with links to the Book Review page. Posts are updated weekly.