LEIGH FORBES: Books of all Sorts

26th February 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Henry Winstanley and the Eddystone Lighthouse

Henry Winstanley and the Eddystone Lighthouse

by Adam Hart Davis and Emily Troscianko This book is about Henry Winstanley the man whose life (and death) became intractably linked with the first Eddystone Lighthouse. The Eddystone rocks – an outcrop of slippery, sloping gneiss that barely pokes … Continue reading

17th September 2017
by Leigh Forbes
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Dr Johnson’s Dictionary: The Extraordinary Story Of The Book That Defined The World

by Henry Hitchings. This is a story of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary – the first comprehensive dictionary of English, which was published in 1755. We start with a brief history of Johnson’s early life: his very modest upbringing in Litchfield; his education – and … Continue reading

28th October 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island

The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island

by Bill Bryson. Twenty years after Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson tours Britain again. With the “Bryson Line” as his guide, the he (roughly) follows his own footsteps, from Bognor Regis on England’s south coast to the very North … Continue reading

17th July 2016
by Leigh Forbes
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Walking the Nile

by Levison Wood. We all know the longest river in the world is the Nile (or is it the Amazon?), but we don’t actually know how long that is. From it’s (disputed) source in Rwanda, to Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, the … Continue reading

17th April 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Dead Water

Dead Water

by Ann Cleeves. A bereaved Jimmy Perez gradually gets hooked into a murder case, this time led by an incoming inspector, the very likable Willow Reeves. Spoiled journalist Jerry Markham is dead, but who did it? Was it his spurned … Continue reading