Chertsey Street Guildford 1915

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Julie Goucher

Looking at Holy Trinity Church in the High Street, from the direction of Chertsey Street.

When I was growing up the building adjacent to the two ladies was Barclays Bank and Thorps bookshop was the building on the left hand side where the arch is.

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Tea Cup Tuesday – Peace Mug 1918

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Julie Goucher

In view of the fact that we Commemorate Remembrance Day on Friday, I thought that I would share this delightful mug from the First World War with you. It sits on the picture window in our lounge and is the first mug on the left.

Submitted as part of Tea Cups Tuesday hosted by Artful Affirmations & Martha’s Favourites

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A Guildford Street Scene circa 1900

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Julie Goucher

Original image from a lantern slide.

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Husbands may come and go but friends are forever by Judith Marshall

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Julie Goucher

Cover Picture above courtesy of Amazon

This is the book that I read in support of Adopt an Indie Month. 

The book is set in the Spring of 2000 and centres around a group of women who have been friends for almost “forever” Each are caught up with their own lives, loves, fears and challenges and the initial scene opens with divorcee Liz as she prepares a redundancy package for a group of employees. The redundancies due to a business merger and Liz fails to see that just perhaps her own position is about to be removed. Having had a tough & emotional day with the redundancies, Liz is taken to dinner by her partner, Sam. Over dinner he announces that he has been offered promotion and would Liz go with him. Liz hides behind her children, now all grown up and her work and does not feel that she can commit to such a move.

Very shortly after, Liz is told that of her own redundancy; and takes the news badly. She turns to one of her closest friends Karen, a twice married and currently single women. Karen is a complex character. Brave and yet frightened, she is the pivotal character in the book with what unfolds next and as the story develops we see how the group of middle aged women pull together as they battle through a tragedy. I am not going to say any more about the storyline, which takes the reader on a journey of discovery, both in terms of what happens next and in terms of flashes of history between the women.

What I loved about this book was the realness of the storyline. We can probably all identify with friendships that are almost institution’s in our lives. Friends with whom you can have fun with, a fierce debate with, turn to in times of heartache and worry, regardless of the time and distance. These are the friendships that mean you can start a conversation on one day and finish it months later. These friendships are the backbone of who we are as individuals and in many ways they are just as important as family.

Essentially, this is a book of love, friendship and self discovery and I highly recommend it.

I was provided by the author with an eBook, and was not encouraged or pressured to write a favourable review. The review above is based upon my own opinion having read the book.


ISBN – 978 – 0982504604
Published – Kelso Books August 2009
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Slide Workers circa 1900

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Julie Goucher

Original image from a lantern slide.

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Book Meme – Day 05 – A book that makes you happy

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Julie Goucher
The Helene Hanff Omnibus

I am going to cheat for this question. A book that makes me happy is the Omnibus edition of books by Helene Hanff.

The Omnibus edition contains –

  1. Underfoot in Showbusiness
  2. 84 Charing Cross Road
  3. Apple of my Eye
  4. The Dutchess of Bloomsbury Street
  5. Q’s Legacy

From an blog post written by me in 2006 about Apple of my Eye.

In this one, Helene tours New York, and sees places that she has never seen before, despite living in the City. With her she takes a friend, Patsy, who she had lost contact with, but who she had ran into a week or two before, and together, the two of them tour the city and explore their friendship. On page 32 there is a great description of the World Trade Centre, which for those of us who have never seen the building, never will, so the book, in its own way creates a peice of history.

Having read the book, and not knowing New York (although I would love to visit) I’ve since revisited the book and read it clutching a New York map. I’m one of these visual people and I want to “see” the areas that Helene and Patsy walk as they prepare for the book.

I especially enjoyed the details about Ellis Island (pg 118-120). Like so many, my husband has relatives that entered the United States through Ellis Island and if you stop and think about it, those who entered into the US through Ellis Island had closed one chapter of their life and were hopefully opening another. An interesting site about Ellis Island with links to search for those entering through into the US is Here

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Festive Secret Santa’s

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Julie Goucher

Thanks to Judith at Leeswammes for drawing my attention to a selection of Secret Santa’s available to the on line book blogging population.

Persephone Secret Santa

Persephone Secret Santa



Persephone Books website is HERE – This company reprints Classics written by women.

Closing date is TODAY, 6th November
To take part click HERE




Book Bloggers Holiday Swap
BBHS_Teaser_small
To read the FAQ’S about the swap & sign up click HERE – Deadline is 11th November
To follow via Twitter @holidayswap
If you want to tweet the hashtag is #holidayswap

My Bookworm Santa

Closing date is 30th November
To read the details and sign up click HERE









Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange


For Further details and to sign up click HERE
This is international and the closing date is 30th November






Mid Winters Eve Blog Hop
Closing date is 15th November
For more details click HERE
The event runs from 21st Dec until 27th Dec.
Sounds fun, which one will you join?
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Weekend Cooking – Another All sorts!

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Julie Goucher

The painkillers for the Sciatica & subsequent leg pain are doing a good job. I am sleeping at almost every available opportunity. I just felt myself nodding off as I was typing an earlier paragraph or two! The effects of the painkillers means that one of the usual bodily functions is not functioning and as a result I am eating lots of liquorice, which I always remember my grandmother saying was effective. Rhubarb is also effective, but is sadly out of season.

Apart from the liquorice toffees, and these are delicious! I am eating rather a lot of tomato soup, either out of a tin by Heinz or if I order from the milkman the delicious Tomato and Basil soup that is made by the Covent Garden Soup Company and comes in those old cardboard cartons, rather like milk used to. Remember those?

Yesterday, I had a bit of a disaster with the soup and microwave. I managed to get the packet open and put the carton in the microwave and thought I would cook the whole carton rather than mess around with a microwave container. The post man then delivered the mail and I limped my way to the front door to see if I he had delivered the latest find I had purchased from the States for my Guildford and District Project. He had – hooray!

I then made it back to the microwave to find the carton had fallen over and tomato & basil soup was everywhere in the microwave. All over the round rotating tray and the sides and rear of the microwave. I cleaned up the mess and then had to open the second container of soup, thankful that I had ordered three from the milkman for delivery yesterday morning, so that I could have lunch. The side of the carton says the soup can heat in 3 minutes in the microwave. The clean up operation took much longer than that!

Lunch today, was much simpler, put off by the soup fiasco from yesterday. I have rediscovered Lemon yoghurt – Yum! I noticed these on the milk website when I ordered the soup, so I added these to my order. They come in a set of four – Lemon (my favourite!), Lemon and Lime, Pink Grapefruit & Orange with Nectarine.

Like the impatient individual that I am, I always consume the lemon one first and I might explore the Tesco webpage and see if they make a lemon yoghurt then I can order a few on the next shopping delivery.

So, cooking is pretty much off the menu until the pain subsides. Meanwhile, it does give me opportunity, assuming I am still awake! to meander through some on line sites that I have had book marked for a while, and the odd book – all cooking related!

I came across the website for David Lebovitz. The web site is fascinating, although it took a while to load in both Google Chrome and Fire Fox. There is mention of an iTunes application called Paris Pastry. The app features addresses in Paris where you can purchase the most delightful food. There also looked to be several good food related books written by David, one of which looked like it had a scoop of coffee ice cream on the cover. I am rather partial to coffee ice cream!

Back in the early part of the Summer I wrote about the film Julie and Julia. You can read my post HERE. Well, I spotted details that the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking is soon to be an ebook.

Over the course of the last week hubby nipped into the library to collect two books I had reserved online. One of which was The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman. I also spotted details of The Recipe Club, which has promptly been added to my book list.

Linking to Weekend Cooking hosted by BethFishReads

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1909 Advert – Bowring Red Cross Line Cruise

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Julie Goucher
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Book Lovers Day!

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Julie Goucher

I spotted a brief mention over at Geneabloggers that today is Book Lovers Day. I even checked it with the Book Lover’s Page a Day calendar as I though the day was in August and I had missed it!

As a child I remember being taken to Smiths or Woolworths and being allowed to choose a book each week. Even as a child, I had to read books of a series in order! I love new books, with the unmarked spines and sleek dust jackets! I still have my original set of Noddy books by Enid Blyton. Some with price tickets on – remember the days of 12p for a book?

Reading allows you to merge into a fictional world, to forget your woes and fears and escape for a short while. I would sit on my Grandmother’s knee and she would read to me. I had some favourites, Mr Twiddle. No matter how often we read them, I would want to read it, again, and again and never was I dissuaded. I have just looked at Amazon and they do list the 1968 copies of the Twiddle books and I am once again spiralling back to my childhood, of Grandma knee, Twiddles and happy, happy days.

Of course my reading habits have changed. Nowadays, my books fall into the following categories –


Children’s Books
I have my original set of Noddy Books by Enid Blyton, lovingly read and many still have the Woolworth price ticket of 12p stuck to the front. I have always kept them for my children, but as I don’t have any they sit in my study on a shelf next to a set of Beatrice Potter books.

Italian Collection
I am half Italian and am interested in my Italian Heritage. There are not that many books published about Italian communities here in the United Kingdom so when I come across one I tend to buy it!
Thyroid Collection
I have a Thyroid condition and obviously have an interest in the condition. Over the last 20 years I have purchased any books on the subject and added them to my collection.
Both the Italian Collection and the Thyroid collection of books sit on the same bookcase in our spare room.
Family History Collection
I have a passion for researching my family history and over the course of a decade or two have read, purchased just about every book going on the subject. This collection though, is about the books that I have found along with the way that relate to particular ancestors and their families.
This collection is mainly made up of books relating to the family names of Bowring, Bellasis and Eastwick. There is also a copy of a diary called the Diary of Thomas Asline Ward. Which cost me a little over £60 but simply had to be purchased. This set of books sits on the bottom shelf of a pine bookcase in the hall.
Elm Creek Quilts Collection
I was introduced to this set of books by a fellow avid reader and they are lovely books. They are a set of fictional books set with the obvious theme of Quilting. Each dust jacket has a picture of a quilt on it. There is something about these books that makes you want to hold the book and admire the quilt picture. These sit on the top shelf of the bookcase in the hall.
Cookery Books
There is nothing particularly special about this collection, other than it sits on the middle shelf of the bookcase in the hall and is, and one would expect, of a practical nature. Two books which do stand out are those that I have kept from my school days and I have fond memories of my O level cookery classes.
Angling Collection
These are not mine, but Stuart’s and sit in a bookcase in the lounge with a few angling type ornaments and collectibles.
The Rest
The remainder of my books sits on three bookcases on the third floor of the house. Two in my study and the third one on the top landing. These books span the last 25 years and cover fiction and non fiction. The fiction books are ones that I will read again and particularly want to keep. Others are sent to the charity shop. The fiction books are mainly the lovely cozy mysteries set around bookshops and craft shops which are to me pure escapism!

Oh go on! Here are those familiar covers, courtesy of Amazon –

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