Life after Work

I have just suddenly (more suddenly than I was expecting) stopped work. Work was (with all the usual exceptions like rubbish computer systems and getting up on Monday mornings) an almost completely unalloyed pleasure because it involved books (and some quite nice people, too). I began blogging (and tweeting) about books, not because I thought I was the best person to do it but because, when social marketing became de rigueur, I was the only person with enough time to spare to take it on – never mind, of course, that I had no previous experience of social media and indeed a rather snobbish attitude towards it.

I began my career being paid to read books in typescript (and in one or two cases, in manuscript) and ‘gently’ help the authors with their spelling, grammar and (very occasionally) facts; I ended my career being paid to (among quite a lot of other things) read books and tell the rest of the world why it should read them too. I’m not being paid any more, but can’t quite give up the reading of books, nor the sharing of my enthusiasm for the insights, emotions, and lovely, extraordinary, fascinating FACTS they contain. (I’ve always felt Dickens was very unkind to Mr Gradgrind.)

This new blog won’t be just about books: I have several other obsessions too, which will be revealed as/if you stick with me…