My husband caught me at the weekend. We were in a bookshop and I'd opened a large coffee table book of maps. The aroma that came out from the pages was indescribable, and I gave an almighty sniff. I normally do this in secret, but I couldn't not have breathed in that smell and, even now, writing about it brings back such joy. When we met up with friends that night my husband told them that I'd been literally sniffing around a bookshop, and everyone laughed. No, they all said, none of them had...
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I finally saw the documentary Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love. I have to say I was left a little cold, by the end I liked neither Cohen nor Marianne. He was easy to dislike, taking her for granted while sniffing after every adoring female fan. But Marianne gave herself to him with so few conditions, even putting her son in a British boarding school so she could travel with Cohen. OK, maybe I’m not a romantic, but love of your child should surely come before love of a philanderer who has...

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Last week I wrote that fiction can reach behind fact and put clothes on a true story.
This week a reader wrote to me of the connection she felt with one of our crime novels, and her experience echoed readers of another of our crime novels.
I thought our crime novels were simply about crime. They tell stories of bad things done and the detectives try to solve those bad things.
Hear Me by Julia North involves a murder. Who Killed Anne-Marie? is not such so straight forward. However, the interest...

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Whether you are a fan of Leonard Cohen or not, you have likely heard of the new film, Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love. The documentary on the romance between Cohen and Marianne Ihlen has been well received. At Hookline, we have our own take on the story with the novel The Water and the Wine by Tamar Hodes. Tamar lived on Hydra as a child, and Cohen and Marianne were her neighbours.
While Nick Broomfield’s film is a documentary, Tamar’s story is fictional. You might think factual gives...

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