emilycleaver.net

Fiction, reviews & articles

Word Hunting: A Language-Lovers Sport

Latest blog post for Litro.co.uk… There are some words that are worth keeping, I’ve always thought. Everyone has their favourites – my friend Neil always swears by cornucopia. Defenestration seems to come up quite regularly. I’ve heard a case made for infinitesimal, although I’ve always had a soft-spot for chevron. But there are thousands of [...]

Judging books by their covers: 75 Years of Penguin Sci Fi

Latest blog post for Litro Magazine… The main characteristic of the Penguin paperbacks we have on sale at the secondhand bookshop I work in is scruffiness. They’ve usually been read, re-read, loved, kept in pockets, stuffed under pillows and carried round in bags before being passed on to that great secondhand bookshop in the sky [...]

Torquemada and the Torturous Literary Puzzle

Latest blog post at Litro.co.uk… It might be a sign of the digital times, or an indicator of economic gloom, but working in a second hand bookshop can be slow. We have many techniques for passing the hours: Theatre-Direction Bingo (works especially well on a Saturday night in the West End), Weirdest Book Title competitions [...]

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