#WWWWednesday – 7th October 2026

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!


May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Granta)

She is a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. But in the lush private quarters of a medieval palace, she finds herself so transfixed by the reign of an almost-forgotten King that the edges of her life begin to blur.

He is a reluctant ruler with no hunger for power, rushed to the throne after the untimely deaths of his older brothers. But it isn’t long before whispers begin to fly around the court. And with the growing belief that the King is not fit for the throne comes the idea that another might rule in his stead.

Doom Painting by A. K. Blakemore (Granta via NetGalley)

It is 1381. England, reeling from plague and years of conflict abroad, is a tinderbox waiting to spark. Two childhood friends ride into the town of Brentwood, Essex, where they come upon an altercation with a local Justice bent on squeezing more coin from the masses. Thus begins a rebellion of the common folk – loyal to the king, but not to those wealthy landowners who curtail their freedoms; the multitude finding cause against the powers that threaten their livelihoods.

Set over sixteen days, Doom Painting roves across England as the revolt grows and swells and the rebels march to London to take their demands to the child-king Richard II. Out of the rebellion emerges its enigmatic and charismatic leader Wat Tyler, an opportunistic and mercurial rogue whose morality is birthed by the cause, and who shapes an identity for the English which has never been lost.

For the first time in a long time, I haven’t finished reading anything this week.

Head of a Traveller by Nicholas Blake (Pan) #1949Club

Staying with a friend in Oxfordshire, poet turned amateur detective Nigel Strangeways pays a visit to Robert Seaton, a distinguished British poet whom Nigel greatly admires but whose reputation has been on the decline of late. Seaton proves to be an irascible, temperamental man, and his unconventional household, featuring a resentful daughter and mute dwarf servant, simmers with tension.

When a headless corpse is found floating in the river by the Seaton’s house just a few weeks later, the poet becomes the prime suspect. But whose body is it?

#TopTenTuesday Happy Memories of the Horticultural Kind #TuesdayBookBlog

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

  • Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
  • Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
  • Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
  • Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books That Conjure Up Happy Memories. My happiest times are those spent in the garden so I’ve chosen ten books on the subject of gardening, either practical how-to guides, memoirs or fiction set in gardens. Although given the dry summer we’ve had this year in my area, I probably should have included The Rain Never Came by Lachlan Walter. Links from each title will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

  1. Hortobiography by Carol Klein – the autobiography of gardening guru Carol Klein
  2. Where the Hornbeam Grows by Beth Lynch – a memoir of creating a garden in a new country – Switzerland
  3. A Fenland Garden by Francis Pryor – an account of creating a garden that is a haven for wildlife
  4. A Year in a Small Garden by Frances Tophill – a combination of practical advice and the author’s experience of creating her very own garden
  5. Dwell by Rue Bradley – a new gardener, rumoured to be a hero of WW1, arrives at a boarding school and catches the attention of one of the pupils
  6. The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan – in the newly-installed Edinburgh Botanic Garden, the agave americana plant looks set to flower, an event that only occurs once every few decades
  7. Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory – first of two novels based on the life of 16th century English plant hunter John Tradescant
  8. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin – four women respond to an advertisement in The Times appealing to “those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine” to rent a small medieval Italian castle for a month
  9. At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier – in 19th century Ohio, James and Sadie Goodenough work to tame a patch of land so they can cultivate the fifty apple trees required to stake their claim on the property
  10. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng – a Malaysian woman and former war crimes prosecutor is taught the art of creating a Japanese garden in memory of her dead sister