Tag: Nonfiction November

Nonfiction November 2025

Nonfiction November is an annual challenge hosted by bloggers Liz at Adventures in Reading, Frances at Volatile Rune, Heather at Based on a True Story, Rebekah at She Seeks Nonfiction and Deb at Readerbuzz designed to celebrate all things nonfiction. Helpfully, there are a series of weekly prompts to guide your posts.

This week’s prompt is hosted by Liz at Adventures in Reading who invites us to pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title.  I’ve come up with three pairs and, for good measure, there’s a link between the final two pairs.

My first pairing is M. R. James: An Informal Portrait by Michael Cox, published by the Oxford University Press in 1983, and Collected Ghost Stories by M. R. James, published in 2011. Cox’s biography of Montague Rhodes James, the celebrated author of ghost stories, describes his early life and his time as dean and provost of King’s College, Cambridge, and later as provost of Eton College. It also provides a picture of society and especially the academic world of the time. Collected Ghost Stories contains all of James’s published ghost stories, including many that have been adapted for television. (In 2024 Mark Gatiss, who has been responsible for some of the recent adaptations, presented the BBC Four programme, M. R. James: Ghost Writer.)

My second pairing is Take Courage: Anne Brontë and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. Take Courage is the author’s personal journey into the life and work of a woman she believes has been sidelined by history, overshadowed by her older siblings. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne’s second and final novel, is the story of Helen Graham, a mysterious woman who arrives at Wildfell Hall with her young son, seeking refuge from a dark and painful past. Helen’s secret diary reveals her struggles to break free from her destructive marriage to Arthur Huntingdon. Anne’s depiction of alcoholism and debauchery was considered shocking at the time but the novel is now considered to be one of the first feminist novels.

My final pairing is Daphne du Maurier’s nonfiction work, The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë and her most famous novel, Rebecca. In her biography of Branwell, du Maurier describes how, unable to deal with the failure to sell his paintings or get his books published, he retreated into alcohol and laudanum resulting in his early death. (It has been suggested that Arthur Huntingdon in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is loosely based on Branwell.) In Rebecca, a shy young woman (who is never named) falls in love with handsome widower Maxim de Winter and agrees to marry him. When they arrive at her husband’s home, Manderley, she feels overshadowed by his beautiful first wife, Rebecca, (perhaps in the same way Branwell felt overshadowed by his sisters) who died in mysterious circumstances, and is intimidated by Manderley’s sinister housekeeper, Mrs Danvers.

Nonfiction November 2025

Nonfiction November is an annual challenge hosted by bloggers Liz at Libro Fulltime, Frances at Volatile Rune, Heather at Based on a True Story, Rebekah at She Seeks Nonfiction and Deb at Readerbuzz designed to celebrate all things nonfiction. Helpfully, there are a series of weekly prompts to guide your posts.

The first prompt is hosted by Heather who invites us to answer a series of questions.

What books have you read?

Oh dear, looking back at the 81 books I’ve read so far this year only three were nonfiction, less than 1% of my reading. They were A Year in a Small Garden by Frances Tophill, The CIA Bookclub by Charlie English and The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke. Follow the links from the titles to read my reviews.

What were your favorites?

It seems unfair to choose one out of only three but if forced I’ll pick A Year in a Small Garden because, aside from reading, gardening is my favourite pastime and Frances’s approach to gardening – relaxed and wildlife-friendly – very closely matches my own.

Have you had a favorite topic?

I’d probably pick gardening and nature as my favourite nonfiction topic for both the practical advice it provides as well as the inspiration. In addition, gardening books tend to be beautifully illustrated which is a bonus.

Is there a topic you want to read about more?

I have a couple of memoirs and biographies in my TBR pile that I’m keen to read – Everything is Everything by Clive Myrie and Harold Wilson by Alan Johnson.

What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

Encouragement to read some of the nonfiction books I already have in my possession as well as obtaining recommendations from other readers.