Two of the most beloved tropes in romance — enemies to lovers and slow burn — are often used together, but they are fundamentally different reading experiences. Understanding what each trope offers will help you choose your next read with confidence. Enemies to Lovers: The Clash In enemies to lovers, the central couple begins the … Read more
2 min readThe river Boyne was in spate when Eithne Gallagher arrived at the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre, having driven four hours from Cork in weather that alternated between biblical rain and the threatening pause between showers that the Irish called “a grand soft day.” She was a folklorist — the last tenured folklorist in the … Read more
9 min readThe music came from underground. Orla Kavanagh heard it first on Midsummer’s Eve, walking home from the pub in Knocknarea at an hour when the sensible people of County Sligo were in bed and only the foxes and the fools were abroad. She was neither fox nor fool — she was a traditional musician, a … Read more
9 min readEsme Whitfield ran the last hand-bookbinding workshop in Bath from a narrow shop on a street so old that the cobblestones had been worn to the smoothness of river pebbles. She bound books the way her mother had taught her, and her mother’s mother before that: by hand, with needle and thread and paste and … Read more
8 min readThe concert hall was empty when Ailsa Drummond arrived for the evening rehearsal, which was unusual. The Lyceum Chamber Orchestra did not typically abandon its Tuesday rehearsals, even when the weather turned foul, even when the heating failed, even when the second violins contracted a collective stomach ailment from the sushi restaurant they insisted on … Read more
9 min readThe church of St. Crispin the Martyr had been bombed in 1941, rebuilt in 1953, and was now, in the wet autumn of the present day, losing its windows. Not to vandals or weather, but to something more insidious: the lead cames that held the stained glass panels were crystallising, turning brittle with age and … Read more
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