Springtime reads

Hi everyone! This week I’m chatting about how the clocks are going are forward one hour here in the UK this weekend to mark the start of springtime.

We’ve had a long spell of heavy downpours in recent weeks and hopefully sunnier times and bluer skies are heading our way soon!

For now, I thought I would share a few book recommendations for this Springtime.

• Green and Pleasant Land – a poetry anthology compiled by Ana Sampson

First off, how beautiful is this cover design?! It immediately makes me want to go back to an interwar Britain when I can pack a picnic with a cider and a book in my basket, and set off on a bicycle for a quiet field and sit under a shady tree for a few hours. I instantly feel calm, don’t you?

I don’t often read poetry (I think a lot of it is down to reading a lot of awful poetry as part of my English degree).

However, I admire Ana Sampson who compiled a gorgeous anthology about motherhood, and I was thrilled to scoop up this copy at a charity shop recently.

There are sections dedicated to all four seasons – recognising how flowers, trees and landscapes transform through each year.

There’s a particularly lovely poem called April Rise by Laurie Lee (1914-1997) – pictured. What do you think?

Next up with my recommendations is:

• Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery

First published in 1908, Anne of Green Gables has long been hailed as “full of dreams, warmth and spirit.” I remember watching repeats of the TV series as a little girl and there was a real sense of freedom among May Anne and her family, in the un and the meadows surrounding them in a time undisturbed by modern technology and other distractions, that pure quality of time and place.

Let’s take the opening paragraph – the image it conjures in your mind is comforting and peaceful, right? It sounds like a world I want to explore. That interest in wanting to do per more about our great outdoors, thanks to literature, has to be a good thing doesn’t it?

I’ve never fully read this classic story and I want to change that this year (if my enormous TBR will allow). Have you read it? Let me know!

My third and final springtime read is:

• The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I adored the film adaptation of The Princess Bride as a little girl although there were some menacing moments! Over the last few years I had a real hankering to get my hands of a copy of the 1973 novel. And that’s what I did!

If you’re not familiar with the plot and could benefit from a refresh – see the image above!

I feel like Springtime does stir up a fresh sense of adventure – in the great outdoors, in nature as well as in the vein of new beginnings and fresh starts. We can connect with Buttercup’s young passion for love and freedom. As the back cover notes, The Princess Bride is a fairy tale of sorts and I reckon that’s suited for this time of year rather than the slower, quieter and more subdued autumn and winter times.

The Princess Bride is one of my chosen picks for book club this year so I’m looking forward to hearing what others think!

Let me know if you’ve read any of these three stories and what your thoughts are.

Until next week, don’t forget to change your clocks if it applies to you, and happy reading.