Bookish: WEEKEND BRIEFS (6#) -

Lark Rise to Candleford (1939) is a book of memoirs about life in an English country village at the end of the 19th century. The young woman leaves school at an early age to go to work as a post office assistant in a nearby market town. This is a rather long feature essay about it and the historical world it evokes by Richard Mabey which I found rather charming.

# Dave Simpson meets people who've inspired pop songs. From Leonard Cohen's Suzanne (1967) to Lou Reed's Take a Walk On The Wild Side (1972) and more.

# Dark Echo by FG Cottam is a sort of gothic mystery about a seemingly haunted or cursed yacht reviewed here by Peter Millar.

# The Empty Chair - who wrote it? The Times presents a short mystery story and invites you to guess its author. They'll reveal the answer next week.

# Joan Smith interviews Khaled Hosseini.

# Rona Brinlee from The Bookmark bookstore in Atlantic Beach Florida recommends The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway as a holiday gift.

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