Illustrations by Grace McKenna In an increasingly digital world, reading a physical book is becoming somewhat old-fashioned. Kindles and other portable digital reading tools offer the ability to carry hundreds of books around without your tote bag straps snapping – a desirable prospect for avid readers like me who find themselves devouring multiple books a week. With the click of a button, you can have a new book at your fingertips – no waiting for a delivery or travelling to

Illustrations by Grace McKenna What on earth has happened to theatre etiquette? I have come away from almost every single theatre show I have been to in the past few years with a funny, shocking, or downright incredulous story regarding my fellow theatregoers’ behaviour. During a performance of Cabaret, I witnessed two men over-enthusiastically singing along, only to be violently thumped by an enraged old woman and her handbag. While watching The Hunger Games: On Stage, a lou

Illustrations by Grace McKenna Writing a literature and theatre column, it was inevitable that I would eventually write an article where these worlds collided. In fact, it’s almost impossible to discuss one without discussing the other. Literature and theatre have been interacting and inspiring each other for hundreds of years, exchanging stories, characters, and motifs. Their entanglement stretches all the way back to the 16 th  century, with perhaps the most famous playwrig

Illustrations by Grace McKenna Since last May, I’ve started keeping a reading journal. I’ve always been a keen user of book tracking apps (StoryGraph over Goodreads any day, by the way), but I didn’t use these to write reviews, rather just to track what I had read. Starting my reading journal, I vowed to write a review for every book I read from then on, and I’m pleased to report that I’ve stuck to that promise. This process has changed the way I engage with many books; it ha

Illustrations by Grace McKenna Over Christmas I was lucky enough to see The Hunger Games: On Stage  in London. Before attending the show, I saw an advertisement for it on social media where an unknowing person had commented: “Is this coming to Scotland?” This would be a reasonable question if you hadn’t, like me, been following every step of this show’s creation, including the construction of a one-of-a-kind theatre in Canary Wharf. But, nevertheless, I kept this question in

Illustrations by Grace McKenna We’ve all heard the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.” In many theoretical or philosophical situations this may be true, but what about with actual books?  Nowadays, this phrase is used more in its metaphorical than literal sense, but some of its earliest recorded uses were in reference to real books. In George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss  (1860), the character Mr Tulliver says “But it seems one mustn’t judge by the outside”  in relati

Illustrations by Grace McKenna Choosing a seat when buying theatre tickets can become a deliberation that lasts many hours. Do I splash out for the front row of the dress circle and guarantee a good view? Do I save money and sit in the gods, knowing I’ll at least be able to hear the show wherever I am? Or do I want to be at the front row of the stalls, almost on the performers’ laps? I have spent hours scrolling through aviewfrommyseat.com  trying to make up my mind while squ