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Showing posts from July, 2021

Bric-a-brac is back – street stalls return in Paris July 2021

   

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn: book review

  Ella Minnow Pea (2002) is set on the fictional island of Nollopton in one year from July to November.   Nevin Nollop has just used all of the letters in the English alphabet to make a sentence: Thequick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.    Villagers on the island write letters to each other as a form of communication—instead of phone calls. Through these letters, a young girl, Ella Minnow Pea, and her family—learn that Nevin Nollop is a hero for using all the letters of the alphabet to make a sentence. He will have a statue erected in his honour after his death.    When he dies, his statue has his famous sentence displayed for all to see. One day a letter from the sentence drops off. The villagers take this as a bad omen.    A rule of the island is that the letter that drops off the statue cannot be used ever again, in writing, or in speech.    To break the bad omen, the villagers need to create a new sentence—a new pangram with all of the alphabet’s letters. Then another letter fa

Lavender season, France 2021

Hot chocolate and eggs Benedict

MARTINA NICOLLS Website Martinasblogs Publications Facebook Paris Website Animal Website Flower Website SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES    MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author   of:  The Paris Residences of James Joyce   (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).  

Sunday Walk: blue doors

  MARTINA NICOLLS Website Martinasblogs Publications Facebook Paris Website Animal Website Flower Website SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES    MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author   of:  The Paris Residences of James Joyce   (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).