The Aga and I: A 1960s Perspective
My mother pictured here with my little sister, is a woman who can handle almost anything with grace and good humor. England in the mid-1960s tested that theory considerably. To me, as a child, it was all adventure — rolling Oxfordshire hills, fields of wild daffodils, a barn on our property the locals proudly called […]
How an English Childhood Shaped Death at Brookhaven
Nancy Polk Hall traces her new mystery Death at Brookhaven back to a 13-room Oxfordshire farmhouse, a ginger cat, and an England she absorbed at age eight.
The Letters We Keep: What My Grandmother’s Weekly Correspondence Taught Me About Memory
An essay on weekly letter-writing, family archives, and the framed letter by my dressing table — how handwritten mail shaped the way I write fiction.
The Book for a Long Spring Afternoon — Why This Is the Season to Finally Read Call of the Blackbird
Spring changes what we want from a book. Nancy Polk Hall on why this is the season for Call of the Blackbird — and the kind of reading that stays with you.