Perhaps my absolute number one favourite is this book, Letters of Note, compiled by Shaun Usher. It's essentially the book form of the website Letters of Note, a collection of entertaining, inspiring and unusual letters from/to famous and not-so-famous people, spanning centuries (the oldest one is from the 14th century BC and the most recent only a few years old). I've only read about 25 of the 125 letters, but I'm thoroughly enjoying myself - my favourite so far has been the one from Mary, Queen of Scots to Henry III of France dated February 8th 1587, in which she explains that she is to be executed the following day. Amazingly, there is a copy of the actual original letter in almost indecipherable handwriting and even more confusing old French, but luckily it is accompanied by a translated transcript. I also laughed out loud at the letter from comedy script editor Ian Main to the BBC after reading a pilot script of Fawlty Towers, in which he describes it as "as dire as its title" and "a kind of 'Prince of Denmark' of the hotel world". This thrilled me immensely, as not only am I a die-hard Fawlty Towers fan (my brother and I can quote entire episodes), I am also currently knee-deep in Hamlet for my upcoming app English exam and any references to it will trigger my Hamlet receptors in a flash. What I also love about this book is that each letter has a small introductory note to provide some context.

One of my other favourites is the boxset of The Addams Family DVDs. I usually get a boxset of some description every Christmas, and while it's traditionally Doctor Who, this year I opted for a something a little more creepy and kooky. I watched about 35 of the grand total of 64 episodes when they were up on YouTube, but since they were taken down I decided it was finally time to invest in the actual DVDs. I haven't watched any yet, but I'm SO excited about these!

My final exciting (hah) purchase was this black tattoo choker necklace. I never had one of these in the mid 2000s when it was cool, and I was thrilled to actually find them in the shops. They're oh-so-nineties, which I love dearly.

One of my favourite things about this book is that its genre is not entirely obvious. Although it's filed under dystopian fiction on my bookshelf (and it really ought to be under science fiction, only that shelf isn't high enough to fit it on as my copy is hardback and really quite huge), there's certainly a case to be made for it being historical fiction: it's set in the sixties, more than 50 years ago (an often-cited criteria for historical fiction), and the author writes from research rather than personal experience.

I tend to love books which are somewhat ambiguous in terms of genre, for instance the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray, which falls comfortably in between fantasy and (my old favourite) historical fiction. Another example is Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, a book of such epic proportions and mind-boggling complexity I can't even begin to think how to label it.

But anyway. The H-Bomb Girl is set in Liverpool in October 1962, with the Cuban Missile Crisis looming. It just so happens that in history class at the moment we're actually studying the Cold War and in particular this crisis, so for the first time I actually fully understood all the political background - while it is sort of explained, it's assumed that the reader has a decent knowledge of the Cold War, which I can't say I had until recently. Essentially, the Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union over the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba, poised ready to annihilate several major American cities at the push of a button. It was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full scale nuclear war, which I find absolute fascinating in itself - if things hadn't gone exactly as they did during those 13 days, it might have resulted in one of the two superpowers deploying their missiles, which would have meant a swift retaliation by the other side and BOOM: the world as we knew it would have ceased to exist.

The H-Bomb Girl centres on, among other things, what would have happened if this had actually occurred. The main character is 14-year-old Laura Mann, who has just moved from London to Liverpool and on of this is dealing with her parents' difficult divorce and the return of her mother's American love interest from the days of the war. Her dad is an RAF officer, and has entrusted her with a strange key whose existence she must keep secret: she doesn't know what it is or what it's for, only that it will keep her safe if the worst should happen. On her first day at school she meets Bernadette, a tough girl who looks older than her age, and Joel, the only black kids in the school. Joel is extremely knowledgeable about the political situation, and works out that Laura's key is somehow linked to Vulcan bomber planes.

I won't go into the whole plot here, but I will say that time travel is a major plot element, and parallel timelines begin to converge in a very confusing way. Any fans of Doctor Who will be more than able to cope with the concepts introduced, which include paradoxes and moments where time is in flux, not to mention thrilled at the mention of a new BBC programme introduced as 'Dr Who' at the end of the novel.

One of my favourite things about the story is the way Liverpool's vibrant youth culture, particularly music (the Beatles make several appearances) is seamlessly interwoven with the science fiction side of things. One minute you've got teds making trouble in the Cavern Club, and the next minute future versions of Laura are explaining how they came to be in 1962. Another element which breaks up the narrative to particularly interesting effect is excerpts from Laura's diary, which turns out to be very relevant to the plot.

There is so much content in The H-Bomb Girl that it's quite easy to pick it apart, although I hardly want to for fear of spoiling its wonderful integrity. Something I might say in criticism of the writing itself is that, in my opinion, Stephen Baxter seems to miss the mark in a lot of the action scenes and ones where the characters are interacting with a lot of emotion. I think it works, on the whole, but some moments are a little less than smooth which does bother me on occasion. But on the whole it's a terrific read, and one I know I will come back to over and over again.

Rating: 8.5/10

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Another of my obsessions is plaid, and specifically red plaid: I have a dress, a jumper and two shirts in it, but no actual tops, surprisingly. This one is really nice, because it's the perfect amount of stretchy to tuck into skirts and it also has a collar, which I love.

This has honestly become my new favourite thing. It's unbelievably warm and cosy (although not quite enough so for the bitterly cold mornings we've been having lately), and best of all is reversible so it's essentially a 2-in-1.

I absolutely adore these boots, and having worn them all week I can't recommend them highly enough. They're also exactly what I set out to get, which is somewhat of a miracle in itself since that never happens for me.

Well hello there, you Italian crime novel, you - I can't say this is a genre I'm overly familiar with, but it was a 3 books for £5 deal and this was the third one I picked out. The cover really reminds me of the cover of The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, a play we read in Advanced English last year.

I was first and foremost on the lookout for historical fiction (to feed my insatiable penchant for it), and happened to come across this intriguing read. It's set in Italy in the late 15th century, which just about does it for me as I love everything about the Tudors and the Renaissance.

I'm not particularly captivated by the title or cover of this book, but the blurb really drew me in - it's described as a 'breathtaking historical novel' and set in 1930s Vienna, which really interests me as last year we studied the period between the two wars in a lot of detail and as far as I know I don't own any other books set around then.

I also got a few other odd things like nail varnishes, pyjamas, fur-lined black leggings that were impossible to photograph and a coat from New Look that I forgot to photograph.

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Bonjour,

It's been a while, but I discovered this post lurking in my drafts so I thought I may as well publish it. This is the fourth and final post about the website Dolls Kill - so far I've featured tops, bottoms and jackets; shoes; and dresses. Today I'd like to share my favourite accessories with you - some of these are beyond fabulous.

Crappy Meal Bag - $49

Sourpuss Clothing Skelly Bone Knee Socks - $15

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Bonjour,

Long time no blog! For once this isn't merely laziness on my part, but because until just recently I had no way of getting photos from my phone onto my laptop as I'd lent my cable to a friend. But now I have it back, it's time for a book haul - I actually bought these the weekend before last, at a secondhand book sale, and I'm ridiculously excited about most of them.

The Glass of Time by Michael Cox

The only one I've started so far is Valley of the Dolls. It was actually published in 1966, and is apparently one of the bestselling books of all time. The story begins in 1945 and spans over twenty years, focusing on the lives of its three main characters Anne, Jennifer and Neely, who are all involved in showbusiness in one form or other. Basically, it's the most trashy, girly, romantic thing I've ever read, but I love it to bits.

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Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience by Shaun Usher

Rookie Yearbook One edited by Tavi Gevinson

Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith

Moonrise Kingdom dir. Wes Anderson

Agatha Christie's Poirot: the Definitive Collection

The Addams Family: the Complete Series Boxset

Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Camera

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