Recently in Literary Trips Category

It's always nice to add a new book to 'The Pile'.

'The Pile' is unlikely to ever run short - it would take a publishing crisis running into several millennia and the destruction of every Penguin Classic ever printed.

Particularly seeing as 'The Pile' only exists in my mind and generally changes depending on what mood I'm in.

I am - of course - referring to the list every book lover has of 'what I'm going to read' topped generally by 'what I'm going to read next'...

Lots of lovely things coming up for book lovers across Merseyside.

We've got author Malcolm Gladwell (pictured) on his way to Philharmonic Hall, so more on that in a bit.

There's lots going on at independent booksellers News from Nowhere plus South African author Gillian Slovo is on her way to talk about her latest novel.

There are also forthcoming performances of the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists...

Ever been to the library with no idea what book you want?

It rarely happens to me (I've got a permanent 'books to read next' list floating around in my head) but I'm sure that with summer approaching plenty of people will be wandering down to their local library in need of a good beach read.

The lady pictured left is hoping she can help...

I've just returned from a week living with a group of Merseyside soldiers on the vast prairies of Canada - where they were training for a potential stint in Afghanistan.

All our lads were brilliant sports - happy to be interviewed and appear in our videos - and they all made me feel right at home, albeit in a rather large tank.

The Canadian prairies are a hostile place. There's rattlesnakes, black widow spiders and the odd elk wandering the plains...