I've been re-reading the great James Thurber's The Years with Ross, an account of the time he spent working for the New Yorker magazine in the 1920s, 30s and 40s under its founder and chief editor, Harold Ross. It's a joyously detailed and entertaining account of the...
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I mentioned a couple of days ago that my book was about to be published in the US. This morning I was delighted to find a generous review in the Wall Street Journal (see photo), headed 'Musical Light in the Darkness'. The link is this, but after a couple of paragraphs...
Today my Nocturne book comes out in the US. I'm looking forward to having access to an enormous new group of potential readers. Yes, I know it will be of interest only to a certain subset of them - but still an enormous subset! I tell myself that a book like mine...
'Sleeping in Temples is the fourth book by the pianist and author Susan Tomes. The book is drawn from the author’s memories, experiences and thoughts about the music she has been intensely and sincerely committed to as a pianist performing at the highest international...
I recently did an interview with Andrew Ford of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's 'The Music Show'. We talked mainly about my book 'Sleeping in Temples', but strayed onto other topics such as why it is that, in the last movement of Beethoven's E major piano...
The new issue of Chamber Music America magazine has as its endpiece an abridged version of one of the chapters of my book 'Sleeping in Temples'. It's the chapter called 'The Iceberg', in which I contrast the huge amount of time most musicians spend practising and...
I wrote a while ago about the memoirs of Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, 'the Highland Lady', whose memoirs of life in Scotland in the early 19th century were so popular. Now I'm reading her later volume of memoirs, written when she was married and helping to run an...
My new book has had its first 'review' in the States. 'Choice', the professional magazine of the American Library Association, has recommended it for students, professionals, and general readers. This is a big step forward because 'Choice' is an important influence on...
The March issue of Gramophone Magazine carries a review of my book 'Sleeping in Temples'. As the review is not available online except to subscribers, here's an excerpt: " 'Out of Silence' [my previous book] was written in diary form. 'Sleeping in Temples' is a series...
There's an article by music critic Ken Walton about me and my book in today's Scotsman newspaper - click here to read it. For now, an excerpt: 'Just read her recent fourth book, Sleeping in Temples, in which she muses, in 16 essays, on issues that challenge and...
I've been reading the wonderful 'Memoirs of a Highland Lady', written by Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus. What a series of unforgettable pictures she paints of her life in the Highlands of Scotland in the early years of the 19th century! As a teenager, I used to get...
There's a review of my new book in today's Guardian. Here's an excerpt: 'Fascinating essays from the celebrated pianist ... Susan Tomes has devoted her career largely to chamber music - a niche market within the niche market of classical music, and one in which she...
At New Year we played a game we hadn't played for ages - Ex Libris. It's a game where all the players have to write the opening or closing sentence of a book which already exists. Each player in turn selects a book from the shelves (obviously you have to have lots of...
There's a nice review of my new book, Sleeping in Temples, in the Jan/Feb issue of International Piano magazine. I know from my own attempts that it isn't always easy to track down this interesting magazine, so I thought I'd take the chance to reproduce an excerpt...
Readers who followed my enthusiastic recommendation of 'The Real Charlotte' may be interested in another recommendation from the same period. I've just finished reading 'Maurice Guest', published in 1908 by Henry Handel Richardson, the pseudonym of Ethel Richardson,...