The Red Envelope by Pauline Chandler
Every week or so, my friend and I exchange books using ‘the red envelope’. She lives a hundred miles away, so we post the precious envelope with its precious cargo, back and forth. Usually there’s no message with the book. It’s enough to know that the other has chosen the title with the other in mind. She’s my reading buddy! The first book my friend sent me was ‘H for Hawk’, which she was reading with her book club. She had enjoyed it and thought I, with my passion for raptors, would enjoy too. I did, to a certain extent, though I thought the writing was a little overblown, the writer succumbing to that tendency some people have to romanticise our relationships with these amazing birds. ( Yes, I do this too, but you can have too much of the oohs and aahs!) Fab choice though. In return, I sent her ‘Beyond Black’ by Hilary Mantel, one of my favourite writers. Have you read it? It’s a hilarious, yet poignant tale about a genuine medium and her relati...