What Sophie Said

The speed at which I’m getting through books has reached new levels with my daily commute. A 35 minute tube journey at each end of the day is a decent amount of time for me to get completely absorbed in a book, and as a fast reader anyway I‘m speeding through titles. Here’s my latest round-up:- The Children’s Book, A. S. Byatt Olive writes a private book bound in different colours for each of her five children. Each family in the story has its secrets, and the sons start to rebel as daughters dream of their independence in this Edwardian setting. The writing was stunning, as I’ve come to expect from Byatt, and it was a well-written family saga with stories and fairytales woven in. There were so many layers, and the whole book is just gorgeous. The Somnambulist, Essie Fox  Mr Samuels offers 17 year-old Phoebe the role of companion to his reclusive wife, and sobbing noises in the night lead her to discover she was not chosen by chance. This is a story of los...

When I moved to London in August, it was for a new job. My office is just off Oxford Street. I like to think that was me throwing myself in at the deep end, ‘doing London properly’. To be right in the centre of the city, on one of the busiest shopping streets around, was me entering into the heart of this exciting, busy city. Commuting to and from Oxford Street has taught me a few lessons over the last few months. Here are my top five: People can be really rude. And apparently have zero awareness that there are any other people anywhere near them. Either that or they just don’t care about anyone else, and believe themselves to be the most important people in the universe. Oxford Street at around 7am can be pretty great. Especially if there’s a nice sunrise that day. It’s quiet, it’s open and the world is waking up. Oxford Street at around 5pm is horrible. My walk from the office to the tube is downright unbearable, which is not what you want after a day in the of...

Ah, the tube. It’s an interesting place. I’ve seen all sorts on the tube since moving here, and underground is a strange old world. It seems to operate by different rules. Setting aside the fact that it’s downright odd to spend well over an hour of my day, every day, underground, here are ten people who baffle me on the tube. 1. People who push and shove when it’s not even busy. Let’s face it, pushing and shoving is never ok, and some people turn into animals when hurrying at rush hour, but this confuses me even more when it’s not even busy. Once, I was walking to the Piccadilly Line at midday, it was fairly quiet, and a woman pushed me hard into a wall to pass me, when there would have been metres of space if she’d passed round the other side of me, or said excuse me. She in particular is in my bad books, as it made me drop and smash my phone, too. 2. People who fall asleep. I’m a bit in awe of these people. Firstly, I feel so uncomfortable and hot and out of place on t...