Joanne D'Arcy

I was born and still live in Portsmouth. I love my city, which has a rich history from Henry VIII to Charles Dickens, with all sorts in between. It is a place where I have found my two passions – reading and history. In minutes, if I turn south I can be walking along the seafront; if I go north I can walk in the country. I fell into my temporary job 12 years ago, and I’m still there. I enjoy it, but the most important thing, apart from pay the bills, is it gives me plenty of time and head space to be able to read and more importantly write about books. I have been blogging at The Book Jotter for over 3 years, but book reviewing started a long time before that. As a personal challenge to myself, I decided that for every book I read I would write a review, no matter what book or what I thought about it - you can find my reviews on Amazon. What the blog also enables me to do is talk, in a rather cathartic way, about lots of other things as well: my book club, my baking, my endless crafts and whatever else is in my brain and needs downloading. I hope you enjoy the books I share with you, and in doing so pick up the odd recommendation or two. Do pop over to the blog when you can.