I'm from North Yorkshire, currently in York, but used to live in Sweden (Karlstad and Linköping) and in Edinburgh. I love Scotland. Mad about Japan. Very interested in Scandinavia. I read books in English and Swedish. Other interests include walking and exploring, nature, local history and folklore, snailmail, old Hollywood films, Ghibli films, travel, languages, history, music, concerts, tea, chocolate, dressmaking, taking photos and countless other random things...

I do put all my books onto bookcrossing, even the ones I'd never want to give away, as I also see this site as a bit of a bookjournal for me. And what I think I want to keep forever today, might not seem so necessary to keep in a couple of years... who knows. I do also have some books on my shelf that have come my way by various routes and I've never read as they're not my taste, and just passed straight on.

I used to be Opheliaphillips on here, but grew out of that old teenager username a long time ago so have updated to my current monkey identity.

I am on bookmooch where I trade some books and I also use goodreads.

I was at the Nottingham UK Uncon September 2011
I gave away Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day for WBN 2012
I was at the Sweden convention in Göteborg April 2013
I was at the Leeds UK uncon 2013
I was at the Finland Tampere convention 2024
All being well, will be at the Sheffield 2025 uncon

Bookrays I have arranged:
The Lost Continent - Bill Bryson - FINISHED 2011
Desert Dawn - Waris Dirie - FINISHED/MIA 2009
The Savage Garden - Mark Mills FINISHED (04/2009)
The Miracles of Santo Fico - D L Smith FINISHED (11/2007)
On the Beach - Nevil Shute FINISHED (07/2007)
Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata FINISHED (06/2007)
Love of Fat Men - Helen Dunmore FINISHED (01/2007)
Bookrings I've organised
My Forbidden Face - Latifa FINISHED (09/2008)
Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan FINISHED (03/2008)
A Spy in the House of Love - Anais Nin: Lost in the post (2007)
The Diving-bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby: FINISHED (05/2007)
Kollektivt Självmord - Arto Paalisinna: FINISHED/Fizzled out (04/2007)
The Silence of Islands - N D Williams: FINISHED (06/2006)

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Bookrings I’ve taken part in

Death of an Eye - Dana Stabenow 08/23
Home - Julie Myerson 02/10
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shafer & Annie Barrows 08/09
Bitter Sweets - Roopa Farooki 11/08
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg 09/08
Mama Makes Up Her Mind - Bailey White 08/08
Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser 08/08
Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali 08/08
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 04/08
Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin 03/08
Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult 03/08

The Ringmaster's Daughter by Jostein Gaarder 03/08
Belle de Jour 01/08
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon 01/08
One Thousand Paper Cranes by Takauki Ishii 12/07
Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs 10/07
Sarajevo Marlboro by Miljenko Jergovic 08/07
The Yankee Girl - Kyusun Chung 07/07
Illumination Night - Alice Hoffman 06/07
101 Things you didn't know about Jane Austen - Patrice Hannon 06/07
Jane Austen: The World of her Novels - Deirdre Le Faye 06/07
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult 05/07
Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult 03/07
Buried Treasure: Travels Through the Jewel Box - Victoria Finlay 03/07
Anita and Me - Meera Syal 02/07
The Palm-Wine Drinkard - Amos Tutuola 02/07
Talk to the Hand – Lynne Truss 12/06
Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones 12/06
Paradise – A L Kennedy 11/06
The Bookseller of Kabul – Asne Seierstad 07/06
The Teahouse on Mulberry Street – Sharon Owens 06/06