Sunday War Poets...

Rupert Chawner Brooke

1887-1915

The Treasure

When colour goes home into the eyes,

   And lights that shine are shut again,

With dancing girls and sweet birds' cries

   Behind the gateways of the brain;

And that no-place which gave them birth, shall close

The rainbow and the rose: -

Still may Time hold some golden space

   Where I'll unpack that scented store

Of song and flower and sky and face,

   And count, and touch, and turn them o'er,

Musing upon them; as a mother, who

Has watched her children all the rich day through,

Sits, quiet-handed, in the fading light,

When children sleep, ere night.

August 1914

The Rupert Brooke Society



~*~*~

Review ~ Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas

Atlantic Books
2 January 2014

Daniel Kelly’s dream for fame and fortune has been measured against the sacrifices which his family have made on his behalf and he cherishes a dream that his talent for swimming will take him away from his working class background. However, when Daniel spectacularly fails at his first major international swimming championship, he begins to spiral into a whirlpool of destructive behaviour which has repercussions, not just on his own life, but also on those around him.

What then follows is an uncomfortable read which dissects a life which has turned sour with bitterness, and demonstrates what happens when all the enchantment and mystery, has turned into disappointment and failed expectation. Once he hits rock bottom, Daniel Kelly has no place else to go and so must learn to control his behaviour if he is to survive.

Like Tsiolkas’s previous book The Slap, Barracuda gets off to a slow start, there is much to take in and the expletives within the narrative take some getting used to. However, putting all this to one side, when the story does get going, and for me it took a good couple of hundred pages before I started to feel even the remotest connection with Daniel, then the story of impressive failure really starts to get under your skin.

My feeling is that the book will be something of a ‘marmite’ read – you’ll either love it, hate it, or be somewhere in the middle. I guess I’m still hovering somewhere around the middle with, it must be said, no great enthusiasm, either for the writing, or the eventual outcome of the story.

My thanks to Real Readers for my copy of this book

*~*~*

Review ~ What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Special Reissue Release

16th January 2014

Was losing her memory the best thing that ever happened to her.

Alice bumps her head on the gym floor and wakes up believing that she is twenty-nine and excitedly looking forward to the birth of her first baby. What Alice doesn't understand is why she is in a gym, with people peering over her. All she really wants is her husband, Nick, and a return to normality. But what was once normal for Alice sadly is no more, and gradually as she is made aware that in reality she is a thirty-nine year old mother of three children, Alice’s whole life beings to crumble.

What then follows is a story which very quickly takes you into the notion of a woman struggling, not just with her with her identity, but also with her place in the world. And as Alice faces each new revelation there are whole range of emotions to explore from disbelief, to euphoria, and back to sadness and grief, as Alice mourns the life she once thought so precious, but which is now as ephemeral as the wind.

Liane Moriarty is a very talented Australian author. She knows instinctively how to hold the reader in the palm of her hand, and effortlessly moves between scenes, so that what could so very easily become contrived and predictable soon becomes heart-warming and convincing. The story is very easy to read; I found that I was flashing through the book in comfortable companionship with a delightful array of characters, who all add a certain richness to the narrative, which I found very appealing.

I was much taken with Liane Morarty’s book; The Husband’s Secret and am equally thrilled that

 What Alice Forgot has now been reissued.

What Alice Forgot is available from 16^th January 2014 in the UK from all good book shops.

Highly Recommended.

*~*~*

My thanks to Katie at Penguin Books UK for my copy of this book.

About the Author

Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of five internationally best-selling novels Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist’s Love Story, and The Husband’s Story

*~*~*

Review ~ Wake by Anna Hope

Random House UK
Transworld publishers
16 January 2014

Five Days in November 1920

The story takes place over five days in November 1920 and as the body of the Unknown Soldier makes its way from the fields of Northern France, to its final resting place in Westminster Abbey, three very different women are coming to terms with their own personal losses.

Hetty, is a dancer at the Hammersmith Palais, she witnesses the emotional instability of the returning soldiers as they pay their sixpence for her to waltz with them. Ada is a mother struggling to come to terms with the tragic loss of her son, Michael. And Eva is a rich but bored socialite, who whiles away her time at a lowly paid job in the pensions office. The interlinking of these individual accounts does not, at first, appear obvious, but gradually as the layers of the story are peeled away, the personal stories of overwhelming loss and devastation are revealed in stark brutality.

The story is beautifully written, rich in historical detail, which is made all the more poignant by the role the Unknown Soldier played in public consciousness in the aftermath of the Great War.

I am sure that this centenary year of the commemoration of the start of World War One will see many fictional accounts of wartime. Wake will, for me, be one of the memorable ones.

Highly recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK Transworld Publishers for my advance copy of this book.

*~*~*

Sunday War Poets..

To commemorate the start of Great War in 1914

I hope to share, over the next few months, the poignant work of the First World War Poets.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen

1893-1918

Portrait by kind permission

© David Roberts, the War Poetry Website

warpoetry.co.uk

"All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true poet must be truthful"

*~*~*

1914

War broke: and now the Winter of the world

With perishing great darkness closes in.

The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,

Is over all the width of Europe whirled,

Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled

Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin

Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.

The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.

For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,

And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,

An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,

A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.

But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need

Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed. 

Wilfred Owen

*~*~*

Colossus by Alexander Cole ~ Blog Tour 2014

I am delighted to welcome 

Alexander Cole

 And to be  part of this 2014 Blog Tour

to

Help celebrate the publication

 of 

Colossus

Published 2 January 2014
Atlantic Books

Book Blurb

Babylon, 323 BC. Alexander the Great has survived every effort to kill him. Restless, ruthless he wonders which world to conquer next. He has a new weapon - the war elephants he brought back from India. He also has a conquest in mind - the fabulous empire of Carthage.

As Alexander plots, a war elephant disturbs the peace of the camp. Only one young mahout has the courage to stop his killing rampage. And when Alexander notices his bravery, Gajendra begins a meteoric climb through the ranks of the Macedonian army. As captain of the elephants he glimpses the ultimate prize. But to become the heir to Alexander's throne he must betray everything he loves...

Colossus is an epic tale of massive evil, pitiless gods and burning cities, of dwarves, priestesses and kings. It is the story of two men - one with colossal ambition, and one who reaches for undreamed-of power. All set against the warp of history as Alexander's army approaches the gates of Rome.

*~*~*

Alexander ~ welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thank you for taking the time to answer our questions

Where did you get the first flash of inspiration for your novel , Colossus?


I was reading a book called The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony. His descriptions of his relationships with these extraordinary animals at his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand in South Africa really startled me.

Then I saw a photograph of Hannibal and the famous Alpine crossing with his war elephants in the Punic Wars. It somehow seemed obscene, after what I had just read. I started to think about writing a novel where one of the central characters was a war elephant.



What can you tell us about the story which will pique the reader's interest?
Someone described it as Warhorse with Alexander the Great set within an alternative history. I guarantee a reader won’t have ever come across anything quite like it.

In your research for Colossus, did you discover anything which surprised you?

How much elephants eat! The Indians had a saying, that if you wanted to destroy your enemy, then give him an elephant, because keeping it would ruin him.

And words do not do justice to Alexander’s nature; for mine, a true psychopathic genius. I was surprised how history has lionised and distorted him. To me, he was a monster. His acute intelligence only made him more terrifying.



When do you find the time to write, and do you have a favourite place to do your writing?


Writing has been my living for 30 years so making time to write is part of the discipline that has enabled that. If I don’t write, I don’t eat.

And I can write anywhere; on a table, on a sofa, in an airport lounge, during a riot. (Yes that happened in La Paz.) It really doesn’t matter to me. If I have a story in my head- and I always do - then I’m writing, wherever I am.

Can you tell us if you have another novel planned?

I just published a book about Isabella - under my other name. And yes, I have my next novel planned - or rather, novels. It has the same epic nature as COLOSSUS but over a series of six books. Or perhaps a sequel to COLOSSUS. We’ll see.

Alexander ~ Thank you for your insightful answers to our questions.

Jaffa and I have enjoyed being part of your blog tour.

We wish you continuing success.

*~*~*

My Thoughts on Colossus

Before I started reading Colossus I didn't know very much about either elephants or Alexander the Great, but the epic journey undertaken in the story of Colossus goes a long way in explaining much about both. The story begins with an introduction to Colossus, a huge war elephant who is erratically but successfully managed by one young mahout, Gajendra, who alone has the courage to manage this colossal beast. As part of Alexander the Great’s war entourage, Gajendra starts a impressive rise through the ranks of the Macedonian army to become captain of the war-elephants, but he also sees at first-hand how corruption and power are diminishing Alexander’s hold on reality.

What then follows is a well imagined alternate history, in which it is assumed that Alexander survived the Battle of Macedonia in 323BC to lead his battle troops on to the very gates of Rome.

For me, the book got off to a slow start, there is much to take in, with a complex network of characters and places to get to grips with, but about a third of the way into the novel and the story started to come together and became much more interesting.  There is no doubt that the author has the ability to tell a good story, his manipulation of the narrative and his imaginative use of history, is something that I am sure will appeal to those who have an interest in alternate history novels.

My thanks to Alison at Atlantic Books for my advance copy of Colossus and for the invitation to take part in this blog tour.

*~*~*

Review ~ The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Published 7 January 2014
Headline
Tinder Press

Following the lives of two women, The Invention of Wings takes us on a journey to Charleston in the deep American South in the early part of the nineteenth century. Born into a wealthy plantation family, the Grimké sisters understand the concept of slavery, and yet when Sarah Grimké turns eleven, she is presented with the gift of a ten year old slave child, who is known as Hetty ‘Handful’ Grimké. Taken from her mother, and wrapped in lavender ribbons, Hetty is presented to Sarah, ostensibly to become Sarah’s waiting maid. Sarah’s reluctance to accept Hetty as a ‘gift’, the repercussions of this action, and Sarah’s response to it, reverberate, not just on immediate impact, but on the continuing stability of the lives of those around them.

Spanning the next thirty-five years, this is the story, not just of Sarah and Hetty, but also, of those who lives come into contact with them.

Beautifully written, and based on the true and astonishing story of Sarah Grimké’s passionate fight against the use of slavery, the novel is a sensitive and heartfelt evocation of a world, hopefully long gone, in which dreadful crimes where perpetrated against humankind.

Overall, this is a difficult book to ‘enjoy’ as it reveals a shocking world of possession and rejection. However, running alongside the story of overwhelming wickedness and prejudice, the book's lasting legacy is that an abiding goodness can be found,  if hope is never abandoned.

Highly Recommended Read.

My thanks to NetGalley and Headline/Tinder Press for my advance reading copy of this book.

~*~*~

About the Author

 

Sue Monk Kidd is the bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair.

When her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, was published by Viking in 2002, it became a genuine literary phenomenon, spending more than 2½ years on the New York Times bestseller list. It has been translated into 36 languages and sold more than 6 million copies in the U.S. and 8 million copies worldwide. Bees was named the Book Sense Paperback Book of the Year in 2004, long-listed for the 2002 Orange Prize in England, and won numerous awards.

The Mermaid Chair spent 24 weeks on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list, reaching the #1 position, and spent 22 weeks on the New York Times trade paperback list. She is also the author of several acclaimed memoirs, including the New York Times bestseller Traveling with Pomegranates, written with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. Kidd lives in Florida with her husband.

*~*~*