📖 Book Review ~ The Valley of Ravens by Barbara Erskine

Harper Collins
30 July 2026

My thanks to the publisher for the invitation to read this book

In the depths of the valley, two women, centuries apart, are bound by fate…

Present

Eve, desperate for a fresh start, arrives in the Valley of Ravens to restore a long-abandoned cottage.

Everyone knows the place is cursed. Why else would it be called The Witch’s House?

As Eve begins her renovations it becomes clear the place has a secret waiting to be uncovered, if only she can make the connection with the past.

Wales, 1260

Alys, a healer living in the depths of the valley, discovers Llewelyn – last true Prince of Wales – lying wounded on the battlefield. She tends him and her fate is forever bound to his.

Her vow to keep his final secret will echo through the centuries…

📖 My Review..

The Valley of Ravens gives us a glimpse into the political world of thirteenth century Wales, which features Alys, a local healer, who befriends Llewelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales, who lived during the reign of the English King, Edward I. Running alongside the thirteenth century story is that of Eve, also a healer, who, in the present day, is irresistibly drawn towards the rural isolation of the locally named Tŷ’r Wrach (witches house). Eve is intrigued by the sensation of being watched by a woman from the past and, haunted by Alys’s story, Eve is soon bedevilled by suspicious events, fuelled by a dangerous obsession, which threatens to destroy everything.

Cleverly written, with a fine eye for historical detail, The Valley of the Ravens is filled with a brooding sense of unease, particularly in the older sections of the story which the author describes well. With Alys as our supernatural guide we are allowed a glimpse into the final days of Llewelyn ap Gruffudd, and of the precious gifts he entrusts into Alys’s safekeeping. Eve’s uncertainty and difficulties she faces on her own are explored in detail and there’s a creeping  sense of menace to the story especially with its fascinating connections to the past and the devastating consequences of one man’s obsession that continues to seek revenge. 

I particularly enjoyed the references to the author’s previous work, Lady of Hay, and having a couple of characters from that story turn up in this one adds an extra dimension to what is a haunting story of revenge, greed and terrifying madness. Beautifully authentic, and with a definite sense of foreboding, The Valley of Ravens is another fascinating dual time historical mystery from this bestselling writer.

About the Author

Barbara Erskine is the author of thirteen bestselling novels and three collections of short stories that demonstrate her interest in both history and the supernatural. Lady of Hay, her first novel, has now sold over three million copies worldwide.

 X @ Barbaraerskine

Website

X@ HarperCollinsUK

📖 Book Review ~ Wild Devotion : Ten Nature Poems by Kathryn Bevis

 

Candlestick Press
August 2026

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

The pages of this richly lyrical pamphlet are alive with plants and wild creatures, with birdsong and weather, and with the transformations of the changing seasons. Every poem offers a moment of intense looking; the vividness of nature is celebrated for its own sake and for what it might teach us about our own lives.

Kathryn Bevis was an award-winning poet whose work was widely acclaimed for its close and loving attentiveness to the natural world. There are poems here in which nature seems to speak with compelling directness, asking to be trusted and offering consolation:

“I am held by this place. Each leaf
promises the sunlight in her veins. Look.
There, where oat and velvet grasses toss
their fringe. There, where meadow browns flicker…”

These poems will delight and move readers who will find in their singing lines an irrepressible joy – a reminder of the poet’s wild devotion to the world she loved and so beautifully put into words.

Cover illustration by Sam Cannon

Donation to Jane Scarth House 

📖 My Review..

I was saddened to learn of the passing of this talented poet and so feel even more privileged to be able to read Wild Devotion which shares ten of Kathryn’s beautiful poems about nature. There is something very special about reading a set of poems which conjure, so successfully, the natural world in such a special and poignant way. From celebrating the weather of the changing seasons, to the hazardous environment of a frog’s journey to the pond and the sanctuary of a woodland canopy, the words shimmer and shine like jewels.

I found Wild Devotion to be an emotional read with beautiful poems which I know I shall want to return to re-read again and again.

Ephemera 

“ Feel

The flood of love a body - yes

even one as frail as this - is capable

of carrying. Gather it all. Hold

it close. Learn to let it go. “

From its beautiful cover, with its iridescent dragonfly and colourful grasses and with similarly designed end papers Wild Devotion: Ten Nature Poems is a lasting legacy and beautiful tribute to a talented and much missed poet.

About Kathryn Bevis

Kathryn Bevis (1975 – 2024) was a poet and teacher whose pamphlet Flamingo (Seren) was one of the Poetry Society’s ‘Books of the Year’ for 2022. Her debut collection The Butterfly House (Seren) was posthumously shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize 2025. Poems by Kathryn won the Wales Poetry Award, the Crysse Morrison Award, and the Second Light Competition. ‘My body tells me that she’s filing for divorce’ was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem – Written – in 2023.

About the Publisher 

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

Twitter/X @poetrycandle 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

📚 Book Nostalgia ~ Time’s Echo by Pamela Hartshorne

Welcome to my Book Nostalgia feature where I'm allowing myself the luxury of going back in time with some of my favourite reads. Over the past 15 years of blogging I have been privileged to read some amazing books which have featured on my books of the year list. 

Sometimes it’s good to revisit these stories in order to remember those extra special books which have influenced my reading over the last 15 years

Come along with with me and let's wallow in a book memory from 2012…

Pan MacMillan 
2012

Grace Trewe comes to York intending to spend as little time as possible sorting out her dead godmother’s affairs before moving on, the way she has always done before. Grace prides herself on her independence. She is a practical, sensible, self-reliant person, impatient with spirituality or mysticism and what she thinks of as wallowing in emotion. Having survived the Boxing Day tsunami, Grace knows how lucky she is to be alive. She looks forward, not back.

But in York Grace discovers that the past cannot always be ignored. Her godmother, Lucy, has been dabbling in the occult, and it seems that she has raised an unquiet spirit, Hawise, who lived, loved and died in York over 400 years earlier. Hawise died believing that she has failed her daughter, and the more Grace is drawn into her life in the Elizabethan city, the more parallels she finds with her own life. For Grace, too, has failed a child.

Is Grace possessed? Or is she suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Either way, she learns that she cannot move on until she has come to terms with the past…

Over the last few years I’ve read several of this author’s excellent stories and have always enjoyed reading them. She is currently writing as Eleanor Buchanan and has a new book expected in January 2027.

***

Time's Echo opens with the details of very graphic experience which quickly sets the scene for this dual time narrative set in the city of York. When Grace Trewe is called to the city to oversee the closure of her deceased godmother's house, she is totally unprepared for the effect that the house has on her. Grace, a very modern woman is drawn into the troubled story of Hawise Aske, a young woman who has been grievously wronged, and whose voice echoes down the centuries. 

With most dual time narratives there is a tendency to favour one time period over another, but in Time’s Echo both time frames are equally valid with neither one trying to outshine the other. The natural blending of the storyline with parallels in both the past and the future is seamless, and as both Grace and Hawise spiral out of control, the story takes on a momentum all of its own. From the beginning the story explores the historical significance of everyday life in Elizabethan York, and as Hawise and the ordinary people go about their everyday business, a story of thwarted lust, greed and ignorant superstition begins to evolve. In modern day York, Grace battles her own demons whilst at the same time experiences the insecurities and challenges of living day to day in two very different time periods. 

Without doubt this is an extraordinarily good debut novel. Pamela Hartshorne is a very talented storyteller, and in Time's Echo she has combined her love of history, with a totally believable story of malicious superstition and overwhelming evil.

Time’s Echo is one of those rare finds that you want to keep on your book shelf in order to re-read and discover all over again.

Read it for Samhain- "when the worlds of the living and the dead become as one"...

📖 National Poetry Day ~ A Poem for Every Night of the Year : Edited by Allie Esiri

MacMillan Children’s Books
1 October 2026

On National Poetry Day 2026, with its theme of ‘Wonder’ I’m delighted to feature this 10th Anniversary Edition of A Poem for Every Night of the Year. 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of A Poem For Every Night of the Year - Allie Esiri’s bestselling poetry anthology that has dominated the poetry charts for over a decade selling over 175,000 copies in 10 years and reigniting a passion for poetry in the UK. 

Allie has now written ten poetry anthologies which collectively have sold over half a million copies, are regularly chosen for National Poetry Day and have been picked as best books of the year in the Observer, New Statesman and The Times. Credited with bringing poetry into the digital age, Allie's poetry app The Love Book features readings by Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hiddleston, Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Gina Bellman and Emma Watson.

A Poem For Every Night of the Year is a magnificent collection of 366 poems compiled by Allie Esiri, one to share for every night of the year with a special new cover for the 10th year anniversary. 

The poems – together with introductory paragraphs – have a link to the date on which they appear. Shakespeare celebrates midsummer night, Maya Angelou for International Women’s Day and Lewis Carroll on April Fool’s day.

Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family, it contains a full spectrum of poetry from familiar favourites to exciting contemporary voices. The special 10th anniversary edition A Poem for Every Night of the Year features the poetry of Rumi, Maya Angelou, Benjamin Zephaniah, George The Poet, Mandy Coe, John Updike, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, John Cooper Clark, Paul McCartney, Roger McGough, Carol Ann Duffy, Ezra Pound, Philip Larkin, Robert Frost, AA Milne, William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti, Lewis Carroll, W. H. Auden, Keats, Yates, Byron, Shelley, Roald Dahl, Rudyard Kipling, William Shakespeare, Emily Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickenson, Tennyson, Amelia Earhart, Walt Witman, Margaret Atwood, Matsuo Basho, Walter de la Mare, DH Lawrence, Dylan Thomas, Simon Armitage, JK Rowling, Laurie Lee, Thomas Hardy and many more. 

This soul-enhancing book is the perfect gift that will last the whole year, with a little bit of magic to read every evening.

For January there is To a Snowdrop by William Wordsworth and Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

For Valentines Day there is How Do I Love Thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

For Pancake Day there is Mix a Pancake by Christina Rossetti

For Spring there is ‘Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson and The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

For Easter there is A Donkey by Ted Hughes and The Knight’s Tomb by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

For April Fools Day there is the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

For June there are children’s classics The Way Through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling and The Night Mail by W. H. Auden

For Summer Solstice there is A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

For Autumn there is Fall, Leaves, Fall by Emily Brontë

For Remembrance Day there is The Soldier by Rupert Brooke

For Christmas there is A Visit from St Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore, Christmas by John Betjemin, and Talking Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah.

About Allie Esiri

Allie Esiri’s best-selling poetry anthologies include Shakespeare For Every Day Of The Year, A Poem For Every Day Of The Year and 365 Poems For Life. They have lit an explosion of interest in poetry in the UK, are regularly chosen for National Poetry Day and have been picked as best books of the year by The Observer, The Times and New Statesman. Yearly sell out performances at the National Theatre and major book festivals with some of our best-loved actors reading poetry – from Helena Bonham Carter to Dominic West – are capturing and enthralling a new generation of poetry lovers. 

Esiri read Modern and Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge then worked as an actress for ten years in the English Shakespeare Company and on TV in shows such as Sharpe, Men Behaving Badly and Poirot, before moving on to create the first poetry apps, daily poetry anthologies (for all ages) and live shows.

Website

X @AllieEsiri

📖 Favourite Read of the Month ~ The Secret Diary of Rome by M A McLaughlin

Joffe Books
Choc Lit
1 September 2026

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

 

A hidden diary. A story that’s waited a hundred years to be told…

1960, New York.

Emilia Rinaldi restores broken books for a living. She knows how to bring lost stories back to life.

The one story she cannot repair is her own.

Then an unexpected gift from her late mother arrives — an antique music box containing a faded photograph and a torn page from the diary of Lizzie Siddal, the tragic Pre-Raphaelite muse and wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Emilia follows the clues to Rome. To an abandoned villa left by a grandmother she never knew. To a collection of rare and beautiful books, hidden in a church crypt through the war . . . And a secret buried for generations.

As Emilia pieces together her own past, Lizzie’s diary reveals another story. Two Rossetti paintings. One genuine. One a flawless forgery.

Separated by a century, the two mysteries are bound together. And when Emilia finally discovers the truth, she must decide whether some stories are meant to be preserved . . . or buried forever.

📖 My Review..

I’ve always been fascinated by the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and have been to several art exhibitions, with Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s works being amongst my favourites. To have a dual time story which features Elizabeth Siddal has been a real treat as not only does it give a little insight into the life of this enigmatic young woman who was Rossetti’s muse for over twenty years but it also takes us on a fascinating journey to 1960s Rome and Emilia Rinaldi’s quest to discover more about  her family’s past and the connection to an old diary which once belonged to Elizabeth Siddal.

Combing art, and antiquarian books, with a human interest story, is a fascinating idea and I enjoyed the way the story unfolded especially as Emilia starts to get drawn into her family history and begins to question her own life choices. The author writes well, bringing 1960s Rome to life and with old animosities still simmering Emilia has a difficult time trying to discover the faults of the past. The sadness of the fictional diary is handled well and brings Lizzie Siddal to life in an uncomplicated way, sharing snippets of her time with Rossetti,  his troubled genius, and her growing dependence on laudanum. 

The Secret Diary of Rome initially attracted my attention because of its colourful cover but the slow and subtle storytelling approach soon appealed to me and I became swept up in Emilia’s life, her uneasy relationship with her fiancé, Oliver, and the added mystery surrounding a couple of Pre-Raphaelite paintings all made for an enjoyable read and for that reason I’m happy to make it my Favourite Readof the Month for September.

About the Author

Marty Ambrose-McLaughlin is an award-winning, multi-published author of four historical mysteries set mostly in Italy, drawing on her background in nineteenth-century literature. Marty completed her M.Phil. at the University of York (England) and teaches creative writing at Florida Southwestern State College. She has also given numerous workshops in the U.S. and abroad on all aspects of creating/publishing a novel; her new novel, The Secret Diary of Rome is published by Joffe Books in 2026.

Website 

X @ JoffeBooks 

#TheSecretDiaryOfRome

📕One from the Shelf ~ The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer

In an attempt to get my ‘to be read pile’ to a more manageable level over the following autumn months, I’m going to share my reviews of books which have lingered for far too long on my digital book shelf.

I’ve had The Girl in the Red Coat since it was first published back in 2015…

Faber and Faber 
2015

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

She is the missing girl. But she doesn't know she's lost.

Carmel Wakeford becomes separated from her mother at a local children's festival, and is found by a man who claims to be her estranged grandfather. He tells her that her mother has had an accident and that she is to live with him for now. As days become weeks with her new family, 8-year-old Carmel realises that this man believes she has a special gift...

While her mother desperately tries to find her, Carmel embarks on an extraordinary journey, one that will make her question who she is - and who she might become.

📖 My Review..

I try to steer away from missing children stories which is why this book has languished in my kindle library for the last eleven years however, I’ve always had the intention of reading it one day as it received such rave reviews when it was first published.

Eight year old Carmel Wakeford and her mum visit a local children’s festival where in the blink of an eye Carmel goes missing, kidnapped at the fair by a man purporting to be her estranged grandfather. With a story about her mum having an accident Carmel goes willingly with this man and that’s when the story takes a dark and unexpected turn. 

The story emerges in two different voices, that of Carmel herself whose eight year old personality shines through with a tenacity and stoicism which belies her age and that of Beth, her distraught mother, who counts the days of her beloved daughter’s disappearance with all the heartache of a mother who fears she will never see her beloved daughter again. The story is beautifully written , so much so, I couldn’t put it down for more than a minute as I desperately wanted Carmel’s lost and lonely life to come good. I was almost scared to read on in case there was never any resolution for her and her mother, and hoping against hope that the perpetrator of this heinous crime, however intentioned, would eventually get their comeuppance. 

Fascinating characterisation make this book into something quite special and I’m really glad after 11 years I’ve finally met The Girl in the Red Coat for myself.

*There is a sequel which picks up the story a few years on from where this book finishes. The Lost Girls was published by Faber and Faber in 2023. I’ve since gone on to read the sequel, which I enjoyed very much and thought it wrapped the story up nicely.

About the Author

Kate Hamer grew up in the West Country and Wales. She studied art and worked for a number of years in television. In 2011 she won the Rhys Davies short-story prize and her short stories have appeared in various collections. Her debut novel The Girl in the Red Coat was published in 2015.

X @FaberBooks

X @kate_hamer #TheGirlInTheRedCoat

📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Beer from Candlestick Press 🍺

Candlestick Press
September 2026

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet

 

There’s something companionable about the question “Do you fancy a pint?” It sounds somehow homely – an invitation to share time and exchange news as much as to have a drink.

In these entertaining and warm-hearted poems, we encounter all kinds of beer – everything from real ale to Mexican Pacifico and from home brew to Guinness. We watch as pints are poured and experience the delivery of the week’s supply of barrels, each rolled down into the cellar in what becomes a skilful dance.

In one poem a village pub on a country lane casts an unexpected spell as soon as the travellers cross the threshold:

“… to pass out of the dark

and into a room of flickered malty brown

like the glint of a full pint glass.”

from ‘The Swan’ by Sally Goldsmith

These are poems to be enjoyed in the company of a quiet pint, or as a reminder of the simple pleasure of entering a favourite pub.

Poems by Sally Goldsmith, AE Houseman, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Grevel Lindop, Tom Marioni, John McCullough, Kathy Pimlott, Edgar Allan Poe, Martha Sprackland, and Marjorie Sweetko.

🍺 My Review

There’s something comforting about the smell of beer, for me it conjures up experimenting with home brew or sampling the delights of a malty bitter in the garden of a country pub and even though beer is no longer my drink of choice, I do still appreciate its pungent aroma which is so much part of our heritage. We are a nation that has brewed beer for hundreds of years, from tiny malt houses, to the brewing giants, beer production is part of our landscape.

The feeling a of a well earned stop on a Friday night…

“A Friday feeling ,half way home,

Rain’s drummed you off the motorway, 

good news from London aches for telling..”

From the Regulars by Marjorie Sweetko

To the poignant in..

“ In the front room, whether indigo skies

or rainy grey covered the afternoons

Grandad hammered bottle caps onto homemade brew,

welding metal caps onto brown glass bottles 

As he listened to Beethoven’s symphonies..”

From Grandad’s Home Brew by Khadijah Ibrahiim 

This reminded me of waiting expectantly for a pint of Guinness to be poured in a bar in Dún Laoghaire..

He never tired of explaining from his stool

the route to an immaculate Guinness.

Tilt your glass at forty-five degrees

to kill the splash. Hold it close

to the spout, avoiding contact. Take the brew

three-quarters up, then leave to settle..”

From Masterclass by John McCullough

Like a well-poured pint of beer I found much to enjoy in sampling the ten very different poems on offer in this collection. From its evocative cover, with its hops and barley and the glistening amber of the pint pot of ale, Ten Poems about Beer will make a lovely gift instead of a card for anyone who enjoys a quiet drink in a country pub or a noisy night down the local. There is something different to be found and each of the poems celebrate our companionable connection to beer - drinking safely, and responsibly, of course.

Cheers 🍺

About the Publisher 

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

Twitter/X @poetrycandle 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social