📖 His Fic Saturday Blog Tour ~ A Ration Book Daughter by Jean Fullerton #Giveaway

 

📖 On Hist Fic Saturday I am delighted to host one of today's blog tour stops 📖

Let's go back to.... London, 1942

Corvus
ebook 6 May 2021
Paperback 6 August 2021

East End Ration #5

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book
and to Rachel's Random Resources for my invitation to the blog tour.

Not even the Blitz can shake a mother's love.

Cathy was a happy, blushing bride when Britain went to war with Germany three years ago. But her youthful dreams were crushed by her violent husband Stanley's involvement with the fascist blackshirts, and even when he's conscripted to fight she knows it's only a brief respite divorce is not a option. Cathy, a true Brogan daughter, stays strong for her beloved little son Peter.

When a telegram arrives declaring that her husband is missing in action, Cathy can finally allow herself to hope she only has to wait 6 months before she is legally a widow and can move on with her life. In the meantime, she has to keep Peter safe and fed. So she advertises for a lodger, and Sergeant Archie McIntosh of the Royal Engineers' Bomb Disposal Squad turns up. He is kind, clever and thoughtful; their mutual attraction is instant. But with Stanley's fate still unclear, and the Blitz raging on over London's East End, will Cathy ever have the love she deserves?

📖 My thoughts..

In this fifth outing to London's East End we meet again with the indomitable Brogan family who have featured so strongly in the previous books. In A Ration Book Daughter we follow the story of Cathy Wheeler who lives with her small son, Peter, and her domineering mother-in-law, whilst her husband, Stanley, is on active duty overseas. When Cathy receives the dreaded telegram informing her that Stanley is missing in action, rather than be sad, Cathy lives in hope of finally being rid of her violent and aggressive husband.

We follow Cathy as she tries to keep both herself and her son safe from the increased threat of the bombs which drop constantly on the East End, and rather than take shelter with her nasty mother in law, Cathy prefers to spend her nights with her Brogan family in the shelters beneath a London tube station. When Cathy comes into contact with Sergeant Archie McIntosh who is part of a bomb disposal unit based in the East End there is a pull of attraction between them and it is this bureoning relationship which features so strongly in the story.

What then follows is a lovely story which bears all the hallmarks of this authors passion for bringing the history of the East End to life. With meticulous research and genuine delight in recreating the lives of this stalwart generation the author gives us a story which is alive with warmth and compassion and filled with characters who, with each successive story, just get stronger and stronger and who find a place in your heart.

A Ration Book Daughter continues the series is grand style. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Cathy's story and desperately wanted her to find her happy ever after ending. Archie McIntosh is a welcome addition to the story and I found his story both poignant and uplifting in equal measure. The Brogan's are, of course, as wonderful as ever, particularly Queenie, the matriarch of the family who continues to rule the roost with her own inimitable brand of stern common sense.

It's worth saying that whilst A Ration Book Daughter may be read as a standalone story, it would be advisable to enjoy this series from the beginning in book #1.

About the Author

Born and bred in East London Jean is a District Nurse by trade and has worked as a NHS manager and as a senior lecture in Health and Nursing Studies.She left her day job to become a full time writer in 2015 and has never looked back.

In 2006 she won the Harry Bowling Prize and now has seventeen sagas published over three series with both Orion and Atlantic all of which are set in East London.

She is an experienced public speaker with hundreds of WI and women’s club talks under her belt,plus for the past fifteen years she has sailed all over the world as an enrichment speaker and writing workshop leader on cruise ships.

Twitter @JeanFullerton_ #ARationBookdaughter

@CorvusBooks

@rararesources

Facebook

Amazon UK

📖

 **Giveaway**

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Featured Book ~ The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford

🌠 It's the first of the month and my featured book is The Lost Lights of St Kilda 🌠 

Corvus
March 2020

My thanks to the author and publisher for my copy of this book

When Fred Lawson takes a summer job on St Kilda in 1927, little does he realise that he has joined the last community to ever live on that desolate, isolated island. Only three years later, St Kilda will be evacuated, the islanders near-dead from starvation. But for Fred, that summer is the bedrock of his whole life...

Chrissie Gillies is just nineteen when the researchers come to St Kilda. Hired as their cook, she can't believe they would ever notice her, sophisticated and educated as they are. But she soon develops a cautious friendship with Fred, a friendship that cannot be allowed to develop into anything more...

Years later, to help deal with his hellish existence in a German prisoner of war camp, Fred tells the tale of the island and the woman he loved, but left behind. And Fred starts to wonder, where is Chrissie now? And does she ever think of him too?

What did I think about it..

Beautifully evocative of a bygone time, The Lost Lights of St Kilda, takes you into itself and wraps you safe from the smouldering storm of seas which crash along the coast with some ferocity, and which continually threaten the livelihood of this close knit community, who are only ever one bad season away from starvation.

Chrissie Gillies is a beautiful young woman, she's also something of a rarity having been born and raised on the remote Scottish island of St Kilda. The stoicism of the islanders and their tenacity in clinging to a life of hardship allows no room for sentiment. However, Chrissie's head is filled with dreams of a very different life that she may never fulfill, and featuring strongly in those dreams, is the local laird's son, Archie Macleod, whose casual return to the island with his friend, Fred Lawson, in the summer of 1927, causes some disruption, not just to Chrissie's life, but also to the peaceful equilibrium of the island and islanders.

The second arc of the story takes us to an altogether more troubled time as we learn of the events which unfolded in 1940, and Fred Lawson's wartime account is just as compelling as his memories of that poignant summer on St Kilda, and is no less heart breaking.

There's far too much I want to say about this beautiful story but that would spoil everything. I'll concentrate instead on this talented author's ability to pitch every story absolutely perfectly, so that rather than the story overshadowing the reader, the reader becomes part of the natural landscape, blending as one with the islanders as they eke out their meagre existence in a place of such natural beauty that the author's descriptions of the island left me quite breathless. And then of course there's the history of St Kilda and its people, the simple beauty of their myths and legends, their rich stoicism and natural reticence, which is juxtaposed against the horror of a world war which claimed a generation of young men.

Combining a rich tapestry of history, a detailed mystery and heart breaking lost love, The Lost Lights of St Kilda, is everything I ever wanted in a story. Beautifully researched, evocatively explained and with an undeniable attraction that keeps you turning the page with a desperate need to discover what happened to Chrissie Gillies, Archie McLeod and Fred Lawson.

About the Author

Elisabeth Gifford grew up in a vicarage in the industrial Midlands. She studied French literature and world religions at Leeds University. She has written articles for The Times and the Independent and has a Diploma in Creative Writing from Oxford OUDCE and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College. She is married with three children. They live in Kingston upon Thames.

Website

Facebook

Twitter @elisabeth04liz #TheLostLightsofStKilda

Blog Tour ~ Night by Night by Jack Jordan

Jaffareadstoo is excited to be part of the blog tour for Night by Night

Corvus
2 May 2019

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

‘If you’re reading this, I’m dead.’

Rejected by her family and plagued by insomnia, Rose Shaw is on the brink . But one dark evening she collides with a man running through the streets, who quickly vanishes. The only sign he ever existed – a journal dropped at Rose’s feet.

She begins to obsessively dedicate her sleepless nights to discovering what happened to Finn Matthews, the mysterious author of the journal. Why was he convinced someone wanted to kill him? And why, in the midst of a string of murders, won’t the police investigate his disappearance?

Rose is determined to uncover the truth. But she has no idea what the truth will cost her…

My thoughts..

What a roller coaster of a ride this turned out to be, from its dramatic opening, to its intricate middle and jaw dropping conclusion, there is never a moment when the plot doesn't keep you on the edge of your seat.

Rose Shaw is a really troubled soul and with very good reason as she has suffered more than enough tragedy in her life to justify her sleepless nights. At the start of the story, Rose feels that she has no purpose and we meet her with her family life in complete disarray. Late one night she inadvertently collides with a man who seems to be running away from something, in the aftermath of this altercation, Rose discover that the man had dropped a journal. Looking through this rather personal journal Rose discovers the story of a young man called Finn who has a nightmare of a story to share.

What then follows is a fast and furious psychological thriller which takes Rose to the very edge of despair and causes catastrophic rifts ,not just with her family but also with the local police force whose helps she seeks, but who seem intent to thwart her every move.

I thought that Night by Night was a really clever thriller, there are some genuinely sad moments which brought me to tears, and also some really dark situations which made me want to grab Rose and take her into safekeeping.

Thought provoking, hugely addictive, Night by Night kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through and, as this is the first book by this author I have read, it also introduced me to a wonderful new, and very original, writing talent.

About the Author

Jack Jordan wrote his first novel at seventeen and self-published two e-book bestsellers, Anything for Her and My Girl, by the age of twenty four. He lives in East Anglia.

Twitter @JackJordanBooks #NightbyNight

@CorvusBooks

Review ~ The French Girl by Lexie Elliott

☆

Happy Publication  Day

☆

Corvus
5 July 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Six Oxford undergraduate students spend the summer at a French farmhouse where they hope to shake off the shackles of study before they all embark on their separate careers. Severine is the beautiful next door neighbour who beguiles them, not just with her beauty, but also with her mysterious lifestyle. And then ...Severine disappears.

The story opens a decade later when we meet one of the six, Karen Channing, now in her early thirties, trying to run her fledgling head-hunting business and scurrying between clients. When she receives an unexpected phone call informing her that Severine's body has been discovered at the farmhouse it brings back memories of that fateful summer and of the secrets which have been locked deeply away.

What then follows is a complex psychological thriller which takes us slowly piece by piece back to the time when all six of the students spent that fateful summer together. Old rivalries and petty jealousies emerge and as the plot gets deeper and deeper so the ties that bind them all together get tighter and tighter.

The story gets off to a bit of a slow start which I think is intentional as it then allows the story to evolve at its own pace rather than give too much away at the beginning. I enjoyed watching the dynamics of the group as they all come together, with the exception of one, to go back over the events as they each remember them. I think what comes across is the way that we never really know the true nature of people, no matter how close we think we are, there are always secrets, some more deadlier than others.

The French Girl is a clever and complex thriller, with a controlled ambiguity that keeps the reader guessing. It's a great holiday read.

About the Author

Lexie Elliott grew up in Scotland, at the foot of the Highlands. She graduated from Oxford University, where she obtained a doctorate in theoretical physics. A keen sportswoman, she works in fund management in London, where she lives with her husband and two sons. The rest of her time is spent writing, or thinking about writing, and juggling family life and sport

Website

Twitter @elliott_lexie #TheFrenchGirl

@CorvusBooks

@AtlanticBooks

Blog Tour ~ Love Will Tear Us Apart by Holly Seddon

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting today's stop on the  Love Will Tear Us Apart  Blog Tour

Atlantic Books
7 June 2018

My thanks to the publishers and also to Random Things Tours for my copy of the book
 and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

What's it all about..

Fearing eternal singledom, childhood friends Kate and Paul make the age-old vow that if they don't find love by thirty, they will marry each other. Years later, with the deadline of their 30th birthdays approaching, the unlikely couple decide to keep their teenage promise. After all, they are such good friends. Surely that's enough to make a marriage? Now, on the eve of their 10th wedding anniversary, they will discover that love between men and women is more complex, and more precarious, than they could ever have imagined. As Kate struggles with a secret that reaches far into their past, will the couple's vow become the very thing that threatens their future?

My thoughts about it..

Kate and Paul have been friends since childhood, both are loners, but in each other they find that special something which has always been missing and which completes them. Kate's rather disjointed childhood, with an uncaring father and an indifferent mother, leaves its mark on her but she finds joy and a semblance of family life with Paul's family as the Loxton's offer Kate a respite when the world gets too much for her.  As they each enter into young adulthood, both Kate and Paul pursue different career paths but each remember the pact they made, that is, if they were both still single when they reached thirty, they would marry each other.

What then follows is a bitter sweet story about the complexities of the deep and abiding connection which can exist between good friends, especially when their relationship is based on childhood trust and, unfortunately, of what can happen when that trust seems to have been spoiled.

As always, this talented author gets rights into the nitty-gritty of what makes people tick and brings both Kate and Paul to life in a really believable way so that it becomes very easy to follow where the story leads.  Both are scarily realistic so that they could be people you know and care about and it is testament to this author's skill as a story teller that both Kate and Paul's individual stories never seek to outshine the other. I found that I was equally fond of both of them and wanted everything to work out well. I really enjoyed how everything moved so seamlessly between time frames, giving different perspectives, all of which add up to a really thought-provoking story, and one that stays with you long after the book is finished.

About the Author

Holly Seddon is a full time writer, living slap bang in the middle of Amsterdam with her husband James and a house full of children and pets. Holly has written for newspapers, websites and magazines since her early 20s after growing up in the English countryside, obsessed with music and books. Her first novel TRY NOT TO BREATHE was published worldwide in 2016 and became a national and international bestseller.

Website

Twitter @hollyseddon #lovewilltearusapart

Facebook

Amazon UK

Hist Fic Saturday ~ The Pharmacist's Wife by Vanessa Tait

On Hist Fic Saturday

Let's go back to ...Edinburgh,1869

Corvus
12 April 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

The Pharmacist's Wife takes us back in time to the mean and moody streets of Victorian Edinburgh, back to a time when it was commonplace for women to be at the absolute mercy of the men who married them.

When Rebecca Palmer marries Edinburgh pharmacist,Alexander Palmer, she imagines that her life will be comfortable and even though the marriage is largely passionless, she doesn't question her husband's ability to know what's best for her. However, the controlling nature of her husband, and his experimental foray into the dark world of drug and drug addiction, leads Rebecca into some very dark places, especially when Alexander's experimentation of these new drugs threatens Rebecca's very sanity.

Whilst this is a dark and disturbing visit to Edinburgh, with all its shadowy and shady places, there is no doubt that everything comes alive beautifully, and so atmospheric is the narrative that you really feel as if you are living life alongside Rebecca, and watching in horror as her husband's controlling grip pulls ever tighter.

The author writes of Rebecca's struggle and manipulation so cleverly that the horror of what's unfolding makes you reel in disbelief and yet, it is Rebecca's strength of character and her determination to pull herself out of the darkness which gives the story its absolute strength.

The Pharmacist's Wife is a beautifully written Victorian melodrama which brings mid-nineteenth century, Edinburgh to life in all its dreadful detail and the story vividly highlights the plight of so many Victorian women who were never allowed to have their own voice.

About the Author

Vanessa Tait grew up in Gloucestershire. She went to the University of Manchester and completed a Master's degree in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College. The Pharmacist's Wife is her second novel.

Twitter @vanessa_tait

@corvusbooks

Amazon UK

Review ~ The Cornish Dressmaker by Nicola Pryce

Corvus
3 May 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

What's it all about..

Cornwall, 1796.

Seamstress Elowyn Liddicot's family believe they've secured the perfect future for her, in the arms of Nathan Cardew. But then one evening, Elowyn helps to rescue a dying man from the sea, and everything changes. William Cotterell, wild and self-assured, refuses to leave her thoughts or her side - but surely she can't love someone so unlike herself?

With Elowyn's dressmaking business suddenly under threat, her family's pressure to marry Nathan increasing, and her heart decidedly at odds with her head, Elowyn doesn't know who to trust any more. And when William uncovers a sinister conspiracy that affects her whole world, can Elowyn find the courage to support the people she loves in the face of all opposition?

My thoughts about it..

In The Cornish Dressmaker we travel back to the late eighteenth century, back to a very different world where women were only deemed to be as good as the man they married, and even though Elowyn Liddicot is a successful seamstress, it is still considered more important that she marries well. Being courted by local man, Nathan Cardew, appears to be a good match, that is, until the wild and mercurial, William Cotterell appears in the most unlikely of circumstances and totally disturbs Elowyn’s peace of mind. 

Elowyn’s inherent connection to the wild and windswept coastline and her association with the great and the good of the area give her a certain amount of social status, and yet, with social recognition comes responsibility, and Elowyn finds out, to her cost, that her kind heart and compassionate nature, may result in her social downfall. Discovering secrets about her family puts Elowyn in a quandary which will place those around her in grave danger. The struggle that takes places as Elowyn fights to discover those secrets is never going to be straightforward and that's what makes the story so appealing. 

Wonderfully recreating the past in a very believable way, The Cornish Dressmaker brings to life all the sights, sounds and atmosphere of a Cornish village. A village which, though beholden to its heritage past, is also struggling with a fair amount of poverty, and as families fall on hard times, there are also those who are determined to exploit them with underhand dealings. The twists and turns in the plot add a frisson of excitement as the Cornish world with its chequered history of illicit smuggling, and tin and clay mining comes gloriously to life.

In this third book of the series, the author has continued to weave a wonderful story about characters who are now as familiar as friends, and returning to the Cornish villages of Fosse and Porthcarrow now feels like coming home. The story flows beautifully and the characters who flit into and out of the story add such warmth and depth that you can't help but be carried along with them as their story unfolds.

It’s perfectly possible to read The Cornish Dressmaker as a standalone story although, as always, with any series, it's much better to have followed the series from the beginning.

About the Author

Nicola Pryce trained as a chemotherapy nurse before completing an Open University degree in Humanities. She is a qualified adult literacy support volunteer and lives with her husband in the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. Together they sail the south coast of Cornwall in search of adventure.

Website

Twitter @NPryce_Author #TheCornishDressmaker

@CorvusBooks

Amazon UK

Blog Tour ~ The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on The Dark Lake Blog Tour

Atlantic Books
1 March 2018

My thanks to the publishers and Random Things Tours for my copy of the book and the invitation to be part of this blog tour

What's it all about...

A hot summer. A shocking murder. A town of secrets, waiting to explode...A beautiful young teacher has been murdered, her body found in the lake, strewn with red roses. Local policewoman Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock pushes to be assigned to the case, concealing the fact that she knew the murdered woman in high school years before. But that's not all Gemma's trying to hide. As the investigation digs deeper into the victim's past, other secrets threaten to come to light, secrets that were supposed to remain buried. The lake holds the key to solving the murder, but it also has the power to drag Gemma down into its dark depths...

My Thoughts about it...

The small Australian town of Smithson is rocked to its core when one of the local high school teachers is found dead in mysterious circumstances. Rosalind Ryan is a popular teacher, her pupils love her and her recent school theatre production of a reworking of Romeo and Juliet has been the high spot of her career. When local detective, Sergeant Gemma Woodstock arrives to investigate the murder she finds rather more than she bargained for, as the victim is well known to her, as Rosalind and Gemma were once pupils at the very same high school.

What then follows is a tense crime thriller which looks at the murder investigation in some detail and which also explores the emotional aspect of the connection between Rosalind and Gemma. Their combined secrets are buried deep and it takes a while before their connection starts to surface but when it does, the direction the story takes becomes darker and darker.

The Dark Lake is one of those suspenseful crime stories which makes you really think about what's happening and the twists and turns in the plot are well designed to keep you guessing. However, quite a lot of the story is taken up with the details of Gemma's life, and her complicated relationships sometimes take centre stage rather more than the murder investigation.This is no criticism, as the details of Gemma's rather complex life are finely intertwined with that of the town and its people.

The author writes well and certainly knows how to crank up the tension and whilst there are little clues dropped into the narrative, they're very subtle and interesting to observe. I enjoyed the flipping back and forth of the time frame which gives insight into the real background of the story which I can't say too much about but it all blends in very well.

There is no doubt that The Dark Lake is a remarkably accomplished debut novel and, as it's the first book in a proposed crime series, it certainly gets everything off to a very good start. 

An author to watch, I think.

About the Author

Sarah’s first novel, The Dark Lake, was published in Australia by Allen & Unwin in May 2017 and in the USA and Canada in October. Sarah lives in Melbourne, Australia and has two young sons. She has fifteen years experience in the advertising industry and is currently a director at creative projects company Mr Smith.

Sarah’s second book, Into The Night, featuring Detective Gemma Woodstock, will be published in 2018.

Twitter @sarahbailey1982 #TheDarkLake

@AllenandUnwin

Amazon UK

Do visit the other stops on the Blog Tour

~****~

Hist Fic Saturday ~ The Good Doctor of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford

On Hist Fic Saturday 

Let's go back to...Warsaw, 1937-1945

Corvus
Atlantic Books
1 February 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

' You do not leave a sick child alone to face the dark 

and you do not leave a child at a time like this'

Janusz Korcsak

Those poignant words sum up the work of Doctor Janusz Korcsak, a Polish paediatrician, who was an early pioneer of child welfare, and who cared for more than two hundred children in the notorious Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation in WW2.

And even as the eponymous doctor strives for good, so the world turns towards the evil that men do, and this novel shows, with absolute startling precision, just what happened to those Jews who were forcibly removed from their lives, and who were made to live in appalling conditions, where their daily struggle to survive was filled with fear and horror on an inhuman scale.

Misha and Sophia are two young students who meet and fall in love and whose urge to survive the ghetto forms the basis for this harrowing and emotional story. Living alongside, Doctor Korcsak, they see at first hand just how the doctor cares for the children in his care, and share his philosophy that life is precious and that every child should be encouraged and cherished. That events conspire against them makes for disturbing reading.

The Good Doctor of Warsaw is a truly exceptional story, and such is the strength of the characterisation that, despite the horror unfolding, the need to read on becomes paramount, and is a tribute to the author’s skill in bringing such an important story to life. Based on fact and with meticulous research, Janusz Korcsak’s story deserves to be told. His compassion and brilliance shine with every well written word, and in using testimonies of the surviving family members of Misha and Sophia, and in the documented evidence of Korcsak’s enlightened philosophy, a deeply emotional story of dreadful persecution is revealed.

It's a long time since I read a story which moved me to tears and which left me with such a feeling of utter sadness for what had been allowed to happen during this horrific time in Poland's history. And yet, underneath the degradation that went on and the suffering that the ghetto people endured, there is also a real sense of heroism, courage and absolute bravery. 

Out of a population of over half a million people, only one percent survived the Warsaw Ghetto. We should never be allowed to forget them.

About the Author

Elisabeth Gifford's debut novel, Secrets of the Sea House, was shortlisted for the historical writers' Association Debut Crown. She is married with three children and lives in Kingston Upon Thames.

Website

Twitter @elisabeth04liz

Amazon UK

Review ~ To Capture What We Cannot Keep by Beatrice Colin

Allen & Unwin
Atlantic Books
February 2017

What's it all about...

In February 1887, Caitriona Wallace and Émile Nouguier meet in a hot air balloon, floating high above Paris, France--a moment of pure possibility. But back on firm ground, their vastly different social strata become clear.As the Eiffel Tower rises, a marvel of steel and air and light, the subject of extreme controversy and a symbol of the future, Cait and Émile must decide what their love is worth.

What did I think about it...

This interesting love story is set during the glory days of the La Belle Époque when the world was innovated both by design and invention. Widow, Caitriona Wallace, is the paid companion of brother and sister, Jamie and Alice Arrol, and their arrival in Paris is the culmination of a European tour. Caitriona does not expect to find love again, nor does she seek it out, but a chance meeting with, Émile Nouguier, the Eiffel Tower architect, starts a delicate relationship which opens up a wealth of unseen possibilities for Caitriona.

The story is nicely written and brings eighteenth century Paris alive in the imagination. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and think that the author did a good job in demonstrating the expectations of people in different social classes. There are a few really interesting female characters that help to give the book its light and shade. I particularly liked Gabrielle, Émile's feisty mistress, whose chaotic lifestyle clearly showed that life, for some women was never going to be easy. However, I'm not sure that the men come across with any redeeming qualities, Jamie Arrol, in particular, is a bit of a loose cannon and I think that the author captured what it was like for an aimless young man who had too much time and not enough common sense. Émile Nouguier is rather an enigma, and whilst I wanted to like him for Caitriona's sake, I found him rather disappointing as a romantic lead character. The detailed description of the construction of the Eiffel Tower was particularly fascinating as was the people’s reaction to its construction and completion.

To Capture What we Cannot Keep is a quietly confident and intelligently written historical novel. It captures the atmosphere of nineteenth century Paris really well both in terms of its social constraints and also of the magic of living in such a wonderfully inventive age.

Best Read with ... Delicate French pâtisserie..

About the Author

Beatrice Colin is a novelist based in Glasgow. The Luminous Life of Lily Aphrodite, a novel set in Berlin in the early twentieth century was translated into eight languages and was Richard and Judy pick. Beatrice has been shortlisted for a British Book award, a Saltire award and a Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award. She also writes plays and adaptations of BBC Radio 4.

My thanks to Karen at Atlantic Books for my review copy of this book

~***~

Review ~ The Midnight Watch by David Dyer

Atlantic
7 April 2016

In the early hours of the 15th April 1912, RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean with the loss of over 1500 passengers and crew. Much has been written about this catastrophic maritime disaster and there have been myriad book and movies made about the events of that cold April night. What The Midnight Watch does differently is that it focuses on the role of the SS Californian, which was sailing just a few miles away from the Titanic, close enough, in fact, to warn the ship, by radio, of impending danger from ice, but yet, it failed to respond to eight distress flares which the Titanic later sent up into the night sky.

In this novel, the story focuses on the events of the 15^th April, the dialogue between the SS Californian ship’s crew and the investigation by journalist John Steadman which reveals a story rich in intrigue and alive with gossip and innuendo.

The author has done a commendable job in bringing this little known story to life and by using what scant facts there are available about the SS Californian’s role in the disaster, he has developed an absorbing, almost biopic style novel. There is much to take in, particularly around the ship’s crew and their actions, which I thought gave the book its strength, and yet, the stubbornness of Steadman to get to the crux of the story is quite engrossing and makes for fascinating reading. I especially liked the way the story was divided into three parts, with part three being particularly well done.

Overall, The Midnight Watch is a fascinating story, and as the anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic looms once again, it’s refreshing to have a new slant on an old story, never forgetting, of course those 1500 souls who lost their lives in the ice and cold of a North Atlantic night in April, 1912.

Best read with … a hasty sandwich and a bourbon chaser, clinking with ice..

 About the Author

David Dyer spent many years as a lawyer at the London legal practice whose parent firm represented the Titanic’s owners in 1912. He has also worked as a cadet and ship’s officer on a wide range of merchant vessels, having graduated with distinction from the Australian Maritime College. His worldwide research and access to countless documents and artifacts has informed and inspired his work in The Midnight Watch. He currently teaches English in Sydney.

Find on his website

Visit his Facebook page 

Twitter @DavidDyerAuthor

Amazon UK

My thanks to Atlantic Books and Real readers for my copies of this book

The Midnight Watch will be published on the 7 April 2016.

~***~

Review ~ What A Way To Go by Julia Forster

Atlantic Books
7 January 2016

This is an imaginative and quirky coming of age story which looks at the power of love, the value of friends, and family and the strength and courage of a wise and witty twelve year old girl.

Twelve year old Harper Richardson’s life is split between her two estranged parents. Mostly, she lives with her mum, Mary and gets to visit her dad, Pete, only at weekends. This arrangement seems to suit everyone but Harper, who, whilst she appears to be a remarkably astute twelve year old, has all the vulnerabilities of a child whose life is at odds with itself.

Set in 1988 and focusing on living life amongst social leftovers, Harper finds that growing up is a difficult business especially when money is tight and when even the prospect of buying two pet gerbils seems to be beyond her financial capabilities. However, Harper is not without resolve and with great gusto she sets about putting her life, and the lives of those around her, to rights.

There is much to enjoy within the story; Harper is a feisty protagonist, full of lively wit and perceived wisdom, and she romps through life making crisp observations about what’s going on around her, from her first teenage crush, to her mother’s friendship with Kit an unlikely champion who sleeps on a zed bed in her mother’s bedroom, or even to attending events at the Lone Rangers singles club with her careworn father.

This is a really imaginative and nicely written coming of age story, which will have you laughing out loud one minute, especially when you get to Harper's unorthodox method of defrosting prawns, and then sobbing into your handkerchief the next, when she explores the concept of grief. I fell completely in love with Harper‘s character and so wanted life to treat her kindly, whether it does, or not, is for you to discover on reading this lovely, lovely story for yourself.

Best read with a prawn cocktail smothered in Marie Rose sauce and copious glasses of supermarket own brand cola, clinking with ice.

About the Author

Julia Forster was born and raised in the Midlands. She studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of Warwick and has a Masters in Creative Writing from St Andrews University. While at the University of Warwick, she was awarded the Derek Walcott prize for creative writing. She works in publishing, but has also been a magician's assistant in Brooklyn, a nanny in Milan and a waitress in Chartres. Julia now lives in mid Wales with her husband and two young children.

@WriterForster

I read this book as part of the Lovereading ,co.uk Readers Review Panel.

My thanks to Lovereading.co.uk and Atlantic Books for my review copy of this book.

My thanks also to the Curtis Brown Book Club for making What A Way To Go January's book group read and for also sending me a copy of this book.

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The Author in my Spotlight is ...Joanne Limburg

Today I am delighted to introduce 

Joanne Limburg

Sharing her thoughts 

on

A Want of Kindness

Atlantic Books
2015

Joanne ~ A huge welcome to Jaffareadstoo.

How long have you been writing and what got you started?

Until I was nine, I thought I wanted to be a scientist, but then I wrote a poem at school that really impressed my teacher, so I changed my mind and decided that I wanted to be a writer instead. I’ve been writing in one form or another ever since. 

When I was in my early 20s, I took a writing course with the Open College of the Arts and it was the poetry I enjoyed most, so I began to apply myself seriously to reading it and learning how it was done. I published my first poem in a magazine when I was 25. That would be twenty years ago now.

What can you tell us about A Want of Kindness that won’t give too much away?

A Want of Kindness is a novel about Queen Anne’s life in the years before she came to the throne. She is ten when the book opens, and in her mid-30s at the end. The narrative follows her as she grows up, makes friends, marries, has children and also – sadly – loses children. By the time Anne became Queen, she had lived through the reigns of her uncle, Charles II and her father James II, as well as the ‘double-bottomed’ reign of her brother-in-law William of Orange and her sister Mary. 

Mary and Anne grow up in a slippery Court world, a world of moral contradictions. On the one hand, they are expected to honour their father James, and to show loyalty to him when he becomes King; on the other hand, they are taught to revile his religion, Catholicism, and to believe that a Catholic monarch can never be trusted. Mary is then married off to William of Orange, a staunchly protestant opponent of the most powerful of all Catholic monarchs, Louis XIV. When James becomes King and his second, Catholic wife, gives birth to a son who could displace the Protestant sisters in the succession, Anne is faced with a difficult moral choice.

In your research for the book did you come across anything that surprised you?

I was used to thinking of Anne as a Stuart afterthought, a rather passive character who became Queen simply because William died and it was her turn. And it is true that she is not obvious protagonist material: she is an ordinary-looking, ordinarily intelligent, poorly-educated woman, too shy and short-sighted to participate very actively in Court life; if she has any force of character, it lies not in her ability to act, but in her stubborn resistance to the actions of others. 

What drew me to her in the first place was her history of pregnancy loss, which was something I and many other women I know have experienced: I wanted to find a way to explore this in my writing, and the 300-odd years that came between Anne’s birth and mine offered a safe buffer for me (and for readers) which I thought would allow to deal with this upsetting subject matter. At this point, the book I thought I was planning was a non-fiction book called Anne’s Babies, about the history of obstetrics, pregnancy loss and women’s health.

But then I began to read Anne’s story, and I was surprised to find that – like so many other people – I had underestimated her: what I found was a complex woman who played a quiet but decisive role in the events which would ensure that her Catholic half-brother could never become King. The strength of her passion – for her children, her husband, her friend Sarah Churchill, for the Anglican Church – made a powerful impression on me and made me want to learn more about, not only what happened to her, but also how she experienced what happened. Which meant I would need to take on her perspective in the writing. Which meant that I had to surprise myself by writing a novel.

What would you like readers to take away from the story?

That just because a woman is short-sighted, overweight, sickly and hesitant, it doesn’t mean she can never be the protagonist of her own story. That the birthing chamber was always women’s field of battle and the struggles they experienced in it deserve to be commemorated, as do the lives of the children they lost. And that coming to terms with our lives as we get older – what’s happened to us, what we’ve done – is hard, hard work.

Have you been inspired by any particular era, author or book?

The obvious one is Wolf Hall – it came out just as I was beginning to research the book, and it reminded me just how much historical fiction can do. Other biographical novels that have inspired me to try harder are The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald and Janice Galloway’s Clara. 

I, Claudius was encouraging as it told the story of a dynasty through the eyes of an apparently unpromising character.

Georgette Heyer deserves a mention too. I grew up reading her books and I learned a lot from the way she would site her characters in their historical and material context and make sure they stayed in it.

But my favourite fiction writer has to be Muriel Spark. When I write fiction, I’m always asking myself, subconsciously: What Would Muriel Do?

What’s next ?

At the moment, I’m working towards a PhD in Creative Writing, writing a memoir and a critical piece to accompany it – very different from A Want of Kindness! I’m also hoping that my third poetry collection for adults will come out in the next two years.

But I do plan to return to Anne, in due course…

Find Joanne on her website

Follow her on Twitter @JoanneLimburg

Atlantic Books

Amazon UK

 Huge thanks to Joanne for her thoughtful answers to my questions and also to Karen Duffy at Atlantic Books for her help in organising this interview.

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A Want of Kindness by Joanne Limburg

Atlantic Books
July 2015

I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to read something about one of our more enigmatic Queens of England, and I have to admit that, despite my love of all things historical, I was woefully ignorant of the life and times of Queen Anne. Sure, I knew all about her more charismatic uncle, Charles II, and sort of, understood the politics behind the events that happened during the reign of Charles' successor, and Anne's father , James II, but of his two daughters, Mary and Anne, I knew very little.

What A Want of Kindness aims to do is to give an imagined life to the young Anne of York, from her early childhood, through to her accession as Queen of England, and by using documented letters and absorbing historical detail, the author succeeds in bringing this feisty young girl to life. The splendid latter years of the Stuart era come alive, and the liveliness of the Restoration court with its plots and counter plots, along with the internal politics, all help to make this a fascinating and lively read. 

The story is quite complex, there is much historical information to take in, so I didn't read it quickly, as I wanted to try and learn as much as I could. The author has a clearly done an enormous amount of research and this shows in the intelligent and introspective narrative, and the way in which the history is allowed to speak for itself. I grew to really like Anne, in fact I liked her rather more than her sister Mary, and sympathised greatly with her, as she struggled with numerous pregnancies, in her desperate quest to have a living child and so maintain the Stuart dynasty.

In this the 350th anniversary of the birth of Queen Anne, this is a timely and fitting celebration of her life and times and is a commendable debut historical novel.

My thanks to Real Readers  and Atlantic Books for my review copy of this book

About the author

Amazon UK

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