📖 Book Review ~ The Redemption of Isobel Farrar by Alan Robert Clark

 

Fairlight
Kindle 1 June 2023

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

England, 1926. Lady Isobel Farrar, an ageing widow with a colourful past, has returned home after years of living abroad. As she moves back into Halcyon Hill, her beloved country house, she finds herself dwelling on a long-buried secret. In the wake of a terrible tragedy when she was young, Isobel gave up a child for adoption, and now she can’t help but wonder what became of him.

Life has not been kind to Frank Brodie. Cruelly mistreated by his adoptive parents, he spent his young adulthood struggling to survive on the harsh streets of London, before the Great War took him away to the trenches. Now he has found safety with Arthur, an older man who loves and protects him. But something is still missing from Frank’s life.

When mother and son are finally reunited, will they be able to lay the past to rest?

📖 My Review...

For nearly forty years, Lady Isobel Farrar has suffered the loss of the child she had to give away when she was a young woman. Newly returned to England after several years abroad, Isobel, now in her sixties, feels that the time is right to find the child she lost but who has never been forgotten. Frank Brodie has always known he was adopted but never knew the name of his birth mother and with a childhood spent in miserable surroundings Frank has much to feel bitter about. 

Bringing these two rather lost people together is done in such a beautiful way that you can't help but feel an emotional attachment to both Isabel and Frank and watch carefully as they take their first tentative steps towards each other. There are some heartbreaking moments which really tug away at the heartstrings as both Isobel and Frank have their own demons to chase away but the real heart of the story lies in the thoughtful way in which the bonds of family are highlighted, and not just those which are formed by blood relatives but also by the close friendships we make along the way. 

The Redemption of Isobel Farrar is a really lovely character driven novel, which is beautifully, and sensitively, written by an author who has a real flair for storytelling.

About the Author

Alan Robert Clark was born and educated in Scotland. He briefly attended King’s College in London, before opting instead for a career as a copywriter and creative director with a number of leading London advertising agencies. He has worked as a freelance journalist and, most recently, has ghost-written and coauthored a number of biographies. His novel The Prince of Mirrors (Fairlight Books, 2018) was included in the Walter Scott Prize Academy Recommends List.

Twitter @AlanRobClark #TheRedemptionofIsobelFarrar

@FairlightBooks

📖 Book Review ~ David and Ameena by Ami Rao

Fairlight Books
4 February 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Modern-day New York, a subway train. David, an American-Jewish jazz musician, torn between his dreams and his parents' expectations, sees a woman across the carriage. Ameena, a British-Pakistani artist who left Manchester to escape the pressure from her conservative family, sees David. When a moment of sublime beauty occurs unexpectedly, the two connect, moved by their shared experience. From this flows a love that it appears will triumph above all. But as David and Ameena navigate their relationship, their ambitions and the city they love, they discover the external world is not so easy to keep at bay. Ami Rao's masterful debut novel picks apart the lives of two people, stripping them of their collective identities and, in doing so, facing up to the challenge of today: can love give us the freedom to accept our differences?

📖 My thoughts..

Quite by chance David and Ameena meet on a New York subway, their connection is instant and the two find a connective bond which transcends their different cultures for Ameena is a British- Pakistani who grew up in Manchester, England, whilst David comes from an American Jewish background. These two cultures come together in a thoughtful and introspective look at different lives which are brought together by love.

At first, I thought there was something of a hesitancy to the story, which, for me, took a while to get going, but once I had the characters firmly placed in my head and could visualise both David and Ameena, I settled into the story and started to feel more comfortable with it. I especially enjoyed how the author interspersed details of Ameena's family back in England and showed the difficulties they faced from racial prejudice, however, as we know, intolerance is not confined to just one place and both David and Ameena have to face their own dilemmas which are both cultural, and personal.

David and Ameena, whilst quietly reflective about culture and romance, also brings to life the fascinating world of art and jazz. All in all, an interesting debut by an emerging new author.

About the Author

Ami Rao is a British-American writer. Born in Calcutta, India, Ami has lived and worked in New York, London, Paris, San Francisco and Los Angeles. She has a BA in English Literature and Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 2017 she co-authored the sports memoir Centaur with Declan Murphy, published by Doubleday, which was awarded the General Outstanding Sports Book of the Year Award and shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2017. Ami most recently worked as a banking professional in London. She has mentored girls of colour for the past twelve years, with a keen emphasis on the merits of reading and education. David and Ameena is her debut fiction novel.

David and Ameena is published on the 4 February by Fairlight Books and is available to buy from all good book retailers.

Twitter #DavidandAmeena

@FairlightBooks

Blog Tour ~ Valhalla by Alan Robert Clark

 

Delighted to host today's Blog Tour stop

Fairlight Books
24 September 2020

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

May of Teck, only daughter of a noble family fallen from grace, has been selected to marry the troublesome Prince Eddy, heir to the British throne. Submitting to the wishes of Queen Victoria and under pressure from her family, young May agrees. But just as a spark of love and devotion arises between the young couple, Prince Eddy dies of influenza. To her horror, May discovers she is to be married to the brother, Georgie, instead, a cold and domineering man. But what can she do? From the author of The Prince of Mirrors comes this gripping account of the life of Queen Mary, one of the most formidable queens of Britain.

What did I think about it...

I can't think that I have ever read a historical novel which had the enigmatic Queen Mary as its central character, she has always seemed to get rather lost as the quiet wife of the more dominant, King George V or as the bewildered mother of the abdicated, King Edward VIII. It's been a refreshing change to have more of an idea about the rather shy May of Teck, who married her dead fiancé's brother because it was convenient  and kept her in the family.

I've seen grainy black and white images of Queen Mary, who always seems such a sturdy upright figure, typically Edwardian in manner and dress, never without a string or two of pearls around her neck and her sensible and rather mundane choice of fashion. What this fictional account of her life does is give us an idea of how she was as a person and how her rather lonely upbringing with dissolute and indifferent parents had such a bearing on how she conducted herself in her royal life.

The author has written a lovely, fictional account of Queen Mary's life, from her time as a young girl, right through to her death in 1953 including some of the more well known moments in the tumultuous  reign of George V, along with the more personal thoughts and feelings of a young woman who was thrust into the royal spotlight. I feel like I really got to know Queen Mary, with all her hopes and fears she was always just trying to do the best she could for her family and her country.

I think that Valhalla is a much needed fictional account of the life of our current Queen's grandmother, which will be of interest, I am sure, to all those readers who enjoy novels about the royal family whilst at the same time appealing to those who just love good historical fiction.

About the Author

Alan Robert Clark was born and educated in Scotland. He briefly attended King’s College in London, before opting instead for a career as a copywriter and creative director with a number of leading London advertising agencies. He has worked as a freelance journalist and, most recently, has ghost-written and coauthored a number of biographies. His novel The Prince of Mirrors (Fairlight Books, 2018) was included in the Walter Scott Prize Academy Recommends List.

Twitter @AlanRobClark #ValhallaNovel

@FairlightBooks

Website

Blog Tour ~ A Matter Of Interpretation by Elizabeth Mac Donald

🌠 Delighted to be part of this exciting Instagram and Blog Tour 🌠

Fairlight Books
5 September 2019

My thanks to Fairlight Books for my copy of this book
and to Claire at Maxwell PR

It’s thirteenth-century Europe and young monk, Michael Scot, has been asked by the Holy Roman Emperor to translate the works of Aristotle and recover his ‘lost’ knowledge.

The Scot sets to his task, travelling from the Emperor’s Italian court to the translation schools of Toledo and from there to the Moorish library of Córdoba. But when the Pope deems the translations heretical, the Scot refuses to desist. So begins a battle for power between Church and State – one that shaped how we view the world today..

What did I think about it..

A Matter of Interpretation is a complex historical story which takes a little while to get into as, initially, there's rather an abundance of characters to keep up with, however, once the narrative captured my imagination, I was definitely transported back to a rather unpredictable time in European history, and became involved in the complex struggle between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Papacy. The main protagonist of the story is Michael Scot, a monk, who is tasked with the job of translating the works of Aristotle, but when the Pope declares these translations heretical it opens up a complicated power struggle.

A Matter of Interpretation is a difficult story to try to explain, so I guess the answer to that is not to try, that way I don't give too much away, or do the author a disservice by explaining her creation in a way that doesn't do it justice. However, what comes across is the author's passion for this period in history and her unique writing style brings the medieval world alive in quite a literary way. Whilst the story is, of course, a fictional account, Michael Scot is known to have existed and the author takes the facts of his life and weaves them into a fictional tale of historical complexity.

A Matter of Interpretation is a well presented book with a sumptuous cover which reminded me of a beautifully illustrated medieval manuscript. It's also a commendable debut novel by a talented historical fiction writer.

About the Author

Born in Dublin, Elizabeth is an academic who lives in Italy, where she teaches English at the University of Pisa. She is a widely published author of short stories, essays and translations of literary works into Italian. A Matter of Interpretation is her debut novel. In her spare time, Elizabeth sings in the choir of the Scuola Normale, Pisa.

Twitter @bizzieauthor #MatterOfInterpretation

@FairlightBooks

@crudites_

Instagram and Blog Tour ~ Fairlight Moderns

I'm really thrilled to be part of the Fairlight Moderns Blog Tour  

The Nail House by Gregory Baines

Fairlight Moderns
1 August 2019

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this novella and the opportunity to be part of this blog tour

Lindon, an Australian project manager with a failed marriage behind him, is lured to China with the promise of a lucrative salary. His task: to solve the problem of a ‘Nail House’, the home of a stubborn old man who refuses to relocate, even as the bulldozers move in and the skyscrapers grow around him.

But as Lindon negotiates with the old man’s family, he finds sense where there is none. And love where there is war.

My thoughts..

Lindon has relocated to China having left a failed marriage behind in Australia. He soon finds that his new role as a project manager for a construction company hits problems right from the start as he discovers, to his cost, that he must first demolish a building which is known as a 'Nail House', a term  used when the owner of a property is offered money, so that the house in which they live can be demolished, but they refuse to budge despite a financial incentive.

Zhen Yi's parents live in the eponymous Nail House, and whilst Zhen is hoping to move away to live with her fiancé, she gets caught up in the complications concerning her family home, and so the repercussions linger, with both Lindon and Zhen Yi being drawn together over the space of the story. I was drawn into the complicated process of both of their lives, Lindon seems rather a gloomy individual, he's definitely out of his comfort zone in an unfamiliar environment, and struggles with lots of complicated emotions. Zhen Yi's confusion at her family's involvement only add to her overall sense that her life is spinning out of control.

The novella comes in at just around 152 pages and can be comfortably read in an afternoon, however, whilst it is a quick read, it's definitely not light on content. It's interesting to see how the story plays out with both Lindon and Zhen Yi's alternate chapters giving great insight into what is evolving from their own perspective.

The author writes knowledgeably, and manages to convey both atmosphere and intrigue. whilst at the same time keeping alive the integrity of the culture in which the story is set.

For Summer 2019 a collection of new short modern fictions from around the world

from Fairlight Modern

   

 

About the Author

Gregory Baines lives just outside Canberra, Australia. He has an arts degree from Newcastle University. He lived in China for thirteen years, where he also met his wife. There he wrote his first novel and had short stories published in anthologies and online.

Twitter @FairlightBooks #FairlightModerns

Hist Fic Saturday ~ The Prince of Mirrors by Alan Robert Clark

On Hist Fic Saturday 

Let's go back to ...Victorian England

Fairlight Books
7 June 2018

My thanks to the publishers and Animate Communications for my copy of this book

Prince Albert Victor, known as Eddy, is the grandson of Queen Victoria, and the heir presumptive to the British throne. Eddy is a quiet and sensitive soul, often overshadowed by his more rambunctious younger brother, George, and completely at odds with his philandering father, Bertie. Never quite sure of his place in the world but with the weight of future responsibility lying heavily on his young shoulders Eddy finds the strength of purpose he needs in his relationship with the man appointed as his tutor at Eton. The charismatic, Jem Stephens, is everything that Eddy strives, and wants to be, and yet, this close relationship is also filled with a powerful sense of destiny.

Moving between locations in London and Norfolk, the world of the nineteenth century aristocrat is brought sharply into focus. As a young man, Eddy moves, almost aimlessly, amongst society, and as he struggles to come to terms with his sexuality, so society eventually starts to dictate how Eddy should behave. His entrée into the clandestine world of Victorian homosexuality is explored in some detail where it is debatable whether any of the, sometimes sordid, relationships he embarked upon brought him any degree of happiness.

The Prince of Mirrors is an interesting combination of weaving together a fictional tale alongside what is known in history. Of course, there is speculation about Prince Albert Victor, as some of the more lurid gossip of the time tried, and it must be said, failed to pin the Whitechapel murders, more associated with Jack the Ripper, on Prince Eddy. That the Prince moved in the secretive world of homosexual London is also the subject of conjecture, however, his close association with Jem Stephens is certainly based on factual evidence.

The author succeeds in bringing into focus the vagaries of Victorian morals whilst at the same time bringing this rather forlorn Prince to life and although there were times when I felt that the story appeared a little disjointed in places, overall this didn’t detract from my enjoyment in reading, and learning more about, Prince Albert Victor, The Prince of Mirrors.

About the Author

Alan Robert Clark was born and educated in Scotland. He briefly attended King's College in London, before starting his career as a copywriter and creative director with a number of leading London advertising agencies. With a background in journalism, Alan has ghost written and co-authored a number of biographies and has one previous novel. Alan now works as a freelance writer.

 Website

Twitter @FairlightBooks

@AnimateComms