📖 Blog Tour ~ Kookaburras, Cuppas and Kangaroos by S Bavey

 

12 December 2023

My thanks to the author for my copy of this book
Nd to Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation to the blog tour

Fueled by her spirit for adventure and with her £10.00 ticket in hand, Elizabeth Isle leaves 1960s England, determined to see it all, not just Australia and New Zealand, but as much as she can on the way, too. She surrenders her passport to the Australian government and must find work to support herself on the other side of the world from her family and friends. There can be no going back for two years. Join this intrepid young woman on the adventure of her lifetime. Share her amazing experiences, discover what exotic animals await, get travel tips and meet her new friends through her letters home and over plenty of cups of tea. 

Beware - the travel bug might prove infectious!

📖 My Review..

When Elizabeth Isle leaves England on the 'Assisted Passage Migration Scheme’ in February 1960 she is heading to Australia as a Ten Pound Pom. Leaving her home behind for at least two years Elizabeth is determined to make this the adventure of a lifetime and with sponsors whom she had never met, Elizabeth must learn to adjust to life in Fremantle very quickly. However her sponsors, John and Elsie Fawcett are kindly folk and soon make Elizabeth feel like part of the family.

Written in epistolary style with letters home to her family, and diary entries, we get a colourful glimpse of what life was like for Elizabeth, from her outward bound journey on the SS Orcades, to her return home some three years later and in between we experience Elizabeth’s life as she settles on the other side of the world. The memoir has a lovely light style to it, beautifully descriptive so that it was perfectly possible to view everything through Elizabeth’s eyes as she took in the vastness of the country, the warmth of the people and the surprising wildlife. I enjoyed very much observing an almost forgotten way of life and the freedom Elizabeth experienced during this unique opportunity to see somewhere different.

By recounting Elizabeth’s adventures down under, the author has paid a lovely tribute to her mother in such a memorable way that Elizabeth’s time as a Ten Pound Pom will live on forever in this travel memoir.

About the Author

Sue Bavey (writing as S. Bavey) a British mother of two teenagers, now living in Franklin, Massachusetts, having moved to the US in 2003. Writing as S. Bavey, she won a gold award from Readers’ Favorite for her grandfather’s biography: Lucky Jack (1894 – 2000), which she wrote during COVID lockdown. She also has a number of non-fiction stories published in various anthologies.

Kookaburras, Cuppas & Kangaroos is the story of her late mother’s emigration from Yorkshire to Australia in 1960 for three years, told via airmail letters and travel diary entries.

A free prequel to Kookaburras, Cuppas & Kangaroos”, called “A Yorkshire Lass: The Early Years” is available for free download from www.suebavey.com.

Website

Twitter / X @SueBavey

Instagram

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📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ The Long and Winding Road by Lesley Pearse

Penguin Michael Joseph
29 February 2024

My thanks to the publisher and ed public relations for my copy of this book

Born during the Second World War, Lesley’s innocence came to an abrupt end when a neighbour found her, aged 3, coatless in the snow. The mother she’d been unable to wake had been dead for days. Sent to an orphanage, Lesley soon learned adults couldn’t always be trusted.

As a teenager in the swinging sixties, she took herself to London. Here, the second great tragedy of her life occurred. Falling pregnant, she was sent to a mother and baby home, and watched helplessly as her newborn was taken from her.

But like so many of her generation, Lesley had to carry on. She was, after all, a true survivor. Marriage and children followed – and all the while she nurtured a dream: to be a writer. Yet it wasn’t until at the age of 48 that her stories – of women struggling in a difficult world – found a publisher, and the bestseller lists beckoned.

As heartbreaking as it is heartwarming, Lesley’s story really is A Long and Winding Road with surprises and uplifting hope around every corner .

📖 My Review..

I've probably been reading this author's books for the last twenty or so years and Lesley Pearse never fails to entertain with stories which tug away at my heart strings and as one story ends, I always want to read more. For the first time we are given the unique opportunity to know more about this successful author in her autobiography which takes us from Lesley's difficult early childhood through to her later life. It’s an emotional read, Lesley has certainly had an eventful life and the autobiography is filled with anecdotal stories and described with all the warmth and wit which is so reminiscent of this author's ability to hold the reader in the palm of her hand.

Aptly titled The Long and Winding Road this autobiography certainly takes us on a convoluted journey through the momentous moments of Lesley’s life, a life which, it must be said, has been far from easy. There has been heartbreak aplenty but also surprising amounts of good humour and the stoical sense that Lesley is one of life’s great survivors and that despite the setbacks she encountered it has only served to make her into the fine writer she is today. 

I've thoroughly enjoyed this window into the life of this prolific writer and on finishing the book, with tissues in hand, I can now understand just how Lesley can write such emotional stories. Everything she does is straight from the heart and everything she has learned from her eventful life is reflected in the wonderful stories she writes so very well.

About the Author

© Charlotte Murphy 2014

Lesley Pearse is a global No.1 bestseller with fans across the world and sales of over 10 million copies of her books to date. One of the nation’s best-loved storytellers – a Lesley Pearse book is sold every 4 minutes in the UK – Lesley is a master of the gripping story line, always introducing her readers to characters that are impossible to forget. Although there is no set formula or easily defined genre for a Lesley Pearse novel, strong heroines and jeopardy are pervasive, and she always engages the reader completely. 

Told with Lesley's trademark warmth, wit and poignancy The Long and Winding Road is the extraordinary story of a remarkable woman fighting against the odds to achieve her dreams and finally winning.

Lesley lives in Torquay where she enjoys walking on the beach with her grandchildren. A fantastic speaker and committed and passionate fundraiser for the NSPCC, Lesley is a much sought after guest at literary lunches, library events and festivals up and down the country.

Twitter @LesleyPearse #LoveLesley #TheLongAndWindingRoad

@michaeljbooks @ed_pr

 

📖 Publication Day Review ~ Eighteen Seconds by Louise Beech

Mardle Books
27 April 2023

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

My mother once said to me, ‘I wish you could feel the way I do for eighteen seconds. Just eighteen seconds, so you’d know how awful it is.’

I thought about it. Realised we could all learn from being in another person’s head for eighteen seconds. Eighteen seconds inside Grandma Roberts’ head as she sat alone with her evening cup of tea, us girls upstairs in bed. Eighteen seconds inside one-year-old Colin’s head when he woke up in a foster home without his family. Eighteen seconds inside the head of a girl waiting for her bedroom door to open.

Writer, Louise Beech, looks back on the events that led to the day her mother wrote down her last words, then jumped off the Humber Bridge. She missed witnessing the horror herself by minutes.

Louise recounts the pain and trauma of her childhood alongside her love for her siblings with a delicious dark humour and a profound voice of hope for the future.

📖 My Review

We never know what is going on inside someone's head, we may think we do but its impossible to truly know another person's thought processes. However, in Eighteen Seconds, writer, Louise Beech, lays bare her thoughts and feelings as she shares this very personal account of her life, from her upbringing by a narcissistic, and negligent, mother, to the time when, in 2019, her mother jumped off the Humber Bridge, in a tragedy, which has had long lasting repercussions.

Eighteen Seconds is not an easy book to read and there were times when I had to stop and take a breather but there was never a second when I wasn't emotionally involved especially when the saddest moments of the author's life were shared in heartbreaking detail. Any personal memoir can sometimes feel intrusive and uncomfortable but Eighteen Seconds is none of these things. With skilful writing, which this author does so well, we are given a unique glimpse into her life, and that of her siblings, which is, at times, raw, brave and brutally honest, however, there is also tremendous energy, and the family's wry sense of humour and the obvious love between the siblings, brings some light relief. Tremendous credit must therefore go to the author for bringing the minutiae of her life into sharp focus and for allowing us a privileged glimpse into her family's painful past.

Over the last few years Louise Beech has written some of my absolute favourite novels, her writing is beautifully empathic and her ability to bring her characters to life is remarkable. It is humbling to now know that during some of her darkest days she was writing the novels which have come to mean so much to so many people.

About the Author

Louise's debut novel, How to be Brave, was a Guardian Readers' pick in 2015 and a top ten bestseller on Amazon. The Mountain in my Shoe longlisted for the Guardian's Not The Booker Prize 2016. The Sunday Mirror called Maria in the Moon 'quirky, darkly comic, original and heartfelt'. It was also a Must Read in the Sunday Express and a Book of the Year at LoveReadingUK. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was described as 'engrossing and captivating' by the Daily Express. It also shortlisted for the RNA's Romantic Novel of the Year and longlisted for the Polari Prize 2019. Call Me Star Girl hit number one on Kobo. It also longlisted for the Not The Booker Prize and won the Best magazine Big Book Award 2019. I Am Dust was a Top Six pick in Crime Monthly and a LoveReadingUK Monthly Pick. This Is How We Are Human was a Clare Mackintosh August Book of the Month 2021. Memoir Daffodils came out in audiobook 2022, as well as novel, Nothing Else. Memoir will come out in paperback as Eighteen Seconds 27th April 2023.

Twitter Twitter @louisewriter #EighteenSeconds

Website

@MardleBooks

📖 Featured Book of the Month ~ Waypoints: My Scottish Journey by Sam Heughan

Voracious

25 October 2022

Journey deep into the Scottish Highlands in the first memoir by #1 New York Times bestselling author and star of Outlander, Sam Heughan—exploring his life and reflecting on the waypoints that define him

"I had to believe, because frankly, I had come so far there could be no turning back."

In this intimate journey of self-discovery, Sam sets out along Scotland's rugged ninety-six-mile West Highland Way to map out the moments that shaped his views on dreams and ambition, family, friendship, love, and life. The result is a love letter to the wild landscape that means so much to him, full of charming, funny, wise, and searching insights into the world through his eyes.

Waypoints is a deeply personal journey that reveals as much about Sam to himself as it does to his readers.

 📖 My Review..

I don't read many celebrity memoirs however, this look into the life of the charismatic leading man of the Outlander series was too much to resist, and even better when it was gifted to me by my lovely daughter for my recent birthday.

There is no doubt, whatsoever, that Sam Heughan has charm, every interview on television shows him to be intelligent, articulate, filled with a refreshing joie de vivre and with a social conscience which has seen him use his considerable online profile to raise a substantial amount of money for the charities he supports so tirelessly. Add into the mix his handsome good looks and his capacity for mischief and you have all the winning ingredients for an engrossing read. 

Mostly, I think of Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser personified, however, Waypoints gives us a very different man to the one we have come to know on our TV screens and we discover that underneath the tough Scottish exterior is a man riven by doubt and sometimes challenged by what life has thrown at him. This introspective, and very personal, journey along the ninety-six-mile West Highland Way allows Sam the luxury of time out of his busy schedule in order to take stock of his life and it shows, not just in his abiding love for his beloved Scotland, but also his aching vulnerability. As we discover over the course of the book the West Highland Way is not for the faint hearted and even Sam’s endurance is tested as he meets all manner of Scottish weather but his determination not to give up is what makes this such a fascinating read. 

Some memoirs can get a bit lost in the detail but this is nicely divided into Sam’s thoughts and feelings as he takes in the splendour of the place he calls home and yet we are also given a candid account of Sam’s struggle to make it as a actor and of his commitment to never giving up on his dream. I've really enjoyed spending time with Sam, he is a good raconteur, a gifted actor and an all round wonderful human being. I wish him every success both on, and off, screen.

I am delighted to make Waypoints:My Scottish Journey my Featured Book of the Month for December. 

☕Best read with.. a dram of good Scottish whisky.  Slainté

About the Author

Sam Heughan was born April 30, 1980 in New Galloway, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. An accomplished stage and screen actor best known for Outlander (2014), A Princess for Christmas (2011), and A Very British Sex Scandal (2007). He is an active patron of Youth Theatre Arts Scotland and Leukemia and Lymphoma Research. He attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) located in Glasgow, Scotland.

Twitter @SamHeughan #Waypoints

@radarbooks

Amazon

📖 Blog Tour ~ Homesick by Jennifer Croft

 

Charco Press
23 August 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book
and to Midas pr for the invitation to the blog tour

The coming of age story of an award-winning translator, Homesick is about learning to love language in its many forms, healing through words and the promises and perils of empathy and sisterhood.

Sisters Amy and Zoe grow up in Oklahoma where they are home schooled for an unexpected reason: Zoe suffers from debilitating and mysterious seizures, spending her childhood in hospitals as she undergoes surgeries. Meanwhile, Amy flourishes intellectually, showing an innate ability to glean a world beyond the troubles in her home life, exploring that world through languages first. Amy's first love appears in the form of her Russian tutor Sasha, but when she enters university at the age of 15 her life changes drastically and with tragic results.

📖 My Review..

Homesick is an unusual book, quietly introspective and cleverly arranged in short, thought provoking chapters, some little more than vignettes, which allow the story of sisters, Amy and Zoe to evolve at entirely its own pace. Powerfully evoking the special relationship between sisters author Jennifer Croft uses this memoir to explore the connection she had with her sister, the consequences of this relationship resonates throughout the book.

Reading like fiction but with its heart very much placed in memories, this coming of age memoir is beautifully and succinctly written and by keeping the dialogue in the third person it allows the author to remove herself emotionally whilst at the same time recounting her difficult growing up in Oklahoma with academic parents and the effect that her sister's diagnosis of a benign brain tumour had on all their lives going forward.

Homesick is easily read over the space of an afternoon but that doesn't mean it is light on content, far from it, as I found much to peruse and ponder over in the course of the book and all credit to the author for presenting this memoir in such a contemplative and rather different sort of way.

About the Author

Jennifer Croft won a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship for her novel Amadou, the 2020 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for her illustrated memoir Homesick and the 2018 Man Booker International Prize for her translation from Polish of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights. She is also the author of Serpientes y escaleras and Notes on Postcards, as well as the translator of Federico Falco’s A Perfect Cemetery, Romina Paula’s August, Pedro Mairal’s The Woman from Uruguay, Olga Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob, Sylvia Molloy’s Dislocations, and Sebastián Martínez Daniell’s Two Sherpas. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa and a PhD from Northwestern University.

For Charco Press, she has translated Federico Falco's A Perfect Cemetery (2021), Sylvia Molloy's Dislocations (forthcoming 2022), and Sebastián Martínez Daniell’s Two Sherpas (forthcoming 2023).

Twitter @jenniferlcroft #Homesick

@charcopress @midaspr

📖 Blog Tour ~ A Child of the East End by Jean Fullerton

 

Corvus
4 August 2022

My thanks to the publisher and edpr for my copy of the book
and the invitation to the blog tour

Sorrow and joy in London's oldest suburb..

Welcome to the East End.

Life in Cockney London was tough in the post-war years. The government's broken promises had led to a chronic housing shortage, rampant crime and families living in squalor. But one thing prevailed: the unbeatable spirit of the East End, a tight-knit community who pulled through the dark times with humour and heart.

Drawing on both family history and her own memories of growing up in the 1950s and '60s, as well as her working life as a district nurse and local police officer, Jean Fullerton vividly depicts this fascinating part of London - from tin baths, to jellied eels, to tigers in a Wapping warehouse.

A Child of the East End by Jean Fullerton published on the 4th August by Corvus, in paperback original, priced £8.99

📖 My review..

I have enjoyed reading Jean Fullerton's novels over the years and have always been impressed by the way she brings the East End of London to life in such an authentic way. Her remarkable ability to get right into the heart of the community springs from her own background of growing up in the places she writes about so vividly.

In A Child of the East End we meet Jean in 1954 when she lived with her family in a small workers' cottage in London's East End. Surrounded by extended family, and friends, Jean's upbringing was typical of the time, and whilst material possessions were in short supply in houses with no indoor plumbing, there was never any shortage of friendship and support amongst those who called the place home. Tight knit communities, who saw both the best, and the worst of times, encouraged a deep seated loyalty and the unique ability to make the best of what you'd got but still reach for something better.

I've really enjoyed reading this memoir which takes us from the mid-1950s, through to the late 1970s, and found it to be a fascinating journey through the social history of the post-war generation, inviting us into the East End of London during some momentous years of change. The author's warm personality come shining through as does her love for her family, the area she lived in and her genuine rapport with everyone she comes into contact with. I enjoyed the different chapters and found much to enjoy as we get to observe all aspects of the author's life, the good, the bad and even, at times, the sad and the challenging.

A Child of the East End is a beautifully written memoir with a fascinating insight into the author's life growing up in this vibrant part of East London.

🍴Best read with..a plate of jellied eels

About the Author

Jean Fullerton is a native East Londoner and authentic cockney. Born within the sound of Bow Bells, as a child she lived in a derelict one-up one-down cottage by London Docks before being rehoused as part of the post-war slum clearances

Because of her love of history, Jean hoped to become a theatrical costumier, starting out as a general dogsbody in a local clothing factory before working her way up to being a patter cutter at Jaegers. Clearly not the next Mary Quant, Jean decided take a completely different career  pathway and at twenty-three joined the Metropolitan Police Force, an 'eye-opener even for a street wise East End girl'.

After taking time off to have children, Jean trained as a Registered Nurse once her youngest went to school and spent most of her working life in the East End of London. She is also a qualified teacher and has lectured on community nursing at a London University.

The author of nineteen historical novels, including The Ration Book series, Jean now writes full time. 

Twitter @JeanFullerton_ #AChildoftheEastEnd

@CorvusBooks

@ed_pr

Facebook

Amazon UK

📖 Blog Tour ~ Dálvi : Six Years in the Arctic Tundra by Laura Galloway

 

Allen & Unwin
3 February 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book
and to Midas PR for the invitation to the blog tour

An ancestry test suggesting she shared some DNA with the Sámi people, the indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic tundra, tapped into Laura Galloway's wanderlust; an affair with a Sámi reindeer herder ultimately led her to leave New York for the tiny town of Kautokeino, Norway. When her new boyfriend left her unexpectedly after six months, it would have been easy, and perhaps prudent, to return home. But she stayed for six years.

Dálvi is the story of Laura's time in a reindeer-herding village in the Arctic, forging a solitary existence as she struggled to learn the language and make her way in a remote community for which there were no guidebooks or manuals for how to fit in. Her time in the North opened her to a new world. And it brought something else as well: reconciliation and peace with the traumatic events that had previously defined her - the sudden death of her mother when she was three, a difficult childhood and her lifelong search for connection and a sense of home.

Both a heart-rending memoir and a love letter to the singular landscape of the region, Dálvi explores with great warmth and humility what it means to truly belong.

📖 My Review..

I don't often read memoirs but this story, along with the stunning book cover, really piqued my interest, especially as the author spent six years living in one the most beautiful but remote places in the world. Discovering that she shared DNA with the indigenous Sámi people, who live in the Arctic tundra, opened up a world of possibilities which came at a time in Laura's life when she needed a complete change of environment.

Told in alternate chapters I found the parts of the book about Laura's unconventional American upbringing particularly interesting but it is the chapters which take us on her Arctic adventure, which are fascinating, shining a new light on the idea of taking time out in the wilderness. Laura's relationship with a Sámi reindeer herder is short lived but rather than return to America, Laura stayed on in Kautokeino, the tiny Norwegian town, and with sheer determination she makes this her home and starts to make new friends.

The author is a good raconteur and describes her life in a candid and thought provoking detail. I admired her strength of spirit in taking up a new challenge in a place which had its own complicated language and customs and where she didn't always fit in but all credit to her for taking on the challenge and coping admirably with an adventure which had some scary moments.

Invoking the spirit of the Arctic Tundra and the remoteness of the landscape Dálvi : Six Years in the Arctic Tundra is an engaging read about life lessons and second chances.

About the Author

Laura with her dogs Rássi andNilla
Photo credit: Bjarne Joakimsen

Laura Galloway is a writer and communications strategist. She began her career at the Los Angeles Times and holds a Master of Arts in Indigenous Journalism from the Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Kautokeino, Norway, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Southern California. An ardent animal lover, she and her partner live with her two reindeer-herding dogs and two cats.

Twitter @LauraGalloway #DálviBlogTour

Instagram @authorlauragalloway

@allenanaunwinuk

@midaspr

📖 Book Review ~ Will This House Last Forever? by Xanthi Barker

 

Tinder Press
24 June 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

When Xanthi Barker's father died when she was in her mid twenties, she could make no sense of her grief for a man who had been absent for most of her life. Her father, poet Sebastian Barker, had left Xanthi, her mother and her brother to pursue writing and a new relationship, when Xanthi was a baby. Growing up she had always struggled to reconcile his extravagant affection - a rocking horse crafted from scavenged wood, the endless stream of poems and drawings and letters, conversations that spiralled from the structure of starlight to philosophy to Bruce Springsteen - with the fact that he could not be depended upon for more everyday things. Though theirs was a relationship defined by departures, he always returned, so why should this farewell be any different, or more final?

Will This House Last Forever? is a heartfelt and wholly original memoir about the pain of having to come to terms with a parent's mortality, the way grief so utterly defies logic, and about learning to see the flaws in those that we love, and let them go.

📖 My thoughts..

In this expressive memoir, Xanthi Barker explores her thoughts and feelings after the death of her father, Sebastian Barker, in 2014. That her poet father was such an important figure in her life is obvious and though she never doubted his love for her there's also a sense of disappointment as by her own admission he was something of an absent father. 

From the beginning of the book, Xanthi is filled with a longing for father not to be dead and yet it is very much about the effect that his death has had on her, not only in coming to terms with the complexity of the grieving process, but also in the rawness and immediacy of her loss. 

Will this House Last Forever? is a very personal account of the author's search for meaning, her yearning to understand more about the complex nature of her relationship with her father, and of her devastation when he was no longer present in her life. 

I found Will This House Last Forever? to be a poignant, and very honest look at a complex father-daughter relationship especially when that relationship has been flawed by disappointments and indifference. However, for all its strong message that loss endures, by the end of the book, there is also a sense of love, and the life-affirming hope that Xanthi's future, without her father, and regardless of his faults and failings, is undeniably intact.

About the Author

Xanthi Barker was born in London where she lives, and works in education. Her stories have been published in magazines including Litro and Mslexia, have been performed at Liar’s League, and have been shortlisted for the Fish Prize. She won the 2017 The Short Story Prize and her piece ‘Paradoxical’ was highly commended in the 2018 Spread the Word Life Writing Prize. Her novelette One Thing was published by Open Pen.

Twitter @xanthibarker #WillThisHouse

@tinderpress

📖 Blog Tour ~ The Spirit of the Horse by Pam Billinge

 

Thrilled to host today's blog tour stop

Blackbird Books
16 March 2021

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

The Spirit of the Horse is about following dreams, finding your truth and how much stronger joy can be when we learn to interconnect with all that is.

Sequel to The Spell of the Horse. Pam continues her exploration into the true nature of horses, their power to heal and the spiritual dynamic between human and horse.

‘When Pam follows her dream to a farmhouse with five acres in northern France, she is able to live alongside her horses for the first time. Here, in the heart of nature, deeper insights are revealed into the healing connection between horse and human and the incredible power of presence to transform. Might it be that learning to honour and communicate with another species helps us to reframe the way we perceive each other, as well as how we might see ourselves?

📖 My thoughts...

We learn so much from the way we interact with animals, their connection and in particular with horses, is what makes this such a special memoir. Author, Pam Billinge once again shares her experiences as she works with people who sometimes don't even know they need help, and by using her herd of very intuitive horses, she allows a profound closeness to develop using the instinctive nature of the horse to pick out those who are troubled. 

The book is divided into short chapters which make dipping into and out of the memoir such a joy to read especially as we learn the stories, sometimes of an individual, and sometimes from a group of people, all of whom have chosen to work with Pam in a professional capacity. I enjoyed reading through the case studies and marveled at how the horses helped in so many different circumstances.

I read this author's first memoir, The Spell of the Horse, and was impressed, not just by the calm way that Pam interacts with people, but also of her special connection with her horses which comes across in the joyful way she brings each to life on the page.  The Spirit of the Horse, however, is not just a series of case studies but is also about how the author searches within her own life experiences to find personal fulfillment and shows that sometimes the journey itself can prove therapeutic. 

I've always loved the gentle spirit of horses, there's something about the intelligent understanding in their eyes, and the quiet dignity of their presence, which draws me towards them. That the author has an infinity with these gentle creatures is without question, and sharing her undeniable skill, love and understanding with a wider audience is what makes this memoir something special.

About the Author

Pam Billinge is a therapist, coach and author who specialises in embodied horse-led learning. This unique approach relies entirely on the emergent relational process between horse and human. At her bases in the UK and in France, Pam supports people of all nationalities, ages and walks of life with their personal and professional development. Through her workshops and her writing Pam wishes to share the healing wisdom of horses whilst advancing the cause of this sometimes much-misunderstood species. She hopes also through her work to reconnect us with the natural world from which we are too often separated.

Twitter @pam_billinge

@Blackbird_Bks

The ebook is £3.99 and available on

Amazon smarturl.it/spirithorse

iBooks https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1550335216 [US link..]

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-spirit-of-the-horse

📖 Blog Tour ~ Housewife Writes Best Seller - Ann Victoria Roberts

 

📖 Thrilled to be part of this blog tour 📖 

Arnwood Press
November 2020

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

One Thursday in July, 1989, beneath the headline, Obsession That Became A Bestseller, the Daily Mail featured a photo of a young woman looking like a lottery winner. The Sun’s piece was cheekier: Mum Makes A Million, appeared beside the boobs on Page Three.

Ann Victoria Roberts hadn’t posed naked and hadn’t won a fortune. She’d written a novel that prompted a bidding war for publishing rights across the world. In the eyes of the press, the fact that Ann was not a career woman, but simply a wife and mother, was newsworthy.

In this memoir, the author reflects on the joys, the travels and the heartaches of her life as a sea-captain’s wife – and the decade of coincidences and lucky strikes that led to the writing of two big historical novels, Louisa Elliott and Liam’s Story. Amidst the fanfares and famous names, and the journey that took her from York to Australia and back, Ann reveals the work behind the success, and the truth behind her characters.

As readers, we browse in bookshops, spot a favourite author or intriguing title, and take it home. Rarely do we consider the path that book must have taken from the author’s pen to a bookshop shelf. And yet the story behind it is often stranger than the fiction it contains…

📖 My thoughts..

In the early 1990s I picked up a copy of Louisa Elliot by Ann Victoria Roberts from my local library, immediately drawn to its striking book cover and then further entranced by the story inside that cover. Over the next few years I went on to read more more books by this talented author,  intrigued by her ability to bring history alive.

And now thirty years later I get to learn about the process of writing Louisa Elliot, the inspiration for the story in the author's own family history, and the tentative steps to getting her story published, whilst at the same time coping with her mariner husband's long absences at sea and bringing up her two children in West Yorkshire.

This interesting memoir is made all the more poignant for me because I was living in West Yorkshire during the time the author was writing her novel. So I was familiar with the places she mentions, namely Otley, and York, which brought back happy memories. I think that's one of the reasons Louisa Elliot resonated so strongly with me as it's set in York, a city I enjoyed visiting in the 1980s for shopping, tea at Betty's and museum trips.

Whilst there's a great deal of personal information in the memoir about Ann's early life and growing up in Yorkshire it never feels intrusive into her family life. However, I think the real strength of the book lies in the author's own belief that she had a story to tell if only she could get it down on paper. Her rather trepidatious excitement when she got an enthusiastic letter back from her new agent was both palpable and emotional. I enjoyed reading of Ann's trips to London to meet her agent, then editor and publishers, and the sheer excitement of watching her debut novel,  Louisa Elliot, take flight, to rapturous enthusiasm, around the world.

I've really enjoyed travelling from book idea to publication in this lovely memoir. Don't we all wish we could see headlines like Housewife Writes Best Seller in the local paper and for this talented, and worthy, author, it really was a dream come true. 

About the Author

A lover of history, art and the sea, Ann Victoria Roberts is the author of six historical novels, set mainly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A keen reader and researcher, she enjoys painting pictures with words and regards historical fiction as a pleasurable way to discover the past. Born in York, Ann now lives in Southampton UK with her Master Mariner husband.

Twitter @Ann_V_Roberts #HousewifeWritesBestseller

@RandomTTours

Blog Tour ~ A Year of Living Simply by Kate Humble

 

Thrilled to be hosting today's stop on this Blog Tour

Octopus Publishing Group
17 September 2020

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

If there is one thing that most of us aspire to, it is, simply, to be happy. And yet attaining happiness has become, it appears, anything but simple. Having stuff - The Latest, The Newest, The Best Yet - is all too often peddled as the sure fire route to happiness. So why then, in our consumer-driven society, is depression, stress and anxiety ever more common, affecting every strata of society and every age, even, worryingly, the very young? Why is it, when we have so much, that many of us still feel we are missing something and the rush of pleasure when we buy something new turns so quickly into a feeling of emptiness, or purposelessness, or guilt? So what is the route to real, deep, long lasting happiness? Could it be that our lives have just become overly crowded, that we've lost sight of the things - the simple things - that give a sense of achievement, a feeling of joy or excitement? That make us happy. Do we need to take a step back, reprioritise? Do we need to make our lives more simple? Kate Humble's fresh and frank exploration of a stripped-back approach to life is uplifting, engaging and inspiring - and will help us all find balance and happiness every day.

What did I think about it..

I've always enjoyed watching Kate Humble on television, whether it be her knowledgeable country lore or her lively travelogues, there is always something really trustworthy about how she shares her genuine interest in whatever subject she is presenting. 

From its stunning cover, with the Kintsugi bowl as its centre piece, the book takes us through a myriad of thoughts and feelings which are so beautifully described by an author who leads you by the hand into the ways and means of a simpler life. There is much to enjoy, not just in terms of the writing, which is wonderfully informative, without being preachy, but also in the description of how Kate's own search for a simpler life led her to meet the most amazing people who were all trying, each in their own small corner of the world, to make a difference in the way in which they lived their lives.

What I gleaned from reading the book is that we can all make small differences, it's no use trying to leap in with no clear idea of what you want to achieve, but rather start with what's achievable and work your way from there. I particularly enjoyed the interspersed snippets entitled, Simple Pleasure, which act as a reminder to us that we can always find something to enjoy and take pleasure from which doesn't need to harm the planet or cost money. There's also some really great recipes in Growing and Cooking. I am definitely going to try the No-Sugar Banana Loaf, something I love to bake, but then always feel guilty about the amount of sugar needed to make it palatable. Having never known what to do with a celeriac, there's even a delicious sounding recipe for Celeriac Soup with Apple and Thyme, which is now definitely on my to-do list!

Quite simply, The Year of Living Simply is about valuing the life you have and making small but meaningful changes to help bring your world into focus, whilst at the same time enjoying the rather lovely conversational journey of this talented author as she sets about making her own life less complicated.

A Year of Living Simply is a really lovely look at the different ways in which we can all make our lives less frantic, and believe me, in this difficult year, anything that will make my life simpler is gratefully received.

About the Author

Kate Humble is a farmer, writer, activist, entrepreneur and one of the UK's best-known TV presenters. She started her television career as a researcher, later presenting programmes such as 'Animal Park', 'Springwatch & Autumnwatch', 'Lambing Live', 'Living with Nomads', 'Extreme Wives' and 'Back to the Land'. Her last book, Thinking On My Feet, was shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize and The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award. 

Twitter  @katehumble #AYearofLivingSimply

@Octopus_Books

Instagram

Website and Website

@RandomTTours

Blog Tour ~ Other Girls Like Me by Stephanie Davies

Delighted to host a stop on this blog tour 

Bedazzled Ink
1 September 2020

My thanks to the publishers, author and Midas PR for my invitation to the blog tour 
and the opportunity to share a book extract today

Till now, Stephanie has done her best to play by the rules—which seem to be stacked against girls like her. It doesn’t help that she wants to play football, dress like a boy, and fight apartheid in South Africa despite living in rural middle England as she struggles to find her voice in a world where everything is different for girls.

Then she hears them on the radio. Greenham women—an irreverent group of lesbians, punk rockers, mothers, and activists who have set up camp outside a US military base to protest nuclear war—are calling for backups in the face of imminent eviction from their muddy tents. She heads there immediately, where a series of adventures—from a break-in to a nuclear research centre to a doomed love affair with a punk rock singer in a girl band—changes the course of her life forever. But the sense of community she has found is challenged when she faces tragedy at home.

🌠 Enjoy this tantalising extract from Other Girls Like Me 🌠

From

Chapter One 

FREE NELSON MANDELA The Specials 

©Stephanie Davies

A CHILDHOOD IN St. Mary Bourne—an English village of thatched roof cottages winding along the banks of the Bourne River with its swaying water weeds, frogspawn, and fluttering ducks—was a childhood filled with wonders. I waded through fresh waters as the river rose anew from its barren bed each spring; swung across the river on tyres attached to ropes on summer nights; warmed my hands at autumn bonfires on golden evenings; and rolled in deep snow banks in the winter. 

My family of six lived at the edge of the village, behind the flint schoolhouse adjacent to the primary school that my three siblings and I attended. There were eleven pupils in my year, with funny last names like Bone and Strange and Gibbons. We arrived in this peculiar land from the industrial north when I was six, my sister Kate was nine, my brother, Robert, four, with baby Sarah arriving not long after we did, bundled out of the ambulance one November afternoon and bustled into the bright kitchen for us to peer at in curiosity. People thought our Northern accents strange, but we soon lost them and became posh instead, never catching the lilting Hampshire accent that was so different from any I had ever heard. 

Everything was different here. No lorries or buses rumbled past our front door, but instead there were fields and birds and horses wherever I looked, accompanied by the soothing sound of wood pigeons, hidden in trees. I lost myself in books and played classical guitar in the privacy of my attic bedroom, its slanted skylight revealing the stars, moon, and clouds in the changing sky. One evening at dusk, I watched spellbound from my bedroom window as two steaming bulls locked horns on the hill behind our house, the air visible from their flaring nostrils as they snorted and pounded the ground, dust flying. My father had landed a new job in what seemed like paradise. 

But just fifteen miles away, a stretch of ancient common land, with jumping deer, bounding rabbits, and soaring kestrels, had been turned into an air force base that was soon to house the deadliest weapons ever held on our green and pleasant land: American cruise missiles, poised to strike against the Soviet Union. The first tiny signs came to us like the first buds of flowers in spring—first one American military family, then another, rented out cottages in the village; first one news piece, then another, announced the mounting support of our Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for the United States President Ronald Reagan’s build up to war. 

St. Mary Bourne may have seemed like an unlikely breeding ground for an activist. But by the time the cruise missiles arrived, I was ready for them. 

Photo Credit : Ming de Nasty

About the Author

Photo credit : NYRA LANG

Stephanie Davies is a communications consultant who worked for many years as the Director of Public Education for Doctors Without Borders. A UK native, Stephanie moved to New York in 1991, where she taught English Composition at Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus and led research trips to Cuba. Before moving to New York, she co-edited a grassroots LGBT magazine in Brighton called A Queer Tribe. Stephanie earned a teaching degree from Aberystwyth University in Wales, and a BA in European Studies from Bath University, England. She grew up in a small rural village in Hampshire, where much of her first book, Other Girls Like Me, takes place.

Bedazzled Ink is dedicated to publishing literary fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books that celebrate the unique and under-represented voices of women.

Twitter @Stephanie5Davie #OtherGirlsLikeMe

Website

@BedazzledInk

@midaspr