📖 Publication Day ~ 100 Voices : 100 Women Share Their Stories Of Achievement, edited by Miranda Roszkowski

Unbound
3 march 2022

My thanks to the publishers and The Book Publicist for my copy of this book

Why do women find it so hard to speak of their achievements? Why, more than 100 years after women won the right to vote in the UK, are they still reluctant to speak up and share the stories that make them proud?

100 Voices is a bold and inspiring anthology of women daring to let loose their voices on the world. Featuring memoir, poetry and fiction, the collection is an eclectic treasure trove of women’s achievements, offering 400 pages of female role models for those women yet to find the words to ‘speak me’.

Packed with unheard stories of real-life women’s accomplishments, the book is a tribute to women everywhere – celebrating their remarkable resilience, creativity and above all, ambition.

From making lemon curd to completing a marathon, finding ‘me time’ as a mum to learning Bengali, a refugee eating English food for the first time to riding a motorbike, these stories are action calls for women to give themselves permission to be proud - and loud about it.

With a foreword from Deborah Frances-White of the Guilty Feminist and an impressive list of female-identifying contributors from across the country, including Women’s Prize long-listed author Yvonne Batlle-Felton, playwright in residence at the Globe Theatre Sabrina Mahfouz, and disability campaigner Isabelle Clement, these stories are as diverse and inspirational as their authors.

📖 My Review...

On its Publication Day and just in time for International Women's Day on the 8th March I am delighted to share my thoughts about 100 Voices which, as it says on the cover, gives a voice to 100 women who each have something interesting to share.

100 voices is a comprehensive collaboration from women from all different backgrounds which reminds us of the amazing achievement in the 100 years since women gained the vote in the UK.

Beautifully written, and with thought-provoking truthfulness, the book is divided into sections:

Voices that Started it All

Voices that are (no longer) Silent

Voices that Taught

Voices that went the Distance

Voices in the Dark ( and out of it)

Voices Together

Relentless Voices

I won't single out any specific stories for more praise than others as this collection is better read without me spoiling it but I will say that I found much to enjoy in each of the sections, and as I dipped into and out of the stories, I enjoyed the impact of the experiences, so eloquently expressed. The book is a generous size, over 440 pages, so it took me a little while to get through as I read the individual stories out of sequential order, reading a couple at a time, but that didn't detract from its impact. I liked how the stories and poems were short and snappy and gave me much to think about.

100 Voices : 100 Women Share Their Stories Of Achievement reminds us that we all have something to to share and if this book empowers women to acknowledge and be proud of their achievements then it will have done what it set out to do, that is, to give women permission to celebrate resilience, creativity and above all, ambition. 100 Voices is one of those books which will sit comfortably on my book shelf to be my inspiration when life gets a bit challenging.

About the Editor

Miranda Roszkowski is a writer and civil servant currently living on a boat on Britain’s waterways. She has worked with the National Theatre Wales and Royal Court playwrighting programmes and has had fiction published in print and online, including through Birkbeck’s Mechanic’s Institute Review, which she has previously edited. She is the host and curator of the spoken word night There Goes The Neighbourhood in Hackney, London and is currently working on her first novel.

Twitter @100voices100ye1 #100Voices

@Unbounders 

@BookPublicistUK

Purchase link

Blog Tour ~ A Hundred Years to Arras by J.M Cobley

 

Delighted to host one of today's blog tour stops

Unbound
19 August 2021

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

On a painful, freezing Easter Monday in 1917, Private Robert Gooding Henson of the Somerset Light Infantry is launched into the Battle of Arras. Robert is twenty-three years old, a farmer’s boy from Somerset, who joins up against his father’s wishes. Robert forms fast friendships with Stanley, who lied about his age to go to war, and Ernest, whose own slippery account betrays a life on the streets. Their friendship is forged through gas attacks, trench warfare, freezing in trenches, hunting rats, and chasing down kidnapped regimental dogs. Their life is one of mud and mayhem but also love and laughs. This is the story of Robert’s journey to Arras and back, his dreams and memories drawing him home. His story is that of the working-class Tommy, the story of thousands of young men who were caught in the collision between old rural values and the relentlessness of a new kind of war. It is a story that connects the past with the present through land, love and blood.

My Thoughts..

Private Robert Gooding Henson was just an ordinary soldier caught up in some of the momentous years of the First World War but what is made all the more poignant about A Hundred Years to Arras is that it is based on a distant relative of the author.

Leaving his elderly parents behind on the family farm, Robert Henson enlisted in 1915 into the Somerset Light Infantry and proudly wearing the armband of an enlistee he caught the train to fight in a war not of his making. The reality of the Western Front, with the gas attacks, the mud and rat infested conditions of the trenches and the sheer slog of enemy bombardment, couldn't have been further from the rolling hills of Somerset, however, Robert's friendship with fellow two Privates, Stanley and Ernest, somehow makes the unspeakable horror more bearable. Friendships formed in adversity are a powerful force and the three men share their experiences, their hopes and dreams for what seems an impossible future and do so with stoicism and good natured humour which belies their strength of will.

There is no doubt that the author has done impeccable research in order to bring this book to life and there is such an authentic feel to the narrative that it gives a realistic, and at times, quite disturbing account of what Private Henson could have experienced during his time in Northern France. In using sketchy family history details and in searching through military records, Private Henson comes very much alive in this fictionalised account of what happened to him on the way to the Battle of Arras in April 1917.

It is a fitting tribute that Private Robert Gooding Henson's life is remembered in this beautifully written story and A Hundred Years to Arras is a powerful reminder of the bravery of this generation of young men who went off to war so willingly and whose generous spirits now infuse the soil of Northern France. 

About the Author

J. M. Cobley was born in Devon of Welsh parents and now lives in Warwickshire with his wife and daughter. Jason studied English Language and Literature at university and is currently Head Teacher at a hospital school in Coventry. Jason is otherwise known for his work writing scripts for the long-running Commando comic and graphic novel adaptations of classics such as Frankenstein and An Inspector Calls, as well as the children's novel The Legend of Tom Hickathrift. Jason also hosts a weekly show on Radio Abbey in Kenilworth, where he indulges his passion for classic and progressive rock. The central character of A Hundred Years to Arras is based on his relative Robert Gooding Henson.

Twitter @JasonMCobley #HundredYearsToArras

@unbounders

@RandomTTours

📖 Blog Tour ~ Sew on the Go by Mary Jane Baxter

 

📖 Thrilled to be part of this blog tour 📖 

Unbound
13 May 2021

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

In 2016, Mary Jane Baxter quit her job at the BBC, rented out her flat and headed for the hills. Her home for the next few months was an upcycled 1986 Bedford Bambi campervan with a top speed of 60mph. She raided skips for vintage wallpaper and scoured second-hand emporiums to source stylish vintage accessories, creating her own travelling craft studio, packed with everything necessary for crafting on the road. She then set off around Europe searching for inspiration, travelling from Belgium right down to the Cinque Terre in Italy then around France and up to Scotland. 

Armed with her trusty hand-cranked Singer, she spent a summer sewing on the go. Like creatives the world over, she decided to see where her travels would lead her and returned with a head full of new projects. Fortunately, there’s no need for you to give up your job, wave goodbye to your family and rent out your house in order to reignite your own creativity; Mary Jane has done all the hard work for you. Sew on the Go is her guide to carving out more creative space in your life.

📖 My thoughts..

What a delightful journey this turned out to be as not only have I travelled around Europe vicariously but I have also learned how to make simple sewing projects, which to a non sewer, like me, is just as fascinating.

Mary Jane Baxter gave up her job at the BBC and after renovating the delightfully named Bedford Bambi Camper van she set off on a journey across some of the more beautiful parts of Europe. Occasionally stopping to visit friends, but mostly exploring on her own, the author travels across light with nothing but herself, Bambi, and her trusty sewing machine for company.

Sew on the Go is a beautifully written travelogue which combines the author's love of travel with her creative skills of turning something unloved into a item with value and purpose. I enjoyed the author's style of writing and felt like I was sitting beside her in Bambi and stepping out alongside her as she explored the open air markets and antique sales in France and Belgium, carefully picking items of bric-a-brac, or vintage linens and lace, in order to upcycle them into something deliciously different. 

With a wonderful sense of direction and a keen eye for spotting those interesting quirks about places you don't find in a conventional travel guide, the book works as an introduction to some beautiful European destinations, however, I think where its absolute strength lies is in the author's passion for making do and mending, something which we, in our throw away society, have forgotten how to do. I enjoyed perusing the sewing projects at the end of each chapter; some, like the patchwork pin cushion, can be made by novices, like me, some need a modicum of skill, some can be sewn by hand, whilst others need a machine but all are explained with easy instructions.

I think what Sew On the Go reiterates is that it is perfectly possible to take the plunge and do something completely out of your comfort zone whilst at the same time grasping the chance to create, with a little bit of imagination, something beautiful, out of that which has been discarded.

About the Author

Mary Jane Baxter used to work as a BBC news correspondent and producer. In 2016, she set off on a crafting adventure across Europe in a mobile studio. She is the author of Chic on a Shoestring and The Modern Girl’s Guide to Hatmaking, and has presented on fashion and craft for the BBC, most notably bartering her sewing skills for board and lodging in a series of films for Newsnight. She lives in London.

Twitter @MaryJaneMakes #SewOnTheGo

@Unbounders @RandomTTours

Blog Tour ~ Stick A Flag In It by Arran Lomas

 

Thrilled to host today's blog tour stop

Unbound
2020

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

The British people have always been eccentric, occasionally ingenious and, sure, sometimes unhinged – from mad monarchs to mass-murdering lepers. Here, Arran Lomas shows us how they harnessed those traits to forge the British nation, and indeed the world, we know today.

Follow history’s greatest adventurers from the swashbuckling waters of the Caribbean to the vast white wasteland of the Antarctic wilderness. Learn about the British spy who infiltrated a top-secret Indian brothel, and the priest who hid inside a wall but forgot to bring a packed lunch. You’ll discover Henry VIII’s favourite arse-wipe, whether the flying alchemist ever made it from Scotland to France, and the connection between Victorian coffee houses and dildos.

What did I think about it..

I love reading the quirky bits of history, which make up our heritage, and Stick A Flag In It takes us through a thousand years, from the moment of William's conquest in 1066, right the way through to Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic exploration aboard the Endurance in 1916.

All the relevant historical ages are covered, each with fascinating snippets of facts that you really didn't learn in school, and all of which are presented in an easy to read format. The author has a relaxed style of writing so that it feels like you are having a conversation with him, just taking in the bizarre bits of history which make our isles and islands such a fascinating conundrum. There's nothing boring or stuffy about Stick A Flag In It and I soon found that I was quite often smiling at some unusual piece of history. 

Stick A Flag In It can be read by starting at the beginning and working your way through, or you can, as I did, dip into and out of which ever period in history takes your fancy. Each section is clearly marked in the index so  you can very easily jump from the Crusades to Revolution in a matter of moments. My first port of call was in 1216 with John loses the Crown Jewels in the Wash, I've always been fascinated that a king could lose his entire baggage filled with vast wealth ...and in 900 years it's never resurfaced,

Stick A Flag In It is for those who don't take their history too seriously but that doesn't mean its weak on content, far from it, there's  been a tremendous amount of research undertaken to bring this book to life and all credit to the author for making a thousand years of history into such a fun and lively read!

About the Author

Arran Lomas is the man behind the hit YouTube channel Thoughty2. Since 2012 he has created videos on every topic from space, crime and medicine to conspiracy theories, food and social issues and, of course, history. He was raised in Lancashire – the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution  and has always been captivated by the world around him, driving him to uncover its history and secret.

Twitter #ArranLomas #StickAFlagInIt

@unbounders

@RandomTTours

Blog Tour ~ #Sonnets by Lucien Young

✨✨ Delighted to host today's stop on this Blog Tour ✨✨ 

Unbound
3 October 2019

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

#Sonnets is a collection of hilarious and inappropriate poems complete with illustrations of Elizabethan Robocop and Snoop Dog in tights . Musing on everything from Donald Trump to Tinder, comedy writer Lucien Young offers a Shakespearean take on the absurdities of modern life.

What did I think about it..

There's something really refreshing about reading Shakespeare inspired sonnets which are inspired by this crazy world we live in, and yet when you think about it the bard himself was commenting on his own life and times in his perceptive sonnets. What the author does in this clever collection is to look at all the quirky little bits of life and bring them right into contemporary consciousness with some very cleverly constructed verse. As with all iambic pentameter there is a rhythm to the rhyme and the 14 lines of verse are easy to read, delightfully mischievous and laugh out loud funny.

The wry observations about Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are particularly apt but there's so much more than political satire. There are sonnets about the Kardashians, Marge Simpson and Game of Thrones, Wikipedia and Wifi,  even the ubiquitous Bag for Life gets a mention. I raced through the book, dipping into it at whim and soon became quite mesmerised by the accuracy of observation and the way the author captures each subject to perfection.

I can remember learning great chunks of Shakespeare at school and despite the brilliance of the bard the sonnets were never as much fun as these #sonnets by this clever author.

The sonnets are accompanied by wonderful illustrations by Ollie Mann

About the Author

Lucien Young is a comedy writer who has worked on various TV programmes, including BBC Three's Siblings and Murder in Successville, as well as three humour books, Alice in Brexitland, Trump's Christmas Carol and The Secret Diary of Jeremy Corbyn. He was born in Newcastle and read English at the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of the world-famous Footlights Club.

Twitter @LucienDYoung #Sonnets

@unbounders

#RandomThingsTours

Book Review ~ Breakfast in Bogotá by Helen Young

Unbound
August 2019

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book 
and also for the delicious Fortnum and Mason Chocolate

Bogota, 1947. British architect Luke Vosey has left his past behind to undertake a commission for Anglo-Colombian Oil in South America. For Luke, this new venture seems to offer the chance to start again. But grieving and ashamed of his role in the war, he cannot run from the past or from his nightmares.

Luke finds distraction with the whores of Las Cruces and in the friendship of a young newspaper journalist - and finally with Felisa, a young draughtswoman with a passion for politics. Through her, Luke comes to understand the true broken mood of the people of Colombia, with the country teetering on the brink of civil war. Then a bloody assassination on the streets of the capital sees everything he's worked for destroyed.

As the mob tears the city to shreds, and Luke's past is unveiled, can he survive to save others?

What did I think about it..

In 1947 Luke Vosey is a British architect who has started a new venture for Anglo-Colombian Oil in South America, based in Bogotá. It's an opportunity for Luke to start again after the events of the Second World War but his connection and memories of the past are about to threaten the stability of his future. 

Luke discovers that his time in Bogotá is made all the more complicated by the relationships he makes, particularity with the prostitutes of Las Cruces, and one in particular who reminds him of Catherine, a woman he once loved. His interaction with Felisa, a young draughts-woman, and also with Camilo who is a journalist involved in the political mainstream, adds another interesting dimension to what is, after all, quite a complicated look at this troubled time in Latin-American history.

The author writes well, with a genuine passion for story-telling, bringing to life the political and social turmoil of an unsettled time, after all Columbia was on the brink of Civil War, and so her descriptions of time, and place, have a nice authenticity to them. 

Overall, Breakfast in Bogotá is an interesting story about an unsettled time in the country's Latin-American history, which is delivered with skill and fine attention to detail.

About the Author

Helen is an author and digital editor. Her debut, The May Queen, was published in 2016. Good Housekeeping termed it an 'unsettling, coming-of-age tale.' Stylist called her 'One to watch.' She is obsessed with questions of identity and geography – namely, the versions of ourselves we carry with us. Breakfast In Bogota is her second novel.

Twitter @helenireneyoung #BreakfastInBogota

@unbounders @Unbound_Digital

@Fortnums

" Bringing new meaning to ‘devouring a book’, discover a world of delicious flavour and explore our collectable chocolate bars – a library of classic and soon-to-be classic flavours. And like any great novel, these are ready to be plucked from the shelves and enjoyed time and time again. Which will you open first?

Blog Tour ~ The Point of Poetry by Joe Nutt

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on the The Point of Poetry Blog Tour

Unbound
21 March 2019

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

What’s the point of poetry? It’s a question asked in classrooms all over the world, but it rarely receives a satisfactory answer. Which is why so many people, who read all kinds of books, never read poetry after leaving school. 

Exploring twenty-two works from poets as varied as William Blake, Seamus Heaney, Rita Dove and Hollie McNish, this book makes the case for what poetry has to offer us, what it can tell us about the things that matter in life. Each poem is discussed with humour and refreshing clarity, using a mixture of anecdote and literary criticism that has been honed over a lifetime of teaching. 

Poetry can enrich our lives, if we’ll let it. The Point of Poetry is the perfect companion for anyone looking to discover how.

My thoughts..

The Point of Poetry is a cleverly put together selection of twenty two quite different forms of verse from some wonderfully diverse poets, from William Blake and William Shakespeare, to Christina Rossetti and Carol Ann Duffy, there's something which will appeal to everyone, and interspersed throughout is the author's interpretation of each poem, and the encouragement to give poetry a chance.

I absolutely get the point of poetry but completely understand that there are people who don't and for those who don't then this book will go along way to help them make sense of what makes poetry so beautiful and so addictive. I first fell under the spell of poetry at primary school when I had to learn Silver by Walter de la Mare, the rhythm of the words and the silent appeal of gentle moonlight makes this still one of my favourite poems.

I was delighted when I started to read The Point of Poetry and found so much to enjoy in the way that the author describes each featured poem, bringing the beauty and hidden meaning to life in a thought provoking way. There were also some nice surprises, with poems I wasn't at all familiar with, and the thrill of new discovery is what this book so fascinating. It's a chance to rediscover old favourites whilst at the same time finding something completely new.

I was quite sad when I came to the last chapter of the book, I'd so enjoyed reading the previous chapters that I didn't want the book to end, and then the author gave me an absolute gift with a whole chapter on Paradise Lost. Now I know that John Milton isn't everyone's go to author and I must admit that I haven't thought about reading Paradise Lost for a long, long time and then suddenly I read...

" Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men he, with his horrid crew,
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf,"

And I was immediately back in the long hot summer of 1976, sitting in the garden and revising for my English A' Level, learning this section of Paradise Lost by heart, and for me that beautiful connection is what makes the The Point of Poetry so very special.

About the Author

oe Nutt is a former teacher with twenty years of English teaching experience. He has written books on Shakespeare, John Donne and most recently a guidebook to Paradise Lost for one of the world’s foremost academic publishers. He is now one of the leading educationalists in the UK and writes a fortnightly column for the Times Educational Supplement.

Website

Twitter @joenutt_author #ThePointOfPoetry

@unbounders

#RandomThingsTours

Blog Tour ~ 21st-Century Yokel by Tom Cox

Jaffareadstoo is thrilled to be part of the blog tour for 21st-Century Yokel

Unbound
This edition 2019

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

21st-Century Yokel is not quite nature writing, not quite a family memoir, not quite a book about walking, not quite a collection of humorous essays, but a bit of all five. 

Thick with owls and badgers, oak trees and wood piles, scarecrows and ghosts, and Tom Cox's loud and excitable dad, this book is full of the folklore of several counties – the ancient kind and the everyday variety – as well as wild places, mystical spots and curious objects. Emerging from this focus on the detail are themes that are broader and bigger and more important than ever. 

Tom's writing treads a new path, one that has a lot in common with a rambling country walk; it's bewitched by fresh air and big skies, intrepid in minor ways, haunted by weather and old stories and the spooky edges of the outdoors, restless and prone to a few detours, but it always reaches its destination in the end.

My thoughts..

21st-Century Yokel is a wonderful eclectic collection of ten chapters which feature stories showcasing this author writing. Something quite magical happens as you read, and thanks to the author's skilful way with words, his anecdotes and family stories, his wry observations and genuine connection with nature comes alive, so that reading the stories feels like you are walking alongside him, with our glorious countryside opened up to scrutiny.

I found it helpful to read this book slowly, savouring the promise of what was to come and, as a keen ambler, much of the book resonated with me, so much so, that I found myself quietly smiling through most of it, recognising nuances and understanding philosophies. One section in particular about the beauty of trees and the poignancy of "woodsmoke's primal reminder of the woodier place we all come from " had me nodding in agreement as there's just something so comforting about the way wood smoke permeates the environment and which, in an instant, can take us back to a gentler time.

Taking a literary walk with this author is rather like travelling the highways and byways alongside him as he opens up about his family, nature, wildlife and the pull of the landscape he calls home. Written with a wonderful eye for detail, I've travelled with him along wood-sorrel paths and past glistening streams, observed the playfulness of badgers and the clattering of jackdaws. I've marveled at the explanation of Witches Knickers, and and laughed out loud at Tom's dad's antics, and especially love his anachronism WOFFAL, which is something I must remember to use from time to time 😊

21st-Century Yokel made me smile from beginning to end, it's filled with warmth and wit and is a perfect antidote to every day stress.

About the Author

Tom Cox lives in Devon. A one-time music journalist he is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling The Good, the Bad and the Furry and the William Hill Sports Book long olisted Bring Me The Head of Sergio Garcia. Help the Witch, a collection of folk ghost stories, was published in October 2019.

Website

Twitter @cox_tom #21stCenturyYokel

@unbounders

#RandomThingsTours

Purchase Link

Blog Tour ~ The Belle Hotel by Craig Melvin

Jaffareadstoo is thrilled to host today's stop on The Belle Hotel Blog Tour

Unbound
21 February 2019

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

13 October 2008. Welcome to the worst day of Chef Charlie Sheridan's life, the day he's about to lose his two great loves: his childhood sweetheart, Lulu, and the legendary Brighton hotel his grandfather, Franco Sheridan, opened in 1973. This is the story of the Belle Hotel, one that spans the course of four decades – from the training of a young chef in the 1970s and 80s, through the hedonistic 90s, up to the credit crunch of the noughties – and leads us right back to Charlie's present-day suffering. In this bittersweet and salty tale, our two Michelin star-crossed lovers navigate their seaside hangout for actors, artists and rock stars; the lure of the great restaurants of London; and the devastating effects of three generations of family secrets.

My thoughts..

The story opens with the worst of all possible days for Chef Charlie Sheridan, his beloved hotel, which has been in his family for years, is in financial difficulties, and whilst some of the problem seems to be of Charlie's own making, there is no doubt that his passion for the hotel runs as deep as his love for his childhood sweetheart, Lulu.

What then follows is not just the story of Charlie's fight to keep The Belle Hotel but is also about how the hotel developed, over several decades, under the watchful eye of Charlie's grandfather, Franco Sheridan. The hotel's progression spans some of the most momentous years in recent history, from the struggle of the hotel's early days in the nineteen seventies, through the hedonistic nineties, and finally to the financial constraints of the noughties, The Belle Hotel has seen it all, and whilst it is surviving, just about, there is always room for improvement.

I'm intrigued by family run hotels, particularly those which, like The Belle have been through some rough times, they have such a complicated history and lots of character, and taking this story back to the hotel's early days allows a full picture to emerge of the constant need for reinvention,  this is brought home when Charlie, faced with ruin has to learn, and learn rapidly, how to move the business in a different direction, or lose it all together.

I found The Belle Hotel to be a quirky, feel-good story, it's nicely written and filled with both humour and pathos all of which help to keep the story moving along at quite a jaunty pace. There are some parts of it which had me laughing, and I was intrigued by the delicious recipes, especially the one for my absolute favourite Tarte Tatin, which are interspersed at intervals throughout the book.

About the Author

Craig Melvin holds an MA in Creative Writing from Sussex University and works as restaurant consultant in London and Brighton. He was mentored by Albert Roux at catering college and has worked in the restaurant and hotel business ever since. He also runs www.lunarlemonproductions.com with his wife Mel. The Belle Hotel is his first book.

Twitter @ccmelvin #TheBelleHotel

@unbounders

#RandomThingstours

Amazon UK

Blog Tour ~ Material Remains by Richard W H Bray

Jaffareadstoo is thrilled to host today's stop on the Material Remains Blog Tour

Unbound
7 February 2019
My thanks to the publishers and also To Anne at Random Things Tours for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

One Thursday morning a body is found on the beach of St Andrews. Suddenly archaeology student Mike MacEwan's world of tea, pints, late mornings and the occasional essay comes to an abrupt halt. Consumed with guilt, grief, confusion and thoughts of what might have been, Mike haunts the local ruins, rebuilding them in his mind, trying to find the shape of what is no longer there, as he obsesses over the loss of someone he barely knew, unsure of his place in her life, or her death. It's only the discovery of an ancient plague burial site near campus that drags Mike back into contact with those around him. But life has changed, both for himself and others, and the burial ground holds more than the bones of those long dead. Unsure what he will find, Mike peels back the layers of earth and its dark history, trying desperately to connect the victims of the past to the tumult of his present.

My thoughts..

Mike MacEwan is a mature student studying archaeology at St Andrews University in Scotland. He and a group of friends seem to spend most of their evenings in the pub getting drunk and then something happens which turns Mike's world upside down. He sinks into depression, only finding some sort of resolution when he becomes involved in an archaeological dig which is uncovering long buried secrets from the past.

Material Remains is a slow book in many ways and there doesn't seem to be much going on at times but then, I think this is quite deliberate as it gives you the opportunity to understand more about Mike's character and to discover what he is thinking. I must admit that, given the book blurb, I did sort of expect this to be more of a murder mystery, but that wasn't the case at all. There are several layers to the story, one is of the bewilderment when life suddenly takes a different turn, with no clear answer of what to do next. The other is one of involvement, learning to deal with events in a practical sort of way and finding the way forward.

The author writes the story well, and the university town of St Andrew's with its snaking wynds and alleyways are nicely described and together add atmosphere to this interesting story.

About the Author

Richard W. H. Bray is a writer and winemaker. His first book, Salt and Old Vines, won Best French Wine Book at the 2015 Gourmand Awards. He lives in London.

Twitter @RWHBray #MaterialRemains

@Unbounders

#RandomThingsTours

Amazon UK

Blog Tour ~ A Small Dark Quiet by Miranda Gold

Jaffareadstoo is thrilled to host today's stop on A Small Dark Quiet Blog Tour

Unbound
4 December 2018

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

March, 1945. The ravaged face of London will soon be painted with victory, but for Sylvie, the private battle for peace is just beginning. When one of her twins is stillborn, she is faced with a consuming grief for the child she never had a chance to hold. A Small Dark Quiet follows a mother as she struggles to find the courage to rebuild her life and care for an orphan whom she and her husband, Gerald, adopt two years later.

Born in a concentration camp, the orphan’s early years appear punctuated with frail speculations, opening up a haunting space that draws Sylvie to bring him into parallel with the child she lost. When she gives the orphan the stillborn child’s name, this unwittingly entangles him in a grief he will never be able to console. His own name has been erased, his origins blurred. Arthur’s preverbal trauma begins to merge with the loss he carries for Sylvie, released in nightmares and fragments of emerging memories to make his life that of a boy he never knew. He learns all about ‘that other little Arthur’, yearning both to become him and to free himself from his ghost. He can neither fit the shape of the life that has been lost nor grow into the one his adopted father has carved out for him. 

As the novel unfolds over the next twenty years, Arthur becomes curious about his Jewish heritage, but fears what this might entail – drawn towards it, it seems he might find a sense of communion and acceptance, but the chorus of persecutory voices he has internalised becomes too overwhelming to bear. He is threatened as a child with being sent back where he belongs but no one can tell him where this is. He wanders as an adult looking for purpose but is unable to find his place. Feeling an imposter both at home and in the city, Arthur’s yearning for that sense of belonging echoes in our own time. 

Meeting Lydia seems to offer Arthur the opportunity to recast himself, yet all too soon he is trapped in a repetition of what he was trying to escape. A past he can neither recall nor forget lives on within him even as he strives to forge a life for himself. Survival, though, insists Arthur keeps searching and as he opens himself to the world around him, there are flashes of just how resilient the human heart can be. 

Through Sylvie’s unprocessed grief and Arthur’s acute sense of displacement, A Small Dark Quiet explores how the compulsion to fill the empty space death leaves behind ultimately makes the devastating void more acute. Yet however frail, the instinct for empathy and hope persists in this powerful story of loss, migration and the search for belonging. 

My thoughts about it..

This is such a sad story which is made all the more poignant by the author's quite distinct writing style and the way that the story is allowed to evolve quite slowly. I thought the opening chapter was particularly well done as it introduces us to Sylvie, and explains the dreadful loss she suffered when, after a home birth, only one of her twins survived. Her grief and sense of sorrow is palpable and this sets the scene for the rest of the story as Sylvie never really comes to terms with her profound sense of bereavement. 

Even though she and her husband, Gerald, have a healthy son, they also adopt a displaced child, from one of the concentration camps, and there is a continual sense that Arthur, named for the dead child, is always trying to replace the twin that was lost. This, in a way, reiterates Arthur's sense of bewilderment, and not just because of his fragmented, and terrifying start in life, but also in the way that Arthur becomes the focus for all of Sylvie's grief. 

The author writes well and even though it takes a while to feel comfortable with the way the story is written, as it moves around in quite different time frames, it is worth keeping with it as it all starts to fall into place. A Small Dark Quiet is a very reflective piece of writing, not just because of what it exposes about the destructive nature of loss and grief, but also about the importance of recognising one’s heritage, and of the need to find a way through the turmoil of lives which have been forever changed by distressing circumstances. 

I found much to consider in A Small Dark Quiet, as to the author’s credit she hasn’t wrapped everything up in a neat package, there’s no happy ending or tidy resolution to the fractured lives within the story, which, I think, is entirely appropriate and in keeping with the story as a whole.

About the Author

Concert pianist in a parallel universe, novelist in this, Miranda Gold is a woman whose curiosity about the instinct in us all to find and tell stories qualifies her to do nothing but build worlds out of words. 

Miranda’s first love was theatre and advises anyone after a dose of laughter in dark (along with a ferocious lesson in subtext) to look no further than the cheese sandwich in Pinter’s The Homecoming. No less inspiring were the boisterous five year olds she taught drama to and the youth groups she supported to workshop and stage their scripts. Both poetry and its twin, music, have been fundamental in her process as a writer and her hope is that the novel can tap into some of their magic to unleash the immediacy and visceral power of language – qualities that keep the reader on the page as well as turning it. Gatsby, To the Lighthouse and The Ballad of the Sad Café are books she will always come back to, always finding another door left ajar. Having the opportunity to mentor prisoners at Pentonville reaffirmed for her the connections that can be made when we find a narrative and a shape that can hold experience. There have been fleeting fantasies of becoming a Flamenco dancer, but sadly she has the coordination of an inebriated jelly fish. 

Her first novel, Starlings, published by Karnac (2016) reaches back through three generations to explore how the impact of untold stories ricochets down the years. In her review for The Tablet, Sue Gaisford described Starlings as “a strange, sad, original and rather brilliant first novel, illumined with flashes of glorious writing and profound insight, particularly into the ways in which we attempt to reinvent ourselves.” Before turning her focus to fiction, Miranda attended the Soho Course for young writers where her play, Lucky Deck, was selected for development and performance.

Twitter @mirandagold999 #ASmallDarkQuiet

@unbounders

#RandomThingsTours

Amazon UK

Blog Tour ~ Oh I Do Like To Be by Marie Phillips

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting today's final stop on the 

Oh I Do Like To Be Blog Tour

Unbound
24 January 2019

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

Shakespeare clone and would-be playwright Billy has just arrived in an English seaside town with his sister Sally, who was cloned from a hair found on the back of a bus seat. All Billy wants is a cheap B&B, an ice cream and a huge hit in the West End. Little does he know that their fellow clones Bill and Sal are also residents of this town. Things are about to get confusing - cue professional rivalry, marital discord and a family reunion like no other.

This modern update of The Comedy of Errors is what you get when Gods Behaving Badly author Marie Phillips decides to write an important, scholarly work about the life of William Shakespeare, reads the complete works, including the long poems nobody likes, and then decides to turn it into a witty, delightful romp that you can probably finish reading in an afternoon with two tea breaks.

My thoughts about it..

I'm not really sure how to describe Oh I Do Like To Be without giving too much away except to say that it's quirkily different. Set in an English seaside town, the story flits between two lots of crazy characters and is at first a little confusing until you work out just which of characters are taking centre stage.

Oh I Do Like To Be is a light hearted romp, which gives more than a shout out to Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, and if you keep in your head the fact that, Billy and Bill,  the two male leads are clones of the great bard William Shakespeare then the story all starts to make perfect sense.It's a comfortable 159 pages long, so it's perfectly possible to read the story over the space of an afternoon and whilst I was reading I was reminded of those farce like comedies which were so popular once on television, the ones with multiple characters running round like headless chickens always just slightly out of sync with each other.

Oh I Do Like To Be is fun and frivolous, charmingly written and  doesn't take itself too seriously and that's what I enjoyed the most about reading it.

About the Author

Marie Phillips is the author of the international bestseller Gods Behaving Badly and The Table of Less Valued Knights, which was long listed for the Baileys Prize. With Robert Hudson, she wrote the BBC Radio 4 series. 

Warhorses of Letters and Some Hay in a Manger. Under the name Vanessa Parody, she co-wrote Fifty Shelves of Grey, a spoof of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Twitter @mpphillips #OhIDoLikeToBe

@Unbounders

#RandomThingsTours

Sunday WW1 Remembered - Blog Tour ~ The Glorious Dead by Tim Atkinson

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's The Glorious Dead Blog Tour stop 

Unbound
1 November 2018
My thanks to the author, publisher and Random Things tours for my ecopy of this book and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

What's it all about..

What happened when the Great War ended and the guns stopped firing? Who cleared the battlefields and buried the dead? 

It's 1918 and the war may be over but Lance-Corporal Jack Patterson and the men of his platoon are still knee-deep in Flanders mud, searching the battlefields for the remains of 

comrades killed in action. 

But duty isn't all that's keeping Jack in Flanders. For one there is Katia, the daughter of a local publican, with whom he has struck up a romance. And then there is something else, a secret that lies buried in Jack's past, one he hopes isn't about to be dug up...

My Thoughts about it..

If you've been to the WW1 cemeteries of northern Europe, you will know that, even after a hundred years, the sight of row upon row of headstones, lasting memorials to the gallant fallen, you are looking at something you will never forget. I hadn’t considered just what a mammoth task it was, at the end of WW1, to try to locate the remains of bodies, or to re-bury those who had been so hastily buried in shallow graves usually where they had fallen in the midst of battle.

The Glorious Dead introduces us to a team of soldiers who, from the end of the war in 1918, are charged with the task of locating missing bodies which, taken from the mist and mud of Flanders, can be then reburied in recognised war graves. It's a gruesome task and not one undertaken easily and yet, for some of men, it is almost a way of putting the past into perspective, and of trying to move into some sort of uneasy future. 

Lance-Corporal Jack Patterson and the group of men who work alongside him, usually chest deep in the cloying mud of a Flanders field, do so with a cheerfulness that belies so many deep seated psychological wounds. Shared bravado and hidden secrets, cheeky songs and the consumption of many pints of strong Belgian beer, help the group to put their gruesome task into some sort of perspective.

The author, with a real sense of time and place, allows WW1 history to come alive, exploring the after effects of the war in a very readable way. There are some really nice touches in the book, descriptions of grieving families who went looking for their loved ones, and of the clandestine nature of choosing, and then repatriating, the body of the Unknown Soldier.

In this special anniversary year of the centenary of the Armistice, it is important to remember that the effects of the war didn't end with the cease of hostilities, and that the repercussions of this violent conflict were felt for so many years afterwards. The Glorious Dead is not just about the collective grief of a nation but it’s also about the natural order of things being re-established, of farmers who needed to have their fields restored, of towns and villages being reconstructed from shattered ruins, and of the mending of hearts after so many years of being broken.

About the Author

Tim Atkinson is a teacher, author and award-winning blogger. He studied philosophy at the University of Hull and has worked variously as a filing clerk, lay-clerk, chain-man and school teacher. He was born in Colchester, brought up in Yorkshire and now lives in Lincolnshire.

Website

Twitter @dotterel

@Unbound

#RandomThingsTours