Blog Tour ~ The Waterway Girls by Milly Adams

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting today's stop on The Waterway Girls Blog Tour

Arrow
7 September 2017

October 1943, West London

Nineteen-year-old Polly Holmes is leaving poor bombed London behind to join the war effort on Britain’s canals.

Stepping aboard the Marigold amid pouring rain, there’s lots for Polly to get to grips with. Not least her fellow crew: strong and impetuous Verity, whose bark is worse than her bite, and seasoned skipper Bet.

With her sweetheart away fighting in the RAF and her beloved brother killed in action, there’s plenty of heartache to be healed on the waterway. And as Polly rolls up her sleeves and gets stuck into life on board the narrow boat – making the gruelling journey London up to Birmingham – she will soon discover that a world of new beginnings awaits amid the anguish of the war.

My thoughts

When nineteen year old Polly Holmes leaves her home in bombed out London and joins a female crew of canal boat operatives in October 1943, she is little prepared for the changes that this decision will bring to her life. At first, due to an uncomfortable feud with Verity, a fellow crew member, Polly struggles to become accustomed to life on the canal. But gradually, under the watchful eye of skipper, Bet, the young crew members start to work together as a team and the arduous journey of taking the narrow boat from London to Birmingham is filled with excitement and adventure.

In The Waterway Girls the author brings together a group of feisty young women and describes vividly the hardships and trepidation that accompanied them on their canal journey. Life was tough, not just for the women who were recruited by the Ministry of Transport’s waterways training scheme, but also for the established canal folk who had, for so long, made the canal systems their home. Tensions run high and for Polly, Bet and Verity life on the canal is never without its complications.

Before reading this novel, I was unaware of the WW2 initiative of training women to crew canal boats in order to keep freight and other cargo on the move during the worst of the war years. Rather as the Land Girls kept the agricultural side of things going, so the Waterway Girls ensured that cargo and merchandise travelled safely from depot to destination, often in hazardous conditions.

I think that the author captures time and place really well and combines the descriptions of eventful life on the canals with the personal stories of the crew members. There is heartache a plenty ahead of them, but there is also a sense of hopefulness, as they each become accustomed to a new way of life.

The Waterway Girls is the start of a new saga series by this author and I am sure it will appeal to her many fans.

More about the author can be found on her website by clicking here

Milly Adams lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband, dog and cat. Her children live nearby. Her grandchildren are fun, and lead her astray. She insists that it is that way round.

Milly Adams is also the author of Above Us The Sky and Sisters At War.

Follow the tour on Twitter #TheWaterwayGirls 

@arrowpublishing

Do visit the other blog tour stops

My thanks to Becky at Penguin Random House for the invitation to be part of this blog tour and also for my review copy of The Waterway Girls.

~***~

Sunday WW1 Remembered...

War Poetry written in 1917 became rather more sceptical of the war 

Two Fusiliers

By Robert Graves

And have we done with War at last?

Well, we've been lucky devils both,

And there's no need of pledge or oath

To bind our lovely friendship fast,

By firmer stuff

Close bound enough.

By wire and wood and stake we're bound,

By Fricourt and by Festubert,

By whipping rain, by the sun's glare,

By all the misery and loud sound,

By a Spring day,

By Picard clay.

Show me the two so closely bound

As we, by the wet bond of blood,

By friendship blossoming from mud,

By Death: we faced him, and we found

Beauty in Death,

In dead men, breath.

Robert Graves was an English poet and author of antiquities specialising in classical Greece and Rome. He was soldier and poet during WW1.

His most famous work I, Claudius was published in 1934.



~***~

Hist Fic Saturday ~ The White Camellia by Juliet Greenwood

On Hist Fic Saturday let's go back in time


to the ...Edwardian age

Honno Press
2016

BeatriceTressillion is trying to make a new life in London having been forced to leave her home, at Tressillion House, in Cornwall. Caught up in the suffragette movement, the whole concept that women could have their own voice, is for Bea, a tantalising, and it must be said, enlightening prospect.

Sybil Ravensdale is a strong willed and independent woman, who having made her fortune as a hotelier in America, returns to the Cornwall of her youth, and finds herself in the envious position of being able to buy the stately, Tressillion House .

On the surface neither of these two women should have anything in common but the thread of Tressillion House binds the two together and gradually a story of dark secrets, lost inheritances and secret love emerges.

There is much to enjoy in this beautifully written Edwardian saga which looks more closely at the changing attitude to women and of the danger of forging an independent path, which Sybil discovers to her cost. The author writes with descriptive ease and brings both the stark beauty of Cornwall and the exciting streets of London to vivid life. I especially enjoyed the sections at the eponymous White Camellia tearoom in London, with its hum of female voices and the prospect of a slice or two of the White Camellia's delicious tea loaf. But there is so more to the story than descriptive slices of cake, there is an underlying mystery and an ever present sense of intrigue.

Lyrical, descriptive and beautifully redolent of a bygone era, The White Camellia is one of those lovely historical sagas which is meticulously researched and written so lovingly by an author who really makes history come alive.

More about the Author can be found on her website by clicking here 

Twitter @julietgreenwood

Facebook

My thanks to the author for my copy of The White Camellia

Other novels by this author

 

Blog Tour ~ 99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's  stop on the 

99 Red Balloons Blog Tour

Avon Books
September 2017

Here's the blurb..

Two girls go missing, decades apart. What would you do if one was your daughter? 

When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge. 

What are the secret emails sent between Emma’s husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is Emma really as innocent as she seems? 

Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Taylor sees Grace’s picture in the newspaper. It’s a photograph that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with another girl – the first girl who disappeared… 

This is a gripping psychological thriller with a killer twist that will take your breath away. 

I am delighted to introduce the author, Elisabeth Carpenter to Jaffareadstoo to tell us all about her debut novel..

Welcome to Jaffareadstoo, Elisabeth. Where did you get the first flash of inspiration for 99 Red Balloons?

A missing child is every parent’s worst nightmare. I wanted to explore the impact it might have on the lives of the wider family unit. I hope I’ve treated this subject with respect as it’s so emotive and horrific.

Without giving too much away – tell us three interesting facts about the story which will pique the reader's interest.

I’ve added the point of view of the child who goes missing, as I’ve not read many books on this subject that do that.

I’ve tried to combine pace with characterisation to, hopefully, make the characters come alive in the mind of the reader.

Part of the book is set on an RAF base in Germany. I lived there when I was a child (many, many years ago!).

Whilst you are writing you must live with your characters. Do they ever dictate how the story progresses or do you stick with a writing plan from the beginning and never deviate?

It takes a few months to get to know my characters, so by the time I’ve gone back to the beginning of the completed first draft, I have to take out things they wouldn’t do or say.

Sometimes the plot will emerge organically, giving the cast a situation that they must deal with, but I always have an ending in mind, which is fluid and often subject to change.

I love the start of a book when literally anything can happen. I try not to get too bogged down with what I had planned – if I’m bored with what I write, it’ll be boring to read. If I ever reach the stage of writing for the sake of it, I close the laptop and read, or watch a box set. I’ll be five minutes in and an idea will pop into my mind.

Do you write the type of books you like to read and which authors influenced you?

I’ve read and really enjoyed some of the psychological thrillers that were published recently. I was totally blindsided by the twist in Gone Girl. I also enjoy novels that have a light science fiction element to them, such as The Time Traveller’s Wife and The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. These books have influenced me greatly, as they go quite deep into characterisation, which is what I’ve tried to do in 99 Red Balloons.

I love Sally Wainwright’s work. Happy Valley is genius, and I thought Last Tango in Halifax had excellent characterisation, humour and warmth.

99 Red Balloons is a great book title - if your life was a book, what would be its title?

Ooh good question! I’m a big Beatles fan, so if I were to choose a cheesy title it would be All You Need is Love. But, if I were to choose a title based on my writing career so far, I’d choose Don’t Dream It’s Over by Crowded House.

Can you share with us anything about your next writing project?

Anna’s mother, Debbie, was last seen on holiday in Spain when Anna was just a baby. Thirty years later, the family receives an email from someone claiming to be Debbie.

The narrative follows Anna in her search for her mother, and Debbie in 1986 during the days leading to her disappearance.

About the author

Elisabeth Carpenter lives in Preston with her family and has been awarded a Northern Writers' Award bursary from New Writing North, and she was long-listed for the Yeovil Literary Prize (2015) and the MsLexia Women’s Novel award (2015). Two of Libby’s flash fiction pieces were shortlisted on Mashstories.com – where she is now part of the judging team.

You can follow her on Twitter @LibbyCPT

Do visit the other Blog Tour stops

My thanks to Elisabeth for sharing her work with me and for answering my questions about 
99 Red Balloons. 

My thoughts about 99 Red Balloons..

When Emma’s eight year old daughter, Grace goes missing, the investigation into her disappearance opens up family secrets which have been buried for far too long. The story, told by multiple narrators, really gets into the heart of the mystery surrounding the abduction, but as time goes on, it becomes obvious that there are more questions than there are answers.

I really enjoyed getting to grips with this clever psychological suspense story which focuses on the dark and deadly secrets which are so often at the centre of a family disaster, and as more and more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle start to fit together we are given a unique insight into certain events which happened a long time ago. There's always something really disturbing about reading a story about a missing child and I thought that the author showed the emotional vulnerability of Emma's family really well and conveyed their defenselessness and also their inherent weaknesses as a family unit. That there are some dark family secrets to be revealed becomes obvious as the story progresses and it’s really interesting to see how the author allows these secrets to be exposed at their own pace without revealing too much, too soon.

When reviewing psychological suspense stories I am always conscious of not revealing very much as to say more would be to divulge far too much of the plot, and, believe me, this really is one of those stories which you need to read with an open mind. The mystery at the heart of the story is well handled and there are more than enough surprises in between to keep you guessing right up to end.

As a debut novel 99 Red Balloons works on several levels. There is great attention to detail, all the characters are finely drawn and whilst believable, they are not all likeable, with the exception of Maggie, who I thought was particularly interesting. The added inclusion of some psychologically damaged and terrifying individuals adds an interesting touch of menace to, what is, a compelling story-line.

There is no doubt that 99 Red Balloons is an exciting debut novel by an emerging new talent.

Thanks also to Sabah at Harper Collins for her invitation to be part of this blog tour and for my review copy of 99 Red Balloons.

~***~

Blog Tour ~ Copy Cat by Alex Lake

Harper Collins
5 September 2017

Blurb...

The gripping new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of After Anna and Killing Kate.

When an old friend gets in touch, Sarah Havenant discovers that there are two Facebook profiles in her name. One is hers. The other, she has never seen.

But everything in it is accurate. Photos of her friends, her husband, her kids. Photos from the day before. Photos of her new kitchen. Photos taken inside her house.

And this is just the beginning. Because whoever has set up the second profile has been waiting for Sarah to find it. And now that she has, her life will no longer be her own…

My thoughts about it ...

When Sarah Havenant discovers that she has two Facebook profiles, she is stunned to find that one of them hasn't been initiated by her, and even though the content relates to her life and family, she is not the one posting the information. Using social media to mess with someone's mind is a very modern modus operandi and presents a real challenge, and as Sarah is about to discover, to her cost, friends aren't always what they seem on the surface.

To say much more would be to give away far too much about this cleverly controlled psychological thriller which starts to crank up the tension from very early on in the novel. There is so much going on, both in terms of Sarah's connection with her friends and also in her relationship with her husband, Ben, and her children, Faye, Miles and Kim. However, it is in the stylishly accomplished takeover of Sarah's life where the story really starts to bite deep.

To say that this novel is creepy is to underestimate the term, 'creepy' as, very quickly, the subtle picking away at Sarah's confidence gathers momentum and it becomes apparent that sinister forces are at work, with the sole intention of destroying everything that Sarah holds dear. The individual chapters which are voiced by the unknown perpetrator are full of hatred and malice and allow a tantalising glimpse into a really tortured mind.

I raced through Copy Cat at top speed as the short, sharp chapters lend themselves to speedy reading and as the story get deeper and deeper into the plot, so the need to know more about what is going to happen next in this taut thriller gets more and more compelling.

They do say that you should keep your enemies close and your friends even closer, which in terms of this tense psychological suspense story is rather a good idea.

About the Author

Alex Lake is a British novelist who was born in the North West of England. After Anna, the author's first novel written under this pseudonym, was a  No. 1 bestselling ebook sensation and a top-ten Sunday Times  best seller. The author now lives in the North East of the US.

Follow on Twitter @AlexLakeAuthor

Take a look at the other blog tour stops

My thanks to Felicity at Harper Collins for the invitation to be part of this blog tour

and also for my review copy of Copy Cat

~***~

Review ~ Dark and Twisted Tales for Grown Ups by Roald Dahl

Penguin
2017

Blurb:

What makes us innocent and how do we come to lose it? Featuring the autobiographical stories telling of Roald Dahl's boyhood and youth as well as four further tales of innocence betrayed, Dahl touches on the joys and horrors of growing up.

Among other stories, you'll read about the wager that destroys a girl's faith in her father, the landlady who has plans for her unsuspecting young guest and the commuter who is horrified to discover that a fellow passenger once bullied him at school.

Featuring extraordinary cover art by Charming Baker, whose paintings echo the dark and twisted world of Dahl's short stories.

Penguin
2017

  

Blurb:

How underhand could you be to get what you want? In these ten tales of dark and twisted trickery Roald Dahl reveals that we are at our smartest and most cunning when we set out to deceive others - and, sometimes, even ourselves.

Here, among others, you'll read of the married couple and the parting gift which rocks their marriage, the light fingered hitch-hiker and the grateful motorist, and discover why the serious poacher keeps a few sleeping pills in his arsenal.

Featuring extraordinary cover art by Charming Baker, whose paintings echo the dark and twisted world of Dahl's short stories.

My thoughts...

I read both of these books back to back and whilst there are similarities in the tone of Roald Dahl's impeccable writing, both books are deliciously different.

Innocence features autobiographical stories in Boy which tells of Dahl's own childhood and of the relationship he had with his family. There are also tantalising glimpses of the burgeoning writer in various references to those seeds of ideas which would germinate in later years and become stories we recognise.

There are four other short stories in this book which Dahl had published in various publications. All reiterate the theme of Innocence :

Taste in The New Yorker in 1951

Galloping Foxley in Town & Country in 1953

The Landlady in The New Yorker in 1959

Lucky Break  in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar in 1977

Trickery contains ten cleverly contrived stories which tell of cunning and deceit and carry all the characteristic trademarks of this wonderfully inventive author. Stories which twist and turn with delicious dark humour, these ten stories are a perfect size to read in half an hour or so, but the impact remains much longer.

Roald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories for adults. These delightfully disturbing tales present a side of Dahl that few have seen before; this stunning collection is most certainly a darker side of Dahl.

Charming Baker has had a string of international sell-out shows. His fans include Damien Hirst, British collector Frank Cohen, gallerist Harry Blain and New York dealer Alberto Mugrabi. His juxtaposition of nostalgia with sex and death is grown-up and playful, his works simultaneously beautiful and intentionally bothersome. His work has been described as ‘a kind of romantic melancholy that is very British. And sometimes the melancholy turns out to have sharp claws.’ The pictures make you sit up and examine your conscience.’ Theses sensibilities could equally be describing Roald Dahl’s approach to his domestically dark adult short stories, making Charming and Roald Dahl the perfect collaborators for these new collections.

Roald Dahl reveals more about the darker side of human nature in eight centenary editions 

Lust, Madness, Cruelty, Deception, War, Trickery, Innocence and Fear

More about the author can be found by clicking here

Twitter #RoaldDahl100

My thanks to Sam at Penguin for my review copies of Innocence and Trickery

~***~

Blog Tour ~ The Spell of the Horse by Pam Billinge

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting today's stop on The Spell of the Horse Blog Tour

I am delighted to introduce the author

Pam Billinge

Hi Pam and welcome to Jaffareadstoo. Tell us a little about yourself and how you came to write The Spell of the Horse?

I live and work in Wiltshire, I am a horse-led coach and psychotherapist. I am bonkers about horses, not from a sporting point of view - I don't compete. I just love being with them and riding out to explore the world in harmony with them. I follow a "natural" approach to training and managing my herd and try to fit into their world as much as I expect them to fit into mine. I love the outdoors, nature, animals, good food, dancing and reading (mostly fiction and memoir). My latest achievement is learning how to get my jam to set - although I did so well I think I could probably use it tore-tile my bathroom.

In 2013 I had to rebrand my business, I offer what I call embodied horse-led therapy and learning to companies and individuals - I will say a little more about that shortly. The consultant I took on to help me with the branding exercise interviewed me on Skype to find out about me and what I do. He started by asking me almost the same question as you have Jo, "Tell me a bit about yourself and how you came to support people with your horse-work in the way that you do?"

We initially scheduled one session of about an hour but the time passed quickly and we had barely scratched the surface. We arranged another, then another and finally a fourth conversation. I got through quite a lot of hankies during each call because I couldn't answer "how did you come to do what you do?" without pretty much telling him my life-story, and in particular the story of how I came to understand what I do about horses and their ability to heal us. And how they healed me. When we were done he said straight out "Pam, you should write a book." I laughed. I had never written anything, apart from a few short articles and blogs, although I had always loved English at school. Writing a book could really not have been further from my mind. But over the months, the seed he had sown began to grow and take shape and the following year I began to write.

Without revealing too much what can you tell us about the book?

At its core, I would say that The Spell is a homage to horses and also to the human spirit. I tell my own story of how horses helped and healed me, through some really tough times, and also stories of transformation which those who have worked with me and my herd have experienced. But really it is not about me, or them. It is about how anyone can transcend the kind of life challenges we all experience at some point or other, like loss of self-belief, rejection, grief, redundancy, trauma and go on to live with purpose, joy and love. And most of all it is about the true nature of the horse and how they guide us to be true to our spirit.

Whilst writing, The Spell of the Horse did you learn anything which surprised you either about yourself, your clients or your horses?

Oh yes! Writing The Spell was as much of a journey as the life I lived in order to be able to write it. Mostly I learned about myself, although the reflection needed to tell the stories did also bring me an even deeper appreciation of the amazing nature of horses, and of the courage shown by my clients in tackling the issues that they do.

Getting the first draft completed was an epic journey with real troughs of self-doubt, fear of failing and being judged. It took a long time before I dared show my work to anyone and I kept telling myself that I wouldn't ever publish, just to make it OK to carry on in the face of my fears. When I did find the confidence to show a couple of people that I trusted, who worked in the publishing world, I was amazed when they told me it was really good and I should carry on. What helped me to find the courage to do that was really my work with clients, which is all about helping them to believe in themselves, and live without fear. If I was going to do the same, I realised, I owed it to myself and to them to get on with it and take my book seriously.

Once I had secured a publishing deal, and fine editing began, a new world of personal learning opened up. Not just about the technical side of writing -but about what my writing revealed of myself. In particular noticing which words I had "overused" in my text. These tended to be words which I realised I also used a lot in daily speech. For example words like 'slightly’, ‘less', 'almost’, ‘just'.....perhaps I was not living or communicating with as much clarity or confidence as I liked to think....that was the one of the things I took away.

Finally the process of publishing has connected me with real feelings of vulnerability. Showing my authentic self so openly to the world. I’m learning still to trust that by becoming vulnerable in this way will bring me strength, and I hope that I will inspire others to be true to themselves in the same way.

Your style of writing is very much 'from the heart'. Did this take its toll on you emotionally, and if so, how did you overcome it?

That is a great question Jo and so insightful. Yes it took a huge toll on me even when I was in final editing stages and knew the copy back to front. Since writing my book I hold anyone who writes a memoir in total respect because I know they have gone through the same process. Because of the nature of my work, as a psychotherapist, I was fortunate to have experience already of how to look after myself emotionally - lots of quiet peaceful time in nature, good food, sleep, exercise, fresh air. Being really kind to myself. Only doing as much as I knew I could deal with on that particular day. And of course my beloved horses, being with them always brings me great peace and comfort, whatever is happening in my life. It is like they connect me into a universal power source - I always leave the herd with renewed energy and heart.

Again, without giving too much away, what do you hope readers will take away from The Spell of the Horse?

I hope that readers will see themselves differently and that they can make different choices about how they live their life, if that is what they need. I hope that they will know horses differently, in all their depth, wonder and value to the planet.

Take a look at the other blog tour stops

My thoughts about The Spell of the Horse

There's something very special about our relationship with horses. For so long we relied on them, they helped to manage our daily lives in such a way that the symbiosis between us runs deep and is forever. In The Spell of the Horse the author reiterates this message time after time and shows just how the perfect cooperation between horse and human can be used to therapeutic effect.

Anyone who has ever had contact with horses will find an immediate connection, and will completely understand the unique spell of the horses in this book. The author writes about this association with fine attention to detail, her special affinity and deep respect for horses shines through with every well written word and every emotional connection.

I think what this book also shows is that it’s not just about galloping horses across feathery fields, or kicking up surf along the water’s edge, as sometimes the most valuable healing comes from just being in close proximity to one of these magnificent creatures. Anyone who has ever stroked the soft face of a horse and looked into the quiet wisdom of its eyes will know exactly what I mean. There’s comfort to be had in standing quietly in a horse’s stall, just listening to the quiet munch of hay, or hearing the stamp of restless feet and the judder of breath.

I can easily understand how the author wanted to share her work and the value of what she does is boundless. The Spell of the Horse is not just about the value of horse led therapy, it’s also a fitting tribute by someone whose love and respect for horses shines through this book from start to finish.

You can find out more about Pam on her website

Visit on Facebook 

Follow on Twitter @pam_billinge #HorseSpell

@Blackbird_Bks

My thanks to the author for being my guest today and to Stephanie and Rosalie at Blackbird Digital for their kind invitation to be part of the tour and for providing an e-copy of 

The Spell of the Horse.

~***~