For about twenty years now, my goal has been to read a book a week. It is not such a difficult thing to do, but something I seem to be incapable of achieving. I usually manage to read forty-eight books, give or take a couple, each year. In 2017 I reached fifty books but this year past only a measly forty. I have my excuses – the early part of the year was taken up with preparing my own book for publication, then I was stumbling around trying to promote it and when I finally had the hang of that, I went of on a jaunt overseas and only managed two books in six weeks. My report card would, no doubt,  read ‘Must try harder in  2019’.

Once again, most of my reading has been historical fiction. It has been very hard to choose my absolute favourites over the year because it was a year of excellent reading. But forcing myself to choose, my top reads for 2018 are

The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal
A poignant and deceptively simple story written in unobtrusive prose with moments of genuine everyday humour.

The Women in Black by Madeleine St John
This sharply observed and lightly humourous novel captures perfectly Australia on the brink of the changes that the 1960s brought. (See the film if you can – it is nostalgic fun.)

Traitor’s Knot by Cryssa Bazos
Cryssa Bazos vividly brings the mid-17^th century to life in both its beauty and its squalor. Her characters are well-rounded and believable, people of their time, yet driven by dreams and hopes understandable to the modern reader.

The King’s Witch by Tracy Borman
‘From superstitious monarchs to grisly tortures and the cruelest of love stories; this book was an unexpected whirlwind which brought this period of history so vibrantly to life!’

The Good People by Hannah Kent
Beautifully written in lyrical prose replete with Irishness, this novel is a great read that totally immerses the reader in another time and place.

The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry
‘Parry creates a great feel of the Edinburgh of the time, including the upper class New Town and shady Old Town …[exploring]… the development of the medical profession as it transitioned from glorified butchery to something more respectable … and a fun and interesting exploration of attitudes and beliefs of the time.’