Sumerford's Autumn by Barbara Denvil Gaskell The Secret Library : a Book-lovers' Journey through Curiosities of History by Oliver Tearle First Person by Richard Flanagan Jane the Quene by Janet Wertheim The Castle of Dreams by Elise McCune
Author: Catherine Meyrick
One Minute Book Review – The Secret Library by Oliver Tearle
The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History is a delightful collection of books and related facts covering around 3,000 years. The books mentioned are not only literature and notable works but lesser known books in a range of areas. The ninety-nine books selected also tell something of the age that produced them. … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Secret Library by Oliver Tearle
Assume Nothing
Recently I have read several books where historical implausibilities have just leapt off the page at me - female cooks in the Manor house of a substantial gentry family in the 1530s, characters attending a play several years before the playwright was even born, a twelve year old girl reading a banned book that was … Continue reading Assume Nothing
Book Review – Wintercombe by Pamela Belle
Wintercombe by Pamela Belle follows a year in the life of the St Barbe family, from October 1644 to September 1645, at the height of the First English Civil War. The St Barbes are a Puritan family and hold the estate of Wintercombe near the village of Norton St Philip in Somerset. Two years earlier, … Continue reading Book Review – Wintercombe by Pamela Belle
My Reading – September 2017
Whipbird by Robert Drewe Crimson and Bone by Marina Fiorato When a Marquis Chooses a Bride by Ella Quinn Wintercombe by Pamela Belle
Book Review – The Battlers by Kylie Tennant
At the height of the Great Depression of the 1930s it is estimated that 30,000 unemployed Australian men took to the road in search of work, often leaving their wives and children to struggle on in the cities and towns. A few women did the same. They took whatever work came their way, fruitpicking, laboring, … Continue reading Book Review – The Battlers by Kylie Tennant
In My Garden – Pittosporum tenuifolium James Stirling
Pittosporum is an evergreen flowering plant found across Australasia, Oceania, eastern Asia and some parts of Africa. Some species are no more than shrubs while others grow into trees of up to 12 metres in height. The leaves spiral around slender woody branchlets and are oval in shape, often with a waved margin. The flowers … Continue reading In My Garden – Pittosporum tenuifolium James Stirling
Book Review – When a Marquis Chooses a Bride by Ella Quinn
This delightful Regency romance is part of a series called The Worthingtons but can be read as a standalone novel. Dorothea 'Dotty' Stern has come down from the country to stay with her friend Lady Charlotte Carpenter for the Season with no immediate thought of marriage. When she meets the the dour and reputedly heartless … Continue reading Book Review – When a Marquis Chooses a Bride by Ella Quinn
Sir Philip Sidney – The Death and Burial of a Most Noble and Valorous Knight
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) Even in his own lifetime, Sir Philip Sidney was seen a peerless knight. Born in 1554, he was the eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley, sister of Elizabeth's favourite Robert, 1st Earl of Leicester. In 1571 Philip Sidney began a tour of the Continent with the aim … Continue reading Sir Philip Sidney – The Death and Burial of a Most Noble and Valorous Knight
Book Review – Crimson and Bone by Marina Fiorato
Near the beginning of Crimson and Bone Annie Stride, the main character of the novel, describes a room in the house of pre-Raphaelite painter Francis Maybrick Gill as 'a jewel box of a place'. Much the same could be said of this novel with its vibrant descriptions of the physical surroundings, of the characters and … Continue reading Book Review – Crimson and Bone by Marina Fiorato
