Today I’m delighted to be talking to Vivienne Brereton about her recently released novel, Beware the Lizard Lurking. This is the second book in Vivienne’s series, The House of the Red Duke, which follows the fortunes of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, his family and those within his orbit. Vivienne, tell us a little … Continue reading Author Interview – Vivienne Brereton
Should I read on?
Some people judge a book not by its cover but by the opening lines, or perhaps the first page or two. It is wonderful when a brilliant beginning is followed by an equally sparkling book but often the momentum slows. At other times, the opening of a story is serviceable but the storytelling strengthens with … Continue reading Should I read on?
Book Review – Taking the Waters by Lesley Sainty
Following the death of her brother, Alice Elliot finds herself independently wealthy. At the suggestion of family friend and solicitor, Edmund Walter, she decides to come to Cheltenham to consider how she will spend her life from now on. She arrives at the height of the spa season when the fashionable and wealthy come to … Continue reading Book Review – Taking the Waters by Lesley Sainty
The Fall of Kings by Stuart Rudge
Today, I’m pleased to be presenting Stuart Rudge and his newly released book, The Fall of Kings, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. This is the third book in Stuart’s Legend of the Cid series. Blurb Castile. 1071AD. Three kings. One crown. After Sancho II of Castile dispatches … Continue reading The Fall of Kings by Stuart Rudge
My Reading – January 2021
Thomas Cromwell: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch A time there was when a son was born to humble parents in the Surrey village of Putney, a place of little account, at a ferry crossing on the bank of the Thames, 6 miles upstream from the King's Palace of Westminster. The Dry by Jane Harper It … Continue reading My Reading – January 2021
Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things by Wendy J Dunn
Today, I’m pleased to be presenting Wendy J Dunn and her newly released book, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things, as part of a book tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. This is the second book in Wendy's series about Catalina of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. Blurb Winter, 1539 … Continue reading Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things by Wendy J Dunn
The Danish King’s Enemy by M J Porter
Today, I'm pleased to be presenting M J Porter and her book The Danish King's Enemy as part of a book tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. This is the second book in The Earls of Mercia series. Blurb Every story has a beginning. Leofwine has convinced his king to finally face his enemies … Continue reading The Danish King’s Enemy by M J Porter
Book Review – Weave a Web of Witchcraft by Jean M Roberts
Firmly based on fact, Weave a Web of Witchcraft tells the story of Hugh Parsons, a man accused of witchcraft by his wife Mary and tried in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1652. The novel begins in England with fifteen-year-old Hugh reluctantly beginning an apprenticeship as a brickmaker. This has been arranged by his father because although … Continue reading Book Review – Weave a Web of Witchcraft by Jean M Roberts
Wanted! A Wife.
A few months back, while looking at the Wanted ads in issues of the Hobart Mercury of 1878, I was surprised to find, in amongst those for capital hearses, magpies and generally useful boys, an advertisement headed Wanted, a Wife. Mercury, Tas, 22 March 1878 Initially, I was interested to see if ‘Bachelor’ had advertised … Continue reading Wanted! A Wife.
Book Review – A Plague on Mr Pepys by Deborah Swift
Elizabeth Bagwell figures in the diary of Samuel Pepys, the seventeenth century Naval administrator, as one of his most enduring mistresses. The diary provides us with no hint of how Elizabeth, a married woman, achieved this position, especially as Pepys initially described her as ‘a virtuous modest woman’ who he had ‘a kindness’(!) for. In … Continue reading Book Review – A Plague on Mr Pepys by Deborah Swift
