Into the Water : A Novel by Paula Hawkins Shakespeare's Restless World by Neil MacGregor The Lodger Shakespeare by Charles Nicholl Don't Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier
Book Review – Sumerford’s Autumn by Barbara Gaskell Denvil
Sumerford’s Autumn begins in 1497, twelve years after Henry VII won the crown of England by defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. The Earl of Sumerford, who fought on the wrong side, has been doing his best ever since to rehabilitate the family name and keep his family below notice of the king. … Continue reading Book Review – Sumerford’s Autumn by Barbara Gaskell Denvil
A Christmas Season
In many parts of the English speaking world Christmas begins with decorations hoisted and songs blaring out in shopping centres from late November. The weeks leading up to Christmas are party time and often Christmas is over by 26th December with the well organized dismantling the tree on this day. It is followed by a … Continue reading A Christmas Season
Book Review – Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
First published in 1853, Ruth begins with sixteen-year-old Ruth Hilton, raised in a respectable loving family and newly orphaned, working for a seamstress in the town of Fordham. Beautiful, innocent and unworldly, she unwittingly attracts the attention of a wealthy young man, the feckless Henry Bellingham. When he convinces her to let him take her … Continue reading Book Review – Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
My Reading – November 2017
The Wild Air by Rebecca Mascull The Last Hours by Minette Walters Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell Blue Horses : Poems by Mary Oliver
Book Review – The Wild Air by Rebecca Mascull
The Wild Air begins in 1909 with the arrival in Cleethorpes of fourteen-year-old Cordelia 'Della' Dobbs' great Auntie Betty, after 20 years spent in America. Della is plain, silent and shy, but discovers a kindred spirit in her Auntie Betty who has an interest in engineering and manned flight in particular, having seen the Wright … Continue reading Book Review – The Wild Air by Rebecca Mascull
Forsaking All Other Love is no game for women; the price is far too high. England 1585. Bess Stoughton, waiting woman to the well-connected Lady Allingbourne, has discovered that her father is arranging for her to marry an elderly neighbour. Normally obedient Bess rebels and wrests from her father a year’s grace to find a … Continue reading
Book Review – First Person by Richard Flanagan
First Person is a first person narrative set in the early 1990s in the depths of the ‘recession we had to have’. Kif Kehlmann, an aspiring writer, is struggling both financially and artistically. He lives in a rundown house in Hobart with his wife Suzy who is expecting twins, and their three year old daughter. … Continue reading Book Review – First Person by Richard Flanagan
My Reading – October 2017
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
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
Catherine Meyrick 