Wild Island by Jennifer Livett The Forgotten Highlander by Alister Urquhart Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Save
One Minute Book Review – The Forgotten Highlander by Alastair Urquhart
This week something slightly longer than a one minute review. The Forgotten Highlander. My Incredible Story of Survival During the War in the Far East is a memoir by Alistair Urquhart (1919-2016). It touches on Urquhart's childhood and post-war life but concentrates on the period in which he was a Prisoner of War of the … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Forgotten Highlander by Alastair Urquhart
In My Garden – Crepe Myrtle
The crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) is a hardy multi-stemmed deciduous tree, native to eastern Asia. It is well suited to most parts of Australia as, once established, it is drought tolerant. It can grow up to 8 metres in height, will thrive despite brutal pruning, and provides a distinctive display through most of the year. … Continue reading In My Garden – Crepe Myrtle
One Minute Book Review – Wild Island by Jennifer Livett
Wild Island by Jennifer Livett is set, for the greater part, in Van Diemen’s Land in the 1830s, a time when, although it was primarily penal settlement, some were beginning to envisage a different future for the colony. The story is told through dual narratives, in the third person concentrating on Charles Booth, the Commandant … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Wild Island by Jennifer Livett
Language in Historical Fiction
I suppose I am getting ahead of myself blogging about the way I write historical fiction when I have nothing published yet, so these are as much the thoughts of a reader as a writer. While the details of place, and manners and customs play a large part in creating the historical world, the style … Continue reading Language in Historical Fiction
One Minute Book Review – 12 Edmondstone Street by David Malouf
12 Edmondstone Street by David Malouf is a memoir/essay which uses his childhood home in Brisbane in the 1930s and 1940s to gently observe the way the beliefs and experiences of a family’s past shape a child's view of and relationship with the world as an adult. Room by room, down to the space beneath … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – 12 Edmondstone Street by David Malouf
One Minute Book Review – The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
The Spinning Heart is set in a small town in Ireland during the immediate aftermath of the Irish economic recession. The novel comprises twenty-one chapters, each a monologue by a different character, each capable of standing alone. The first chapter centres on Bobby Mahon whose story is revealed in bits and pieces through every other … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
My Reading – January 2017
The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski Doc by Mary Doria Russell The Bertie Project by Alexander McCall Smith (many spoilers)
One Minute Book Review – Doc by Mary Doria Russell
I am generally not a reader of American fiction set in the Old West; however, this review of Doc piqued my interest. This is a thoroughly researched engaging novel where even the minor characters, most of whom are based on real people, are well drawn and multifaceted with small vignettes rounding out their characters. The … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Doc by Mary Doria Russell
One Minute Book Review – Endless Night by Agatha Christie
Endless Night by Agatha Christie is a standalone novel first published in 1967. The narrator is Michael Rogers, a young working class man with grand dreams and ambitions. He meets Ellie Guteman, a lonely but wealthy young woman, in Gypsy’s Acre, a scenic ruin with stunning views which appears to have a curse hanging over … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Endless Night by Agatha Christie
Catherine Meyrick 