Margaret Prior is an well-to-do spinster who is recovering from her father's death and her own failed suicide attempt. Hoping to bring some purpose to her life, she volunteers as a ‘Lady Visitor’ at Millbank Prison. There she becomes entranced by Selina Dawes, a spiritual medium imprisoned for fraud and assault. The story covers a … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Affinity by Sarah Waters
One Minute Book Review – An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
A thoroughly researched historical mystery set mainly in Oxford in 1663 against the religious and political turmoil following on from the Protectorate and the restoration of Charles II. It deals with a suspicious death and the ensuing trial from four differing viewpoints. None of the narrators is completely reliable but each retelling reveals new aspects … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
One Minute Book Review – The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Published in 1966, Dominican-born Jean Rhys imagines the story of Edward Rochester’s first wife Antoinette Bertha Cosway and her troubled journey from a vulnerable new bride in the lush tropical paradise of the West Indies to madness and imprisonment in a cold English attic. Rhys uses multiple voices to tell the story and transforms the … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
One Minute Book Review – Wake by Anna Hope
Set in November 1920, Wake takes place over the five days between the exhumation and burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day. The account of the body’s journey from an unknown grave in France to London is interwoven with the emotional journey of three bereaved women each struggling to deal with … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Wake by Anna Hope
One Minute Book Review – Touching Distance by Rebecca Abrams
A compelling story, based on fact, which follows the quest by a doctor, Alec Gordon, to discover the cause of an extended outbreak of puerperal fever which is killing newly delivered mothers. It follows the fortunes of his own marriage as well as his battle against the preconceived notions and vested medical interests of his … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Touching Distance by Rebecca Abrams
One Minute Book Review – The Witch and her Soul by Christina Middleton
This is historical fiction at its very best, taking what is known and filling in the gaps in the record with plausible fiction. The story follows the life of Jane Southworth from her childhood to the Lancaster Assizes in 1612 where she was tried for witchcraft as one of the Samlesbury witches. It also touches … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Witch and her Soul by Christina Middleton
Catherine Meyrick 