When I am writing I often listen to music, particularly that of the period I am writing about. I believe the need for music is innate in humans. Up until the present time ordinary people have constantly created music whether it a mother singing a lullaby to a child, a family singing around the piano, … Continue reading The Lowest Trees
One Minute Book Review – Wedlock by Wendy Moore
A compelling non-fiction read which traces the marital fortunes of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Lady Strathmore (a forebear of the late Queen Mother). The book details her marriages, and her separation and ultimate divorce from the charismatic and viciously cruel Andrew Stoney as well as the nail biting tale of her abduction and escape. The book … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Wedlock by Wendy Moore
My Reading – June 2016
Station 11 by Emily St John Mandel The Golden Dice By Elisabeth Storrs Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte No Shred of Evidence by Charles Todd The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull
One Minute Book Review – The Lie by Helen Dunmore
Shell-shocked and haunted by the death of his best friend, Daniel Branwell returns to his childhood village where he no longer has any family ties. He is offered shelter by an elderly blind woman and, when she dies, takes over her isolated cottage setting in train the events and lies, of omission and commission, which … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Lie by Helen Dunmore
Hilary Mantel’s Rules for Writers
There are many, many articles out there containing advice for new and developing writers. I skim through most of them, head nodding, thinking 'Yes, I do that'. The other day I stumbled across this article on writing from 2010 by Hilary Mantel which raised some points I hadn't thought much about before. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/22/hilary-mantel-rules-for-writers Several of … Continue reading Hilary Mantel’s Rules for Writers
One Minute Book Review – Disclaimer by Renee Knight
A riveting read. For the first time in years, I stayed up until 3am to finish this book. In this psychological thriller, documentary maker Catherine Ravenscroft discovers a book she cannot remember buying on her beside table detailing a incident in her life that she thought no one else knew about. The certainties of her … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Disclaimer by Renee Knight
One Minute Book Review – The Luminaries by Eleanor Caton
This vibrant and complex novel, set during the New Zealand Gold Rush, is Victorian in scope and language yet it reads as fluidly as spare modern prose. Thirteen men are drawn together to uncover the mystery at the heart of occurrences on a single night two weeks prior to the opening of the story: a … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Luminaries by Eleanor Caton
My Reading – May 2016
Exposure by Helen Dunmore At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier The Wedding Shroud by Elisabeth Storrs
My Reading – April 2016
The House at Riverton : a Novel by Kate Morton Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? by Alan Duff
My Reading – March 2016
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Disclaimer by Renee Knight A Few Right Thinking Men by Sulari Gentill
