Call of the Curlew begins on 30 December 2015. 86-year-old Virginia Wrathmell has known for years that one New Year’s Eve she will walk onto the marsh and meet her end there. She has been waiting for a sign. The sign has now appeared on her doorstep in the form of a fragile curlew’s skull. … Continue reading Book Review – Call of the Curlew by Elizabeth Brooks
Book reviews
Book Review – The Lady of the Tower by Elizabeth St John
The Lady of the Tower imagines the life of Lucy St John, a descendant of Margaret Beauchamp (maternal grandmother of Henry VII), from 1603 as she emerges from girlhood to 1630 when she was wife of the Keeper of the Tower of London. With the death of Lucy’s mother five years earlier, the family has been … Continue reading Book Review – The Lady of the Tower by Elizabeth St John
My Reading – April 2018
The Good People by Hannah Kent The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Shafak The Story of English in 100 Words by David Crystal
Reviews of Forsaking All Other
Recent reviews of Forsaking All Other. Mary Anne Yarde 'I think Meyrick has set a new standard of excellence. Forsaking All Other is certainly the best historical romance book I have read in this era. It is, without a doubt, a plot-driven page-turner of a book. ' L S Young 'A believable glimpse into the … Continue reading Reviews of Forsaking All Other
My Reading – December 2017
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
One Minute 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 One Minute Book Review – Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
One Minute 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 One Minute Book Review – First Person by Richard Flanagan
One Minute Book Review – Jungfrau by Dympna Cusack
Jungfrau is the story of three independent young women who have been friends since university, living in Sydney in the mid-1930s. Eve is an obstetrician who has recently returned to her Catholic faith, Marc a social worker with progressive philosophies who lives life to the full and Thea, a teacher, sensitive and lacking the clear-eyed … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Jungfrau by Dympna Cusack
One Minute Book Review – Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore
Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore begins and ends with short chapters set in the present. The story proper commences in 1789 with a man burying a woman’s body in an isolated glade in the fading darkness before sunrise. Three years on Lizzie Fawkes begins her story - she is newly married to widower, John Diner … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore
My Reading for 2016
This year I have done reasonably well with the number and spread of books I have read - mainly historical fiction, some classic fiction, a few non-fiction and some literary fiction including a handful definitely outside my comfort zone. This list, naturally, does not include the number I have started but not finished which were … Continue reading My Reading for 2016
