Today’s team review is from Frank. Frank has been reading One Tuesday, Early by Annalisa Crawford. I don’t have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to adequately praise this delightful novel. It is an exploration of the aftermath of a domestic … Continue reading
Today’s team review is from Frank. Frank has been reading London Tales by Tim Walker. A sequence of short stories set in London during different historical periods, this is an easy and informative read. Young people especially will welcome the … Continue reading
Today’s team review is from Frank. Frank has been reading Bardo by Emily Gallo Emily Gallo specialises in stories about people living on the fringes of United States Society. Several of her books feature some of the same characters. In … Continue reading
Today’s team review is from Frank. Frank has been reading Better Dirty Than Done by Rick Czaplewski. A young man with cancer is enabled to see a scan of his tumour days before he meets his oncologist to discuss the … Continue reading
Today’s team review is from Frank. Frank has been reading The Low Road by Katharine Quarmby Eight year old Hannah lives with her mother on a farm in Norfolk. They are ‘in service’, working for the farmer and his wife. … Continue reading
Today’s team review is from Frank.
Frank has been reading Penelope: Tudor Baroness by Tony Riches.
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of reading Tony Riches account of the life of Walter Raleigh. One of Raleigh’s principle rivals was Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. This latest volume explores the life of Devereux’s sister, Penelope, who, among other things, spends a great deal of time concerned about her brother and his propensity for incurring debts.
Trapped in an arranged marriage to the Puritan Baron Robert Rich, she asserts her independence and risks banishment from Queen Elizabeth’s court by conducting a clandestine affair with Charles Blount, another associate of both Devereux and Raleigh (and cousin to her mother’s third husband), eventually securing the first official divorce in the relatively new protestant regime.
Somehow she charms both herself and her brother out of a charge of treason and maintains her place in Elizabeth’s court until the Queen’s death, whereupon she becomes favourite Lady-in-Waiting to King James’s wife, Anne of Denmark.
Like all of Riches’s work the book is characterised by meticulous research and an easy to read style. It is sometimes hard to follow the interactions between the various noble families and their members, including Penelope’s sister and her mother, out of favour with the Queen because of her second marriage to Lord Leicester. It is hard not to think of the lives of these Tudor families as resembling the twists and turns of a modern soap opera – but then, I suppose the creators of soap operas base their plots on true stories such as these.
Contemporary events alluded to include the war with Spain, the Armada, England’s response to it and, of course, the establishment of colonies in America and the Caribbean.
As with Raleigh, I received an advance copy of this book through Rosie Amber’s review site. I can earnestly recommend it, and Riches’s other books in the series, to anyone whose interest in this fascinating period in our history goes beyond the events we learned about in school to explore the private lives of the key participants in those events.
A Life of Love and Scandal
Lady Penelope is one of the most beautiful and sought-after women in Elizabethan England. Daughter of the queen’s nemesis, Lady Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex, she becomes the stepdaughter of Robert Dudley when he marries her mother in secret.
Penelope’s life is full of love and scandal. The inspiration for Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet Astrophel and Stella, she is inevitably caught up in her brother Robert’s fateful rebellion.
A complex and fascinating woman, her life is a story of love, betrayal, and tragedy. Discover how Penelope charms her way out of serious charges of treason, adultery, and forgery, and becomes one of the last truly great ladies of the Tudor court.
A maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth, Penelope outlives the end of the Tudors with the death of the old queen and the arrival of King James, becoming a favourite lady-in-waiting to the new queen, Anne of Denmark.
Today’s team review is from Frank
Frank has been reading Semi-Detached by Deborah Stone
There is a point near the end of this book when one of the characters says that what has happened is so improbable that were he to submit it to the producers of Eastenders, as a potential storyline, they would reject it. It echoes my own impression, much earlier in the story, when I thought to myself “this is preposterous and yet it is entertaining, just like a soap opera.”
That is the main point I want to make: Semi-Detached is an entertaining read despite the impossibility of suspending disbelief. The two central female characters come across as rather naive and dim witted; their respective husbands as controlling misogynists. In fact, the only character that is at all likeable is the husband that behaves in the most despicable fashion.
Not that this is surprising because his whole modus operandi is to use his considerable charm to perpetrate fraud on credulous individuals.
Despite the implausibility of the premise, it was fairly obvious from quite early on where the story was heading. Anticipating how Ms Stone would get us there is part of the entertainment. But, to her credit, she does not stop there. She is able to deliver a final twist that makes it all come right for the younger generation of her cast of characters.
Semi-Detached lacks the literary qualities that would make it a five star novel. It does not adequately address serious social issues. It doesn’t offer insights into human behaviour. The main characters, unlike those in soap operas, seem disembodied from the communities in which they exist. Nevertheless I believe it merits more than three stars for its entertainment value. My rating, therefore, is 3.5
Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what is seems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.
Today’s team review is from Frank.
Find out more about Frank here https://franklparker.com/
Frank has been reading The Thin Blue-Yellow Line Between Love & Hate by Anton Eine.
In the spring of 1941 my mother left London. She was accompanied by her mother and carrying me in her womb. She had spent much of the preceding 12 months working in Air Raid Precautions. She was present in London during the 58 days of the ‘Blitz’ in September and October 1940, when she not only saw the devastation caused by Hitler’s bombers but assisted with the organisation of shelters and providing food for families whose homes had been destroyed.
In the summer of 1943 my father was one of 50,000 aircrew involved in the bombing of German cities. He took part in the raids which generated a fire storm over Hamburg, as a result of which 2 million civilians are said to have fled that city. He lost his life when the bomber of which he was Flight Engineer was shot down during a raid on Mannheim in November 1943.
Since 1945 neither the UK or Europe has had first hand experience of such a conflict. Whilst many US Army, Navy and Air Force personnel participated in that conflict and many others since, North America has never been under attack. Two generations of citizens in what we usually refer to as the Western Democracies have no idea what it is like to be subjected to bombardment on such a scale.
Since February 24th 2022, the citizens of Ukraine have had to get used to daily bombardments. For the first weeks after that date many also had to suffer the brutality of occupation by an army of individuals whose behaviour, revealed once they were driven back, marked some as psychopaths.
Anton Eine’s book documents the first 100 days following the unprovoked attack. The story of his own escape from Kyiv, with his young family, to the relative safety of Lviv in the west of the country, is harrowing enough. He brings together the tales of many other families from around Ukraine, collected via email and the internet. He also provides much more detail about the terrorising of Bucha, and other towns and neighbourhoods liberated from Russian occupation, than were shown on UK television at the time.
The book has been translated into English and is shows Eine’s diversity as an accomplished writer adding to his stable of works which include science fantasy novels. In this book he talks candidly about the difficulty of shielding his 3-year-old son from news about the ‘good soldiers’ and the ‘bad soldiers’.
‘Bad soldiers’ is a sanitised version of what Eine calls the Russian army and their leader. In fact, the most striking thing about the book, is the visceral hatred of the Russian ‘Orcs’ that comes across in every paragraph.
It is plain that the damage caused by Putin’s ‘Special Operation’ extends way beyond the destruction of buildings and infrastructure and the unnecessary deaths of civilians, to the minds of the people, leaving a scar that it will take generations to heal.
Although, I did not finish the book, I would suggest that it is essential reading for anyone who has not experienced the realities of modern warfare. Which means every citizen under 75 in most of Europe and North America. For that reason I cannot rate it less than 5 stars out of 5.
A diary chronicling the hopes, pain and fears of ordinary Ukrainians collected during the current war. Frank, emotional and straight from the heart.
This book is about the first 100 days of fascist Russia’s perfidious and unfounded invasion of Ukraine. But it is not an account of the war and its battlefield engagements. It’s about people. About their feelings and emotions, their experiences, fears and pain, their suffering, hope and love.
I started writing this book one sleepless night in Kyiv when I had been kept awake all night by the roar of our aerial defense system and explosions nearby, listening out for approaching rockets and bombs and wondering whether I should take my wife and young son and run for the air-raid shelter. That night, I realized that I had a duty as a writer to act as a voice for those whose stories desperately needed to be told to other people in the world.
I wrote about what I saw and felt. About the stories, my relatives and friends shared with me. It became a chronicle, memoir, diary and confession. I set down our stories so that the whole world might know and understand what we have been through. So that the whole world might share our experiences of this war alongside us – in our trembling buildings, in our freezing cold basements, underground parking lots, bomb shelters and metro stations and in the ruins of our burning cities. So that the world might be given a glimpse into our hearts through the lacerated wounds that have been inflicted on them by this cruel and barbaric war.
Today’s team review is from Frank.
Find out more about Frank here https://franklparker.com/
Frank has been reading Lake Of Echoes by Liza Perrat
There is so much that is great about this book that it is difficult to know where to start. So I will start at the beginning. Léa took on the business of running an Auberge beside a lake in rural France in order to give her something to take her mind off the tragic loss of her son by cot death at just 3 months old. Now, in 1969, it is clear that her marriage is on the rocks. She and husband Bruno, Head Master at the village school, are constantly bickering, blaming each other for the tragedy. During one particularly heated exchange their 8 year old daughter, Juliette, wanders off. When she does not return we have the beginnings of a tension filled mystery. And the ensuing plot is handled with consummate skill by this Australian writer who has lived in France for more than two decades.
For those of us old enough to remember them, the years embracing the end of the sixties and beginning of the seventies can offer a rosy hued vision of ‘flower power’; of Height Ashbury and Woodstock, of armed guards confronted by hippies pushing flowers into the barrels of their guns. But it was also a time of riots across several European nations and the USA, of the cold war and fears of communism and nuclear war; a time when strange cults emerged led by charismatic psychopaths who brainwashed their adherents into believing dangerous nonsense. It is this atmosphere that Perrat taps into with her mesmerising tale.
The first half of the book concentrates on Léa’s attempts to come to terms with the loss of another child. As weeks pass and nobody is found whilst more girls from the same age group disappear, we share her anger at the incompetence of the Gendarmerie. When she seeks help from a friend who claims to be clairvoyant she is treated with scorn. Meanwhile readers are provided with tantalising glimpses of the abductor and his henchwomen, his wife and sister.
The second half of the book presents a description of the lives of the girls under the discipline ordered by the abductor and administered by the women. The abductor’s master plan is revealed and tension rises as Juliette devises an escape plan.
The climax is superbly handled. There is no siege by armed gendarmes as might be the case today. I can’t tell you how the situation is resolved, for that would spoil your pleasure in reading it for yourself, something which I urge you to do.
The events are told from the different points of view of several of the characters. Each has a unique and utterly believable voice. The children, especially, are beautifully drawn. Animals, too, have important roles and their behaviour demonstrates the author’s skill as an observer of every aspect of life in rural France. So, too, do her descriptions of the landscape and climate. It is these details that bring the novel to life and make it one of the best domestic thrillers you will read in a long time. I wish I could award more than 5 stars.
A vanished daughter. A failing marriage. A mother’s life in ruins.
1969. As France seethes in the wake of social unrest, eight-year-old Juliette is caught up in the turmoil of her parents’ fragmenting marriage.
Unable to bear another argument, she flees her home.
Neighbours joining the search for Juliette are stunned that such a harrowing thing could happen in their tranquil lakeside village.
But this is nothing compared to her mother, Lea’s torment, imagining what has befallen her daughter.
Léa, though, must remain strong to run her auberge and as the seasons pass with no news from the gendarmes, she is forced to accept she may never know her daughter’s fate.
Despite the villagers’ scepticism, Léa’s only hope remains with a clairvoyant who believes Juliette is alive.
But will mother and daughter ever be reunited?
Steeped in centuries-old tradition, against an enchanting French countryside backdrop, Lake of Echoes will delight your senses and captivate your heart.
Today’s team review is from Frank. Find out more about him here https://franklparker.com/
Frank has been reading Raleigh by Tony Riches.
There are prize winning books based on the lives of the Tudors. I’m thinking of Hilary Mantell and Alison Weir among others. And then there is Tony Riches. Raleigh is the ninth book about various Tudors from this prolific writer of historical fiction.
The first thing to say about this book is that it is meticulously researched and carefully avoids the myths and legends that surround the Elizabethan adventurer. What we get instead is a portrait of the man and his career. One of the myths that Riches destroys is that Raleigh was Queen Elizabeth’s favourite. On the contrary, he is constantly disappointed at her rejection of his plans and her preferment of others, especially Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex and, later, Robert Cecil.
In this interpretation of Raleigh’s life he comes across as a man not unlike a modern entrepreneur: able to persuade others to invest in his adventures on the promise of excellent returns, equally able to delegate responsibility for the management of his estates and other enterprises to others.
It is difficult to understand how men like William Langherne, his first secretary, lost overboard off the coast of Ireland, and Thomas Harriot who became Langherene’s replacement, after serving for years as the principle organiser of his North American expeditions, were able to remain loyal to him.
He has little regard for the orders of his superiors, willing to disobey if he can see a better way to achieve the desired objective. Many of his ambitions are either thwarted or end in failure. Settlers recruited for his ‘colonies’ in Ireland and Virginia are decimated by ‘native’ rebels.
Admirers of Hilary Mantell would no doubt be unimpressed by the lightness of this portrait. That is not to belittle Riches’ work. On the contrary, the simplicity of his style makes the stories he tells accessible to a much wider readership. It is a reason he has earned the accolade as Amazon best selling author, why his blog has over a million views and his podcasts 150,000 downloads.
I’m happy to recommend this book to anyone interested in the Tudors and to award it four stars.
Tudor adventurer, courtier, explorer and poet, Sir Walter Raleigh has been called the last true Elizabethan.
He didn’t dance or joust, didn’t come from a noble family, or marry into one. So how did an impoverished law student become a favourite of the queen, and Captain of the Guard?
The story which began with the Tudor trilogy follows Walter Raleigh from his first days at the Elizabethan Court to the end of the Tudor dynasty.
A book a day is bliss😍
Welcome to my world: digging, harvesting and other stuff
bestselling author, also known as Victoria Hawthorne
A quest for the magic in life, language, and literature
Tonight I Dream. Tomorrow I Do!
Part of something bigger in a small town garden.
Sayling Away
Gardens, gardeners, and growing ideas
adventures in my gardens
author
Feel the rain, take a book and have a cuppa:-)
Sharing thoughts on the books I read, new authors, favourite authors, classics re-visisted
Damp and in the middle of nowhere
Enjoying life. In Ireland. With my family.
Ideas from a Suffolk garden
Rosie Amber 