Trimming England - M.J.Nicholls

 My first perception of this book was that it would be a charming little novel expressing discontent with the state of our nation. I read the blurb and imagined a story set in Jersey with a number of irritating people and I thought the story might revolve around how they might be irritating each other when placed together in the same location. Oh, how wrong could I be?

This is unlike any story I’ve read before. The premise is that the British Prime Minister decides to rid each English county of its most irritating citizen by sending them to a horrible hotel on the island of Jersey for sentences of varied lengths. 

Taking each county in turn M.J. Nicholls offers us its most irritating citizen stating their name, their age, their sentence and their crime. What follows is a tour de force of creative and satirical imagination. Some had me almost crying with laughter. For example Somerset’s most irritating citizen, Wilbur Austryn, 63 years old was sentenced for 10 years for creating an offensive index in the fourth edition of the Somerset Hill guide! I quote, ‘ Staple Hill - as Fats Domino sang: “I found my thrill, nowhere near this smelly scrofulous chit of a hillock.’ Of the 40 or so hills featured Wilbur has nothing good to say about any of them!

But behind the wit and humour I extracted a more serious intent - a satirical and perceptive observation of our society, currently. I had a sense of Spike Milligan meets Charlie Kaufmann. There is an absurdity to some of the unlikely situations but sometimes the absurd gets closer to the truth than the truth itself. 

Nicholls has a way with words that I envy! I sometimes wondered if some of them were of his own invention - ‘blabberoonification’ - my spellchecker could only shrug and say “no results found“. But each word was just so perfect and conveyed exactly, I hope, what the author intended. Certainly this reader found them perfect. It’s a kind of improvised prose, spontaneous prose such as Kerouac produced. Perhaps one of the best, or more accurately, one of my favourite entries is for Warwickshire. It’s blistering prose that just begs you to read it aloud, barely pausing for breath, like a virtuoso instrument break. And there are plenty of literary and musical allusions throughout the book. Mr Nicholls is culturally enhanced.

Illustrated by Kathleen Nicholls, a relative possibly? It matters not. They are an appropriate addition with their deceptive simplicity to the stories they accompany .

In one sense it’s hard to place this in any specific genre. It could be seen as a collection of flash fiction. But it’s one of those books where you just know that it’s okay to throw genres out the window. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, sadly. But for those who read it and enjoy it and appreciate the creativity, their lives will be richer for it.

My thanks to New Books magazine for a gifted copy.

We Are Animals -Tim Ewins

 I truly believe that sometimes books choose us rather than the other way round. Maybe that’s a tad whimsical or maybe I’m just a victim of the subliminal, subversive nature of social media! But this book infiltrated its way into my consciousness. So strongly I had to buy a copy. I had that sense that this would be a book I’d love. I never know where that feeling comes from. But I get it from time to time. And it’s never let me down. No matter that I know nothing of the author, nothing of the publisher etc. It’s just such a strong impulsive instinct. 

And with We Are Animals it’s happened again. The impulse.  Has it let me down,  my instinct? No it damn well hasn’t!

Oh I loved this book. It’s just full of everything that makes reading such a pleasure. Wit, warmth, an eye for a good story, an understanding of plot construction, some delightful characterisations with mixed locations and varied chronologies. There is delightful use of what I’d called leitmotif if this was a musical composition but maybe quirky repetition is the literary term!   All these elements are mixed together with exactly the right balance. You’ll laugh, and you’ll cry too, and it’s not a book that’s afraid of emotion. It’s a clever book, subtly clever, unassumingly clever, not an in-your-face, look at me, I’m smart, kind of book. 

The premise is quirky. A boy and a girl both called Jan meet in unprecedented circumstances and I’m not going to be queen of the spoilers but that’s the catalyst really for all that follows. There are some coincidences that will make you chuckle and there is an element of fate intervening and interfering on certain occasions. Poxy fate! 😉 There is an observation of people and their idiosyncrasies. There is an understanding of peoples’ need to find themselves and follow intuitions no matter how off centre they may appear to be. The story just misses being completely surreal but there is sometimes that feeling to it. The characters are so well defined and so likeable. You’re rooting for them, you’re rooting for everything to work out. As a reader you find yourself irrevocably committed to everybody and you don’t want to stop reading until you know that every one is okay.

And of the title? How about a cow on the beach with a puppy for a friend, fishes in Fishton, cockroaches and horses…… not to mention the humans. In some ways it’s a Backpackers Guide to the Universe. But it’s exactly the kind of book that we need right now. Because it takes you inside yourself and outside yourself, it takes you all over the world to places you didn’t know you needed to be and there’s no green, amber or red light. And if you really want to pare it down to the bare, bare minimum. It’s about love.

I want to read it again. Now.

I bought it from Lightning Books online. But, cheapskate that I am, I did have a discount code. I regret that now. It is worth every penny of its full price.  

The Mad Women's Ball - Victoria Mas translated by Frank Wynne

 A fine example of quality not quantity, this slender volume weighs in at just over two hundred pages but condensed within its chapters it packs quite a punch. The treatment of mental health has thankfully changed over the decades but a story like this won’t fail to send shivers down your spine at what these women endured. Historically fascinating; The Saltpetriere Hospital remains a University Hospital to this day and the doctors in this story were real neurologists. For me one of the marks of a good historical fiction is whether it makes me want to find out more, and this book did. I’ve read about the hospital, originally a gunpowder factory, hence its name and the doctors, the ball itself was an actual event…. Sociologically interesting; how women were incarcerated by their families in an asylum with little or no evidence of mental health issues but plenty of potential embarrassment for these families. But this book is more than mere histfic and social comment. It contains elements of the gothic and more.

It’s a concisely constructed narrative with the interactions between characters seamlessly and efficiently executed. The characters themselves make for an interesting collection of ‘them’ and ‘us’ to a degree, the ‘us’ being the women of the institution. Where the two start to cross over gives the novel its edge and we see stiff, starchy, Genevieve open her mind, and maybe her heart, to a wider consideration of all that she has experienced and understood so far. Eugenie impresses as the feisty, independent thinking Parisian woman with a singular gift. And Theophile, her brother, who seems caught in between the 'them' and the 'us' divide. I found that the female characters each had significant parts to play, not just within the story but in the mind of the reader. The male characters seemed weak, trying to control but exposing their tunnel vision in the process. It’s a masterful study in the cultural gender divides of the time.

Ably translated by Frank Wynne who allows none of Mas’s sparkle to fade it is no surprise to me that this debut has already garnered some accolades. It’s one of those books that strikes a balance between having something impactful to say but remaining an entertaining read. A book that once read will stay with you for a long time. Your heart will break for the injustices served upon some of these women. But your heart will soar for a story well written.

My thanks to the Bookmarks Community for this prize, in every sense of the word, book.  

Sisterhood - V.B. Grey Blog Tour

 

An onion tale of World War II, secrets, sisters and resistance, in several senses of the word. Layer by layer the truth is revealed. Multilayered truths between sisters and mothers and daughters, depicting how the effects of war continue to scar future generations. If that sounds bleak and unyielding the plot construction and strength of the narrative serve as a panacea for the harsh events that take place.

Our heroines, Shona and Freya, are identical twins, so alike it can be hard to tell them apart, but very different in character. There is a dual chronology between 1989, significant because it is the year the Berlin Wall fell and 1944 when the world was in the ravages of World War II. The twins are in their 20s, one is a doctor and the other has been recruited by the army’s Special Operations Executive.

What happens to them in these war years fuels the thrust for the rest of the novel. It would be a disservice to give too much away suffice to say that love plays a part, a very big part in the lives of all of the characters in this novel, male and female. But the nature of that love can vary on several levels from parental to patriotic. 

The novel actually concludes in 1990 in a poignant ending pondering the nature of secrets and the breaking down of walls both physical and metaphysical. It’s a story full of excitement and tension in some of the war sequences balanced with some considerations regarding life and how we live it in other parts of the story. It’s a beautifully written book from an experienced writer.

My thanks to the Bookends team for a gifted proof.And to Ella Patel at Quercus Books for an opportunity to participate in the Social Media Blast.

A Witch Hunt in Whitby - Helen Cox - Blog Tour

 I do declare that for cosy crime this series is becoming less cosy by the volume!! This fifth title in the series sees Kitt and her merry band meddling with the occult in a bid to solve some grizzly serial killings.If you’re familiar with the series you’ll be relieved to know that the whole gang are here again although Chapter 1 sees Kitt and Malc  having something resembling a domestic, or as it’s to do with policing and solving crimes it might be better described as a ‘policestic’! 

I think that if you’re a regular reader of crime and mystery stories you know that no character can be dismissed from your own list of suspects. You also know that it has to be one of those characters featured in the story. I’m feeling pretty smug because I did figure who “dunnit“. And I was desperate to tell Kitt what I thought!! But, as ever, she had Grace and Evie to help her but I gotta say it took them longer without my input.😉

I love these books. I get excited whenever a new one comes along. It’s like hanging out with your mates. And I marvel at this author’s ability to keep coming up with plots of complexity. But for a reader it means you’ve got to stay on your toes, stay reader alert, to keep up with the people and the events. The locations are also interesting as they use a detailed knowledge of the locale to compliment the investigations. And here it’s Whitby whose literary claim to fame is that Bram Stoker came there and credits Whitby with inspiration for Dracula. I’ve often wondered with all of these books whether the inhabitants of the places featured enjoy the books in a different kind of way to those of us who may not know the locations at all? Although by the time you read this books you feel like you could find your way around many of these places. 

Something else I like about book series is seeing the characters develop but also seeing how the writer manages to sustain them as people. I love Kitt’s sanguine approach to the crime she’s solving And her literary knowledge.  Grace’s wit and sarcasm always makes me chuckle.

In spite of the complicated story lines these are easy books to read. They flow and progress in a very pleasing manner. And now I sit and twiddle my thumbs until the next one comes along. 😉

My thanks to Katya Ellis and  Quercus books for a gifted copy and a place upon the blog tour.

Andy and the Octopuses - Isabelle Kenyon

‘ In a world of Elevated Intelligence, where octopuses are bred as computer-coding slaves, there are three types of people: the ignorant, the complacent and the activists.

Couch-bum Andy has received a promotion and a wriggling mass of tentacles as his new team. Suddenly, Andy is a breadwinner for six hungry mouths whose intelligence intimidate his own. He’d rather run from this new-found responsibility, than look into their watery pupils directly….’

This is a wonderfully surreal and amusing short story that somehow encapsulates much of what is both right and wrong in our Internet driven age. There’s something wonderfully hapless about Andy who gets where he is by not necessarily adhering to the whole truth and nothing but the truth! And for his sins he ends up with a team of six octopuses. No! I’d never read anything like it before either! But it’s just such fun. And yet interwoven within this uncanny storyline is an altruism from the protagonist that again touches on aspects of our contemporary life and the need to revere and nurture the natural world. The narrative is so convincing that you end up not finding it too weird to be conversing with octopuses and considering their physical and emotional needs as deeply as you do your own! 

Short, easy to read but a complete story with a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s an absolute delight. 

I bought my copy from Fly on the Wall Press. You can get yours there too.

Here’s the link.

https://www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk

Life on Other Planets - Matt Cook - Blog Tour

With a title such as this I guess I could’ve been forgiven for thinking this might be a sci-fi tale. But my expectations were wide open as I settled to start this novel from an author unfamiliar to me. Reader, I finished it in less than 24 hours! I was utterly captivated.

For a start it is wonderfully written. An easy, yet, evocative prose style that coaxes the narrative smoothly along. I had a sense of a natural, intuitive storyteller. The story is a bittersweet fusion of the tragic and the comic and I sensed echoes of John Irving, Salinger, even, as I read of adolescent Ben and his dysfunctional family, grappling with grief after the demise of Aunt Pearl and their obsessive search for her Last Will and Testament.  Matt Cook has struck an almost perfect balance between the poignant and the lighter hearted.

The characters are accessible and believable despite their eccentricities and the author is a perceptive observer of human behaviour. Not only that, he can use those perceptions to create people we care about no matter how questionable their behaviour is because he is able to identify what is hidden beneath peoples’ veneers and tease our hidden empathies towards those people.

It’s a coming-of-age story, it’s a dealing with grief story, it’s a family dynamic story. It covers a spectrum of emotion with sensitivity and there’s an implicit gentleness that so fuses prose and narrative seductively you want to keep reading, and you want the book to continue for ever.

And as for the title? I’m not going to tell you what that’s about. You’ll have to read the book but I will say there is a cult involved and planets are mentioned! And as for that final chapter………well?!?

And if you want more than a ‘mere’ a story there is some life philosophy woven into the text too.

“Nothing makes sense when you really look at it. There is no logic. Everyone behaves like things happen because of other things. Like dominoes. It always feels like if you could find a way to get high enough and see the whole pattern from above, it will all become clear. But it’s a lie. Things just happen. I can’t be bothered looking for reasons anymore. It’s exhausting.”

Well, sums up life today for me anyhow!

Hard to believe that this is a first novel. In many ways it reads like the work of a seasoned and experienced novelist. And if this is the first then I’m really hoping there’s going to be more? In fact I’m feeling more than hope. I’m feeling very excited.

My thanks to Isabelle Kenyon at Fly on the Wall Press for a place upon the blog tour and a gifted copy of this book which will go on my forever shelf. 

Cyprus Kiss - Murray Bailey

The name’s Carter. Ash Carter. 

Ash is back. He’s in Cyprus. 

He’s still swashing buckles with relentless energy, putting himself in peril.  

But it’s a younger Ash. 

In this book he is still a Lieutenant and honing his skills. He’s an army investigator. 

With a complex and fast moving plot Murray Bailey allows us a glimpse into the earlier career of this thoroughly, decent guy, Ash. So decent, he doesn’t always see who or what is right under his nose! But I did, Ash! I suspected right from the start. But then maybe I’m at an advantage. For I know a little about the older Ash! I know just how his skills and expertise develops. 

‘Help Me! Those were the words on the back of a woman’s photograph. And yet she vanished six months ago. It’s 1948 and military investigator Ash Carter has arrived in Cyprus. A gang has been operating for two years, leaving a mark known to police as the kiss of death. Is this something to do with them? And why ask him for help? After a murder, Carter begins to realize this is personal. In a race against time, Carter must work out the connection between the gang, the missing woman and the murder, before it’s too late.’

With the thoroughness we’ve come to expect from Murray Bailey the details of the historical, political and military situations in Cyprus and Palestine are referred to but never allowed to dominate what is an entertaining action adventure. However without them the story would lack some of the convincing authenticity to which his readers are treated to. 

If you have read any of these books before you know exactly what to expect and you won’t be disappointed. But if you’re a newcomer, sit your self down, strap yourself in and enjoy one hell of a ride. But you need to stay on your toes because everything you read will be important. Every character has a part to play. It’s a “goodies and baddies“ tale but it’s deciding who belongs to which group that will keep you glued to the narrative. 

My thanks to Librarything and the author himself for a much treasured signed, gifted copy.

Rose Nicholson - Andrew Greig

 

Historical fiction has never been quite the same since Hillary Mantel got her hands on it! The breadth of her ambition and achievement threatened to let everything else pale in comparison. Or so I thought. Then I read Andrew Greig’s Rose Nicholson. I’m sure that for during the duration of my reading I began thinking in the Scottish dialect! So palpable and authentic is his narrative that I was almost immediately enveloped in the 16th century Scotland, grappling with the Reformation and crises of faith in the same way that I lived alongside Thomas Cromwell in Mantel’s trilogy.

William Fowler is our hero and protagonist, student at Saint Andrews, learning to think in Latin and on his feet. As with all the great storytellers,  pivotal, sliding door moments perhaps, open up the novel for what follows. A chance encounter with a redheaded youth and the lending of a knife is one catalyst. Another encounter with a fisher girl and a subsequent friendship with her brother set all wheels in motion for this entertaining and immersive novel of romance and the conflicts that religion can provoke in the hearts of men. Throughout the novel Greig strikes an almost perfect balance between the two strands of the story. Fowler, no doubt based on the real William Fowler, is very real. His responses and philosophies lead the reader to ponder whether throughout time immemorial youngsters follow similar patterns of thought, action, inaction and reaction.

I loved Fowler’s observations as to the nature of History - 

‘For the most past History goes by us like the breeze, lightly brushing at our sleeve as if ‘Come along! Come along!’ We notice in the distance it is bending the corn, and observe on the high road it has shaped trees to the east. News comes to us days later of armies meeting, a royal birth, an execution, the plague in another city. We meet in the street, talk about it, and pass on to our more pressing interests of the day - our sick child, a ship arriving with new merchandise, the by-law from  the Council setting the hours for the water pumps, the cutting of silver content in our coins, that attractive smile across the street…’

It is as if nothing changes fundamentally throughout history in terms of the way people deal with their lives. It is the specifics that change dramatically. 

It is one thing to tell a story, but to tell it with such exacting and flowing prose adds a sustaining satisfaction to the book. One of those novels where there is a sense, need even, to read sections aloud and let the words tumble off your tongue for the sheer exhilaration of someone who has assembled all the right words in all the right places at all the right times. The research is thorough, convincing and, for me, the real measure of its worth is whether it has me hungry for more. So I went a googling, for William Fowler and James VI. But not all the characters are googleable. The titular Rose is of the imagination but her power to convey the restrictions ‘enjoyed’ by sixteenth century women will cause many a reader to ponder the relative freedoms women have acquired over the centuries.

I was most grateful for the glossary of Scottish words. At times I felt I was learning a new language, very willingly so, for to describe myself as ‘doolie’ or ‘glaikit’ seems so much more interesting than merely melancholy or foolish. 

It’s a book for the historically curious, and it’s a book for the word lover and a book for those who simply revel in good writing. It’s rich in historic detail and allows us a window into a time when life was precarious and looking over your shoulder was as part of life the  as wearing a face mask has become now. 

To my shame this is the first Andrew Greig book I have read. Yet I see he has a significant back catalogue of fiction, non fiction and poetry. Part of me shudders; but another part of me is very excited to have so much work to add to my TBR lists.

My thanks to Ana McLaughlin and Elizabeth Masters at riverrun for a gifted copy. 

Books, Reading and Synchronicity

 

Is it in any way possible that these three books can have anything in common? Two historical fictions and a French translation? All gifted copies from different sources. Seems unlikely doesn’t it? However……..

I read these books in the order photographed. I had no prior knowledge of the authors and I guess I had no expectations of any of the books. The first is a stunning historical fiction set in 1574 in Edinburgh detailing a period of Scotland’s history. It was the first time I had come across the name ‘Buccleuch’ pertaining to the Duke of Buccleuch in Scotland and the Scott family. I did not expect to come across the term again in the next book I read! But I did! The Fair Botanists is another historical fiction, this time set in 1822 and in Edinburgh. I promise you I did not plan this! The Scott family and  Buccleuch feature in the story. But primarily the book is about two women with an interest in botany. So I finish that book and I pick up the next book. Set in Japan there is nothing that even remotely refers to Edinburgh or Scotland! But the main character is……….  a botanist! 

It’s like 6° of separation but with books, not people. I’ve come across this before, the reading of one book seems to lead on to the reading of another with some seemingly spurious connection. It’s as if some deeper force is at work guiding my literary journey. I love it! I find it exciting……or maybe I need to get out more!? 

The Secret Bridesmaid - Katy Birchall

 

Okay, now, so I don’t usually ‘do’ chick lits and rom coms, not really my bag ,but when you get sent a delicious, uncorrected proof from a generous publisher it’s rude not to read it, right? So I did. And overall I enjoyed it. It’s fluffy entertainment. and I did laugh out loud at some bits. I found the writer’s wit infectious.

The narrative hurries along at a cracking pace so it’s a light and easy read with some well defined characters and a plot line that is predictable to a degree but that’s part of the fun. The main character, Sophie, is a professional bridesmaid, supporting the bride and organising much of the wedding/hen night which is where a lot of the humour derives particularly from some of the message/email exchanges. The main thrust of the story revolves around a potentially lucrative, but difficult, bridesmaiding assignment. Difficult because the bride is less than cooperative, and  - has an attractive older brother. She also puts the ‘P’ in posh. But the story throws up some considerations of weddings in general and friendship between women. And as it is chick lit the ‘love’ word is never far from our consciousness.

It’s a feel good book ultimately and in these current times we’re living through it’s as good a shot in the arm as the corona virus vaccine itself.

Three Weddings and a Proposal - Sheila O’Flanagan

 

This author is new to me despite an impressive  body of work so I came to the story with no preconceptions. I found it an interesting novel as it kept making me think it was going down a certain path but it didn’t! From the title I wondered if it was a romance/chick lit story and there are fairly dominant elements of that. But there was a point where I thought it might be going down the legal novel route and it didn’t, then I thought it might be heading down the mystery route, but, again, it didn’t!  I even thought we might be heading for a thriller but we weren’t. So all in all the book kept me on my toes! Ultimately I found it went beyond mere romance to look at the place of women within our contemporary society; their motivations and aspirations and it examines families, friendships and loyalties between men and women.

Clearly the work of an experienced novelist the narrative progresses, evenly balanced with sufficient detail to create a palpable picture of one woman striving to make sense of her world and how she fits into it without compromising her true self. It’s an enjoyable read with some strong characterisations, very much a book for today’s women.

The Orange Grove - Rosanna Ley

 For those disappointed that Spain failed to be included on the initial UK Green list of ‘safe’ places to travel as the lockdown safety curtain slowly rises. Fear not. For you can vicariously enjoy a trip to Seville courtesy of Rosanna Ley who has created a multi sensory experience with her words.

Thrill to the passion of the flamenco. Salivate to the mouth watering tapas. Breath in the sights and the sounds of the Triana area of Seville, the orange blossom and the local crafts. Admire the customs and rituals of a proud and vibrant people.

But this is not a travelogue. This is a novel of pasts and secrets, parents and children, husbands and wives, friends and lovers, families. A multitude of dynamics are explored. Ella and Holly relive the past and contemplate the future in a dual time narrative that swings us between 1988 and 2018 with a synchronicity between the lives of mother and daughter. They’re both pretty trough, strong women capable of making life changing decisions. Secrets unravel, and as the story unfolds the astute reader will realise the biggest secret of all.

This is one great, big, slice of summer captured forever in a jar of marmalade. This is a glorious evocation of the escapist novel where the only demands upon the reader is to relax, sit back and enjoy.