For several years I used to be a volunteer lay visitor for Cambridgeshire police, visiting police station cells unannounced and checking to ensure detainees were being held in accordance with P.A.C.E. So, when Sophie Campbell told me about her book, Breakfast at Bronzefield, I was fascinated. I’m delighted to have an extract from Breakfast at Bronzefield to share with you today as well as my review.

Published today, 22nd June 2020, Breakfast at Bronzefield is available in all good bookshops including in Waterstones, Foyles and WHSmith and online including here.

Breakfast at Bronzefield

‘Fascinating and provocative’. LoveReading UK

‘Powerfully written… you give me hope.’ Dame Sally Coates

‘Eye-opening, thoughtful and determined. A thoroughly engaging piece of work that will challenge what you think you know about prisons and prisoners.’ Dr. Lamiece Hassan

HMP Bronzefield, the UK’s largest women’s prison: notorious for bent screws and drugs:

But what’s the truth behind the headlines?

Forced into signing an NDA when she arrived there on remand, former public schoolgirl Sophie risked extra time on her sentence by documenting her experiences of life inside.

Backed up by recent research and statistics, Breakfast at Bronzefield offers a powerful glimpse into a world few see: riots; unethical medical prescribing; and prison barons – key figures behind prostitution and drug-smuggling.

In a world where anything goes and being rehabilitated simply means saying ‘sorry’ right up until you’re released, how will Sophie cope on the outside, where she is expected to play by different rules? Will she succeed in creating the life she wants? Or, like most prisoners, will she end up back where she started?

An Extract From Breakfast At Bronzefield

{BEGINNING OF} CHAPTER 1. Non-Disclosure

I don’t think I was the first person to arrive at HMP Bronzefield who had to ask more than once where on earth they were. The female officer sitting in front of me, who’d been halfway through taking my fingerprints and creating my ID card, simply repeated the same name that the magistrate had said when I was told I’d be held on remand until my trial in the Crown Court: HMP Bronzefield.

Perhaps if I’d still lived in London or been clued up about the latest goings‑ons in the Criminal Justice System I’d have known immediately what sort of place I’d been thrown into: the largest women’s prison in the UK, which since its opening in 2004 had become infamous for women, and even babies, dying there. Bronzefield also suffered from the usual prison scandals, such as drug misuse, prostitution and out‑of‑control lifers, and housed transwomen who, before their transition, had been sentenced for rape. I was blithely ignorant of all this. The only prison I knew anything about was HMP Holloway, and that was only because I’d been told, at the girls’ school I’d attended, about the number of suffragettes who had been sent there in their struggle for female equality. Later I was surprised to learn that Holloway had closed in July 2016, a good few months prior to my arrival at Bronzefield.

The officer paused from her duties to hand over a document for me to sign. On closer inspection, it appeared to be a non‑disclosure agreement, forbidding me from contacting the media about anything that happened in Bronzefield, at the risk of having extra days added on to my sentence. I wondered how the ‘extra days’ penalty worked if someone was being held on remand. I could say that since it’s privately run, Bronzefield doesn’t do public scrutiny, but that code applies to all prisons more or less, as I’d later learn for myself. The female officer stared at me impatiently, making it clear that unless I signed, my processing couldn’t continue. I have no idea what would have happened had I refused to sign. No doubt I’d have been taken to Seg (the Segregation Unit) until I changed my mind. Eager to get on with things, I signed my name unwillingly, even though I knew it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference. No one has ever been able to stop me from doing something if I put my mind to it. Besides, at the time I had greater things to worry about than what I assumed originally was massive paranoia on the part of the prison.

Finding out I’d be held on remand for two counts of GBH – GBH without intent and GBH with intent – and multiple charges of assault against police had come as a blow seeing I was not, as the prosecutor had said, ‘homeless’, nor did I have a history of violence. When the prosecutor had stated this aloud in open court, I thought it made me sound like a female version of Al Capone minus the pinstripes and fedora hat. I should have said something. My duty solicitor should have spoken up, but he hadn’t. When we’d been given a brief window to speak in private prior to the court hearing, he had made it clear that now was not the time to correct any inaccurate statements that the prosecution intended to rely on; statements that they had drafted on a Monday morning, seeing as I had spent the whole weekend in a police cell.

I suppose the reason why my solicitor wasn’t bothered about correcting inaccuracies was because he knew my case was bound for the Crown Court anyway due to the nature of the charges. However, just because my case had to be held in Crown Court, it wouldn’t necessarily have meant bail would have been out of the question, had he made an effort to prove I wasn’t itinerant. But the address printed on my driver’s licence was based in the north of England. Perhaps that meant the same to the police and the judiciary as being without a home. It also didn’t help that when I was arrested down in London, I had two brightly coloured suitcases with me. One transport officer responsible for loading women’s belongings onto the prison van joked that it looked like I was off to Ibiza, and he hadn’t been far off. In any case, it seemed to me that the courts rarely asked for a prosecutor to prove that a defendant was homeless, probably because the impression most of us have of people who end up in court is that they struggle with various forms of homelessness, from sleeping rough to sofa surfing.

Surprisingly, in 2014, a study was carried out that examined the accommodation status of roughly 2,169 newly arrived prisoners in England and Wales: 16 per cent of them owned or part‑owned their property; 59 per cent of them were renters, 12 per cent lived rent‑free; 7 per cent were either homeless or living in temporary accommodation; while the remaining 6 per cent refused to disclose.

I again tried, questioning the prison officer as to where exactly I was.

‘Ashford,’ she finally answered. I tried hard to picture the place on a map, but my mind was blank. I knew I was somewhere in between a Tesco, situated near a busy roundabout, and Heathrow Airport. When I’d been brought here from the court in the ‘Sweatbox’, the nickname given to the white Serco prison vans, I’d muttered ‘For Christ’s sake’ under my breath when my eyes had fallen upon a brightly coloured plane bound for some place in Europe. I should have been on a plane like that two days before – the day I’d been arrested. I still had my plane ticket hidden inside my suitcase. At the time I’d considered myself lucky that the police hadn’t found it, back when I’d assumed I’d make bail and have the chance to leave the UK for good.

My Review of Breakfast at Bronzefield

An account of a woman’s time on remand and as a prisoner.

I confess I didn’t think I’d have time to read Breakfast at Bronzefield but I thought I’d just dip in and before I knew it I was hooked and had read the whole book. Partly that is because Sophie Campbell has such an engaging style of writing and it is as if the reader is sitting with her listening to her accounts rather than reading about them. It’s the mixture of sometimes bleak honesty, engaging anecdote, witty and sharp observation and erudite composition that makes Breakfast at Bronzefield so engaging. She’s unafraid to tell things as they are and to voice an opinion even when it might not sit easily with the views of others – it’s one of the character traits that gets her moved around so much in prison.

Different to other memoir style writing I have read where the author presents a simple linear structure, Breakfast at Bronzefield is looser. There’s definitely a beginning, middle and end, as Sophie is processed through the prison system, but there’s a more thematic approach too that I found fascinating. I was appalled by some of the things I read because thankfully I have no experience of life on remand or in prison. Sophie Campbell is unafraid to present topics like drug and sexual abuse, friendship and socio-economic contributions to the lives of those she encounters. I thought the mixture of personal anecdote mixed with meticulous research and properly attributed facts was riveting.

Although I was thoroughly convinced by the writing which is backed by almost scientific end notes and a bibliography, most of all I was touched by the presentation of humanity. Sophie Campbell may be writing about her own experiences as a female prisoner, but at the same time she manages to be the voice of all women in that situation. Certainly some adhere to the stereotypical low intelligence or perpetual offender picture that society often has, but she debunks the blanket approach so many of these women endure as if they are almost sub-human. Her comment that those with mental health issues behind their offending are more likely to end up in prison than getting mental health help stopped me in my tracks.

Breakfast at Bronzefield is impossible to classify. Part memoir, part social and political treatise, part history and part confession to some extent, it shines a terrifyingly piercing spotlight on life in a woman’s prison. I found it captivating, engrossing and not a little disturbing. However, more than an interesting and engaging read, I think Breakfast at Bronzefield is an important book that affords humanity to those all too frequently dehumanised and forgotten. I really recommend it.

About Sophie Campbell

Sophie Campbell is the winner of the Arts Council England Time to Write grant, the Koestler Flash Fiction and Short Story award and an Associate Member of the Society of Authors. This is her first book.

For more information you can follow Sophie on Twitter @SophieCBooks. You’ll also find her on Instagram.

I’ve been intrigued by Harriet Springbett’s Tree Magic for a while but with a TBR of well over 900 physical books and more than that again lurking on my Kindle I didn’t think I’d get round to reading it. However, I’m very pleased that Tree Magic has arrived at the top of my TBR and I can share my review today, not least because I don’t feature enough young adult fiction here on the blog.

Published by Impress, Tree Magic is available for purchase here.

Tree Magic

Escape from difficult family dynamics is teenager Rainbow’s desire. When she discovers a strange gift for communicating with trees, she thinks she’s found her salvation. Even better, a mysterious but gentle man living in her Dorset village helps develop her powers.

But when tragedy strikes, Rainbow’s life is torn apart, creating parallel worlds in the process. In one life, the vulnerable Rainbow strives to salvage her family. In the other, her alter-ego, Mary, flees her past. Over the next few years the two versions of Rainbow follow very different lives. The source of their grief, however, is the same – a confession buried deep within their memories.

Could France offer more than a mere escape? As the two worlds draw closer and memories resurface, Rainbow and Mary’s futures must be determined. Can they receive the healing they need? Or will the renewed pain be too much to bear? Only by risking their lives will they know.

My Review of Tree Magic

Rainbow finds she has a talent involving trees.

Tree Magic may be written for a target audience some forty years younger than me but it didn’t prevent me from finding it an engaging and entertaining book. In fact, it widened my horizons as I was prompted by the story to do some research of my own into the Amrita background behind the narrative. I thought the narrative style was so good because the prose is quite simple but conveys complex considerations so that both literal and metaphorical elements are accessible. The smatterings of French language also add to the authenticity.

Tree Magic explores adolescent themes with understanding and sensitivity. Rainbow’s need for identity, her desire to find out about her father, her relationships with her mother and Bob, and with her contemporaries, all combine to create elements that young adult readers in particular will be able to relate to, making this a personal read. By the end, readers come to realise how choices and decisions can lead us on different paths, giving us different lives.

There’s an interesting structure to Tree Magic as Rainbow and Mary’s narratives interweave and again this serves to illustrate the choices we have in life. I much preferred Rainbow to Mary and yet Mary gained my sympathy and empathy far more because her vulnerability is more raw despite, or rather because of, her harder personality. I was intrigued as to how the narrative would unfold as the two girls’ stories drew together.

As someone with no spirituality whatever, I found these aspects presented in Tree Magic fascinating. I very much enjoyed the allegory shown through Rainbow’s ability to effect change in trees that we all have an impact on nature and the environment. This is a very powerful aspect of Tree Magic.

Tree Magic is an unusual and thought provoking book for young adults that is also entertaining and engaging for older readers too, because Harriet Springbett has a deft touch in showing the inner turmoil we can all face but she also leaves the reader feeling uplifted and satisfied.

About Harriett Springbett

Harriet Springbett’s childhood on a small farm in West Dorset gave her an early exposure to nature, which continues to inspire her writing.

She qualified as an engineer but, during a Raleigh International expedition in Chile, she realised she preferred words to numbers. She abandoned her profession, moved to France, studied French and then worked as a project manager, feature writer, translator and TEFL teacher. She now lives in Poitou-Charentes with her French partner and their teenage children.

Since her first literary success, aged 10, her short stories and poetry have been published in literary journals and placed in writing competitions, including a shortlisting in the 2017 Bath Short Story Award.

Harriet leads writing workshops, has judged the Segora international short story competition and blogs here.

You can follow Harriett on Twitter @HarriSpringbett. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

I have a confession. Although I was glued to the P.D. James Inspector Dalgliesh television series years ago, I have never read a P.D. James book. Consequently, when Sophie Portas got in touch from Faber to say they will commemorate P. D. James’s centenary year with a year-long celebration of her work, sharing archive content with the hashtag #PDJames100 and will publish, for the first time in book form, her short story The Part-Time Job, I knew I had to read it. My enormous thanks to Sophie for sending me a copy in return for an honest review.

The Part-Time Job will be released on 14th July and is available for pre-order here.

The Part-TimeJob

My only regret is that I shan’t be alive to savour my retrospective triumph. But that is of small account. I savour it every day of my life. I shall have done the one thing I resolved to do when I was twelve years old – and the world will know it.

Follow the ‘Queen of Crime’ as she takes us into the mind of a man who has waited decades to enact his patient, ingenious revenge on a school bully.

My Review of The Part-Time Job

Revenge is a dish best served cold!

What a cracking little book. The Part-Time Job contains a short story from P.D. James but also an essay Murder Most Foul that I wasn’t expecting.

Murder Most Foul is a super insight into the mind of one of our most popular and influential crime writers. P.D. James gives her views on crime writing and how she has developed her craft in a manner I found fascinating. I thoroughly enjoyed this bonus content I wasn’t expecting because it took me closer to the author and her writing rationale. I can imagine any aspiring crime writer – particularly anyone writing psychological crime – would be incredibly interested in this piece.

However, it is The Part-Time Job that is the absolute gem in this book. It is the epitome of a perfect crime story in spite of being only 20 pages long. Indeed, I can imagine it being a television programme every bit as much as any longer text because so much is packed into it with fabulous economy of language and taut plotting. The narrator waits years to exact revenge on his school bully, and carries out planning that revenge with surgical precision so that the reader is left reeling. I thought the encircling structure of the first and last lines was just sublime, but you’ll have to read the story to find out why.

I loved the fact that the narrator isn’t named because not only does this add a chilling undercurrent of the anonymous dangerous stranger we all fear, but it affords the opportunity for any reader to project themselves into his shoes more effectively. Any one of us may have been bullied and may have wanted to exact revenge. Here, vicariously, is our opportunity to do so. There’s an intimacy too because the first person voice addresses the reader on several occasions directly, making them feel as if they are special, hearing the facts and thought processes first hand. It felt wrong to rejoice in the activities of the narrator because they are morally wrong in so many ways, but I wanted him to succeed. I think this is because there is considerable dry and wry humour in his words too. I loved the fact he wanted to kill his bully, but was terrified the war might kill him first!

The Part-Time Job is an absolute cracker. It’s exemplary for aspiring writers to see how a narrative is plotted and executed so flawlessly, but for readers it is a superb diversion that can be read on a commute, in a lunch break or as a tasty amuse bouche before reading other of P.D. James’ work. It’s the first of her writing I’ve read but it has persuaded me I have missed out on a mega-star of crime writing for far too long. I loved it.

About P.D. James

P.D. James – awarded an OBE in 1983 and made a life peer in 1991 – was the bestselling, internationally acclaimed author of eighteen crime novels, including the Adam Dalgliesh and Cordelia Gray series, as well as The Children of Men and two posthumously published collections of short stories. She won numerous awards for crime writing internationally, including the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award and a CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing.

I was thrilled to receive a copy of Louise Candlish’s latest book, The Other Passenger, from lovely Jess Barratt at Simon and Schuster in return for an honest review because I absolutely loved Louise’s Our House. You can read my review of Our House here. I’m ashamed to say that Those People is still sitting on my TBR but I do take it down frequently and read the dedication in the front from Louise that I received at the book’s launch.

The Other Passenger will be published by Simon and Schuster on 25th June 2020 and is available for pre-order through the links here.

The Other Passenger

It all happens so quickly. One day you’re living the dream, commuting to work by riverbus with your charismatic neighbour Kit in the seat beside you. The next, Kit hasn’t turned up for the boat and his wife Melia has reported him missing.

When you get off at your stop, the police are waiting. Another passenger saw you and Kit arguing on the boat home the night before and the police say that you had a reason to want him dead. You protest. You and Kit are friends – ask Melia, she’ll vouch for you. And who exactly is this other passenger pointing the finger? What do they know about your lives?

No, whatever danger followed you home last night, you are innocent, totally innocent.

Aren’t you?

My Review of The Other Passenger

Jamie and Clare have the perfect life.

What a creepy, distasteful, and utterly compelling world Louise Candlish has created in The Other Passenger. I loved every word. I felt totally tense throughout because Jamie’s first person voice speaks straight to the reader, drawing them in and making them complicit in the action so that I felt excited, unnerved and almost guilty. By the end of the book I felt I had experienced every moment with Jamie et al.

Indeed, the characters in The Other Passenger are awful, brilliant and fascinating. I loathed each in turn, I felt empathy for each in turn, and Louise Candlish so manipulated my responses I didn’t know who was innocent, guilty or deserving of compassion or disgust. This is absolutely brilliant writing. The people in The Other Passenger are clearly depicted so that they leap from the page vividly and I forgot I was reading a story, but felt I was listening to Jamie in person. Melia and Kit in particular made my flesh crawl but I needed to know every intimate detail about them with the same level of fascination as Jamie has.

The plot, as I would expect from Louise Candlish, is carefully wrought and plotted, so that by half way through the novel when I have usually worked out what is going on, I had no clue as to what the outcome might be. The drip feeding of information, the unreliable nature of the characters and the rapid events meant I was ensnared and unable to put the book down. I had to know what happened next.

I thought the menacing nature of the setting supported the plot perfectly too. The murky, swirling history of the Thames turns a seemingly innocuous action of taking the riverbus to work into a threatening, skin crawling experience. I truly felt tense and this effect is enhanced by reference to real events from the past so that the reader loses sight of the fact they are reading a story rather than a real life account.

The Other Passenger is a brilliant exploration of being careful what you wish for with themes of emotional and sexual betrayal, truth and lies, affluence and poverty, ambition and acceptance making for a thought provoking as well as entertaining read. Louse Candlish made me consider how far we judge others by their jobs, homes and possessions and she shows us just how wrong we can be on so many levels. This is a sophisticated, multi-layered book that mesmerised and repelled me in equal measure because it made me consider the blackness of my own soul compared with others. The Other Passenger is so good!

If The Other Passenger doesn’t become one of THE books of the summer there’s no justice. It’s a cracker and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

About Louise Candlish

Louise Candlish is the bestselling author of twelve novels, including The Sudden Departure Of The Frasers (2015) and The Swimming Pool (2016). Her thriller Our House was published in the UK in April 2018 by Simon & Schuster, followed by Those People in 2019.

Though her stories are about people facing dark dilemmas, Louise tries to get through the day without too much drama of her own. She lives in South London with her husband and daughter and is very attached to her dog Maggie and cat Tilly.

You can follow Louise on Twitter at @louise_candlish or find out more on her website or on Facebook.

You have no idea how delighted I am to bring you the cover reveal for Annette Hannah’s debut romantic novel Wedding Bells at the Signal Box Cafe. You see, not only is Annette a very dear friend, but I have been sitting on the news about her book for so long I thought I might burst if I wasn’t soon able to tell someone! Annette writes from the heart and I am absolutely thrilled that she is going to be a published author. I cannot wait to celebrate with her in person by having afternoon tea together again as it’s far too long since we got together.

Let me tell you all about Wedding Bells at the Signal Box Cafe:

Wedding Bells at the Signal Box Cafe

Here comes the bride…

Lucy Woods has always dreamed of running her very own wedding venue. After moving her eight-year-old son to the countryside she’s surprised to find the perfect location and her best friend, Abbie, eager to help make that dream a reality! Too bad Abbie’s older brother Dominic isn’t keen on Lucy or their big idea!

As a divorce lawyer Dominic doesn’t believe in love at first sight or wedding vows, he’s seen them broken more times than he can count. But when Lucy arrives back in town, his hardened heart begins to crack.

Making her dream come true is a huge undertaking, but Lucy knows that The Signal Box Café is her chance to finally make something of her life. If only the irritating (and oh-so-gorgeous) Dom didn’t make her imagine wearing a white dress and walking down the aisle…

Can Lucy and Dominic find a way to each other this summer or will the wedding bells chime for another couple?

Published by Orion imprint Dash on 6th July 2020, Wedding Bells at the Signal Box Cafe is available for pre-order on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Doesn’t Wedding Bells at the Signal Box Cafe sound utterly wonderful? I can’t wait to read it and I’ll be staying in with Annette here on the blog on publication day 6th July to hear more! Don’t forget to get your pre-order in! Amazon UK and Amazon US.

About Annette Hannah

Annette Hannah is a Liver Bird who relocated to leafy Hertfordshire in the 80’s and now lives near a river with her husband, two of their three grown up children and a crazy black cocker spaniel. She writes romantic comedies in settings inspired by the beautiful countryside around her and always with a nod to her hometown. As an avid reader she became a book blogger and eventually realised her dream to become an author in 2020.

She loves long walks along the river, travelling to far flung places, the odd glass of Pinot Blush and spending time with her friends and family.

You can find out more by visiting Annette’s blog or website and following her on Twitter @AnnetteHannah.

It’s ages since I featured Wendy Holden on Linda’s Book Bag in a post you can see here. Since then I have had the privilege of visiting Auschwitz and when, a few weeks ago, Wendy was on friend and fellow blogger John’s blog (here) it made me realise that it was about time I invited her onto the blog to stay in with me and chat about one of her books. I’m delighted she agreed to come!

Staying in with Wendy Holden

Welcome back to Linda’s Book Bag Wendy. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Thanks so much for having me, Linda. Authors like me rely on bloggers like you to inform and enlighten readers about our work and we are eternally grateful, especially now.

It’s been a touch time in the book world with lockdown hasn’t it? Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought the new WWII 75 commemorative edition of Born Survivors, my international bestseller and the book which changed my life in all sorts of ways. I have written more than 30 books in my career and this is, without doubt, the most important I will ever write.

I’ve heard magnificent things about Born Survivors Wendy. What can we expect from an evening in with this book?

You can expect to be moved, amazed, horrified and heartened all at once. Born Survivors tells the true story of three young mothers who hid their pregnancies from the Nazis and gave birth in the concentration camp system towards the end of the war.

My goodness. I can’t imagine what that must have been like.

Incredibly, all three mothers and all three babies survived, although the women lost their husbands and most of their families. Although their stories cover a period in world history that is brutal and bleak, the courage, resilience and hope of these three young women shines through every page and has touched hearts around the world. The happy ending is that I worked closely with all three surviving ‘babies‘ – each of them 75 this year and determined to bear witness to the Holocaust. This book is truly a case of finding the humanity in the inhumanity because none of these survivors would have made it if it hadn’t been for a combination of luck and the kindness of strangers.

I think Born Survivors sounds utterly amazing Wendy. I must read it soon. 

What else have you brought along and why?

I have bought the theme tune to the film Schindler‘s List by composer John Williams which I listened to over and over again whilst I was researching and writing this book. It is so moving and poignant and every tune seemed to be in sync with the section I was working on.

That’s a film I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch yet. 

I have also bought a butterfly brooch because although Anka – the first of the three mothers I ever came across – died six months before I met her daughter Eva (who helped me enormously with the book), every time I was writing about her, or when Eva and I were together, a butterfly seemed to appear either physically or in a piece of cloth or a picture or curtains, as if Anka was hovering close by. It was strangely comforting.

How moving.

For food I have bought a loaf of Challah bread, the traditional fare of the Friday night pre-Sabbath dinner for Jews and something I only came across whilst I was researching this book. Unfamiliar with Jewish traditions, I learned about so many things such as their habit of laying stones on graves instead of flowers, the significance of lighting candles, and the buttery deliciousness of Challah bread.

I have to confess to knowing little about Jewish traditions Wendy but that bread looks delicious. Thank you so much for staying in with me to tell me about Born Survivors. I think it sounds an utterly wonderful book.

Born Survivors

Among millions of Holocaust victims sent to Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944, Priska, Rachel, and Anka each passed through its infamous gates with a secret. Strangers to each other, they were newly pregnant, and facing an uncertain fate without their husbands. Alone, scared, and with so many loved ones already lost to the Nazis, these young women were privately determined to hold on to all they had left: their lives, and those of their unborn babies.

That the gas chambers ran out of Zyklon-B just after the babies were born, before they and their mothers could be exterminated, is just one of several miracles that allowed them all to survive and rebuild their lives after World War II. Born Survivors follows the mothers’ incredible journey – first to Auschwitz, where they each came under the murderous scrutiny of Dr. Josef Mengele; then to a German slave labour camp where, half-starved and almost worked to death, they struggled to conceal their condition; and finally, as the Allies closed in, their hellish 17-day train journey with thousands of other prisoners to the Mauthausen death camp in Austria. Hundreds died along the way but the courage and kindness of strangers, including guards and civilians, helped save these women and their children.

Sixty-five years later, the three ‘miracle babies’ met for the first time at Mauthausen for the anniversary of the liberation that ultimately saved them. United by their remarkable experiences of survival against all odds, they now consider each other “siblings of the heart.” In Born Survivors, Wendy Holden brings all three stories together for the first time to mark their seventieth birthdays and the seventieth anniversary of the ending of the war.

A heart-stopping account of how three mothers and their newborns fought to survive the Holocaust, Born Survivors is also a life-affirming celebration of our capacity to care and to love amid inconceivable cruelty.

Born Survivors is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

About Wendy Holden

Wendy Holden was a journalist for eighteen years, including a decade at the Daily Telegraph where she worked as a foreign and war correspondent. She is author and the co-author of more than thirty books, including several bestselling wartime biographies, including Tomorrow to be Brave, Till the Sun Grows Cold, and Behind Enemy Lines. She lives in Suffolk, England with her husband and two dogs and divides her time between the U.K. and the U.S.

You can find out more by visiting Wendy’s website, finding her on Facebook, or following Wendy on Twitter @wendholden.

I couldn’t believe my luck when Beth Wright at Little Brown asked me if I’d like to be part of the launch celebrations for M.W. Craven’s latest book in his Washington Poe series, The Curator. You see two of Mike’s books in the series were on my books of the year list (here) in 2019. You can read my review of The Puppet Show here and of Black Summer here.

Published by Little Brown imprint Constable on 4th June 2020, The Curator is available for purchase through these links.

The Curator

It’s Christmas and a serial killer is leaving displayed body parts all over Cumbria. A strange message is left at each scene: #BSC6

Called in to investigate, the National Crime Agency’s Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are faced with a case that makes no sense. Why were some victims anaesthetized, while others died in appalling agony? Why is their only suspect denying what they can irrefutably prove but admitting to things they weren’t even aware of? And why did the victims all take the same two weeks off work three years earlier?

And when a disgraced FBI agent gets in touch things take an even darker turn. Because she doesn’t think Poe is dealing with a serial killer at all; she thinks he’s dealing with someone far, far worse – a man who calls himself the Curator.

And nothing will ever be the same again . . .

My Review of The Curator

It’s another case for Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw.

If you’re going to read a book by M.W. Craven, be warned. You are going to have to set aside your own free will until you’ve consumed every word because he writes with such compelling skill that it is impossible not to be entranced and consumed by his stories. The Curator is no exception. I thought it was astoundingly good – and I had huge expectations because I so loved the first two books in this series, The Puppet Show and Black Summer, but The Curator is equally as fantastic and I loved it.

The Curator opens dramatically, leaving the reader reeling and desperate to know how this narrative will evolve. I love the way M.W. Craven hooks the reader and reels them in with short, pacey chapters that end on startling lines so that you have no choice but to read on. The variety of sentence structure is genius. Longer passages are perfectly balanced by shorter ones that deliver a real punch. Settings are often almost poetically described in a manner that is unexpected in a police procedural, but that makes the narrative all the more entertaining and engaging. Direct speech is natural and works superbly both to move on the story and to provide light relief after very dramatic moments. All these features make reading The Curator an unadulterated pleasure from start to end (and it’s quite an ending!). M.W. Craven really is a master of storytelling because he understands perfectly just how much to reveal and how much to withhold to tantalise and terrify the reader. I became aware of my pulse rate increasing as I read.

Alongside the fast paced, surprising and entertaining plot, the most wonderful element of reading The Curator is returning to the characters of Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw. I adore their relationship because it feels completely authentic. Poe may be a somewhat curmudgeonly man and Tilly socially inept, but their friendship is simply beautiful. There’s real warmth and affection and it feels so good to read about them without the contrived sexual tensions and undercurrents that so often underpin relationships in this genre. Instead, there’s realistic humanity that elevates the narrative by giving it understated and genuine emotion. Although this is the third book in the series, M.W. Craven drops in just enough natural detail about their pasts that it isn’t necessary to have read the previous books. I would recommend that you do however! Indeed, Poe and Tilly are not characters in a book to me any longer. Instead they are people I think about when I’m not reading about them, wondering what they are doing. I miss them!

I can’t emphasise enough how brilliant The Curator is and how wonderful I think M.W. Craven’s writing is. I genuinely believe he is one of the shining stars in the current generation of crime writers. The Curator has gone straight on my list of books of the year for 2020 and I cannot recommend it strongly enough. If you’ve yet to discover Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw, you’re really missing out.

About M.W. Craven

M. W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle, returning after 31 years to take up a probation officer position in Whitehaven, eventually working his way up to chief officer grade. Sixteen years later he took the plunge, accepted redundancy and became a full-time author. He now has entirely different motivations for trying to get inside the minds of criminals. His first novel featuring Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw, The Puppet Show, was published by Constable to huge acclaim, and won the 2019 CWA Gold Dagger Award.

M. W. Craven lives in Carlisle with his wife, Joanne. When he isn’t out with his springer spaniel, or talking nonsense in the pub, he can usually be found at punk gigs and writing festivals up and down the country.

You can follow M.W. Craven on Twitter @MWCravenUK and visit his website for more information or find him on Facebook and Instagram.

My enormous thanks to Alainna at Orion for inviting me to participate in the launch celebrations for Keeping Mum by James Gould-Bourn. Not only do I have my review of Keeping Mum to share today, but I am thrilled that James has agreed to ‘stay in’ with me to chat all about it.

Published by Trapeze yesterday, 11th June 2020, Keeping Mum is available for purchase through the links here.

Staying in with James Gould-Bourn

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag James and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Thanks for inviting me! It’s nice to get out of the house after being locked up for so long!

It’s been quite a few weeks hasn’t it? Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought along my debut novel, Keeping Mum. I wanted to bring this book because it came out yesterday and I’m incredibly proud of it.

I bet! Congratulations and a belated happy publication day. So what is Keeping Mum about?

It’s the story of a father and son learning to reconnect after an accident tears their family apart. It’s also about dancing panda bears. Yes, you heard that correctly.

Not quite the usual subject then James. What can we expect from an evening in with Keeping Mum? 

I don’t think I could say anything better than what readers have said already, so I’ll leave it up to them to tell you what to expect from Keeping Mum:

“I was hooked from the first page. I loved this incredible story of a father and son trying to navigate their way through grief, and trying to navigate their way back to each other. It was a delight to read and left me thinking about it long after I put it down. I definitely think this is a must read of 2020.”

“I really loved Keeping Mum. The quality of the writing, the depth of theme and the brilliant characterisation all combine into a smashing book that touches the reader and leaves them feeling happy and satisfied. What could be better?”

“This is such a sweet, heartwarming tale – it is sentimental without being sappy, funny without being corny and touching without being mushy.”

I’ve been really overwhelmed by how positive the feedback has been so far. It makes me incredibly happy to know that people are having as much fun reading Keeping Mum as I had writing it.

It doesn’t surprise me in the least that you’ve had such positive feedback James. I loved Keeping Mum and am sharing my review after our chat.

What else have you brought along and why? 

I’ve brought a homemade walnut cake, and anybody who reads the book will understand why. It’s my first attempt though so apologies in advance!

It looks pretty good to me! Pass me that slice.

I’ve also brought a little panda that my wife made for me. He’s a little scrappy and he doesn’t say much but he’s a mean dancer!

He’s absolutely lovely and perfect for Keeping Mum. Thanks so much for staying in with me to chat about Keeping Mum James. Let me give blog readers all the details they need about the book:

Keeping Mum

Danny Malooley’s life is falling apart.

He’s a single parent with an eleven-year-old son, Will, who hasn’t spoken since the death of his mother in a car crash fourteen months ago. He’s being pursued by a dodgy landlord for unpaid rent and, to make matters worse, he’s just lost his job on a building site. Struggling to find work, and desperate for money, Danny decides to do what anyone in his position would do.

He becomes a dancing panda.

After seeing street performers in his local park raking it in, he puts all sense of pride aside and spends his last fiver on a vomit-ridden costume… only to discover that the humiliation of his terrible rhythm is worth it. Not because he’s flush with cash (quite the opposite) but Will has finally spoken to him for the first time since his mother’s death. The problem is Will is unaware that the panda is in fact his father, and Danny doesn’t want to reveal his true identity in case Will stops talking to him. But Danny can’t keep up the ruse forever.

A surprising, laugh-out-loud and uplifting story of a father and son reconnecting in the most unlikely of circumstances.

My Review of Keeping Mum

Danny and Will have a few problems!

What a lovely, lovely story Keeping Mum is. Before commenting on the narrative, I just need to say how apt the title is as Will elects not to speak after the death of Liz, his Mum, but as important is both Will and Danny’s desire to keep Liz’s memory alive. They need to keep Mum. Similarly, the cover has incredible poignancy once the book is read. I can’t say too much why as it would spoil the pleasure of the read, but that crumpled note book page is so fitting!

I hadn’t quite expected Keeping Mum to be as funny as it is. I rarely laugh aloud when I’m reading but James Gould-Bourn elicited several giggles along the way so that I felt uplifted and heartened as a result. There’s a fast pace with unlikely events that feel convincing and absolutely right for Danny’s life as it spirals out of control. With street performances, menacing landlords and sleazy dance clubs James Gould-Bourn takes the reader into places and situations they probably wouldn’t normally encounter and does so with verve and skill in a hugely entertaining manner.

I loved the cast of characters. Although she’s dead, it is Liz who is the catalyst for all the action and readers get a strong sense of who she is and why Danny and Will are as they are. There are those more minor people like the street performers, Mo, Reg and Mr Dent who provide a colourful backdrop, but it is Danny, Will, Krystal and Ivan who are just perfect creations. James Gould-Brown’s use of naturalistic dialogue, choice expletives, clear and vivid descriptions and the occasional touch of violence creates a visual and auditory journey that the reader takes alongside Danny in Keeping Mum.

However, although the characters are real and engaging, and the plot funny and entertaining, there is so much more to Keeping Mum than might be imagined and it is this added depth that made the book so appealing to me. The relationship between Danny and Will, their estrangement, their grief and their real underlying love for one another all combine into a touching and affecting read. With themes of bullying, self-worth, friendship, striving for the best and being true to yourself, Keeping Mum is a compelling and poignant tale as well as a diverting and amusing one. There’s a fabulous balance in the writing here too so that the narrative feels modern and yet timeless.

I really loved Keeping Mum. The quality of the writing, the depth of theme and the brilliant characterisation all combine into a smashing book that touches the reader and leaves them feeling happy and satisfied. What could be better?

About James Gould-Bourn

James Gould-Bourn was born and raised in Manchester. He is an award-winning screenwriter, and has previously worked for various landmine-clearance NGOs in Africa and the Middle East. Keeping Mum is his first novel.

You can follow James on Twitter @JPGouldBourn.

There’s more with these other bloggers:

With almost 50 years between when I learnt to ride and the next time I got on a horse, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Roxana Valea to the blog today to tell me about her latest horse riding inspired book. My enormous thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to participate in this blog tour.

Staying in with Roxana Valea

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Roxana. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Thank you for inviting me, it’s a pleasure to be here!

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I brought along my latest book, Seven and a half Minutes because it is a fun and easy summer read and not just for polo fans.

What can we expect from an evening in with Seven and a Half Minutes?

Fun, adrenaline and insights into a fascinating sport: polo. Seven and a Half Minutes is the third novel of The Polo Diaries Series but the first one in the timeline. It tells the story of a girl who is looking for love but unexpectedly stumbles upon polo and falls in love with the sport. She does not give up on love, although it becomes more and more difficult to find the right guy to date as polo starts consuming all of her time and resources.

Seven and a Half Minutes sounds just right for a summer read Roxana. Tell me a bit about the series.

The Polo Diaries Series are romantic comedies but all three books are slightly different.

While the first one, Single in Buenos Aires is a classical romantic comedy – think Bridget Jones goes to Argentina, the second book – A Horse Called Bicycle – is more of an introspection and coming of age novel. This one, the third and last book of the series is light hearted and very sports oriented.

I’m sure I’d enjoy them all. What else have you brought along and why?

I’ve brought two pictures, both from my polo times. The Polo Diaries are all inspired by true stories from my past as a female polo player.

How much is truth and how much is fiction in these novels? Well, I’ll let each of the readers take a guess!

Oo. Now that is intriguing Roxana. I’ll tell blog readers a bit more about Seven and a Half Minutes and then maybe you can tell me a few of your secrets! Thanks so much for staying in with me.

Seven and a Half Minutes

Before Roxy found herself “Single in Buenos Aires,” she was a single girl in London in search of true love. The third installment of The Polo Diaries series takes us back to that time, and we follow Roxy as she hires a love coach to help her navigate the dating scene. But the love coach comes up with an unexpected assignment: reconnect to a long-forgotten passion. For Roxy this means horses. Within weeks, she finds herself playing polo, thanks to a series of unforeseen events.

Torn between her desire to become the best polo player she can be and the dream of falling in love, Roxy steps fully into the exciting and demanding world of polo, where injury and recovery mix with hard training, and where celebrating the victory of a tournament comes at a high price. Will Roxy eventually become the polo player she dreams to be? And with polo being such a demanding sport, can there be any space left for love?

Seven and a Half Minutes is available for purchase on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

About Roxana Valea

Roxana Valea was born in Romania and lived in Italy, Switzerland, England and Argentina before settling in Spain. She has a BA in journalism and an MBA degree. She spent more than twenty years in the business world as an entrepreneur, manager and management consultant working for top companies like Apple, eBay, and Sony. She is also a Reiki Master and shamanic energy medicine practitioner.

As an author, Roxana writes books inspired by real events. Her memoir Through Dust and Dreams is a faithful account of a trip she took at the age of twenty-eight across Africa by car in the company of two strangers she met over the internet. Her following book, Personal Power: Mindfulness Techniques for the Corporate Word is a nonfiction book filled with personal anecdotes from her consulting years. The Polo Diaries series is inspired by her experiences as a female polo player–traveling to Argentina, falling in love, and surviving the highs and lows of this dangerous sport.

Roxana lives with her husband between England and Spain, and splits her time between writing, coaching and therapy work, but her first passion remains writing.

For more information you can follow Roxana on Twitter @roxana_valea, or find her on Facebook and Instagram.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Lockdown has been a trying time for everyone, but when your long awaited debut novel is about to be launched and all the usual celebratory events are cancelled it must be devastating. Having received a copy of Gillian Harvey’s Everything is Fine from Alex Layt at Orion, I thought it looked super and simply had to invite Gillian onto Linda’s Book Bag to tell me a bit about her journey to publication – albeit, not necessarily the publication experience she was expecting!

I’m thrilled to have Everything is Fine on my TBR. I’ve been hearing excellent things about it from other bloggers and I can’t wait to read it.

Published by Orion on 28th May 2020, Everything is Fine is available for purchase through these links.

Everything is Fine

Jessica Bradley has it all: the perfect boyfriend; influential healthy-eating blog; successful PR company and wonderful daughter, Anna. Or at least that is what her thousands of followers believe.

The truth is, her boyfriend just broke up with her in four words on a post-it; her zest for healthy-eating has all but disappeared; her PR success is all reliant on her now not-so-honest online-life and she just got caught eating her daughter’s Coco-Pops.

So as they say: fake it ’til you make it. A few little white lies and phoney smiling selfies and Jess can keep up appearances. But when her real-life starts to spiral out of control how can Jess tell the truth from the lies? And will she be able to seize real happiness when it is right in front of her?

Making it

A Guest Post by Gillian Harvey

Does anyone remember The Garden Gang? If you’re my age (42) or thereabouts you might. They were a series of children’s books about living fruit – Percival Pea and Roger Radish to name but two – that I remember reading when I was about 9.

As well as enjoying the little tales of random vegetables, the books provoked another emotion in me – insane jealousy.  They had, I found, been written by a 9-year-old girl called Jayne Fisher. Which meant that someone of about my age had already achieved my dream of becoming published author.  How I hated her for it!

I’m not sure when my ambition to become an author started. I remember always loving books, and – as soon as I could – enjoying writing poems and short tales.  I must have been quite good at writing even then, as when I was seven I copied an Enid Blyton poem and passed it off as my own. The teacher was amazed, and the headteacher read it out in assembly. I spent the rest of the term wracked with guilt and sure I would be expelled.

I had other, genuine, successes: the day in year 3 when my poem was made into a giant poster for a parents’ evening display, as well as the moment in year 4 when my story was read out to the whole year-group. I still remember both moments vividly.

But as you grow, realise how big the world is and how tiny and insignificant you are, these sorts of ambitions are put on the backburner and labelled ‘dreams.’ You are encouraged, by well meaning adults, to have something to fall back on.

I began to feel shy of my ambition – whenever I told people I was writing a book, I’d feel I had to add the rider “it’s probably not very good” or “I realise it probably won’t be published.”  I still scribbled novels – or novel attempts – whenever I could, and finished my first 80,000-word draft in 2002 when I was 24.  But I kept my dreams close to my chest.

I bought my first copy of the Writers’ and Artists’ yearbook – an enormous volume containing addresses of publishers and agents – the same year – not knowing it would be 16 years (and many copies) later by the time I actually got signed.

The years in between weren’t wasted – I wrote six further manuscripts, taught English at secondary schools, moved to France and had five children. In my spare time, I learned to craft my writing more, and began to publish pieces in magazines – my first in 2012.

As I matured as a human and a writer, I started thinking less about my artistic bent and more about my audience and what they might want to read. I tried different genres – from psychological thriller to rom-com; and finally found that while I could readily dip into my dark side, I actually had a bit of a talent for humour.

One day in 2017 I began to think about social media, and the fact that – to a greater or lesser extent – we’re all posting edited versions of our lives online.  The idea for my breakthrough novel was born.  After several drafts and redrafts, Everything is Fine was finished in 2018 – and accepted by my agent on its first submission. And in January 2019 after being turned down by a couple of publishers, I signed with Orion.

The time between signing and actually getting a book into the world was almost unbearable – I edited, and waited impatiently for proofs.  But by the time they were printed, the world had changed. Coronavirus had hit, my launch was cancelled, and it looked pretty unlikely my little novel would hit the shelves in any real sense as all the bookshops were shut.

Lockdown shook our world and for a time nobody could think about anything but keeping safe, and washing groceries with antibacterial spray.  But after a few weeks, I realised I’d have to put myself out there or risk my lifelong dream slipping away from me.

Ironically, it’s social media – the very thing I joke about in my novel – that enabled me to still reach readers through posts I put out on Twitter, or articles I wrote on news sites and in magazines.

And in May, I finally linked a champagne glass against my webcam and launched my book online.

It’s not the ideal time for anyone – and certainly not the best time to release a book. But still, I’ve done it.

It’s been a long journey, but I got there in the end!

Gillian Harvey

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And from what I’ve been hearing about Everything is Fine Gillian, you’ve got a real winner on your hands. Huge congratulations. I can’t wait to read it. I hope it’s a huge success for you.

About Gillian Harvey

Former Head of Department and English teacher, Gillian Harvey, 40, began her freelance writing career in 2012, after a move to France. She has since written articles on a variety of subjects for national newspapers including Guardian, Telegraph, Sun and Times Educational Supplement, as well as magazines such as Prima, Living France, Woman’s Weekly and My Weekly. She contributes regular short stories to Take a Break Fiction Feast and My Weekly. Gillian also writes regularly for popular online health platform Patient UK, and has produced several pieces for Natwest and RBS’s customer site ‘Content Live.’ She was also columnist for Prima Baby magazine (2014-2015), Telegraph Expat (2015) and Living France magazine (2016-2018). Gillian lives in France with her husband Ray and their five young children.

You can follow Gillian on Twitter @GillPlusFive or find her on Facebook. Gillian has a super website too.