A while ago lovely Sue Hampton asked me if I would review one of her short stories that was about to be part of a new anthology and I was delighted to review The Pomegranate Flower. Little did I realise that Sue would be sending me a finished copy of her latest book, Instead, containing The Pomegranate Flower, with me quoted within its pages.

Now, I had considered simply announcing the details of Instead sharing my review of the one story and leaving it at that because, like all bloggers, I have more books than there are years left in my life to read them. However, I’ve read work by Sue before and I hoped I would enjoy the complete collection in Instead as much as I did Ravelled, my review of which you can read here. I was right. I did!

Sue has also written a super guest post for Linda’s Book Bag to celebrate one of her children’s books when The Lucy Wilson Mysteries: Avatars of the Intelligence was published and you can read that post here.

Instead is available for purchase here.

Instead

Instead is a new collection of short stories for adults to follow Ravelled and Woken.

There are stories set in the past and in the present, and you will notice a range of styles – but no fairy tales or fables this time, no fantasy or magic realism. With Instead I’m keeping it real. Whatever the arc, genre or seed of each story, I believe they all offer hope as well as humanity – because if we are to make a better world to share, then humanity is where hope lies.

My Review of Instead

An eclectic mix of stories and people.

Sue Hampton is an astounding writer. She takes the constrained boundaries of the short story in Instead and makes them into something magical. Within a very few words Sue Hampton draws in the reader and immerses them in the lives of her characters who feel real, human and flawed. This is such beautifully crafted writing that I can see myself returning to the collection time and again and finding something new each visit; a nuance, a meaning, a feeling that I may have missed the first time. The stories in Instead seem to operate on many levels.

Sue Hampton writes with what feels to me like great humanity. Occasionally there is a slight ambiguity in her stories giving the reader opportunity to decide their own interpretation and outcomes. I loved the balance of age, race and gender woven throughout making it feel as if Instead gives status and credence to all. The balance of sentence length, direct speech to exposition and the inclusion of so many aspects of real life from procreation to grief all add up to a gorgeously satisfying reading experience.

The plots of the stories in Instead could easily be full length novels because there is so much packed into them. Not a word is wasted and yet there is a texture of emotion, the senses and action that belies their length. The themes explored are so relevant to all, from poverty to friendship, infidelity to sexual identity so that all life is available in this slim volume.

Not only did I enjoy reading the stories, but I found the opinions of the reviewers shared after each one fascinating. It was as if Instead was my own personal book group where I was able to listen to a discussion as well as read so that this felt like a very interactive experience.

I always proclaim that I’m not overly fond of short stories. In Instead, Sue Hampton has proven me a liar. I loved this collection.

About Sue Hampton

Sue Hampton writes for adults as well as children and teenagers, and across genres. An ex-teacher, she was inspired by the stories of Michael Morpurgo, because she witnessed their emotional power over young readers. Sue aims to write deep, compelling novels that will make people think and feel. Now a full-time author, Sue visits schools of all kinds and works with young people of all ages.

Many of her passions can be detected in her novels, which are all different, (often historical, futuristic, magical and funny) but have in common themes like love, courage, freedom and our right to be different.

Sue herself looks a little different from most women because she has alopecia, having lost all her hair in 1981. After writing The Waterhouse Girl about a girl with alopecia, she began going bareheaded and feels strangely liberated even though it isn’t easy. As an Ambassador for Alopecia UK she supports others with hair loss and led a team on Eggheads, winning £25K for the charity. Sue also lectures on the importance of fiction in school.

You can find out more about Sue on her website, on Facebook and by following her on Twitter @SueAuthor.

I last featured Anna Hope when The Ballroom was one of my books of the year in 2016. You can find out more about that here. I also have my review of The Ballroom here.

Consequently, I couldn’t resist breaking my self-imposed Netgalley ban to request Expectation and I was thrilled when my request was granted. I’d like to thank the publishers for allowing me to read it.

Published by Penguin imprint Doubleday on 11th July 2019, Expectation is available for purchase through these links.

Expectation

Hannah, Cate and Lissa are young, vibrant and inseparable. Living on the edge of a common in East London, their shared world is ablaze with art and activism, romance and revelry – and the promise of everything to come. They are electric. They are the best of friends.

Ten years on, they are not where they hoped to be. Amidst flailing careers and faltering marriages, each hungers for what the others have. And each wrestles with the same question: what does it take to lead a meaningful life?

The most razor-sharp and heartbreaking novel of the year, Expectation is a novel about finding your way: as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a rebel. 

My Review of Expectation

Three women, Hannah, Cate and Lissa, discover life doesn’t always provide what you expect.

Having adored The Ballroom by Anna Hope I was expecting fabulous writing and an emotional read, but this time the author has exceeded everything I wanted to produce a soaring, searing, portrait of love, loss, betrayal and friendship in Expectation. Reading Expectation has felt like a physical process. My heart feels bruised and my chest tight because every word and every moment in this superb book is imbued with depth and intensity. It is, quite simply, wonderful. The way Anna Hope writes, with such exquisite attention to detail, is an absolute joy to read. So often I was reminded of Thomas Hardy’s ability to create nature in her descriptions.

It’s going to be almost impossible to convey the way I feel about Expectation. I thought the plot was fabulous. I loved the peeling back of layers of time and personality so that I felt I was part of the narrative, coming to an understanding about life at much the same time as the characters. That said, the more I reflect on the book after finishing it, the more it seems to offer. I will be thinking about Expectation for a very long time.

I loved and hated each of the three women in turn, vascillating between the two, much as they do themselves. Hannah, Cate and Lissa are vibrant, alive and flawed. Their relationships with one another, their parents and their lovers are beautifully presented by Anna Hope, but more important is the way in which she explores their relationships with themselves. Expectation is a superb observation of how we often know ourselves even less than we know others so that it gave me so much more than perfect entertainment as I read. Expectation made me examine who I am, what I want and how others might be affected by me. It sounds like hyperbole, but I truly think reading Expectation is a life altering experience. Somehow I feel fractured by reading Expectation, but then repaired to be greater than I was before. It has been an almost physical experience because of the profound emotions so skilfully conveyed. The potency of Anna Hope’s portrayal of humanity is astounding.

In case you hadn’t realised, I absolutely adored Expectation. It is, without doubt, one of my books of the year. Anna Hope has an outstanding talent to carry the reader along with her narrative and characters until they are completely entranced. I was mesmerised.

About Anna Hope

Anna Hope studied at Oxford University and RADA. She is the acclaimed author of Wake and The Ballroom. Her contemporary fiction debut, Expectation, explores themes of love, lust, motherhood, and feminism, while asking the greater question of what defines a generation. She lives in Sussex with her husband and young daughter.

You can follow Anna Hope on Twitter @Anna_Hope and visit her website for more information.

When Stephanie Duncan got in touch from Bloomsbury to see if I would like a copy of The Dragon Lady by Louisa Treger in return for an honest review, I have to confess I couldn’t resist as The Dragon Lady was my nickname amongst younger students in my teaching days! That said, I’ve heard such wonderful things about Louisa Treger’s writing and I’m so glad I accepted this version of The Dragon Lady and would like to thank Stephanie for sending me a copy.

Published by Bloomsbury on 13th June 2019, The Dragon Lady is available for purchase through these links.

The Dragon Lady

Opening with the shooting of Lady Virginia ‘Ginie’ Courtauld in her tranquil garden in 1950s Rhodesia, The Dragon Lady tells Ginie’s extraordinary story, so called for the exotic tattoo snaking up her leg. From the glamorous Italian Riviera before the Great War to the Art Deco glory of Eltham Palace in the thirties, and from the secluded Scottish Highlands to segregated Rhodesia in the fifties, the narrative spans enormous cultural and social change. Lady Virginia Courtauld was a boundary-breaking, colourful and unconventional person who rejected the submissive role women were expected to play.

Ostracised by society for being a foreign divorcée at the time of Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson, Ginie and her second husband ,Stephen Courtauld, leave the confines of post-war Britain to forge a new life in Rhodesia, only to find that being progressive liberals during segregation proves mortally dangerous. Many people had reason to dislike Ginie, but who had reason enough to pull the trigger?

Deeply evocative of time and place, The Dragon Lady subtly blends fact and fiction to paint the portrait of an extraordinary woman in an era of great social and cultural change.

My Review of The Dragon Lady

Exotic Ginie Courtauld is the Dragon Lady.

I absolutely loved Louisa Treger’s The Dragon Lady with its sweeping narrative blending fact and fiction in a beautifully written story of love and life. Alongside this historical and socio-political tale is an absorbing mystery too so that The Dragon Lady defies a genre label, but rather weaves a spell of enchantment around all readers.

The Rhodesian setting is masterfully conveyed. The colours, aromas, flora and fauna truly transport the reader evocatively and vividly. However, it is the country’s divisions and politics at all levels that really bring the era alive. Real people and events from history sit perfectly alongside fictionalised ones so that Louisa Treger has woven a mesmerising tapestry of African life in the 1950s. The plot is brilliant; diligently researched and carefully crafted, making for a story that I found completely engrossing.

The character of Ginie left me saddened and intrigued. I feel I know Ginie Courtauld well from reading Louisa Treger’s words because she is able to place the reader inside Ginie’s mind so convincingly. Ginie’s portrayal is moving and affecting. The more I read the more I empathised and sympathised with her and the entire novel conveyed a wistful sadness and hiraeth that made my heart ache for her. It felt worse that this is a real person and not simply a character made from a writer’s imagination.

The plot infuriated me – not because of anything negative in the writing, but because Louisa Treger conveys with such skill the injustices of gender, class and race that create unspeakable events so accurately. Things happen that incensed me but were only too believable.

It’s hard to define just how Louisa Treger has created such a beautiful novel. The historical detail is impressive. The fictionalised aspects are absorbing. The characterisation and sense if place are both vivid. The plot is brilliantly crafted and engaging. And yet somehow The Dragon Lady transcends each element into something even more special that I found touching, enraging and affecting. I thoroughly enjoyed The Dragon Lady and cannot recommend it highly enough.

About Louise Treger

Louisa Treger, a classical violinist, studied at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music.  She subsequently turned to literature, earning a Ph.D. in English at University College London, where she was awarded the West Scholarship and the Rosa Morison Scholarship.  Her first novel, The Lodger, was published in 2014.

You can find out more by following Louisa on Twitter @louisatreger, or visiting her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

I was so lucky to meet Claire Frost at the spring blogger evening run by the inimitable Sara-Jade Virtue of Books and the City @TeamBATC for Simon and Schuster (you can read about that event here) and am delighted to be reviewing her novel Living My Best Li(f)e today.

Living My Best Li(f)e is out in ebook on 23rd July and paperback on 5th September and is available for pre-order here.

Living My Best Li(f)e

This heart-warming and funny novel is the perfect balm for the insta-weary mind – get ready to shatter the illusion that is #LivingMyBestLife 

Bell never thought she’d be facing her 40th birthday single. Recently dumped by her boyfriend of ten years, Bell is struggling to move on with her life – and surrender the fleecy pyjamas she’s been living in since January. Sick of being bombarded by #blessed on social media and feeling like her life doesn’t live up to everyone else’s, she decides it’s time for a change; time to find out who she really is, not who she thinks she should be.

Enter Millie, a successful online influencer posting under the handle @mi_bestlife. But as a single mum trying to make ends meet and stay ahead of the younger generation snapping at her heels, her Instagram feed is far more #BestLiethan #BestLife. With the internet trolls continuing to bring her down and an ex who cares more about playing football than seeing their son, Millie begins to wish her life was more like her filters.

It isn’t until Millie and Bell’s paths cross that the two women begin to realise what they’re missing. Will Bell finally learn to live life for herself? And will Millie see that she needs to start living for the moment and not for the likes?

My Review of Living My Best Li(f)e

Bell and Millie have more in common than they might think.

Oh my goodness, Living My Best Li(f)e made me feel old! The references to social media and the way in which it dominates and shapes our perception of life had me nodding my head in agreement like some kind of old curmudgeon and cheering at the thought of Millie using fewer filters as she learns that #LivingMyBestLife doesn’t automatically mean #LivingMyBestLie! Claire Frost obviously knows this social media driven world inside out and whilst Living My Best Li(f)e may be a fun and entertaining read for the summer, it illustrates perfectly what those of us who are less obsessed by image, fear is happening to ‘the younger generation’. This is such a clever approach.

Both Bell and Millie are vibrant and believable characters who develop well throughout the book. I wanted them to have happy ever after endings but equally I didn’t want their happiness to be dependent on men after their experiences with Colin and King Louis. Clair Frost shows female strength and independence as well as romance and friendship with a deft touch, although I must admit, I might have taken a more robust approach to Louis’ parenting skills than does Millie. Suze and Els also added to my satisfaction in reading Living My Best Li(f)e because they represent an important element of society too and with the age ranges presented I felt Claire Frost has written a narrative with relevance for all readers.

I enjoyed the way the plot of Living My Best Li(f)e has community and friendship at its heart, so that whilst there are frequent references to social media and the personas we present to others, the true meaning of real life is clear without being preachy. The photography night class in particular felt like the prefect setting for developing (no pun intended) meaningful relationships so that I ended the read feeling gladdened and uplifted. The humour, especially through the direct speech also adds to the feel-good nature of this book.

Living My Best Li(f)e is a fresh, entertaining and modern read that I enjoyed. I’d love to think Claire Frost has given media obsessed readers the strength and permission to be themselves and not who they think others might want them to be as this is the very powerful message at the heart of the book.

About Claire Frost

Claire Frost grew up in Manchester, the middle of three sisters. She always wanted to do a job that involved writing, so after studying Classics at Bristol University she started working in magazines. For the last 10 years she’s been at The Sun on Sunday’s Fabulous magazine, where she is Assistant Editor and also responsible for the title’s book reviews. She can mostly be found at her desk buried under a teetering TBR pile.

Follow Claire on Twitter @FabFrosty for more information.

My enormous thanks to Kevin at Bluemoose Books for sending me a copy of The Moss House by Clara Barley in return for an honest review.

Reading The Moss House is that bit more special for me because Clara Barley just happens to be an ex-student of mine and I taught her A’Level English many moons ago, so it was with some trepidation that I began reading The Moss House. What if I didn’t like it? You’ll find out what I thought in my review below! If you haven’t yet watched Gentleman Jack on television, see if you can spot Clara Barley in a cameo role too!

Published by Bluemoose Books, The Moss House is available in all the usual places, including directly from the publisher here.

The Moss House

Two hundred years ago, neighbouring Yorkshire landowners Miss Lister and Miss Walker find their lives become entwined in a passionate, forbidden relationship and retreat to the Moss House, their private sanctuary away from an unaccepting world.

Their tranquillity does not last long as they are drawn into the turmoil of a changing society and a divided family, testing their love for each other, eventually driving them from their home.

The world was not yet ready for the likes of Miss Lister.

Landowner, scholar, traveller, mountaineer and non-conformist but in The Moss House we discover her lifelong battle to be her true self as she finds Ann Walker and together they try to live life on their own terms.

My Review of The Moss House

A lesbian woman in a man’s world, Anne Lister is Gentleman Jack.

Having so enjoyed the television series Gentleman Jack I was nervous about reading The Moss House because I wasn’t sure if it would have anything to add. My goodness it does. I loved this account of Anne Lister’s life and her relationship with Ann Walker and I actually found it hugely affecting, reducing me to tears at the end. Certainly some of the key events will be familiar to those who have watched the television series, as this is, after all, a book about real people, but Clara Barley has imbued them with a fresh vibrancy that is enormously engaging.

Clara Barley writes with such clarity, with two distinct voices as the narrative swaps between Anne Lister and Ann Walker so that I felt as if they were both speaking to me directly. There’s an almost confessional tone that ensnares the reader, making them desperate to know more.

Clara Barley is unafraid to tackle the more intimate physical aspects of the relationship between the two women, but never being gratuitous so that the reader understands the intimacy of Anne Lister’s life and sexual passions. There’s considerable emotion behind every action resulting in two warm, vivid characters that I cared about.

The quality of research that has gone into creating an historically accurate picture of a woman’s place in society leaps from the page. Despite the fact that we are now almost two hundred years ahead in time, the themes of The Moss House feel sadly all too relevant. The role of women, sexuality, inequality, corrupt business, travel, love, family and relationships are all just as important considerations now. One of the most affecting aspects for me was Miss Lister’s constraints simply because of her gender. I felt as enraged as Anne does when she is unable to play an active role simply because she is a woman. But it was Anne Lister’s restlessness, her desperate need to be loved with equal passion and her craving desire to be true to herself and her real identity that I found the most moving.

The Moss House is a wonderful book. Clara Barley transports the reader historically whilst entertaining them emotionally. I felt a profound sadness when I finished reading The Moss House and I’ll be thinking about it for a very long time. It’s a wonderful read.

About Clara Barley

Clara Barley has written fiction and non-fiction for publication, online, theatre and museums and is an avid researcher and enthusiast for sharing’s women’s stories from history. She works at Anne’s home of Shibden Hall in Halifax, West Yorkshire also appears in Gentleman Jack as Mrs Watson, Mariana’s lady’s maid.

You can find out more by following Clara on Twitter @EndeavourFilms.

I know. I know. I keep saying I’ll get my own novel written and I’m not taking on new blog tours, but I think that I can be forgiven for participating in this one for How Not To Write Female Characters by Lucy V Hay because it will help me with my so-called writing and it was friend and blog tour organiser Rachel of Rachel’s Random Resources who asked me to participate.

I have previously reviewed another of Lucy’s books, Do No Harm, a psychological thriller, here on Linda’s Book Bag.

How Not To Write Female Characters is available in e-book free here, or by signing up to Lucy’s newsletter here.

How Not To Write Female Characters

How Not To Write Female Characters

Female characters. When fifty per cent of your potential target audience is female, if you’re not writing them in your screenplay or novel? You’re making a BIG mistake!

But how should you approach your female characters? That’s the million-dollar question … After all, women in real life are complex, varied and flawed. Knowing where to start in creating three dimensional female characters for your story is extremely difficult.

So … perhaps it’s easier to figure out how NOT to write female characters?

Script editor, novelist and owner of the UK’s top screenwriting blog www.bang2write.com, Lucy V Hay has spent the last fifteen years reading the slush pile. She has learned to spot the patterns, pitfalls and general mistakes writers make when writing female characters – and why.

In How Not To Write Female Characters, Lucy outlines:

•WHO your character is & how to avoid “classic” traps and pitfalls
•WHAT mistakes writers typically make with female characters
•WHERE you can find great female characters in produced and published content
•WHEN to let go of gender politics and agendas
•WHY female characters are more important than ever

Lucy is on a mission to improve your writing, as well as enable diverse voices and characters to rise to the top of the spec pile.

My Review of How Not To Write Female Characters

For what is, in effect, the length of an essay about female characters, Lucy V. Hay packs a real punch in How Not To Write Female Characters.

Unafraid to tackle flaws, stereotypes and misconceptions head on How Not To Write Female Characters is an invaluable check list for both new and established writers to help them improve their writing in general and not just the presentation if their female characters.

I liked the structure of How Not To Write Female Characters because Lucy V. Hay gives a clear rationale linked to several creative forms including books, television and film so that there is plenty to think about. She poses a series of problems and then proceeds to unpick them and provide solutions in an a accessible way. The IN A NUTSHELL passages are particularly useful, as is the final checklist in the book.

In How Not To Write Female Characters Lucy V. Hay talks an awful lot of sense and established as well as aspiring writers can gain a considerable amount of advice from her in order to improve their writing. Great stuff!

About Lucy V. Hay

Lucy V. Hay is an author, script editor and blogger who helps writers via her Bang2write consultancy. Lucy is the producer of two Brit Thrillers, Deviation (2012) and Assassin (2015), as well as the script editor and advisor on numerous other features and shorts. Lucy’s also the author of  Writing And Selling Thriller Screenplays for Kamera Books’ “Creative Essentials” range, as well as its follow ups on Drama Screenplays and Diverse Characters.

You can find out more about Bang2Write on Instagram, Twitter @Bang2write and Facebook.

A little while ago I was delighted to find the following invitation in my email inbox, asking me if I would like to attend the launch of The Thunder Girls by Melanie Blake:

Would I? You bet! I’d like to thank everyone at edpr and Midas for inviting me.

I had the most amazing time. I was, as you can imagine, quite excited to find the guest list included Claire Richards from Steps who performed a wonderful set of songs, Sabrina Washington from Mis-Teeq, Doris Pearson from Five Star, Coleen Nolan from The Nolans and Loose Women, as well as TV stars including Emmerdale’s Gaynor Faye, TV presenters June Sarpong and Mark Heyes, Saira Khan and Jane Moore from Loose Women, and Carol Harrison from EastEnders. Although I didn’t manage to speak with them all I was quite star struck and was thrilled to chat with Melanie briefly about The Thunder Girls. It was lovely to catch up with fellow blogger Laura too.

Now, I may look a little worse for wear here as I had consumed perhaps one too many of The Blake Cocktails…

 

At the end of the evening we were all presented with a superb goody bag personalised by Russell from Purely Personalised that included a copy of The Thunder Girls, a bottle of Bottega Rose Gold and a glorious Harley Street Skin Care Regenerating Body Moisture.

I was intrigued by the book’s premise and the background to Melanie Blake, so when I realised I wasn’t able to participate in the blog tour for The Thunder Girls because I will be away, I was disappointed. However, I had a fantastic time at the launch and, despite my towering TBR pile of books I couldn’t resist diving in straight away and I’m delighted to share that review today.

The Thunder Girls will be published by Pan Macmillan on 11th July 2019 and is available for pre-order through these links.

The Thunder Girls

THE

Chrissie, Roxanne, Carly and Anita, an eighties pop sensation outselling and out-classing their competition. Until it all comes to an abrupt end and three of their careers are over, and so is their friendship.

THUNDER

Thirty years later, their old record label wants the band back together for a huge money-making concert. But the wounds are deep and some need this gig more than others.

In those decades apart life was far from the dream they were living as members of The Thunder Girls. Breakdowns, bankruptcy, addiction and divorce have been a constant part of their lives. They’ve been to hell and back, and some are still there.

GIRLS

Can the past be laid to rest for a price, or is there more to this reunion than any of them could possibly know? Whilst they all hunger for a taste of success a second time around, someone is plotting their downfall in the deadliest way possible . . .

My Review of The Thunder Girls

Having broken up acrimoniously, Chrissie, Roxanne, Carly and Anita might come back together for one last show.

I’m going to be completely honest and say I wasn’t expecting a great deal from The Thunder Girls. Having thought The Thunder Girls was probably over hyped and celebrity endorsed because of Melanie Blake’s showbiz background, I was expecting a self-consciously glamorous read with little or no substance. I was completely and utterly wrong. Melanie Blake has confounded me with a fabulously entertaining read written with verve and dynamism. I enjoyed every moment of being immersed in The Thunder Girls. It’s witty, sassy and actually incredibly exciting!

Melanie Blake writes with a vivid and fast paced style that draws in the reader and makes them part of The Thunder Girls‘ world. I loved discovering an existence that is about as far from my middle aged, middle England life as it could be. It was like stepping away from the mundane into a world of glamour and intrigue where not everything is as straightforward as it might at first appear. References to real people add to the authentic feel and I loved the touches of humour along the way too.

There’s an absolutely cracking plot to The Thunder Girls that packs a real punch. Obviously I can’t spoil the story for others but, although I worked out some elements,  I was also kept guessing right to the end and encountered several surprises along the way. This is so much more than a mere escapist read.

Themes explored also add a layer of depth I didn’t expect. I can’t mention them all because it would undermine the enjoyment in the narrative and reveal some of the aspects from later in the book, but Melanie Blake understands the nature of true friendship, trust, betrayal and revenge. She uncovers the world of social and print media and the Machiavellian machinations of publicity perfectly. I’d defy any reader not to find an aspect of The Thunder Girls that resonates with them, regardless of their own lives.

There’s quite a cast of characters, but each person is so distinct that I felt I came to know them personally. Chrissie, the catalyst for the original band break up, was by far my favourite. This is because Melanie Blake illustrates through Chrissie the personal price of stardom and the way in which, regardless of our so-called status or fame, we can be self-delusional and actually quite vulnerable. I thoroughly appreciated the message that we alone are responsible for our lives, but that we might need support from other along the journey. The interactions between the band members are dynamic and hugely entertaining. Each woman has her insecurities, her secrets and her basic need to be loved so that The Thunder Girls really does illustrate that appearances and personas may not be the real person beneath.

I finished the book feeling as if I had had a thoroughly entertaining and engaging time. The Thunder Girls is like a glass of the best champagne – sparkling, fun and with just the right amount of bite! I loved it and hope it isn’t the last I’ll read about The Thunder Girls.

About Melanie Blake

At fifteen years old Melanie Blake was told by her high school career advisers that her decision to do work experience at a local record shop was an ‘embarrassment and a clear example that she wouldn’t go far in life or her career’. They were wrong. By twenty-one she was working at the BBC’s iconic Top of the Pops show and by twenty-seven she had built a reputation as one of the UK’s leading music and entertainment managers, with her own agency and a roster of award-winning artists who had sold more than 100 million records.

After a decade at the top, Melanie decided to manage a smaller client list and concentrate on her other passion, writing – first as a columnist for a national newspaper, then as a playwright and now as a novelist. They say write about what you know, and having lived and breathed every aspect of the music and entertainment industry, in The Thunder Girls she certainly has.

You can find out more by following Melanie on Twitter @MelanieBlakeUK or visiting The Thunder Girls website where you’ll also find ticket information for the stage play. There’s a Thunder Girls Facebook page here too.

My enormous thanks to the folk at SPCK Publishing for sending me a copy of The Light Keeper by Cole Moreton in return for an honest review. I know it’s really far too early to be blogging my thoughts about The Light Keeper, but I simply couldn’t wait to tell the world about this fabulous book and as the launch campaign starts next week I’m delighted to get it going.

The Light Keeper will be published by SPCK imprint Marylebone House on 15th August 2019 and is available for pre-order here.

The Light Keeper

Sarah stands on the brink, arms open wide as if to let the wind carry her away.

She’s come to the high cliffs to be alone, to face the truth about her life, to work out what to do.

Her lover Jack is searching, desperate to find her before it is too late. But Sarah doesn’t want to be found. Not yet. Not by him.

And someone else is seeking answers up here where the seabirds soar – a man known only as the Keeper, living in an old lighthouse right on the cusp of a four-hundred-foot drop. He is all too aware that sometimes love takes you to the edge . . .

My Review of The Light Keeper

Desperate for a baby, Sarah is missing.

The Light Keeper is, quite simply, stunning; beautifully written, emotionally charged and a compelling story.

The plot appears relatively simple in that a man known as the Keeper is doing up an old light house as a bed and breakfast venue, and Sarah has run away from her husband Jack. However, this belies the glorious complexity of emotion, life and relationships swirling and thrumming through this superb character led narrative. What is just fabulous is the part played by characters not actually present, like Sarah’s mother and Ri, or minor characters like Magda and the Chief, because they illustrate how easily our lives can be altered and affected by the actions of others, even if they are not physically present.

Cole Moreton’s depiction of character is just divine. Initially, I held the same rather negative opinion about Sarah that her husband Jack presents to the Keeper, but gradually, skilfully, Cole Moreton manipulates the reader until I felt as close to Sarah as any living person. Similarly, I found the Keeper and Jack totally fascinating. Both have their demons, their sense of loss, but they deal with it differently so that all life seems represented through just two characters. I loved the fact that the Keeper is both a literal keeper of the light house and a metaphorical keeper of spiritual light that contrasts with the established religious light espoused by Magda and the Chief. Once the Keeper’s name is revealed it is totally apposite, but you’ll have to read the book for yourself to discover why. I have no idea if it is intentional, but even the cover art work has the cliff top vegetation looking like a finger pointing the way towards the light, but in this intimate and wonderfully crafted narrative I can’t imagine it’s a coincidence.

Themes are raw and affecting. Infertility, death, relationships and suicide weave through the pages which should make The Light Keeper depressing and uncomfortable. With the skill of Cole Moreton, however, they form a moving, enlightening and beautiful story that held my attention, heart and soul, throughout. There’s a depth of understanding of human nature in The Light Keeper that is breathtaking and made me feel privileged to read it.

The Light Keeper is a searing, intense portrait of loss and grief that holds the reader spellbound. I’d recommend reading this book alone so that there are no interruptions because every syllable deserves the reader’s complete attention. The Light Keeper is one of the most moving and striking books I’ve read and not one I’ll forget. I loved it unconditionally.

About Cole Moreton

Cole Moreton is a writer and broadcaster exploring who we are and what we believe in. His BBC Radio 4 series The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away won multiple awards including Best Documentary in the BBC Radio Awards, Best Writing at the World’s Best Radio Awards in New York and gold for Audio Moment of the Year at the Arias.

Cole writes for the Mail on Sunday and was named Interviewer of the Year at the Press Awards 2016, then shortlisted again in 2018. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Sunday Times, and many other.

The first of Cole’s non-fiction books was Hungry For Home: A Journey To America From The Edge Of Ireland and published by Viking in 2000. This combination of journalism, travelogue and dramatised true events told the story of the evacuation of the Great Blasket Island in County Kerry and followed the journey taken by the islanders to new lives in the United States. It was shortlisted for the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for a first book in any genre.

His second book was called My Father Was A Hero (Viking) and told the story of the men and women who returned home to London after WW2 but could not handle peace time. His third book Is God Still An Englishman? How Britain Lost Its Faith (But Found New Soul) was published by Little, Brown. It explores the dramatic changes in British culture and spirituality over the last 30 years and celebrates the possibilities for the future.

His fourth book was a retelling of the story of The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away for HarperCollins. His debut novel The Light Keeper will be published in August 2019.

You can follow The Light Keeper on Twitter @TheLightKeeper1 or Cole Moreton @colemoreton. There’s more on Cole’s website and you can find him on Facebook.

My enormous thanks to Isabelle Kenyon of Fly on the Wall Poetry for sending me a copy of Morning Walk with Dead Possum, Breakfast and Parallel Universe by Beth Gordon in return for an honest review. It’s been far too long since I featured any poetry.

Published by Animal Heart Press, Morning Walk with Dead Possum, Breakfast and Parallel Universe is available for purchase here or directly from the publisher here.

Morning Walk with Dead Possum, Breakfast and Parallel Universe

In her stunning debut collection, Morning Walk with Dead Possum, Breakfast and Parallel Universe Beth Gordon addresses loss and grief in a unique way, blending her impeccable craft with a new vision, a new voice, and indeed a new language; at times formal yet following a new modern standard of magical realism and out of body pain and transcendence. Gordon’s poetry is brilliant yet accessible to the masses – and addresses themes and feelings to which all mothers, parents and ultimately humans will relate to and find solace with her tender and sometimes rightfully angry words. She blends the ordinary with the extraordinary using lush, magical words that are sweet in the mouth and roll off the tongue.

My Review

of

Morning Walk with Dead Possum, Breakfast and Parallel Universe

A collection of poems around the themes of death, grief and being human.

What a wonderful celebration of language Beth Gordon has produced in Morning Walk with Dead Possum, Breakfast and Parallel Universe. Think of the very best wordscapes of Dylan Thomas, or the innovative compound words of Gerard Manly Hopkins blended with the depth of emotion from Emily Dickinson and you have some indication of the quality of verse in this slim volume.

It’s impossible to do justice to the quality of language Beth Gordon employs in Morning Walk. She manages to convey all the senses in her poetry so that I found myself tingling with emotion and the sheer pleasure of delving into the writing, the language and the imagery. The natural references are beautiful, but it is the creation of pictures and sounds in the reader’s head as they experience Beth Gordon’s poetry that is so wonderful. I loved, for example, the use of the adjective ‘sobbing’ to describe trains because not only does it convey the sound of a train so well, but it embodies the times trains remove us from those we love, tearing at our emotions and making us want to sob.

I thought the structure of the poems was phenomenal. Many take free verse to its extreme and look dense and inaccessible on the page, but when they are read aloud they take on meaning and substance that transcends their original appearance.

I loved all these poems and have reread them several times. I could hardly bear Crown: In Which I Compare Tuberculosis Sanitariums to Resurrection because it made me think of my Dad and the scattering of his ashes, stirring up all the emotions I felt at the time. The idea of a mobile phone as a ‘touchstone of sorrow’ at four in the morning in Pisces/Aries Cusp is something I think many, many readers might relate to and is just a small example of how Beth Gordon turns the mundane into the extraordinary.

So many of the poems in Morning Walk are about negative emotions such as guilt or sorrow and yet I didn’t find them at all depressing. They made me feel as if Beth Gordon had looked into my soul, seen my darkest thoughts and fears and understood them. It was as if she were adding a slave to my most self-destructive times and providing me with healing. This is a collection I will return to time and again because the depth of language, imagery and emotion has so many layers I feel I have only just begun to scratch the surface of Beth Gordon’s writing. Magnificent!

About Beth Gordon

Beth Gordon is poet, mother and grandmother, currently landlocked in St. Louis, MO. She’s traveled and lived all over the United States (and some of the world) and was raised by a pair of liberal Southerners who taught her how to make buttermilk biscuits when she was three years old. It’s rumored that she has an MFA from American University, but it was so long ago that she may have just dreamed it.

Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in numerous journals including Into the Void, AntiHeroin Chic, Drunk Monkeys, Noble/Gas, Five: 2:One, SWWIM, Verity La, Califragile, Pretty Owl Poetry and Yes Poetry. She is also the Poetry Editor of Gone Lawn.

You can follow Beth on Twitter @bethgordonpoet.

I’ll let you into a secret. I have an irrational aversion to Agatha Christie Poirot books because they remind me of having my tonsils out in my mid 20s! I had chosen one of the stories to read in hospital and I can’t escape the association.

However, with Sophie Hannah one of our Deepings Literary Festival authors last month in an event I couldn’t attend because I was with another author, I just had to choose her Poirot story The Monogram Murders as the next book for the U3A reading group to which I belong. I’m delighted to share my review today and am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the group think when we meet next.

Published by Harper Collins The Monogram Murders is available for purchase in all forms through the publisher links.

The Monogram Murders

Hercule Poirot’s quiet supper in a London coffee house is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered. She is terrified, but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done.

Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at the fashionable Bloxham Hotel have been murdered, a cufflink placed in each one’s mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim…

In the hands of internationally bestselling author Sophie Hannah, Poirot plunges into a mystery set in 1920s London – a diabolically clever puzzle that can only be solved by the talented Belgian detective and his ‘little grey cells’.

My Review of The Monogram Murders

Poirot is taking a break but it doesn’t stop him getting involved in investigating a series of murders at the Bloxham Hotel.

The Monogram Murders is like stepping back to the heights of Agatha Christie’s fame because Sophie Hannah writes with an authentic tone and style that I found indistinguishable from Christie’s own. The setting of an upper class hotel in Bloxham’s, the tea rooms, the lodging house, the small village and so on all provide a setting that is perfect for a Poirot mystery so that I felt transported to the era completely.

Sophie Hannah’s Poirot is an absolute triumph. Whilst it’s difficult to eradicate David Suchet’s television persona from the mind’s eye, it is the fabulous arrogance and the cadences of Poirot’s speech that are so convincing in creating his character in The Monogram Murders. The author made me feel exactly how Edward Catchpool must feel as he struggles to follow the intricacies of Poirot’s little grey cells. Poirot lives and breathes through this writing making The Monogram Murders a real treat for Agatha Christie fans.

All of the characters fit the Christie model flawlessly. There’s very much a middle class strand that has considerable snobbishness and contempt for the working class. Many people in the story are almost caricatures and yet this is exactly as it should be to produce a convincing Agatha Christie style text. Sophie Hannah displays dexterous skill in creating just the right tone and attitudes, but with a modern freshness too

Sophie Hannah’s plot in The Monogram Murders is quite complex so that I had to concentrate quite hard to ensure I followed all the twists and turns and it didn’t surprise me at all that Poirot is privy to information and theories that none of the characters have access to, because this is what I expect from Agatha Christie. Again, this feature added to my enjoyment of the read. I have to say that this fiendish plotting is exemplary and I have no idea just how the author managed to weave the components together quite so seamlessly.

I confess I hadn’t especially looked forward to reading The Monogram Murders, but in fact Sophie Hannah writes so convincingly that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found it very entertaining, authentic and great fun. I’ll certainly be reading more in the future regardless of my missing tonsils!

About Sophie Hannah

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling crime fiction writer. Her crime novels have been translated into 34 languages and published in 51 countries. Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year in 2013. In 2014 and 2016, Sophie published The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket, the first new Hercule Poirot mysteries since Agatha Christie’s death, both of which were national and international bestsellers.

Sophie’s novels The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives have been adapted for television as Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. Sophie is also a bestselling poet who has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE and A-level throughout the UK.  Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, two children and dog.

You can find out more about Sophie on her website and you can follow her on Twitter at @sophiehannahcb1. You’ll also find Sophie on Facebook.