I was delighted when 99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter dropped through my letterbox as it looked like just my kind of read. I’d like to thank Sabah Khan for sending me a copy (and for the lolly that has rapidly been eaten!)

Published by Avon Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, 99 Red Balloons is available for purchase here.

99 Red Balloons

Two girls go missing, decades apart. What would you do if one was your daughter?

When eight-year-old Grace goes missing from a sweetshop on the way home from school, her mother Emma is plunged into a nightmare. Her family rallies around, but as the police hunt begins, cracks begin to emerge.

What are the secret emails sent between Emma’s husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is Emma really as innocent as she seems?

Meanwhile, ageing widow Maggie Taylor sees Grace’s picture in the newspaper. It’s a photograph that jolts her from the pain of her existence into a spiralling obsession with another girl – the first girl who disappeared…

My Review of 99 Red Balloons

When a child goes missing it will be the start of a catalogue of events to affect many lives.

Crikey! What a tangled web we weave! I thoroughly enjoyed 99 Red Balloons. It’s actually quite difficult to review without giving too much away as its plot races along, but suffice it to say it’s a cracker of a story, cleverly thought out and hugely entertaining in its execution. Elisabeth Carpenter is so skilful in ending each chapter with a sentence that takes the breath away and makes the reader desperate to know what happens next. I also thought the exploration of identity and relationships was an extra element that added depth to the story so that 99 Red Balloons isn’t just another run of the mill crime thriller.

All the characters have a fascinating part to play and their first person narratives twist and weave so that I was completely swept up in the story. I liked Maggie best as she carries the events and grief of her life with dignity and fortitude. It’s the brilliantly written direct speech that reveals so much and each individual has a clear and distinct voice that adds layer upon layer to what is happening.

99 Red Balloons made me consider the impact of a missing child not just on the child and their family, but on the police and wider community too. I want to say so much more but am fearful of giving away the plot so suffice it to say 99 Red Balloons is such a good read and I highly recommend it.

About Elisabeth Carpenter

Libby Carpenter lives in Preston with her family. She completed a BA in English Literature and Language with the Open University in 2011.
Libby was awarded a Northern Writers’ New Fiction award, and was longlisted for Yeovil Literary Prize (2015 and 2016) and the MsLexia Women’s Novel award (2015). She loves living in the north of England and sets most of her stories in the area, including the novel she is writing at the moment. She currently works as a book keeper.

You can follow Elisabeth on Twitter, @LibbyCPT and visit her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

Welcoming Sheila O’Flanagan back to Linda’s Book Bag is well overdue and I’m delighted to be helping reveal the cover of her latest release, Christmas With You. Sheila previously told me all about her inspiration for another of her books My Mother’s Secret in a guest post that you can read here. I also reviewed My Mother’s Secret here.

Christmas With You will be published on 19th October by Headline and was previously titled A Season To Remember. It is available for pre-order here.

Christmas With You

Sheila O’Flanagan’s romantic and heart-warming Christmas With You is perfect festive reading for fans of Veronica Henry, Carole Matthews and Marian Keyes. These enchanting linked short stories from the No. 1 bestselling author bring to life one unforgettable Christmas full of surprise twists, life-changing moments…and love.

Tucked away in the Irish countryside, the Sugar Loaf Lodge is opening its door for the festive season. With snow falling on the mountains outside and warm fires roaring inside, it’s the perfect place for guests to celebrate the happiest time of the year. But what if you’ve just had your heart broken? Or discovered that the man you’re married to has lied to you? What if a secret from your past has finally come back to haunt you?

For some of the guests arriving at the Sugar Loaf Lodge, Christmas is looking far from tranquil. But can they find the magic and romance of the season within the walls of this beautiful hotel?

About Sheila O’Flanagan

Sheila O’Flanagan is the award-winning author of over twenty titles, including the Sunday Times bestsellers The Missing Wife, My Mother’s Secret and If You Were Me, and the winner of the Irish Independent Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award, All For You. She has also written the bestselling short story collections Destinations, Connections and A Season To Remember.

Sheila has always loved telling stories, and after working in banking and finance for a number of years, she decided it was time to fulfil a dream and give writing her own book a go. So she sat down, stuck ‘Chapter One’ at the top of a page, and got started. Sheila is now a full-time writer and lives in Dublin with her husband.

You can follow Sheila on Twitter @sheilaoflanagan, find her on Facebook and visit her website for more details.

I can’t express how delighted I am to welcome Don’t Close Your Eyes author Holly Seddon to Linda’s Book Bag. I was desperate to know what Holly thought about crime and the fears we have and I asked her if she would write a guest post about our fear of the ordinary, closer to home, threats. I’m delighted she agreed to do so.

Published by Corvus, Don’t Close Your Eyes is available for purchase here.

Don’t Close Your Eyes

Robin and Sarah weren’t the closest of twins. They weren’t even that similar. But they loved each other dearly. Until, in the cruellest of domestic twists, they were taken from one another.

Now, in her early 30s, Robin lives alone. Agoraphobic and suffering from panic attacks, she spends her days pacing the rooms of her house. The rest of the time she watches – watches the street, the houses, the neighbours. Until one day, she sees something she shouldn’t…

And Sarah? Sarah got what she wanted – the good-looking man, the beautiful baby, the perfect home. But she’s just been accused of the most terrible thing of all. She can’t be around her new family until she has come to terms with something that happened a long time ago. And to do that, she needs to track down her twin sister.

But Sarah isn’t the only person looking for Robin. As their paths intersect, something dangerous is set in motion, leading Robin and Sarah to fight for much more than their relationship…

Closer to Home

A Guest Post by Holly Seddon

You can take your baddies in the shadowy alleyways, your plane crashes and your serial killers, and file them under ‘incredibly unlikely to happen’. For me, these are such distant fears that they carry no weight. What scares me, what absolutely terrifies me, is the idea of danger creeping under my own front door and destroying everything that I love.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good serial killer romp but the chances of it happening to me are easy to dismiss. So let’s look at some of the real risks to a woman my age.

An estimated 2 million adults (aged 16 – 59) in the UK experienced domestic abuse in 2016 alone. That’s six people in every 100, afraid and at risk in the place that should be safest: their homes.

There were 106,098 sexual offences recorded by the police in England and Wales last year. That’s just last year. Some one in five women in the UK have experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of sixteen. And here’s the kicker, approximately 90% of those who are raped know the perpetrator prior to the offence.

We teach our children stranger danger, as we ourselves were taught to fear the bogeyman, but danger is rarely unknown to us.

Don’t Close Your Eyes, my second novel, doesn’t feature unknown assailants. In fact, a large proportion of the story takes place within one suburban home.

The characters’ pasts, the choices they made and those made for them, they are where darkness lies and spreads.

Domestic noir is chilling in its realism, in its plausibility. Just look at the juggernaut that was The Girl On The Train. A normal woman, on a commuter train, watching her old street. There were no masked killers, no bogeymen.

Look at the premise of The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena. A boozy dinner party, a baby next door protected by a monitor, missing at the end of the night. Or Disclaimer, the excellent debut by Renee McKnight, which features a woman’s past bleeding into every nook and cranny of her present, rotting her relationships from the inside.

Aren’t these some of our biggest fears?

As a reader and a writer, these books aren’t just about escapism, they’re a study of our very real vulnerabilities and, for me, a reminder of how lucky I am to truly feel safe.

Statistics from:

The Office for National Statistics

Refuge

Crime Survey of England and Wales, 2013

(Linda – My goodness Holly. Those are some scary statistics you’ve shared with us today.)

About Holly Seddon

Holly Seddon is a full time writer, living slap bang in the middle of Amsterdam with her husband James and a house full of children and pets. Holly has written for newspapers, websites and magazines since her early 20s after growing up in the English countryside, obsessed with music and books.

Her first novel Try Not To Breathe was published worldwide in 2016 and became a national and international bestseller.

You can follow Holly on Twitter, visit her website and find her on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

My grateful thanks to Georgina Wiseman at Austin Macauley for my copy of Long Journey to Jimbopo by James Lettice in return for an honest review.

Long Journey to Jimbopo was published on 30th June 2017 and is available for purchase here.

Long Journey to Jimbopo

James Lettice was born in Wigan in 1940, a wartime baby. His cheery autobiography takes us through his short but eventful army career. A young man with a spectacular talent for getting into trouble, James’ senior officers couldn’t decide whether he was a leader or a follower and soon his name went before him as he made his mark on friends, colleagues and officers. His many escapades during his time as a ‘bad soldier’ make for lively reading, including numerous spells in jail, being ordered to ‘thumb a lift’ to Borneo, causing competitive bed-wetting and picking up ladyboys in Malaya.

Eventually the army had enough of him and sent James and his drink problem home, where he met Jaci and started a family before reaching rock bottom.

Much later in life, after a wake-up call, he began to write poems, some of which feature in this very enjoyable book.

My Review of Long Journey to Jimbopo

With a talent for getting into trouble born of too much fondness for drink, James Lettice has to learn some hard life lessons.

Let me say at the outset that Long Journey to Jimbopo is by no means a literary masterpiece of perfectly honed prose. There’s too liberal a use of exclamation marks and the F-word for that. It is, however, a colloquial, charming and brutally honest memoir that reveals a man much more sinned against than sinning.

As I read I became absolutely sure that James Lettice was a man with whom I’d get along brilliantly. He’s aware of his flaws, he’s self-deprecating and he is only too aware of the need to make the most of life and be grateful for his blessings. I think I enjoyed Long Journey to Jimbopo so much because James reminded me of some of the rogues I’ve taught in the past who ended up on a downward spiral as a result of life’s chance, not their intrinsic personality. I have also lost a person close to me through alcoholism and know what a grip drink can have on the individual so that James gained my empathy too.

There are some eyebrow raising adventures to enjoy as we read about life in the army and I can only hope procedures have changed somewhat now. It’s amazing what entertainment can be had with a cone of paper and a flame!

Whilst I enjoyed the prose section of Long Journey to Jimbopo very much, it was the poetry at the end that touched me most. I appreciated the irony and combative imagery of John Barleycorn the Thief, and thought that Listen, in particular, had a strong message for us all. I found the colloquial language and history behind Grandma Phoebe Jane very touching and would definitely say don’t read the poems before reading the memoir as they have much greater poignancy if you know the stories and life behind them. There’s also great sensitivity in the nature poems that belies the coarse mouthed drunkard of the army years.

Long Journey to Jimbopo is an unusual book that I very much enjoyed. I think its significance and messages will touch different readers in many ways, depending on their own life experiences. The meaning of the title only becomes clear at the very end of the prose section of the book and it was indeed a long journey for a man so consumed by alcohol and one that I am glad to have read about.

About James Lettice

After being discharged from the army James was employed in numerous jobs: Meat porter, window cleaner, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, biscuit factory, to name a few. Eventually at the age of 36 he got a job at the magistrate’s courts. Drink blighted his life for a good number of years.

In desperation at the age of 38 he managed to stop drinking with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous and a man called Tony and he says words cannot express his gratitude to Tony.

Eventually James started to write poetry, life-in-rhyme. He enjoys sharing his work as a speaker poet and says he could never have dreamed that one day he would become a published author at the age of 76.

You can see James Lettice performing his poem Listen featured in Long Journey to Jimbopo here.

It’s wonderful to have Jane Lythell back on Linda’s Book Bag today. Author of Behind Her Back, Jane previously wrote a fabulous guest post all about creating vivid settings when her previous book, The Woman of the Hour was published. You can read that post here.

Today I’m thrilled to be able to interview Jane about her writing.

Published by Head of Zeus on 10th August, Behind Her Back is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

Behind Her Back

Liz Lyon is a television producer and busy single mum to a teenage daughter. She works at StoryWorld, the UK’s favourite morning show. As both confidante and team leader, she is the person tasked with controlling the conflicts and tantrums that flare up off-air. Having just started dating again, she’s also having to deal with a few conflicts and tantrums at home…

Following a blissfully peaceful two-week holiday in Italy, Liz has returned to find a new colleague has joined the station. Lori Kerwell has been brought in to increase the show’s profitability. But Liz is not sure that’s the only thing on Lori’s agenda.

As Lori builds her power base with the bosses, Liz finds herself wondering what’s really going on behind her back…

An Interview with Jane Lythell

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Jane. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing and Behind Her Back in particular. Firstly, can you tell me, why do you write?

That is such a big question. I was a passionate reader from quite young. I read my way through the fiction shelves of Sheringham library and writers were my heroes. At some point I realised I had stories I wanted to tell.

When did you realise you were going to be a writer?

When I was seven or eight I wrote a story for my younger sister about Sally Dumpling, a fairy with curves. She lived in a yellow rose and polished the walls till they shone like gold and her best friend was a robin. My sister loved it! When I was older I wrote a few short stories. I knew I wanted to write but it took me an age to get down to the business of completing a novel.

(I love the sound of that early story!)

What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

I write in the mornings and I write standing up. I’m a morning person and my brain seems to work so much better before one! I’ve rigged up a wooden tray on legs on top of my desk and this gets my laptop to the right height. I would recommend doing this. It works for me and makes me feel more alert.

(I’m going to try that as I write anything slumped over my desk.)

Without spoiling the plot, please could you tell us a bit about Behind Her Back?

Liz Lyon the heroine faces work and home conflicts many of us can relate to. It’s about backstabbing colleagues at work and about a secret Liz has to keep which would result in a scandal if it got out. A new Head of Sales arrives at the TV station and she tries to undermine Liz at every turn. Meanwhile at home Liz has started to date again but her fifteen year old daughter deeply resents the new man in her life. So there is a lot of conflict which drives the story.

You’ve worked in television like Liz. To what extent do you agree with the advice to new authors to ‘write what you know’?

I don’t think you have to do this literally. What I think this means is write about the emotional truth of your experiences. You can put your characters into a completely fictional environment and let them act out your own emotional history.  But certainly in Behind Her Back I have drawn on a world I know very well as I worked at TV-am and later WestCountry TV. Both places offered a lot of colourful material to draw on.

How far, then, is it your intention in your writing to uncover the world of television and how far simply to write a great story?

Always to tell the story first and foremost because that is what keeps me, as a reader, turning the pages. I also have to believe in the characters and care for at least one of them so I enjoy creating characters and trying to portray them as rounded, flawed and authentic as possible.

You belong to a group of authors called The Prime Writers. How has belonging to that group impacted on you as a writer?

It’s great for moral support and encouragement. We have a private Facebook page and it’s a place to go to share our highs and our lows. I’ve made some good friends in the group and would recommend joining a group of people doing the same work as you.  I am sure as bloggers that you will have such a forum.

(Yes indeed we do.)

You write very visually. How do you go about creating setting in your writing?

I do see things very visually before I write them down. For example I had to know what Liz’s flat looks like – French doors into a courtyard garden, squashy yellow sofa; what colours she likes to wear – all shades of red; what the TV studio looks like. For the StoryWorld TV station I made a rough sketch to get the geography of the offices and dressing rooms right.

In my novel After The Storm I had a head start because I’d sailed the route I describe and I’d taken lots of pictures which were so useful.

In Behind Her Back Liz is quite feisty. How did you create her as a character in advance of writing the novel?

What I do is I create a sheet for my main characters and think about what food, clothes and music they would like. What is their greatest fear and the worst thing that has happened to them? Even if not all of this makes its way into the book it helps the characters to live in my mind. With Liz Lyon I wanted to create a strong and capable woman who is also subject to guilt and self-doubt. Liz is divorced and worries about being a working mum with a full-on job. But she is feisty too. She will fight back when attacked and I particularly enjoyed writing those scenes. I wanted to reveal how Liz reacted under pressure because that is when a sense of a character emerges most strongly.

If you could choose to be a character from Behind Her Back, who would you be and why?

I would have to be Liz Lyon because I worked as a television producer and always said that I would far rather work behind the camera rather than in front of it. People often think it’s glamourous to be a presenter but in my experience presenters are insecure and need constant reassurance. I would not like to be in their shoes.

That’s interesting because in many of your books there is a contrast between the image people present to the world and the truth underneath. How far do you think this is part of the human condition?

There is always that split I think. We are social creatures and know that in our interactions we need to be diplomatic and make compromises, but I’m sure most of us sometimes carry on a different conversation in our heads. First person is particularly effective with characters who don’t or can’t say what they mean, characters whose inner voice is different from their outer behaviour.​ This is certainly the case with Liz who has to bite back words a lot.

If Behind Her Back became a film, who would you like to play Liz and why would you choose them?

I think Suranne Jones would be perfect as Liz as she has the right mix of strength and contained emotion. Liz is controlled at work and emotional at home and Suranne Jones would do this very well.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

All kinds of things. I have just started Watership Down by Richard Adams because I have never read it. My favourite novel is Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News. I love John le Carre’s and Charles Cumming’s espionage novels. Funnily enough I rarely read psychological thrillers even though I wrote two.

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that Behind Her Back should be their next read, what would you say?

A relateable heroine battling big egos, conflicts and betrayals at work and trouble at home!

Thank you so much, Jane, for your time in answering my questions.

About Jane Lythell

Jane lives in Brighton, UK and is a sea-lover, star gazer, film and football fan.She worked as a television producer for fifteen years. Jane then moved to the British Film Institute as Deputy Director, did one year as Chief Executive of BAFTA (miserable) followed by seven years at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (interesting). Jane now writes full time.

You can follow Jane on Twitter and find her on Facebook. She also has a blog.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

It gives me very great pleasure to welcome Kate Fitzroy to Linda’s Book Bag. Kate has six books in her Wine Dark Mysteries series and I was interested to find out how she had created and sustained her protagonist, Eve, through the series. I’m delighted Kate has agreed to tell me more today.

A Fine Racy Wine, the sixth book in the Wine Dark Mysteries, is available for purchase with all Kate’s books here.

A Fine Racy Wine

In the heart of the quiet county of Suffolk, there is a Tudor manor house surrounded by a well-manicured, leafy vineyard. Perfect? Is life there as good as it first appears?

Then, on the very border of this gentle county, lies the racy town of Newmarket. Here life is always on the edge. Jockeys, trainers, owners and punters all sharing the thrills and spills of the race course.

When Eve Sinclair, wine critic and TV celebrity, travels with Adam and Bernard to write the final chapter in her book she hopes to make it a quick visit… she hopes but then… is that love that is smouldering in the damp Suffolk air?

All About Eve

A Guest Post by Kate Fitzroy

When I decided to move genre from thrilling romance to romantic thriller, I was determined to create a heroine that was not too syrupy. I decided that Eve should walk along the tough path of riches to rags.  She is a reverse Cinderella, a spoilt young woman who meets her comeuppance even before the story really begins. I nearly named her Ella, but then decided on Eve, as she falls out of the paradise of an ideal life in her Provençal villa.

I wanted her to be strong enough to hide her vulnerability and to be likeable to the point where my ideal reader would identify with her.  Selfish and yet, in extremis, loving and caring. Educated to a ridiculous level of uselessness with her Master’s degree in English literature and a tendency to while away her time writing obscure poetry under an olive tree in Provence… until reality strikes. Vaguely arrogant and yet scared of falling in love but by Wine Dark Mystery Book 6… is it inevitable? The next title may tell all… or maybe not. Friends tell me that Eve is my alter-ego but I don’t agree… she  is merely a fig-leaf of my imagination.

About Kate Fitzroy

Kate Fitzroy has two lives. One in a flinty Victorian cottage in Newmarket, where she awakes to the clatter of horses’ hooves as strings of racehorses pass early each morning. Kate’s other life is played out in a Napoleonic manor set in a sleepy village amongst the vineyards of the Loire valley.
Her life has not always been so blissful. Widowed at the age of twenty-one, already with two children to love and protect, she fought her way up as hard a path as any of her heroines. Now happily married and surrounded by a large, loving family, Kate enjoys every moment of every day… CARPE DIEM… TEMPUS FUGIT…. or should that be CARPE MOMENTUM?

You can follow Kate on Twitter @KATEFITZROY36 and find her on Facebook.

I rather ashamedly have to confess that I haven’t read an Anita Shreve book before so I’m grateful to the members of my U3A reading group for choosing The Lives of Stella Bain this month.

The Lives of Stella Bain is published by Abacus, part of the Little Brown Group, and is available for purchase here.

The Lives of Stella Bain

Hauled in a cart to a field hospital in northern France in March 1916, an American woman wakes from unconsciousness to the smell of gas gangrene, the sounds of men in pain, and an almost complete loss of memory: she knows only that she can drive an ambulance, she can draw, and her name is Stella Bain.

A stateless woman in a lawless country, Stella embarks on a journey to reconstruct her life. Suffering an agonising and inexplicable array of symptoms, she finds her way to London. There, Dr August Bridge, a cranial surgeon turned psychologist, is drawn to tracking her amnesia to its source. What brutality was she fleeing when she left the tranquil seclusion of a New England college campus to serve on the Front; for what crime did she need to atone – and whom did she leave behind?

Vivid, intense and gripping, packed with secrets and revelations, The Lives of Stella Bain is at once a ravishing love story and an intense psychological mystery.

My Review of The Lives of Stella Bain

I can’t believe that The Lives of Stella Bain is my first Anita Shreve book and I can’t wait to delve into more of her writing.

I thoroughly enjoyed the sense of mystery in the early part of the novel when Stella is trying to regain her identity. I found her initial reason for fleeing to France an interesting premise for the novel and although I didn’t find her actions, because of her feelings of guilt, entirely convincing, I found the event that precipitated her being in France very effective.

I’m always fascinated by the setting of the First World War but, whilst I am thoroughly aware of the devastating effects it had on young men, I am ashamed that I have never really thought too much about the effects on the women working there too. This was a compelling and thought provoking element to The Lives of Stella Bain and I enjoyed this first part of the novel particularly because I was educated as well as entertained as I read.

Usually preferring a novel with a linear time scale, I actually loved the structure of The Lives of Stella Bain and the uncovering of the mystery surrounding Stella. Anita Shreve has magnificent insight into the human psyche so that Stella, as she is initially known, is a compelling, human and believable woman. I thought all the characters were engaging and I enjoyed the way in which the novel ultimately resolves itself around them.

As well as being well written and entertaining with some wonderful descriptions that give a dramatic sense of place, I thought The Lives of Stella Bain had great depth too. Anita Shreve considers the place of women in marriage and society, the role of motherhood and who judges (literally in this case) what it means to be a woman and mother. She raises the questions of identity and self, and of love and hatred, so that I was made thankful for the life and love I have.

The Lives of Stella Bain may be my first Anita Shreve read but it most certainly won’t be my last. It’s a highly appealing story.

About Anita Shreve

Anita Shreve is the acclaimed author of seventeen novels, including Rescue, A Change in Altitude, Testimony, and The Pilot’s Wife, which was a selection of Oprah’s Book Club. Her latest book is The Stars Are Fire. Anita first began writing when working as a high school teacher. She lives in Massachusetts.

You can find Anita on Facebook and visit her website.

I don’t read and review enough poetry so when a copy of Just Where You Left It by David Roche dropped into my inbox unexpectedly, I thought I’d dip in straight away.

Published by Unbound on 24th August 2017, Just Where You Left It is available for purchase here.

Just Where You Left It

Just Where You Left It is a collection of humorous poetry about how to survive school, parents and everything else that’s unfair in life.

From David Roche come these simple and charming rhymes designed to make parents and children alike fall in love with poetry again… or maybe for the first time. It all started with a poem about the agony of poetry recitation, written by David for his son.

In fact, all of these poems were written for his three sons, touching on everything they might encounter growing up: exams, school meals, bullying, sports days, embarrassing Dads and nagging and know-it-all Mums were fair game.

These are poems for parents, poems for children and poems for parents to read to their children, offering a witty and charming take on life for every stage of growing up. If you grew up in a world of Ogden Nash and Shel Silverstein, then this is the book for you.

My Review of Just Where You Left It

If at first you don’t succeed keep trying until you win your children’s school poetry reciting competition. Family life laid bare through rhyme!

I’m going to begin by saying that I am not normally a fan of adult rhyming poetry. However, in Just Where You Left It David Roche has produced a wry and witty insight into family life with our reliance on social media, wifi and emojis, and with familiar anxiety dreams, holidays, food and so on.

Before commenting on the poetry, I must just mention the brilliant illustrations from Dave Cormell at the start of each poem. They made me smile before I’d even read the humour in the verses themselves.

Some of the rhymes in Just Where You Left It are almost tortuous at times, adding to the charm of the poems – especially in We Have Ways of Making You Eat where I really enjoyed the homage to Churchill.

My favourite poem was The Poetry Recitation as it took me back to the days of performing at Oundle music and drama festival when I stumbled my way through the Ducks’ Ditty from Wind in the Willows as a nervous 8 year old. It also reminded me of poems I’ve loved and not revisited for far too long. There are many social, historical, literary and political references peppered throughout the collection which adds an extra layer of enjoyment.

I was less keen on Thank You, Baby Boomers as it made me feel quite guilty, being of a certain age! It also made me think and ponder whether David Roche was right in the messages the poem contains.

I think Just Where You Left It will appeal to slightly older readers (like me), more than to youthful ones, as we can all remember the kinds of experiences described and can read this collection with a fond nostalgia that transports us back to our youth. The poems are great fun, highy entertaining and if nothing else, I recommend you follow the advice in The Best Advice!

About David Roche

David Roche was born in London, got a faintly grubby degree in Psychology at Durham University, and then got married far too young. He has been married for 30 years to his Finnish wife and they have 3 sons in their twenties. David has worked, for what seems to him an inordinately long time, as a director of HMV, Waterstones, Borders, Books etc, and also in publishing at HarperCollins. He now lives in Kingston upon Thames and has several roles related to books and writing. This is his first book.

You can follow David on Twitter.

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to attend an event of bloggers, publishers editors and other bookish folk held by Bookollective. One of the people I met and chatted to was Karen Williams, author of Book Marketing Made Simple, from Librotas whose enthusiasm for supporting authors shone through to the extent that I had to invite her on to Linda’s Books Bag to tell me about her passion for non-fiction.

Book Marketing Made Simple is available for purchase through the following links.

Book Marketing Made Simple

There has never been a better time for coaches, consultants, and therapists to write and publish a business book. With a great idea, a clear strategy, and a well-formed marketing plan, your book will help you to build your business and attract more clients.

Your book may be a manual, textbook, how-to guide, self-help book, anthology, parable, memoir, or any type of book that you hope will be a marketing tool and credibility builder.

In Book Marketing Made Simple, you’ll get easy to follow strategies to market your book at all stages of your journey – from the day you start to write a book until after your book launch.

Celebrating non-fiction books

A Guest Post by Karen Williams

When was the last time you picked up a self-help guide, business book or memoir? Or indeed any non-fiction book.

Although we all love a good story and a bit of escapism, there’s certainly merit in learning from the experiences and knowledge of others. In a world where fiction outsells non-fiction, go into any good bookshop, and you’ll see a range of non-fiction books on sale to motivate and educate readers.

So why are non-fiction books becoming more popular?

Many business experts and celebrities write in the non-fiction arena. To get noticed in this fast-paced and competitive world, writing a good book enables them to stand out from the crowd. A book is a great way for them to inspire others, build their community, and develop their credibility and expert status.

Many authors use their personal experiences to inspire their readers and provide practical advice. They can reach more people in this way, rather than simply replying on their website or social media presence.

Some readers will find that a good non-fiction book can help them when they’re going through a trauma or difficulty. For example, one of my clients, Emma Heptonstall, is the author of How To Be a Lady Who Leaves, a self-help book aimed towards women who are considering getting divorced. Emma’s book gives them valuable advice to help them to make the decision to stay or go, and then guidance on what to do next. This is an easy purchase for those who want help and are unsure where to go for this support.

Real life stories will often support this learning. One client is sharing her experiences of her father who went through gender reassignment to become a woman 30 years ago, and the impact it had on her and her family. Another client is writing a book to support childless women, and a third is using her book to help those who have gone through cancer. They are all using stories to give hope to those going through similar experiences.

In addition, many people seek out non-fiction books to help with their learning and development. My clients are currently writing on a wide range of topics including visualisation, time management, retirement, confidence, happiness, raw food, and business.

An example of this is Kevin Stansfield, who has recently published The Big Dipper: How to Survive the Rollercoaster Ride of Business Ownership,which is loosely based on his father’s story of buying a business off a guy in a bar. Parable in style, he shares the story in the book, interspersed with lessons that will inspire and educate small business owners.

One of the reasons why non-fiction books are becoming more common is that the publishing industry is changing. With the rising trend in self-publishing and hybrid or partnership publishing, it’s easier than ever before to write a book and get published. The downside is that anyone can say they’re a published author and this can impact on the quality of some books on the market.

That’s why I work with non-fiction authors who have a passion to share their experiences, stories and learning to make a bigger difference with their knowledge. As the author of five non-fiction business books myself, including my personal memoir, I know the value of supporting these authors to create a valuable, helpful, and marketable product that impacts positively on the lives of readers.

About Karen Williams

Karen Williams is the Book Mentor at Librotas. She works with business experts who want to write and publish a book that grows their business, raises their credibility and attracts higher-paying clients.  She is the bestselling author of Book Marketing Made Simple, The Mouse That Roars, Your Book is the Hook, How to Stand Out in Your Business and The Secrets of Successful Coaches.

Karen loves to speak, and she does some crazy stuff too like jumping out of planes and helping people to walk on hot coals too!

Find out more by following Karen on Twitter @librotas and on the Librotas website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

I was delighted to be asked by Sandstone Press to be part of the launch celebrations for A Message from the Other Side by Moira Forsyth. Moira has agreed to write for Linda’s Book Bag about a message she’d like to receive from the other side and in the spirit of collaboration, I’m writing a short piece too alongside my review.

A Message from the Other Side was published by Sandstone Press on 20th July 2017 and is available for purchase here.

A Message from the Other Side

When Catherine moves several hundred miles away from her sister, Helen says phone calls aren’t enough, but they make it easier to edit the truth. Helen can dismiss Gilbert and his enchanted Factory as weird when she’s never met him, and Catherine thinks Helen foolish for loving the unreliable and dangerous Joe. Neither sees the perils concealed in what they have not told each other, or guesses at the sinister connection between their separate lives.

A Message from the Other Side is a novel about love and marriage, but even more about hatred and the damage people do to each other in the most ordinary of families.

The Message I Want to Hear

A Guest Post by Moira Forsyth

I didn’t always have an easy relationship with my mother. She grew up in a farming community in the North East of Scotland, at a time when it was the boy in the family who was educated. My uncle became an architect; my aunt and mother learned shorthand typing and became secretaries. When my sister and I were born, my mother stayed at home to look after us. She said she always loved doing that, but she knew she had missed out. If she had been given the chance, she said, she would have been a lawyer. She also wrote stories, quietly, never sending them anywhere.

For my sister and me, there was no choice: we were bound for university. When I muttered something about Art School, that was swept aside. University. A degree. Then, she anticipated, I’d be a teacher. I got my degree, but I didn’t want to be a teacher. I was going to write. For ten years I moved from job to job, none of them paying well or providing me with much satisfaction, while I wrote several unpublished novels. When I had my son, I felt for the first time wholly approved of. ‘He’s beautiful, Moira,’ she said. Of course he was, and so was my daughter, two years later. For a long time, my mother and I got on very well.

I was not so popular when my marriage broke up. Divorce was not what people did, in my family. In the end, after a difficult few months, we talked, properly, for the first time for years. We became close, and when she grew frail in old age, I felt enormous pity and love, that someone so bright and clever, so quick in her thinking, had lost the ability to think coherently at all.

After her death, she still seemed near. I wondered what message she had for me ― that there was something, I was sure.

My daughter now has a sixth month old son of her own. She’s rather like her grandmother, knowledgeable, intelligent and intuitive. Yet all through these early baby months she has asked my advice, because she’s in uncharted territory, and as anxious as I was more than thirty years ago, to do her best. I want to advise her and say the right thing, but hesitate. If only I could ask my own mother! I’d say, what do you think? You always knew what to do. Whatever was wrong with the children: a crying baby, a rash, a fever, a niggling worry ― you knew the answer and could reassure. Whereas I feel I’m making up being a granny just as I made up being a mother. I desperately want to be good at both – to be as good as you were.

So I want that last message from you, I want to know how you knew so much, and were so wise. And I want to know – how am I doing? Am I good enough?

(I’m sure you are Moira.)

My Own Message I Want to Hear

I’ve had these questions in my mind for as long as I can remember, so today I’m going to ask my Grandfather for some answers. Here goes:

Although I never met you, as you died when my mother was 16, there is so much I want to know. I’m going to keep this simple and just list my questions to you.

What had been happening in the past that meant you married again six weeks after my grandmother died as a result giving birth to my Mum?

Why did you parcel Mum out as a 12 week old baby to live with relatives and not keep her and her siblings?

Why didn’t Mum know she was fostered and that her Mum and Dad were really her aunt and uncle until she was 8?

What happened to your son, the brother Mum never knew?

Are you aware of the impact your actions have had in making Mum insecure for the whole of her life?

I hope so.

My Review of A Message From The Other Side

Very different sisters Catherine and Helen have more in common than they might imagine, including men.

Initially I didn’t understand A Message From The Other Side at all. I wasn’t sure where it was headed and why it was going to be divided into the time frames it has. It puzzled me.

However, as I realised that A Message From The Other Side isn’t a psychological thriller or a supernatural read or women’s fiction where I was trying to place it, but rather a narrative that explores relationships in exquisite detail I understood what Moira Forsyth was doing and loved the read. I moved from being uncomfortably puzzled to intrigued and ensnared.

This is character driven writing at its best. I absolutely loathed Kenneth throughout, regardless of any redeeming features he has, or actions he makes. He repulsed me completely both physically and emotionally. And yet he’s just human. This is what is so skilled about Moira Forsyth’s writing. She doesn’t make judgements but she presents her characters in such a way that it is impossible not to respond as a reader. I would have loved to have met Hugh and found Catherine and Helen flawed, foolish and utterly understandable. I railed at both Helen and Catherine for their relationships with Kenneth and Joe. Reading A Message From The Other Side made me quite uncomfortable too as I have a horrible feeling I would have a very snobbish and condescending view of Rose were I to meet her.

Moira Forsyth presents relationships and all their complications in intense, beautifully written prose. I found an underlying sadness behind the writing as Moira Forsyth explores how half truths and omissions can affect our lives. There’s a pared down plot so that even though there is a mystery surrounding Catherine’s seeing dead people from the beginning of the book, this isn’t the roller coaster read some might expect. It is, however, an emotional exploration of humanity, of loneliness, love, fear hatred and the glorious intricacies of relationships.

About Moira Forsyth

Moira Forsyth is the author of four novels, and a published poet and short story writer. She has been a registrar of births, deaths and marriages, sold hotels and catering properties, been a bookshop manager, a lecturer and schoolteacher, and taught in a Young Offenders’ Institution. Moira is now an editor, and has worked on a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books. Moira has two grown-up children (non-resident), two cats (resident), and lives in the Highlands of Scotland.

You can follow Moira on Twitter.

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