My huge thanks to Poppy Delingpole and Sophie Ransom for inviting me to be part of the launch celebrations for The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead. I’m delighted to share my review today.

Published by Head of Zeus on 12th October 2023, The Murder Wheel is available for purchase here.

The Murder Wheel

1938, London. Young lawyer Edmund Ibbs has a new client: a woman accused of shooting her husband in the already infamous ‘Ferris Wheel Murder’ case.

The case proves to be a web of conspiracy, and Ibbs himself is accused when a second suspicious death occurs, during a magic act at the crowded Pomegranate Theatre.

Also present at the theatre is Joseph Spector, illusionist turned highly respected sleuth. Spector begins to investigate the mystery, but when another body is discovered later that same night, all evidence points to Ibbs being guilty.

With time against him, and a host of hangers-on all having something to hide, can Spector uncover the guilty party, or will he and Inspector Flint of Scotland Yard conclude that Ibbs is the culprit after all?

My Review of The Murder Wheel

Carla Dean has been arrested for murdering her husband.

Warmly written with wit and oh so clever plotting, The Murder Wheel is an absolute gem of its genre and a joy to read. It’s top notch writing with pitch perfect storytelling and I loved it. As an example of a kind of Golden Age crime writing I think it outshines them all. There literally is a smoking gun and a locked room mystery and all is not as it seems, so that discovering clues along with Edmund Ibbs, Joseph Spector and Inspector Flint makes for huge engagement with the narrative. I loved the evidence cross-referencing in the latter parts of the story. 

The characters are well depicted so that they instantly become people the reader is invested in, enhancing the total enjoyment in reading The Murder Wheel. I loved the way dialogue helped uncover who they are as people, and not having read the first Joseph Spector book, Death and the Conjurer, didn’t detract at all, but has made me determined to catch up with it because I enjoyed The Murder Wheel so much. I also fully appreciated the scope for reencountering some of the characters in future stories even though this narrative is brilliantly and satisfactorily concluded.

Whilst there is a high body count, there’s no gratuitous gore or unnecessary violence so that the reader can relax into the why and how of the crimes rather than having the what of them forced upon them. Tom Mead knows exactly how to engage as he explores means, motive and considerable morality here. The denouement left me wondering just what I might have done with the information he uncovers so that the story resonated long after I’d finished reading it, adding to the enjoyment. 

I loved the title. There’s a physical murder wheel – the Ferris wheel where Carla Dean’s husband has died, but there’s a metaphorical wheel of fortune as characters find their zenith and nadirs and there’s a real sense actions circling back to haunt characters, but you’ll need to read the book to discover them for yourself in this fabulous plotting.

The Murder Wheel is a delicious mystery that keeps one step ahead of the reader’s guesses and is immensely entertaining. I thought it was brilliant and cannot recommend it highly enough. I absolutely loved it.

About Tom Mead

I’m not entirely sure which lovely publicist it was who sent me a surprise copy of the children’s poetry book Gods and Monsters – Mythological Poems chosen by Ana Sampson and illustrated by Chris Riddell way back in August, but I was delighted that they did! It’s my absolute pleasure to share my review of Gods and Monsters today.

Published by Macmillan Children’s Books on 14th September 2023, Gods and Monsters – Mythological Poems is available for purchase through the links here.

Gods and Monsters – Mythological Poems

A stunning gift book drawing together mythological poems – classic and brand-new – from around the world, illustrated throughout in black and white by award-winning former children’s laureate Chris Riddell. Compiled by bestselling anthologist Ana Sampson, with an introduction by Natalie Haynes, author of Stone Blind.

People all over the world have always told each other stories. And from the very earliest times, many of these stories were told in verse. This collection of poems includes retellings and reimaginings of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Celtic, Aztec, Japanese and Inuit mythology.

You will meet gods, monsters, tricksters, heroes, magical creatures and objects, magicians and spirits including Medusa, Icarus, Loki, Osiris, the Minotaur, Pegasus, Bunyip, Kukulcan, Cerberus, Beowolf and Mjolnir and there are footnotes to shine a light on stories themselves.

Includes poems from Neil Gaiman, W B Yeats, Kae Tempest, Sylvia Plath, Shakespeare, Benjamin Zephaniah, Joseph Coelho and many more. . .

My Review of Gods and Monsters – Mythological Poems

A collection of illustrated poems for older children.

Wow! What a cracker of a poetry book. Gods and Monsters is just the book parents, carers and teachers need to interest even the most reluctant young reader of poetry. It’s fabulous.

The collection is organised into sections and can be dipped into at random, or the poems can be read in the progression from The First Rays of the Sun: Beginnings to The Dark World: Underworlds and Afterlives as they are presented. Readers might like to access the poetry through the alphabetical index of first lines or through the author and translator index too, so that the anthology can surprise and engage in so many ways. The potential for further research (particularly through the occasional footnotes)  into cultural monsters, the different myths and legends and the poets themselves is immeasurable, making this a collection valid far beyond the covers and contents.

Gods and Monsters would be wonderful for schools. I can imagine young readers sharing their own cultural monsters in oral projects perhaps or young writers creating poems to fit into the overarching section titles, with entries like Cream of Fool Iva: A Recipe by Randi Anderson being read alongside the witches brew in Macbeth for example, or any number of the poems being used as a stimulus for longer writing, drama or art. There’s such a range of poetic techniques such as free verse and many kinds of rhyme and structure that young readers could be taught them as a natural part of the enjoyment in reading the poems.

And that’s the greatest success for me of Gods and Monsters. Whilst I find it hard not to think about how I might have used the book when I was an English teacher, that’s not the point. Here we have an eclectic, fascinating selection of poetry to engage, entertain, inspire, revolt, scare – indeed every emotion or response you can think of with something for every reader regardless of age or ability. Add in the fact that these poems are fabulously illustrated by Chris Riddell to bring them alive and uncover and enhance their meaning and Gods and Monsters becomes a fabulous giftbook, or something to retain and dip into at any time for readers of any age from 10 and above.

And for those who still say they don’t read or like poetry? Point them to the introduction by Natalie Haynes so that they realise poetry is another form of story just waiting for them to dive in.

I thought Gods and Monsters was a cracking anthology and really recommend it.

About Ana Sampson

Ana has been editing poetry anthologies since 2009, when I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and Other Poems you Half-Remember from School was the third bestselling poetry title that year. More recently she has edited two volumes of poetry by women, She is Fierce (an Amazon number one category bestseller) and She Will Soar, a collection of poetry about motherhood, Night Feeds and Morning Songs, and Wonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book. She has contributed articles to books including Writers’ Market UK and The Book Lover’s Companion and to newspapers and magazines, and talked about poetry and publishing at literary festivals, bookshop events, at libraries, in schools and online. Ana has also appeared on television and radio talking about books, poetry and teenage diaries. She lives in Surrey with her husband, two daughters, two demanding cats, and far too many books.

For further information, visit Ana’s website and find her on Twitter/X @AnaBooks, and Instagram.

About Chris Riddell

Chris Riddell, the 2015-2017 UK Children’s Laureate, is an accomplished artist and the political cartoonist for the Observer. He has enjoyed great acclaim for his books for children. His books have won a number of major prizes, including the 2001, 2004 and 2016 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medals. Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse won the Costa Children’s Book Award 2013. His work for Macmillan also includes the bestselling Ottoline books, The Emperor of Absurdia, and, with Paul Stewart, the Muddle Earth books, the Scavenger series and the Blobheads series. Chris has been honoured with an OBE in recognition of his illustration and charity work. He lives in Brighton with his family.

For further information, visit Chris’s website, find him on Instagram and Facebook or follow him on Twitter @chrisriddell50

I’ve been so lucky to review some cracking books for My Weekly magazine online and today’s is no exception. I’m thrilled to review The Fifth Guest by Jenny Knight.

Published by Harper Collins on 3rd August 20s3, The Fifth Guest is available f0r purchase through the publisher links here.

The Fifth Guest

All of them are guilty of something…

Five friends. One deadly secret.

Five old university friends gather on the eve of their flatmate’s memorial at a beautiful riverside house.

Host Caro is as perfect as always.

Shy, awkward Lily’s now a bestselling author.

Sports hero George loves suburban fatherhood.

Bad-boy Travis only gets his highs from meditation.

And gatecrasher Elle is still a troublemaker.

Estranged for years, they’re finally ready to reminisce over dry martinis and delicious food. But there’s more than that on the menu…

Because each guest is hiding a dark secret about their time at Oxford.

They’re all guilty of something. Is one of them guilty of murder?

My Review of The Fifth Guest

My full review of The Fifth Guest can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, here I can say that The Fifth Guest is an absolutely brilliant thriller, intelligently written and riveting to read. I thought it was fantastic.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Jenny Knight

Jenny Knight studied English literature at university before going on to work in journalism and the publishing industry. For many early mornings alongside this Jenny coached rowing – a job that inspired the initial idea for her debut crime novel, The Fifth Guest (which includes a power battle for the last seat in the Oxford boat for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.)

Jenny lives in South West London with her husband, son and a black and white cat, Larry.

Before writing crime novels, Jenny wrote bestselling women’s fiction under the pseudonym Jenny Oliver. Her books were twice nominated for the RNA Best Contemporary Fiction award. Jenny also wrote the young adult series, Chelsea High.

For further information, follow Jenny on Twitter/X @JKnightAuthor and find her on Instagram.

When I returned from holiday in August I was delighted to find a surprise copy of Wild Hope by Donna Ashworth waiting for me. My enormous thanks to Flora Willis at Bonnier for sending it my way. It’s my pleasure to share my review of Wild Hope today. 

Wild Hope was published by Black & White publishing on 26th September 2023 and is available for purchase here.

Wild Hope

Wild Hope is Donna Ashworth’s powerful new collection of wisdom to help us find hope, peace, self-acceptance and inspiration on the days we feel worn down, helpless or sad. Written with love and understanding, Donna reminds us that amidst our daily struggles and constant outpourings of bad news we have so much to hope for, and that every one of us can play a part, big or small, in making the world a better place. 

With poems such as ‘Surrounded by Treasure’, ‘That Thing You Do’, ‘Through the Wringer’ and ‘Rope Ladder’, Donna helps us to remember that most people in this world are good, and that acts of kindness and love within our individual spheres of influence, however small, all contribute to a better future. She also gently guides us, no matter how busy or overburdened we may be, to practice better self-care and self-acceptance.

Hope exists when nothing else can. On the darkest of days Wild Hope will help you find more light.

My Review of Wild Hope

A collection of writing about the power of hope.

I’m going to be totally honest and say that Wild Hope is by no means the most literary collection of writing you can encounter. Donna Ashworth is no metaphysical John Donne. And that is the absolute beauty of Wild Hope. It is completely accessible, uplifting and supportive. You don’t need to have a higher degree in literary criticism to feel connected to the writing here, to feel as if Donna Ashworth is speaking directly to you and offering hope when at times it may feel completely elusive. 

Certainly there are literary techniques in the collection that will satisfy those who enjoy them. The use of italics for emphasis, enjambement to illustrate the passing of time perhaps, or the use of the pronoun ‘you’ to draw in the reader are all present in the writing, but they are secondary, used unselfconsciously as Donna Ashcroft writes completely from the heart. Throughout the collection she conveys hope as a kind of emotional kintsugi that allows the reader to find their own peace and beauty in themselves and in the world around them. This is such a supportive collection.

Whilst much of the writing appealed to me completely (and I do think this is a collection that might resonate with women most) and I could quote from so many pieces to exemplify, one entry in particular stood out in its entirety and that was With Your Knowing – but you’ll have to read Wild Hope to discover it for yourself. Let me just say that it’s a poem I’ve earmarked for my uncertain future. 

Wild Hope does exactly what it sets out to do and it does it perfectly. It acknowledges the challenges of life at its darkest moments and helps the reader shine a little light there instead. I thought it was completely lovely. 

About Donna Ashworth

Donna Ashworth is a Sunday Times bestselling author and a lover of words who lives happily in the hills of Scotland with her husband, two sons, and Brian and Dave (the dogs). Donna started her social media accounts in 2018 and is astounded daily by the international reach her words have garnered. “My dream was to connect with women all over the world, so we could look at each other and say I see you, this is hard and just generally agree that imperfection is to be celebrated not feared.” When she is not writing, Donna loves to eat, be merry and laugh; believing these to be the best medicines life can offer.

For further information, find Donna on Instagram and follow her on X/Twitter @Donna_ashworth.

It’s a while since Luke Murphy was last here on Linda’s Book Bag, when we stayed in together to chat about two of Luke’s books, Kiss and Tell and Finders Keepers. Today, I’m privileged to be able to share details of Luke’s latest book The Cradle Will Fall.

Let’s find out more:

The Cradle Will Fall

A rogue cop…

When the FBI refuses to acknowledge the disappearance of Agent Matt Stone during a covert investigation overseas, Detective Charlene Taylor has no choice but to go on the hunt. The Ukraine can be unforgiving to outsiders, but the detective has no idea just how deep the corruption runs.

A renegade PI…

There is only one person Charlene can turn to. Trusted friend and former leg-breaker, Calvin Watters, is a protector, and the only man who can go head-to-head with the danger that awaits them. Charlene must put her faith in Calvin, and hope that, together, they can find a way to uncover the truth surrounding the missing Americans.

Can Charlene and Calvin team up one more time to overcome an evil syndicate of corrupt cops, and a government conspiracy covered-up by an entire country?

****

Doesn’t that sound exciting? It’s not just me that thinks so either. Here’s what other readers have said:

“Luke Murphy’s The Cradle Will Fall is one part thriller, one part social commentary, and one part international caper and one part. Brutish, funny, compelling and revelatory all at once.”—Anthony Bidulka, winner of the 2023 Best Crime Novel Award.

“The Cradle Will Fall is a well-researched potpourri of mystery, danger and intrigue—a fast read that sticks with you long after you turned the last page.”—Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling author of Children of the Fog.

“Don’t miss this entertaining read in a unique setting of a cold environment.”—Dianna T. Benson, award-winning and international bestselling author of The Hidden Son.

****

Published on 30th September 2023, The Cradle Will Fall is available for purchase here.

About Luke Murphy

 

Luke Murphy is the International bestselling author of two series: The Calvin Watters Mysteries and The Charlene Taylor Mysteries.

Luke played six years of professional hockey before retiring in 2006. His sports column, “Overtime” (Pontiac Equity), was nominated for the 2007 Best Sports Page in Quebec, and won the award in 2009. He has also worked as a radio journalist (CHIPFM 101.7).

Luke Murphy lives in Shawville, QC with his wife and three daughters. He is a teacher who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing, and a Bachelor of Education (Magna Cum Laude).

For more information on Luke and his books, and to sign up for his newsletter, visit his website, and find him on Facebook and Instagram. You can also follow Luke on Twitter/X @AuthorLMurphy.

Be the first to know when Luke Murphy’s next book is available! Follow him on BookBub to receive new release and discount alerts.

One of the reasons I became a book blogger was because, many moons ago in a different life, I used to read and review children’s books for Hodder and Stoughton to recommend those that would make great KS3 or middle grade readers for classroom use. I even wrote the classroom resources for many of them.

Consequently, I love to include children’s fiction on Linda’s Book Bag, so it is an absolute delight to be able to celebrate The Week Junior’s first ever children’s book awards.

The Week Junior Book Awards 2023

The UK’s most influential children’s magazine has announced the nine winners of its first children’s book awards. On 2nd October, The Week Junior Book Awards 2023, sponsored by Bookily from National Book Tokens and in partnership with The Bookseller and World Book Day, were celebrated at a ceremony at London’s County Hall. Guests from across the UK children’s publishing industry came together to applaud the uplifting, enriching, and life-enhancing power of books to change children’s lives, and the talented people who create them.

The inaugural awards were chaired by Editorial Director of The Week Junior, Anna Bassi, who said: “Our wonderful – and thoroughly deserving – winning titles represent a broad and fascinating spectrum of topics, genres and voices, but what they all have in common is their absolute power to captivate, entertain and inform young readers. The judges were unanimous in their decisions and I feel privileged to celebrate the success of the authors, illustrators and publishers whose brilliant books bring such pleasure to children, and help form a love of reading that will have benefits for the rest of their lives.”

Deciding the Awards

Each category was judged by a panel of experts, with judges including children’s TV presenter Radzi Chinyanganya, presenter and YouTuber Maddie Moate, and award-winning authors Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Elle McNicoll. The awards were set up at the start of 2023, to address the lack of critical discourse around children’s literature and shine a light on the brilliant work of both new and established children’s authors. Radzi Chinyanganya, said: “There were so many brilliant titles throughout the Younger Non-Fiction category all touching on such important themes. However, Poppy O’Neill’s The Extraordinary Book That Makes You Feel Happy was superb, simultaneously as practical as it is engrossing. With its beautiful illustrations and easy-to-digest and practical takeaways, it is an absolutely super resource for any child or parent of a child who is struggling with low confidence, anxiety or sadness.”

Maddie Moate, said: “It was an honour to judge the Children’s Book of the Year: STEM award, a category full of such great titles and tough competition. However, Rob Lloyd Jones’s 24 Hours in Space was just fantastic – a gripping story that also wove in lots of facts and information for children to absorb. From start to finish, it was such a clever concept, and the graphic novel format was brilliant. It’s the kind of book all children should read.“

A. M. Dassu, said: “Non-fiction books were my first love growing up, so it felt serendipitous to be asked to judge the Older Non-Fiction category! My fellow judges and I were so impressed by the inaugural shortlist, however, our winner, Real Life Dragons and Their Stories of Survival, surpassed the criteria. This book offers an original perspective to the subject and provides easily digestible facts which are beautifully presented, resulting in a satisfying reading experience. My daughter and I both loved it!”

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, said: “We had a really tough time deciding the winner of the Breakthrough category. It was encouraging to see so many of the titles had real ambition and a spirit of adventure. Also to see such a thrilling diversity of characters taking off on adventures in history, detection and super-heroism! In the end, we’ve gone for a book full of breezy wit and invention set in a particularly exciting part of our history.”

The Winners

Science, animals and the environment were at the heart of a number of the winning titles, including Audio Adventures: Natural Wonders of the World (Ladybird), written by Sidra Ansari and brilliantly narrated by actor Ben Bailey-Smith. The book takes listeners on a sound-filled journey through the natural world and beat stiff competition including comedian Richard Ayoade’s The Book That No One Wanted to Read, to win Children’s Audiobook of the Year. The judges described it as “exceptional” and a great example of how publishers should embrace audio.

Children’s Audiobook of the Year

Fearless explorer Otto (voiced by actor Ben Bailey-Smith) and Missy, the smartest raven in the universe, take readers on a journey of discovery across the globe to learn about the seven wonders of the world, and how we can all protect them.

Sidra Ansari is a teacher, author and freelance author, who has always dreamt of being a children’s author. Ansara has written six titles for LadyBird Education and is currently editing her women’s fiction novel after The Novelry awarded her a bursary to study on
The Big Edit Course. Her non-fiction book for adults, Finding Peace Through Prayer and Love (Beacon Books) was published in early 2021 and won the Golden Door Bronze.

Children’s Book of the Year: Older Non-Fiction (9-12 year-olds)

Anita Ganeri, the critically acclaimed author of the Horrible Geography series, won the Older Fiction award with Real Life Dragons and Their Stories of Survival (Wayland). The title explores the fascinating stories of ten real-life dragons and the myths and legends surrounding them.

For centuries, dragons have captured our imaginations, guarding troves of treasure and breathing out fire. But how many children realise that dragons still exist today? While there is no such thing as a fire-breathing dragon, this book brings together the stories of ten real-life dragons, from Komodo dragons to dragon snakes.

Anita Ganeri is a critically acclaimed British Indian author, best-known for her Horrible Geography series, which led her to become Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She graduated from University of Cambridge and worked in publishing before becoming
a writer. She has written over 600 non-fiction books.

Children’s Book of the Year: STEM

Meanwhile Rob Lloyd Jones’s 24 Hours In Space won Children’s Book of the Year: STEM (in association with The Week Junior Science+Nature magazine).

Join an astronaut for a day as she goes on her first ever spacewalk, and new crew members arrive. How do you eat and drink at zero gravity? How do space toilets work? What are space suits designed for?

Rob Lloyd Jones is an American British writer and is the author of more than thirty books. His debut Wild Boy was nominated for the Carnegie Award and named one of the five best debut novels in the Branford Boase Award.

Younger Fiction Award

Mystery and adventure stories proved popular, with winners including Serena Patel’s Anisha, Accidental Detective: Holiday Adventure (Usborne), which won the Younger Fiction category.

The Mistrys are off on holiday – but there’s never any time to relax for Anisha, Accidental Detective. When the holiday park’s mascot, Delilah the duck, is destroyed and Anisha’s new friend, Cleo, is the number one suspect, Anisha must do whatever it takes to prove her innocence.

Serena Patel is a children’s author, best known for her multi-award winning series, Anisha, Accidental Detective, first published in 2020. Awards include the Sainsbury’s Childrens Book Award for Fiction 2020 and The CrimeFest Award for Children’s Crime
Fiction 2020.

Children’s Book of the Year: Breakthrough, supported by World Book Day

Author J. T. Williams won the exciting Children’s Book of the Year: Breakthrough, supported by World Book Day, with The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger (Farshore), the first in a new adventure series set in the 18th century, featuring characters inspired by real Black British historical figures.

Set in 18th century London, Lizzie Sancho and her friend Dido Belle try to work out the mystery of who is threatening to murder Lizzie’s father, Ignatius, before his debut performance on the West End stage.

J. T. Williams studied English Literature at University of Cambridge, before becoming a primary school teacher. Since leaving teaching, she’s been a programme manager at the Royal African Society, leading creative writing school workshops for the literature festival, Africa Writes. The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries is her debut children’s series.

Children’s Book of the Year: Older Fiction (9-12 year-olds)

The award for older fiction went to Tyger, the “triumph of a novel” by SF Said and illustrated by Dave McKean (David Fickling Books).

This is a dark and magical story about two children who find a mythical creature – a Tyger – in a rubbish dump in London – set in the near future of the 21st Century. An altered, dark London, where the Tyger is in danger and our protagonists Adam and Zadie are driven to save the Tyger, and in the process save London too.

SF Said is a British Muslim author, born in Bierut and raised in London. After graduating from the University of Cambridge, he worked as press attaché and speech writer for the Crown Prince of Jordan. Tyger is SF Said’s fourth children’s book.

Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year

Author and illustrator Aoife Dooley won Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year for Frankie’s World, a graphic novel starring an autistic protagonist. Judges praised the book’s “engaging, accessible illustrations and really welcome message about being yourself”. They also noted the high calibre of illustrations across the winning titles, created by talent from across the globe, including Jianan Liu from China and Caribay M. Benavides from Buenos Aires.

Frankie believes she is an alien; she is the smallest person in her class – and she is accused of talking too much. But really, all she is is different – neurodivergent, though it is not until nearly the end of the book that Frankie gets an insight into why she views things differently.

Aoife Dooley is an award-winning illustrator, author and comedian from Ireland, who is best known for her series Your One Nikita, which came to screens for RTE Player animated in 2019. In 2018, she was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 27. Frankie’s World is a graphic novel based on Aoife’s real-life experiences of having undiagnosed autism as a child, and the emotions she felt for always feeling different from her peers.

Children’s Book of the Year: Younger Non-Fiction (6-9 year-olds)

Focussing on mental health, a vital topic in children’s publishing, The Extraordinary Book That Makes You Feel Happy (Weldon Owen Children’s Books) by Poppy O’Neill was awarded Children’s Book of the Year: Younger Non-Fiction (6-9 year-olds). This innovative book includes a foreword from mindfulness expert Wynne Kinder, and details projects, ideas and activities to help children feel positive, confident, focused, calm and included.

The Extraordinary Book that Makes You Feel Happy is for every child, with a host of projects, ideas and activities to help them to feel positive, confident, focused, calm, relaxed, inclusive and included. The activities help young children to build resilience to big, overwhelming feelings and to feel connected to themselves and to others.

Poppy O’Neill is an author specializing in children and parental mental health and emotions. She lives in Sussex with her wife, children and pets. Her previous books include, Mother Power, To Help Your Anxious Child and I Like Being Me: A Child’s Guide to Self-Worth.

Children’s Book Cover of the Year

The Week Junior invited readers to help choose the Children’s Book Cover of the Year. Thousands of kids cast their votes online, and Rob Biddulph’s Peanut Jones and the Twelve Portals was propelled into first place. The Week Junior’s Art Director, Dave Kelsall, described the book as: “A highly imaginative, colourful and ‘in-your-face’ cover that grabs your attention immediately”.

Some legends are born, some are drawn . . . Famous works of art are disappearing from all over the world. One moment they are there, the next, they have crumbled to dust. Peanut Jones and her friends suspect it might have something to do with the magical
world of Chroma and the wicked Mr White’s plot to wipe out colour, art and creativity. It’s time to head back to the Illustrated City and help the resistance fight back. This title, by the uber-creative creator of the #DrawWithRob draw-along video series active during the COVID-19 pandemic, fizzes with magic, danger, friendship and art.

Rob Biddulph is a bestselling and multi award-winning author/illustrator. He is the author of many highly, acclaimed, award-winning picture books, including Blown Away, GRRRRR!, Odd Dog Out, Sunk, Kevin, Show and Tell, Dog Gone and the Dinosaur Juniors series. Before he became a full-time author/illustrator Rob was the art director of the Observer Magazine, NME, Uncut, SKY and Just Seventeen. He lives in London with his wife and three daughters.

The Week Junior Book Festival

Audiences will have the chance to see some of the award winners, including the Breakthrough winner, J. T. Williams, and Younger Fiction winner Serena Patel at The Week Junior Book Festival, which will take place during the school halfterm on 24th October in London. They will be joined by best-selling authors, such as Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen and Jenny Pearson.

For further information about The Week Junior Book Awards, visit the website.

For The Week Junior Book Festival, please click here!

About The Week Junior

The Week Junior is a multi award-winning magazine packed full of engaging articles, eye-catching images and big ideas that get eight to 14-year-olds reading, thinking and talking. It features everything from current affairs, to sport, science, cooking and craft. With 32 fact-packed pages, The Week Junior feeds children’s natural curiosity, encourages critical thinking and promotes reading for pleasure with a dedicated books section and annual Summer of Reading challenge.

For further information, visit the website and find The Week Junior on Facebook, Twitter/x @theweekjunior and Instagram.

Yet again I’m annoyed that I simply cannot read every book that appeals to me. However, I am delighted to share a spotlight on The American Woman by RJ Gould today, even if I haven’t been able to fit in reading it. It gives me particular pleasure to join in with Rachel’s Random Resources to celebrate The American Woman because it’s so rare to find a man writing romantic fiction and I think we should be celebrating RJ Gould as a result!

The American Woman is available for purchase on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

The American Woman

When it’s impossible to forget is it possible to forgive?

Jennifer is stuck doing dead end waitressing jobs, her naïve dream of Hollywood stardom in tatters. Gareth, an IT consultant on a temporary contract, is the unlikely customer at Giulio’s Diner in the downbeat part of Los Angeles where she is now working.

It shouldn’t be a perfect match, the attractive, outgoing waitress from Idaho and the shy, good looker from Wales, but when it comes to relationships nothing is predictable, is it?

They move from state to state and when Gareth’s work in America dries up Jennifer follows him to Britain. Everything changes. What is she supposed to do when she discovers that she’s been fed a pack of lies?

Now living alone in Muswell Hill, Jennifer is a regular at the popular Dream Café with a great job and a lovely set of friends, but it’s impossible to cast aside the wonderful memories of her time together with Gareth.

Were his lies justified? Are they forgivable? And most importantly, should she be giving Gareth the second chance he so desperately wants?

[This is a stand-alone novel in the ‘at the Dream Café’ series] 

****

Doesn’t that sound enticing?

About RJ Gould

R J Gould writes contemporary fiction about relationships using a mix of wry humour and pathos to describe the tragi-comic life journeys of his protagonists. The American Woman is his ninth novel and follows The Engagement Party, Jack and Jill Went Downhill, Mid-life follies, The Bench by Cromer Beach, Nothing Man, Dream Café, Then and now, and Darren, Andrew and Mrs Hall. He has been published by Headline Accent and Lume Books and also self-publishes. Before becoming a full-time author he worked in the education and charity sectors. In addition to his addiction to telling stories, he has somewhat milder addictions to playing tennis, watching film noir cinema, completing Wordle and eating dried mango slices. He is a member of Cambridge Writers and the Romantic Novelists’ Association UK and lives in Cambridge, England.

For further information, visit RJ Gould’s website, follow him on Twitter/X @RJGould_author and find him on Facebook and Instagram.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

I cannot believe how long it is since I featured Elaine Everest on Linda’s Book Bag. I’m delighted to rectify that omission by sharing my review of Elaine’s latest book in her popular Woolworths Girls series, Celebrations for the Woolworths Girls and I’d like to thank Chloe Davies for sending me a copy of the book in return for this honest review. 

Published by Pan Macmillan on 12th October 2023, Celebrations for the Woolworths Girls is available for purchase through the links here.

Celebrations for the Woolworths Girls

It’s 1952 and with a new Monarch about to ascend the throne, The Woolworths Girls will face fresh new challenges . . .

At The Erith Store there is a new temporary Manager and Sarah is getting more than a little concerned by problems he seems to be creating. The whole mess is enough to make her want to resign.

Meanwhile, Ruby is extremely worried about her friend Vera, and with illness causing a problem from her past to come flooding back, Vera knows it’s going to take a lot of strength and willpower to do what needs to be done.

Then there is Freda, looking forwards to the birth of her first child but sick with worry that her Tony won’t have returned home in time for the birth of his child, let alone to be back to run the Erith store.

As Coronation Day for young Queen Elizabeth ll approaches, the girls from Woolworths celebrate friendship, family and overcoming anything that life can throw at them . . .

Celebrations for the Woolworths Girls is the ninth novel in Elaine Everest’s bestselling Woolworths series.

My Review of Celebrations for the Woolworths Girls

The Woolworth Girls have made it to 1952.

I’ve been meaning to catch up with Elaine Everest’s Woolworth Girls series for ages and I am delighted to do so with Celebrations for the Woolworths Girls because the setting and era are so brilliantly conveyed. Set at the time my sister was born, all the things I associate from the era are woven into the story so that it felt almost as if it had been written especially for me. The food, fashions, technology like Bakelite telephones, and values and attitudes seemed pitch perfect. 

I did need to concentrate to establish who was who because this is such an established series and I’ve missed some of the back stories, but the characters are so realistic that it didn’t matter at all. I found I cared about what happened to them as they faced personal, professional and national problems. Even (or possibly, especially) the more waspish Vera gained my sympathy and I was very definitely enamoured of Bob. 

The plot of Celebrations for the Woolworths Girls is well-planned and engaging. Indeed, one of the aspects I liked so much was the way real historical events impacted the people in Celebrations for the Woolworth Girls, giving a genuineness to the narrative, without detracting from the real lives of these ordinary and appealing people. 

Elaine Everest’s community encompasses a microcosm of society with characters of all ages as well as relatable, universal themes. Family and friendship are at the heart of the story, but so too are themes of marriage, ambition, deceit, feminism and sexism, so that any reader can find an aspect to draw them in.

Entertaining story with believable characters aside, I think the greatest enjoyment to be had from Celebrations for the Woolworth Girls is the reinforcing of the importance of pulling together, of being kind and of being part of a community. In a world where it’s all too easy to lose sight of such values, Elaine Everest reminds us just how much we need those values in a lovely story.

About Elaine Everest

Elaine Everest, author of Sunday Times best selling series, The Woolworths Girls and The Teashop Girls, was born and brought up in North West Kent, where many of her books are set. She has been a freelance writer for twenty-seven years and has written widely for women’s magazines and national newspapers, with both short stories and features. Her non-fiction books for dog owners have been very popular and led to broadcasting on radio about our four legged friends. Elaine has been heard discussing many topics on radio from canine subjects to living with a husband under her feet when redundancy loomed.

For further information visit Elaine’s website, or you can follow Elaine on Twitter/X @ElaineEverest and find her on Facebook. You’ll also find Elaine on Instagram.

Having loved Kate Thompson’s The Little Wartime Library when I reviewed it here for My Weekly, it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome Kate to Linda’s Book Bag today to chat with me not only about her writing but a very exciting new project too.

Let’s find out more:

Staying in with Kate Thompson

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

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

If it’s not too greedy Linda I’d love to bring two with me.

I think I can allow that!

Strictly speaking one is a book and one is my new podcast. I dislike that word podcast though, what does it actually mean? It’s very sterile. I prefer instead to think of it as ‘talking stories’ It’s just another way of indulging our love of stories and helping to press pause on life!

I must admit, I don’t often listen to podcasts so tell me more.

This is an illustration a friend painted for From The Library With Love. I wanted to summon up the warmth, magic and possibility that a library contains.

That’s a lovely illustration.

Wonderful, transformative things happen when you set foot in a library. In 2019 I uncovered the true story of a forgotten Underground library, built along the tracks of a Tube tunnel during the Blitz. As stories go, it was irresistible and the result was, The Little Wartime Library, my seventh novel.

And a wonderful book it is too Kate. Even my Mum loved it and she’s VERY hard to please!

Bethnal Green Public Library, where the novel is set was 100 years old in October 2022, and to celebrate the centenary of this grand old lady, funded by library philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, I set myself the challenge of interviewing 100 library workers. Speaking with one library worker for every year this library has been serving its community seemed a good way to mark this auspicious occasion. Because who better to explain the worth of a hundred-year-old library, than librarians themselves!

Absolutely.

I wanted to explore the enduring value of libraries and reading. I quickly realised that librarians have the best stories.

My research led me to librarians with over fifty years of experience and MBEs, to the impressive women who manage libraries in prisons and schools, to those in remote Scottish islands. From poetry libraries overlooking the wide sweep of the Thames, to the 16th century Shakespeare’s Library in Stratford, via the small but mighty Leadhills Miners’ Library.

You should have come to our Deepings Library Kate. Threatened with closure in the cutbacks it’s now one of the most successful libraries you can find! 

This podcast was born out of those eye-opening conversations, because as Denise from Tower Hamlets Library told me: ‘If you want to see the world, don’t join the Army, become a librarian!’

Or a reader! So as well as librarians, who will be guests on your podcast?

I’ll also be talking to international bestselling authors and some remarkable wartime women. This is my way of celebrating and documenting the remarkable stories I have found whilst researching my books.

For those that love an actual book… The Wartime Book Club is coming out in the UK in hardback February 15th 2024 and paperback August 2024. In Australia and New Zealand, paperback February 15th 2024 and In Canada and the US, paperback April 9th 2024.

I can’t wait to get my hands on that one Kate.

The novel is inspired by the true events of the women who joined the resistance in Jersey during the German Occupation in WW2. From enchanting cliff tops and white sandy bays to the pretty cobbled streets of St Helier, Jersey is known as the land of milk and honey. But for best friends Bea Rose (the local postwoman) and Grace La Mottée (who works in the island’s only library) it becomes the frontline to everyday resistance when their beloved island is occupied by German forces in 1940. Inspired by astonishing true events, The Wartime Book Club is an story of everyday bravery and resistance, full of romance, drama and camaraderie and a tribute to the joy of reading and the power of books in our darkest hour.

Is the Wartime Book Club a follow on to The Little Wartime Library?

Not so much a follow on from The Little Wartime Library, as a companion book, based on another remarkable group of librarians in wartime. Channel Islanders didn’t have to contend with repeated bombing attacks and rockets, but they did have to live under the heel of the Nazi jackboot. Five years of privation, fear, censorship and starvation! ‘Reading was the only true form of joy and solace, the only intellectual freedom we still possessed,’ a lovely gentleman by the name of Leo told me, which sparked the premise for this novel. With censorship on the rise around the world once again this book feels timely. I’m very proud of this one, shaped and informed by the many conversations I had with wartime islanders on my visits to Jersey, sadly many of whom are no longer with us. As always I share these fascinating social histories at the back of the book.

I’m so looking forward to this. I used to head to Jersey every six weeks or so as a consultant in the schools so I’m sure you’ll take me back there. 

Books aside, what can we expect from an evening in with From The Library With Love.

Every Saturday evening I’ll be sharing a new episode. Already up on the site here are:

Christy Lefteri, author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo, talking about how she  researches her incredible novels.

Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, discussing how she used the art of active listening to unlock a decades old secret.

100-year-old Betty Webb, a former Bletchley Park codebreaker, sharing the details of her remarkable wartime work.

Gill Paul, author of many historical novels including her latest A Beautiful Rival chatting about rivalry and scandal.

Anna Stewart, best selling author of The Midwife of Auschwitz.

That sounds fantastic. I must catch up with the podcasts.

What else have you brought along and why have you brought it?

I’d love to bring along every single guest I’ve interviewed for From the Library With Love…we might take up some space and it will be lively (imagine all those authors, librarians and wartime women, many of whom are great raconteurs) We can crack open my favourite tipple, a bottle of red and set the world to rights! Is that ok with you Linda? What time would you like us?

Erm. I’m not sure all 100 librarians and your author guests will fit in but we can give it a go! Thanks so much for staying in with me Kate. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our chat. 

Me too Linda!

The Wartime Book Club

From enchanting cliff tops and white sandy bays to the pretty cobbled streets of St Helier, Jersey is known as the land of milk and honey. But for best friends Bea Rose (the local postwoman) and Grace Le Motte (who works in the island’s only library) it becomes the frontline to everyday resistance when their beloved island is occupied by German forces in 1940.

Inspired by astonishing true events, The Wartime Book Club is an unforgettable story of everyday bravery and resistance, full of romance, drama and camaraderie and a tribute to the joy of reading and the power of books in our darkest hour.

Publishing in 2024, The Wartime Book Club is available for pre-order here.

From the Library With Love Podcasts

Librarians, bestselling authors and our wartime generation sharing their love of books, reading and some extraordinary stories. All episodes can be listened to here.

About Kate Thompson

Kate Thompson was born in London and worked as a journalist for twenty years on women’s magazines and national newspapers. She now lives in Sunbury with her husband, two sons and two rescue dogs. After ghost writing five memoirs, Kate moved into fiction. Kate’s first non-fiction social history documenting the forgotten histories of East End matriarchy, The Stepney Doorstep Society, was published in 2018 by Penguin. She is passionate about capturing lost voices and untold social histories.

Today Kate works as a journalist, author and library campaigner. Her most recent books, The Little Wartime Library (2022) and The Wartime Book Club (2024) published Hodder & Stoughton focus on two remarkable libraries in wartime. Her 100 libraries project, celebrates the richness and complexity of librarians work and the vital role of libraries in our communities.

For further information, visit Kate’s website, follow her on Twitter/X @katethompson380 or find her on Facebook and Instagram.

It’s a little over a year since I had the privilege of interviewing Iain Hood in a post you can find here. Then we were discussing Iain’s Every Trick in the Book. Today I’m delighted to feature an extract from Iain’s latest novel My Book of Revelations.

My Book of Revelations is published by Renard Press and is available for purchase here.

My Book of Revelations

The countdown to the millennium has begun, and people are losing their heads. A so-called Y2K expert gives a presentation to Scotland’s eccentric Tech Laird T.S. Mole’s entourage in Edinburgh, and soon long hours, days, weeks and months fill with seemingly chaotic and frantic work on the ‘bug problem’. Soon enough it’ll be just minutes and seconds to go to midnight. Is the world about to end, or will everyone just wake up the next day with the same old New Year’s Day hangover?

A book about what we know and don’t know, about how we communicate and fail to, My Book of Revelations moves from historical revelations to the personal, and climaxes in the bang and flare of fireworks, exploding myths and offering a glimpse of a scandal that will rock Scotland into the twenty-first century. As embers fall silently to earth, all that is left to say is: Are we working in the early days of a better nation?

An Extract from My Book of Revelations

15 decades to go

By the year 1850, developments in travel and communication made apparent that local time usage, by which all geographical points defined noon as the time at which the sun reached its highest point overhead, could no longer be sustained. Up until about then, no one moved fast enough nor far enough for time differences to matter. But, for example, the first temporary train terminus of the Great Western Railway had been opened at Paddington in 1838, and since 1840 GWR had used portable precision time pieces, chronometers, set to Greenwich Mean Time, to help with the running of their trains, expected periods of time for the train to travel east or west counted with a single point of reference and therefore the times at which the train would reach intermediate stations and a final terminus. By 1847 most railway companies in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland – we’ll use the terms of the time – were using GMT as the time throughout the nation for their own purposes and on their timetables. Yet local time still prevailed in many people’s minds over the curious London-centric imposition of GMT, what people who cared to be bothered by it called ‘railway time’. Similarly, the development of telegraphy meant that, by 1852, the Post Office could transmit the time from the Observatory at Greenwich, and soon most if not all public clocks, or noting of the time via other public means, such as church bells, were using GMT, though often with secondary means of noting the local and therefore ‘real’ time. Some realised it could only be a matter of time before the whole world would require such standardised time. And it was a whole new world. Momentous events were taking place in all areas of life. For example, in 1859, Darwin finally published… Yes, OK, we all know that side of things.

(It’s possible you’re pushing it.)

In 1868, New Zealand, at the time still governed as a colony, even though the Constitution Act of 1852 had established a fairly independent New Zealand parliament, adopted a standardised time of GMT+11.30. By 1880 the bulk of the British Isles were using GMT rather than local times, spreading out to the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, and, finally, Ireland, which in 1880 set Dublin Mean Time, measured at the Dunsink Observatory as GMT minus 25 minutes and 21 seconds. In 1916, GMT superseded Dublin Mean Time. The first inklings of time zones were being established.

During these same years a number of schemes for a worldwide system of time zones were proposed. The foremost of these was developed by the Italian mathematician Quirico Filopanti in the 1850s, whose system went unrecognised and was never adopted, and then in 1876 by Kirkcaldy-born Scots-Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming, who was instrumental in the invention of twenty-four one-hour time zones, and the setting of Greenwich as the prime meridian – the zero degree by which each part of the earth relates longitudinally by degrees. Not to say he was alone in this endeavour, and indeed there were a number of learned committees and political appointees who took a more or less useful part in these developments. In one sense, Fleming might be considered one of the great obliterators of time: he banished all the other GMT+ and GMT-s of interim minutes – the GMT-s of 5.45, 1.23, 9.58 and the GMT+s of 7.38, 3.46, 6.21 – leaving only 1, 2, 3, et cetera.

It was this eminent Victorian, Sir Sandford Fleming FRSC KCMG, who, travelling in Ireland in 1876, missed a train in Dublin one day, due to an error on the timetable between a.m. and p .m. that obviously irritated the illustrious gentleman greatly. The already reputed ‘most distinguished Canadian of his age’ was then forced to spend a night at the train station. He arrived with twenty minutes to spare for the scheduled 5:35 p .m. train. Unfortunately the train had arrived on schedule too, at 5:35 a.m., the p .m. printed in the timetable being the offending error. As he was left waiting for the next available train, Fleming conceived of a simpler world with a simpler clock, one that would consider all twenty-four hours of the day without the fraught-with-risk possibilities of double-counting the hours in the day. As he thought it through it became clearer and clearer to him that it was only stupidity that kept us from counting past the number twelve in this particular instance.

In time, he would go on to not only proposing a twenty-four clock, but also a twenty-four hour terrestrial time that would map over the earth in twenty-four hour intervals, beginning with a prime meridian, proceeding by fifteen longitude degrees around the globe, and define the hour in these geographical locales relative to… oh, let’s say… the time at the zero hour at Greenwich.

(Well, there you go – a ripple of applause and laughter, and in a job-interview presentation, of all things.)

Thanks.

****

Hmm. Intriguing. So what happens after this presentation I wonder…? I think I’m going to have to read My Book of Revelations to find out!

About Iain Hood

(PHOTOGRAPH © JEREMY ANDREWS)

Iain Hood was born in Glasgow and grew up in the seaside town of Ayr. He attended the University of Glasgow and Jordanhill College, and later worked in education in Glasgow and the West Country. During this time he attended the University of Manchester. He now lives in Cambridge with his wife and daughter. This Good Book was his first novel.

You can follow Iain on Twitter @iain_hood and find him on Instagram.