I’ve a very exciting guest with me today as Mike Downey stays in with me to chat about his debut novel. My huge thanks to Jaime at Ink Editorial for putting us in touch with one another. Let’s find out more:

Staying in with Mike Downey

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Mike and thank you for staying in with me.

I dream of staying in!! So, to be able to do so in good company and with a decent book or two is a real pleasure. So much of my time is spent on the road with my various film productions and as chairman of the European Film Academy, that feet up, in front of the fire with a good book and a good glass of wine is just what the doctor ordered – so thank you very much for the invitation!

You’re most welcome! Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

My non-fiction stuff about how to produce movies seemed inappropriate – so this time I have chosen to bring along my debut novel:  ISTRIA GOLD – set in the former Italian province of Istria on the Croatian Adriatic – it takes the reader on an adventure through three time frames, moving from the world of contemporary eco-warriors to the gladiators in the Pula arena of the 1^st Century AD and on to the fighters of the Partisan War of Liberation in 1943.

That’s quite some timescale. What is it about?

The main theme is greed.  A greed driven by the potent elixir of the fabled Istrian truffle.  It’s also the first part of a trilogy of books set in the Istrian peninsula which follow the theme of hate: ISTRIA BLACK and corruption: ISTRIA BLUE.  The ominously sounding themes aren’t as lugubrious as they might seem:  beneath the morality stories of human foibles and folly there is a real sense of human warmth, solidarity and continuity passed down through the ages.

Thank goodness for that. It seems to me the themes of the trilogy are hugely resonant in today’s society. What can we expect from an evening in with ISTRIA GOLD?

Aside from a good adventure romp across the centuries being led by the seductive and fragrant whiff of the White Princess and the Black Diamond (as the white and black truffle are known locally) you’ll get a gentle introduction to a region and a culture that is rich not only in culinary delight, but also art, architecture, viticulture and all manner of pleasures that are to be found when vertically and horizontally integrated into a new place via a new piece of original literature.  As the US novelist, Melanie Finn, author of The Hare and Shame said when she first read ISTRIA GOLD:  “Downey is a passionate tour guide as well as a nimble story-teller.” 

I love a book that transports me to another place Mike.

There are so many places and landscapes in Istria, as they are magical, excruciatingly lovely and pure and their transcendental beauty is just cries out to be seen – especially central Istria. My passion for the peninsula goes back a long way and and I was lured here by a number of things – cinema in the Vespasian arena especially – as well as the fact that this breathtakingly beautiful peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, lying mostly inside Croatia’s border, has the perfect climate for an Anglo- Irishman (four seasons in a day) – as well as the fact that the and Croatian, Slovenian and Italian cultures of the region are responsibly and perfectly preserved and celebrated.

It sounds wonderful and not an area I know so I shall have to read ISTRIA GOLD to find out more.

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

Just so we get a real flavour of the book, and what it is like to stay in on a wet autumn night in Istria, I’ve brought two things along.  The first is a bottle of Grimalda red wine.  It’s named after the village I live in in Istria (and which plays a central role in the book) and is created by master vintner and all round great human being Ivica Matosevic – it is the culmination of all his experiences as one of the great wine makers of Istria.  I was there when the first vines were planted back in 2002 and now as the only inhabitant of Grimalda the village, I’m happy to still be here as the vines have reached their full potential in successfully transmitting the specific Istrian terroir signature in the bottle. Steven Spurrier is one of the most important wine critics in the world – he says of Grimalda red: “Matošević Grimalda Red 2018 takes its place among other world-renowned wines like Chateau Latour. This 60% Merlot, 30% Teran, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon is bursting with vineyard character, vibrant spice and black fruits, sour cherries with oak on the palate.”

That sounds delicious. Sadly wine makes me ill so you’ll just have to pour yourself another glass and I’ll simply enjoy the aromas.

It’s best served with a plate of locally made fresh pasta with added Tuber Melanosporumat this time of year.  That’s what I would call Fuži s tartufima – which is one of the most popular Istrian specialties – a delightful combination of traditional fuži pasta and the famous Istrian truffles. The black truffle is a respectable truffle variety. The pasta should be cooked in salted water until al dente, and it is then drained and combined with butter, (optionally) heavy cream, and truffles – white Istrian truffles, black winter truffles (not optional) , or a combination of both.

Consume the Grimalda wine with the truffles found in the damp dales beneath the Venetian Hill Village of Motovun and it will become clear to you that earthly paradise can be attained.

I’ll pass on the wine and pour myself a class of champagne (which doesn’t make me ill) and tuck in as that sounds very appetising indeed.

Lee Hall, the writer of Billy Elliot, Cooking With Elvis, Spoonface Steinberg and the recent Elton John biopic Rocketman wrote of ISTRIA GOLD:  “Mike Downey has a truffle dog’s nose for a good story.”

I have to agree and disagree.  I think I also have a damn good nose for a good truffle as well as a decent bottle of local wine!

Cheers!  And welcome to Istria!

Cheers! Thanks very much Mike and thank you for staying in with me to chat about ISTRIA GOLD. You get the drinks to accompany the pasta and I’ll tell Linda’s Book Bag Readers a little bit more about ISTRIA GOLD:

ISTRIA GOLD

LONDON, 2019: After undercover cop Marco Mihailić is drummed out of the Metropolitan Police he seeks refuge with his family in Croatian Istria. He finds a world utterly changed from his childhood, and one in which his beloved grandfather Nino’s truffle-dealing escapades have got him into the kind of trouble that he can no longer handle.

ROMAN ISTRIA, AD 81: 18-year-old Lucia desperately needs to escape the gladiatorial games, and her beloved English mastiffs are her way out. Although trained to kill in the arena, her loyal companions Brutus and Britannica have a secret ability that is the key to Lucia’s freedom: their ability to smell out beds of truffles. They will help make her fortune and take Lucia and her family away from the violence and horror of the games.

ISTRIA, 1943: Brothers Pino and Nino Mihailić have seen waves of invaders beat, kill and imprison their innocent neighbours in war-torn Istria. Driven by fear and revenge, they join Tito’s Partisans. Within a year Pino’s star is riding high after a series of guerrilla victories, but Nino sees another way out of this war: his dog and the lucrative truffles they find in the countryside.

ISTRIA GOLD is released on 6^th October by MPress Media and Calm Productions and is available for purchase here.

About Mike Downey

Mike Downey is an Irish author, activist, and film producer.  He is also currently the Chairman of the European Film Academy and President of the Lux Award of the European Parliament.  His debut novel ISTRIA GOLD is an ambitious an atmospheric historical thriller, the first in a trilogy starring ex-cop Marco Mihailić. Set on Croatia’s Istrian peninsula, ISTRIA GOLD explores the turbulent region’s history, culture, and traditions, bringing it to life in the grand tradition of authors such as Martin Walker and his BrunoCourrèges series.

For further information, visit Mike’s website.

Today it’s a privilege to share another of my My Weekly online reviews. This time it’s of An Ocean Apart by Sarah Lee.

An Ocean Apart is published by Pan Macmillan and is available for purchase through the links here.

An Ocean Apart

Inspired by real life stories of the Windrush Generation and her mother’s own experiences as a nurse coming to Britain from the Caribbean, Sarah Lee’s debut novel An Ocean Apart is a must for fans of Call the Midwife.

It’s 1954 and, in Barbados, Ruby Haynes spots an advertisement for young women to train as nurses for the new National Health Service in Great Britain. Her sister, Connie, takes some persuading, but soon the sisters are on their way to a new country – and a whole new world of experiences.

As they start their training in Hertfordshire, they discover England isn’t quite the promised land; for every door that’s opened to them, the sisters find many slammed in their faces. And though the girls find friendships with their fellow nurses, Connie struggles with being so far from home, and keeping secret the daughter she has left behind in search of a better life for the both of them . . .

My Review of An Ocean Apart

My full review of An Ocean Apart can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, what I can say here is that An Ocean Apart is a charming, entertaining and surprisingly profound insight into the world of the Windrush Generation in 1950s Britain.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Sarah Lee

Sarah Lee has been a journalist and editor for the past twenty-five years, working across news and features and writing for regional and national newspapers, as well as commissioning for women’s true-life magazines. More recently she has focused her attention on the world of travel, creating luxury blog LiveShareTravel, and working with destinations and brands worldwide on storytelling marketing campaigns and conferences through her company, Captivate.

For more information, follow Sarah on Twitter @sarahleetravels and Instagram. You’ll also find Sarah on Facebook.

I’ve had Scribblings by Tom Panagiotopoulos on my TBR pile for a while now and as an ex-teacher and educational consultant it has a siren call for me. Whilst I’m still waiting for it to reach the top of that towering TBR heap, I’m delighted to be able to offer a lucky UK reader a chance to read Scribblings for themselves along with some smashing vegan chocolate thanks to Sarah Hembrow at Vulpine Press. (I really wanted to call this post Scribblings and nibblings – but I wont!) Let me tell you about the book first:

Scribblings was published by Vulpine Press on 22nd March 2022 and is available for purchase here.

Scribblings

“It was the worst horror film I had ever seen, and I was in it! It wasn’t until his leg fell to the ground with a resounding thump and bounced for a few feet, did I realise that Nathaniel’s leg was a prosthetic.”

Being the head teacher of a primary school sounds like the ideal job. But it’s not all playing with toys and going home at three in the afternoon.

From parents fighting in the playground to the toilets spewing out raw sewage and contaminating the school, a head teacher’s day can range from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Filled with life, laughter, tears and tantrums, Scribblings journeys through the battles of leading a primary school in one of the most deprived areas in the country. Where the struggles are immense, but the rewards are priceless.

Come inside and witness first-hand what happens once the school gates are closed.

Journey inside an inner-city primary school with head teacher Mr P. Written over the course of a school year, Mr P details the reality of working in a school in one of the most deprived areas of the country. What goes on behind closed doors after you drop your children off in the morning? How do teachers juggle parents, pupils, and the ever-demanding education authorities? Come inside and join us for the highs and lows of primary school life.

****

I think Scribblings sounds brilliant. Here’s your chance to win a copy:

Giveaway

A Copy of Scribblings by Tom Panagiotopoulos and Vegan Chocolate

Open to UK readers only due to postage costs. For your chance to win a Copy of Scribblings by Tom Panagiotopoulos and vegan chocolate click here.

Competition closes UK midnight on Tuesday 11th October. Your details will not be retained. The winner will need to provide a UK postal address.

Good luck!

It’s a pleasure to join the Rachel’s Random Resources blog tour for The Mistletoe Mixtape by The Christmas Collective by sharing a guest post today. My thanks to Rachel for inviting me to participate. As well as a guest post, there’s also a smashing competition for a lucky reader to win a paperback copy of The Mistletoe Mixtape further down this blog post.

The Mistletoe Mixtape is available for purchase here.

The Mistletoe Mixtape

Snuggle up for the holidays with 12 very different tales of love that will have you dancing under the mistletoe!

The Mistletoe Mixtape, the second anthology from The Christmas Collective, is a diverse and inclusive mix of stories, with more swoon-worthy characters, second chances and happy endings.

Amongst these twelve Christmas music inspired stories you will discover long lost love, festive fantasy, LGBTQ+ love stories, witty one liners and holiday romances. There really is a story to capture every reader’s festive spirit. So grab yourself a hot chocolate, pop on your favourite festive tunes and immerse yourself in the magic of The Mistletoe Mixtape.

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Creating Romantic Leads

A Guest Post by Jenny Bromham of The Christmas Collective

Who doesn’t love a swoon-worthy leading man or woman? To me, that’s one of the main reasons we pick up a romance book or watch a romance film – we don’t just want to watch the characters fall in love, we want to fall in love with them ourselves!

But where does the inspiration come from, for these irresistible characters? Are they based on real life love affairs, on heart-throb celebs, on literary heroes? With this question in mind, I interviewed some of the authors from The Mistletoe Mixtape anthology. I asked them to reveal the inspiration behind the characters we’re all going to fall in love with this Christmas.

Dominic the Donkey by Donna Gowland

Kate Winslet’s character in The Holiday was an inspiration, as was Ryan Reynolds’s character in The Proposal. I loved the idea of a character who’d spent so long lusting after her boss, that she’d closed herself off to any other chance of love.

Wrapped in Red by Joe Burkett

My leading man is Charlie. He is a lost soul who has been cast adrift. My inspiration for him…I wanted to create a character who thought that they had it all sown up, only to realise that their world was built on sand. From there, I wanted to see how Charlie could rebuild his life.

Santa Baby by Helen Hawkins

Erm… every Netflix/Hallmark Christmas movie heroine ever! Busy city business woman meets small town kind hearted gentle giant…

Walking in a Winter Wonderland by S.L. Robinson

My inspiration was my own woeful love life, being single again (by choice) at the age of 32. Though I’m not as dramatic about it as my protagonist, Lucky, I made her slightly older and with a more devastating reason to be turned off love. It was cathartic to have myself work out the harder parts of a breakup with some fantasy and escapism!

A Winter’s Tale by Jenny Bromham

My leading man, Garry, is a gentle giant and an unassuming romantic.Physically, he’s based on Mikael Persbrandt’s character, Jakob, from the TV show, Sex Education. Emotionally, he’s based on Gabriel from Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Garry’s unrelenting patience and love for my protagonist, Sarah, simmers gently and endlessly throughout.

White Christmas by Marianne Calver

I think lots of us can relate to that feeling of wanting to present our best selves to the world, especially on social media. That was the basis for Bianca who is struggling with how she wants to be perceived and how she sees herself.

Fairytale of New York by Michelle Harris

I really wanted Daniel to be a well-rounded character with depth. Not easy in a short story but, hopefully, I succeeded. I also imagine him as quite smouldering and hot, because life is more fun that way. I imagine him as a Regé-Jean Page type to look at. I wonder if readers would agree?!

I think Michelle’s question is key here. Will you imagine the romantic leads as they are in the authors’ minds, or will you have your own equivalent to Ryan Reynolds, Mikael Persbrandt or Regé-Jean Page? Will the stories of lost love, found love and love that’s been waiting at the sidelines stir memories from your own experiences?

The Mistletoe Mixtape offers twelve very different tales of love with twelve very different leading men and women. I really enjoyed chatting to my co-authors and learning where their larger-than-life characters sprung from. Now the only question that remains is, which of them are you going to fall in love with this Christmas?

About The Christmas Collective

The Christmas Collective is a group of twelve romance authors who came together when shortlisted for a festive romance competition. Together they have created two Christmas Romance anthologies, More Than Mistletoe (2021) and The Mistletoe Mixtape (2022).

The Christmas Collective authors are spread far and wide, across the UK, Ireland, Spain and South Korea, however, one thing connects them despite the distance: a love of romance and Christmas.

For further information, visit their website, find them on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram or follow them on Twitter @ChristmasCo2022.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Giveaway

For your chance to win a paperback copy of The Mistletoe Mixtape (Open to UK and Ireland only) click here.

Please note that this giveaway is run independently of Linda’s Book Bag as follows:

The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

I’ve been a bit remiss of late sharing and reviewing for lovely Carol Wyer as I’ve been away so much and inundated by life and blogging commitments so I’m delighted to participate in the cover reveal for her latest DI Kate Young book A Truth for a Truth.

I shared my review of Carol’s Somebody’s Daughter here.  I reviewed her What Happens in France here, and previously we celebrated the publication of Carol’s The Missing Girls in a post you can read here. I also interviewed Carol about her writing here to mark the publication of Little Girl Lost.

Most recently I reviewed An Eye for an Eye in a post you’ll find here.

Let’s find out more about A Truth for a Truth:

A Truth for a Truth

DI Kate Young’s team is hunting for a killer. What they don’t know…is that the killer is her.

DI Kate Young has known for years that her boss, Superintendent John Dickson, is a violent and evil man. But when she finally confronts him and accidentally shoots and kills him, she’s forced to cover her tracks before anyone can pin his death on her. With revelations about his corruption soon to become public knowledge, Kate sets up a trail of evidence to make it seem that Dickson has conveniently vanished…

But Kate knows the corruption doesn’t end with Dickson. As she heads up the team investigating his supposed disappearance, she also pursues other loose ends. Stanka, the sex worker who supplied the evidence against Dickson, leads her to crucial information on another corrupt officer, DI Harriet Khatri, and her dubious involvement with sex traffickers.

As the noose starts to tighten on Kate, she finds herself targeted by traffickers, the bent cops on her force and even her own team of detectives. Can she stay one step ahead of them all and bring Harriet to justice? Can she trust anyone around her? And can she possibly get away with murder?

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Oo. I hope so!

A Truth for a Truth will be published by Thomas & Mercer on 4th April 2023 and is available for pre-order on Amazon UK, US and AUS.

About Carol Wyer

Carol Wyer is a USA Today bestselling author and winner of the People’s Book Prize Award. Her crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages.

A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche.

In 2021, An Eye For An Eye, the first in the DI Kate Young series, was chosen as a Kindle First Reads. It became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK, USA and Australia. Since then, two further books in the series have been published, with a fourth and fifth due out in 2023.

A standalone psychological thriller, Behind Closed Doors, will be out later this year and is available to preorder now.

Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and written for the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows and on Sky and BBC Breakfast television.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband, Mr. Grumpy . . . who is very, very grumpy.

When not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

All of Carol’s books are here. You can follow Carol on Twitter @carolewyer, visit her website and find her on Facebook and Instagram.

I’m a huge fan of eclectic collections and when I heard about Dean Mayes’ The Night Fisher Elegies I knew I had to feature it on Linda’s Book Bag even though I simply couldn’t fit in a review. It’s a privilege to host an extract from the book today.

It’s over four years since I stayed in with Dean to chat about another of his collections, The Artisan Heart in a post you’ll find here.

The Night Fisher Elegies is available for purchase here.

The Night Fisher Elegies

Taking the reader on a journey through love, faith, death, grief, family and dreams, The Night Fisher Elegies weaves together powerful explorations of humanism, moments of reflection tinged with melancholy and short verses, which inhabit the sometimes brutal landscape of self examination. Dean wanders through a palace of memories contained within nostalgic love, experimenting with style, tone and character. He poses questions for the reader to ponder and wrestle with and offers pieces designed to evoke and provoke, while others are simply present as meditations to inspire and affirm.

Drawing inspiration from literary heroes such as Jim Harrison, Rainer Maria Rilke, Albert Camus, Charles Bukowski & Patrick White this collection brings together pieces from over 10 years of writing and creating. The Night Fisher Elegies showcases Dean Mayes’ literary style across short fiction, ghazal poetry, short form essays and personal reflections.

An Extract from The Night Fisher Elegies

Arnold Webb.

 

(2021).

 

This is what I know about Arnold Webb.

He was a bushman first, brought into the world with an axe in his hand. He was no stranger to hard work and toil. He wore sweat on his brow with pride — in fact, he relished it.

His hands were calloused, and though Arnold’s hands were bushman’s hands, his fingers were long, delicate even. Legend had it that he could play Rachmaninoff better than Rachmaninoff himself.

His arms were solid, his shoulders broad. But you would never see him without a tie or his moth eaten Harris tweed — even if he was chopping wood or digging a trench or milking a cow. Sometimes Arnold wore a bow tie, usually on special occasions, but he would often surprise you with his tendency to wear one day to day — just because he felt like it. His beard was thick, yellowed at the corners of his mouth from years of tobacco stains. His silver hair was perpetually entangled with saw dust — or dandruff. It was probably saw dust.

When he smiled, you expected to encounter a hollow maw, or jagged tombstones, but Arnold had a perfect set of pearly white teeth that he swore were his own.

Arnold lived on Russell’s Creek Road, beyond the bitumen, beyond civilisation on a plot of rolling land thick with eucalyptus. There, Arnold rebuilt his childhood home — then a two roomed cottage — into a grand house, with a wrap around verandah, a corrugated iron roof and pretty curtains in the windows he’d sown himself. The house boasted fireplaces in each room and an iron stove in the kitchen. Yet, he was content with an earthen floor. Despite encouragement and offers of help to do so, he only decided to lay boards down in the last years of his life, because his bones grew tired of the uneven floor. He couldn’t believe he had gone without them for so long.

There on his little plot, Arnold raised his chickens, milked his cows, sheared his sheep and sawed his timber, deriving a small income from the products of his labours but subsisting on a tradition of rural bartering and his own dogged independence. He grew vegetables where vegetables shouldn’t grow. Pumpkins and potatoes of impressive size. Tomatoes and carrots of unrivalled quality. Everyone wanted to know his secret. Of course, he wouldn’t share it.

Arnold drove an EH Holden with venetian shades in the back window. The glossy, sky blue panelling and chrome he kept buffed to a shine. The white walled tires were as new as the day they had been fitted. The engine purred. The Holden was his pride and joy. You could always tell it was Arnold driving because he only ever drove at 20 miles an hour — even when he was in a hurry. He was never late for an appointment. He planned his journeys well in advance and those journeys were rare.

The most precious thing Arnold had was his companion — a sleek red fox he had reared from a pup. The fox was tame, uncannily obedient and was, according to Arnold, the finest sheep dog he had ever owned. It had a luxuriant red coat, a bushy tail and vivid, piercing eyes. The fox accompanied him everywhere. It had a basket in the back window of the Holden and whenever Arnold turned up anywhere, you could see curled up on a crocheted blanket.

Arnold had trapped its mother years before and he’d felt guilty upon realising animal was pregnant. Arnold delivered the pup himself. He couldn’t bring himself to euthanize it, so he took the pup home and raised it, nurtured it and trained it. Not once did it ever attack Arnold’s chickens or sheep or cows. It protected Arnold’s home from its vantage point on the front porch beside Arnold’s rocking chair.

While Arnold remained a confirmed bachelor, it was said his heart had been broken once. A woman of means and spirit who had turned his head and rendered him love struck. The grand house he had built had been for her and he’d decked it out with all the accoutrements she had asked for. He’d even positioned the master suite so that it overlooked the valley — the best view in the district. But she didn’t stay. No-one was quite sure why. Rumour had it that she had lost a baby. That she’d had second thoughts about country life and had returned to the City. Suffice it to say, after she’d gone, Arnold closed his heart and he never spoke of her again.

Arnold died alone — or so I’d heard. He’d fallen asleep in his rocking chair — an antiquarian copy of Tolstoy in his lap, a bottle of Cabernet and a half empty tumbler at his side. Arnold had simply never woken up. Weeks had passed before anyone realised. When he was found, the fox was still at his feet, surrounded by chicken feathers. Evidently, its animal instinct had not been completely buried. It had bared its teeth when the ambulance officers attempted to remove Arnold’s body and only took flight when the police constable drew his weapon.

No-one claimed Arnold’s property. Apparently, he had a sister but she never appeared. When solicitors met to discuss his will, it was discovered Arnold Webb was independently wealthy. He’d been a stockbroker in times past and had amassed a fortune on the back on some very canny investments. Still no-one emerged to secure his inheritance.

Beyond the bitumen on Russell’s Creek Road, the house stands in the quiet. It is slowly being reclaimed by the bush. The curtains in the dust covered windows are moth eaten now, like Arnold’s Harris tweed. A swarm of bees have taken up residence in the corner of the verandah. The cows and the sheep have long gone. A rooster and a hen remain in the coop and have produced several offspring.

At night, you can hear the sounds of the bush. The wind rustling through the eucalyptus. The babbling of the creek. The calls of so many birds. The grunts of Sanbar up on the ridge.

And the plaintive cry of a fox.

****

I love that! I have a feeling that The Night Fisher Elegies is exactly my kind of read.

About Dean Mayes

Dean Mayes is an Intensive Care Nurse who is fascinated by philosophy and the paranormal, so his stories weave an element of magical realism with deep humanism. He grew up near Melbourne, Australia, and now lives in Adelaide with his wife, Emily, his children, Xavier and Lucy, and his writing partner – a 10 year old spaniel named, Sam. Dean loves outdoor cooking, anything to do with Star Wars and (insanely) long-form podcasts.

An Intensive Care Nurse with over 15 years of clinical experience in adult, paediatric and neonatal medicine, he can often be found lying on a hospital gurney at 3 in the morning with a notebook in hand, madly scribbling ideas while on his break.

For further information, visit Dean’s website, follow him on Twitter @Hambledown_Road and find him on Facebook.

It’s some months since Penny Ingham kindly sent me a copy of her latest book Twelve Nights and I’m delighted finally to share my review today.

Twelve Nights was published on 6th May 2022 and is available for purchase here.

Twelve Nights

The year is 1592. William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe light-up the Elizabethan playhouses. At the ‘Theatre’, eighteen-year-old Magdalen Bisset fashions costumes for the charismatic players, and navigates their rivalries and petty jealousies.

But her own life is far from glamorous. She works long hours to provide for her frail, elderly grandmother and, as an unmarried woman without means, Magdalen’s role at the ‘Theatre’ unjustly brands her ‘the players’ whore’.

And then her friend, John Wood, dies on stage and her life will never be the same again. Accused of his murder – for everyone knows poison is a woman’s weapon – Magdalen must risk everything to clear her name for all other roads lead to the gallows.

My Review of Twelve Nights

Maggie is accused of murder.

Twelve Nights is a maelstrom of historical fiction that blends real and imagined characters and incidents into a totally immersive and fascinating read. From the very beginning Penny Ingham places her reader at the heart of her settings with such evocative descriptions created through her use of the senses that it is impossible not to feel as if you are part of Magdalen’s world. Similarly, I found the author’s sentence structure and her use of dialogue perfectly attuned to the era so that I felt as if I’d had the opportunity to travel back in time to the murky world of Shakespearean theatre, heat filled taverns and Machiavellian politics. The research Penny Ingham must have conducted to bring alive the times so evocatively is exemplary.

There’s a cracking plot in Twelve Nights as Maggie attempts to prove her innocence of John Wood’s murder and I loved the fact that Penny Ingham illustrates that we need to be careful what we wish for, setting up this new series with aplomb. It’s quite hard to say too much without spoiling the story for others, but the scope for future narratives is richly prepared. I also found elements of the story truly infuriating as the sexism, superstitious attitudes towards women and the dismissive treatment of others by those with power, felt all too real and still far too resonant in today’s world.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed meeting familiar names like Shakespeare, Burbage and, especially, Marlowe, it is Magdalen who steals the show as the lynchpin of the story. What works so well is the depiction of Maggie’s daily life as a lowly woman of the time. Through Maggie we get a vivid understanding of the era whilst meeting a principled, feisty, strong woman who is rounded and well developed as a character.

Sense of history, and strong engaging plot and characters aside, what I so enjoyed about Twelve Nights was the thematic exploration. There’s religion, race, gender, politics, trust, loyalty, betrayal, relationships, feminism – all the aspects of a modern world so cleverly woven into this historical story. I was thoroughly entertained, but equally unsettled by the comparisons I was able to make with today’s society. Penny Ingham may have written a compelling narrative but she’s also proved beyond doubt that history does indeed repeat itself. Great stuff.

About Penny Ingham

Penny Ingham is married with two grown up children, and lives in rural Hampshire. Penny blames her passion for writing historical novels on her father. When she was a child, he would find any excuse to drag Penny and her friends up Iron Age hillforts whilst regaling them with stirring tales of the British tribes’ valiant battles against the invading Romans. As a result, Penny is a keen amateur archaeologist, happy to find herself at the bottom of a muddy hole with a trowel in her hand. She says the best find she’s ever unearthed is piece of Roman armour, at Fishbourne Roman Palace.

Penny has been writing all her life in some form or another. She worked for BBC local radio, had a stint in theatre PR, taught English in adult education, and was also a newspaper TV critic with a brief to be as controversial as possible!

For further information, visit Penny’s website, find her on Facebook and Instagram or follow her on Twitter @pennyingham.

It’s an absolute delight to share my review of Amelia Henley’s From Now On as I adore her writing. I reviewed her second book The Art of Loving You here and Amelia Henley’s The Life We Almost Had was my joint book of the year in 2020. I also ‘stayed in’ with Amelia here on the blog to discuss The Life We Almost Had, having shared my review here.

My enormous thanks to Amelia for sending me a copy of From Now On in return for an honest review.

Published by Harper Collins’ imprint HQ on 13th October 2022, From Now On is available for purchase through the links here.

From Now On

A heartbreaking tragedy.
Charlie left his hometown behind years ago and hasn’t looked back since. These days, with a successful career and a beautiful soon-to-be fiancée, he couldn’t be happier. But when he receives some unexpected news, his life is forever changed.

A life-changing choice.
Suddenly things are falling apart, and now Charlie has to care for his family. How is he supposed to look after a heartbroken little brother and a sullen teenage sister who want nothing to do with him? He’s completely at a loss and knows he can’t do it alone – not without the help of his oldest friend, Pippa.

The chance to start afresh.
As Charlie steps back into his old life, he soon realises it’s only his family who needs fixing, there’s also his relationship with Pippa too. But returning home is a painful reminder of all that he lost and tried so hard to forget. And if Charlie is to fight for what he wants, first he must face up to his own past and decide whether he is ready to let go…

From Amelia Henley, comes a brand-new emotional and uplifting novel about family, love and the hard choices we face to protect the ones we love the most.

My Review of From Now On

Charlie’s life is about to change.

Oh my goodness. Amelia Henley has done it again with From Now On. My heart and soul have been wrenched apart by this book and repaired so beautifully. It’s a bit like turning the reader into a kind if Kintsugi version of themselves as a result of reading Charlie’s  narrative. As might be expected with the author’s other writing persona of Louise Jensen, From Now On has end of chapter hooks that lead the reader forward with elements that feel unexpected and hugely entertaining.

However, whilst there are a few major events that drive the story, much of From Now On is a beautiful, tender and realistic exploration of the nature of family and of love in all its forms so that the story feels relevant, relatable and all the more affecting. Charlie’s sense of guilt and responsibility, his fear of rejection and his stumbling attempts to be a better man make him so lifelike. At times I wanted to rage against him, at other times I wanted to hold him tightly. What he goes through – what all the characters experience – illustrates just how we are affected by our past lives, how we often make the wrong choices or believe the wrong things about ourselves, but that there is always the potential for change if only we grasp the opportunities that occur – from now on. Amelia Henley offers humane insight and sensitive understanding in her writing that feels cathartic and beautiful to read.

The relatively small cast of characters feels intimate and affords the reader the opportunity to get to know each person fully. Nina and Duke are brilliantly drawn. All too often in books I find youngsters cliched or stereotypical, but here the two children are rounded, complex and authentic so that From Now On has a realism as well as an entertainment value. Duke’s school experience in particular will resonate with many readers.

I loved the iterative image of music that runs through the book too. Songs are referenced that can be looked up and listened to, giving a life to From Now On outside the confines of its pages, but also, there are discordant moments, harmonious experiences and the sense that all the right notes are there for Charlie et al as long as they can attune themselves to the honesty of their feelings. I thought this was such clever writing.

Indeed, I thought the realistic themes of From Now On were its absolute strength. They are mature, and so imbued with credible and affecting exploration, that the book feels a means to reconnect with your own identity as well as with the characters in the story. Grief, choices and all manner of relationships are the impulses behind the narrative, making From Now On hugely emotional to read.

From Now On is difficult to categorise. It has romantic elements, it has family, it has danger so that it doesn’t fit neatly into any reader’s expectations. I thought it was wonderful and recommend it completely.

About Amelia Henley

Amelia Henley is a hopeless romantic who has a penchant for exploring the intricacies of relationships through writing heart-breaking, high-concept love stories.

Amelia also writes psychological thrillers under her real name, Louise Jensen. As Louise Jensen she has sold over a million copies of her global number one bestsellers. Her stories have been translated into twenty-five languages and optioned for TV as well as featuring on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestsellers list. Louise’s books have been nominated for multiple awards.

The Life We Almost Had was the first story she’s written as Amelia Henley.

You can follow Amelia on Twitter @MsAmeliaHenley and find her on Instagram or Facebook.

You can find out more about Amelia writing as Louise Jensen by visiting her website, finding her on Facebook and following her on Twitter @Fab_fiction.

It was back in July when Laura Creyke sent me a copy of When Things Are Alive They Hum by Hannah Bent and I was delighted to be invited onto the blog tour for the book by Anne Cater of Random Things Tours so that I can share my review today.

When Things Are Alive They Hum was published by Ultimo Press on 15th September 2022 and is available for purchase here.

When Things are Alive They Hum

When Things Are Alive They Hum poses profound questions about the nature of love and existence, the ways grief changes us, and how we confront the hand fate has dealt us.

Marlowe and Harper share a bond deeper than most sisters, shaped by the loss of their mother in childhood. For Harper, living with what she calls the Up syndrome and gifted with an endless capacity for wonder, Marlowe and she are connected by an invisible thread, like the hum that connects all things. For Marlowe, they are bound by her fierce determination to keep Harper, born with a congenital heart disorder, alive.

Now 25, Marlowe is finally living her own life abroad, pursuing her studies of a rare species of butterfly secure in the knowledge Harper’s happiness is complete, having found love with boyfriend, Louis. But then she receives the devastating call that Harper’s heart is failing. She needs a heart transplant but is denied one by the medical establishment because she is living with a disability. Marlowe rushes to her childhood home in Hong Kong to be by Harper’s side and soon has to answer the question – what lengths would you go to save your sister?

My Review of When Things Are Alive They Hum

Marlowe has to return home.

When Things Are Alive They Hum is an intimate, emotional and affecting exploration of the deep bond between Marlowe and her younger sister Harper who has Down syndrome.

I felt the story read rather like young adult fiction which gave it a greater realism through Harper’s individual and distinct voice. She retains a youthful optimism that feels like a tenet for Marlowe and reader alike to live their lives by. However, at the same time, Harper has a wisdom far beyond her years and, I suspect, far beyond what some in society might expect of her. What Hannah Bent does so eloquently here is to illustrate the value of those sometimes marginalised by society. Indeed, she also shows very clearly cultural expectations and prejudice not just in society at large, but also in the way Marlowe and Harper view their Stepmonster Irene, so that human frailty and judgment is very much a theme in the novel.

What I enjoyed so much was the way in which When Things Are Alive They Hum wove in past events into present actions showing just how our early lives impact who we are as adults. There’s a resonance – a humming – that echoes the title of the book, especially with the iterative images of music and Lepidoptera and through Harper’s own physical heartbeat. This book feels as if it is ‘the butterfly effect’ personified and it is somehow comforting to discover Harper’s manner of looking at the world.

Whilst much of the narrative is intense and emotional, I thought the light relief provided by Louis and his obsession with time and routine was spot on. Whilst I loved Harper the most, I felt Marlowe was more layered because she is by no means perfect, being rash, occasionally selfish and sometimes foolish as well as being fiercely loyal to Harper. That said, Harper is capable of duplicity and less than perfect behaviour too.

I found When Things Are Alive They Hum a sensitive, heart rending narrative of the choices we make to protect those we love. At the same time I thought Hannah Bent’s deeply emotional prose was uplifting, educational and highly skilled. Be prepared to have your heart broken by this one!

About Hannah Bent

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hannah Bent completed her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and Film from Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London. She undertook further study in both directing and screenwriting at the Australian Film and Television and Radio School and has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney. She was the 2013 recipient of the Ray Koppe Young Writers Award for her novel as a work in progress.

For further information, find Hannah on Instagram or visit her website.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Once again I’m delighted to be able to share details of my latest My Weekly online review. Today It’s a real pleasure to feature Her Daughter’s Secret by Lisa Timoney.

Published by Harper Collins’ imprint Avon on 15th September, Her Daughter’s Secret is available for purchase through the links here.

Her Daughter’s Secret

Will her daughter’s secret tear her family apart?

When troubled teenager Immy disappears, she leaves her widowed mother Bea completely devastated. Bea pours her love into her six-year-old niece Phoebe, even taking her in when her single father Ewan takes a job abroad.

Then Immy returns, in desperate need of her mother’s help and love. But Ewan is clear: he will never let Bea see Phoebe again if she welcomes her daughter back.

As Bea grapples with this impossible choice between two girls who sorely need her, a long-buried secret comes out that changes everything – and Bea must fight harder for her family than she ever thought she could.

A gripping, heart-wrenching novel about family secrets and the price of love, perfect for fans of S.D. Robertson, Ali Mercer and Kerry Fisher.

My Review of Her Daughter’s Secret

My full review of Her Daughter’s Secret can be found on the My Weekly website here.

However, what I can say here is that Her Daughter’s Secret is a realistic and emotional insight into family relationships and the choices we have to make that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Do visit My Weekly to read my full review here.

About Lisa Timoney

Lisa started her career teaching English and Drama, and when she had her family, combined all three to write novels about family drama. Originally from Yorkshire, she now lives in a London suburb with her husband and two teenage daughters, so expects there’s plenty more drama to come.

For further information about Lisa, visit her website, find her on Facebook and Instagram or follow her on Twitter @LTimoneyWrites.