It’s a sad but inevitable fact that the number of Holocaust survivors with us is dwindling each year. Just a week ago Alice Herz-Sommer, the subject of this year’s Oscar winning short documentary “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” passed away at the age of 110. It is now more important than ever that as many people as possible read the testimony of survivors…
Confessions of a GP
25 February 2014 by Leave a Comment
It’s just under two months until this year’s World Book Night and I am thoroughly determined to read some of the selections. I know I say that every year and I always have such good intentions that fail but this year I’m managing to read more than normal…
The Undesirables
29 January 2014 by Leave a Comment
A few years ago I was involved in a fabulous book club and we were given the opportunity to review Dave Boling’s Guernica for The Richard and Judy Book Club, this was back in the day when they were still on television. We were all sent a shiny hardback copy of the book to read in advance of our on-screen debut…
The Midnight Rose
16 January 2014 by Leave a Comment
I love getting review copies of books through the post – no matter how many I receive there’s still a real excitement when they arrive. Someone wants me to read their book and give my opinion to other people. It’s a true thrill. I’d be lying though if I said there aren’t days that I look at my post and sigh…
The Dinner
13 January 2014 by 2 Comments
Whenever I’m reading publicity material for books my hackles are raised by phrases such as “If you loved xx then you’ll love this”. It’s such a cheap way of selling a book which ignores the merits of the book being sold and attempts to piggy-back on the popularity of a previous success. I can see the merits of such tactics…
The Summer House
27 November 2013 by Leave a Comment
It’s been a busy old couple of months, I’ve moved home from Surrey, which I adored, to Somerset. In that time my reading and film-going have taken a back seat to packing, unpacking, fighting with BT and trying to remember to change addresses with all of the appropriate companies. Things are settling down now…
Playing with Fire
5 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
One of the UK’s hardest working crime writers must be Kindle sensation turned paperback hit Kerry Wilkinson. Already we’re onto the fifth novel in his DS Jessica Daniel series and there’s no sign of a let-up with a new spin-off series in the pipeline. I’ll admit that when I received a review copy of Playing with Fire I was a little worried….
Gone Girl
19 August 2013 by 2 Comments
One of the most popular and talked about books of the last 12 months has been Gillian Flynn’s mystery Gone Girl. Reviews have refused to discuss the narrative in case any of the suspense was spoiled and it has been praised for its literary excellence as well as its ability to please a mass audience…
Jaded Youth
7 August 2013 by Leave a Comment
At the end of last year I read and reviewed the debut novel of local author A.G. Chambers. Jaded Rein was an assured science fiction debut which held my interest and could almost see me develop an interest in a genre that I’ve so far pretty much ignored. Jaded Rein…
The Devil’s Ribbon
24 July 2013 by Leave a Comment
I’ve just embarked on the daunting task of writing a novel. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little girl and over the years I’ve started, written about 150 words, panicked and deserted my writing. Not only is the concern that my writing isn’t good enough but also the worry that I’m not being original enough…