nb90 nb autumn 2016

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

YOUR CHRISTMAS READING AND GIFTS ALL WRAPPED UP!

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magazine for readers and reading groups

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Jodi’s back

ISSUE 90 AUTUMN 2016 £5

recommended readsthis issue …

Our nb

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ver the years I’ve occasionally been asked to talk about nb and how it came about.

Usually a kind librarian has thought to add me to a programme of events or even to be the star turn. And I suppose I could give a historical rendition of the last 16 years but I think it would be rather dry. Instead, I have a box of 14 books with a particular significance to me that help to illustrate nb’s inception and development. So there’s My Sisters Keeper, for reasons that will become apparent when you read this issue’s Big Interview with Jodi Picoult. Then there’s Altered Land which I’ve written about before in these pages – one time whinging about having given my copy away. A Mrs Godfrey's daughter kindly sent me her mother’s copy after she died, knowing how much her mum had enjoyed that book and others she had had from her favourite magazine. Jules Hardy has written three more books but none has made quite such a splash as her debut.

Symbolic of the inaugural

issue of nb is Joan Barfoot’s Getting Over Edgar being one of our first four Recommended Reads. The cover shows the upside down red sports car that Edgar crashed after declaring he was going to leave his wife – but before he’d been able to change his will. A neat concept and still a good read. This book is also a reminder of how I first met Elsbeth Lindner, then publisher and MD of the Women’s Press (neat logo – an iron sat on its ‘heel’ – geddit?). Elsbeth became a great supporter of nb and provided several terrific Recommended Reads in early issues until the press folded and I was able to recruit her as Editor.

All fiction so far and worth seeking out but there’s non fiction in the box as well. Take Stet by Diana Athill which deserves its place because I was lucky enough to interview her, aged 82 I think, when she came down nearly that many stairs to let me into her Primrose Hill flat.

She even offered to do the same again to drive me to the station at the end of our time. She continues to write but, having read several of her books, this is the one for me.

And then there’s a real oddity.

Tell Me Why by Tim Riley is ‘the Beatles, Album by Album, Song

by Song, the Sixties and After’.

Mine is a Vintage US edition first published in 1988 but still available on Amazon in paperback for £13.99. I paid 99p in a remainder bookstore in Marlow, Bucks on a rainy Saturday afternoon. They say your musical tastes are formed in your early teens and I was lucky enough to be growing up as the Beatles emerged. If the audience are looking a bit glazed by now – and who can blame them – then my party piece is to challenge them to name my favourite Beatles track of all time. First, I read out the author’s description without divulging the title – and then I sing it! And believe it or not I have managed to get them singing along with me more than a few times. Anyway, there’s a link from this to my current ‘what we are reading’ on pages 6 & 7.

NUDGE AND NB PUBLISHER

PS If I Fell in Love With You, since you ask!

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CONTENTS

newbooks FROM US TO YOU 3

THE VIEW FROM HERE Your publisher’s box of books.

80 THE DIRECTORY Integrity, objectivity and sometimes a sly humour – time for your reviewers!

81 e Man Booker Prize.

WHAT WE'RE READING What’s keeping the team om sleeping.

98 WHAT WE ARE THINKING e One Book or e Debut Novel Which is it? asks Gill Chedgey.

BOOK OF THE YEAR It can’t be that time again, can it?.

99 THAT THING CALLED NUDGE YOU KEEP MENTIONING...

big interviews 14

Jodi Picoult

36

Tana French RECOMMENDED

Mike Stafford rates Tana French very highly - full stop!

GUY PRINGLE

Publisher, nudge and newbooks

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ALASTAIR GILES

Managing Director, AMS Digital Publishing BERT WRIGHT

8

Nudge List Editor MELANIE MITCHELL

Publisher Relationship Manager DANIELLE BOWERS

Production Manager CATHERINE TURNER

12 OUR INTREPID REPORTER Liverpool goes Literary and North Cornwall is small but perfectly formed.

39 REAL READERS – yet another nb/nudge initiative.

Project Production Manager Community Voices PAUL CHENEY JADE CRADDOCK SHEILA A GRANT PHIL RAMAGE REG SEWARD MIKE STAFFORD

40-43 ‘SCriPT - Alastair Giles on what’s hoving and helming to a cinema near you!

- Black Narcissus: Rumer Godden or Powell & Pressburger? Phil Ramage cogitates.

- e Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is really ese Foolish ings says Joanne Booy.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

www.nudge-book.com

44 EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL WRITING AWARDS Paul Cheney saves you the trouble of getting out of your armchair.

70 JUVENILE DETECTIVES? We need you back, says Erin Britton.

nb Magazine 7 Amport Close Winchester. SO22 6LP Telephone 01962 621015 info@newbooksmag.com

All raw materials used in the production of this magazine are harvested from sustainable managed forests.

Every effort has been made to trace ownership of copyright material, but in a few cases this has proved impossible.

Should any question arise about the use of any material, do please let us know.

74 AROUND THE WORLD – it’s time for Spain but watch out Divorce is in the Air by Gonzalo Torne.

76 OTWOFS take a bow at’s Ones To Watch Out For – let your publisher explain.

READS 46 HIMSELF

by Jess Kidd

Your publisher presumes to remind Jodi Picoult, multi-million copy bestseller, of the times we have helped promote her work.

You can tell om Phil's review, he loved Himself so, welcome Jess Kidd.

51 THE RETURN OF NORAH WELLS

by Virginia Macgregor

christmas special

55 Jade Craddock meets Virginia Macgregor.

22 PHIL ON... treats for Bookhuggers.

24 JADE SAYS...

Christmas is coming for Geeks!

26 PAUL...

Cooks the Books.

28 BLOGGERS CHRISTMAS TIPS 32 THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READER AWARDS

72 33

Simon Savidge

e rise of the Super-Blogger Mel Mitchell meets Simon Savidge, one of a new breed

Marieke Nijkamp

Jade Craddock meets Marieke Nijkamp, author of is is Where it Ends

Features 10 QUIRKY Q&A Steven Amsterdam supplies some weighty answers.

20 ADVENTURES IN BOOKSELLING Peter Snell om Barton's Bookshop in Leatherhead, Surrey lets light in on magic!

66 JANET ELLIS’S 5 FAVES – now where have you heard that name before?

56 DRAGON GAMES

by Jan-Philipp Sendker ... goes behind the Chinese screen in Dragon Games and we award his backlist high, HIGH marks!

61 THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER

by Phaedra Patrick 65 Nicola Smith LOVED it and we get to the letter C in Phaedra’s A-Z for writers.

All free, all we ask is you cover our p&p costs (UK only)

CONTENTS

ISSUE 90 AUTUMN 2016

WHAT WE’RE READING

We are endeavouring to put more – and longer versions – of what we’re reading onto nudge-book.com Just click on the magnifying glass, top right and search with WHAT WE ARE READING and ONE TO WATCH OUT FOR.

WHAT WE’RE READING

ALASTAIR GILES

GUY PRINGLE

The Green Road

by Anne Enright Vintage

I Me Mine

by George Harrison Genesis Publications

Late last year I Non fiction watched Anne from me this Enright being time and a hefty interviewed live price tag of £40, in Dublin. She all bar a penny. I was asked why Me Mine by she left so much George for her readers Harrison to do. It was an however was a perk of the job impertinent question, but she (although I didn’t know it was rose to it, ‘I respect them with that expensive when I made a

what we are reading the intelligence to fill in the gaps’. There’s plenty to work out and yet savour, too, in this fantastic novel. Twenty years pass over the first 100 pages from the four different perspectives of the offspring of the central matriarchal character. Then, just as you’re marvelling at the technical structure of the tale, you arrive into a full blown family saga of a Christmas homecoming. I was blown away by its scope and left dwelling on it for quite some time.

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special pleading). Genesis have extended the original 1980 book – which I paid for – with the lyrics of all George’s songs and, in some instances, scans of the original composition.

Scraps of hand written paper with crossings out, chord sequences and marginalia give the feel of time and effort put in to his music. The urge to create was obviously readily grasped using the backs of airmail letters, stationery from the Caneel Bay Plantation in the Virgin Islands and compliments slips from Handmade Films, another of this intriguing man’s many interests. Sometimes this

memorabilia is faced up by a brief account of how the idea came together.

Truly an anorak’s delight and something to dip into repeatedly. Yet another example of how the book scores over the app or the e-book.

MEL MITCHELL The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam riverrun

times I wasn’t entirely sure how relevant Evan’s sexuality and sexual exploits were, unless to provide a foil for the assisted suicide dilemmas. Perhaps this was meant to ironically represent normality in a life focused on such an unusual career path? It was, however, nice to see gay men represented so decently and honourably despite the circumstances and I applaud the author for this, as well as for resisting sentimentality and cliché in general.

CATH TURNER The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam is one of the most interesting books I’ve read for a long time but beware – assisted suicide can obviously be a sensitive subject and anyone with strong feelings about it should approach with some caution.

That said, it is a work of fiction so should not be taken too seriously and it succeeds brilliantly at highlighting the pros and cons of both sides of the argument. I found Evan’s journey through the novel as he analysed the morality of each situation fascinating. This was a challenging, sometimes uncomfortable and frequently thought-provoking read and would make a fantastic choice for close-knit book groups. At

Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon Corvus

This debut psychological thriller by Holly Seddon has to go on my Top Reads of 2016.

It’s easy to compare it to The Girl on the Train (my No.1 of 2015) but only for me, in the style of how it’s written. The chapters alternate between 3 main characters - Amy, attacked and left for dead 15 years earlier is in a coma, trapped in 1995, unable to communicate with her hospital visitors. Alex is a ‘functioning’ alcoholic journalist whose marriage has broken down, she’s lost her baby

and has been told she’ll be dead in a year if she doesn’t stop.

Then there’s Jacob who was in a relationship with Amy at the time of the attack. He visits her weekly, his wife doesn’t know...

Alex writes a story about the local hospital coma ward and sees Amy, realising they are the same age and would have known each other back then.

She begins to try and unfold the story of what happened to Amy. Amy can’t respond to her questions, living an internal nightmare that won’t go away, desperate for the truth to be known.

A gripping page-turner for sure and Holly writes just enough in each chapter to keep you guessing. Like The Girl on the Train, I hope this one makes it to the big screen, too, because I’ll be first in line!

You will find full reviews of these titles and more that the team have read on nudge under WHAT WE ARE READING.

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Your publisher reminisces!

nb and nudge Book of the Year 2016

2013

I

2012

t's amazing how, if you keep pegging away at something, you reach a point where you can look back and be pleasantly surprised at how far you've come. And so it proves with our annual vote for the nb and nudge Book of the Year. nb1 was published in Nov 2000 and only two years later - with a fair measure of hutzpah - I decided nb should speak for readers like you and I. The Booker Prize began back in 1969, so literary prizes were hardly a revolutionary concept.

And of course the Man Booker continues to typify the views of what the literary world thinks we should be reading. The trouble was, between 2000 and 2015

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2011

2010

2002 it had become blindingly obvious that those of us in reading groups had very different views on what we found edifying.

Given that nb claimed to be the magazine for readers and reading groups it seemed incumbent on us to reflect the actualité and so we ventured out like kids in a sweet shop to gather up all manner of delightful books, books that had enchanted, scared or worried us. Books that lifted the soul or made us comprehend and empathise. In other words, damn good reads.

We were lightly castigated in the trade press for not having any grand rules other than back then - to nominate the best book in English that you had read that year, regardless of when it had been published.

Elsewhere in this issue, Phil Ramage declares Alone in Berlin

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year 2016

2009

by Hans Fallada to be his book of 2015, apologising for not discovering it before - which encapsulates the very spirit of nb and nudge: to discover books to seek out rather than books to avoid.

So, while not much has fundamentally changed in the concept of literary prizes, I'd like to think that we are still something of a maverick in the field. It is true that, for practicalities' sake, we now present a shortlist so there is an element of pre-selection rather than the mile wide list of titles in prior years.

We also use social media to canvas and collect votes for the eclectic selection of books on the forthcoming

2003

2004

shortlist (to be announced in the December nudge Update and published on nudge the same day). One innovation last year that was well received was the search for the nudge Community Books of the Year (see panel right) - so the BookHugger book of the year, the BookNoir book of the year and so on. Never one to to pass up a good idea we're going to run that again this year.

2008

2007

nudge Books of the Year 2015

2002

nb and nudge Book of the Year 2016

Book of the

So, in all of this I hope you can see some books you, too, have loved and, among them, some unknowns to add to your TBR pile.

And if you need any reassurance on the pedigree of the nudge/nb prize then take a look at the previous winners here illustrated. Surely a bookshelf to be proud of ?

2006

2005

2014

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Quirky Q+A Steven Amsterdam supplies some weighty answers accepted the common cuppa as the functional equivalent of a meditation class—and unlike a meditation class, it holds out the possibility of baked goods, which is a plus. So I became an KIT KAT OR MARS BAR? Earl Grey fan for a while. Still, Kit Kat, obviously. When I worked in travel publishing the in the past ten years I have likely biggest trip I usually made was a abandoned more cups of tea than I have finished, which has daily elevator ride down to the done nothing to help the lobby kiosk to retrieve a Kit Kat, that would help me make it drought situation here. Coffee, by contrast, has held my attenfrom 3:30 to quitting time. If my blood glucose level was par- tion. Melburnians, in case their advance team hasn’t reached ticularly low, I would opt for a you yet, are deeply invested in Snickers. their coffee-making skills. They fair trade it (for what? I’ve never been clear) from remote forests, weigh it out to the bean, tamp it with locally-sourced steel, cold drip it with water collected from virginal rainspouts, mix it with milk so fresh it has a TEA OR COFFEE? yellow layer on top, and then Coffee. Until I moved to a Commonwealth country, I was- sell it at a fantastic markup. On writing days—when a café outn’t raised to be even ing isn’t a justifiable part of the pretend-serious about tea. plan—my preferred option is to (There are many things that perk up my Mokapot on the one may be offered on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, stove and bring a cup up to my computer. After this longbut a pot of tea is not one of winded answer, I do feel them.) After living in Melcompelled to mention that bourne for a while though, I 10

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more dedicated locals tell me that my liberal addition of cocoa and sugar to my coffee disqualifies me from expressing any opinion on the subject at all.

RELIGION OR POLITICS? I was raised with a light spritz of the spiritual and ceremonial aspects of Judaism, including a low-key bar mitzvah (no clowns, no ponies). That commitment to faith has diluted over time to the extent that when I was invited to the Sydney Jewish Writers Festival in August, I guiltily advised them that I hadn’t been inside a temple in years. I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t be tested on anything.

The cultural aspects of my tribe, however, have stayed close (heavy food, global media). Although I respect and admire the more beneficial possibilities of

organized religion—see Marilynne Robinson, who is fabulously eloquent on this— my real interest in religion relates to its inevitable impact on politics. That is the disorganized belief system that most tempts and enlivens my blood.

Have I chosen chaos over God? I think so. In the middle of the night I may worry about bases being built on the sand bars of the South China Sea or yearround melting in the Northwest Passage or oil revenues in Nigeria. How can any of these stories end well? If I’m awake too long I’ll get to work on speeches for Hillary Clinton. I’m currently polishing one on the social benefits of political correctness. Caring about all of the above can feel stressful, not to mention a bit futile at times. It’s enough to make one take up religion, or at least football, where no one gets hurt.

AMERICA OR AUSTRALIA? I am happy here and there. As a person who is fortunate enough to have a passport for each country, choosing one over the other seems both impudent and imprudent. I enjoy the shorter line at customs, not to mention the hedged bet on which nation

will be more hospitable after the inevitable flood, fire or as yet unnamed outbreak.

This freedom is not taken lightly. I first arrived in Melbourne in 2002, after a month of travelling around Australia. I was greeted by dozens of parks with their giant trees, ample bike lanes everywhere, and the entire population’s apparent okayness with cursing at least once a sentence. Heaven. Plus, the Melbourne 2030 report had just come out, anticipating immigration and traffic patterns and demographic needs for the coming decades. I know, hot, right? But being the son of a city planner made me fall hard for a government that even pretended to think beyond the next election. I was back a year later with the rickety plan to just give it a go. I lived through several different visa narratives: I was a tourist, a pastry chef (sponsored by Sofitel), a student (sponsored by my savings account), and a nurse (sponsored by the state of Victoria), until finally they relented and just gave me a passport.

INSIDE LOOKING OUT OR OUTSIDE LOOKING IN? Even though I have flung my life farther than I would have ever imagined, I am fortunate enough to feel love and friendship and closeness on a daily basis. That said, the protagonist of Things We Didn’t See Coming is a tenuously connected wanderer in an ever-changing dystopia; the protagonist of What the Family Needed exiles himself from his magical family; and the protagonist of The Easy Way Out keeps his thoughts to himself while handing out Nembutal to those who want to die. These characters don’t just drop from the sky. I think we have an answer.

The Easy Way Out

by Steven Amsterdam is published by riverrun as a £12.99 hbk on 3rd November. www.stevenamsterdam.com

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OUR INTREPID REPORTER

OUR INTREPID REPORTER

the Rising, we wanted to focus on revolutionaries, so we have a panel of three writers discussing women revolutionaries Mary Wollstonecraft, Eleanor Marx and Sylvia Pankurst. And – before our Saturday evening performance by the dynamic poet, Lemn Sissay – we will have a musical rendition of Chartist poetry and hymns. We have been very lucky in having three great patrons – Shami Chakrabati, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Philip Pullman.

LiverPOOL LiTerArY FeSTivAL Karen Weatherly quizzes Festival Director, Professor Helen Taylor. always difficult but having partners like the Royal Society of Literature, Liverpool City The new Vice Chancellor of the Council, Unilever and LiverUniversity of Liverpool, Profes- pool’s Hope Street Hotel is a sor Janet Beer is – unusually for big help. such a role – a Literature specialist who wanted to put her WHICH BITS OF BEING A Humanities mark on the city FESTIVAL DIRECTOR DO and thus to sponsor a literary YOU LIKE AND WHICH BITS festival. I was invited to direct DON’T YOU LIKE/SCARE YOU? the inaugural festival.

I love the ability to select writers and themes that engage and DO YOU HAVE A TEAM interest me, and ensure they’re WORKING WITH YOU? part of our programme. EveryThe University’s Pro Vice one in Liverpool is enthusiastic, Chancellor, Professor Dinah enormously helpful and supBirch, also a distinguished liter- portive, so that’s been a joy. ature scholar, is the lead Naturally, the biggest fear is academic and we have two Fes- failure. tival managers working with me. The University’s Events and WHAT VENUES ARE YOU PR staff have been brilliant at USING? putting together the website The main hub is the glorious and marketing.

Victoria Gallery and Museum, a superb building belonging to WHEN SOME ARE HAVING the University. We will also host TO CUT BACK OR EVEN an event by Colm Tóibín at the GIVE UP FESTIVALS, DID most splendid venue in the city, YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS St George’s Hall Concert ABOUT SETTING UP A COM- Room, and our family events PLETELY NEW ONE? will take place in the spectacular Universities are among the few newly-refurbished Liverpool institutions that have staff, Library. buildings and resources to support such a venture, and the HOW DID YOU DECIDE University of Liverpool sees this WHICH AUTHORS/EVENTS as an exciting new collaborative TO INCLUDE? cultural offer to its own city.

I talked to lots of people in Setting up a new festival is Liverpool and consulted writers HOW DID THE FESTIVAL COME ABOUT AND HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED?

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Colm Tóibín

© Jo Metson-Scott

Lemn Sissay

WHO ARE YOU PARTICULARLY EXCITED ABOUT AND WHY??

I’m delighted we have such a varied and diverse group of writers, and that we will be addressing issues of current concern and interest – the state of libraries and publishing, the role of radical women, the reading of David Bowie and more.

I’m delighted our collaboration with the Everyman Theatre has resulted in a young people’s production of Philip Pullman’s play, Frankenstein. Philip will be at the Festival and we know he’ll be interested to see this interpretation of his work.

ONE OF THE CURRENT DISCUSSION POINTS IN THE BOOK WORLD IS WHETHER AUTHORS SHOULD BE PAID A FEE FOR FESTIVAL APPEARANCES. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS? In general terms, this is a problem for small festivals in towns and villages, for many of which I have curated and chaired events (usually for no fee). Most festivals of this kind rely on eager volunteers, and they are still very expensive to run. If all writers were paid a fee appropriate to their status and time, most festivals would collapse.

On the whole, I think writers welcome the chance to meet their readers and participate in events that keep literary culture alive. That said, at Liverpool we are paying speakers’ fees and expenses.

WHEN DID YOU START PLANNING AND HOW MUCH OF YOUR TIME HAS IT TAKEN UP? I began planning this festival in August 2015, and it’s taken up a huge amount of my time (only other festival directors would

understand why!) It’s been very exciting and satisfying, though.

DO YOU HAVE TIME TO READ FOR PLEASURE AND IF SO WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHORS? I read all the time. I’ve been enjoying the latest works of all the authors we’ve invited to Liverpool. I can never answer the question about favourite authors as I love so many and there are so many writers I wish I had time to explore. If pushed, I’d say American women writers such as Kate Chopin, Eudora Welty and Toni Morrison.

WHEN IT IS ALL OVER WHAT WILL YOU DO TO UNWIND? Have a good long sleep then start reading again.

The Liverpool Literary Festival takes place from 28th-30th October 2016 For information and tickets visit www.liverpool.ac.uk/literary-festival

Shami Chakrabati

and publishers. Irish Studies is a strong research area in the University, so we have a major panel focussing on the centenary of the Easter Rising 1916, including Colm Tóibín who is also giving a reading. In the spirit of

SMALL BUT PerFeCTLY FOrMeD “I spent the weekend working as volunteer blogger and tweeter at the small but perfectly formed North Cornwall Book Festival. It’s my first book festival, and if they’re all like this, I want more”. So wrote one of a group of blogger students attending. You'll find Catherine Sandbrook's account of planning for this year's event on nudge under The Making of a Book Festival and visit ncornbookfest.org for more details.

The North Cornwall Book Festival takes place from 21st - 23rd October 2016.

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BIG INTERVIEW

Jodi Picoult Your publisher presumes to remind multi-million copy bestselling author, Jodi Picoult, of the times we have helped promote her work.

Anyway, it was a no brainer for me and boy did our readers love that book! Since then I’ve I think our read many more. And I know acquaintance began back in from telephone conversations 2004 when Hodder asked me to with our subscribers that they, send a large number of copies of too, have kept up with your My Sister’s Keeper out to nb books. Which of course was readers. I hadn’t heard of you entirely the point of the exercise but I read it and loved it. I – and why I am personally so vividly remember reading the pleased to have you back in our last chapter on the train out of pages and on our front cover London and there was this again. (You are the first person really annoying piece of grit to do that, by the way.) that got into my eye and I just So a question, because here couldn’t shi it. we are 12 years down the line and I look in the mirror and see a much older man and you, you still look stunning. How so???

JP: I keep quite busy, walk 5 miles a day, and have an excellent hairdresser who keeps the gray out of my red hair. But as someone who just turned 50 — thank you.

August 2013, Hodder Paperbacks

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GP: More seriously, I think some of your books had been published previously in the UK. Am I right that some inspired

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person at Hodder scooped up all your previous work and put together a strategy to relaunch you? How did you first hear about that and what were they proposing?

JP: Nope. Not one published in the UK before Carolyn Mays, then fiction editor for Hodder, scooped them up, and I have been published by Hodder ever since. ey published My Sister’s Keeper and Plain Truth in 2004. I had been published elsewhere in the world before then – in the US of course, and in Australia and New Zealand. I had ten books in print at the time and they were proposing to publish a couple every year until they caught up and then publish the new one each year thereaer – taking it slow and steady. It was a good plan, but then My Sister’s Keeper took off and that was enough of the slow and steady bit!

Jodi Picoult & Samantha van Leer © Elena Seibert

D

ear Jodi,

BIG INTERVIEW

BIG INTERVIEW

GP: What was the situation in the States back then? And did you have any profile with readers elsewhere in the world? ?

Park, Bracknell. In my research I’d found that one of your favourite musicians was Aimee Mann so was able to play a couple of her tracks over the JP: I was doing well in the US sound system as we went on and well across the world in stage. I could see you slowly New Zealand and Australia, but recognizing the music – quite then My Sister’s Keeper impressive given that it was out happened there too! of context – and we were off into what was one of the most GP: From memory the idea for enjoyable author events I’ve the UK was to publish a new ever done. My question here is Jodi Picoult every 6 months so – you must have done hundreds that readers could find your of these kind of events over the books quickly. is also meant a years but what makes a good whole new series of jacket one (and I’m not fishing for a designs about which you were compliment)? presumably consulted? In my JP: I love meeting my readers – experience, American jacket so the more I can talk to at one design is very different to the event the better! I do UK. Was it a tussle? What remember my first UK gig was issues did you want addressed? with you and I loved it, and JP: I think that different things who doesn’t want Aimee Mann sell in different countries. For to open for her?? To me, a good example, in Poland, for a while, event is governed by the my books all had cartoons on audience. I get energy from the cover. I trust my publishers their energy, and my UK fans in each country to know what have a LOT of energy. My works in their individual favorite part of any event is a markets. I am always consulted Q&A. I do get asked a lot of about covers, and give feedback, the same questions but every but I am also aware that what now and then someone causes a customer to pick a surprises me — and I LOVE book up off a shelf in the UK is that. very different from what causes a customer to pick a book up in GP: A couple of years later you were back to promote e Tenth the US. Circle and I’d moved to GP: e next stage of our Winchester so there was a acquaintance was when you whole new group of people to came over to the UK shortly introduce you to – including aer and we staged a Meet the members of a reading group I’d Author event at South Hill recently joined.

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November 2013, Hodder Paperbacks

You were of course terrific as our speaker but – a little indiscretion here, if you will – what are • the most inane questions you’ve been asked?

• the best experience you’ve had with a reading group and (of course) • your worst? (Names can be changed to protect the innocent!)

JP: Hmm. is one’s tough. e most inane questions I have been asked are usually about books I didn’t write (when the reader has confused me with another author). e question I hate the most is “How did you DO it — write novels and raise your children simultaneously!”

I mean, do MALE authors get asked that?? I’ve also had people stand up in the audience and read angry letters to my characters, asking me to pass along the message. e best experience I’ve had with a reading group was probably a small community in Littleton, Colorado — the site of the Columbine shooting. I was asked to go there to do an event

for 19 Minutes, which is about a school shooting. It was so deeply moving — I had the mom of one of the victims at the event; and another survivor asked me to read a passage about how a community can go back to normal aer there is no normal. e worst experience I’ve ever had involved an event in Virginia where I was being given a very lovely award by a university and was being driven around to and from the event by a college student. She got lost 5 times - even driving to her own school - so that I was late.

She got lost walking to the parking lot from the event space. By then, the event coordinators understood what was going on and taught her how to work her SatNav. e next morning, taking me to the airport, her gas tank was empty so she stopped off to get gas — and put diesel into the gas tank instead of regular gas. Needless to say the car chugged two feet and died on the highway.

GP: Now I’m not expecting you to kill your darlings but you’ve addressed many issues in your books – date rape, suicide pacts, sibling organ donors and many more – but some of them have been particularly timely because of external events. Are there any instances where you think one of your books has contributed particularly positively to the thinking of the time? And is there an

January 2012, Hodder Paperbacks

issue/book that got away because the timing just wasn’t quite right?

JP: Sing You Home hit America just as we were struggling to grant marriage equality, and I know from the feedback I have received that the book changed the hearts and minds of many conservatives who until then did not believe LGBTQ people deserved the right to form their own marriages and families.

My new novel, Small Great ings, is going to be published just before our election in a year when issues of race have become front and center.

April 2016, Hodder Paperbacks

June 2013, Hodder Paperbacks

Just yesterday Michelle Obama gave a speech citing how far we have come, since she is living in a home built by slaves (the White House). A conservative news commentator remarked that the slaves were treated well.

Um, what? ey were still slaves.

And they weren’t treated well either, as multiple opposing news outlets pointed out (as well as Abigail Adams, who wrote a letter citing the horrific conditions of slaves while the White House was being built.)

In America right now, the people who talk about race the most are people of color — and if we are going to move the needle forward, it’s WHITE people who need to acknowledge their role in racism. I truly hope that my book opens the eyes of wellmeaning white people to their privileges and to the systemic oppression faced by people of color.

GP: You seem to love trying different things while still managing to occupy the top of the bestseller lists. So, with your daughter, Samantha Van Leer, you have co-authored Between the Lines – ambitious enough in its own right but also your first stab at YA. I’ve been lucky enough to have both my sons work with me on the magazine when they were growing up which was a special treat for me as they got an insight into my working life not just my

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17

BIG INTERVIEW

dad-ness. How successful was the experience for you and – crucially! – would Samantha say the same?

and it seems that you serve on the advisory board so presumably it is still an issue for you?

JP: Both Between the Lines and Off the Page were a blast to write! e idea was Sammy’s in the first place, way back when she was 13. We literally sat side by side in my office and bounced ideas off each other and wrote each line together.

Naturally, there were times I wanted to kill her — we are mother and daughter aer all — but we also laughed a LOT. e most gratifying thing was seeing the birth of a wonderful writer, right before my eyes.

Sammy has imagination, skill, talent — she’s the whole package.

JP: In the US, the book coverage pages were donated to cover the war in Iraq years ago… and were never given back to book coverage. So we have faced the same thing — less space to make people aware of books. But in addition to that, yes, there is definite discrimination in the way writers are treated based on their sex, sexual orientation, race, etc. VIDA is an organization that looks at discrimination in publishing. ey have literally crunched the numbers and we know that men are reviewed more than women, GP: Some time back now, I see and that there are more male you ended up in the cross-fire of reviewers — even though a debate about the – American - women are the primary book literary establishment’s alleged buying market. In addition to shoddy treatment of this, there is indeed a bias commercial writers. In with that against commercial fiction, was a side order of the role which is not seen as “well gender plays in whether or not a written” enough to merit book secures review coverage. reviews. And do not get me Obviously, that could never started about representation in happen here in the UK (!?) but literature, and how few writers it is true that the broadsheet of color there are…I try really media are noticeably slimming hard to ask people to take a down their books coverage and look at their bookshelves. Are a number of literary editors there female writers on it? Gay have been let go. Now the dust writers? Writers of color? has settled what are your views ere should be. and what do you see happening GP: I know you have several for writers and readers in the projects on the go and are back next few years? To my shame I only recently came across VIDA in the UK this autumn – in as many words as you like what do (see panel right) 18

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you want us to know about what’s going on in the world of Jodi Picoult?

JP: Well, I am deeply involved in a musical stage show of Between the Lines which is hopefully headed to Broadway.

It’s being produced by the woman who brought you Kinky Boots. It’s been such fun and an enormous amount of work getting together – but I have pulled together an incredible team, and we have the book, lyrics, music and we are so nearly there! My new novel, Small Great ings, is published in the UK at the end of November. is book has taken me a long time to write – I had to get it completely right because the issues of power, privilege and prejudice are so huge in my country - and I cannot wait to invite people to join a discussion about racism with me.

Jodi Picoult will be touring the UK from 21st November to 1st December. To find out where you can see her go to jodipicoult.co.uk

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult is published by Hodder & Stoughton as a £14.99 hbk on 22nd November 2016.

What is VIDA? VIDA’s mission as a research-driven organization is to increase critical attention to contemporary women’s writing as well as further transparency around gender equality issues in contemporary literary culture.

Each year the VIDA Count compiles over 1000 data points from the top tier, or “Tier 1” journals, publications, and press outlets by which the literary community defines and rewards its most valued arts workers, the “feeders” for grants, teaching positions, residencies, fellowships, further publication, and ultimately, propagation of artists’ work within the literary community.

Volunteers from across the country dedicate thousands of combined hours to compile this information and release the results as our trademark blue and red pie charts.

The VIDA Count reveals major imbalances at premiere publications both in the US and abroad.

For example: The New York Review of Books covered 306 titles by men in 2010 and only 59 by women; The New York Times Book Review covered 524 books by men compared to 283 books written by women (2010 VIDA Count).

http://www.vidaweb.org

Sheila’s review of Small Great Things Jodi Picoult is a superb story teller excelling in this, her latest book. She is a woman on a mission in this human tale of injustice, hurt, courage, loyalty, integrity and family all revolving around the controversial blockbuster of a theme, racism.

Ruth is a highly qualified nurse with a perfect employment record of over twenty years. A white supremacist and his wife ban her from handling their newborn baby because she is black, and the only non white nurse in the hospital. The subsequent sudden death of the baby is the catalyst for this disturbingly tense tale. Is Ruth guilty of neglect of duty or is she a baby killer? This writer has never been afraid to tackle topical awkward situations. It is many years since My Sister’s Keeper made me a fan of this prolific writer but she had fallen off my radar until this thumping great read arrived on my desk and what a privilege it is to review.

It is with courage that Jodi Picoult has approached racism as a theme and in the telling of this fairly brutal tale she questions our perception of the subject. The characters are wonderful and contrast perfectly in their lives, appearance and social standing with those with whom you empathise and those that send shivers down your spine. Ruth around whom the story revolves has a slight hint of The Help in her serious and conscientious approach to life. But she is contrasted brilliantly with lawyer Kennedy, a lovely warm witty and lighthearted but sincere young woman. Initially I thought it was set around twenty or thirty years ago but as the book progressed and events were mentioned I was stunned to realise it was set in the present. Jodi Picoult is an avid researcher and I have no doubt that the events portrayed in this book are based on fact. Hard to believe that such extremism is rife in the present day in so called civilised countries. As a child, seeing the Klu Klux Klan on TV chilled me and to discover that there are similar groups working under cover is scary. Fiction it may be but I fear that this vivid portrayal of hate is too near the truth.

Each chapter gives the reader [a new] viewpoint, showing the opposing perceptions and interpretations between white people who believe they are not the slightest bit racist and Ruth who tends to see slights where none are intended almost as if she has a chip on her shoulder.

Jodi Picoult is a fantastic writer of stories that leave the reader - and this from experience - sobbing with grief in one page to laughing at one liners and fun moments often in the face of pomposity a few pages later. And this book is perfectly balanced, climaxing in a fascinating court scene with great dialogue which holds the reader from the moment the judge takes his seat and held this reader in thrall.

This book may be a story but one that makes the reader think and will linger in my mind for some time. I am full of admiration for the writer who produced such an eminently readable and enjoyable book and one that did not hold back on the themes of morality and tolerance.

Sheila A. Grant Personal 5 Group read 5

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A DVEN TURE S I N BOOKS ELL ING Peter Snell from Barton's Bookshop in Leatherhead, Surrey lets light in on magic! three new manuscripts each month for a small publisher. I like to champion new voices but dare not offer an author a hope to be able to let you signing session until I have read into some of the secrets their book. I have built up my behind independent reputation with my customers bookshops over the next few and they accept that if a book issues of nb magazine. Only a has my seal of approval then it very little of what I tell you can must be good. It might not be be applied to other Indies. to their taste or in a style they That is the whole point; we are enjoy, but a large part of the art independent and all do things of bookselling lies in our own way. matching titles and readers. I I still read voraciously but believe that we do a pretty good have almost entirely job of that. surrendered my choice in books As I write, I am busy to others. We can’t compete working on author events and with supermarkets and big signings for the last quarter of chains who have best sellers on the year. However, I would just offer at less than it costs me like to single out three to buy them in. I see it as my books for your attention and, I role to find the new and would suggest, great ideas for different and to seek out Christmas presents. To begin, authors who are not yet well two adult titles: known but deserve to be. [Ed: The Last Sounds like a philosophy we Fiesta by Andy share!] My to be read pile, Rumbold – a therefore, is largely pre-pubs, great homage to proof and review copies of new Hemingway titles and books submitted to in which a group me by indie and self-published of young people authors and small independent with unfinished business presses. between them meet in the This is where innovation lies mountains in Spain and then in the book world today. I read take part in the bull run in 20 books a month and evaluate Pamplona.

I

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Then there’s The Silent Children by Amna K Boheim – Max has been estranged from his mother for many years but after her death as he starts to unravel some buried family history the past comes back to haunt him in a very real way.

For a children’s title try A Library of Lemons by Jo Cotterill. No plot spoilers but I loved this tale even though it made me cry twice. Here is a quote from the back matter.

“Since her mother died Calypso’s dad has grown distant, and keeps to himself. But when she uncovers the sad secret hidden in her father’s library, she realises that something is very wrong.”

For the full story behind Barton’s Bookshop and our history do have a look at our website and gain a greater appreciation of our ethos. bartonsbookshop.co.uk

C h r i s t m a s Our guide to what's coming for Christmas this year.

So, your gift problems solved - plus a few books about which you can drop a hint?

Phil on . . .

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Photo: Andrew Crowley

A considerable number of us will be dropping hints about Zadie Smith’s tale of friendship and dance Swingtime (Hamish Hamilton Nov), Ian McEwan’s delving into murder and deceit with Nutshell (Cape Sept) and Michael Chabon’s “deathbed confession novel” Moonglow (Harper Nov).

All these authors are much esteemed by this particular BookHugger.

Those who like to select festive gifts are spoilt this year.

There is a potential new seasonal perennial by Jeanette Winterson with her Christmas Days in which she promises 12 stories and 12 recipes for 12 days ( Jonathan Cape - Nov).

The many people who read Dickens at this time of year might want to consider The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge by Charlie Lovett (making its first paperback appearance in Penguin - Oct).

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And a full-length Christmas poem Tidings by Ruth Padel (Chatto and Windus – Nov) will make a change from “Twas the night before Xmas”.

For long winter evenings the massive doorstop of a novel of Victorian fog and mystery By Gaslight by Steven Price (Oneworld – Sept) seems like an excellent choice.

Nov '09] but it was my favourite book last year). Scribe will be releasing this in October.

American novel which explores the extraordinary tale of Irish nationalist and humanitarian Roger Casement. Valiant Gentlemen has an epic scope which should linger until spring (Grove Press – Nov).

Jess Kidd has produced an extremely haunting debut with her Irish ghost story Himself (Canongate - Oct and a Recommended Read in this issue, see Q&A page 46) then there’s Sabina Murray’s

"O, wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is!

O brave new world, That has such people in't!"

Miranda William Shakespeare The Tempest Act V, Scene I

Perhaps the most surefire biography choice for the Bookhugger would be Edmund Gordon’s The Invention of Angela Carter (Chatto & Windus - Oct).

Photo: Travis McBride

B

y the time the writing of Xmas lists comes around a number of the autumn’s literary big-hitters are likely to be ensconced in the best seller charts.

treats for Bookhuggers

A bit of magic is essential over the Christmas period and Margaret Atwood should provide that with her reworking of The Tempest in Hagseed (Hogarth Shakespeare Project - Oct)

Certainly appearing on my list will be the much-anticipated first-time English translation of Hans Fallada’s Nightmare In Berlin (I was a few years late to his Alone In Berlin [a Recommended Read in nb54 in

Also, after recently discovering the talent of Scribe’s Dutch author Tommy Wieringa, The Penguin Book Of Dutch Short Stories edited by the late Joost Zwagerman (due in September) promises to introduce me to writers from 1915 to the present day.

Phil Ramage

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Jade says . . .

I

t’s that time of the year again, well not really, but by the time you read this we’ll be well into the second half of the year and that means the inevitable run-up to Christmas.

There, I’ve said it, and now we’ve got that out of the way, we can get on to the important stuff, namely, presents! And specifically bookish treats for the BookGeek in your life. Or if you are a self-confessed BookGeek, here’s a few book ideas to leave lying around for your nearest and dearest to stumble upon.

Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Naomi Alderman’s The Power, which imagines a world in which girls have the power to inflict pain with a click of their fingers, is set to be one to watch.

Daniel Polansky has another urban fantasy, A City Dreaming, out in October and fans of Stephen Lloyd Jones, author of The String Diaries, should look out for his latest release, The Disciple.

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Following on from The Devil’s Detective, Simon Kurt Unsworth returns with The Devil’s Evidence, described as a dark, electrifying, detective story set in Hell whilst Robert Dickinson’s The Tourist blends conspiracy thriller with time travel.

Fans of ghost stories have their pick of Michelle Paver’s Thin Air, as well as collections from two big-hitters, including the repackaged AfterSupper Ghost Stories from Jerome K. Jerome, and The Travelling Bag and Other Ghostly Stories from Susan Hill.

And anyone after a new author to discover should look out for Sam Wilson’s Zodiac, and James Bennett’s Chasing Embers.

The latest titles from Alison Littlewood (The Hidden People) and T.C. Boyle (The Terranauts) may also be ones to add to the gift list, and so too the third title in Genevieve Cogman’s The Invisible Library series, The Burning Page.

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Christmas is coming for Geeks!

If YA fiction is more your thing, you’re in for a treat, with a bumper pack of preChristmas releases, including Laura Lam’s Pantomime – the first novel in a new fantasy series, Laura Eve’s The Graces, and Kendare Blake’s Three Dark Crowns. There’s also a trend on rewriting the classic fairy tale, with Danielle Paige’s Stealing Snow and Rosamund Hodge’s Cruel Beauty. New releases from SJ Kincaid (The Diabolic) and Marcus Sedgwick (Saint Death) are always worth a look.

From the film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (c) 20th Century Fox

And with the movie release of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the next instalment, Tales of the Peculiar, may be another one to add to the Christmas list.

And if all that lot’s not enough, a pre-order of a February 2017 nonfiction release sounds like the perfect present for BookGeeks – Geekographica.

Jade Craddock

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E

very year without fail the tables in bookshops will be groaning under the weight of recently published food and drink titles for the foodie in your life. My limited research found around 60 new volumes and I know there will be some I missed..

Jamie Oliver has two new books out, the first is Super Food Family Classics which continues with the popular philosophy behind Jamie's Everyday Super Food, bringing exciting healthy eating to the heart of the home.

Second, published in October, is Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook. This has lots of classic recipes and loads of ideas for parties, food gifts and leftovers if you couldn’t manage to eat it all the first time.

Paul . . .

Cooks the Books

The Hairy Bikers have Chicken & Egg, full of nice things to do with . . . chicken and eggs; but which to do first? Another author with a seemingly never ending stream of cook books is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

This time he brings us the River Cottage A To Z with comprehensive explanations on what to cook and how to find it. His books are an excellent reference, so this should be good.

ingredients and of course it accompanies the new TV series in the autumn.

Rick Stein's Long Weekends is the book to accompany the BBC series. It was really enjoyable viewing his trips to various European cities and discovering the food and culture there - made you feel really hungry and ever so slightly jealous. The Great British Bake Off is a national institution now and the new book for the up and coming series 26

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Perfect Cakes & Bakes To Make At Home will make you a better baker and your friends and family heavier.

Anthony Bourdain is best known for his classic work, Kitchen Confidential a revelation on the inner workings of New York’s kitchens. In his new book, Appetites: A Cookbook he is cooking for his family and it is a surreal look into his world.

A couple of Italian cookery books that look interesting: Gennaro's Italian Bakery

by Gennaro Contaldo, already makes me feel hungry just looking at the photos. In Gino's Hidden Italy, Gino DiAcampo takes us round northern Italy to learn what are the best seasonal

Hygge [pron. HUE-gah], seems to be the word of the moment - from the Danes, it is the ritual of enjoying life's simple pleasures. Like this philosophy?

See Scandinavian Comfort Food: Embracing the Art of Hygge by Trine Hahnemann that hopes you will embrace some of the comforting long family meals that they enjoy.

And for the bakers among you there is ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge written by Bronte Aurell.

Then there’s The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute [Ed: Really?] in Copenhagen takes a broader look at this way of life.

Venturing further afield, Luke Nguyen’s Street Food Asia takes us to Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia to discover the delights and secrets of the Asian street food scene.

Cinnamon Kitchen: The Cookbook is an offshoot of the great Westminster restaurant The Cinnamon Club and the executive chef there, Vivek Singh, brings us his fresh modern interpretation of Indian dishes.

A new book from Fuchsia Dunlop is always worth the wait; her Land Of Fish And Rice Recipes From The Culinary Heart Of China draws together recipes and cooking techniques from the

Jiangnan region of China.

There are even a couple of books for the geek in your life, Chelsea MonroeCassel has written The World of Warcraft: The Official Cookbook. Inspired by the hugely popular online role playing game, we can learn how to cook Mulgore Spice Bread and Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops.

Finally we have Doctor Who: The Official Cookbook by Joanna Farrow. It will contain such delights as Peek-a-Boo Pandorica and Ood Head Bread, but I am not sure if it will have instructions on how to cook a dalek . . .

Paul Cheney

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Bloggers T

here is a group of people out there who are even more crazy about books than we are – book bloggers. The vast majority are women (although see page 32 for the exception to the rule) who want to share their opinions of the – many – books they read through their online journals. So it seemed a good idea to ask some of them for their Top Tips For Christmas Reads - and perfect gifts.

BIBLIOBETH Hi, I’m Beth and I’m a (loud and proud) bookworm. I love reading anything and everything and am pretty much open to trying anything new although I do have a bit of a fear of “chick-lit.” I’ve loved reading all my life – my mum taught me to read before I went to kindergarten and I haven’t stopped since! I’ve gone through quite a few reading “stages” in my life. [Ed: Beth was one of our first Author Meets Reviewer contributors, meeting face-to-face with Jason Starr.]

Three from me: To The Bright Edge Of The World by Eowyn Ivey (hbk Aug 2016) After her

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beautiful debut novel, The Snow Child, this book is a must read for me. Set once again in Alaska at the end of the nineteenth century, this sounds like the perfect book to curl up with on a cold winter's night.

Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory (Aug 2016) I'm a huge fan of Philippa Gregory and always get excited when she has a new book out. This one focuses on Henry VIII's two sisters and his first wife Katherine of Aragon who are destined to become queens of England, Scotland and France.

Five Go Gluten-Free (Enid Blyton For Grown Ups) by Bruno Vincent (Nov 2016) Enid Blyton was my literary goddess when I was a youngster and this would make a great gift for any Blyton fans or anyone who needs a good laugh as the gang take on a new challenge - is it possible to get a good gluten-free cream tea? @bibliobeth1 www.bibliobeth.com

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THE CHOCOLATE LADY’S BOOK REVIEWS

If you're looking for the next great read, or you've heard of a book I've read and you want to know if you should read it too, you are the person I'm writing this blog for. I have been writing on-line content (reviews and articles of all kinds) since about 1998.

Christmas Tips a cast of fascinating characters and invent a new theory behind the accident.

My second is – are - the books of Fredrik Backman - all set in snowy Sweden. He's been well promoted, so I'm thinking his books don't need it. The reason I thought of it was you know, winter is usually snow, snow in Sweden... [Ed: We love Fredrik Backman – A Man Called Ove was a Recommended Read in nb85!]

Three from me:

My first is probably the best work of historical fiction I've ever read Ariel Lawhon's Flight of Dreams which is about the last flight of the Hindenburg. This is a book that should get lots of promotion it is FANTASTIC (and may be my #1 pick for 2016)! The real reason why the Hindenburg burst into flames on May 6, 1937 is still a mystery. Lawhon employs the actual flight manifest to build

That brings me to the last idea. I just finished reading a book by the late, great Jenny Diski On Trying to Keep Still - where she visits Lapland and sees how the natives work with reindeer. So...

Santa... reindeer... The problem is, it isn't fiction, and it isn't a newer book, and I haven't published my own review of it yet (but I will do, long before your deadline). drchazan.blogspot.com

BOOKPHACE

“I don’t do facebook, I do Bookphace.” Gill Chedgey says little about herself on her site but we can tell you she is the most prolific reviewer on Real Readers. (See page 98 for more about Gill.)

My choice: The Age of Bowie by Paul Morley (Simon and Schuster, hbk Jul 2016) ‘Everyone has their own Bowie.

This is mine.’ writes Paul Morley in the first chapter of this biographical and analytical work from a man who since teenage years has admired Bowie.

So often a deluge of back catalogue and retrospectives are produced with indecent haste following the demise of an icon.

It’s refreshing to see that Morley has left a reasonable interval before offering his informative piece on the life and work of Bowie.

This is a perfect book for gift giving; for Bowie fans obviously but also for those with just a passing interest in Bowie’s place

in the cultural history of the last six or so decades. Morley has done a good job, he rises above the sycophant trap and gives us mostly relevant detail which remains true to the context.

Gill Chedgey bookphace.blogspot.co.uk

JOANNE’S READING BLOG

My life has taken some interesting twists and turns, but throughout, books and reading have always been a part of it. I had the incredible windfall of being a librarian for a number of years as well, on a voluntary basis in Africa and even professionally when I was high school Librarian in Canada!

[Ed: Having met Joanne as a copanellist at a book event, she has risen to the challenge of being a regular nb contributor.]

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My choice: A Snow Garden by Rachel Joyce.

Author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Ms Joyce has a new collection of loosely connected modern day Christmas stories called A Snow Garden.

Happily these are not saccharine sweet. They are freshly funny and human - no perfection in sight!

Compelling and easy to get into, seven stories showcase Joyce's skill for conveying great things in simple everyday situations. Ever painfully honest and refreshingly real, she reminds us that there is always a bigger story behind the one we first see.

Joanne Booy joannesreadingblog. wordpress.com

Bloggers

Christmas Tips

I decided to start this blog mainly because I noticed a lack of blogs about adult fiction in general, compared to many blogs focussing solely on Young Adult books. I read a wide range of books (mainly fiction) and some of my favourite authors are: Peter James, Donna Tartt, Sophie Hannah, Peter Robinson, Marian Keyes, Susan Hill and many, many more!

enough time for a story or two. So why not try some short stories?

Each year I sample a few from The Ecco Book of Christmas Stories – Truman Capote’s and John Cheever’s are my favourites. For animal lovers, the Christmas at Battersea collection is a heart-warming treat. I’m also looking forward to Jeanette Winterson’s Christmas Days: 12 Stories, which comes out on December 6th.

Rebecca Foster bookishbeck.wordpress.com

My top choices: I'm hugely excited for the release of Ceceilia Ahern's Lyrebird, Elly Griffith's The Blood Card, The Shadow Sister by Lucinda Riley and Lee Child's new Jack Reacher novel, Night School – all out in November, so they're ideal

for putting on your Christmas list.

I certainly will be!

Laura Nazmdeh www.snazzybooks.com

BOOKISHBECK American transplant to England, originally from Maryland. Full-time freelance editor and book reviewer. I review books for Kirkus Indie, 30

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Publishers Weekly, BlueInk, Foreword, BookBrowse, The Bookbag, For Books’ Sake, Hakai, nudge-book.com, and shiny nb. My work has been in print in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Wasafiri literary magazine, Stylist, and Third Way and Bookmarks magazines. I also have a piece forthcoming with the Los Angeles Review of Books.

For two years I was a staff writer and chief proofreader at Bookkaholic, where you can still find an archive of my nearly 100 articles.

My top choices: I wanted to pick something slightly off the beaten track so I wouldn't overlap with other bloggers. Plus I think it makes sense during the holidays as they can be a busy period where you might only be able to snatch

GIRL WITH HER HEAD IN A BOOK Since early infancy, I’ve loved stories. Since the immortal day that I first sounded out the word “fog” on the BBC weather forecast, I never looked back. I read fast and I remember everything I read.

I am the girl who frequently risks missing her train stop because I’m caught in a book. I am the girl who feels nervous to leave the house without a book in her handbag and then another one on standby in case I finish the first one. I am Girl with her Head in a Book.

I am particularly interested in literary fiction, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction,

biography and history. I am an English and French graduate who has experience in copyediting, proof-reading and writing book reviews. One day, I hope to write something of my very own but until then I really enjoy writing this.

As winter approaches and the nights draw in, these are the books with which I’ll be getting stuck in: The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronvitch.

Will the Faceless Man come back? Can Lesley be saved?

Does Peter Grant really stand a chance at making it work with a river goddess? All questions I need answering!

The Song Rising Samantha Shannon.

Steam-punk fantasy of the very highest quality, Paige is going to need to pull some very fancy footwork to get out of this one after The Mime Order finished on an agonising cliffhanger.

Fans of The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan know that she’s a booklover so I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into Bookworm - an account of her own childhood reading.

To The Bright Edge of the World Eowyn Ivey.

From the author of The Snow Child comes another tale of survival and hope and the forces that guide us – it sounds perfect for winter nights.

Nutshell by Ian McEwan While he may be a Mr Marmite of an author, this tale of a wife getting away with murder promises to be an interesting take on crime – not least because the witness is a foetus.

Susannah Perkins girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk

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The Books Are My Bag readers Awards What’s your favourite? Go into your local independent bookshop and get voting!

L

The following shortlists for five aunched in 2013, ‘Books Are My Bag’ categories have been determined by booksellers and include some is a slogan that has bestsellers from 2016 and some lesser known new titles which encompassed all booksellers feel deserve a bigger manner of book promotion. audience. Many of them have been Largely it is about protecting featured in nb and online at nudge the livelihood of independent over the year and any could make a perfect Christmas gift for your booksellers and promoting family and friends… physical books within them as opposed to ebooks (which are Fiction The Green Road by Anne Enright almost exclusively sold Grief is the Thing with Feathers through the US commercial

by Max Porter behemoth that is Amazon.

The Loney Now the good people of the by Andrew Michael Hurley The Muse by Jessie Burton Booksellers Association have This Must Be the Place come up with a new reward

by Maggie O'Farrell The Trouble with Goats and Sheep scheme under the banner and

by Joanna Cannon they’ve given readers everywhere across the country, the chance to decide their own favourites. So, no chummy literary critics, reviewers and authors gathered in a dark and smoky room deciding the fate of their friends…this new award scheme really is down to you Non-Fiction the reader to proclaim the Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig winners!

SPQR by Mary Beard Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane Announced on Thursday, Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan October 6th with voting cards The When Breath Becomes Air and posters in the booksellers’

by Paul Kalanthi windows, voting for the BAMB It's All in Your Head

by Suzanne O'Sullivan Readers Awards will hope to engage booklovers with bookshops and the campaign either instore or online through to November 24th when the winners will be announced at a glamorous ceremony at Foyles, Charing Cross Rd, London.

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Biography & Autobiography Fingers in the Sparkle Jar

by Chris Packham The Last Act of Love

by Cathy Rentzenbrink The Road to Little Dribbling

by Bill Bryson At the Existentialist Cafe

by Sarah Bakewell The Invention of Nature

by Andrea Wulf Alive Alive Oh!

by Diana Athill

Children’s

One by Sarah Crossan The Rest of Us Just Live Here

by Patrick Ness Beetle Boy by MG Leonard The Day the Crayons Came Home

by Drew Daywalt The Bear and the Piano

by David Litchfield The Detective Dog

By Julia Donaldson

Breakthrough Author

The Shadow Keeper

by Abi Elphinstone The Outrun by Amy Liptrot The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley The Vegetarian by Han Kang The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

by Joanna Cannon My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal The Glorious Heresies

by Lisa McInerney Harmless Like You

by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

BLOG SPOT

The rise of the Super-Blogger Mel Mitchell meets Simon Savidge, one of a new breed

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f, like me, you’re interested not only in reading books but reading what other people think about books you may well have already come across the name Simon Savidge.

He’s a book blogger...but that’s not all. He runs two podcasts, has his own YouTube channel, interviews authors for bookshop events, has judged book prizes and even created his own. All this, on top of a full-time job...which has nothing to do with books (something of a relief, he says).

We are lucky to have an army of passionate reviewers, many of whom have branched out into book blogging, so when I met Simon at Tate Modern earlier this summer I wanted to know – how did he get started? “I started blogging about eight or nine years ago because I was boring people about books.

I had a phase from secondary school until I was about 21, 22 where I didn’t read at all and I didn’t like books. I was really put off by my GCSE teacher

and I think the curriculum then was designed to put you off, reading the same paragraph over and over. I’d rather dissect a book as I go, I don’t want to go back and re-read and re-read.

Then I went to Sixth Form and hated it even more. So I had that period where I didn’t read. Then somebody gave me a copy of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie and that’s almost like a handy kit to get anyone reading. And there was a book about a killer surgeon (laughs). Yeah, with those three I was off again. I did it as a diary of what I read. Most of the stuff I posted then has vanished because it was bad...I mean really bad.

Then there was a point where I was getting all these hits and comments and I thought – something’s happening here.

That was when I got rid of the ones I didn’t think were good enough and that was probably about six or seven years ago. I think I’d leave them now

because it shows what I read but I was probably having a diva moment.’ He laughs again and I suggest that’s probably when people were becoming aware of their profile and more conscious of how they are perceived online. “I don’t see myself as being a person of interest really.

That said, once you know you’ve got an audience you can’t pretend you don’t and it’s just how you decide to interact with that audience. I could say I’ve got this many followers and that number of hits but actually it doesn’t mean anything. I’d rather just have a nice chat about books. It’s more about using your influence in the right way and admitting you have an influence but not in an arrogant way.”

We talked about the term

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BLOG SPOT

BLOG SPOT

‘key influencer’ at which Simon rolled his eyes. It’s obvious that, as thrilled as he is to be considered influential by publishers, he is also humble enough to feel slightly embarrassed by it. “I think there’s a bit of a myth that if you start blogging you’ll get sent all the books you could ever dream of and that you are suddenly going to become a ‘key influencer’ and I just don’t think that happens. I was thinking about this the other day – how do you plan to become a key influencer? I think if I’d planned it, it wouldn’t have happened. I think it’s happened with certain bloggers and vloggers because there is a genuine-ness there. I think now, with a new blog, you can tell, sort of, what’s behind it a bit more. I think there are some that think they’re going to get a book deal or they’re going to get a job in publishing and it just doesn’t happen like that. It doesn’t. You become an asset to publishers in an odd way because they want you to read their books, but at the same time you don’t get paid so you don’t have to do anything they say.” So authenticity, I suggested, is the key?

“I’m just myself. That’s the best advice I can give actually, to anyone wanting to start a blog – just be yourself. When I went to America people were coming up to me saying you’re just like you are on your podcast. But that’s such a good thing because if people don’t think you’re genuine forget it.”

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Tate Modern - a suitably cultural place for Simon and Mel to meet.

I wondered how he feels about reviewing ‘to order’ and how he manages the countless requests he receives to help promote books. “Sadly, there are a lot of bloggers who are reading whatever publishers send them. They’re writing positive things but there’s no heart...I think now most publicists are aware of how I operate! I said it from the beginning – you need to set out your stall, I guess. Have guidelines. I tried to do it (review to order) but I was struggling through a book and thought, why am I doing this? I don’t get paid and I don’t expect to get paid for reading books but I love books and I’m not loving this. I got resentful. But overall now I’m very lucky – I have publishers emailing me to say ‘we think you’ll like this, do you want to give it a whirl’ and I’ll say either yes or no but if I say yes I also say I’m not sure when it will be. I haven’t reviewed about twenty books I’ve read this year and I feel under my own personal pressure that I should. But actually I

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don’t have to do anything. But because I love the books and a lot of them are great books I feel like I owe the book – it’s not about the publisher or the author, it’s about the book. I don’t know how I’ll deal with it, I haven’t quite worked that out yet!” What about bad feedback?

Everyone is scared of the trolls now... “The main bad feedback I’ve had is because I won’t review self-published books.

The reason I don’t is because I don’t want to get into that debate. It would be fine if they were all polite, as most of them are - and if they were all like that I’d probably be a bit more open but you get the one in ten that are a bit of a pain and it puts me off.

It’s also difficult if you know the author. I always think, what if I don’t like it... But I’ve been very lucky. I’ve got very talented friends! I don’t think I’ve had anyone I know who has published a book I haven’t enjoyed, I don’t think. If I didn’t enjoy it I think I’d just leave it, and not review. That would be the best thing I think. The only

book I haven’t reviewed that I loved was The Repercussions by Catherine Hall – but because I edited it at an early stage so it would be a bit strange. I think I’d still see the first version in the second version...but I don’t know, maybe that would be interesting. I might do that for a blog post! But as a rule, if I don’t like a book I just don’t talk about it – unless I passionately dislike it and can give it a caning or if I feel like it won’t matter to the author if I do...I mean people give two years, three years...and whilst I have judged book prizes that’s different because that’s your role.”

I asked Simon to tell me about his method – how does he tackle a review? “I used to review as I read, so I’d finish the book and go and write the review. As I’ve gone on I’ll make initial notes then leave it for a couple of weeks then write more then leave it another couple of weeks then write the final review. Sometimes I write longhand... but I also do it on my phone, or random scraps of

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry is published by Serpent’s Tail as a £14.99 hbk. Available now.

paper or it’s just in my head where I’m thinking about it in a certain way. But usually I tie up initial thoughts with quotes that I like, leave it, tidy it up a bit and add any thoughts I’ve had since and then go back and read the review again and see how I feel.

Sometimes I change my mind. I thought Shelter was a 4 out of 5 but I couldn’t stop thinking about it so it’s probably a 5 out of 5. But then I’m not a big fan of the whole star system. I think out of 10 is easier. I get annoyed with Goodreads because you can’t give a 3.5, it has to be 3 or 4.”

He told me that part of the reason he started his own YouTube channel was to share his thoughts on some of the books he hasn’t been able to review yet – but does he post them anywhere other than his own blog? “I do. I don’t post to Amazon – I used to but I’m not sure how I feel about what Amazon does to the industry so I’ve stopped. I post to Goodreads but just a very brief note. I’m obsessed with Litsy at the moment, I’ve just got into that. I also review on Instagram.”

This made me wonder whether you need social media to help support a blog? “I don’t think you need it but it probably helps. I’m quite new to booktube and I’m not expecting to get 1,000 followers a day. It will take me a long time, just like it did with the blog, just like it has on Twitter. Because everything is so instant I think people are expecting to have all

these followers overnight and it doesn’t work like that. It’s as you interact and people find you.”

What about spoilers?

Obviously you should flag them if they’re there but can you write a good review without them? “I do have that issue. I try not to spoil. I’ll give the premise and then break it down by characters, themes, plot. I kind of have a 6 paragraph rule – they say that after a certain number of words people stop reading. It’s about self-editing and asking yourself how can I talk about this theme without giving away what happens. It’s part of the challenge.

I had someone ask me how long it takes (to write a review) and it probably takes about 5 or 6 hours. There was a point when I was churning them out and I thought, actually I’m not getting into the heart of them as much as I want to. Recently, I wrote a review for The Essex Serpent and it’s very rare that I write something where I sit back and think I feel quite proud of that but with that one I felt like I’d got it. Those are the books I want to review.”

Since our interview, Simon has been taken on by W&N as an Editorial Consultant for Hometown Tales, a series of short books featuring new voices from regions that are under-represented in the UK book market. Details on how to submit your work will be included with the slightly longer nudge version of this interview. www.savidgereads.wordpress.com

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AUTHOR MEETS REVIEWER

AUTHOR MEETS REVIEWER

Photo: Kathrin Baumbach

Mike Stafford: As with your previous works, The Trespasser centres on a criminal investigation, but certainly not in the traditional, methodcentric, join-the-dots way. If you'd had to write your own blurb, how would you have described the book?

Mike Stafford rates Tana French very highly - full stop!

Tana French: For me, the criminal investigation isn’t as important as the drama that’s taking place inside the characters’ minds. That’s one of the reasons why I switch to a new narrator with every book: I’m interested in writing about the case that has a crucial personal impact on the investigating detective, the case

fans who await your books like the proverbial kids at Christmas. Does that translate into pressure while you're writing, or is it purely complimentary?

TF: It’s absolutely wonderful, but yes, it’s pressure – in a good way, though. If people are planning to put their money and their time into reading one of my books, then I need to make sure it’s as good as I can possibly make it. Specially because I write long. When someone reads one of my books, they’re putting a fair few hours into it – and these days no one has enough spare time to go wasting it on something that’s

The Trespasser

by Tana French

that changes everything for him or her, not just on a professional level but on a psychological one.

In The Trespasser, this case changes the way Antoinette Conway sees herself and her relationship with the world. I’d probably describe this as a book about stories: how we come up with narratives for our lives, how we reshape them in response to reality or else try to reshape reality to fit our narratives, and what happens when the stories get out of control.

The Trespasser by Tana French (Hodder & Stoughton hbk £16.99) now available.

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MS: Even the briefest scan of Goodreads reveals you have

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not worthwhile. So if there are people looking forward to my next book, it’s an extra reminder that I have a responsibility never to get sloppy.

MS: You name check Wide Sargasso Sea in The Trespasser, so we know the similarity of the two heroine’s names (Antoinette Cosway / Antoinette Conway) is no coincidence. What would you say the main similarities between the two characters are?

TF: I came up with Antoinette

Conway when I was writing The Secret Place, where she appears as the narrator’s temporary partner, and I wasn’t consciously thinking of Wide Sargasso Sea at the time, although it must have been bouncing around somewhere in my subconscious.

I’ve always been fascinated by books that rewrite other books from a different angle and by books told from several different perspectives, by the way a story can shift and transform depending on who’s telling it. Wide Sargasso Sea is one of the great examples. And although I’m not comparing myself to Jean Rhys, yes, there are definitely similarities between the narrators. Both of them are outsiders in the places that should be their home territory. They’re both struggling against other people’s attempts to redefine them, rewrite their narratives to suit some outside agenda, push them to the margins of their own lives; and for both of them, that struggle takes its toll on their minds, warping their ability to see their own stories with any clarity.

non-objectivity of truth. Truth and lies are central to the genre – both the detectives and the reader usually spend most of the book chasing the truth – and the fascinating part, to me, is that especially when it comes to something as highly charged and high-stakes as a murder investigation, there will always be more than one version of the truth. The murderer’s version of what happened is going to be different from the victim’s version, and both of those will probably be different from the other players’. The detectives’ job is to fight their way to something that they can hold up as objective truth, in this environment where everything is nudging them to question what that means. That tension – and what it would do to the detectives – fascinates me.

There are crime novels that present a world where the truth is always straightforwardly objective, the central questions are all about verifiable facts (whodunit?), and the answers are all neat, solid, inflexible facts. I’ve never been particularly interested in those; some of them are good reads, MS: For much of The but to me, they’re ultimately Trespasser, Conway seems to be unsatisfying. Luckily, there are chasing shadows, and the truth also plenty of crime novels seems totally evasive. Do you where truth is dark and slippery think crime fiction sometimes and double-edged. Those are fixates too much on objective the ones I love. truth?

MS: There's a rare authenticity TF: For me, one of the main in your writing that comes not draws of crime fiction is that it from the evident technical provides the perfect research but from a opportunity to focus on the commitment to mirroring

reality as it actually is. That's quite daring - does it feel that way to write?

TF: Thank you very much! I think one of the reasons I write mystery books (and one of the reason people read mystery books) is as a way of trying to get a handle on things I don’t understand. One of the biggest ones is, obviously, how a person – an ordinary, non-evil, nonpsychopathic person – can reach a point where he or she is willing to take someone else’s life. And in order to come as close as I can to understanding that, I have to be as true to reality as possible – not just physical reality, but psychological and emotional reality. So it doesn’t feel daring to aim for that; it feels like the only way to go.

MS: Just to whet our appetites, what can you tell us about the book you're working on at the moment?

TF: I’m not very far along with it, so I don’t actually know that much about it – I tend to dive in with just a narrator and a very basic premise, and then figure out the rest as I go along, as I get to know the characters by writing them. Most of the time I’m not actually sure whodunit till I’m at least a third of the way through the book. This time I’m working on something a bit different. There’s a murder – I don’t know how to write a book without throwing a dead body in there – but the narrator isn’t a

nb magazine & www.nudge-book.com

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detective; he’s just an ordinary guy who, at the darkest point of his life, finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation and has to figure out not only how to deal with it, but how exactly he fits into it.

MS: And while we eagerly await that next offering, which authors would you point us in the direction of ? Who do you feel is drawing from the same well, trying to express something similar to yourself, or who do you just plain admire at the moment?

TF: I don’t have a lot of time for the tired old idea that there’s a boundary between genre fiction and literary – genre has gripping plots, workmanlike writing, two-dimensional stock characters and no particular themes; literature has beautiful writing, intricate characterisation, and thematic depth, but not much plot arc. I love books that have it all: strong, urgent plots, beautiful writing, rich atmosphere, complex three-dimensional characters, thematic depth, the lot. That’s what I aim to write – whether I succeed or not is a whole other question, but there are plenty of amazing writers who do. Some of them get filed under Crime (Kate Atkinson, Stef Penney, Dennis Lehane, Gillian Flynn) while others get filed under literary fiction (Donna Tartt, Donal Ryan, Daniel Woodrell, Thomas Keneally), but they’re all writers I admire immensely.

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Mike’s review of The Trespasser Tana French’s Dublin murder squad series exploded into the crime fiction scene in 2007, and did a virtual clean sweep of the big debut novel awards that year; Barry, Anthony, Edgar, Macavity. Since then, French and her Dublin detectives have won a smattering of new awards and an army of admirers.

Fans now await her new releases with the kind of yearning usually reserved by children for Christmas. The Trespasser is the sixth in the series’ noble line, and surely worth the wait.

Antoinette Conway, the punchy but isolated detective from The Secret Place, is handed a case that has ‘open and shut’ written all over it. A beautiful blonde is found dead at her home, apparently felled by a jilted date.

Nevertheless, there is doubt. It’s not much doubt, but in the right hands it could look ‘reasonable;’ so Conway and partner Moran set about following leads, pulling threads, and inviting the ire of a squad that wants this easy win closed off immediately.

Old, outdated wisdom once said that to write mysteries, you get the ending first and work backwards. French is part of a new and brilliant breed that gets the characters first, and works forwards. Everything in The Trespasser stems from the rich, flawed, beautiful and complex characters who walk the streets of French’s Dublin. Chief among them here is Conway. Under constant psychological attack from a squad that apparently wants her gone, Conway takes the ‘feisty’ cliche, chews it up and spits it in the face of a world that’s against her. Go searching for the weak and feeble woman that should lurk beneath the ferocious front you’ll not find it. Conway is the author of her own destiny and is strong enough to shape it, but her senses have been clouded by the cordite that fills the squad room. Mixed-race and torn between the dream of the murder squad and the reality, she also has identity and belonging issues, and with a knowing namecheck of Wide Sargasso Sea, French lets us know it’s no coincidence that her heroine’s name is a single letter away from ‘Antoinette Cosway.’

Conway is but one star in this firmament. Breslin is a polished, experienced and paternalistic copper, and serves as the book’s antagonist. Again, it’s a complex set-up that French manages masterfully. Does Breslin’s arm around the shoulder precede a dagger in the back? Is he loyal to the men of his squad or the law they represent? French eschews ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies,’ she’s far too smart for that. The Trespasser swims in an ocean of nuance. During one passage, we root for Conway, striding into the oppressive squad room with metaphorical middle fingers raised like she has a sai* in each hand. Later on, she seems merely paranoid; she is lost lost and cursing at shadows. French never gives us the comfort of certainty.

Though her technical research is evident, the true authenticity comes with uncertainty. Sometimes in life we just don’t know the truth.

French and The Trespasser merit all the praise we can heap on them.

Comparisons with Denise Mina are well-founded, and the hot anticipation of fans is well-deserved. If 2016 has a better crime thriller to offer, I’ve not yet read it. *sai: A dagger with two sharp prongs curving outward from the hilt, originating in Okinawa and sometimes used in pairs in martial arts.

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n the last issue of nb we brought you up to speed with Love Your Indie – our initiative to support independent bookshops across the UK. So now it’s time to bring Real Readers to your attention.

From their inception nb and nudge have acknowledged the power of word of mouth in turning a book into a bestseller.

Indeed, we would like to claim some successes on several now widely popular books you might otherwise have missed.

And it’s our reviews – sorry, your reviews – which have tipped the balance.

Indeed, our market research over the last 16 years has consistently shown that the nb Directory is the most popular part of the magazine. On nudge we’ve been escalating the number of reviews we post – over a thousand in the first 6 months of 2016 and likely to be more than double that by 2017. Better still, we’re able to publish the longer versions when space hasn’t allowed in nb.

All good, but back in 2012 Real Readers was launched with the intention of being more proactive on the internet – a large group of reviewers were offered the opportunity to read, review and post their thoughts about the same book across the world wide web.

Truly, the media gatekeepers were being usurped. The name Real Readers reflected the fact that these were people like you and I – passionate readers, members of reading groups and most definitely not part of the metropolitan literati.

How often have the quotes on the book jacket patently oversold what the book was able to deliver? How often has a broadsheet review led to a group choice that turned into a damp squib? Our Real Readers were keen to share their views, knowing they were speaking to like minded others.

The only problem was that books were sent out based on the reading profiles that the Real Readers had themselves provided – a good

idea BUT with no prior notice, that became an inconvenience to otherwise committed volunteers. SO, in our New, Improved Real Readers we have made the simplest of changes – we now advise the whole community (not just Real Readers but also nb and nudge reviewers) that we have this many copies of a new book and that you agree to post your review by a certain date and tell us on which sites it now appears.

This isn’t a do or die imperative: real life throws up problems and delays for all of us, researching the book it may sound just your kind of thing but turn out to be a dud.

That’s fine – our philosophy has always been to discover books to seek out not books to avoid. We just ask you to let us know.

Experience with previous Real Reader projects has shown how powerful spreading the word electronically can be.

Interested? Visit: nudge-book.com/nudge-reviewers/register-as-a-reviewer

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A

s has become customary in the last few issues, we’ve tried to widen – slightly - the brief of the magazine to encompass some film and TV offerings which may be of interest. Of course, that usually reflects interest in a book you may have already read and how, for the heck of it, Hollywood has ruined it in an adaptation.

It doesn’t always follow, but, more often than not, condensing a 400 page novel into 90 minutes is too big an ask. I still contend that short story adaptations make the best films, but it doesn’t stop me weaving my way to the cinema, intrigued as to whether the characters portrayed this time match those in my imagination.

So, here’s our ‘script roundup of what you have to look forward to in the near future.

OCTOBER

Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones star in Inferno - © Columbia Pictures - 14th Oct.

There’s a double dose of action thrillers from huge-selling book franchises, entirely based on the premise that they’re exactly as you expect them to be. That is to say, like the previous films rather than the book and, of course, the choice of lead actor is part of that equation.

NOVEMBER Every now and again a film can help elevate the status and sales of a book which has, so far, not really made a dent on the bestseller list. There’s usually one a year and last year it was Andy Weir’s The Martian which racked up sales of over 100,000 for a SF modern classic that hadn’t really hit any one’s radar up to the release of the Matt Damon film. There have been numerous examples over the last few years - The Revenant and Railway Man spring to mind but interested to know of others you've noticed.

Anyway, I feel very strongly that The Light Between the Oceans is to be this year’s bestselling adaptation.

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admired 2013 novel about a homecoming from the Iraq war.

A modern day Catch 22, the book’s a very funny skewering of the military and the American way. If Kristen Stewart, Steve Martin and Garrett Hedlund (Katrina Hillman was extremely taken

ON DVD A late mention for a film I missed in the last round up because it moved forward in the release date schedule: the film of Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons came out in the UK in August. If you haven’t caught it yet, it’s a lovingly crafted paean to holidaying in the Lake District in yesteryear a perfect antidote to the typical over-hyped fare we are usually served. Grab the DVD if you missed it and love family films.

Jessica Hynes, Kelly Macdonald and Harry Enfield star in Swallows and Amazons © StudioCanal UK.

Also out, Love and Friendship, the witty adaptation of Jane Austen's novella Lady Susan, stars Kate Beckinsale a highclass widow whose waning finances threaten her status and lifestyle.

Garrett Hedlund stars in Long Halftime Walk - © Sony Pictures - 11th Nov.

Tom Cruise and Cobie Smulders star in Never Go Back - © Paramount Pictures 21st Oct.

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So Dan Brown’s Inferno stars Tom Hanks once again and in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher – Never Go Back Tom Cruise reprises the role, although other actors have played Reacher in the past. Both are in cinemas in October - go see ‘em if that’s your thang.

I’m going to move swiftly on to a more interesting proposition: an adaptation of Billy Flynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain’s much

It’s a dangerously-close-tomaudlin weepie starring the beautiful and Swedish Alicia Vikander and the dark, interesting and Irish-German Michael Fassbender. Based on Australian writer ML Steadman’s heart-rending story, a lighthouse keeper and his wife face a life-changing moral dilemma when a baby in a boat washes up on their island.

Advance word is already very good and there just aren’t that many really good love stories filmed these days that everyone can go and watch. Director Derek Cianfrance’s most famous film was Blue Valentine and this showcases his skill of producing beautifully-shot, classy romantic tales. Watch the bestseller list.

© Pathé.

Alastair Giles on what’s hoving and helming to a cinema near you!

with his performance in On the Road in a previous issue of nb) can people the story with half the success of the author, it’ll be worth a watch. Ang Lee, who also directed Life of Pi quite cleverly, has a decent track record, so let’s hope.

Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander star in The Light Between the Oceans - © Entertainment One - 4th Nov.

Kate Beckinsale and Tom Bennett star in Lady Susan - © Lionsgate Home Ent.

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Black Narcissus

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Rumer Godden or Powell & Pressburger? Phil Ramage cogitates.

P

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study of repression and restraint and Kathleen Byron as Sister Ruth is superbly tense and neurotic in a slightly beefed-up part. May Hallatt as convent caretaker Ayah seems to be playing panto but amongst the uptight [cast] this works brilliantly. A blacked-up Jean Simmons would not be today’s choice to play the voluptuous Kanchi but she builds on her earlier turn as superbitch Estelle in David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946) to portray a character in danger of becoming over-ripe! There’s also an outstanding child-acting performance from Eddie Whalley Jnr as the interpreter Joseph.

The film probably ups the sense of impending hysteria from the book and there might be an attempt to make Sister Ruth’s actions less shocking if she is leaving the order.

Godden, in her novel, doesn’t have the luxury of scenes accompanied by constant jungle drumbeats, the infernal clanging of the convent bell nor her dramatic highlight set to a specially composed score but the atmosphere conjured up is no less palpable.

The book is extraordinary.

The film is extraordinary. If you get the chance seek out both.

Check out Phil’s blog: reviewsrevues.com

B

lockbuster hits The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel were adapted from a book of a different title - These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach. Has that ever happened before? I'm used to the cover changing after the movie comes out, but had not encountered the title changing as well. Publisher cash grab no doubt.

Anyway, the movies have a rom-com feel despite the serious examination of the problem of ageing. The adage is true, “old age is not for sissies” and both the movies and the book take a poignant and humorous look at the often undignified treatment of the elderly in our society. But the book includes a further dimension, that of the curious relationship between Britain and India as well as the moral implications of outsourcing senior care to a place where services and carers are cheaper!

(2012) © 20th Century Fox.

Darjeeling. Here in the mountains they intend to set up a school and a clinic in a location already abandoned by a group of monks. What there is in both film and book is an almost hypnotic atmosphere.

The lushness and sensuousness of the location gives an air of heightened emotions which simmer towards the Black Narcissus film poster (1947) overwrought.

The book does this beautifully and subtly, the film owell and effectively bombards us with Pressburger’s visual stunning images and close-ups feast of a movie is which show every flicker of often said to be emotion. Sister Phillippa (Flora amongst the most beautiful Robson) puts it down to there films of all time. Released in being too much landscape and 1947 in a Britain still black being able to see too far; in the and white from the long years novel the naive princeling of war this must have been a “General” Dilip suggests it’s the Technicolor assault on the proximity to God and the senses. Rumer Godden’s mountains and local agent celebrated novel was published Dean, played by David Farrar, in 1939 and its tale of a lost sporting a pair of shorts for world and of those who wished much of the film which could to tame it would have seemed only be inflammatory to the pertinent to its early readers at more hot-blooded sisters the outbreak of war. Fastbelieves it’s “something in the forward a momentous eight atmosphere that makes years and the film version everything seem exaggerated.” creates India from Pinewood It could even be in the water Studios in an extraordinary which is bringing out the nuns piece of film-making. in rashes but whatever it is it Plot-wise there’s not much to sets up a turmoil which is never it. A murmur of nuns (collective going to end well. noun – I looked it up!) arrive at The actors appear to get the a remote disused palace in book completely. Deborah Kerr Mopu, a trek away from as Sister Superior Clodagh is a

is really These Foolish Things says Joanne Booy

Judi Dench and Celia Imrie

The days of the Raj may be long gone, but echoes of both cultures are evident in each. In the UK, next to the Sunday roast, curry is a popular national dish and in India, Victorian houses rise up from the squalor. Gymkhana Clubs still abound. The colonial mindset sadly still persists and using a foreign country for cheap labour and call centres, is not likely to change that.

Imagine therefore, India as a solution for outsourcing elderly care from Britain! Why not use clever marketing to make it sound exotic with old world charm and modern conveniences? When the seniors arrive, it will be too late to complain about the dodgy plumbing, decrepit buildings, and poverty on the doorstep… they will already have entered the ‘waiting room’, and will spend their time trying not to look at the departure board, as they enjoy their evening gin and tonics! Seniors residing in hotels is not a new idea in Britain. I am reminded of Elizabeth Taylor’s classic Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. In fact, with the cost of seniors homes, it is true that some enterprising and able bodied seniors find that back-to-back cruises keep them better fed, entertained, and housed, and for much less.

These Foolish Things

by Deborah Moggach (Vintage 2005)

The book more clearly backstories the characters and their families none of whom correspond exactly to those in the movies, although there are similarities. The book also portrays the younger generation using this entrepreneurial idea as a solution which tidily takes care of even needing to visit regularly and if there is a visit, making it much more interesting. The endearing part of the story is that the old folks do adapt and form a marvellous community and show more pith and adaptation than their children ever expected them to or would even be able to muster themselves. Unusually, I didn’t mind reading the book after seeing the movies, in fact it enriched the story for me.

Check out joannesreadingblog

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B E S T. . . T R A V E L B O O K S

Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards Paul Cheney on a prize you may not have heard of before.

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Indonesia. One author repeated a walk across Europe in homage to the late great Patrick Leigh Fermor’s 1930s journey. The books that win this esteemed prize are those that stand above the excellent shortlist - simply because they are the books that immerse you and fill your senses of the place.

This is why travel writing is one of my favourite genres.

And truly, the books that have won in the past few years have all been worth reading. In Wild Coast, John Gimlette takes us to the untamed coast of French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname. The jungle there is so dense that there are very few roads and the people scrape a living from the land; it is full of creatures that are still unknown to science and has a long and bloody history. But in its wildness is beauty; Gimlette makes it come alive on the pages.

Consolations of the Forest is utterly different to Wild Coast.

Sylvain Tesson decides that he needs to be free from all distractions so decides to spend six months in a 3m square log cabin alongside Lake Baikal

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that is six days walk from the nearest village. The loneliness and isolation there are almost crippling but by following a daily routine he manages to find an inner peace. Horatio Clare on the other hand wanted to see the world from a nautical perspective and in his book, Down to the Sea in Ships, he joins the Maersk container ships to travel with all our goods. It is a journey that takes him through some of the most dangerous parts of the world, and through storms that still make shipping one of the most hazardous of professions.

Choosing from any of the six shortlisted books must be so hard. That is why in 2013 two books were chosen for the award. The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane is about those ancient paths and holloways that cross our green and pleasant land. Written in his beautiful, eloquent prose it is a pure pleasure to read.

Sightlines is something special too - It is an exquisite lyrical read.

Paul Cheney

www.edwardstanfordawards.com

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his award was established in 2006 by the Rev. Dr. William Dolman and the Authors’ Club to fill the void left after the demise of the Thomas Cook Travel Book award and has run successfully since then. In 2015 Edward Stanford Ltd stepped in with a three year sponsorship deal, increasing the prize fund available and bringing their years of experience of supplying maps and guides to adventurers for over 160 years. As well as the prize for the best travel book for that year, there is also a new award, the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing.

The judges are looking for writing that inspires the reader and fuels their desire for discovery and adventure. It is not just the writing that the judges are considering, they are looking for that extra something that brings alive the culture and the people that they meet, challenges your perceptions of a place and gives you that urge to follow in the footsteps of the author.

Last year’s shortlist of six had subjects as diverse as lemons and shipping and countries as different as Russia and

Settling down with a good read is one of life’s outstanding pleasures. We present these cracking reads for your delectation – and you can have all of them FREE. All we ask is you cover our p&p costs.

See page 69 to order yours.

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© Travis McBride

ded en You can tell from Phil's review on page 50, he loved Himself so, welcome Jess Kidd.

Phil Ramage: I’m always fascinated as to where debut authors choose to locate their novels. You are a Londoner and have chosen to create a village in Mayo, on the West coast of Ireland. Why did this become the setting for Himself?

Jess Kidd: My family originates from Ireland and my childhood visits home, to my granny’s, fired my imagination from a very young age. Storytelling plays a key role in my family. My mother, a remarkable storyteller, was one of eleven children brought up in Mayo. The stories I heard were rich and vivid and filled with humour and brilliant characters, living and dead, 46

good and bad.

Before writing Himself I had often set short fiction in Ireland and many of my protagonists had been Irish. Himself grew from three interlinked stories designed to be read in any order, slightly altering the reading experience. One of these stories focused on a strangely magical Irish town. This story was met with a great response from my readers. I decided to revisit this place and find out more about the inhabitants. Mulderrig is a fictional village woven from the stories I’ve heard and the places I’ve been.

PR: Why did you choose to set

influence of Dylan Thomas’s work is evident in some of the descriptive passages in the novel.

Under Milk Wood offers characters that are inextricably linked to their setting. It’s a place of yearning and gossip where the dreams that usually go unseen are uncovered.

Mulderrig is a village that is also populated by ‘harmless’ eccentrics, at a remove from the outside world.

Although we mostly stay in 1976 with the protagonist, Mahony, we also return to his mother’s past (meeting her for the last time in 1950). It was interesting for me to explore the constants and contrasts between

Himself

it in the 1970’s? Was the weather a factor, as it appears to have a significant role to play, alongside the landscape?

JK: I think the choice of time period very much coincides with my earliest memories of Ireland. As a child I was obsessed with nature, either drawing or writing about it. I think this might account for the note of nostalgia and wonder in an otherwise very dark novel.

As a teenager I remember hearing Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood with a sense of astonishment, then reading the play, then imagining an Irish version of his lyrical, eccentric Welsh village. I think the

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these different time periods. At the start of the book we are told by the narrator that Mulderrig hasn’t changed in all the time Mahony has been away, growing up in Dublin. But I don’t think that this is really the case. To some extent the novel charts a town caught between the past and the future and describes its struggle to come to grips with both.

1976 was a year of heat wave and widespread drought in the UK and that may have been in the back of my mind when I wrote the novel. But in Himself the weather fluctuates, it is unseasonably hot, then raining, then there is a biblical storm

that some believe to have a supernatural origin. I love magic realism as a mode of writing and particularly the way it can imbue nature with strange, even excessive, properties that nonetheless feel right in the context of the work.

PR: Mahony is the anti-hero outsider, exposing Mulderrig’s small-minded ways – did you model him on anyone?

JK: I originally envisaged Mahony as being a bit of a nod to the hard-boiled detective hero, particularly Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. A lone wolf who has been kicked around a fair bit, with a stalwart tolerance of pain and a grim determination. An outsider, who, coming from a position of alienation, is able to cut through corruption, social codes and entrenched behaviour, retaining his own sense of morality. For me these seemed like the traits Mahony would need to do battle with a town seething with secrets and lies. There are also parallels between Mahony and Christy Mahon, the central figure in J. M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World.

Christy is also an outsider and an anti-hero. He arrives in town as a stranger, makes friends and enemies, challenges the status quo and ultimately changes his fate and his outlook on the world. Synge’s play has a central place in the novel as Mrs Cauley’s final production and a foil for the investigation.

PR: Mrs Cauley is just fabulous. She describes herself as “Miss Marple. With balls.”

How did she develop as a character?

JK: Mrs Cauley is the counterpart to Mahony’s hardboiled hero. Like Miss Marple she has a sharp eye and ear and a penchant for gossip and the shadier aspects of human life.

In Mrs Cauley there are echoes of a magnificent older woman I knew as a child, an outspoken matriarch who had Mrs Cauley’s wig wearing habit. Of all the characters I’ve written Mrs Cauley needed the least development. She arrived fully formed and begun to heckle me at once. Initially I would just write long swathes of dialogue between her and other characters, having great fun in the process. Several reviewers have asked if I would consider writing a book about Mrs Cauley. This is something I would love to do. It would be great to dig away to reveal the life experiences that have made Mrs Cauley into the woman we meet in Himself. She would also have lived through some fascinating periods of history and it would be great to explore these through her eyes.

PR: At the heart of the novel there’s a suppressed crime.

Dark crime and comedy. Do the two mix?

JK: I think they don’t quite mix but rather offset each other. The comedy in Himself works very much like a counterweight to the crime at the core of the

book. It balances the load and helps me to explore some really dark themes in a very human way. Comedy, to some extent, can help manage the fears and horrors that befall us and even, occasionally, make them bearable.

The crime in the novel, as you say, is suppressed and repressed.

There is a build up of tension.

Humour may act as a safety valve, releasing some of that pressure. But the weight and darkness of the crime behind it also propels the humour, gives it a wilder edge and, I hope, strengthens it.

PR: Himself is laugh out loud funny and the comedy is very much embedded in the characters and the things they say. What makes Jess Kidd laugh?

JK: I’m a great fan of the bizarre, the surreal and the ridiculous in terms of situation, or imagery or language. I very much admire the humour of writers such as Flann O’Brien, George Saunders and Samuel Beckett.

Most of the things I laugh at come out of everyday life and just interacting with people. I love meeting people and finding out their stories, especially when I’m travelling. I almost always travel alone because it leads to great discussions with complete strangers. Otherwise I’m an inveterate earwigger of other people’s conversations and have been known to miss stations and bus stops to get to the punch line.

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Himself - Jess Kidd

Himself - Jess Kidd

Mahony shoulders his rucksack, steps off the bus and stands in the dead centre of the village of Mulderrig.

Today Mulderrig is just a benign little speck of a place, uncoiled and sprawling, stretched out in the sun. Pretending to be harmless.

If Mahony could remember the place, which he can’t of course, he’d not notice many changes since he’s been gone. Mulderrig doesn’t change, fast or slowly. Twenty-six years makes no odds.

For Mulderrig is a place like no other. Here the colours are a little bit brighter and the sky is a little bit wider. Here the trees are as old as the mountains and a clear river runs into the sea. People are born to live and stay and die here. They don’t want to go. Why would they when all the roads that lead to Mulderrig are downhill so that leaving is uphill all the way?

At this time of the day the few shops are shuttered and closed, and the signs swing with an after-hours lilt and pitch, and the sun-warmed shopfront letters bloom and fade. Up and down the high street, from Adair’s Pharmacy to Farr’s Outfitters, from the offices of Gibbons & McGrath Solicitors to the Post Office and General Store, all is quiet.

A couple of old ones are sitting by the painted pump in the middle of the square. You’ll get no talk from them today: they are struck dumb by the weather, for it hasn’t rained for days and days and days. It’s the hottest April in living and dead memory. So hot that the crows are flying with their tongues hanging out of their heads.

The driver nods to Mahony. ‘It’s as if a hundred summers have come at once to the town, when a mile along the coast the rain’s hopping up off the ground and there’s a wind that would freeze the tits off a hen. If you ask me,’ says the driver, ‘it all spells a dose of trouble.’

Mahony watches the bus turn out of the square in a broiling cloud of dirt. It rolls back, passenger-less, across the narrow stone bridge that spans a listless river. In this weather anything that moves will be netted in a fine caul of dust. Although not much is moving now, other than a straggle of kids pelting home late, leaving their clear cries ringing behind. The mammies are inside making the tea and the daddies are inside waiting to go out for a jar. And so Tadhg Kerrigan is the first living soul in the village to see Mahony back.

Tadhg is propping up the saloon door of Kerrigan’s Bar having changed a difficult barrel and threatened a cellar rat with his deadly tongue. He is setting his red face up to catch a drop of sun whilst scratching his arse with serious intent. He has been thinking of the Widow Farelly, of her new-built bungalow, the prodigious whiteness of her net curtains and the pigeon plumpness of her chest.

Tadhg gives Mahony a good hard stare across the square as he walks over to the bar. With looks like that, thinks Tadhg, the fella is either a poet or a gobshite, with the long hair and the leather jacket and the walk on it, like his doesn’t smell.

‘All right so?’

‘I’m grand,’ says Mahony, putting his rucksack down and smiling up through his hair, an unwashed variety that’s grown past his ears and then some.

Tadhg decides that this fella is most definitely a gobshite.

Whether the dead of Mulderrig agree or not it’s difficult to tell, but they begin to look out cautiously from bedroom windows or drift faintly down the back lanes to stop short and stare.

For the dead are always close by in a life like Mahony’s. The dead are drawn to the confused and the unwritten, the damaged and the fractured, to those with big cracks and gaps in their tales, which the dead just yearn to fill. For the dead have second-hand stories to share with you, if you’d only let them get a foot in the door.

But the dead can watch. And they can wait.

For Mahony doesn’t see them now.

He stopped seeing them a long time ago.

Now the dead are confined to a brief scud across the room at lightsout, or a wobble now and then in his peripheral vision. Now Mahony can ignore them in much the same way as you’d ignore the ticks of an over-loud grandfather clock.

So Mahony pays no notice at all to the dead old woman pushing her face through the wall next to Tadhg’s right elbow. And Tadhg pays no notice either, for, like the rest of us, he is blessed with a blissful lack of vision.

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours.

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours.

April 1976

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of which there are now 50 more to check out on nudge.

H

imself is Mahony who returns to the Irish village of Mulderrig in the spring of 1976. This was the place his mother disappeared from 26 years before, leading to him being brought up by nuns in an orphanage. Mahony has come back to find out what happened to her.

He can see ghosts and this should help, although he has never seen his mother’s spirit.

The larger than life Mrs Cauley takes him under her wing, a marvellous character, wheelchair bound and bedecked in

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a range of wigs with her theatrical tales and a determination to rouse the village with her annual dramatic production.

Kidd’s debut novel absolutely fizzles with life.

There’s some great characterisation here with Mahony, a 70’s man with long hair and flared trousers alien to most of the village seeming the most stable of the lot.

The living and the dead are used well, the ghosts being “just echoes of the stories of their own lives sung back in the wrong order - arsewards”. In fact, there’s a lot of “arse” in Himself. Kidd has a ribald sense of humour which sounds just right emanating from these almost Rabelaisian characters. This gives body and depth to what is at heart a very dark tale of a suppressed crime, but she will also have you laughing out loud.

Mahony’s arrival and investigations unleash supernatural elements into the community as Mahony’s fancy piece,

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Shauna says, “Oh God! Can’t anything just be normal around here?

Can’t a storm just be a bloody storm?” There’s all manner of things falling on the people of Mulderrig urging them to give up their secrets. This is a rich tale which incorporates the supernatural and magic to very good effect. This is not an easy balance and as far as I am concerned a lot get this wrong. AK Benedict got it right earlier this year with Jonathan Dark Or The Evidence Of Ghosts yet Kidd’s novel is a more satisfying read which will benefit greatly from group discussion to bring out the undoubted quality of the writing.

Phil Ramage Personal read Group read

★★★★ ★★★★★

years later, expecting to pick up where she left off.

On a contemporary level, I researched a number of cases of women walking out on their families, often seemingly out of the blue. Some came back – many never did. I was blown away by the taboo that still surrounds the departure of mothers – when fathers leaving, though not celebrated, is certainly accepted as something that just happens in our society.

Interestingly, it is often women who judge their own sex most harshly for walking out.

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Phil nominated Himself as an otwof - One to Watch Out For -

The Return of Norah Wells is about two mothers: the mother who left (Norah) and the mother who stayed (Fay).

But it’s also about the two sides of being a mother. On the one hand, it explores the unconditional love we have for our children and the joy they give us but it also exposes how frightening and all-consuming motherhood can be – how it can make us feel like we’re drowning in the very thing we created.

The Return of Norah Wells Against the natural order? Discuss, suggests Virginia Macgregor.

I

wrote Norah Wells when I was pregnant with my first child and edited the novel while looking after a newborn, so many of the feelings of being a new mum went into the novel. I love my daughter more than I could ever have imagined possible, but as a writer and as a woman raised with high aspirations, I often feel overwhelmed by her dependence on me and crave the time to be creative and so fully myself.

My novel is also inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s nineteenth century play, A Doll’s House, in which Nora Helmer walks out on her young family – my novel imagines her coming back six

It would seem that for a mother to leave her children goes against the natural order of things. One of my greatest challenges, then, was to make Norah, if not sympathetic, then at least understood. Knowing that many mothers have, at one time or another, had what I call ‘fleeing fantasies’, my aim was to explore her character and her decision without judgement.

The Return of Norah Wells takes place over a May bank holiday weekend and is told from the point of view of each member of the family: Norah, who’s just come back, her two daughters, Willa and Ella, whom she walked out on, her husband, Adam, and the woman

who’s been holding together Norah’s family while she’s been away, Fay. It’s a powerful drama about family, love and sacrifice and what it means to be a mother.

The Return of Norah Wells by Virginia Macgregor is published by Sphere as a £7.99 pbk on 20th October.

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The Return of Norah Wells - Virginia Macgregor

The Return of Norah Wells - Virginia Macgregor

The world is waking up. Or it’s trying to, anyway.

It’s waking up in the small town of Holdingwell.

It’s waking up on Willoughby Street.

It’s waking up in Number 77, the tall red-brick house with scaffolding that stretches up to the roof.

At the top of the house, dawn tugs at a teenage girl. She rubs her eyes, sticky with the soot of make-up. Her bed is littered with A4 paper; strips of neon highlighter smudge the words. At the foot of her bed sit a pair of battered running shoes. The girl sinks deeper under her duvet and prays to the alarm on her phone: Just give me a few more minutes . . .

On the landing, a little girl hovers outside her father’s bedroom. She spent the night out here, comforted by his sleeping body on the other side of the door. They’ve made a deal: no more sneaking in in the middle of the night, not unless it gets really bad. If you don’t pander to them, the dreams will go away, says her father. You need to train them, like we trained Louis. But the little girl isn’t sure. She’s never heard of anyone who could train a ghost.

On the other side of the door, the father reaches out for the woman he loves. Nothing but cool, empty sheets. He rubs his eyes and reaches for his glasses, and listens to the house waking up.

A bark from the kitchen.

His little girl’s footsteps on the landing.

His teenage daughter’s alarm.

In the tall red-brick house, a big dog lies heavily in his den under the stairs, his fur as curly as an old lady’s perm. He drools, his mouth slack with sleep. He smells a shift in the air. He’s smelt it all night, weaving between dreams of lampposts and the Chihuahuas from across the street and the bone he’s going to get tonight because it’s Friday.

Across town, in the Pediatric Ward of Holdingwell General, The Mother Who Stayed washes her hands. She rubs her palms, scrubs under her nails, and laces her fingers under the scalding water. Her raw skin flushes pink and she wonders whether one day she’ll rub so many cells off her hands her skin will give way to flesh and bone. She closes her eyes and releases a long breath to ease the nausea. She thinks of the May bank holiday – a whole weekend away from the hospital. Sleep.

Peace. Home.

Back on Willoughby Street, two old ladies lift their net curtains and look at the tall red-brick house. On the doorstep, under the full bloom of a cherry tree, they see The Mother Who Left put down her trumpet case and look up at the house she hasn’t seen for six years.

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours.

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours.

FRIDAY MORNING

Willa

Six-year-old Willa presses her nose to her bedroom window. She looks down through the scaffolding at the front garden.

The clatter of the recycling box on the paving stones drew her to the window. Sometimes, the clink of a jam jar tells Willa that a wild animal has come looking for food. There are more wild animals on Willoughby Street than most people realise: crows that swoop down for trays of chips from the kebab van and fat sewer rats with their skinny tails and otters with their old-man heads that duck in and out of the lake in Holdingwell Park. And Willa’s favourite: the foxes that stalk through the garden at night – flashes of red like they’re on fire.

Mrs Fox will be there for her birthday on Sunday, Willa can feel it.

Mrs Fox and her new cubs. And that will make it the best birthday ever.

But on this Friday morning, Willa doesn’t see any of the wild animals she loves. Instead, she looks down at the long red hair of a woman who stands a few feet away from the front door. The woman stares up at the windows of the house as though she’s looking for someone. Willa catches her eye and smiles; the woman takes a step back and bows her head.

With his big grey muzzle, Louis nudges open the bedroom door and lumbers over to Willa’s feet. He knows he’s not allowed upstairs, but that’s only when Mummy’s watching, and Mummy’s at work. Willa bends down and kisses his big furry nose. Louis is not a fox or any other wild animal, but Willa still loves him more than anything in the world.

‘Willa, we’re late!’ Ella, Willa’s fourteen-year-old sister, crashes into the bedroom in a cloud of sweet perfume.

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The Return of Norah Wells - Virginia Macgregor

Jade Craddock meets Virginia Macgregor Willa loves the smell and she loves the big yellow bottle in the shape of a trophy that sits on Ella’s bedside table: it’s called Shalimar, which means strong and beautiful – that’s how Willa thinks of Ella.

‘Come on, Willa, I’ve got a maths test this morning.’

Ella never used to care about tests, not until she was made to repeat a year. She’s going through a bad patch, Daddy said.

Mummy called a family meeting so they could all help Ella, but Ella never showed up.

‘Willa?’

Willa doesn’t move. There’s something about the woman with the leggings, the baggy jumper, the wheelie suitcase and the black music case that makes her want to stare for a bit longer.

Miss Rose Pegg, one of the twins from across the road, steps out of her front door with a watering can. A Chihuahua yaps at her feet.

‘Yoo-hoo,’ she calls over to the woman on the doorstep.

But the woman on the doorstep doesn’t turn round.

Weird.

‘What are you looking at?’ Ella picks up Willa’s school bag and stuffs it with Willa’s Fantastic Mr Fox lunch box.

She comes over to the window and eases the bag over Willa’s shoulders.

‘Why’s she not ringing the bell?’ Willa adjusts the straps of her backpack so that it sits high on her shoulder blades.

Ella leans into the window and sucks in her breath.

Louis puts his paws on the windowsill and growls.

‘What is it?’ Willa asks.

Ella stands back.

‘Ella?’

‘It’s no one.’

But Ella’s face doesn’t look like it’s no one.

Willa feels a crash in her tummy like when a baddie in a film cuts the cord of a lift and it plummets a hundred floors in one big whoosh.

As she looks back down at the doorstep Willa scratches the starshaped scar under her eye. It’s hot and itchy. She doesn’t care what Ella says – the woman definitely doesn’t look like a no one.

I absolutely loved The Astonishing Return of Norah Wells and in particular was so impressed by the way you inhabit each of your characters so convincingly, how do you manage to get inside such different characters so thoroughly and maintain each of their individual styles and quirks?

Getting into my characters and making them distinctive and believable is the most important part of my job. Just as with real, flesh and blood people, it takes time. I interview my characters, I live with them, I ask them millions of questions and I make notes on them. I also open my eyes to the world around me and draw inspiration from the world: someone’s smile, their funny way of walking, how they dress, what they say. My characters are a mix of experience, research and imagination and that little bit of magic that makes them come to life.

Following on from that, did you find any of the characters easier/harder to inhabit?

I have a soft spot for child narrators, as with Milo in What Milo Saw, so I found Willa and Ella easy to write. Grown-ups are always trickier, though no less interesting. I think I found Norah hardest to write as I knew that, right from the first page, my readers would judge her for walking out on her young family – and yet I wanted them to understand her and develop some sympathy for her. That was hard but I hope I got there in the end.

What appeals about these younger characters and how do you write them so authentically?

Someone once said that all writers are children at heart. Maybe I find it easier to tap into the child than the adult in me…I imagine it’s also because I have a little girl who, although much younger than Willa, very much has the same spirit: ‘bonkers cute’! From a writer’s point of view, I love to write about children as they have such an original way of seeing the world, one that is filled with magic and humour.

I love the story of Willa’s foxes (and the echoes of Fantastic Mr Fox) and the parallels to the family’s story, how did this come about?

Every few years there seems to be a story of a child being bitten or scratched or, tragically, even killed by a dog or a wild animal like a fox. I’ve always wondered how families coped with that.

And I liked the idea of how a terrible experience could be flipped on its head by a child who comes to love the animal that hurt her (which is also a metaphor for what Norah did to Willa, of course). There’s also something interesting about the boundaries between the domestic and urban life we have created for ourselves and the ‘wild’: we’re closer than we realise. Finally, I think foxes are beautiful, mysterious, wonderful animals. And that Roald Dahl is an awesome writer!

For Jade's full Author Meets Reviewer with Virginia Macgregor see nudge.

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours. nb magazine & www.nudge-book.com

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© Sigrid Rothe

a slight British accent, a reminder of his studies in the UK. He was soft spoken, selfassured and full of energy and self esteem.

Later, we sat in his office in one of the most prestigious addresses in the city, talking about his childhood in the Sichuan Province. All of a sudden, tears were running down his cheeks, he was sobbing like a small child. We were talking about his experience of the Cultural Revolution and how it had affected his family.

We sat quietly in his office for a long time. It had become dark

to face the ghosts of its past.

It was the begining of my fascination with China – and sowed the seeds for what became Dragon Games.

I have travelled in China for fifteen years, living and working in Hong Kong as a foreign correspondent for many of them.

As a journalist, facts and research are very important to me.

For Dragon Games, I spent weeks in Shanghai and the surrounding area. I love to walk through the city, setting my thoughts free, and, of course, to talk to people. But I also strongly believe in the power of

Jan-Philipp Sendker goes behind the Chinese screen

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outside. I did not know what to say. He dried his tears and talked of a sense of shame so strong that there were days on which he did not dare to look into a mirror. His distrust of himself.

Of every Chinese. It would never change he said, no matter how successful he might become.

It was then I understood how complicated things are in China, that the ultra-modern cityscapes with the skyscrapers are just the surface. Scratch at that surface and a very different China appears. A China that is anxious inside, despite how fast the economy has been growing.

A country that is trapped because its people are not allowed

nb magazine & www.nudge-book.com

well-told stories. I think we can only understand fundamental things about other people and other cultures through stories.

And that is what literature is: telling stories, touching people, rousing emotions. In relation to China, there are far too few stories from that country and about it. We are only just beginning to discover Chinese authors. Television produces many documentaries about China, but few dramas. It is the same with books: there are many non-fiction books, but little fiction. This is one of the reasons the country and culture remain so unknown. The Rising Dragon trilogy is an attempt to start changing the situation.

nb readers obviously enjoy Mr Sendker's work awarding 38 out of a possible 40 stars.

there has been no word or contact from her older brother Da Long. Christine presumed he had perished along with thousands of others. . . . sayings and quotes from Confucius and Mao mean the reader is always aware the book is set in China portraying clearly a culture alien to us in the west.

Clever writing indeed. A tightly written book with lyrical prose, this is a joy to read and to savour.

I believe this is the best book I have read for many a year . . .

I was bereft when I finished reading.

Sheila A. Grant

5/5

DRAGON GAMES Polygon Sept 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781846973543

If you have not yet discovered this author then you are in for a treat . . . a superb literary thriller of romance, adventure and intrigue. Paul is coming to accept the loss of his little boy helped by his deepening friendship with Christine, his Chinese girlfriend who lives and works in Hong Kong city, while he remains in his secluded island house.

Christine’s vague memory of fleeing Red China with her mother in dreadful circumstances has left her with a horror of any connection with that part of China. During the Cultural Revolution her father was one of many victims of the Red Guards. His death as he leapt from a window to escape imprisonment and torture has left a deep impression. That was forty years ago and since then

THE ART OF HEARING HEARTBEATS

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reviews

Dragon Games G

erman born JanPhilipp Sendker is the author of four novels set in East Asia, all now available in English. With Dragon Games, the second instalment of his Rising Dragon trilogy, published this month, he describes the remarkable encounter that inspired him to set a series of novels in China.

On first sight he was the perfect example of the new, modern, sophisticated China, the way the country likes to see and portray itself. He was a tall, good-looking man in his early fifties; a lawyer, well dressed, a world traveller. His English had

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A WELL-TEMPERED HEART Polygon Mar 2014 pbk ISBN - 9781846972850

Ten years later Julia returns to Burma on a quest to discover the story of a local family. A mystery about what happened to a woman and her sons, how their relationship developed and changed due to circumstances and the choices people made.

I loved the first book and wasn't disappointed by the sequel - when I finished I felt emotionally spent. I'd been transported during my reading and barely put the book down once I'd started.

Both books would appear on my favourite books list.

Nicky Hallam

5/5

Polygon Mar 2013 pbk ISBN - 9781846972409

. . . a woman travels to Burma, in search of the truth behind her father’s mysterious disappearance.

Julia’s journey leads her to understand things about her father, but also about life, love and happiness.

I found it hard not to like this book. Sentimental, bizarre, even ludicrous the story may be, but, of course, so are the fairy-tales on which it is founded.

Katie Mason

We have copies to give away free of Dragon Games see page 69.

Whispering Shadows is also available - BUT online only - at nudge-book.com and only while stock lasts

WHISPERING SHADOWS Polygon Jun 2015 pbk ISBN - 9781846973307

Paul Leibovitz was once an ambitious, dedicated father and loving husband.

After nearly thirty years in Hong Kong a personal tragedy strikes and Paul’s marriage unravels in the fallout.

I have visited Hong Kong and [this] book vividly brings to mind the food, the noise and, above all, the humidity. The main themes are friendships, love and trust. Who can Paul trust in the murky world of corrupt officialdom and business?

Loved this book and would recommend it and, unlike a lot of crime stories, feel this has a lot for a book group to discuss.

Dorothy Flaxman

5/5

4/4

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The letter lay between bills from PCCW Mobile and Hong Kong Electric.

Christine marveled at the handwriting. Elegant, swooping script in black ink, written with a fine brush, more a piece of calligraphy than a mere address. No name or return address. She did not know anyone who could write such beautiful Chinese characters. The stamp: People’s Republic of China. She tensed. The first glimmering, which she ignored. She decided to open the envelope anyway.

My dear Mei-mei, Little Sister. Her hands trembled. She lowered the piece of paper.

Her brother was dead. Had died forty years ago. Of starvation. Of thirst.

Or had dropped dead in a paddy field. Because his young body had not been able to bear the hardships of the harvest any longer. A victim of the Cultural Revolution. One of millions. Sent to the countryside when he was fourteen to learn from the farmers. By the command of a paranoid Great Chairman, whom no one had dared to contradict. A sickly, weak young boy, ordered to go to the mountains of Sichuan province because his father was said to belong to the clique of intellectuals. He had disappeared after that. He had no chance. How often had Christine heard those words from her mother’s mouth when she was a child? Long Long is dead. He had no chance.

Everything rushed back in an instant: the humid fall day in 1968. The flurry of loud footsteps in the hallway. The hysterical voices. The splintering of the door kicked in by the Red Guards. The fear of death on her father’s face. Her brother, where was her brother? Why was he not with them? She did not see him in this picture. She saw her mother, the gaunt woman in her faded Mao suit. The terror on her face. She saw herself. Cowering under the table. The little girl who closed her eyes but opened them again, frightened and curious. Two, three, quick, and heavy steps. Her father perched on the windowsill. Like a big fat crow that was on the verge of spreading his wings.

He jumped before she could grab him. The silence after.

An accident. That was the official version. Until today.

Soon after that her brother was made to go to the countryside.

A few months later, she and her mother escaped to Hong Kong. They swam until they had no more strength. Three of the people in their small group drowned. Coincidence saved them. Or fate, or the stars. Their time had not come yet, her mother later claimed. She had heard her pray in the water. She had not heard anything more about her brother since that time.

Who dared address her as Little Sister? She turned the page. On the reverse was his name: Wu Da Long. Big Dragon.

How should I begin this letter? After so many years. You probably thought I was dead.

And I was, or as good as. A slow dying, witnessed by an entire village. No longer one of the living, not yet one of the dead. A young girl brought me back. She is still my wife today. But I don’t want to say too much about myself. I have started to chatter away like an old woman.

Do you remember me at all? They used to call me Long Long. But you were not even born yet. Later on you learned to walk holding my hand. You were so little. But healthy. I was always sick. A nimble girl with a parting in your hair, straight as a bamboo rod, two braids, right and left. That is how I picture you. What do you look like now? Would we recognize each other if we were face to face?

What has happened to you? Are you married?

Do you have a child? You wanted to be a doctor when you were a little girl. A barefoot doctor. They used to walk from village to village in the countryside back then, helping the sick. You admired them very much. I’m sure you have fulfilled your dream though perhaps not visiting your patients barefoot.

You are probably asking yourself why so many years had to pass before I wrote you this letter. And you are right to do so. There are, I assure you, many reasons. I will explain them to you when, if, we meet again. For that is the request that this letter brings: I would like to see you. As soon as possible. I am lucky to be in good health now but who knows how much time anyone has left? Apart from that, I now also – and I do not want to hide that from you in this letter – find myself in the most serious difficulty, through no fault of my own. To be clear: I need help, urgently. Time is not on my side. You wish to know what this is all about? I understand. Unfortunately the situation is so complicated that I cannot explain it to you in a letter or on the phone. Since it is impossible for me to travel, I must ask you, though I do so reluctantly, to come to me. I live about three hours away from Shanghai. I have a son, Xiao Hu, and a daughter, Yin-Yin, in Shanghai. Yin-Yin will meet you at the airport and bring you to us. She knows about this letter and she will be very happy, I need hardly say, to get to know her aunt. She is a good girl. She is studying music at the conservatory and will soon sit for her final exams. I know that this must all come as a great surprise to you. I am asking a lot. I can do no more at the moment than to ask for your understanding.

A final question: is Mother still alive? If she is, which I of course hope with all my heart, then I beg you not to tell her about this letter. The joy at the news that I am alive would be clouded by worries about my plight.

I very much hope that this letter has not given you a shock.

Will I hear from you soon?

Ge-ge Da Long

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours.

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours.

My dear Mei-mei,

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Dragon Games - Jan-Philipp Sendker

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hen I was a child, my mum had a round tin full of beads, buttons, buckles and other bits and pieces that she’d found or collected over the years. I spent many happy hours sifting through them, and still do. I suppose being a writer is a little like having a tin of beads in your head where you store all your ideas to pick them out, to write a novel.

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Then came an address and Yin-Yin’s phone number.

Ge-ge. Big Brother. Christine put the letter to one side. She picked up the envelope again, opened it once more, sniffed it and ran her fingers over it. As though the folded paper could do what the words could not: bring her brother closer to her. While reading the letter, her agitation had given way to a strange feeling of inner peace. She was not sure if she could trust it.

Who was the man who had written these lines? Her brother? Probably, for who else in China could know the details of her childhood? But who was this person? What bound him to her?

She searched herself for an emotion. Was she happy? Touched? Feeling affectionate? What she found instead was a jumble of thoughts.

I need help, urgently. Her first thought was that he needed money. He was turning to his family after forty years because he needed money. Since it is impossible for me to travel. What did he expect from her? That she would take the next plane to Shanghai and hand him a briefcase full of bank notes? Why had she and her mother not heard from him for years? Why had he left them to believe that he was dead? Christine felt herself becoming angry. He would explain everything to her. She did not know if she wanted to hear his reasons.

Did she have a choice? To ignore the letter would be impossible. She could reply and ask him to explain himself. She could put him off. Or write to him and tell him that she was not a doctor, not living in a villa with an ocean view, but managed a pathetic little travel agency and did not know how she would pay the interest on her mortgage some months. Christine sensed that she had no feeling for how much obligation she had toward him. She had no experience of sisterly love. It had been a long time since she had thought about him at all. He had become a stranger. In order to make up her mind, she had to meet him, and there was only one place in Hong Kong where that was possible: the Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate.

om rec m stories behind my charms (none as exotic as Miriam Pepper’s!).

After watching the film Life of Pi, I wanted a tiger in my story too. I studied art at college, so there’s a funny scene which takes place in a life drawing class. And my travels have included Paris, Goa and London, so they’re in the book also. I enjoy warm-hearted, amusing, poignant fiction, so I like to think that my novel is all of those things.

The Curious C harms of Arthur Pepper Phaedra Patrick on holding Arthur's hand The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper tells of a stuck-inhis-ways 69-year-old Yorkshireman who finds a mysterious charm bracelet in his late wife, Miriam’s, wardrobe.

Struggling to cope alone after 40 years of marriage, Arthur rouses himself to set off on an epic journey to discover the story behind each of the charms.

Along the way he finds out that Miriam led a secret life before they met. Just like the beads in the tin, the threads of the story came from many sources.

I showed my own childhood charm bracelet to my son (now aged 10) and told him the

I think we all need a little adventure in our lives, whether that’s hopping on a plane to visit another country, or simply discovering a new book to read.

In my novel, Arthur Pepper is in a rut, unable to move on after the death of his wife, so I wanted to hold his hand and show him that life can and does go on. With each charm, he changes and grows a little and I think that I did too, whilst writing about him.

When I wrote the book I pictured it appearing on the bottom shelf of a small bookshop someplace, however Arthur seems to have captured

the hearts of many readers and the novel will be translated into twenty languages worldwide. I think Arthur would find it exciting that he’s travelling to so many new places, and I do too.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

by Phaedra Patrick is published by MIRA as a £12.99 hbk, available now.

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours. nb magazine & www.nudge-book.com

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The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper - Phaedra Patrick

ith a tear in his eye, he looked out of the window onto the back garden. If he stood on tiptoe he could just see the tip of York Minster, its stone fingers seeming to prop up the sky. Thornapple village, in which he lived, was just on the outskirts of the city. Cherry blossom had already started to fall from the trees, swirling like pink confetti. The garden was surrounded on three sides by a tall wooden fence that gave privacy; too tall for neighbours to pop their heads over for a chat. He and Miriam liked their own company.

They did everything together and that was how they liked it, thank you very much. There were four raised beds, which he had made out of railway sleepers and which housed rows of beetroots, carrots, onions and potatoes. This year he might even attempt pumpkins. Miriam used to make a grand chicken and vegetable stew with the produce, and home-made soups. But he wasn’t a cook. The beautiful red onions he picked last summer had stayed on the kitchen worktop until their skins were as wrinkly as his own and he had thrown them in the recycling bin.

He finally ascended the remainder of the stairs and arrived panting outside the bathroom. He used to be able to speed from top to bottom, running after Lucy and Dan, without any problem. But now, everything was slowing down. His knees creaked and he was sure he was shrivelling. His once-black hair was now dove white (though still so thick it was difficult to keep flat) and the rounded tip of his nose seemed to be growing redder by the day. It was difficult to remember when he stopped being young and became an old man.

He recalled his daughter Lucy’s words when they last spoke, a few weeks ago. ‘You could do with a clear out, Dad. You’ll feel better when Mum’s stuff is gone. You’ll be able to move on.’ Dan occasionally phoned from Australia, where he now lived with his wife and two children. He was less tactful. ‘Just chuck it all out. Don’t turn the house into a museum.’

Move on? Like to bloody where? He was sixty-nine, not a teenager who could go to university or on a gap year. Move on. He sighed as he

shuffled into the bedroom. Slowly he pulled open the mirrored doors on the wardrobe. Brown, black and grey. He was confronted by a row of clothes the colour of soil. Funny, he didn’t remember Miriam dressing so dully. He had a sudden image of her in his head. She was young and swinging Dan around by an arm and leg—an aeroplane. She was wearing a blue polka dot sundress and white scarf. Her head was tipped back and she was laughing, her mouth inviting him to join in. But the picture vanished as quickly as it came. His last memories of her were the same colour as the clothes in the wardrobe. Grey. She had aluminium-hued hair in the shape of a swimming cap. She had withered away like the onions.

She’d been ill for a few weeks. First it was a chest infection, an annual affliction which saw her laid up in bed for a fortnight on a dose of antibiotics. But this time the infection turned into pneumonia. The doctor prescribed more bed rest and his wife, never one to cause a fuss, had complied.

Arthur had discovered her in bed, staring, lifeless. At first he thought she was watching the birds in the trees, but when he shook her arm she didn’t wake up.

Half her wardrobe was devoted to cardigans. They hung shapeless, their arms dangling as if they’d been worn by gorillas, then hung back up again. Then there were Miriam’s skirts; navy, grey, beige, mid-calf length. He could smell her perfume, something with roses and lily of the valley, and it made him want to nestle his nose into the nape of her neck, just one more time please, God. He often wished this was all a bad dream and that she was sat downstairs doing the Woman’s Weekly crossword, or writing a letter to one of the friends they had met on their holidays.

He allowed himself to sit on the bed and wallow in self-pity for a few minutes and then swiftly unrolled two bags and shook them open. He had to do this. There was a bag for charity and one for stuff to throw out. He took out armfuls of clothes and bundled them in the charity bag. Miriam’s slippers—worn and with a hole in the toe—went in the rubbish bag. He worked quickly and silently, not stopping to let

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours.

We have copies to give away FREE. See page 69 to claim yours.

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The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper - Phaedra Patrick emotion get in the way. Halfway through the task and a pair of old grey lace-ups went in the charity bag, followed by an almost identical pair.

He pulled out a large shoe box and lifted out a pair of sensible fur-lined brown suede boots.

Remembering one of Bernadette’s stories about a pair of boots she’d bought from a flea market and found a lottery ticket (non-winning) inside, he automatically slid his hand inside one boot (empty) and then the other. He was surprised when his fingertips hit something hard.

Strange.

Wriggling his fingers around the thing, he tugged it out. He found himself holding a heart-shaped box. It was covered in textured scarlet leather and fastened with a tiny gold padlock. There was something about the colour that made him feel on edge. It looked expensive, frivolous.

A present from Lucy, perhaps? No, surely he would have remembered it. And he would never have bought something like this for his wife. She liked simple or useful things, like plain round silver stud earrings or pretty oven gloves. They had struggled with money all their married life, scrimping and squirrelling funds away for a rainy day.

When they had eventually splashed out on the kitchen and bathroom, she had only enjoyed them for a short while. No, she wouldn’t have bought this box.

He examined the keyhole in the tiny padlock. Then he rummaged around in the bottom of the wardrobe pushing the rest of Miriam’s shoes around, mixing up the pairs. But he couldn’t find the key. He picked up a pair of nail scissors and jiggled them around in the keyhole, but the lock remained defiantly closed. Curiosity pricked inside him.

Not wanting to admit defeat, he went back downstairs.

Nearly fifty years as a locksmith and he couldn’t bloody get into a heart-shaped box. From the kitchen bottom drawer he took out the two-litre plastic ice cream carton that he used as a tool box; his box of tricks.

Back upstairs, he sat on the bed and took out a hoop full of lock picks. Inserting the smallest one into the keyhole, he gave it a small wriggle. This time there was a click and the box opened by a tantalising few millimetres, like a mouth about to whisper a secret. He unhooked the padlock and lifted the lid.

REVIEW

This book is, well, charming.

Arthur Pepper’s wife, Miriam, died a year ago and since then he has lived his life in a very strict routine to help him deal with being alone. His children don’t seem to have much interest in him and he’s got himself into a rut. On the anniversary of Miriam’s death he decides it is time to clear out her belongings and he finds a charm bracelet with eight charms on it. He doesn’t recognise the bracelet or remember Miriam wearing it but he discovers a telephone number on one of the charms that leads him on a journey to discover the story behind each one. In doing so, he finds out things about his late wife that he never knew.

I loved this book. It has many similarities with The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which went down well with me because I loved that book, too. Arthur is a brilliant character and sometimes his actions made me laugh. This is also a very heart-warming story of a man coming to terms with the loss of a wife who he loved dearly and I ached for him as he had to reconsider everything that he thought he knew.

Ultimately this is a feel-good book about a man embarking on a new phase in his life at the age of 69. I loved following Arthur as he made each discovery and met a series of interesting and sometimes eccentric people. Fantastic!

Nicola Smith Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

AN A-Z OF FRIENDLY TIPS AND ADVICE FOR WOULD-BE WRITERS Every author worth their salt has a website – or so it seems.

But many of them are little more than advertising billboards – not that there’s anything wrong with that. However, we were taken by the following A-Z tucked away on Phaedra’s site.

A IS FOR ASPIRING AUTHOR - Hello. If you’re reading this, then this might be you!! When I started to write, I used to scour the internet, and author websites, for hints and tips on how to write a novel. It’s something I’ve done for years and I’ve pulled together a few of my favourite learnings and thoughts here in this A-Z. The advice and tips here aren’t set in stone, aren’t in a set order, and you may have your own way of doing things, however if you’re thinking of giving writing a novel a go, I hope you find these notes useful.

animals, small towns, modernday settings, North of England, characters who undergo a transformation, etc. Stick your own list to your wall and use it as a blueprint for your book.

C IS FOR CHARACTERS VS PLOT - Which comes first, character or plot? It’s a similar question to ‘what comes first the chicken or the egg?’ Some writers think of a plot then find a character to inhabit it, for others it’s all about the character and finding a plot for them to follow. I’m a plotter. I like to collect ideas from magazines, blurbs I’ve read on the back of books, reviews in newspapers, B IS FOR BOOK - What book or story should you write? films and stories I’ve heard in My advice would be to write the the news. Then I pull a few strands together, change a few book you want to write, from things, and weave something your heart. Don’t be led by what’s selling at the moment as new. Speaking to a friend, he used to work in a factory with books can take a long time to lots of great ‘characters’ so he come to market. If you see ‘X’ on a bookshelf in a shop, by the tends to think of people first. time you’ve written and tried to There’s no right or wrong way, sell ‘the next X’ then the market but every great plot needs great characters, and vice versa… may have moved onto ‘Y’. whichever way you plan your Think about what books you book. like to read. Write your own The remaining letters of the alphabet and ‘magna carta’ – a list of all the some down to earth advice can be found things you like to find in a on phaedra-patrick.com or you can folnovel. My own includes – low her on Twitter and Facebook. quirky characters, twists, fun

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5

© Leigh Quinnell

My

Known to us all for her time with Blue Peter, Janet Ellis has turned her hand - very successfully - to writing.

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THE DIARY OF A NOBODY

BY GEORGE AND WEEDON GROSSMITH As a general rule, I think it's easier to make people cry over a book than laugh at it. We all tend to weep about the same things, but we're often divided by our sense of humour. If you get it right, though, humour is timeless and universal. It's no wonder that this account of the daily life of the pompous, self-important clerk Charles Pooter hasn't been out of print since it was first published in 1892. I remember trying to read it aloud to someone and laughing so hard I couldn't get the words out. The diary form has rarely been so well-employed either, this book set the tone for all the humorous diaries that followed.

It skewers class, ambition and relationships as accurately today as when it was written and I often recognise the type of people it portrayed, too. One of the joys of Twitter is how often people unwittingly reveal their inner Pooter!

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THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A SHE DEVIL BY FAY WELDON In publishing, one of the buzz words is 'voice'.

It's that indefinable ingredient, the presence of an author in their work and it can't be anything other than authentic. As a reader, all I know is that the writer is telling you a story in a way no one else could. I've always loved the way Fay Weldon creates characters and situations that are only loosely connected with reality yet makes them seem not only plausible but utterly compelling, too. This story of jealousy, possession and cosmetic surgery is unforgettable and so involving that I wanted to shout at Ruth as she goes to extreme lengths to both punish and hold on to her feckless husband Bobbo. I know Fay Weldon is often described as a feminist writer but I suspect it's because she's fearless in her approach to the way women are treated and how they respond.

She blazes a trail I'm happy to follow.

NATIONAL VELVET

BY ENID BAGNOLD I first read this when I was about twelve and horse mad. It's an amazing book, incredibly vivid in its descriptions of family life and childhood ambition and superbly rich in detail. I loved the way her little brother collects all his spit in a jar, for instance! As well as heart-stopping descriptions of horses and riding (I went over every jump and groomed every horse with Velvet Brown), it also discusses the price of fame and the legacy of disappointment. Quite big themes for a children's book and, as I reread it very happily recently, I'd say it's as just as good for adults, too. It's nothing like the film, which left out the grittier stuff in favour of thrilling races and beautiful faces. It's a lovely film but a much, much better book , one that got under my skin and stayed in my head.

I went over every jump and groomed every horse with Velvet Brown

THE FABER BOOK OF DIARIES EDITED BY SIMON BRETT You can tell I love diaries. I kept my own (predictably embarrassing, but mainly because I was such a little prig) between the ages of about nine and sixteen but this anthology is four hundreds year's worth of fabulous journal-keeping. Some were written with an eye to future readers but most are intensely private and personal.

It's what first cemented in me the idea that, despite the restrictions or influences of whatever time we're born into, we all have the same appetites and desires (from the mundane to the glorious) and the same weaknesses and strengths as our ancestors.

People in 'the olden days' weren't specially equipped to deal with the privations of their age - you only have to read Mary Shelley's account of the death of her infant child to realise that. I kept that in mind when writing a novel about a young girl living in London in the 1760s . I also remembered only too well - what it was like to be a teenager, I've got the diaries to prove it!

OUTLINE

BY RACHEL CUSK You know that 'voice' thing I mentioned? Let me introduce you to the Queen of Voice! This novel sounds like the highest-risk venture ever- the narrator is a novelist who goes to teach a writing course in Athens and hears the stories of people she meets along the way, some of which involve her although most don't. It succeeds brilliantly. It's written in a free-form, flowing yet precise style where every word earns its keep. I think the measure of a great book is not only how successful its voice is, but in how much it manages to give that tone to the world around you.

Outline succeeds brilliantly everything was completely Cuskian when I was reading it.

She's just written a sequel called Transit - , too, which is terrific news.

The Butcher’s Hook by Janet Ellis is published by Two Roads as a £7.99 pbk, available now.

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JUVENILE DETECTIVES? We need you back, says Erin Britton

THE HARDY BOYS

I

t seems that young people nowadays are just not doing enough to tackle crime in their neighbourhoods. Back in my day, if you chanced upon a skull at the bottom of a well, or if the Fabergé egg hidden at the bottom of your nan’s sock drawer seemed to be in danger, or even if your budgie started speaking in tongues, then you called up the nearest juvenile detective agency and all your problems would be solved in a matter of 200 pages or so. Clearly, with society the way it is at the moment (Brexit, ISIS, gendered icing on The Great British Bake Off), it would be helpful if some of the plucky teen detectives of yesteryear would get back on the case. I would therefore like to suggest the following detectives as representing the best hope for law and order in a postBreaking Bad world.

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Frank and Joe Hardy are the sons of famed private investigator Fenton Hardy and they frequently end up helping their father with his cases.

Frank is the logical one, while Joe prefers to jump straight into action, but together they make a formidable crime fighting duo. In addition to their schoolwork and their detective work, the Hardys stumble upon intrigue, mayhem and jewel robberies practically every time they leave the house. Along with their chubby chum Chet, whatever holiday, sporting activity or shopping trip they might be engaged in, Frank and Joe find themselves with the opportunity to crack complex conundrums and tackle dangerous villains.

CASE FILES: THE MYSTERY OF CABIN ISLAND

by Franklin W. Dixon (aka Leslie Mcfarlane) Frank and Joe Hardy and their friends are invited to spend their Christmas holiday on Cabin Island as a reward for recovering Elroy Jefferson’s stolen car (in The Shore Road Mystery, an earlier book in the series). Jefferson, who is being plagued by offers to buy the island, also hopes that they might be able to locate his missing grandson. The boys’ trip gets off to a shaky start

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when someone vandalises their boat and, later, when all their supplies are stolen. They begin to suspect that someone else is on the island, and that someone might not have good intentions towards them.

ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown is a super-smart 12year-old with an extraordinary memory for facts. In addition to helping his policeman father solve the latest crime to terrify the community and perplex the police force, Encyclopedia Brown runs his own detective agency and helps neighbourhood children to solve puzzles, recover lost bikes, etc. He is able to solve pretty much any mystery by closing his eyes and searching through the prodigious number of facts stored in his memory. His best friend Sally Kimball helps out with any rough stuff.

CASE FILES: “THE CASE OF THE GLASS OF GINGER ALE” FROM ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN AND THE SECRET PITCH by Donald J. Sobol Nefarious lead violinist Hans Braun seems to have conned Rafino de Verona, his blind fellow orchestra

member, out of an extremely expensive Stradivarius violin. De Verona is very proud of his excellent hearing and so Braun was easily able to get him to agree to a bet. Braun claimed that he could enter a room where de Verona was present, open a locked safe, take out a glass filled with ice cubes, replace the ice cubes with ginger ale, return the glass to the safe, lock it, leave the room, and lock the door, all without de Verona hearing a thing. It seems like an impossible enterprise, but fortunately nothing is too complex for Encyclopedia Brown to untangle.

TRIXIE BELDEN Thirteen-yearold Trixie Belden lives on a farm in Sleepyside-onHudson with many, many family members.

Trixie and her best friend Honey Wheeler started the Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency, which eventually morphed into the Bob-Whites of the Glen when more investigators were needed and when increased danger levels necessitated some degree of anonymity. Trixie seems to excel in solving crimes in a particularly twee fashion, but nevertheless, she gets the job done and the school bullies know to try and keep their foul deeds secret from her.

discover runaway Jim Frayne hiding out in the mansion, the whole affair becomes even more mysterious.

NANCY DREW And having begun with the Hardy Boys, it is only fitting that we draw this homage to a close with . . . Nancy Drew, a typical River Heights teenager, save for the fact that she likes to spend her free time solving mysteries. No doubt inspired by the work of her father, brilliant attorney Carson Drew, Nancy can’t pass a puzzle without stopping to solve it.

Always fashionably attired and frequently driving a snazzy blue roadster, Nancy has a good working knowledge of psychology and she has a gift when it comes to reading people.

She has a multitude of friends spread across the country, the majority of whom are seeking some lost treasure or else fighting some kind of family curse, so it’s lucky that Nancy has decided to dedicate her time (as well as her numerous skills and attributes) to fighting crime.

CASE FILES: THE CLUE OF THE BROKEN LOCKET

by Carolyn Keene (aka Mildred Benson) Nancy Drew is enjoying a lakeside holiday when she is called upon to help Cecily Curtis solve two tricky puzzles. First, Cecily is worried about her boyfriend, who fears that his record label might be trying to cheat him out of royalties.

Second, and far more intriguing, Cecily hopes to discover the location of a long-lost family treasure, the only clue to which is half of a gold locket.

Holiday shmoliday thinks Nancy, as she jumps at the chance to put her sleuthing skills to the test in uncovering the secrets of Pudding Stone Lodge.

So, there you have it. Now then, anybody for Biggles, Worrals or Gimlet?

THIS IS HOW THE HARDY BOYS WERE PRESENTED ON AMERICAN TV. TAKE A GUESS AT WHICH DECADE.

CASE FILES: THE SECRET OF THE MANSION

by Julie Campbell Tatham After their miserly neighbour is hospitalised following a serious bout of pneumonia, Trixie Belden and new friend Honey Wheeler decide to break into the man’s mansion and have a good nosey about. Local legend has it that the man has stashed a fortune somewhere in the property, and that’s exactly the kind of puzzle Trixie can’t ignore. However, when the girls

(CLUE: THEIR HAIRSTYLES WILL HELP.)

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AUTHOR MEETS REVIEWER

AUTHOR MEETS REVIEWER

Jade Craddock meets Marieke Nijkamp, author of This is Where it Ends In nb89 Jade Craddock was impressed with Marieke's novel

Jade Craddock: Did the novel require much research or was it just a case of imagination taking over once you had the initial idea?

Marieke Nijkamp: Oh, it required a lot of research! I wrote the book because I wanted to understand the human aspect of school shootings. I wanted to tell the stories. And I wanted to write is is Where it Ends as respectfully as possible. So for every hour I spent writing, I spent (at least) another researching. I read firsthand accounts of shootings, I listened to 911 calls, I ploughed through hundreds of pages of investigative reports, I talked to people. As much as possible, I immersed myself in what we know about school shootings (which is both a lot and not a lot at all). And I tried to translate that to the book. It’s still fiction, of course, but I wanted to ensure that any poetic license remained respectful to real life.

This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp is published by Sourcebooks Fire as a £12.99 hbk and is available now..

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JC: Given the sensitivity of the theme, did you ever have any doubts about it being a YA book?

MN: No, never. Many teens experience shootings in real life, so I think we can trust them to be able to read about it too.

JC: e teens in the novel as well as the school itself could be any teens at any school in the world. Was it a conscious decision to make the book as universal as you could in this way?

MN: Universal is such a tricky word. I wanted the book to reflect the world I live in, the world I see around me. And certainly, some situations are universally relatable. But I don’t think there’s a universal story as such – it’s a spectrum of highly specific ones.

JC: It would have been quite easy to turn the novel into a very sanitized version of events, but from the moment the shooter enters the school, lives are taken; how important

was it to you to not take the easy route and give a sort of happy-ever-aer morality tale?

MN: Incredibly important. As I said before, I wanted to tell this story respectfully. is is something real teens deal with, and they deserve more than a sanitised interpretation.

JC: Authors usually tell their stories across weeks, months or years, yours is confined to minutes! Did you ever consider having a broader timeline, getting to know the characters and showing the lead-up as well as the aermath of the shooting? And what challenges/benefits did a more confined timeline throw up for you as an author?

MN: No, I wanted to tell the story of a school shooting and I wanted to restrict myself to that particular event. So it was always going to be a very short timeframe, which required intensive plotting. But it did force me to confront the story head-on and with all its aspects.

JC: I enjoyed the way that social media plays a part in the events of the novel. How important is social media in your life and in general do you think it’s a blessing or curse of the modern era?

MN: Well most of my friends I’ve met online and most of my friendships still exist online, so for me, social media is a blessing. It’s not flawless, of course, but ...

JC: Your novel is published in English, rather than a Dutch edition first and then a translated edition, I believe? Was it as simple as English being a more universal language that prompted this, or were there other reasons?

MN: I’ve been writing in English for years now, and I guess it started out as English as a more universal language? Not because of market reasons or anything like that, but because I wanted to share my stories with friends who didn’t speak Dutch. And from that point on, I fell in love with English as a means of storytelling.

JC: And in terms of the crossover from literatures in other languages, do you think enough is done to allow writers to share their stories on an international platform?

JC: And finally, given my project of reading 80 books from around the world, I was wondering what your favourite book by a Dutch author is and your favourite book from another country?

MN: My favorite book by a Dutch author has to be Tonke Dragt’s De brief voor de koning, published in translation as e Letter for the King. From another country… I loved Astrid Lindgren’s Mio, min Mio (translated from Swedish as Mio, My Son). Janne Teller’s Nada (translated from Danish as Nothing) is a remarkable book. And I’m so looking forward to reading Maria Turtschaninoff ’s Maresi, a Finnish YA fantasy. I’d also recommend Miyuki Miyabe’s e Book of Heroes (originally published in Japan as 英雄の 書). So I’m not sure I can pick one favorite, but there are plenty of wonderful books out there!

See also mariekenijkamp.com

MN: I grew up reading a lot of translated children’s books, and I’d love to see more children’s and teen literature in translation! ere are so many fantastic stories out there!

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SPAIN relationship (the novel as the title alludes to is essentially the story of one man’s failed relationship), the narrative style gives the story a lethargic pace, so much so that had this not been one of my eighty around the world titles, I would seriously have considered giving up, and I don’t say that lightly.

The novel did pick up slightly towards the middle, in part because you get used to the idiosyncratic form and timelines, but even at its best it was still something of a slog and rather than the novel continuing to improve, I felt that it actually fell away again at the end.

As mentioned, one of the main problems with this novel was the structure and format. n order to make this project Fluid and meandering, his at all achievable, I had to set narration is somewhat stream out at the beginning a one of consciousness, and whilst book per country rule, to that in itself is not necessarily stick by for better or worse. problematic, and in fact in the However the problem with that right instance can be vivid and rule is it can be a bit like exploratory, the main character Russian roulette. I have only Joan-Marc unfortunately one chance to get the choice doesn’t have the appeal to pull right, selecting a book largely it off. The style isn’t helped on the pull of its synopsis, and either by the lack of chapters, on the flip side, there is the and you really feel every one of chance of getting it horribly the 334 pages in this constant wrong. Unfortunately this monologue. I’d never before time, it was the latter. realised how much chapters Although the book begins matter, but this novel really medias res and with a fairly showed up for me that only explosive introduction to the really special books can work characters and their without them. Torne’s book has

Divorce is in the Air

by Gonzalo Torne

I

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been applauded for exploring the formal possibilities of the novel and whilst his ambition is very much evident, unfortunately I think the story actually undermines these formal ambitions.

And that brings me to the crux of the problem, which for me was twofold, namely that Joan-Marc is a wholly unlikeable, at times even deplorable character (and none of the other characters are much better), and that neither he nor his life have sufficient purpose or weight to give the story a tangible plot or focus.

Nor is he deep or profound enough for his thoughts and interior world to maintain interest in lieu of any action in the story. Torne has certainly created a monster and in some ways he must be applauded for such brutal characterisation but for me Joan-Marc was just too polarising and unappealing to work.

I hate to dismiss a novel, but I’m afraid this one was absolutely not my cup of tea.

Jade Craddock Personal read............................★ Group read.............................★★

Divorce is in the Air

by Gonzalo Torne, is published by Harvill Secker as a £13.99 pbk and is available now.

ONES TO WATCH OUT FOR

ONES TO WATCH OUT FOR

OTWOFS take a bow OTWOFS? That’s Ones To Watch Out For – let your publisher explain.

These pages are where you would normally expect to find the new additions to our Best Books of the 21st Century but the source – that’s you – has temporarily run dry. However, BB21C will be back next issue.

In the meantime, I am snatching the chance to explain this slightly loopy acronym.

Below are listed the 53 otwofs we’ve reviewed on nudge since the end of January 2016. This isn’t a ‘this is great literature – you must read it’ listing. Far from it – the otwof net spreads far and wide, so Based on a True Story and Invincible Summer are decidedly fluffy, for which I make no apology, I enjoyed them. None of us are obsessive with classics, are we?

Although Reunion does deserve your attention. You’ll see books here - All the Light We Cannot See, Goats and Sheep - that became Recommended Reads or which we featured extensively - Shtum. Or friends we made – Claire Fuller – and all because we pitched our ideas to the publisher and they know a gift horse when they see one.

Unfortunately, I can’t get all the reviews in here but perhaps this selection will seduce you into checking them out on line. Obviously, it is a massively varied selection but there’s something exceptional about each that makes them no brainers to add to your ‘to be read’ list.

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The Empathy Problem

by Gavin extence Jade Craddock COMiNG SOON Himself by Jess Kidd Phil ramage Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler Phil ramage

The Trespasser by Tana French Mike Stafford (See page 36) The Crime Writer by Jill Dawson Mel Mitchell Tall Oaks by Chris whitaker Phil ramage Before the Fall by Noah hawley Guy Pringle The Widow by Fiona Barton Mel Mitchell What I Tell You in the Dark

by John Samuel Guy Pringle The Spider in the Corner of the Room by Nikki Owen Guy Pringle The Mountain Can Wait

by Sarah Leipciger Guy Pringle Hold the Dark by william Giraldi Mel Mitchell

Rebel Bully Geek Pariah by erin Lange Jade Craddock Jonathan Dark or the Evidence of Ghosts by AK Benedict Phil ramage

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JONATHAN DARK OR THE EVIDENCE OF GHOSTS AK Benedict Orion ISBN - 9781409103936 pbk Feb 2016

As suggested by the alternative titles, this is a book with its foot in two camps. Part crime novel involving a murder and a stalking and part ghost story: it manages to be very effective on both counts.

Central to the plot is the fascinating Maria, blind since birth, but whose sight has been restored. Maria cannot cope with being plunged into the sighted world and shuts it out with a blindfold. She is a mudlarker, collecting treasures on the foreshores of the Thames and uncovers a grisly marriage proposal which leads the police to make connections with an earlier murder and assume that Maria is in danger. If you can buy into this and not read the book yelling at her to take the blindfold off so she can see the danger then there is so much to enjoy.

Investigating officer Jonathan Dark, homeless because of a crumbling marriage, has his own secrets, some of which he has repressed since childhood. His involvement in this case reawakens these secrets. As Maria’s vision is limited through the blindfold so is the vision of most other Londoners who cannot see the ghosts of the departed moving around the city streets. The few that can see become vital to the solution of the case. I found the whole thing quite fascinating. It works well on a number of layers and I think would appeal very

Every Exquisite Thing

by Matthew Quick Jade Craddock Death and the Seaside

by Alison Moore Mel Mitchell Joe Speedboat

by Tommy wieringa Phil ramage Lingua Franca by william Thacker Guy Pringle

much to those adults who grew up with Harry Potter and are still searching for adult reading with the perfect blend of fantasy and reality.

I loved the ideas of ghosts being ferried around in the back of taxi cabs, some drifting shapelessly within “The Gloaming” and some taking stronger identities to sort out unfinished business and I loved how Benedict blends this into a modern day police investigation. The presence of London, even when [seen] through a blindfold, was palpable and I was kept totally involved as I couldn’t work out the ending.

This is a cracking example of a crime writer attempting to do something different and a fantasy writer using the crime genre to attract a more general readership. It is solid on both counts.

Highly enjoyable and if it just misses out on being one of my rare five star reads it’s because of the niggling “Why doesn’t Marie just……?” questions which would remove some of the peril she is plunged into . . . still has the potential to snowball into a big seller.

Phil Ramage

The Museum of You

by Carys Bray Mel Mitchell

Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

The Truth about Julia – our first real readers verdict Now In November

by Josephine Johnson Phil ramage Freya by Anthony Quinn Phil ramage Gold Fame Citrus

by Claire vaye watkins Phil ramage Everyone Brave is Forgiven

by Chris Cleave Alastair Giles Our Endless Numbered Days

by Claire Fuller Guy Pringle

HOLD THE DARK William Giraldi No Exit Press Feb 2015 pbk ISBN - 9781843445753

It’s not often I’m surprised by a book but Hold the Dark by William Giraldi is a literary thriller that really held my attention. It’s a brutal and sometimes disturbing tale about the nature of man, set in an unforgiving Alaskan landscape. When the six-year-old son of Medora and Vernon Slone goes missing it’s assumed the wolves have taken him. Help comes in the form of wolf expert Russell Core, who soon discovers he has more to be afraid of than wild animals. Battling demons of

his own, he puts off returning to his own family in order to track down the culprit and finds himself confronted by animal nature in human form. Man and beast merge as they fight to overcome their environment and the tenets of civilisation are tested. Can a man be a hero and a villain? Who decides?

This is the kind of story that lingers in the mind. Giraldi writes convincingly but non-judgmentally, skilfully balancing pace and characterisation.

He conjures a feeling of cold dread that doesn’t leave you, even when you’ve read the last page.

Startling, engrossing – and highly recommended.

Mel Mitchell

BASED ON A TRUE STORY Elizabeth Renzetti No Exit Press Apr 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781782395539

The book opens with the immortal line, “It was not the first time she’d been asked to leave a clinic.” Having lived the theatrical life and been a soap star Augusta Price now finds herself cast aside, at least partly – well, mainly – because she can’t resist a drink, any drink, night or day.

With options and friends running out, Augusta’s last option appears to be volume two of her memoirs, not previously planned until Based on a True Story: A Memoir of Sorts was a surprise bestseller. The thought fills her with horror until she is interviewed by long-suffering Frances.

Frances, too, is on her uppers and the thought of being paid to be Augusta’s ghost-writer is sufficient to outweigh her reservations about being a minder.

Augusta teeters on the knife edge of our sympathies and in real life you’d have said, enough is enough some time ago. So it’s testimony to the author that we allow our heroine to totter on

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ONES TO WATCH OUT FOR

ONES TO WATCH OUT FOR

The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones by Charles Neider Guy Pringle The Summer Before The War by helen Simonson Phil ramage

her way, cleavage cannily displayed to any wide-eyed man who can be suckered.

This is not high literature – I knew that when I found myself sniggering and then laughing out loud. So, if you’ve had enough Proust and Dostoevsky for this week, give yourself a break and give Based on a True Story a try. You’ll feel better afterwards.

Guy Pringle

The Long Room

by Francesca Kay Guy Pringle The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon Mel Mitchell

HOW TO MEASURE A COW Margaret Forster

Reunion by Fred Uhlman Guy Pringle All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr Alastair Giles/Guy Pringle How to Measure a Cow

by Margaret Forster Sheila A Grant

A Very Special Year

by Thomas Montasser Phil ramage Soft in the Head

by Marie-Sabine roger Guy Pringle Invincible Summer

by Alice Adams Guy Pringle Lover by Anna raverat Guy Pringle The Song Collector

by Natasha Solomons Guy Pringle Trading Futures by Jim Powell Guy Pringle Shtum by Jem Lester Guy Pringle

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secret.

Is it possible to shut the door behind a previous life, change your identity, demeanour and appearance and move on without a backward glance? Do you become a new person or under the facade are you still the same?

This author has [always] been adept at exposing the emotions and character traits of women. Here she weaves loyalty, betrayal, friendship, honour and honesty with wonderful characterisation into an absorbing story. Readers will identify with many of the dilemmas facing this cast of women, none of whom is a very attractive personality.

Sheila A. Grant Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff Mel Mitchell Fishbowl by Bradley Somer Guy Pringle These Shallow Graves

by Jennifer Donnelly Guy Pringle Silence is Goldfish

by Annabel Pitcher Guy Pringle The House of Hidden Mothers

by Meera Syal Guy Pringle

Chatto & Windus Mar 16 pbk ISBN - 978178474066-5

The Truth According to Us

by Annie Barrows Guy Pringle

Margaret Forster writes the most amazing prose, tight without a superfluous word and still with the ability to convey crystal clear images to the reader. From the first page it is apparent that something dreadful has occurred in the life of Tara Fraser. So shocking an event that she must wipe out the past and begin another life under a new name, Sarah Scott.

Sticking a pin in a map she chooses to move to a small Cumbrian town called Workington. From an outgoing, vivacious, almost wild girl she retreats behind anonymity, [becoming] almost a recluse, living quietly without drawing attention to herself. But this secretive life arouses the curiosity of her older neighbour, Nancy, who is determined to break down the invisible barriers with which Sarah is surrounded.

There is little dialogue in this character led novel apart from scenes between the two women which are so well drawn and amusing. Nancy’s less than subtle attempts to find out more about Sara contrast beautifully with Sarah’s attempts to give nothing away. Both women believe they are in control, Nancy with the information she is discovering and Sarah retaining her

Based on a True Story by elizabeth renzetti Guy Pringle

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LANDSKIPPING: PAINTERS, PLOUGHMEN AND PLACES Anna Pavord Bloomsbury Jan 16 hbk ISBN - 1408868911

In this book Pavord roams from coast to coast, valley to mountain following the people who travelled by foot and horseback to bring us captivating accounts of locations that became culturally significant and are nowadays instantly recognizable. We get a brief overview of artists such as Turner and Constable, the poetry of Wordsworth and the writings of Hardy. The men who transformed our countryside played no less a part; the quintessential image of rolling fields, bordered by hedges was brought about by the enclosure of land, and loss of the commons from the peasants. It is breathtakingly beautiful, but at what cost.

The Versions of Us

by Laura Barnett Guy Pringle The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

by Katarina Bivald Guy Pringle

Landskipping: Painters, Ploughmen and Places

by Anna Pavord Paul Cheney The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me

by Sofka Zinovieff Guy Pringle

Eichmann before Jerusalem

by Bettina Stangneth reg Seward

What Pavord writes about with most passion though, is her part of the world; West Dorset. It is a land of hill forts and water meadows, ancient coasts and timeless landscapes. In her exploration of the world outside her backdoor, she considers the struggle – still – for common land access for people, the delights and horrors of golf courses, coppices rooks and the animal that has moulded this landscape so much, the sheep. Another passion of hers is the spring and autumn light; in this part of the world it can be delightful, bringing out the contrast in the strip lynchets* on the hills.

Pavord is an eloquent writer and for a lot of this book it shows. [She] has a good grounding in the current issues that face rural communities in this modern age, to get the balance between accessibility and biodiversity whilst still maintaining the things that draw people to those locations. Good book overall, and in parts was really good, but I did feel that the book is let down by the section on art and artists.

It feels like it was added after to fill it out which is a shame really.

Paul Cheney *A lynchet is a bank of earth that builds up on the downslope of a field ploughed over a long period of time. The disturbed soil slips down the hillside to create a lynchet. They are also referred to as strip lynchets. They are a feature of ancient field systems such as the Celtic field systems. www.geograph.org.uk

EICHMANN BEFORE JERUSALEM Bettina Stangneth

the end of WW2, he seemed to have slipped the net, both from his crimes and from public recognition. Maybe, we in Britain did not have much to do with his nefarious dealings, but many Europeans, especially those of Jewish extraction tell a bitter story of the man.

Freshly sourced archives and statements are used throughout, building into a full depiction of Eichmann, mainly during his exile.

I have to say that some of the factual evidence herein is a hard education to absorb, simply because of the sheer level of detail. It tells of his life in the Nazi hierarchy, although this takes up a relatively small portion of the book.

Then his flight into exile as a rabbit farmer to northern Germany until his penultimate move to Argentina. The many red herrings that he sowed, the lies and intrigue that the man produced along the way is testimony to his guilt.

It was Eichmann who organized trains to transport millions to their deaths at various concentration camps. He somehow inveigled these poor unfortunates with promises of a better life, but it was he and his henchmen who had made their previous lives untenable in the first place.

Some still argue about the possible ‘political’ ramifications of how he was kidnapped by Mossad and put on trial in Israel for his heinous crimes, but as we know, politics move very slowly and sometimes not at all.

I cannot say with all sincerity that I enjoyed the read, perhaps it does need a bit of light relief, it is incredibly intense in information but the story is a harrowing one for anybody and I felt the book told the entire story very well.

Reg Seward Personal read ................★★★★ Group read ................................★

Vintage Feb 16 pbk ISBN - 9781784700010

Otto Adolf Eichmann, was born in 1906 and died by hanging in 1962, aged 56 years. Because he was not present during the Nazi War Crimes Courts at Nuremburg held just after

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The winner is announced Oct 25 and reviews of remaining titles are being added to nudge in the meantime.

This year’s Man Booker longlist is as eclectic as ever: Paul Beatty – The Sellout (Oneworld) Shortlisted J.M. Coetzee – The Schooldays of Jesus (Harvill Secker) A.L. Kennedy – Serious Sweet (Jonathan Cape) Deborah Levy – Hot Milk (Hamish Hamilton) Shortlisted Graeme Macrae Burnet – His Bloody Project (Contraband) Shortlisted Ian McGuire – The North Water (Scribner UK) David Means – Hystopia (Faber & Faber) Wyl Menmuir – The Many (Salt)

directory The reviewers have their say

For reasons of space some reviews have been edited but you will find them in full on nudge.

Tip: simply use dir90 as your search.

Ottessa Moshfegh – Eileen (Jonathan Cape) Shortlisted Virginia Reeves – Work Like Any Other (Scribner UK) Elizabeth Strout – My Name Is Lucy Barton (Viking) David Szalay – All That Man Is (Jonathan Cape) Shortlisted Madeleine Thien – Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Granta Books) Shortlisted

THE SELLOUT Paul Beatty Oneworld, pbk May 2016 ISBN - 9781786070159

Oneworld Publications are aiming to take the Man Booker Prize two years in a row after triumphing last year with Marlon James.

There can be said to be a number of similarities between that book and this – the African-American male author, the many cultural references that the British reader might struggle with, the mix of fact and fiction and both novels’ sheer edginess replete with words and images which may make the average reader feel uncomfortable. I’m not a huge fan of satire. I feel for it to work well you really need to know about the area being satirised but once I got into this I did really enjoy it.

The Sellout is the main character whose father talks down suicidal AfricanAmericans until he is shot by the Police. This prompts the son to begin a process of reversing civil rights achievements beginning by redefining the boundaries of his neighbourhood which had become so notorious it was wiped off the map then introducing priority seating for whites on the buses and re-establishing segregated schools all as a way of improving lives. The satire is biting, there is little of the African-American existence which Beatty doesn’t have his characters comment

upon and there are attacks on much of modern-day America.

I think that like the Bob Marley assassination attempt themed Brief History Of Seven Killings this may not appeal to the general reader and reading the “n” word so frequently is difficult whatever the context but there is much to enjoy in this profane battering-ram of a novel.

Phil Ramage Personal read ................★★★★ Group read.............................★★

EILEEN Ottessa Moshfegh Vintage, pbk Aug 2016 ISBN - 978784701468

reviews of a back seat when Rebecca, appointed to devise a curriculum at the prison arrives.

It is undoubtedly wellwritten and Moshfegh keeps us guessing throughout.

There were undertones of misery-lit at times (not my favourite genre) but Rebecca’s appearance adds a new dynamic to the proceedings and it is one sentence from her which changes the whole proceedings for the final section of the book, taking it into a direction I did not anticipate.

The character of Eileen is fascinating: naive, unpredictable and able to elicit responses from sympathy to revulsion from the reader. [However,] throughout you will her to get her life back on track and escape both the prison she works in and the one she has created for herself.

Phil Ramage

Eileen, American author Moshfegh’s second novel is a first person narrative, largely an escape plan by the title character, living in a place she calls X-Ville with her alcoholic ex-cop father.

Eileen is somewhat strange, with bizarre habits, rituals and hang-ups. She is an isolated figure, working in a boys’ prison as an administrator devising pointless questionnaires for the visiting mothers just to pass the time. As the story moves towards Christmas 1964 Eileen begins to plan her getaway from this existence (a plan we know succeeds as the narrator is Eileen looking back to this time). Her fantasies of killing her father and of being seduced by one of the prison guards all take more

Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

HIS BLOODY PROJECT Graeme Macrae Burnet Contraband, pbk Mar 2016 ISBN - 9781910192146

This is the second novel from this prizewinning author and it is superb. All the ingredients that make ripping and absorbing story are blended together with great skill. The setting is a remote part of the north of Scotland in the middle of the nineteenth century when

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reviews some remnants of clan antagonism still linger.

Roderick is the son of a crofter, a unique part of Scottish society, where the tenants have a strip of land on which to grow and rear their food. Roderick Macrae’s father is a dour difficult man, whose wife’s death has left the family devastated and at the mercy of his temper and violence.

In the tiny village even amidst the poverty there are social levels and Roderick’s family are the lowest and fall victim to the local bully.

The writer has skilfully researched the political and legal situation of the time and provided footnotes and references from whence he acquired his knowledge.

Indeed I thought I was enjoying a non-fiction book.

The writing flows, the characters jump from the page and the scenes are so well drawn you can smell the dung!

Sheila A. Grant Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

We’re in Culduie, a small crofting community, in 1869 and three brutal murders have taken place committed

by Roderick Macrae who is just seventeen. While he’s awaiting sentence, he tells us his story. We’re given other ‘historical’ documents to supplement this so in a sense we are like the jury in the book. This is well written and you have to keep reminding yourself that although some of the characters did actually exist these documents are pure fiction. Macrae Burnet does a fine job here and effortlessly slips between different styles. I also really believed in the crofting community and how

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claustrophobic it was. I felt the lead up to the crime itself was rather sudden and I wanted more at the end of the book somehow – a further twist. However, this book is great company and very stylish. There would be much for a book group to discuss too.

reviews haunting tale did not quite fully draw me in. The mysteries within the novel are purposely left unresolved as I knew all along they would be.

Phil Ramage Personal read ....................★★★ Group read.........................★★★

Claire Thomas Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

ALL THAT MAN IS David Szalay THE MANY Wyl Menmuir Salt Publishing, pbk Jun 2016 ISBN - 9781784630485

This short debut novel shows a very confident handling of mood and style.

In a small fishing village strange things are occurringthe fish look sick and deformed due to some form of chemical pollution and an outsider has come to live in the long abandoned house of a villager lost at sea.

This is a very edgy novel which borders upon horror but is perhaps more of a study of loss and loneliness.

It is told using the viewpoint of two characters, Ethan, who has lost a friend and Timothy who comes with many questions into the village and moves into the dead man’s house. He wants to find out more about the environment he is inhabiting but this information is not easy to come by.

I can appreciate the writing talent but I felt it was all a little at one level. There wasn’t enough light with the shade for me and this

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Jonathan Cape, hbk Apr 2016 ISBN - 9780224099769

I couldn’t help but think that what I was reading was a selection of short stories linked by a common theme and that might just hamper its chances to go all the way.

This, his fourth novel is in nine parts, each being a selfcontained tale of a man at a different stage of this life, beginning with 17 year old Simon backpacking in Germany and ending with his 73 year old grandfather, Tony, (the most explicit link between any of the stories) in Italy and contemplating his demise.

In each of the stories the main character is away from home, in a place where he feels, to some extent, an outsider, be it on holiday, work-related or an escape.

Each one of Szalay’s nine men views their life with something bordering on disappointment, whatever they are searching for in their travels doesn’t really materialise in the way that they hoped. Murray, in his mid 50’s, relocated to Croatia, really has little to

do and few friends to do it with, the much younger Bernard, a French man, expects to discover real life on a package holiday to Cyprus. Perhaps the least disappointed is journalist Kristian, a Dane on the scent of a grubby news story and the most disappointed Aleksandr, a wealthy Russian oligarch contemplating suicide on his yacht.

If this all sounds downbeat, it is not. In fact, the second section, Bernard’s holiday was one of the most laughout loud funny tales I’ve read in a long time. I think Szalay hits the nail on the head with many aspects of the male experience. His younger characters are motivated by sex (or lack of it) the middle aged by their careers and the elderly by impending doom. The final tale of a Knight of the Realm, whose important government job is behind him attempting to function alone in his holiday home in Italy is beautifully written and feels very poignant.

The nine stories all feel authentic and whereas I warmed to some more than others overall it is an impressive read. But is it a novel? And do I even need to worry about that too much? This would certainly be a discussion the Man Booker judges would be likely to be having. If it proves to be an important factor then it may very well be missing from the shortlist. If not....then it will deserve its place.

Maddy Broome Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

THE JOYCE GIRL Annabel Abbs Impress Books Jun 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781907605871

I knew nothing about James Joyce’s life before reading The Joyce Girl, but in this excellent novel Annabel Abbs transports the reader to Paris and the life of the Joyce family, and in particular that of Joyce’s daughter, Lucia. Finding her own success as a dancer, Lucia nevertheless struggles to emerge out of her famous father’s shadow. She is tied to him as both his muse and his secretary, but when Samuel Beckett comes to work for her father, Lucia sees her chance to marry him and to escape the shackles of her family. But is he attracted to Lucia, or her father?

I loved this novel. The lives of the Joyce family are vividly brought to life – not only James Joyce but his wife Nora, who also exerts control over Lucia’s life. It is not until much later in the novel, when Lucia is being seen by Carl Jung in Zurich that the reader finally learns of the Joyce family secret which Lucia has suppressed.

The author does an excellent job of conveying Lucia’s continual sense of being trapped within her family, with all paths of escape being gradually cut off. There are a number of famous people who make an appearance,

including Beckett and Zelda Fitzgerald, and the reader really does get a sense of their Paris lives in the 1920s.

The subject matter is both sad and enthralling as it’s inspired by true events and we learn Lucia was eventually confined to a series of mental institutions.

This is one of those hidden gems deserving of a far wider audience - well-researched, well-written and a fascinating story that will be unknown to many readers.

Lucia Joyce’s life is a worthy subject and readers will not be disappointed – I cannot recommend it enough.

Judith Griffith Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

HOW TO SET A FIRE AND WHY Jesse Ball TEXT Jul 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781925355475

This is a striking, memorable and moving first-person narrative of a fourteen yearold girl, Lucia Stanton, that evokes other classic young heroes such as Huckleberry Finn, David Copperfield, Owen Meany and (most closely) Holden Caulfield.

Lucia has a very distinctive voice and much to say. For the most part she is angry (with almost everyone) but your heart goes out to her.

In a series of quirky chapters - always accessible - Lucia describes her home and

school life with wit and humour in a whole series of memorable scenes that sometimes can wrench the heart. She lives with her elderly aunt in poverty having been effectively orphaned by her deceased father and a mother who lives in a mental institution.

The depiction of her regular visits to her mum are extremely poignant and her relationship with her aunt (the only one who truly loves her and can see the person beneath the brash exterior) is beautifully rendered.

Lucia goes through life with one golden rule: Don’t Do Things You Aren’t Proud Of. Although she is extremely bright (something that most of her teachers don’t seem to have discovered) she manages to get regularly expelled. Her most prized possessions are a book, a Zippo lighter and a pocket full of stolen liquorice. Lucia discovers a secret Arson Club and becomes fixated on joining it. She writes her own “Pamphlet” – a striking anarchist arson manifesto full of intelligence and biting wit.

This book is memorable for a number of reasons – its unusual format, its depiction of family and friendship, its wit and humour, but mostly for the voice of the teenaged whirlwind that is Lucia Stanton, a super-smart observer of life whose reflections and opinions grab your attention from the outset.

Ray Taylor Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

PAPER CUTS Colin Bateman Head of Zeus Aug 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781784973780

Rob Cullen a journalist with the Guardian, has returned to Bangor, a faded seaside town near Belfast, for the funeral of his mentor, Billy Maxwell. Maxwell had edited the Bangor Express and Rob is persuaded to stay on and help get the local paper back on its feet.

Small town, small stories, a family friendly paper which dare not offend its advertisers – this is a far cry from Rob’s usual job, but he sets to, with the help of owner Gerry, reporter Alix, Pete the human encyclopaedia, et al.

Rob has never explained why he has time off from the Guardian and whether his marriage is over, so he and Alix have a will they/won’t they relationship which is funny and touching. The final scenes are a shoot-out in a corner shop when a robbery goes wrong - a cracking ending in every way.

Colin Bateman is a genius at banter, wisecracks and sparring between the staff and the public. I laughed out loud in places, but the whole book is quietly witty.

Dorothy Anderson Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

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reviews appealing, and slightly confusing, especially in the finale.

With reading group questions included and some very obvious starting points for discussion, this would be an equally appealing group read as it is a personal read a strong debut.

Jade Craddock

THE LAST THING I REMEMBER Deborah Bee

Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

Twenty7 Jul 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781785770203

I’ve read several novels now in which the lead character is in a coma - a fascinating premise. There are, however, very obvious pitfalls [but] in her debut, Deborah Bee largely manages to eschew this problem with her protagonist, Sarah – in a coma, after what is presumed to be a mugging gone wrong – has to piece together the mystery of what happened to her.

Bee’s use of short chapters and strong dialogue ensures that Sarah’s narration never becomes too repetitive or introspective. But Sarah’s narrative is only half of the story – fourteen-year-old Kelly is Sarah’s next-door neighbour and friend, and it is here that Bee really hooks the reader, with a character so vital and vibrant that she fills the potential spaces left

by Sarah’s immobility.

She may not be politically correct and, as my nan would say, she could do with having her mouth washed out with soap, but she offers some surprisingly light relief – often unintentional – in an otherwise tense drama.

Two main storylines emerge which then merge into the wider story of the novel.

And whilst I favoured Kelly, I found her storyline the less

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THE HATCHING Ezekiel Boone Gollancz Jul 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781473217461

We face the fight against an ancient apocalyptic species.

The tension hits you right from page one and doesn’t abate as the global impact of an infestation so effective and so rapid has you turning each page.

The book travels between Peru, China, Afghanistan and USA [with] strong characters depicted throughout, none less than the feisty American president, initially bored during a nuclear threat simulation with China that suddenly becomes real when China deliberately sets off a nuclear explosion within their own country.

The book begins with a prologue that occurs in Peru.

A man named Miguel is a guide to some irritating wealthy Americans. Things aren’t right, but he, amidst their gripes, puts on an air of

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confidence he doesn’t feel at the lack of jungle background noise. Until all becomes revealed – and it’s scary as hell.

Boone has created a book that has a classic horror feel, something that I have sorely missed. But not only this, he has blended this into a modern setting, which is global and political, with entirely plausible characters and it feels very believable. It has that ‘under your skin’ creepy feel, but also delivers as a high octane thriller. It has the ability to appeal to a wide audience and looks to be the first of a series.

Boone also writes under the name of Alexi Zentner, but this is his debut as Boone.

Skilfully written and entirely gripping – I think it is likely to be a best seller, and I would recommend you give it a go.

Sara Garland Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read ................................★

GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT Lily Brooks-Dalton W&N Aug 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781474600583

The mirrored experiences of an ageing scientist, Augustine, stranded at a remote Arctic research station and an astronaut, Sullivan (Sully), returning from a several years trip to Jupiter along with her crew are the focus of this excellent

novel. Some catastrophic event has taken place on earth leaving the crew of the Aether unable to contact their home planet and Augustine unable to reach anybody outside the research station he decided to remain at when everybody else evacuated.

An outsider with limited scope for human relationships, a man who has always lived his life watching the stars rather than on earth, when Augustine discovers a little girl has been left behind he is forced into a parenting role completely alien to him after he rejected a chance to be a parent once before. While on the Aether Sully is facing up to what her decision to abandon her family for her vocation means, especially now she may never see them again.

The difficulties of being a good parent versus fully committing to a vocation are explored.

The two environments are strangely similar – the vast emptiness of the Arctic tundra, with its hostile environment, is a perfect parallel to the vast unknown of space and the dangerous environment. Good morning, midnight looks at dealing with loss and uncertainty, but also the concept of finding family in unexpected places.

Its shift between narratives was well chosen, linking these two people and their situations so completely. The two main characters were fleshed out well and, despite both being deeply flawed human beings, their plight was compelling. A very emotive and thoughtprovoking book.

Eleanor King Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

DEAR AMY Helen Callaghan Michael Joseph Jun 2016 hbk ISBN - 9780718183080

As recently as 2 weeks ago, Katie Browne, a school girl taught by Margot Lewis has gone missing. It had been presumed she has run away, given the issues she was experiencing at home, but what if this wasn’t the case?

Margot Lewis is Dear Amy, the agony aunt for a local paper called the Examiner as well as an enthusiastic and passionate teacher. She receives a letter stating “I have been kidnapped by a strange man who says I can never go home. I am afraid he will kill me. Please help” – Bethan Avery. But Bethan has been missing for 2 decades!

Margot takes the letter to the police where she expects it to be brushed off as a hoax. Whilst initially dismissive, the police quickly go on to take the letter more seriously and seek to investigate further. A second letter is received after which Margot is contacted by Dr Martin Forrester, a criminologist from the Multi-Disciplinary Historical Analysis Unit (MHAU).

The story is as much about Margot as it is about the story of missing girls. As a young woman she has had quite dark and traumatic life experiences. These events

bring these to the fore at a time when she is going through a separation and divorce from her contriving husband. She is a bright, intelligent and likeable character with plenty of normal human flaws.

The discourse is rapid and intriguing, much information is packed in and it gushes along at a rapid pace, keeping you guessing are the letters genuine or not?

It is an impressive debut tightly spun and an intriguing web of psychological suspense which I enjoyed from start to end.

Sara Garland Personal read ................★★★★ Group read.............................★★

the scene for the rest of his life.

In the Vietnam War Rook is a photographer, separating Rook and his wife, June, for long periods of time.

However, I feel that June understood his need to work even though it took Rook away from her and their son.

However, she was less successful in her career and resentment began to set in.

After June’s death, Rook returns to Vietnam to revisit the places he knew well during the war. His son joins him with the intention of bringing Rook home for his wife’s funeral. However, they talk and a lot of Ralph’s questions are answered and he begins to understand why his father is as he is.

The book is about the choices we make in life and how they affect us and those around us.

Enjoyed the book and would recommend it. It would also be a good book for a book group as there are lots of topics for discussion.

Dorothy Flaxman Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH Emma Chapman

Jan Jeffery Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read.........................★★★

Picador Jul 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781509816545

Rook Henderson is an award-winning photographer, still carrying the hidden scars of war.

Now, suddenly, he is also a widower. Leaving his son Ralph to pick up the pieces, Rook flies to Vietnam for the first time in fifty years, escaping to a place he once knew so well.

Alternating between the present and the 1960s, the crux of the story begins in 1947, [when] Rook is given his first camera which sets

dark haired woman in a red dress is caught in a landslide, triggered by torrential rain, which engulfs the croft she is in, thought by locals to be uninhabited. The landslide also crosses the main Lerwick to Sumburgh road, thus inconveniencing road users. But it turns out that she was already dead. How? Who was she? (Not a local) How did she die?

I have not watched the BBC series Shetland, but I have spent some time in the archipelago and was impressed by Ann Cleeves’ accurate and atmospheric description of the scenery the weather, the winter darkness, the local people and their interconnectedness.

The brilliant plot had me gripped and I was surprised at the final revelation. The author led me to suspect several others but not the real murderer. I felt that the romantic element was unnecessary, but perhaps other readers would look for this in a good book.

I recommend this book as an engrossing, cleverly constructed mystery.

COLD EARTH Ann Cleeves Macmillan Oct 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781447278214

This is the seventh crime novel in the Shetland series, featuring Jimmy Perez as detective and now made into a TV drama. A beautiful

We have nudge Recommended Reads as well but they are ONLY AVAILABLE at nudge-book.com because they are smaller quantities.

Just some are illustrated over the following pages . . .

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THE CONSTANT QUEEN Joanna Courtney Macmillan Sept 2016 pbk ISBN - 97814472-82013

Elizaveta is an adventurous, unconventional, headstrong princess in Kiev. Harald Hardrada is a fearless Viking warrior. Set against the stunning backdrops of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and the Orkneys this novel follows their remarkable love story.

Not a period of history with which I am familiar so I found The Constant Queen, starting as it does in 1031 and culminating in 1066 with the Battle of Hastings, enlightening and informative. It is also a really good read, difficult to put down and full of graphic action, beautiful descriptions which perfectly capture place and time, and, of course, the emotional, steadfast love story which underpins the entire tale.

I would highly recommend this - a fast paced historical read; apparently the second in a trilogy but can certainly be read as a stand alone. I am now keen to read the previous novel and eagerly looking forward to the final book.

PS Don't skip the end notes fascinating!

Kathy Jesson Personal read ................★★★★ Group read.........................★★★

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THE INVISIBLE MILE David Coventry Picador Jun 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781509822942

This debut novel is based on the true story of the New Zealand team in the 1928 Tour de France, the first English speaking team to enter. Underprepared and under-resourced, they are scarcely expected to finish, but as they cycle through a France still marred by the ravages of WW1, the narrator is forced to confront his own past.

Although a well conceived addition to the comparatively small genre of sporting literature – alone a sufficient recommendation – I found the overall result disappointing. The story was difficult to follow and confusing, not helped by the ‘stream of consciousness’ writing. Similarly, the short sentences seemed to make the narrative more disjointed.

This seems particularly true of the ending. Although this can, perhaps, be justified on the grounds that it reflects the riders’ own state of incoherence, it appears to leave the book unfinished.

Ultimately, if I understand it correctly, the narrator paid a very high price.

At times, the writing does become more lyrical; starting to reflect the cadence of the cyclists.

Although there is no

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denying the suffering of the riders, it is perhaps unfortunate that the author’s best writing comes across as an encomium to pain.

Similarly, although the narrator’s own recollections are confused, I found the similarities in human cost between the War and “Le Tour” striking.

Ultimately I find this novel disappointing, although in its defence, it does convey well the hardships endured by the cyclists. The inaugurator of the Tour de France once commented that the ideal cycle race would only have one finisher. The fact that, despite improved bicycle engineering, the race remains so challenging today suggests that his vision has been fulfilled.

Nicholas Cutler Personal read ....................★★★ Group read.............................★★

THE CRIME WRITER Jill Dawson Sceptrer Jun 2016 hbk ISBN - 978144473111

I was drawn to this book, not by the Patricia Highsmith connection but because I had so much enjoyed Jill Dawson’s novel Fred and Edie, published in 2006 [and an nb Recommended Read in issue 6!]. So when I saw another book by Dawson to review I was enthusiastic to read it although my knowledge of

Patricia Highsmith’s work is limited to the film The Talented Mr Ripley.

An intriguing blend of fact and fiction, The Crime Writer follows a short period in Highsmith’s life when she was living in a small Suffolk village in the 1960s, writing a novel A Suspension of Mercy, but also more importantly to the plot of The Crime Writer, writing the non-fiction Plotting and Writing Crime Fiction.

What we see in Dawson’s novel is partly Highsmith (or Pat she appears on the page) engaged in day to day activities in the village, meeting her friend Ronnie, her neighbour Mrs Ingham and the mysterious journalist Virginia Smythson-Balby.

Meanwhile we have Pat’s thoughts on what she’s writing, her imagining of what it would be like to actually murder someone and most interestingly of all some glimpses into her unhappy childhood and adolescence.

Written in wonderfully descriptive prose, it’s a complex book combining accounts of Pat’s personal demons, an insight into the process of writing crime fiction (on its purpose and appeal) and also a frightening description of Pat’s descent into a mental breakdown.

It was a book I didn’t want to end and has made me intensely interested in reading more of Highsmith’s work and also learning more about her life. I’m reading Carol at the moment which has echoes in the plot as, according to the author’s notes, do many of Highsmith’s other works.

It’s a book I can’t praise too highly and I’m sure Highsmith fans will enjoy it

even more as they appreciate the many references to Highsmith’s writing.

Sue Glynn Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s debut - The Language of Flowers – was a runaway international success, so if you enjoyed that you are likely to enjoy this one too. It has a similar tone and themes of family and developing self-worth.

This is a lovely book that I would highly recommend.

Eleanor King Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

WE NEVER ASKED FOR WINGS Vanessa Diffenbaugh Picador Jun 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781447294511

Letty has made many mistakes in her life, one of which was letting her mother raise her children.

When Letty’s mother leaves, Letty is left with two children she barely knows, teenager, Alex, and six year old, Luna. Letty is convinced she is not up to the job, that she is not good enough to be a mother to her children, but has no choice but to try, desperately floundering as she goes. She must also gain the forgiveness of her children, who have been adversely affected by the choices she has made in her life.

This is a beautiful story of striving for redemption and how people can change if they really put their mind to it. The shape of Letty’s family by the end of the novel is very different to how it started. The idea that family can be found in the unlikeliest of places is also a strong theme as the secondary characters in the novel are pulled into Letty’s orbit.

MISS YOU Kate Eberlen Mantle Aug 2016 hbk ISBN - 1509819932

Apart from a brief encounter in 1997 and a couple of near-misses along the way, Tess and Gus’s stories remain distinctly separate. This is not so much the story of their interconnecting lives but rather their disconnected lives. There are marriages, children, divorces, death [which] seem to follow parallel lines. The little cameos they play in each other’s lives are recognisable only to the reader.

As for their lives themselves, Tess and Gus’s stories offer little of any startling novelty [although], there are some nice subplots. It is only in the fifth part of the novel that Eberlen decides whether this will be a story of what might have been or of what will be, and it was here for me that the novel picked up [which] does seem

a fair amount of preamble.

That the ending has the potential to define the novel as one genre or another – and polar opposites at that – tragedy or romance – was hugely appealing, although you might say, the outcome seems inevitable. But having chosen to take one path, I couldn’t help but wonder just what the novel might have looked like had Eberlen elected for the other. That’s not to take away from the ending, in many ways it saves the novel, but at the same time it does not offer anything particularly distinctive or unexpected.

It was always going to be a difficult job for Miss You to bring something refreshing, unforeseen and amazing to the genre.

Jade Craddock Personal read ....................★★★ Group read.........................★★★

WHISPERS THROUGH A MEGAPHONE Rachel Elliott One Aug 2016 pbk ISBN - 978-0992918262

Longlisted for 2016’s Baileys Women’s Prize, [we focus on] thirty-five year old Miriam Delaney, and Ralph Swoon, a psychotherapist with twin teenage sons.

When the novel opens, it has been three years since Miriam last left her house.

Tossing a coin essentially hands Miriam back her

freedom: ‘Heads I could be part of the world, tails I’ll always be outside it’. When she does make it out of the house, Elliott wonderfully describes her inner world.

Ralph receives the curveball on his birthday, of all days, that his wife no longer loves him. He decides to move out without informing her, taking what little he needs, and setting up camp in an abandoned shed in the woods. Miriam comes across him, running, as she does, into the woods in fright.

The wholly platonic relationship between the pair which follows is rather heartwarming; it’s rather refreshing to read a novel in which a romance is not automatically sparked under such circumstances. Elliott has a witty, comical way of writing, and her descriptions particularly are quite original.

Whispers Through a Megaphone is about people in all of their many horrid, wonderful forms. It is an engaging and surprising read, in which each and every character who peppers the pages has his or her own personal crisis to deal with.

The relationships which Elliott builds are complex, but one gets a feel for them almost as soon as each character is introduced [while] the structure, in which alternate chapters follow Miriam and Ralph, works wonderfully.

A lovely uplifting read, which is perfect for every season.

Kirsty Hewitt Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

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BELGRAVIA Julian Fellowes W&N Jun 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781474604154

On the evening before the Battle of Waterloo a magnificent ball was held in Brussels. News that Napoleon was advancing meant the Duke of Wellington and his officers had to leave to fight. [So in the first chapter] we meet Sophia Trenchard, the daughter of Wellington’s chief supplier, who has fallen in love with aristocratic Edmund. The story then moves on to 1841 when the repercussions of what happened in Brussels are coming to light.

As you would expect from Julian Fellowes, the period feel is very well done. The social divide between the noble Bellasis family and the upwardly mobile – but still in trade – Trenchards is cleverly drawn, especially the snobbery shown by some characters. We know more about the secret that is about to be exposed than most of the characters but the enjoyment is in seeing their reactions. And there are still twists and turns making it a real page turner, leading to a dramatic and satisfying climax.

It is an undemanding read but still very enjoyable. As the author is Julian Fellowes it is probably not possible to read it without thinking of

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reviews Downton Abbey and indeed there are similarities. Maybe some of the characters are rather one-dimensional but that is what you would expect in a light, elegant novel. A good choice too for reading groups as there would be plenty to discuss about both the period ideas and comparisons with Downton Abbey.

Berwyn Peet Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

BEING A BEAST: ADVENTURES ACROSS THE SPECIES DIVIDE Charles Foster Profile Aug 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781474604154

Have you ever wondered just what it would be like to be an eagle soaring on thermals or a stag surveying your territory? Some of us may have whilst walking in the countryside or over a contemplative drink, but Charles Foster wanted to know what it was like.

Really, really wanted to know… So he chose five different animals; swift, deer, fox, otter and badger, and would try to live their lives as best he could.

He spent six weeks with his son living as a badger inside a hill in Wales in a sett that a friend of his with a JCB had excavated. His friend would leave meals for them to scavenge; but they went for it, eating earthworms and

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other things that the forest provided, trying to move around on all fours to get a badger’s eye view of the woods they were in. Trying to mimic what an otter does, meant that he spent quite a while splashing around in rivers failing to catch fish, and leaving his own spraints along the banks.

This book is very different to the usual ones that you will read on wildlife. By making the effort to see things from the animal point of view, he has given us a very, very different perspective on the natural world. That and he is a little bit mad… But it works; drawing on neuroscience and psychology his efforts to emulate the lives of the five animals give him an insight to their daily struggle for survival. There are some amusing moments, and there were parts that I found revolting; but it was refreshing to read something with a very different perspective to the usual natural history books.

to move to Westport, Connecticut looking for the quiet suburban life. That’s where she meets Dominic – her, handsome and kind, landlord and a single dad.

The book takes you on a journey through their flourishing relationship and has an ending that will definitely pull on the heartstrings.

It was something a little different for me, as I don’t normally read romantic fiction but I found the characters and relationship believable. I thought it was an emotional and thought provoking tale of modern day love, which I would highly recommend to individuals and book groups.

Angela Kent Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

really help the reader understand the characters – who themselves are indeed complex and mysterious.

There are actually very few characters that aren’t hiding something; their secrets ranging from the small to the devastating. I loved this about The Primrose Path; the way some people aren’t quite what they seem, whilst others are exactly who they profess to be.

The first half definitely starts slowly - a good job, really, because there are lots of different people, relationships and links to get your head around. Because of this, I did wonder if I’d soon lose interest, but once the characters are a little more established the story ramps up a gear, and you begin to understand the secrets lurking beneath the surface… Or you think you understand, anyway!

I’d definitely recommend this novel – it slowly draws you in, leaving you feeling, at the end, that you haven’t wasted a moment reading it.

Paul Cheney

Laura Nazmdeh

Personal read ....................★★★ Group read.........................★★★

Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

with flawed plans for their future, from the fat artist of the book’s title to Peter, trying to get his life back on track in the last story in the collection, The Minus World.

I really enjoyed reading this collection – which gets better as you progress, my favourites being Leftovers, about a man having an affair; Venus at her Mirror, where the narrative is about a female dominatrix, and The Minus World, which tells the story of Peter and his attempt to keep his new job transporting squid.

Benjamin Hale perfectly captures the inner voice of his varied characters, and the result is a wonderful eclectic collection which is well worth reading. There are plenty of discussion points for reading groups, and worth reading for The Minus World alone. Benjamin Hale saved the best for last!

Judith Griffith Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

THE PRIMROSE PATH Rebecca Griffiths Sphere Aug 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781474604154

FALLING Jane Green Macmillan Jul 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781474604154

This is the compelling story of Emma. After growing up in England and leaving to pursue her banking career in Manhattan, Emma decides

A fairly slow burner [that] bit by bit, develops into a real page turner, filled with mystery and suspense.

The writing in this novel is fantastic; Rebecca Griffiths strikes the perfect balance between including plenty of description, without being too long winded. She really paints the scene in the reader’s head. All this information is given that at times seems surplus to the story, but all contributes to

STALINGRAD: THE CITY THAT DEFEATED THE THIRD REICH Jochen Hellbeck THE FAT ARTIST AND OTHER STORIES Benjamin Hale

Public Affairs Oct 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781509830305

Picador Sep 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781509830305

This engaging, five hundred page tome, is by a notable professor of history at Rutgers University, who specializes in Russian History. His use of

A collection of seven short stories with some unusual characters - either flawed or

transcripts is remarkable, from soldiers to officers, from pilots to nurses; all get a mention in whatever guises they performed during the winter months of 1942-43.

He utilized various august bodies to assist him, mainly for translation reasons, but together they have produced a definitive record of the Russian Stalingrad battle.

Some details are repeated within various transcripts, which serve to bring to life each person’s story, and neatly cross-references the situations, for instance Paulus and his capitulation.

This is spoken about by many people, and leaves us in no doubt about how and when it happened.

Make no mistake, a lot of these transcripts make harrowing reading, it also dispels a lot of myths and untruths told about the Russians, many of whom did not even know Stalingrad existed before the war. Many black and white pictures accompany the narrative which serve to humanize the people and show how it was in reality.

A website facingstalingrad.com - takes us further still in relation to the book. First published in Germany in 2012, then in America, I cannot recommend this enough, but it is a specialist subject and not for the faint hearted.

Reg Seward Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read ................................★

BLACKWATER James Henry riverrun Jul2016 hbk ISBN - 9781780879772

The first week of 1983 is a busy one for the police in Colchester – a headless corpse on the road, a dead soldier in the castle park and two bodies in a council house. Enter DI Nick Lowry and his colleagues in what is to be the first in a series.

There are many strands to this novel and Henry weaves them competently into a seamless read. He also provides an interesting glimpse into the different practices of the police force and the Military Police, and the tensions between army and locals that exist in a town which houses barracks.

Set in a time without computers or mobile phones, we re-visit stereotypes familiar from 1970/80s TV cop shows, where sexism is rife, it’s a man’s world and boxing results are more important than clear-up rates. A bit of a trip down memory lane for those of us who remember the 1980s, it might almost be branded an historical police procedural for a younger generation unused to the notion of senior police officers carelessly punching people to get the answers they want and drinking on duty as a matter of course.

The characters, especially

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reviews the females, came across as stereotypes with such a lack of depth I felt totally indifferent to all of them.

Such a substantial book requires either a gripping plot or a deeper exploration of character to sustain it, whereas this one, lacking both, had a lot of padding that I feel would have benefitted from editing.

Although the plot is wellwoven, it does meander somewhat which detracts from the pace and makes it an entertaining rather than enthralling read.

I feel the ending let it down, not least in leaving so many threads unresolved.

Personally I prefer an author to complete a book that is good enough to make me want to read the next one on the basis of the writing, not because it would be the only way to find out what failed to be adequately rounded off – there’s a difference between feeling intrigued and feeling cheated.

Clare Donaldson Personal read ....................★★★ Group read.............................★★ See also Phil ramage’s 3/3 review on nudge.

nudge Recommended Read The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent

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reviews full of admiration for Debbie Howells.

Involving from the first page, gripping, suspenseful, with links to the legal and medical world – an excellent read.

Dorothy Anderson Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

THE BEAUTY OF THE END Debbie Howells Pan Jul2016 pbk ISBN - 97814472781222

This is an exciting and engrossing take on the modern fiction style of moving backwards and forwards in time to reveal secrets.

Noah is a writer and lawyer, his friend Will is a doctor and at the beginning of the book their school friend April is in a coma, having stabbed a man and tried to kill herself. When they were teenagers, Noah was obsessed with April, a girl of many secrets and he feels the need to find out more. If she survives, she will need a lawyer.

He is plunged in to a world where no one seems to be straight with him. He is naive, Will is manipulative and April is a mystery.

Interspersed with Noah’s story are chapters headed ‘Ella’ which tell of a teenager’s sessions with a counsellor. Gradually the links begin to appear but not in the way you might think.

Debbie Howells has done a fine job of revealing just enough at each stage of the story to keep the suspense going and fool the most careful reader. .

I have become impatient recently with novels like this which aspire to be Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, but I am

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THE RAJ AT WAR: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF INDIA’S SECOND WORLD WAR Dr. Yasmin Khan Vintage Jun 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781509830305

Although the Second World War [is now] history, any number of books are still being written about it. I knew precious little about.

One discovers plenty of examples of how we, the British overseers, used the Indian populace as convenient soldiers in order to supplement our own diminishing ranks.

Recruitment through the villages meant entire communities were left struggling to make ends meet. The other side of the coin is that, after the war, when many Indian soldiers had proved their mettle in battle, they sought to reside in the United Kingdom; they then relied on many recommendations from their British officers to be allowed to do so - the beginning of

[our] Indian communities, as they ably assisted in rebuilding the nation.

Dr. Yasmin Khan, an Associate Professor of History at Oxford, has written a first class book. I was staggered at her revelations on how the British government basically did nothing to quell the famine that struck Bengal in, or about 1943. Whilst content to use the Indian men in conflicts around the world, the British military and government largely ignored the Indian subcontinent strife, despite pleas from our own people to supplement the supplies needed. No wonder then that Independence was called for in so many vociferous ways.

It is a bitter, sweet story throughout, as largely uneducated people from different castes, joined together during the war years. Especially poignant to me was one mother’s demand that a third son stayed at home after two others were sent off to war, only for that third son to die of typhoid at home while the other two survived.

Reg Seward Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read.............................★★

nudge Recommended Read Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

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DEAR MR M. Herman Koch Picador Aug 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781447294696

Judging by Herman Koch’s previous novels I thought this was unlikely to be a straightforward thriller but more of a morality tale - and so it proves. A young, married high school teacher has a brief liaison with his 17-year-old student only to be passed over in favour of her unprepossessing, badboy classmate, Herman. The teacher can’t believe it and is reluctant to let go. The teenaged couple sets off for a holiday together at an isolated cottage. The teacher drops by unannounced during a snowstorm and is never seen again. No body is found and police investigation reaches no conclusion about the teacher’s fate. A novelist (Mr M of the title) is intrigued by the story and uses it as the basis for a novel in which the teacher is murdered by the teenagers.

Years pass and Herman is all grown up and living (coincidentally?) in the flat immediately below Mr M. We start with his narration, asking the central question of whether it is ethical for a writer of fiction to [use] real people and events. Herman plans to set the record straight and we are led to wonder what other plans he might have for Mr M. So far,

so good, I was drawn in and enjoyed the suspense and tension created in this part of the book.

On the downside, the rebellious, arrogant youth’s criticisms of the teaching profession are too long and repetitive. Similarly, Mr M’s thoughts on his fellow authors and publishers soon became a slightly tedious rant.

We are kept waiting till the end to find out what really happened that day and I did like the way the action unfolded right up to the final page. Teachers have been well represented in every book club I’ve known so I’m not sure how much favour it would find with groups.

Sue Broom Personal read ....................★★★ Group read.........................★★★

resolution can be a bit knotty, and there was a slight sense of that but the plot [is] understandable, logical and believable. Kubica’s option for dual narration not only keeps the pace up but is a compelling choice [creating] a very real sense of her narrators as individuals [with] flaws and histories.

The action at the heart of the novel also throws up an interesting question about the effects of parenting and upbringing and the old nature/nurture debate, which I imagine will prove especially fruitful for reading groups. As too, I suspect, will the ending, which although fairly neatly wrapped up, does leave one wondering just what the future holds for these characters – and how they will move forward from here.

Jade Craddock Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

DON’T YOU CRY Mary Kubica Mira Aug 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781848454767

Jumping straight into the action from the first word, when Quinn discovers her roommate Esther is AWOL, Kubica continues to keep the suspense on a knife-edge all the way through. Better still, Kubica seems to guide you towards the truth only to reveal that things aren’t quite so straightforward.

I sometimes feel that in pulling off these surprising, innovative plots, the

THE PAPER MENAGERIE & OTHER STORIES Ken Liu Head of Zeus Oct 2016 pbk ISBN - 97811784975678

All the stories flow seamlessly, thoroughly visual in impact, marking a great fiction writer. But all left this reader thinking deeply about issues of race, integration, the past and future but also personal morality flowing from either simple or greater choices. Liu is a translator too, so a number of the stories have deep foundations in Chinese history and mythology – an intriguing and eye opening mix.

It is hard to select a few stories to describe from this brilliant selection [but] in the title story Liu painfully explores the complexities of immigrant family life in America, with a living origami tiger. On an even more serious note in The Man Who Ended History – a Documentary details of Unit 731 (a Japanese Imperial Army Medical Research Centre) are deeply embedded in a story exploring who owns history – complicated by modern political issues and imperatives.

This is an excellent volume; entertaining, questioning, with mind stretching ideas and places. And if you are interested in history, or China and its myths, an especially good read. Book groups should have a wonderful time with this one.

Hilary White Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

This is a truly wonderful selection from a first rate story teller, reflecting both his Chinese and American immigrant background as well as a number of possible futures, or alternative presents.

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reviews

VALENTINA SE Lynes Blackbird Digital Books Jul 2016 pbk ISBN - 9780993307089

Since Gone Girl, there has been a bevy of psychological thrillers, [so] I was refreshingly surprised when I found myself hooked by Valentina from the get-go.

Shona is a modest, sensible journalist until she falls head over heels for Mikey and ends up having his baby.

After Mikey gets a job working offshore on an oil rig in the North Sea, the young couple decides to move to Aberdeenshire - an idyllic cottage in the remote countryside and soon Mikey divulges that he will spend two weeks every month in the cottage while the rest he spends offshore at the oil rig.

Shona, sleep deprived and fatigued by new motherhood, naively agrees to this arrangement. Shona, in an effort to reclaim her lapsing insanity, resolutely sets about mingling with other new moms at a daycare and runs into Valentina, with her toddler, Zac. They instantly hit it off and in no time, become close friends.

Valentina, with her bizarre dressing and numerous idiosyncrasies seems like a dodgy personality from the start.

The highlight of this book is definitely its evocative, layered prose. There are

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reviews some very clever plot twists [and] Lynes etches out living breathing characters [and this] soon morphs from a domestic noir to a fast paced thriller centred on the battle of wills between Shona and Valentina.

I will be looking forward to reading more of Lynes’ work as her debut is a sinister, deliciously wicked foray into the dark recesses of our personality. Valentina has something to say about how far will we go to protect our loved ones, and moreover, our idealistic notions when it comes to our most intimate relationships.

Rabeea Saleem Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

relations with the upper classes, and why this incident is the beginning of the ‘autoclaps’, the disaster towards which the novel is heading.

Different characters come on stage, strut and fret their hour, then retire to the background as another emerges to carry the story.

Some characters felt overly familiar – the blind Ma Taffy could have been any of Toni Morrison’s dominant black matriarchs – but Miller’s writing is clear and precise and avoids the excesses of sentimentality.

The novel is an easy read, but carries moments that live on in the memory. It’s a reminder of how one event can become the story of a place and the history of its people.

Stephen Joyce Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

AUGUSTOWN Kei Miller W&N Jul 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781474603591

Jamaican literature is on the rise. If you enjoyed Marlon James’ Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings, then you’ll also enjoy this fine new novel.

Augustown is one of the poorer areas of Kingston and the novel begins with an event that cracks open the racial and class divides in the city – a young Rastafarian boy has his dreadlocks chopped off by a teacher at school. Beginning with this moment, we get the folk history of Augustown, the lives of its people, their

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TRULY MADLY GUILTY Liane Moriarty Michael Joseph Jul 2016 hbk ISBN - 0718180275

For me Liane Moriarty is one of the best authors, particularly in the women’s fiction genre in which she writes, at cleverly structuring and pacing a novel for maximum effect and engagement. This is the second I’ve read this year, and whilst Three Wishes

slightly edges this one in my view, one can’t question Moriarty’s ability to craft brilliantly thoughtprovoking and relatable domestic dramas. [Here the] focus is three couples and their children – and one consequential evening they spend together at a barbeque at Tiffany and Vid’s house.

Although what happens at the barbeque is significant and has repercussions for each of the families, I did expect something more momentous. Having said that, I loved the way Moriarty portrayed the possibility of an ordinary day turning completely on its axis in the blink of an eye.

The relationships in the novel are really interesting too; those between husband and wife, between parents and children, and a particularly fascinating exploration of friendship with that of Clementine and Erika.

There’s a very acute psychological realism and a very perceptive understanding of character that makes this a compelling personal read, whilst there are plenty of questions that make this an equally fruitful group read. Liane Moriarty is an author readers can rely on again and again to give them a well-told, intriguing story.

Jade Craddock Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

TRAVELERS REST Keith Lee Morris W&N Oct 2016 pbk ISBN - 9780297608943

Travelers Rest follows the story of Dewey Addison, his Uncle Robbie, and his parents Julia and Tonio.

When the family stops to rest in the town of Good Night, they never dream that they will become separated, or that they’ll end up caught in a complex web of parallel lives in a mysterious town filled with quirky residents. Will they ever find their way back to each other, and more importantly, will they ever be able to lay the past to rest?

Without including too many scary moments, the author has given this book a real Stephen King twist. The fierce snowstorm which envelops the town brings about a mysterious, claustrophobic feel which is reminiscent of the science fiction great – but here, the ending is so much more satisfying than many of King’s works.

This isn’t a book for everyone. However, if you’re a fan of science fiction and Stephen King style writing, or if you’re just looking to try something new, then the mystery and intrigue which unfolds will have you gripped from the first page to the last.

Nicola Porrill

A MAD AND WONDERFUL THING Mark Mulholland Scribe Jun 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781925228564

Johnny Donnelly lives in a town on the Irish border during the 1990s. He leads a double life as a charming, considerate, church-going young Irishman who is also an IRA sniper, killing in cold blood. Is Johnny a modernday Cuchulainn fighting for his beloved country? Or just an angry young man who likes a fight?

There is some exquisite and lyrical writing in this book which takes the reader on a trip around Ireland as well as exploring Irish mythology but the book as a whole has a schizophrenic feel to it.

While this mirrors the behaviour of the protagonist, I felt disappointed that the author failed to convince me that both aspects of Johnny were one and the same person, I couldn’t reconcile their differences. Or maybe it’s just that I didn’t like Johnny resorting to violence as a solution to all his issues?

Mulholland himself refers to the schizophrenia of the Irish as portrayed via the stereotype of Irish males being apparently so generous in the pub then violent at home.

This is a novel of contradictions – a parallel of Ireland itself. It’s not a

comfortable read but that also is a reflection of Ireland, a country that isn’t at peace with itself. When I finished the book I felt emotionally drained – it packed such a powerful punch that I still can’t decide, days later, if I actually enjoyed it.

This is a first novel and it clearly demonstrates that Mark Mulholland fulfils another one of those Irish stereotypes – he really knows how to tell a story.

Clare Donaldson Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

PARIS SPRING James Naughtie Head of Zeus Sept 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781784080198

The story takes place mainly in Paris and during the serious unrest in 1968.

There are a few sets of circumstances which are a little hard to believe, but who can really know what happens in the world of spies?

Although complex, this is quite a quick read. The characters are introduced in a way that is easy to follow without needing a detailed list in the first few pages.

However, at first it is hard to understand where one group of characters belongs in relation to another group and who have more diverse backgrounds, but the connection becomes clearer as the story unfolds. The

challenge in the plot is to resolve the mystery of who is working for whom and why, which continues through to the end. Even at the end, has the book really finished or is there scope to pick up the story and what happens about some of the background characters again after a few years?

Books with a spy background are not my usual genre but I found the story enjoyable with many side issues to the overall plot.

Lynda Price Personal read ....................★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

THE LOVERS OF AMHERST William Nicholson Quercus Jul 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781848666504

I was hoping for more from this book as I have read and enjoyed other books by William Nicholson and I knew this one was about Emily Dickinson so was hoping to find out more about her. Her poetry does play a large part in the story but she is a minor shadowy figure.

There are two love stories. In 1881 Mabel Todd moved to Amherst with her husband and fell in love with Austin, an older married man who was a pillar of society and the brother of Emily Dickinson. In alternate chapters we have the fictional present day story of

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reviews Alice who makes a short visit to Amherst to research a screenplay about Mabel and Austin.

The historical story is intriguing though I found it difficult to empathise with the characters’ rather self indulgent passion even though much seems to have been taken from their real letters. The affair between Alice and Nick, an older man who she meets in Amherst seems to be there to point out some of the parallels and so that they can have long discussions about Emily’s poetry. This felt very contrived and I couldn’t relate to them.

There are many quotations from Emily’s poetry which I found interesting and enlightening and I enjoyed Mabel’s story but the book didn’t live up to my expectations though it does succeed in making you want to know more about Emily. I can see members of a book group having very varied reactions and so it would certainly lead to much discussion.

Berwyn Peet Personal read ....................★★★ Group read.........................★★★

nudge Recommended Read The Outrun by Amy Liptrot

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reviews

SOUTH Frank Owen

THE TRAVELERS Chris Pavone

DEAD SILENT Mark Roberts

Corvus Jul 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781782399612

Faber & Faber Aug 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781782399612

Head of Zeus Oct 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781784082925

South by Frank Owen is the latest in the line of recent post-apocalyptic novels. Set in America which has once again been divided by civil war between the northern and southern states, South tells the story of two brothers, Dyce and Garrett Jackson, on the run from a group of men whose family’s reputation precedes them.

Along the way they meet Vida, bucking the trend for lone travellers, with her own secret reasons for travelling.

This is a new take on the post-apocalyptic novel; one which also obviously nods at American history. Frank Owen (a pseudonym for two authors, Diane Awerbuck and Alex Latimer) manages to do a convincing job of portraying life in a divided country ravaged by civil war and plague (albeit we are only granted the slightest of glimpses at the North, which makes me wonder if there will be a future North novel?) I liked the two main characters and I thought that the plot was convincing.

The novel has plenty of discussion points for reading groups and is definitely one to read if you enjoy this genre.

I was eager to read this, after thoroughly enjoying his first book, The Expats. Will Rhodes is a correspondent for a luxury travel magazine (The Travelers of the title).

On a trip to Argentina Will gets more than he bargained for and his life as he knows it is turned upside down. The thrills then start apace as Will tries to uncover the myriad secrets and lies surrounding him. The characters are well drawn and believable and the story moves around the world with Will. My only negative comment would be that you have to concentrate on all the twists otherwise it would be very confusing.

I don’t want to give away any more than that, as the twists and turns in this pacy thriller will keep you guessing to the end. If you enjoy a fast moving thriller then I can definitely recommend The Travelers. The book reminded me of the standalone thrillers of Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay.

I would rate this higher for personal read than book group, as personally I don’t think that thrillers work as well when being discussed by a group.

Leonard Lawson was a respected professor of medieval art. He lived a quiet life in a suburb of Liverpool, with his grown up daughter. As far as anyone knew, he had no enemies. Louise Lawson watched her father die.

Before she blacked out, she saw his body mutilated and deformed, twisted into a hellish parody of the artworks he loved.

Investigating a killer bringing medieval horror to Merseyside, DCI Eve Clay must overcome her own demons to unpick the dark symbolism of the crime scene.

This is a ‘grown-up’ book in that some of the content is grisly to say the least. The story involved intense cruelty from the murderer and it is very, very creepy in places.

DCI Clay and her team are typical of this type of book.

Eve’s story is that she grew up in a Catholic Children’s home and she is an example of how someone can survive this and come out the other side as a person able to achieve dreams and ambitions.

Unfortunately, I read a lot of this type of book and the police teams melt into similar characters. In other

Judith Griffith

Carolyn Fraser

Personal read ................★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

Personal read ................★★★★ Group read.........................★★★

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words, this book had nothing different to offer in this respect. The police are all dedicated and singleminded in getting the job done and the crime solved.

The characters are not what they seem and the story is complicated in places.

Personally, I like clever, subtle crime stories which twist and turn and make the reader work for their satisfaction. This one, sadly, misses the mark. After saying that, not a bad read, but definitely not a book to be read at bedtime.

Dorothy Flaxman Personal read ................★★★★ Group read.........................★★★

SUMMER REQUIEM: A BOOK OF POEMS Vikram Seth W&N Jun 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781780228679

Essays and stories can sometimes be tedious and long-winded. This is why I sometimes love to read poetry – because of its economic use of language, alongside rhythm and (sometimes) rhyme to say whatever it wants to say in a few words.

This is a collection of poems on different life themes. He thinks about friends that we have not seen in years and the inevitable distance that sometimes develops as a result. “If friends are always elsewhere, never here. Do more than just their features

grow unclear?” he asks in one of his poems, Cryptic Reply.

Going on from friendship, the author examines the despair that accompanies modern work life – the conflict between feeling like a cog in a wheel and the need to make money, in his poem, Can’t. he writes, “I hate my work, but I am in bed. I’d quit it all if I could live on air. I find I simply can’t get out of bed.”

The author also takes a cursory look at life, its shortness and the need to be joyful and be free of worry and vexation. In Evening Across The Sky, “Forget what chafed or held you fast, the stars won’t last. The moon will die, earth, evening, you and I. Summer Requiem offers a contemplative look at life and the myriad of experiences that goes on within it. This collection offers memorable and sharp passages and the author possesses an observant eye that captures distinct feelings to which most of us can relate.

'Yomi' Segun Stephen

nudge Recommended Read Dilly’s Hope by Rosie Goodwin

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OWL SONG AT DAWN Emma Claire Sweeney Legend Press Jul 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781785079672

Maeve Maloney is a force to be reckoned with. Despite nearing eighty, she keeps Sea View Lodge just as her parents did during Morecambe’s 1950s heyday.

Only her employees and regular guests recognise the tenderness and heartbreak beneath her spikiness. Until, that is, Vincent shows up.

I was willing Maeve and Vince to get together after such a long time, a myriad of wrong decisions and much wasted time.

The story follows Maeve and her twin sister Edie, who is disabled. Maeve always felt a little guilty that she was ‘normal’ and her sister wasn’t. Did she rob her sister of oxygen whilst in the womb? The story examines the treatment of ‘subnormal’ children in the 1950s.

Invariably they were put into asylums. It depicted how such a child can respond to life in a loving home at the centre of a loving family.

In her latter years, Maeve turns her family home into a boarding house for disabled guests, holidaymakers and performers.

Maeve’s past is gradually disclosed and the reader begins to understand where Vince fits in with her story.

It would be easy to think

that Maeve is resentful of lost opportunities. However, what we see is a brave lady who sees that she can enjoy whatever time she has left with the person who means the most to her.

The book is poignant, sad but uplifting. As we age, it is natural to look back on life’s pleasures and regrets. This looking back is at the heart of the book.

A brilliant, brilliant book. I strongly recommend this as a personal read and also for book groups.

Dorothy Flaxman Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

THE HOUSE WITH NO ROOMS Lesley Thomson Head of Zeus Sep 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781785079672

This is the 4th book in the Detective’s Daughter series, of which I have read only the first and the last. These are stand alone books. I chose to read this book as I am attempting to read all of Thomson’s books [partly because] I have actually met her.

The novels are based around Stella Darnell and her cleaning agency. This particular story starts in 1956 with the houses in Rose Gardens being demolished to create a new road. Two boys are in number 25 discussing their

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reviews haul from a recent theft.

They are interrupted by an ex-serviceman who threatens to report them and so they stab him. The story then moves to 2014 and most of the remainder is set there with just brief glimpses to clarify the details.

Tina was brought up by her taxi driving father and mother but has had education above her station learning to be a botanical artist at a boarding school.

She has ended up becoming a lawyer and the story is about an incident she saw while a child. Stella cleans both her flat and her office and is given a cryptic clue before Tina dies of breast cancer.

A very enjoyable story based around Kew Gardens and almost a cosy murder story.

These books are very enjoyable and I thoroughly recommend them.

Deborah Mika

reviews these stories were great. The author has managed to write them in different voices and at different periods but running through all 16 diverse tales are the common threads of setting, wildlife and locations.

In the book I did have several stories that I preferred to the others, but would have to say that all 16 can stand their ground and there were none that I did not enjoy on some level.

This has definitely made me want to read some of her novels.

I can highly recommend this book, even if like me you are not usually a fan of short stories. Although the book is set in Suffolk, the descriptions are so vivid that you do not have to be familiar with the area to enjoy these stories. For a book group I think there would be a lot to discuss as the author has skilfully woven the stories through time.

Carolyn Fraser Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★ See also Dorothy Anderson’s 5/5 review on nudge plus a dialogue with her sister about the book.

SANDLANDS Rosy Thornton Sandstone Press Jul 2016 pbk ISBN - 0330490451

Although author, Rosy Thornton, has published five novels this is her first short story collection. Now I must admit that short stories are not usually my go to read, however the fact that these 16 stories are all set in Suffolk – my adopted home – changed my mind. And I will be the first to admit that

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nudge Recommended Read The Killing Files

by Nikki Owen

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VINEGAR GIRL Anne Tyler Hogarth Shakespeare Jun 2016 hbk ISBN - 9781781090183

This is one of a series of modern retellings of Shakespeare plays to celebrate the 400th anniversary. The play’s central themes involve male superiority and female submission and ends with the heroine capitulating entirely to the male hierarchy – not comfortable subjects for a declared feminist writing in 2016.

And just to complicate matters, it is a comedy!

Tyler’s shrew is Kate Battista.

She is 29, runs the house for her eccentric and selfcentred father, and her younger, prettier and spoiled sister. She works as a teaching assistant at a nursery school [where] her lack of tact causes her problems. Kate is headstrong, bright and stroppy. Her father thinks he is on the verge of breakthrough in his work on the human immune system.

However, he will only succeed with the help of his brilliant, but socially awkward Russian assistant and his visa is about to expire. Kate’s father comes up with an inventive solution, which depends entirely on Kate’s cooperation – and that will not be easily won.

Tyler’s forte is depicting the lives of slightly quirky, but plausible, contemporary families and her eye for domestic detail is superb.

Setting the story in Baltimore, Kate is very sympathetically portrayed and I was rooting for her from the start. Her father and Pyotr were less engaging initially, but as the story developed, so did they.

Tyler departs slightly from the plot, making Kate less shrewish and the male characters much more likeable. In addition, the culture clash between the Battistas and Pyotr adds an additional and very contemporary perspective, and the change in the way Kate is viewed by her colleagues and family sheds light on contemporary American society. The plot rattles along and the last 50 pages were gripping.

This is typical Tyler territory. It is a domestic drama, with eccentric characters, which is deeper than it first appears. I loved it.

Ann Smout Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

THE ICE-CREAM MAKERS Ernest Van der Kwast Scribe Jul 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781925228434

Rather a sad story about the demands family tradition

makes on individual members and the repercussions down the generations. For over a hundred years the Talamini family has spent winters in their native Italy and summers making and selling ice-cream in Rotterdam – the hours are long, the work physically exhausting and repetitive. Giovanni and his younger brother Luca grow up in the knowledge that their father expects to hand the business on to them.

Giovanni is having none of this, enrols in a literature degree course in Amsterdam and embarks on a jet-setting career in publishing and organising literary festivals.

Luca throws himself into ice-cream making with all his energy, winning the girl he and his brother had both been in love with since childhood. But he harbours deep and lasting resentment of Giovanni for selfishly pursuing his own ends.

Giovanni, for his part, never ceases to feel guilty, but worse is to come when Luca has a son and Giovanni can only look at his happiness enviously. [Then] the dynamic shifts again as Luca’s son grows up to rebel against becoming the latest Talamini ice-cream maker.

We are given a great deal to think about here. Did following in the family business ruin the father Guiseppe’s life? Once he has done his duty, passed the buck and retired, his antipathy for everything icecream related surfaces vehemently. What are we to make of the women in the family – matriarchs or drudges?

There were certain sections of the book where I found my eyes skimming down the pages - huge amounts of

detail about ice-cream making will appeal to some readers more than they did to me. [But] the novel’s focus is on family interaction and emotional strain, and Ernest Van der Kwast has explored this superbly. As an added bonus, there are some lovely poetry quotations throughout, always a delight.

Sue Broom Personal read ....................★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

THE MAVERICK MOUNTAINEER – THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF GEORGE INGLE FINCH: CLIMBER, SCIENTIST, INVENTOR Robert Wainwright Allen & Unwin Aug 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781925228434

Few of us can boast such accomplishments in life as George Ingle Finch who fully embraced the roles of climber, scientist and inventor. As a boy in Australia an impromptu trip up Mount Canobolas sparked a lifelong passion for seeing the world from above.

When his family moved to Europe when he was still a teenager Finch fell in love with the Alps and soon became a noted climber, famed for his daring unguided ascents. He was a challenging figure whose attempts to bring modern advances to the climbing world were seen as an affront

to the establishment. He made the first serious attempt on Everest, developing the equipment and pioneering the use of oxygen in a mountaineering environment at a time when such things were widely rejected – when Everest was finally climbed his role was strongly credited. At the same time he was a noted scientist, teaching and researching at Imperial College and around Europe, inventing things that we use today and contributing greatly to the war effort in both world wars.

Reading about Finch’s exploits is a treat. There’s so much spirit to be admired while acknowledging his somewhat complicated personal relationships. His mountaineering adventures are gripping to read. His forthright manner and his enthusiasm for scientific progress were not welcomed in the mountaineering world for a long time. He was also looked down upon by many because of his antipodean birth and his non-Oxbridge education.

Robert Wainwright’s excellent biography is a page turner. He conveys the excitement about the Everest missions brilliantly and explains the scientific research in a comprehensible fashion. This seems a wellresearched and very well written tome likely to be of interest to anyone who has an interest in mountaineering, science, adventuring or even just a story about triumphing over one’s critics.

Eleanor King Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .....................★★★★

TALL OAKS Chris Whitaker Twenty7 Sep 2016 pbk ISBN - 9781785770302

Tall Oaks is the name of the small American town where three-year-old Harry Monroe has been abducted.

His mother, Jess is both at pains to ensure he isn’t forgotten once the media has left and to do everything possible to try and forget the pain she herself is going through. The local policeman, Jim is haunted by the boy’s disappearance.

I loved this first novel by Chris Whitaker. It’s so much more than a run-of-the-mill crime/whodunnit novel.

Some of the characters are very funny (I defy anyone not to love Manny and his wisecracking quips) and others really make you feel for them – in particular Jerry, the man who works at the local photo shop. The author has done a fantastic job of making the reader feel part of Tall Oaks – I wanted to help Jerry, cheer Manny on and most of all, find out what happened to Harry Monroe. This is an excellent first novel which is funny in parts (and you can’t say that about many crime novels) and one that you’ll want to read in one sitting. Read and enjoy!

Judith Griffith Personal read ............★★★★★ Group read .................★★★★★

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The best of nb easily accessible whenever you want it . . .

WHAT WE ARE THINKING

`

The One Book or The Debut Novel?

Which is it asks Gill Chedgey

book that was in that person.

They can be easy to spot if you’re unaware as to whether it is a debut novel or not. There is an exuberance of language and description that fills me with both delight and despair in equal measure. It is as if the writer has just this one chance to show what they are made of and every trick and device that they can think of is poured into their writing. Sometimes it detracts from the real, raw talent that may be there and you crave for some subtlety. But often when you come across follow up works you can see how a writer develops and matures.

T

hey say there is a book in all of us. I know mine is in there somewhere and has been since I learned to read and write but darned if I can find the little rascal!! So I am prone to imagine what it must be like to write a book and see it through to publication for the very first time.

And that is why I think I am a sucker for the debut novel.

For me it is a genre all of its own. A new jar of coffee ready to be opened. An anticipation of being on the precipice of a great new talent, maybe a whole new series of books, something that might challenge or change our thinking, a literary masterpiece, an award winning piece or maybe just that one 98

And from there I am often led to consider the motivation of a writer. What drives a person to commit thousands of words to paper? A commitment that takes time and persistence.

The debut novel may not always be the starting point of their writing but it has to be a product of that motivation. Are they writing for themselves, first and foremost? Or are they writing for an intended audience? Are they writing to express a deep felt theme or

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cause that has consumed them and been the catalyst to finally put words to paper? Is it an act of our catharsis to aid them through a troubled time? Or are they writing hoping to earn some money, make their name and their fortune?

Doubtless all of these reasons are valid, for each writer is different and unique. But can anything ever match the experience of that first book?

For myself, I have plenty of unfinished material hanging around so why don’t I get myself in gear and finish something? Or is it not about completion but the fact that writing is simply something that a person has to do no matter whether any one else reads it or even gets as far as publication?

Publication is the icing on the cake maybe?

Then I think of all those successful and established authors who have forged a career for themselves with their words. They all produced a debut novel at some point. Did the success of that first piece determine the direction of their careers? Or did they think that it was just their ‘one book’?

Search here – use title, author or abbreviations like BB21C, dir90 to find what you’re looking for.

Ones to watch out for – where the team want to tell you about forthcoming titles they love.

Other themes?

You’ll recognize these: Best Books of the 21st Century Around the World in 80 Books I’m a Writer . . .

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You blog? Tell us about it and expand your reach Our current nudge Recommended Reads – same deal as nb Recommended Reads but smaller quantities so ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE.

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Want to get something off your chest? You can rant all you want for our What We Are Thinking – we’ll print what we can but the whole piece will go on nudge where you will find previous rants!!

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