Review ~ Mozart : The Man Revealed by John Suchet

Elliot & Thompson
2016

This is one of those splendid coffee table books that will sit very comfortably just waiting for someone to open it and read its fascinating contents.

I love listening to Classic FM and even though I know which pieces of music I like to listen to, I find that I know very little about the lives of the great composers who wrote the music I love. In these days of quick fix information it's very easy just to search the internet for snippets of information as you need it, but nothing beats the look and feel of a really good biography. Mozart: The Man Revealed by John Suchet is a wonderful glossy biography to immerse yourself in, and as you read on,  the here and now disappears, and you are quietly transported back to a wonderful time of musical soirées in the opulent salons of eighteenth century Europe.

The life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, from his birth in in Salzburg in January 1756, through to his untimely demise in Prague, aged just thirty five in 1791, is covered in fine detail. Each of the twenty-three chapters which make up the bulk of the work have delightfully descriptive headings, I think my favourites have to be those titles which head chapter 8  “Ass-Bumping in Venice", and the delightfully quirky heading for chapter 10, "Gnagflow Trazom", which I'll let you work out for yourself! John Suchet writes with such warmth and wit about this great composer but isn't afraid to show the man behind the genius, warts and all, which comes across when describing Mozart's rather salacious communication with his nineteen year old cousin, Maria Anna Mozart. I loved the way the biography flowed beautifully and was gilded with an assortment of delightful illustrations and documents which highlight Mozart’s complex and fascinating life.

There is no doubt that Mozart's musical genius continues to enhance our modern world. Whilst reading this lovely book I listened to his Salzburg Symphonies which are simply delightful and which compliment this lovely book to perfection.

Mozart: The Man Revealed would make a perfect Christmas present for the classical music lover in your life or simply as well earned treat.

My copy is definitely one to keep and cherish.

Best Read with ...a cup of richly, aromatic hot chocolate and a generous slice of Apfelstrudel

About the author

John Suchet presents Classic FM’s flagship morning programme, from 9am every weekday. His informative style of presentation, coupled with a deep knowledge of classical music, has won a wide spectrum of new listeners to the station. Before turning to classical music, John was one of the UK’s best-known television journalists. As a reporter for ITN he covered world events, including the Iran revolution, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Philippines revolution. He then became a newscaster, regularly presenting ITN’s flagship News at Ten, as well as all other bulletins, over a period of nearly twenty years.

John has been honoured for both roles. In 1986 he was voted Television Journalist of the Year, in 1996 Television Newscaster of the Year, and in 2008 the Royal Television Society awarded him its highest accolade, a Lifetime Achievement Award. John has been given an honorary degree by his old university, the University of Dundee, and in 2001 the Royal Academy of Music awarded him an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of his work on Beethoven, having written six books on the composer, including the highly acclaimed Beethoven: The Man Revealed (2012). His bestselling biography of the Strauss family, The Last Waltz: The Strauss Dynasty and Vienna, was published in 2015.

 My thanks Alison Menzies at Elliot & Thompson 

for the opportunity to read and review this book.

~***~

Sunday WW1 Remembered...

Inspirational female poets of the First World war is the theme for November 

 I am delighted to start with Mary Borden

1886-1968

Born into a wealthy Chicago family, Mary, known as May, attended Vassar College and graduated in 1907 with a BA. Whilst on a tour of the Far East she met Scottish missionary George Douglas Turner. They married and had three daughters. In 1913, May moved to London and became involved in the suffragette movement and spent five days in prison for throwing a stone through the window of HM Treasury.

On the outbreak of war, May used her own money to set up and run a hospital at Bray-Sur-Somme for French soldiers. Whilst working as the hospital,  May met and fell in love with Brigadier General Edward Louis Spears. Her marriage to Turner was later annulled and her husband took custody of their daughters. For her work at the hospital, often under heavy bombardment, May was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d’honneur.

During wartime, and influenced by the suffering of the soldiers she nursed, she wrote intense and graphic poetry which highlighted the agony and senseless loss she witnessed on a daily basis. Her war time experiences at the front are eloquently expressed in her book,  The Forbidden Zone,  written during her war experiences but which was blocked by military censorship. It was later published in 1929.

Mary Borden, later Lady Spears, survived the war and lived in France until her death in 1968 having lost much of her fortune in the Wall Street Crash.


In 2015, one hundred years after they were written, Poems of Love and War by Mary Borden , edited by Paul O'Prey, was published.

More about Mary Borden can be found by reading  Mary Borden : A Woman of Two Wars by Jane Conway

Here is the poem for which she is perhaps, most recognised.

At the Somme : Song of the Mud

This is the song of the mud, 

The pale yellow glistening mud that covers the hills like satin; 

The grey gleaming silvery mud that is spread like enamel over the valleys; 

The frothing, squirting, spurting, liquid mud that gurgles along the road beds; 

The thick elastic mud that is kneaded and pounded and squeezed under the hoofs of the horses; 

The invincible, inexhaustible mud of the war zone. 

This is the song of the mud, the uniform of the poilu. 

His coat is of mud, his great dragging flapping coat, that is too big for him and too heavy; 

His coat that once was blue and now is grey and stiff with the mud that cakes to it. 

This is the mud that clothes him. His trousers and boots are of mud, 

And his skin is of mud; 

And there is mud in his beard. 

His head is crowned with a helmet of mud. 

He wears it well. 

He wears it as a king wears the ermine that bores him. 

He has set a new style in clothing; 

He has introduced the chic of mud. 

This is the song of the mud that wriggles its way into battle. 

The impertinent, the intrusive, the ubiquitous, the unwelcome, 

The slimy inveterate nuisance, 

That fills the trenches, 

That mixes in with the food of the soldiers, 

That spoils the working of motors and crawls into their secret parts, 

That spreads itself over the guns, 

That sucks the guns down and holds them fast in its slimy voluminous lips, 

That has no respect for destruction and muzzles the bursting shells; 

And slowly, softly, easily, 

Soaks up the fire, the noise; soaks up the energy and the courage; 

Soaks up the power of armies; 

Soaks up the battle. 

Just soaks it up and thus stops it. 

This is the hymn of mud-the obscene, the filthy, the putrid, 

The vast liquid grave of our armies. It has drowned our men. 

Its monstrous distended belly reeks with the undigested dead. 

Our men have gone into it, sinking slowly, and struggling and slowly disappearing. 

Our fine men, our brave, strong, young men; 

Our glowing red, shouting, brawny men. 

Slowly, inch by inch, they have gone down into it, 

Into its darkness, its thickness, its silence. 

Slowly, irresistibly, it drew them down, sucked them down, 

And they were drowned in thick, bitter, heaving mud. 

Now it hides them, Oh, so many of them! 

Under its smooth glistening surface it is hiding them blandly. 

There is not a trace of them. 

There is no mark where they went down.

The mute enormous mouth of the mud has closed over them.

This is the song of the mud,

The beautiful glistening golden mud that covers the hills like satin; 

The mysterious gleaming silvery mud that is spread like enamel over the valleys. 

Mud, the disguise of the war zone; 

Mud, the mantle of battles; 

Mud, the smooth fluid grave of our soldiers: 

This is the song of the mud.

Close to Home ~ A D Garrett and Helen Pepper

As a book reviewer I have made contact with authors from all across the globe and feel immensely privileged to be able to share some amazing work. However, there is always something rather special when a book comes to my attention which has been written by an author in my part of the North of England. So with this in mind I have great pleasure in featuring some of those authors who are literally close to my home. Over the next few Saturdays, and hopefully beyond, I will be sharing the work of a very talented bunch of Northern authors and discovering just what being a Northerner means to them both in terms of inspiration and also in their writing.

Today I have an exciting  double bill for you !!

I am thrilled to feature Lancashire based author, A D Garrett  and policing and forensics expert, Helen Pepper.

A D Garrett

I’ve based novels all over the north west in my twenty years as a professional writer. A series based in Chester and written under my real name (Margaret Murphy), was very successful – published in the US and Canada as well as the UK, and selling well in translation, too. But my publisher considered Chester ‘too provincial', if you can believe it. That narrow perception was one of the reasons I founded Murder Squad.

Attitudes to northern settings in crime have changed since then – witness Cath Staincliffe’s Blue Murder TV series, and more recently, Ann Cleeves's VERA, as well as the likes of Happy Valley and Scott & Bailey.

But why write regional novels at all? People aren’t so very different across geographical locations, are they? Perhaps not, but place, landscape, climate, and history do affect traditions, temperament, attitudes, and language from south to north and east to west.

Okay, but why novels about the north of England?

If I’m honest, my memories of growing up in Liverpool in the 1970s are all grey. Senior school for me was a bus ride away from my home in south Liverpool to the tough Everton district where my mother was raised, and where my grandparents and great grandmother still lived. From my Catholic high school at the top of Everton Brow I heard the Orange Lodge march past every July. I raced for the bus home down a hill that was still littered with bomb debris from WW2, and I witnessed the demolition of many of the sooty terraced streets that remained. A social experiment which effectively dismantled and scattered whole communities that had coexisted for many generations.

Albert Dock, Liverpool 1970s

From my flat in Toxteth I could smell the smoke as buildings burned during the riots of 1981. I listened to a frightened radio reporter interviewing looters outside the Kwik Save supermarket. ‘Is there anything left?’ he asked plaintively. ‘You might get a packet of sausages if you’re quick, lad,’ the looter quipped. The day after they put the fires out, I walked to my local shops in Lodge Lane and wept to see the family bakers burned out, the chandlers, gone, the electrical shop emptied. Shop after shop looted, smashed, burned; the looters using stolen shopping trolleys to cart off their spoils.

I am part of that history, and it is part of me. And being an eyewitness to violent societal upheavals shapes you, leaving a lasting impression on the psyche.

I know – I’ve only confirmed what you already knew – it’s grim up north. But News Flash:  it’s fairly grim all over. And at least a northern-based novel will give you grim from a different perspective. As a writer, I love regional variations in language and cadence, and the scouse dialect is particularly and colourful and often lyrical. Added to that, twenty-first century Liverpool is a far cry from the grey backdrop of my 1970s childhood. The changes have come in small, tidal increments over the past fifty years, changing the city, just as tidal scour will change the course of a river. Liverpool’s waterfront, once derelict, dirty and disused, is now a commercial and cultural magnet, teaming with tourists and shoppers – and a desirable location to live. It’s cleaner and shinier than ever; you can even catch starfish and jellyfish in the once-stagnant waters of the Liverpool docks.

Liverpool 1 from the Albert Dock

But there is still plenty of what crime writers want most: extremes. Of wealth and poverty, social advantage and disadvantage, academic excellence and failing schools – and that’s superb material for dramatic tension, for character, and story.

Last week, I paused to admire St George’s Hall, a Grade I listed building famous as part of Liverpool’s Global Heritage site and which, infamously, the city council in the 1980s wanted to pull down. As I snapped a shot I heard a voice behind me and turned to find a man that life had not treated kindly. He told me the Irish brickies and labourers had built the hall back to front to spite their miserly employers. ‘They was supposed to front it onto the Mersey so all the big ships’d see it as they come into dock,’ he said. It was all blether – urban myth – but entertaining, as many scousers are, and his pride in the city was heart-warming.

Sr.George's Hall

The biggest vessels to anchor at Liverpool now are cruise ships, because the north west, once so important for British trade to the Americas, now faces the wrong continent – which places it as much ‘on the edge’ as any Nordic Noir setting. So maybe it is grim up north, but maybe it’s our turn to be noirishly in fashion. Not grim, but Northern Noir.

All photographs by kind permission.

Truth Will Out, the 3rd in the Fennimore & Simms series, was published 3rd November 2016

Corsair
November 2016

More about the author

A.D. Garrett is the pseudonym for prize-winning novelist Margaret Murphy working in consultation with policing and forensics expert, Helen Pepper.

Margaret Murphy has published nine internationally acclaimed psychological thrillers under her own name – both stand-alone and police series. She is Writing Fellow and Reading Round Lector for the Royal Literary Fund, a past Chair of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), and founder of Murder Squad. A CWA Short Story Dagger winner, she has been shortlisted for the First Blood critics’ award for crime fiction as well as the CWA Dagger in the Library. Her lifelong passion for science is reflected in her painstaking research for her novels.

In 2013, writing as A.D. Garrett, Margaret began a new forensic series, featuring Professor Nick Fennimore and DCI Kate Simms. Everyone Lies, which Ann Cleeves rated ‘thriller writing at its best’, was a bestseller, and both Everyone Lies and the sequel, Believe No One, garnered starred reviews from Publishers’ Weekly. Jeffery Deaver commented, ‘A.D. Garrett has done for Manchester what The Wire did for Baltimore. And Simms and Fennimore are complex, compelling, and just plain marvellous. Truth Will Out, the third in the series, will be published in November 2016. 

Follow A.D. Garrett on Twitter @ADGarrett1 and at www.adgarrett.com

Amazon UK

Huge thanks to Margaret for sharing her thoughts about the North West and particularly Liverpool.

~***~

And now please welcome policing and forensics expert, Helen Pepper.

Helen Pepper

Helen Pepper is a Senior Lecturer in Policing at Teesside University. She has been an analyst, Forensic Scientist, Scene of Crime Officer, CSI, and Crime Scene Manager. As a Crime Scene Investigator, she examined over 3000 crime scenes, ranging from thefts and fires to rapes and murders. Later, as Crime Scene Manager for Durham Police, she supervised CSIs in over 50 major incidents. She is a member of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, and has a wealth of experience in the investigation of all crime types, from simple thefts to murders and terrorism. An author in her own right, Helen has co-authored, as well as contributed to, professional policing texts. Her expertise is in great demand with crime writers: she is a judge for the CWA’s Non-Fiction Dagger award, and is Forensic Consultant on both the Vera and Shetland TV series.

Hi and welcome, Helen. Tell me a little about yourself and your background as a forensic adviser. 

I grew up in West Yorkshire, and my teenage years overlapped with the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry - I think this is where my interest in crime came from. 

I started working at the Home Office Forensic Science Lab in Wetherby when I was 18 and although I loved it I really wanted to be ‘out and about’ actually at the crime scenes. When West Yorkshire Police offered me a job as a Scenes of Crime Officer I jumped at the chance. 

I worked in Bradford and Halifax before moving up to Co. Durham, which is where I met the wonderful Ann Cleeves and was introduced to the world of crime writers. 

How does the collaboration work - are you involved in a novel from the start or do writers contact you on an ad hoc basis? 

It depends very much on what’s required. I’ve been around on the fringes of crime writing for a long time now, and when I meet writers and they find out what I do they often ask if they can contact me in the future, I think most writers have a contact book of people who might come in handy – and a tame forensic advisor is always going to be useful at some point! 

Sometimes they just want help with a specific detail, or they want to know if a plotline is feasible or perhaps how to use forensic evidence to take the story in the direction they want it to go. 

Being part of ‘Team Garrett’ is a whole different ball game though, I’m much more involved in the writing process and finding it really interesting. It’s also left me in awe of writers, especially Margaret Murphy (Team Garrett’s senior partner) whose talents are just awesome! 

How much of the plot, story do you require before you can give sound advise on a subject? 

Again, it depends what the query is. Sometimes the writer will ask a specific question along the lines of ‘what would happen if the murderer did X?’ But the answer is hardly ever a straightforward ‘what would happen is Y’, because there are so many variables in forensic science / investigation work. So quite often I’ll ask them what they would like to happen and see if I can make it work for them. Sometimes I need quite a lot of background info, sometimes very little. 

Writers can understandably be quite cagey about sharing their ideas. I sometimes get sent pages with ‘confidential’ marked all over them in red and dire warnings about the legal consequences of divulging the contents – it almost feels like I have to read quickly before the message self-destructs! 

Do you have a favourite type of crime novel to work on? 

Ones that have quite a bit of forensic detail, especially where it’s a bit niche and I have to do some research and educate myself about that area of science. One of the things that I enjoy about working with writers is that it compels me to find out new things. 

What's the most complicated fictional plot you've ever been involved with? 

I can’t think of a really complicated plot as such, but a complicated circumstance that I helped with. This was for a TV script rather than a novel. The writer wanted a detective to have done something in an old case that threw the investigation off track. It had to be something wrong, that the detective had covered up at the time, but something that didn’t make them bad or corrupt, as it had to be something they could move on from (and continue to be a main character in the show!). 

This was a bit of a tall order, and it took me over a week of mulling it over to come up with something that might fit the bill. When I e-mailed my idea to the writer I got a response that said ‘Bloody brilliant!’ – I kept having a little smile to myself for days afterwards … 

Are you ever tempted to write your own forensic packed novel? 

Maybe one day. I used to think it would be really easy to just dash off a bestseller or two and then retire to a Caribbean island, but the more I work with writers and see what goes into the writing – not just the ideas, but the technique, the editing, the grammar and the sheer slog of getting the words on paper – the more I think I should leave it to the experts.

Huge thanks to this talented duo for spending time with us today

and for making this Close To Home feature so fascinating.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading today's Close to Home feature.

Coming next Saturday : Historical fiction writer, John R. Mckay

~***~

Review ~ Our Country Nurse by Sarah Beeson with Amy Beeson

Harper Element
2016

A bit about the book..

All seems tranquil as newly qualified Health Visitor Sarah motors into a small Kentish hilltop village in her new green mini. She's barely out of the car when she's called to assist the midwife with a bride who's gone into labour in the middle of her own wedding reception. And so her adventures begin..

My thoughts about the book..

I first came into contact with this talented mother /daughter writing duo when I was privileged to read their first collaboration, The New Arrival, which charted Sarah's tentative steps as a student nurse in London in the early 1970s. In this second volume of Sarah's adventures we meet up with her again as she takes up a post as a newly qualified health visitor in Totley, a small Kentish village. The setting couldn't be more idyllic and is such a change of environment for Sarah as she begins to adjust from the activity of London to the suppose tranquility of rural life. But all is not as tranquil as she would suppose and very soon Sarah is thrust into the hustle and bustle of caring for patients who have a multitude of problems.

As always the writing is sharp and crisp and the fine attention to even the smallest detail ensures that the reader always feels fully immersed in the story. The community of Totley and surrounding district comes alive with great compassion and more than a hint of humour which I suspect were both commodities much needed during this time.

I think what comes across in Our Country Nurse is that this was much simpler age to work in and yet people's problems were very real and the care and compassion which was needed was vitally important to communities. There's a generosity of spirit which is apparent in the way that Sarah recounts her story. There is no doubt that she was an enthusiastic practitioner and this comes across in the way that the people of Totley warmed to her. All was not plain sailing for Our Country Nurse but the story evolves so beautifully that it is a joy to read from start to finish.

Best Read with...a glass of ginger beer and a hearty bowl of country soup..

About the Authors

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sarahbeesonthenewarrival/

Twitter @NewArrivalBook

Instagram https://twitter.com/NewArrivalBook

Website http://sarahbeeson.org/

Amazon UK

 My thanks to Sarah and Amy Beeson for sharing their book with me.

You can read an interview with the authors by clicking here 

~***~

Blog Tour ~ The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir by Lesley Allen

It is National Anti-Bullying Month from the 31st Oct - 30th Nov 2016 

The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir examines the long-term effects that bullying can have

Twenty7
2016

Biddy Weir is a shy young loner. Abandoned by her mother as a baby, and with a father who's not quite equipped for the challenges of modern parenting, Biddy lives in her own little world, happy to pass her time painting by the sea and watching the birds go by.

With no friends, no schoolbag, and, worst of all, no mother, Biddy is branded a ‘Bloody Weirdo’ by the most popular girl in her primary school.

What follows is a heart-breaking tale of bullying and redemption, of falling down and of starting again, and of one woman's battle to learn to love herself for who she is.

Set in a fictional seaside town in Northern Ireland, the novel is a stark illustration of the extent to which bullying can affect us all, beyond just the victim and perpetrator.

Spare, dark and often unrelenting, The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir is a story with universal appeal, which ultimately affirms the value of being different.

 Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be part of this Blog Tour and welcomes the author Lesley Allen to the blog

Lesley , thank you so much for sharing with us your perspective on the subject of bullying

Can fictional bullies help us deal with the real ones?

From Chris Hargensen (Carrie) to Regina George (Mean Girls) and Nancy Olsen (Little House on the Prairie) to Veda Pierce (Mildred Pierce), we’ve all watched or read about a female bully we love to hate. Nurse Ratchett, Delores Umbridge, Miss Trunchball, Veronica from Heathers, V from Orange is the New Black… there are oodles of them. But what happens when they pop up in real life? When ‘the bitch’ isn’t someone acting a part in your favourite TV drama, or a character in the book you’re reading – but a real person: a young girl, a teenager, a grown woman, someone you actually know? Maybe you are their target. Or perhaps their victim is a friend, a colleague, an acquaintance? Maybe you don’t even know them, not really, but you see it anyway, the damage that is being done. What do you do? Who do you turn to? How do you react, respond, retaliate?

I didn’t necessarily plan on writing a book about bullying. The subject matter wasn’t the thing that came first for me, it was the character. Biddy Weir, this shy, socially awkward, unconventional little girl arrived in my life, fully formed and vividly clear, demanding to tell me her story. I really wasn’t sure exactly what had happened to her at first, but I knew from the get-go that she was being bullied; not just teased a little, but chronically, relentlessly persecuted. And as Biddy was talking, this other character emerged, just as fully formed, just as vivid. Her name was Alison Flemming, and she was a total horror. There were many times throughout the writing process that I wanted to slap her on the face. I couldn’t quite believe how inherently bad she was, but at the same time, I knew she was utterly real.

Many people have asked if Biddy is me, and if Alison is someone I know. She isn’t, and she isn’t. There’s maybe a pinch of me in Biddy (we both have curly hair, and I was teased about it as a child), but she is essentially a hybrid of several people I’ve encountered over the years, both male and female. Alison too is a fusion of real life characters I’ve known, some from my early childhood, some from my teenage years, and some from my adult life. As my daughter progressed through school, other ‘Alisons’ appeared. We all know at least one, don’t we? (Just to be clear, all ‘Alisons’ aren’t called Alison! One of my dearest friends is an Alison, and she’s adorable!)

I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir isn’t an easy read at times. There were times when it wasn’t easy to write; times when I found myself roaring with rage at Alison’s behaviour, or weeping at Biddy’s pain. The bulk of the story is set in the 1980s, when the world wide web was still in its infancy, and social media was the stuff of Tomorrow’s World. But if they had existed, or if Biddy’s story had been set today, she simply wouldn’t have survived. She, at least, had some respite from her tormentors; after school, weekends and holidays. As we hear too often, there is no such escape today, as the recent tragic case of teenager, Felix Alexander, highlighted.

Bullying has been around since the dawn of time, but is has now become a plague, a social epidemic. And it seems there is no cure. But there must be, mustn’t there? And maybe fiction can play a part. Perhaps reading about or watching the antics of those fictional bullies and the anguish of the people they victimised, can help? How did we feel, for example, when we witnessed Chris Hargensen plot the bloody humiliation of Carrie, or watched Veda Pierce yet again destroy her mother’s new-found happiness? What did we want to say to them? Perhaps more importantly, what did we want to say to Carrie and Mildred? ‘Be strong’; ‘walk away’; ‘you are better than she is’; ‘her soul is ugly – yours is beautiful, see it’; ‘do not let this, let her, define you’.  Perhaps our instinctive, raw, impassioned reactions to the abhorrent actions of fictional bullies can provide the courage and the creativity to confront the real ones. Biddy’s story is just making its way into the world, but already I’ve been moved to tears by some of the responses from readers. People have told me about their Alisons, about the Biddys they know. Some have thanked me for ‘telling their story’, some have said reading the book was a cathartic experience, others have said they will no longer stand silently on the side-lines and watch as someone is bullied, fearful of intervening. I have had mental health practitioners share the book with co-workers and clients, and teachers recommend it to year 12+ pupils and their parents.

This has all been an unexpected twist in Biddy’s tale. As I was writing the book, I never imagined it would help people, never anticipated such a visceral reaction. But in this National Anti-Bullying month, I hope that her story helps many more people confront the bullies in their own lives, and that maybe, just maybe, it might be responsible for stopping just one ‘Alison Flemming’ in her tracks.

About the author

Lesley Allen lives in Bangor, County Down. She is a freelance copywriter and the press officer and assistant programme developer for Open House Festival. Lesley is previous recipient of the James Kilfedder Memorial Bursary, and two Support for the Individual Artist Art’s Council Awards. She was named as one of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s 2016 Artist Career Enhancement Scheme (ACES) recipients for literature. She will be using the award to complete her second book.

Find her on Facebook

Follow on Twitter @Lesley_Allen_

Huge thanks to Lesley for this emotive guest post and also to Emily  at Bonnier Zaffre for her invitation to be part of this blog tour.

~***~

Blog Tour ~ My Sister's Bones by Nuala Ellwood

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be taking part in the My Sister's Bones blog tour 

Published in E-Book
1 November 2016
Published in Hardback by Penguin in February 2017

About the book...

Kate Rafter is a high-flying war reporter. She's the strong one. The one who escaped their father. Her younger sister Sally didn't. Instead, she drinks.

But when their mother dies, Kate is forced to return home. And on her first night she is woken by a terrifying scream.

At first Kate tells herself it's just a nightmare. But then she hears it again. And this time she knows she's not imagining it.

What secret is lurking in the old family home?

And is she strong enough to uncover it...and make it out alive?

My thoughts...

Kate Rafter is a war correspondent who is well used to coping in some of the world’s most troubled hotspots, and yet her return, following her mother’s death, to her childhood home in Hearne Bay, fills her with almost as much terror as a trip to a Syrian war zone. Kate knows that dealing with her late mother’s affairs is never going to be easy but she is thankful for her brother in law’s help and Paul is only too willing to see that Kate’s time in Hearne Bay is largely uneventful. However, Kate’s fragile mental state means that this visit home is fraught with nothing but complications and as family secrets start to be revealed, Kate’s relationship with her younger sister, Sally, is also called into question.

The story evolves over the space of a week and is cleverly told in alternate chapters in two different time frames. Both sections are handled extremely sensitively, as is Kate’s downward spiral into what can only be described as extreme post-traumatic stress. The reason for Kate’s mental fragility becomes apparent as the story progresses, and as the layers are stripped away we begin to see just how easily someone can start to disintegrate.

There is much to consider within the whole context of the story and I would suspect that the deliberate slowness of the early part of the novel is quite deliberate as this helps to set the mood. The multi layered themes within the story of domestic abuse; PTSD, alcoholism and devastating loss are handled sympathetically and are extremely well written. It must have been quite a challenge to get the balance right between light and shade and for that I commend the author’s skill with words.

The novel has some really dark themes which are quite disturbing but, it must be said, sit very comfortably within the context of the story. Nothing is gratuitous; there is no superfluous waffle, just really good story telling from beginning to end. The twist when it comes is completely unexpected and quite refreshing for me as I usually get the surprise long before it happens but this one made my jaw drop !

Without doubt, this is a commendable debut from an exciting new talent.

Best Read with... Fish and chips straight out of the wrapper and tangy with sea salt..

About the Author

Nuala Ellwood is the daughter of an award-winning journalist. She was inspired by his experiences and those of foreign correspondents such as Marie Colvin and Martha Gellhorn to secure Arts Council funding for her research into PTSD for her debut psychological thriller MY SISTER’S BONES

You can find out more about the author on her website by clicking here

Follow on Twitter @NualaWrites

Tour runs between 25th October - 25th November so do visit the the stops on the tour for more exciting content. 

Photo Credit: Justin Stoddart

My thanks to the author and also to Annie at Penguin Random House for the invitation to be part of this exciting Blog Tour..

~***~

Review ~ Monster 1983 written by Ivar Leon Menger (Audio)

New from Audible

October 2016

Callum Blue (Dead Like Me), Anastasia Griffith (Damages) and Marc Warren (Hustle) star in new audio-drama from Germany's master of thriller.

Anastasia Griffith (Deputy Taylor Dunford)

Callum Blue (Sheriff Cody)

Marc Warren (Deputy Landers)

Drawing influences from Poltergeist, Stand By Me and E.T. and other Spielberg classics, the story unfolds in the small coastal town of Harmony Bay, Oregon. Still reeling from a sudden and profound family tragedy, Sheriff Cody uproots his elder son Michael, and younger daughter Amy, from the chaos of Orlando to begin a new, more relaxed life in the Beaver State. Soon after their arrival however, this new-found tranquillity is disturbed by a succession of brutal but mysterious deaths. As the plot twists and turns its way through small-town secrecy, psychiatry wards and the supernatural, Cody comes under increasing pressure to solve each new case whilst keeping his family safe from harm.

©2015 Ivar Leon Menger (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

My thoughts..


When I first opened the Audible file of Monster 1983 and saw that there were 190 chapters I must admit that my heart sank a little, but then I discovered that some of the chapters are very short and take only a few minutes. And to be honest, once the story begins, both the chapters and the hours fly by very quickly.

The story is creepy from the offset, the small coastal town of Harmony Bay comes alive with intrigue and as the new sheriff tries to investigate a series of macabre killings you can’t help but be drawn into the whole creepy scenario.

The fact that Monster 1983 is a dramatic production of several voices gives the story a noticeably theatrical feel and I found that each individual narrator brought something very different to the story. I really enjoyed the distinctive and individual nature of their interpretation.

In many ways Monster 1983 is a chilling but entirely plausible version of small town America. Harmony Bay is a place of secrets. It is a town where petty grievances are allowed to fester and where control and domination go hand in hand. The chilling nature of the supernatural content grows gradually but with real intent until the malice and mayhem which is evoked becomes frighteningly realistic.

Monster 1983 is definitely one of those productions that you want to listen to with all the lights on and, preferably, not too late at night!

Best Read With ...A caffeine laced-Americano and generous slices of freshly caught tuna..

Audio Download Details

Listening Length: 7 hours and 18 minutes

Program Type: Audiobook

Version: Original recording

Publisher: Audible Studios

Audible.co.uk Release Date: 12 Oct. 2016

My thanks to Audible and Leanne at Midas pr for the opportunity to listen to Monster 1983

~***~