Ours Poetry Anthology

A collection of poems from professional and non-professional contributors on the theme of 'Motherland'.  10% of sales go to the WorldWide Orphans Foundation.  My talented cousin, Frances Andrews, has a poem published in this anthology.

The Last Letter from your Lover by JoJo Moyes

A while back I read Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy The Last Letter as much.  It was an easy read, but it jumped too frequently between the past (1960) and the present (2003) and the characters didn’t engage me enough.  It is about a love that is lost and then found.  

The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks

This is the first novel by Iain Banks that I have read and I enjoyed it. Although the main narrator is Alban Wopuld the story opens from the point of view of his cousin, Fielding.  The Wopuld family made their fortune on a board game called Empire.  After working for the family firm for a number of years Alban has turned his back on his family to seek a different route in life.  He is still haunted by his mother’s suicide, which happened when he was a baby.  He is also trying to escape his infatuation with his cousin Sophie who was his first love.  Fielding persuades Alban to return to the family’s highland estate, Garbadale for the company’s Extraordinary General Meeting and the 80^th Birthday of his grandmother.   I thought all the different points of view would annoy me, but each character has their own unique voice and hearing their views and thoughts helped to build a picture of Alban.  All the action is saved for the end.