The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

This was shortlisted for the Man Booker Price 2009.  I don’t normally read ghost stories, but this one caught my eye.  The prose is beautiful and the characters realistically drawn.  The story centres around a crumbling Georgian mansion called Hundreds Hall in rural Warwickshire.  Its owners, mother, son and daughter are struggling to keep the house running.  Times are changing, this is post war Britain and the once grand house is now in steep decline.  Dr Faraday is called out to the house to see a servant girl who has been taken ill.  He has visited the house once before, on Empire Day Fete, when he was ten years old.  His mother used to work at the house many years before.   He is shocked by the state of the house and its inhabitants.  Then mysterious things start to happen and Dr Faraday gets more and more entwined with the family’s lives.   I won’t spoil it for you!  Well worth a read and one of those stories that stays with you.   

Foreign & Far Away by Writers Abroad

This is the fourth anthology published by Writers Abroad.  It is a collection of fiction/non-fiction short stories and poetry.  Author Amanda Hodgkinson has written the foreword.  There are some wonderful examples of evocative writing exploring the relationship between people and the places in which they live.   I am delighted that one of my stories appears in the anthology.  It is an ideal book for dipping into from time to time.  All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to Book Aid International.  

On Writing By Stephen King

Part memoir and part writing manual I found this book extremely readable.  It is written in a no-nonsense, witty and interesting way.  Even if you are not an aspiring writer it gives you an understanding of the writer’s craft.  It also gives you an insight into the mind of one of the bestselling writers in the world.  It is an account of his early life and how these episodes influenced his writing.   It finishes with the horror of his near fatal accident in 1999, when he was mowed down by a van driver and how writing helped him to recover.     

A Moment of War by Laurie Lee

This is the last book in Laurie Lee’s Autobiographical trilogy.  In December 1937 Laurie Lee crossed the Pyrenees from France to join the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War.  He joined the war as part of the International Brigade.  The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries.  He didn’t see much action as he spent a lot of his time in the training camp in Albacete and in Tarazona, waiting for orders.   The winter of 1937 was extremely harsh.   He was eventually deployed to Teruel and found himself fighting just when the Republicans were being forced to retreat.  The prose is full of vivid descriptions, but he doesn’t gloss over the cruelty and senselessness of war.  It’s a short book and one which I will read again.

Invisible Thread by Maree Giles

This is a story about a young girl in Sydney, Australia in 1970 and the dreadful Parramatta Girls’ Training School.  The main character is fourteen-year-old Ellen Russell who has been living with her boyfriend Robbie and as such, is deemed to have put herself in moral danger.  For this reason, Ellen is arrested and sent to Parramatta Girls' Training School.  She is pregnant and her baby is forcibly taken from her at birth.  I expected the story to concentrate on Ellen’s time in the Girls' Training School, but the main focus is on the loss of her baby and how Ellen struggles to come to terms with this.     In writing the novel, which was published in 2001, Maree Giles called on her real life experience of the Parramatta Girls’ Training School where she was incarcerated for several months as a sixteen-year-old.  

Bruno Chief of Police by Martin Walker

Bruno Courreges is such a successful character that Martin Walker has now written six books in the series.  Martin’s love of the Perigord area of France shines through in his writing.  I found myself chuckling at the way some of the characters were portrayed, especially Bruno.    The story gently unravels as the reader is introduced to the charming town of St Denis and the local inhabitants.  Then the body of an old Algerian man is discovered shattering the peace of St Denis.  The story-line touches on the days of the Resistance and Vichy France.  The book was an entertaining read.  There is a fun website too:- http://www.brunochiefofpolice.com/

Seven-Week Itch by Victoria Corby

The Seven-Week Itch was a fun read.  It is not your usual chick lit as it has a plot with a twist.  The story opens at Rose’s wedding and Susie, who is Rose’s best friend and chief bridesmaid, is the narrator. Rose is a self-absorbed character whom I detested, but I loved the character of Susie from the start.  The other characters were full of life and colour.  I wasn’t sure if this was going to be my kind of book, but in the end I couldn’t put the book down.  I have now sent off for “Up To No Good” on Kindle!