7 December 1962, Devon 7 REASONS NOT TO DIE: 1. Skin. To never again feel the skin of one's beloved child. Not another fictionalised biography I hear you cry! One day I will work out why I am so drawn to this genre. But for now, I give you Sylvia Plath and Euphoria. What do … Continue reading Euphoria | Elin Cullhed #SWEfiction
By midnight all was blaze and disintegration. A group of soldiers standing on the hill watched with indecent pleasure. The wind locals called the Vardaris blasted from the north, puffed minarets into candles and monuments to blocks of gold. A whoosh of flame - shaped paisley in its exotic unfurling - caused some spontaneously, shamelessly, … Continue reading Salonika Burning | Gail Jones #AWWfiction
Epigraphs (3): (1) I very rarely think either of my past or my future, but the moment that one contemplates writing an autobiography...one is forced to regard oneself as an entity carried along for a brief period in the stream of time, emerging at a particular moment from darkness and nothingness and shortly to disappear … Continue reading This Devastating Fever | Sophie Cunningham #AWWfiction
The first thing we did was change our names. This post will look less like a book review and more like a list of feminist writers. But before we get to the list, a little about my journey with After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz. I deliberately chose to start reading After Sappho knowing next … Continue reading After Sappho | Selby Wynn Schwartz #BookReview
It was hard not to feel that Paris was the place. My response to The Paris Bookseller has been complicated. I was keen to read it thanks to the blurb which told me it had a Paris setting, a bookshop and Sylvia Beach. That should have been enough. But it wasn't. The writing was dull … Continue reading The Paris Bookseller | Kerri Maher #USAfiction
His mother waited upstairs while the servants took coats and scarves and hats from the guests. Some books are not easy to review. If you had asked me a couple of month ago, I would have said, unreservedly, that I was a fan of Colm Tóibin, particularly his Irish stories, since that is all I … Continue reading The Magician | Colm Tóibin #IRLfiction
As most of you know by now, I love and adore historical fiction. It's my preferred genre, although I will have a go at most things if it's well-written, has an interesting premise or I'm in the mood. However my go-to, when I need a guaranteed read, a read I can simply fall into with … Continue reading Fictionalised Biography or Biographical Fiction?
Kathy O'Shaughnessy has written an utterly delightful and immersive story about the extraordinary Marian Lewes, otherwise known as George Eliot. The book follows Marian from the early days of her unconventional 'marriage' to George Lewes through to her writing days, fame, second marriage and eventual death.In Love With George Eliot not only refers to the … Continue reading In Love With George Eliot | Kathy O’Shaughnessy #UKfiction
It feels like I've been waiting a VERY long time for Jane Caro to finish her Elizabethan YA trilogy. Just A Girl was first published in 2011, Just A Queen in 2015 and now, finally we have Just Flesh and Blood.I'm sure that Caro must get asked all the time, why Elizabeth? In her acknowledgements … Continue reading Just Flesh and Blood by Jane Caro
Lizzie Borden is a fascinating character.Did she or did she not kill her father and stepmother with a hatchet one summer's day in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892?So much has been written and said about these rather gruesome murders over the years. So much speculation and innuendo. What more is there possibly to say?Firstly, in … Continue reading See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
Angle of Repose is Wallace Stegner's Pulitzer prize winning novel from 1971.Stegner created a part fact/part fiction story of life in 1880's America based on the real letters and journals of Mary Hallock Foote. After his book was published, a controversy brewed with some of Foote's descendants about how Stegner went about this merging of … Continue reading Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
It has been a long wait between drinks in this Tudor trilogy by Jane Caro. But the wait has been worth it.Just A Girl was a tremendously good read in 2011. Four years later, Just A Queen surpassed my very high expectations.Caro has written a thoroughly researched, thoroughly convincing version of Elizabeth's first 25 years … Continue reading Just a Queen by Jane Caro
I do read books outside the historical fiction genre, but looking at my reviews so far...not very many! But they're just so darn satisfying and interesting!In 'Just A Girl' we have young Elizabeth on the eve of her coronation, passing a restless night in anticipation of her coronation. She spends the night reflecting on the path … Continue reading Just a Girl | Jane Caro
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