Gypsies Stop tHere

by Miriam Wakerly

Running away from a mysterious trauma, a death she appears to blame herself for, Kay arrives, partly disabled and seeking a quiet retirement, in Appley Green. But village life is not what she expected. Gossip and disputes were no surprise but the complexity of the issues facing Appleby proved to be a maelstrom of what we think of as urban problems - single mums, family break-ups, transient population, asylum seekers, race relations - from the dispute over whether the Gypsies should be allowed a transit site near the village, to the problem of the threatened Post Office closure... 

Cliche it may be to say it, but 'Gypsies Stop tHere' is a real page-turner - and for anyone who really gets the bug, there's even a glossary of Romany language and publications at the back of the book.

Review by Kay Green

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Whispers of the Gods

by Michelle Sara Hart

If you like family sagas, then here is one with a difference –  the setting of  ‘Whispers of the Gods’ is the Egypt of the Pharaohs, and their highly interwoven families give plenty of material for a meaty plot – where do Tutmoses’ deepest loyalties lie, with his divine sister-wife Hatshepsut, or with Isis, his second wife and mother of his son, Amun-Ra? And how is Amun-Ra to view life, growing up with divine parents whose passions threaten to rock the world? And as well as the complexities of the royal line, we have the gods of the Egyptian pantheon right in there as active, central characters...

Review by Kay Green

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Reading Round Edinburgh

Published by

Floris Books

Bright is the ring of words
When the right man rings them
Fair the fall of songs
When the singer sings them

- Robert Louis Stevenson

I'd better confess right at the start: This is a book for children. I bought it for my grandaughter and am now desperately trying to read every inch of it without creasing the spine. Edinburgh is always bashing on about being a city full of literature and, strolling around the city in the tourist season, you won't go far without tripping over a 'guide to literary Edinburgh.' Some of them are books, some are tape machines, and some are people, each leading a crocodile of listeners from Waverley to the Scott monument, from JK Rowling's cafe to Greyfriars Bobby and so on and so on... but I suspect this one is much more fun to follow if you're exploring the town, whatever your age.

Review by Kay Green

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Dropping the Habit

by Marion Dante
Published by

Poolbeg

At the age of fourteen, just as she had discovered Elvis, and the art of threading washing line into the hem of one’s skirt to make it stand out, Marion was withdrawn from the world. From the age of fourteen, she was to see no newspapers, her letters – incoming and outgoing – would be read, and the most entertaining thing about the television she very occasionally watched was the sight of anxious nuns peeping at it under its shawl, making sure there was nothing ‘unsuitable’ on the screen before letting the girls see it.

Review by Kay Green

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An Ungodly Child

by Rachel Green
Published by

DA Diamonds

Imagine a cross between “The Life of Brian” and “Dogma”, but played out in an English village with quietly understated wit and intelligence, and you’ll have an inkling of the world this book inhabits. You’ll know the characters; recognise them instantly. This is “Cider with Rosie” or “Cranford” with an unexpected edge, a slight tweak at the edges of reality, a blurring of the demarcation between the seen and unseen.

It’s also very funny.

Review by Catherine Edmunds

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The Ghost of Neil Diamond

by David Mines
Published by

What Tradition Books £7.99

 “The Ghost of Neil Diamond” is a book like no other I have read. The quality of writing is superb; the characters unforgettable. We cannot help stand beside Neil Atherton as his croons his melodies, embarrassed to be following onstage a Welsh choir who sing “Eternal Father, Strong to Save…” for the benefit of a crowd of sailors. We feel for Neil as he creeps home each night to his shabby bed-sit with no bed that houses a class of language students during the day. But we laugh, too, at his ridiculous life and unrealistic plans.

The atmosphere of late-nineties Hong Kong – its heat, its smells, its prosperity, dust and poverty, is captured in telling detail.

Funny, profound, permeated with the loneliness of a man in his late forties whose dreams have come to nothing… this book reminded me in some ways of the novels and stories of my favourite American author, Richard Yates, who also wrote about life’s losers with a compassionate and comic touch.

Read it. I can assure you, when you have – you’ll be looking for the next David Milnes novel. I’ll tell you about that one soon...

Review by Rosalie Warren

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Low Tide, Lunan Bay

by Rosalie Warren
ISBN 978-0-70908753-3 Hardback £18.99
Published by Robert Hale

 As well as a page-turning way with ordinary lives, the tale plunges the unsuspecting reader into real thriller territory, demonstrating very neatly that the internet is not the only place where innocents can stray into the arms of perverts and potential killers...

And then there’s the cucumber – who would have thought that, after all that’s gone before, a woman would find something totally original and outrageous to do with a cucumber. ‘Low Tide, Lunan Bay’ is topical: terrifying and funny, but never escapist. It reads absolutely real, even when life is at its most absurd. I read it almost in one sitting, and when I was forced to break off for meals, spent the whole time debating the issues it addressed. I can’t wait to see what Rosalie Warren is going to do next.

Review by Kay Green

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Every Girl has her Limits
By Jolen Whitworth
ISBN 978-1-905796-21-2
Price £6.99
Published by UKA Press
www.ukapress.com

 Every collection has its show-stopper, and for me ... the quite majestic Tabula Rasa... perfectly encapsulates Whitworth’s style and view of life that she presents in this collection. The closing lines are full of hope, even out of what may sometimes seem a bleak existence, which is where I will conclude:

But through the nexus of our existence
We longed for absolution to put an end to this
Confusion.
A miracle arrived when our planets aligned,
And with a Tabula Rasa, we welcomed tomorrow.

....

Jolen Whitworth is a prolific writer of poetry which has won her both publishing and competition successes. She has also worked as an editor on a number of poetry and writing projects.

Review by barenib

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Raffy's Shapes

by Tamar Hodes

Accent Press

 ‘Raffy’s Shapes’ is a colourful and absorbing novel about an artist who finds her way of seeing at a young age – and it plunges her into controversy from the beginning. The story of Raffy’s growing up is one highly charged battle in which her family never really get over the opinion that she’s ‘doing art wrong’, or come to terms with the fact that her philandering father is the real cause of their troubles. Raffy finds respite in the workshop of her grandmother, a hat-maker, and the only member of this mixed up, incestuous family, who is happy to let the child play with shapes and coloured scraps. But can Raffy come to terms with her mother – a respectable, provincial fine-artist? And in later life, how will she convince her agent/lover she’s serious about not wanting to sell prints of her more famous paintings?

The reader is taken on a wonder-journey through Raffy’s work and life in her idyllic ‘Lemon Cottage’ retreat, and also gets to join the artist in her retreat under the lake that laps at the border of the cottage garden, to work quietly on a sculpted ‘sand world’ whilst invaders from all sides attempt to take over in their mundane battle to find who is gay and who is not, who is the father of which child, and how to make a fortune from sales of ‘Raffy’s Shapes’.

Review by Kay Green

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The Secret Knowledge of Water 

by Craig Childs

Back Bay Books

This is a non-fiction book about the author's study and surveying of water in the deserts of America; deserts where no rain may have fallen for years, and which look as though no rain has ever fallen nor water flowed there, but which in fact are shaped entirely by the actions of water. It tells of water holes preserved in the shadows of caves, of streams that rise every night and disappear again at dawn, and of floods that can cut and polish rocks into intricate sculpture or tear an entire landscape apart in a few hours, in prose as perfectly weighted and balanced as poetry.

During his desert studies, the author comes across the politics of water, the religion of water, the beneficial or disastrous consequences of the management of water, the mystery of water, the strength and fragility of water, and at all times, the two easy ways to die in the desert: thirst and drowning.

Review by R D Gardner.

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A Light-hearted Look at Murder 

by Mark Watson

Published by Vintage Books
ISBN 978-0-099-46086-2

The title of this book acts as an effective blurb. You won’t pick it up if you don’t like witty tales or crime fiction, but if you do, you’re effectively primed for a good read... 

The cover illustration, by Michael Kirkham is a joy. It depicts Andreas and Rose perfectly, but without giving anything away. Taken together with the title, you’re pretty much been told what the book is about, but once you’ve read it, you have to laugh at how much both title and picture have failed to tell you.

I have no hesitation in recommending this cheeky and entertaining book.

Review by Catherine Edmunds.

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