While the Bombs Fell by Robbie Cheadle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book, which was full of nostalgic and poignant reminiscences about the 1940s, many of which applied to my baby boomer generation. The horrible fear for children and adults alike, of being bombed while you slept, comes through clearly in the writing. The privations suffered by the general population of food; clothing and utilities such as fuel and energy are well illustrated by the authors’ focussing upon Elsie and her family. The stories about this little girl’s life in rural Suffolk during World War 2 are obviously biographical and the name of Robbie Cheadle’s co-author is a bit of a give-away. There may be some fictional aspects to the book but I felt that the whole narrative provided an important authentic record of those times. Some of the anecdotes and chapters do jump about a little and could have been sequenced more logically. If there was a reason for this it was not clear to me.

However, some of the childhood memories were delightful and interesting to read, such as thoughts about Christmas and Jack Frost ‘decorating’ the windows with ‘feathery pictures’. There are examples of war time recipes for meals like toad-in-the-hole, that many younger readers would find quite enlightening, and which I remember personally. The mention of pictures reminds me of the old photographs used in the book to illustrate the real people that it tells tales about. This added an extra snippet of pleasure to the narrative.

Most importantly the book gives modern readers some idea about the genuine alarm and worry inflicted upon the general population by the war, while at the same time it reminds us about the downright hard work that was necessary in order to ‘keep on keeping on’ in those times. The diligence and bravery shown by the working classes should never be just taken for granted. Despite all of the negative influences the war and living conditions, inflicted upon the people in the book, the overall positive attitude that they continued to reflect – ‘keep on smiling’ – was inspirational to young and old! Recommended!

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Broken Bones and Shattered Spears: Book Three in the Tenochtitlan Trilogy by Edward Rickford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second story by Edward Rickford that I have read about Cortes and the Mexica. It was no less interesting and exciting, despite the very many complex characters with their complicated names. Once again, after a short period of time trying, I gave up speaking the names out loud. It slowed down my reading time too much. If I had a criticism about the writing it was the uncomfortable over-use in the narrative of various idioms. In particular the expression ‘truth be told’ occurred so often it did become a little irritating. Whether such a phrase was appropriate in the conversations of the various 16th century populace is another point, and it could have been replaced I am sure with other phrases.

This book had much more violence in it and some of the bloody descriptions may affect some readers, but it was appropriate and lent the story authenticity in my opinion. It is not quite a rip-roaring adventure yarn but exciting enough in its own way. There can be no doubt at all about the considerable research that Rickford has done in order to maintain the accuracy of the events that take place in his historical novel, which I found fascinating and often compelling. As mentioned previously some of the idiomatic phrases felt out of place in the historical context of the tale. It was often very difficult to continuously follow the plot when so many similar and complicated names were involved. The author did attempt to simplify things by giving some original characters plain names, like ‘Father’ or ‘Elder’ and it did help. However, I did think that so many minor characters around the periphery of the major plotline could have been drastically ‘pruned’ from the story. But the inclusion of Malintze, Estrada and their behaviour towards Pozon, a slave boy, was delightful and refreshing in some ways. Although realistically portrayed no doubt, the earlier events involving Pozon and his older sister, Yaotl, when he was captured, I found very distressing and incredibly poignant.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys historical novels or is interested in the ‘real story’ behind the birth of Mexico.

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The Trafficking Murders by Brian O'Hare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Despite the book’s very disturbing and grim subject I quite enjoyed this crime novel with its large number of different characters. The plot was complex and constantly encouraging the reader to think along various directions, trying to keep pace with the investigative team, led by Inspector Jim Sheenan of the Belfast police department. The author manages to maintain a fairly light touch when describing some of the details about the trafficking criminals’ harsh treatment of their victims. This gave the story more of a general appeal to a wider range of readers in my opinion. I was grateful for that but I imagine others who prefer their crime novels to be more realistic and gritty may not feel the same.

It did manage to make me feel desperately sorry for Alina and the other Rumanian victims who were tricked into seeking a better life in Northern Ireland. I felt the Chinese victims’ aspect of the story became the main target for the police team in the end. The plot grew into more of a cosy murder novel at this point and there was a long complicated explanation in the last few pages. The female detective, Denise Stewart, described this as Sheenan’s Poirot moment, and for me it was the least attractive part of the novel. I usually think the same when they occur at the end of Agatha Christie’s Poirot-type detective novels anyway.

This is the fifth novel in a Chief Inspector Sheenan series and can stand alone to a certain extent. But there were members amongst his team of investigators, like Stewart and Connors for example, who I would have liked to know more about. Maybe I’ll read an earlier novel sometime to find out more?



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Letters from Lake Joe by Mary E. Hughes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having read all three of the ‘Imagining Violet’ books in Mary Hughes’ trilogy, I was looking forward to this novel about the family’s holiday exploits on a Canadian island. The island was called Canonshot originally but was later renamed Burgess Island, due to family connections. Lake Joseph is one of the Muskoka Lakes and in one of Violet’s letters she comments that at seventeen miles long it was some seven miles longer than Windermere, in the English Lake District; which was where she and Frank had spent their honeymoon in 1898. The fictitious letters are written with such amazing authenticity that the reader gets to observe, close up, many of the pleasures and rigours of Violet’s family while spending several weeks there. Violet’s growing brood of children over the first decade had such adventures that you feel part of the family, so well described are their characters.
Meanwhile, Violet’s husband, Frank, was still much involved in the orchestral musical world of Toronto. Eventually he becomes the Director of the Toronto Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. Understandably, escaping to their cottage on Burgess Island, occasionally, provided him with much relief from that very busy society. But at the same time it reminds the reader about the first book in the Violet Trilogy, when she is embarking upon her own musical career. The tragic news in 1911 about Violet’s difficult sixth pregnancy came as quite a shock to me, and I was quite surprised to feel a sense of loss.
The author’s fictionalised letters are based upon her own diligent research about her grandmother, Violet Welsman, in particular but encompass many real characters who were her ancestors and more recent relatives. The group of vignettes in the second half of the book, under the title ‘Muskoka Suite,’ was a collection of the author’s own holiday memories from the middle decades of the 20th century. It revealed a special significance to Mary Hughes and her family about the island that provided a touching relevance to Violet’s letters. This group of stories felt awkwardly inserted and perhaps could have been introduced to readers in a more subtle way. Regardless of this problem, however, I can still thoroughly recommend ‘Letters from Lake Joe’ to anyone who enjoys well written historical fiction about family life.


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The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I particularly enjoyed this book of Anthony Trollope’s because it includes several events from his previous novels and adds a new main theme. This is about the problems involving Mr Crawley who is a clergyman accused of stealing a cheque. Also in this tale are interesting incidents around a conflicted love affair involving a secret portrait painting and suicide. I found the characterisation of Mr Crawley a little overdone after a while, and the return of the contrary Lily Dale became equally frustrating and irritating. But none of that spoilt my overall enjoyment of the book. Each plot within the main plot was engaging and realistic to my mind. Some of the descriptions of the emotions experienced by some of the typical middle class Victorians were effectively authentic, evoking sympathy from this reader at least. Trollope’s maintenance of the social etiquette that prevailed in those times is to be admired.

I was quite surprised to find the final situation between Mrs Proudie and the bishop quite moving, notwithstanding the continuation of John Eames plight with Lily Dale. There are many situations and characters that are more than slightly amusing and encourage outright laughter. A more serious situation involves Grace Crawley, the young daughter of the accused curate. She is clever and pretty and in love with Henry Grantly, the son of the aristocratic archdeacon. This is a match that looks as though it is never to end in marriage due to factors including wealth, class, pride and prejudice, to coin a phrase. Much depends upon the innocence of the curate and Grace’s unfortunately stubborn integrity.

This novel, appropriately entitled The Last Chronicle of Barset, is the one as I stated above, that brings together many of the characters we got to know in the previous five novels of the series. And one of our favourites is Septimus Harding, the Warden in the first novel. His daughter is married to the archdeacon in this book and they too have an important and significant role throughout it; as they did in Barchester Towers, the second book in the series. Whichever of the Barchester series may be your favourite so far, this is the one that outclasses them all. It is a delight and will appeal to anyone who enjoys reading classic English literature.



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A Purgatory of Misery by Frank Parker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The suffering in Ireland due to the potato famine was something I knew about but this book told me so much more. The way in which the English administration made things so much worse through incompetence and self-interest was a disgrace, and the book was both informative and disturbing on that subject. The amount of hypocrisy shown by the many land owners and land lords shows how fragile was the ‘control’ given to them, through the commissioners, by the government at that time. The considerable amount of research involved in writing this important book was very evident, and has to be admired. The book covered a lot of other aspects, such as the relationship between malnutrition and cognitive development, particularly the effects on children of course. Again something I found refreshingly different, but no less upsetting for anyone reading this with even the tiniest amount of empathy.

The viewpoint of Frank Parker, the joint author, towards the end of the book was a salutary experience for this reader. He compares and contrasts the catastrophe of the Irish Potato Famine of 1842 with modern famines, and reminds us of just how much work there is still to be done by the more developed nations of the world to relieve those suffering elsewhere. Even so, Parker seems determined to maintain a ‘no blame’ approach in his discourse about the many misfortunes to blight humanity over the centuries, before and since the Irish tragedy - a difficult thing to do. His account does include the inadequacies of both the government and the Church at that time. For anyone wanting to discover much more about ‘hidden’ European social history ‘A Purgatory of Misery’ will be a valuable and helpful experience.


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The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well beauty must be in the eye of the beholder, as symbolism is in the eye of the reader! This was my second attempt at reading (and enjoying or understanding?) Hemingway and, while I found the tale of the old man's struggle interesting, I'm still not sure I enjoyed it. The most touching parts for me were the young boy's devotion to looking after the old man. Maybe you have to be a fisher of some description to get it? I'd have liked a lot more background information to really appreciate his reasons for pushing on to kill such a magnificent creature. As the saying goes: 'There's a lot more fish in the sea' - or at least there used to be!
I hoped at the end that the old man's claim to love the fish dead, just as much as when it was alive is a metaphor for his respect for the marlin fish. Unfortunately, I did not get Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' either. For me there is often too much of the king's nakedness, in his 'new' suit of clothes, posing as a need for symbolism in some fiction.

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7 Spirits, 4 Friends by David MacNamera
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Despite the fact that I am not a particular fan of this genre this novel was quite interesting. The kind of fiction that includes stories of spirits or fantastical mysterious characters no longer appeals to my imagination, although I will admit to still being a fan of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ and the ‘Gormenghast’ trilogies. However, MacNamera’s novel, ‘7 Spirits, 4 Friends,’ was both interesting and intriguing because it seemed to roam around the world with historical information, possibly real and imagined, about tombs, churches and temples that became fantastic in the way it supported the central plot. The four friends of the title set out upon an adventurous discovery, or quest, to find 'The Centuries Prize', a kind of 'Holy Grail' in the world spiritualism.
The characterisation of the four was quite strong and their specific strengths in the area were well illustrated. There was realistic dialogue throughout the book. Unfortunately the downside for me was generally in the telling of the tale. Often the past tense was used when the pluperfect (using the word ‘had’ appropriately) would have been more accurate and less confusing to the reader. There was quite a lot of tautology and missing punctuation that can become annoying after a while. In most novels the odd cliché will pop up and terms like ‘all of a sudden’ can grate when other ways of expression could be used instead.
As a retired science teacher I could not help but spot a few technical errors that glared, such as the inaccurate use of ‘temperature getting warm’ and saying ‘degrees’ where ‘angle’ is really meant. I’m sure the tale was original and exciting for fans of the genre and thus well worth the telling. But most probably the use of a beta/proof reader and/or an editor would have improved the final publication. At the very least frequent application of the spellchecker and grammar checker in the word processer would pick up some of the errors that spoilt my overall rating.


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The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At the beginning of this book Trollope goes to great lengths to tell the reader about Lily Dale’s numerous attractions. I did find her to be a young woman with wonderful personal qualities for most of the book. But then well into the story, she began to display a contrary side, one that became somewhat irritating. Several of the characters could become both amusing and annoying in the way they seemed to portray typical upper class traits of the times. This of course is all due to the author’s clever writing. Despite, or maybe because of, the regular frustration I felt with several of the characters I enjoyed the story. No doubt this feeling was due to Trollope’s clever mixing of both positive and negative personalities within his characters. Their innermost thoughts and dialogue came across as realistic to me. Therefore, some empathy for sisters Bell and Lily; and would-be lovers Eames and Crosbie was bound to follow.

However, I felt most sympathetic towards Mrs Dale, the sister’s mother. She was the one person who displayed the greatest responsibility and concern to ‘do the right thing’ for her daughters, under the usual conventions of that Victorian era. My other favourite character was the earl, or Lord de Guest. He was a hands-on farming landowner who was anxious to treat everyone with fairness and respect, and who became particularly fond of Johnny Eames, encouraging him to be more daring as a suitor for Lily Dale. Later in the book we suddenly grow to also like the squire when his affections towards his nieces, the Dales girls, are revealed more clearly. Is he so ‘evil’ after all?

Like so many of his novels this story of Trollope’s is about relationships and the real and imagined problems and feelings people experience in their lives. We readers grow to care about the fictional characters presented by the author if it is done properly by them. There is often more of that aspect to be found in many classic novels when compared with modern books. Entertainment and enjoyment are important too, but it does not necessarily have to be quite so ‘immediate’ in that it must include horror, thrills, fantasy or romance, so fitting into a specific ‘genre’ surely?

Before I began to read The Small House at Allington I thought I had already found my favourite Barsetshire novel but now I’m not so sure. Long and often rambling it may be at times but the number of interesting and frustrating characters found within this story grabbed my curiosity so well I can only recommend it to anyone who just enjoys a darn good read that never quite goes where you suspect or hope it will!


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Allow Yourself To Be A Better Person by Balroop Singh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My initial reaction to this self-help book was one of gloom and slight horror. This was because I usually consider such so-called guides as self-congratulatory and arrogant. Why anyone should think that their opinion about someone else’s behaviour (someone they have never met or known) is not only important to the said someone, but also why they should take any notice of it whatsoever? For starters, what is meant by the phrase in the book’s title of ‘a Better Person?’ The implication is in the opinion of the author.

It seems to me that the use of an early sub-heading in the book like ‘Give up Arrogance’ becomes, ironically, arrogant. Particularly when the author proceeds to give the reader a steady diatribe for a couple of pages about various attributes that can be blamed on arrogance. We are given checklists to help us avoid it and even supplied with a clever acronym, with each letter of the word illustrating the more positive aspects of behaviour one should aim for. Aspects such as ‘A… aspire for affable and altruistic attitude; R… respect relationships and relinquish power; R… respect realms of rationalism to reconcile and remediate’ for the first three letters of ARROGANCE. My first thought here was when does self-confidence become interpreted as arrogance? The first half of the book for me did not leave much room for people who were quite happy and still confident enough to be quiet, gentle and obedient, in other words - meek! All of Jesus Christ’s sayings or Beatitudes given in his Sermon on the Mount were to his followers of course. But they were essentially to all people and about loving your fellow humans. The third Beatitude informed them and the rest of the world that the meek will inherit the earth. Now the ‘meek’ are quiet, gentle people; and therefore, not quite as self-confident and go-getting as Balroop Singh implies we could (should?) be in her book. Was Christ being arrogant or just well informed, wise and concerned for all humans? I say this from the point of view of a non-believer, but it makes such good sense. We cannot all have ‘inspirational personalities’ as detailed in the book, surely? Otherwise the world would be full of leaders but without any followers, that is those who just get on and get things done within their communities around the world.

I wanted to know on what authority Ms Singh makes these assertions. Was it through professional training; life experience; or purely through deep thinking for hours and hours? But credit where it is due she does mention being a teacher in her past, a teacher who feels that she learned a lot from her own students about behaviour and attitudes. As a retired teacher myself I can fully recognise that valuable piece of self-education. Reading on in the book made me consider some ideas with a different viewpoint. And it does cover a wide spread of matters, admittedly, many of them supported by her personal experiences, encouraging self-reflection. There are many things within Allow Yourself to Be a Better Person that would encourage me to go back to it, if I had misgivings about certain situations, and needed advice or a different angle on things. Although much of what she writes seems to be based upon her own experiences and her observations about the behaviour of her own siblings, there is much that does re-inforce one’s need to self-reflect occasionally, maybe often in some cases!

I suppose the bottom line is to admit that we all have space for personal enrichment. The author does insist you examine so many personal aspects, quite apart from arrogance, such as anger and aggression, fear and inspiration, hope and despair, envy and empathy in our search for betterment. There are times in most lives when change or loss for example may cause desperation and confusion. This book could be a useful guide for many people under various unfortunate situations. The main problem for me was that the author’s approach often came across as too insistent on immediate attention or obedience, when careful consideration may be all that is required.


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