Month: June 2020

Lockdown by Peter May

Lockdown Cover

Lockdown by Peter May

Summary:

A CITY IN QUARANTINE

London, the epicenter of a global pandemic, is a city in lockdown. Violence and civil disorder simmer. Martial law has been imposed. No-one is safe from the deadly virus that has already claimed thousands of victims. Health and emergency services are overwhelmed.

A MURDERED CHILD

At a building site for a temporary hospital, construction workers find a bag containing the rendered bones of a murdered child. A remorseless killer has been unleashed on the city; his mission is to take all measures necessary to prevent the bones from being identified.

A POWERFUL CONSPIRACY

D.I. Jack MacNeil, counting down the hours on his final day with the Met, is sent to investigate. His career is in ruins, his marriage over and his own family touched by the virus. Sinister forces are tracking his every move, prepared to kill again to conceal the truth. Which will stop him first – the virus or the killers?

Written over fifteen years ago, this prescient, suspenseful thriller is set against a backdrop of a capital city in quarantine, and explores human experience in the grip of a killer virus.

 My Review:

Imagine writing a novel about a pandemic and then having it rejected as it was unrealistic. Well back in 2005 that is exactly what Pater May had done. He did write a novel and it was rejected and so he left it there.

Fast forward to 2020 and we have a pandemic in the form of the Coronavirus that has swept across the world. Suddenly Lockdown (Riverrun) by Peter May does not seem unrealistic after all.

London is the centre stage for this gripping thriller. The world in is the grip of a pandemic with governments struggling to cope as cities are closed down and violence is spreading, now people are not allowed out of their homes with people are struggling to cope with the lockdown as the death toll mounts across the globe. Sound familiar?
In London the streets are deserted, just litter blowing through the dusty city streets. If you spoke, I am sure it would echo like a dystopian sci-fi film. A new temporary hospital is being built in London to cope with the many patients of the pandemic, it is a building site but the builders find the remains of a body and it falls to D.I. Jack MacNeil from the Met to investigate what looks like the remains of a child. MacNeil is in the final hours of his career, and he has his problems but now there is a killer on the loose and it is not the pandemic.
As D.I. MacNeil begins to investigate the case it becomes apparent that this is not just a murder case but a conspiracy and a cover up. Someone out there is watching his every move and does not want the truth to come out. Time is against MacNeil but he must get to killers before they get to him. For Jack MacNeil his career and his marriage have gone, but why should he care about the case, in a matter of hours he will be out of the force. But he is being watched! They are close and so is the virus.
If you have enjoyed Peter May’s thrillers before, then you will really enjoy Lockdown, and to think that this was written fifteen years ago and here we are with the world in the grip of the Corvid-19 pandemic. When written it really was ahead of its time. A really compelling read. Peter May remains one of my favourite thriller writers and I am delighted to recommend.

416 Pages.

Lockdown by Peter May was published by riverrun and was published on 30th April 2020 and is available to order online through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

 

Lockdown

Lockdown

Blog Post

23rd June 2020

As we entered lockdown in March my life took a monumental turn, I left my job and the lockdown happened at the same time. It felt like the ground shifted suddenly and dramatically and then we all had to stay at home. Now what I thought?

Since early March I have been having therapy and even this became affected by the pandemic and lockdown, now the therapy course would be via Skype, not the best way to have this. But on we went. So as I write this blog post it is late June and now I have just two more therapy appointments remaining. I can’t tell you just how important this has been. All I will say is never be afraid of asking for help. At some point in all our lives we will all need some help. During this lockdown period many have struggled with having to stay within the confines of their home and missing their family and friends and then of course many do not have gardens. Just imagine how they have had to cope, many single parents with little no support. Mental Health has never been so important in all of our lives. We rush to work and the shops and seeing friends and everything we do in our daily lives and suddenly it came to a very dramatic and sudden stop. That will have a long term effect on many people. Looking after your mental health is so important.

During this period of lockdown I have wanted to write regular blog posts about life during this strange and worrying period in all of our lives. But I ended up spending a lot of time just reading and listening to podcasts or walking along the river and seeing the sun reflecting off the water and watching Spring progress and looking for the first Sand Martins, House Martins, Swallows and then lastly the Swifts. One by one they arrived. Our summer friends from their wintering home in Africa. Even the early butterflies were out in abundance lots of Orange Tips were on the wing. After a long winter of what seemed non-stop rain the weather seemed to change as we entered this period of staying at home.

Suddenly the sun came out and it warmed up, and it stayed that way. Seeing the sun nearly every day really helped even being at home. Now as I write, the lockdown has been beginning ease, now we meet in bubbles and shops are starting to re-open and then the rain has arrived after weeks of little or no rain at all. There was even talk of hosepipe bans if the dry warm weather continued.

Nature and even the weather was helping us get through this pandemic. But then again nature has this unique way of being a cure. I have mentioned this a lot over recent years as being natures cure. Many have been watching birds from windows or while out on their daily exercise walks and even watching Osprey webcams. Like many I have noticed how it has been relatively quiet with so little traffic and the sound of the birdsong has been so uplifting, is it me or has the dawn chorus this Spring seemed more enhanced this year? But now that noise of traffic is beginning to return. I will miss the quiet starts to each day. Even the air seemed cleaner during the last few months. I can only hope that as many start to go back to work and go to the shops that they do not forget nature.

Some mornings there has been a cheeky House Sparrow that sits on my open window he will look in as if he chancing his luck and will fly through the open window and find some tit bit and fly out again. Something so simple yet it has started my day with a smile.

The rain has returned and we have had quite a lot during the last few weeks. While out walking or just in your garden have you noticed the smell after the rain returned? That earthy aroma after a long warm dry spell and there is a word for this it is called Petrichor, and it is said that we appreciate the aroma that comes from the dry earth after rain and that our ancestors relied on the rain for survival. That takes me back to my horticultural studies back in the late 1970’s as we studied soil composition.

I have been busying myself with writing pieces for two local magazines during recent months something I really enjoy selecting books to be reviewed or writing about books in general, books are so important they take us to places fiction or non-fiction. Looking at the numbers of people reading during the lockdown it pleasing to see so many now enjoying books. In the years to come people will ask what did you do during the months of lockdown? I am hoping there are many who have been writing their stories of how they go through the pandemic and are just waiting to be read.

The weeks and months that face us are going to be challenging as we ease out of the lockdown and now more than ever we need to come together and get through this. What we achieve alone is nothing by what we can achieve together and it is together that we can all make a difference, something we need in our world right now.

John Fish

The Last Word Book Review

To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan

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To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan

Summary:

Lucy Harper has a talent for invention…

She was nine years old when her brother vanished in the woods near home. As the only witness, Lucy’s story of that night became crucial to the police investigation. Thirty years on, her brother’s whereabouts are still unknown.

Now Lucy is a bestselling thriller writer. Her talent for invention has given her fame, fortune, and an army of adoring fans. But her husband, Dan, has started keeping secrets of his own, and a sudden change of scene forces Lucy to confront some dark, unwelcome memories. Then Dan goes missing and Lucy’s past and present begin to collide. Did she kill her husband? Would she remember if she did?

Finally, Lucy Harper is going to tell us the truth.

Cross her heart.
And hope to die.

My Review:

The premise of this story was so good that I could not ignore the chance to read before publication. To Tell You the Truth (Century) by the bestselling author Gilly Macmillan has a narrator who is a very successful writer but when she was nine she was the only witness to her brother’s disappearance. He was never found.

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It has been thirty years since Teddy her brother disappeared without trace, but in the years since Lucy has grown to be a successful writer and is married to Dan, but Dan also is a writer except his career has gone in the opposite direction to Lucy’s.

Lucy has created one fictional character in her novels who is Eliza Grey, and this character has given Lucy all the success as a writer. Eliza seems to be a constant companion in Lucy’s mind. Constantly there. But Eliza has always been there since childhood. Lucy is haunted by her own past, what really happened to her brother? Lucy’s marriage to Dan is just ok, but spending a lot of time by herself and only Eliza for company. I am sure you are already beginning to form your own story of the couple by reading this.

Now suddenly her husband has disappeared, and there are similar traits to how her brother disappeared. Now suddenly Lucy’s past has returned with a vengeance. The couple are also living close to where her little brother disappeared all those years ago. The police are now looking for clues and also clues. Strap yourself in as you the reader are in for a rollercoaster of a twisting psychological thriller that knows no boundaries.

There is something really dark and sinister about this thriller and as a writer writing about a writer, I think Gilly Macmillan really must have been itching to write this novel.

I have to say that as a thriller is beautifully paced and a well-crafted novel with such powerful characters including one imaginary character that seems to play such a part. Just one word of warning! Once you pick this up you will really struggle to put it down.  Highly Recommended.

368 Pages.

Thank you Isabelle Ralphs (Penguin Random House) for the review copy of To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan

To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan was published by Century (Arrow Publishing) on 25th June 2020 and is available to pre-order through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

#ToTellYouTheTruth

@GillyMacmillan

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NEW BLOOD 2020 – VAL MCDERMID TIPS CRIME FICTION’S RISING STARS:

New Blood authors

NEW BLOOD 2020 – VAL MCDERMID TIPS CRIME FICTION’S RISING STARS:

Thursday 18th June 2020:

I am delighted to share with you today New Blood 2020 – Val McDermid Tips Crime Fiction’s Rising Stars.

  • Deepa Anappara – Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line (Chatto & Windus)
  • Elizabeth Kay – Seven Lies (Sphere)
  • Jessica Moor – Keeper (Penguin)
  • Trevor Wood – The Man on the Street (Quercus)

Since 2004, the best-selling Scottish author of the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series has curated an annual celebration of the most formidable debuts taking the crime and thriller genre by storm, with an invitation to join the line-up of the world’s largest and most prestigious crime fiction festival: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

This year, Deepa Anappara has been selected for her part coming-of-age, part detective mystery Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, a heart-breaking and thought-provoking social commentary of modern India’s slums that has been recognised for the Women’s Prize. Elizabeth Kay is on the list for her explosive Seven Lies, taking domestic noir to a whole new level in a deliciously dark blurring of truth and lies, and Jessica Moore is recognised for her brutal and beautiful Keeper, the addictive literary thriller that has had everyone talking. Concluding this year’s New Blood contingent is Trevor Wood and his debut The Man on the Street, a gritty thriller set on the streets of Newcastle.

Val McDermid said: “I have been hosting the New Blood showcase since the festival began in 2003 and, in my book, discovering and sharing new talent with an eager audience is the best job in crime fiction. I know exactly what I’m looking for on my quest: fresh and distinctive voices, a well-told, convincing story and the almost indefinable sense that these authors all have much more to say. Deepa, Elizabeth, Jessica and Trevor tick all of these boxes and more, and if this year’s debuts share a theme, it is the irresistible and devastating way in which crime fiction shines a light on our times: homelessness, domestic violence, child trafficking and mental health are all dissected with an unflinching gaze. Whilst we can’t gather en masse at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate this year, I hope that readers will enjoy our virtual introduction to these brilliant new writers.”

The unveiling of McDermid’s selection has become one of the most anticipated moments of the publishing calendar, with readers on the lookout to uncover their new favourite author and add the ‘next big thing’ to their bookshelves.

Former ‘New Blood’ alumni include Clare Mackintosh, SJ Watson, Stuart MacBride, Liam McIlvanney and Belinda Bauer, as well as three authors on this year’s shortlist for the UK’s most prestigious crime writing award – Theakston Old Peculier: Abir Mukherjee, Jane Harper and Oyinkan Braithwaite, who was chosen just last year for her Booker longlisted My Sister, the Serial Killer.

As part Harrogate International Festivals’ year round programme of events, each year the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival welcomes the world’s famous authors each year to Harrogate’s Old Swan Hotel – the scene of Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance in 1926 – for a celebration of the crime genre like no other.

This year’s instalment – which formed part of Harrogate International Festival Summer Season – was cancelled, with much sadness, due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and so the 2020 ‘New Blood’ showcase will be streamed on the festival’s HIF Player on what would have been the legendary weekender on Saturday 25 July 2020.

Val McDermid will also interviewed by Mark Lawson about the legacy of the New Blood panel, discussing the vital role of the showcase in giving a platform to new writers in the industry and the crime community, and giving a peek behind the scenes into how and why she chooses the books.

Trevor Wood said: “As a kid I dreamt of playing in the cup final. I’m a fraction older now but being chosen for Harrogate’s New Blood panel feels exactly like that did.”

Jessica Moor said: “To have been chosen for this panel, which has included some of my favourite new authors of the last decade, and to have been chosen by the legendary Val McDermid, is a such an honour.”

Deepa Anappara said: “I am thrilled and honoured to be picked for the New Blood panel, and grateful to Val McDermid for her immense generosity and support of debut novelists.”

Elizabeth Kay said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to have been selected for such a prestigious event. The ‘New Blood’ panel has an incredible history, and I’m delighted to be participating this year alongside three really exciting other authors.”

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The Man on the Street by Trevor Wood (Quercus)

It started with a splash. Jimmy, a homeless veteran grappling with PTSD, did his best to pretend he hadn’t heard it – the sound of something heavy falling into the Tyne at the height of an argument between two men on the riverbank. Not his fight. Maybe it was another of his vivid nightmares? Since he found himself living on the streets, avoiding other people’s fights has helped him to survive. Trouble finds him easily enough without looking for it. Then a newspaper headline catches his eye: GIRL IN MISSING DAD PLEA. The girl, Carrie, reminds him of someone he lost.  This makes his mind up: it’s time to stop hiding from his past. But telling Carrie, what he heard – or thought he heard – turns out to be just the beginning of the story. The police don’t believe him. Who believes a homeless man? But Carrie is adamant that something awful has happened to her dad and Jimmy agrees to help her, putting himself at risk from enemies old and new. But Jimmy has one big advantage: when you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose. 

 Trevor Wood (@TrevorWoodWrite) has lived in Newcastle for twenty-five years and considers himself an adopted Geordie. He’s a successful playwright who has also worked as a journalist and spin-doctor for the City Council. Prior to that he served in the Royal Navy for sixteen years. Trevor holds an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) from UEA. The Man on the Street is his first novel.

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Keeper by Jessica Moor (Penguin)

He’s been looking in the windows again. Messing with cameras. Leaving notes. Supposed to be a refuge. But death got inside. When Katie Straw’s body is pulled from the waters of the local suicide spot, the police decide it’s an open-and-shut case. A standard-issue female suicide. But the residents of Widringham women’s refuge where Katie worked don’t agree. They say it’s murder. Will you listen to them?

 Jessica Moor (@jessicammoor) studied English at Cambridge before completing a Creative Writing MA at Manchester University. Prior to this she spent a year working in the violence against women and girls sector and this experience inspired her first novel, KEEPER.

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Djin Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara (Chatto & Windus)

In a basti on the outskirts of a sprawling Indian city, nine-year-old Jai watches too many reality cop shows in the house he shares with his family Jai thinks he’s smarter than his friend Pari (even though she always gets top marks) and considers himself to be a better boss than his hardworking friend Faiz (even though he has a job). When their classmate from school goes missing, the Djinn Patrol ventures out, wielding their detective skills into the bustling city to investigate; through the rattle-tattle energy and mouth-watering smells of the bazaar, to the dangerous rubbish ground and as far as the railway station at the end of the Purple Line. But children continue to vanish, and the trio must confront terrified parents, an unsympathetic police force and soul-snatching djinns in order to uncover the truth. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will be altered forever.

 Deepa Anappara grew up in Kerala, southern India, and worked as a journalist in cities including Mumbai and Delhi. Her reports on the impact of poverty and religious violence on the education of children won the Developing Asia Journalism Awards, the Every Human has Rights Media Awards, and the Sanskriti-Prabha Dutt Fellowship in Journalism. A partial of her debut novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, won the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, the Bridport/Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award and the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, and is currently studying for a PhD on a CHASE doctoral fellowship. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line will be publised in America, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden. deepa-anappara.com

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Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay (Sphere)

Only you know the truth: Jane and Marnie have been inseparable since they were eleven years old. In their twenties, they both married handsome young men. Years later, Jane and Marnie are still best friends – and both men are dead. But if Jane had been honest from the start – if she hadn’t told that first little white lie – then perhaps the person she loves most would still love her too. Perhaps everything would be different. This is Jane’s opportunity to tell the real story – if you can believe her. As Jane narrates hers and Marnie’s shared history and unpicks each of seven increasingly catastrophic lies, she reveals the pockets of darkness that have infiltrated their friendship; the toxic secrets still bubbling beneath; and a tale of obsession, of grief, and the real meaning of truth.

Elizabeth Kay (@AnyOtherLizzy) started her career as an assistant at Penguin Random House. She is now a commissioning editor and is simultaneously pursuing her passion for writing. Her debut novel, Seven Lies, will be published in 2020. Elizabeth lives in London with her husband. @AnyOtherLizzy

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‘Harrogate International Festivals’ is a charitable organisation with a mission to present a diverse year-long programme of live events that bring immersive and moving cultural experiences to as many people as possible. Delivering artistic work of national importance, the Festival curates and produces over 300 unique and surprising performances each year, celebrating world-renowned artists and championing new and up-coming talent across music, literature, science, philosophy and psychology. The HIF+ ongoing education outreach programme engages schools, young people and the local community with workshops, talks, projects and inspiring activities, ensuring everyone can experience the Festival’s world class programme and the transformative power of the arts.

Established in 1966, Harrogate International Festivals are an artistic force to be reckoned with and a key cultural provider for the North of England.

My thanks to Gabriella Drinkald and Midas Pr for the Press Release and photographs. 

Find out more at: www.harrogateinternationalfestivals.com | Facebook: @HarrogateInternationalFestivals | Twitter: @HarrogateFest | Instagram: @harrogatefestivals  

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Pomeranski by Gerald Jacobs

Pomeranski by Gerald Jacobs

Summary:

As Benny the Fixer Pomeranski is laid to rest on a cold November morning at the turn of the twenty-first century, a motley crew of survivors from his youth assembles around the grave, its members ‘identified by their lived-in faces – faces that indicated a singular kind of past, a chequered hinterland.’ This encounter with the past, and the discovery of his father Benny’s diaries, leads Simon Pomeranski back to his childhood and the post-war days of the Astorians, a small group of criminals and traders in ‘swag’ who ran their business from Brixton Market and exercised their own particular brand of justice. From this wonderful assortment of characters we are introduced to ‘Spanish Joe’, the cultured Russian emigre, Sam ‘the Stick’, with his wounded machismo and penchant for violent retribution, and the dazzling songstress Estelle, among others. Front and centre in their world, though, is Benny himself, the autodidact owner of Pomeranski Gowns, whose passionate affair with Estelle marks the beginning of a new era for the Astorians. Both riotous and profound, this novel resurrects a vibrant era that deserves a place in our collective memory.

 My Review:

They should have been celebrating Benny Pomeranki’s eighty-first birthday the previous week but on this typical cold November day in 2000 they were instead laying Benny the fixer to rest. Pomeranski (Quartet Books) by Gerald Jacobs is both amusing and also fascinating reminder of post-war Brixton and we are introduced to some ‘interesting’ characters of the time.

Gerald Jacobs

Simon Pomeranski has discovered his father’s diaries and now a trip back in time. This is a story of a small Jewish community based in South London, an area I know very.  But this story is post-war Britain and Benny Pomeranski is just out of the army and is looking for a new start. Benny swops the army life for a life in the rag trade and soon he getting to grips with his new role and his new life. But it does not stop him there. Benny wants more.

So now together with some of his chums they set up what can only be deemed as an interesting group of young men and name themselves after the Astoria Cinema. The Astorians are a small group of friends, they are smart and clever and as Brixton is beginning to liven up, they will make sure they look after each other’s back. You cannot have a group of friends without each of them having their own unique name or badge of honour you might say. So now we have Benny ‘the fixer’.

But this group was not set up just for fun, they had plans, some of the locals deserved seeing to. So Benny ‘the fixer’ and his group set about just that, robberies and beatings took place. After all they deserved it. Was this a case of this band of young brothers just setting a marker and a place for themselves in a new world order in South London?

This is both a fascinating and brilliantly written book that harks back to the post-war days and it is at times really quite humorous but also a compelling read. The characters you will either like or you not it really is as simple as that. Look out for a cameo performance by Ruth Ellis. I really warmed to Pomeranski by Gerald Jacobs, this is from a bygone era and will bring back memories for anyone growing up in South London back in the 1950’s.   

256 Pages.

Thank you to Quartet Books for the review copy of Pomeranski by Gerald Jacobs.

Pomeranski by Gerald Jacobs was published by Quartet Books and was published on 30th April 2020 and is available to order through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

 

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia – Wolfson History Prize 2020

The Boundless Sea - Cover

The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia

The Wolfson History Prize Shortlist 2020

Summary:

For most of human history, the seas and oceans have been the main means of long-distance trade and communication between peoples – for the spread of ideas and religion as well as commerce. This book traces the history of human movement and interaction around and across the world’s greatest bodies of water, charting our relationship with the oceans from the time of the first voyagers. David Abulafia begins with the earliest of seafaring societies – the Polynesians of the Pacific, the possessors of intuitive navigational skills long before the invention of the compass, who by the first century were trading between their far-flung islands. By the seventh century, trading routes stretched from the coasts of Arabia and Africa to southern China and Japan, bringing together the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific and linking half the world through the international spice trade. In the Atlantic, centuries before the little kingdom of Portugal carved out its powerful, seaborne empire, many peoples sought new lands across the sea – the Bretons, the Frisians and, most notably, the Vikings, now known to be the first Europeans to reach North America. As Portuguese supremacy dwindled in the late sixteenth century, the Spanish, the Dutch and then the British each successively ruled the waves.

Following merchants, explorers, pirates, cartographers and travellers in their quests for spices, gold, ivory, slaves, lands for settlement and knowledge of what lay beyond, Abulafia has created an extraordinary narrative of humanity and the oceans. From the earliest forays of peoples in hand-hewn canoes through uncharted waters to the routes now taken daily by supertankers in their thousands, The Boundless Sea shows how maritime networks came to form a continuum of interaction and interconnection across the globe: 90 per cent of global trade is still conducted by sea. This is history of the grandest scale and scope, and from a bracingly different perspective – not, as in most global histories, from the land, but from the boundless seas.

 My Review:

I am delighted to have been asked to make a contribution to this year’s Wolfson History Prize Shortlist blog tour. It is a literary prize I have kept a close eye on for many years. As part of my blog tour I am reviewing one of the most outstanding history books I have read in a long time. The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans (Allen Lane). Is by no means a light read at over 1000 pages but inside is one of the most detailed histories of the seas that have been the lifeline for every continent be at peace or war. From space the Earth is almost totally blue, no surprise as 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans and contain 97% of the total water on earth.

We as people’s through history has a link to the oceans like nothing else, through exploring new lands, forging new trade links, invasion of lands and as we move forward creating new forms of communications. This is an incredible books considering the huge research that would have gone into David Abulafia’s latest book. Starting with the oldest of the oceans, the Pacific Ocean at 176,000 BC before crossing the oceans at our current times. It is an epic odyssey through 65,000 years of human history of the oceans.  

Written with the authority of a scholar, you would think the narrative could put off the casual reader, but that is not the case. Abulafia writes with such dexterity that you are taken on an adventure through history whether that is through the earliest of explorations or the rampaging Vikings through Northern Europe to archaeology that helps us to understand humanities clues from the past. Reading The Boundless Sea, I found totally compelling reading about the Pirates to marauding adventurers and those seeking new lands to forge both religious and trade links. But there are also the parts that talk of the slavery ships across the Atlantic that began as far back as the 14th Century. Then to almost current times when discussing both the building both the Suez and Panama Canals and the cost in lives through disease.

There is so much detail contained in this magnificent book that no matter what I write here, it will not do it justice. People and the oceans have a link to the earliest part of humanity and that link to this day continues as we transport nearly all cargo via huge container ships across the oceans. It is said that humanity to-date has explored only 5% of the world’s oceans.

The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia is a staggering achievement, I was reading this as a digital copy but ended up buying a hard copy so that I could look at the maps and colour plates.

I have now read two of the books on the Wolfson History Prize shortlist and I have to say just what an outstanding literary prize it has become, trying to pin down one book as a clear winner is harder in this prize than any other literary prize I have become involved with. I wish each and every author the very best with their books. I hope to get to read the remaining books on the shortlist.

1088 Pages.

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@WolfsonHistoryPrize

The Wolfson History Prize Shortlist 2020

The announcement of the winner of The Wolfson History Prize 2020 will be made on 15th June.

Thank you to Ben McCluskey (Midas PR) for the review copy of The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia.

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia was published by Allen Lane and was released on 3rd October 2019 and is available to order through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.
Please support your local independent bookshop through these difficult times. Many are still trading by offering a mail order service.

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