Month: August 2020

Plague by Julie Anderson

Plague by Julie Anderson

Summary:

There are many ways to die. Plague is just one of them.

Work on a London tube line is halted by the discovery of an ancient plague pit and, within it, a very recent corpse. A day later another body is found, killed in the same way, also in a plague pit. This victim is linked to the Palace of Westminster, where rumours swirl around the Prime Minister and his rivals.

As the number of deaths climbs, the media stokes fear. Government assurances are disbelieved. Everyone feels threatened. This has to be resolved and fast.

The Westminster connection enables Detective Inspector Andrew Rowlands, working alone on  a series of rapes and murders of vulnerable young people in central London, to finally persuade his superiors that there is a pattern. He is assigned to lead the case.  Cassandra Fortune, a disgraced civil servant, is given the uncomfortable task of investigating the investigation, while joining forces with Rowlands to find the killers before Parliament rises for recess.

Together they navigate the arcane world of the Palace of Westminster as the body count grows. But someone is leaking important details about the case to the press and the media ratchets up the pressure. Misinformation and malice online feeds distrust and panic and the Black Death begins to stalk the streets of London once again.

Meanwhile the commercial and political world focuses on the launch of a huge government Thames-side building programme worth billions. Powerful forces, in Parliament and the City, are competing for its spoils. How, if at all, does this link with the killings? Drawn into the melee, Cassandra Fortune finds herself the object of the attentions of one of the major players, wealthy City broker, Lawrence Delahaye. The attraction is mutual. Fortune and Rowlands discover a shadowy underground network of influence and power as they race against the clock to prevent the death of more innocents and the destruction of the Mother of Parliaments itself. Cassandra will be forced to make a terrible decision as she faces ruin. Time is running out and it’s not clear what, or who, is going to survive. 

My Review:

Set in modern day London, Plague (Claret Press) by Julie Anderson is a really exciting thriller, the title suggests a novel set against a background of a plague but what this really is a gripping murder mystery and political intrigue.

The story begins when workmen discover a plague pit while working on the London underground network, but there is also a grim discovery of a body that has recently been placed there. How? And who committed the murder? Cassandra Fortune who as a civil servant has a past that he is trying hard to overcome, is there. A day later another body is discovered and there are similarities and also discovered in a plague pit. This victim has connections to the Palace of Westminster and government officials are nervous.

Mention of recently discovered bodies in plague pits and there is a media frenzy and the public are now very nervous. Is this the plague returning and are there more victims to be discovered?

 The killing is not over and time is running out, high ranking civil servants want answers before Parliament closes and there is pressure on both Cassandra and Detective Inspector Rowlands to find the killers before they strike again and strike fear into the public about the return of the Black Death? Meanwhile someone really is going after Cassandra and it is not only her career that could be ended if the killers are not found and quickly. The pressure is mounting.

Running under central London is the forgotten underground River Tyburn that plays a significant role in the storyline as do some extremely dangerous people who will not stop at anything for power and they have eyes at the very top.

Plague is a fast moving thriller that has political intrigue as well as money and greed at the very heart of the story and dark secrets of London’s underground. I really enjoyed Julie Anderson’s writing as she creates some interesting characters for the plot and creates a storyline that is tense and you are not sure what is coming next and you feared for Cassandra Fortune at every turn of the page.

288 Pages.

Thank you to Claret Press for the Netgalley review copy of Plague by Julie Anderson.

Plague by Julie Andersonis published by Claret Press and will be released on 15th September 2020 and available to pre-order through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers: A treasury of 1,000 Scottish Words by Robin A. Crawford

Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers: A treasury of 1,000 Scottish Words by Robin A. Crawford

Summary:

The Scots language is an ancient and lyrical tongue, inherently linked to the country’s history and identity, its land and culture. In Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers, Robin Crawford has gathered 1,000 words from his native land – old and new, classical and colloquial, rural and urban – in a joyful and witty celebration of their continuing usage and unique character.

airt o’ the clicky – bawheid – carnaptious – dreich – eejit – forefochen – Glasgow kiss – haver – inkie-pinkie – jags – kelpie – loch-lubbertie – meevin’ – neuk – oxter – pawky – quaich – ramstam – simmer dim – tattie bogle – usquebaugh – vratch watergaw – yowe trummle

My Review:

What a book to celebrate my 500th blog post, a book to celebrate words after all this is why I started a blog about books. Those of us who talk and write blogs about literature love to celebrate words and now released is a book about Scottish Words old and new. Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers: A Treasury of 1,000 Scottish Words (Elliott & Thompson) by Robin A. Crawford.

Across our lands and through history we have used words to as culture and identity and this is as true in Scotland as anywhere and in this wonderful book by Robin A. Crawford he delves deep into a joyful celebration of its usage. Set out in alphabetical format so it is very easy to use and also some delightful line drawings by Liz Myhill that just add to the book.

From Robert Burns to Billy Connolly and even Monty Python and even Twitter they are all here a living testament to Scottish words old and new. It is clear that Robin put in a lot of time and research into this project and deserves praise. Scottish language is part of their cultural history and should be celebrated. Just a few words that I have picked out

Ailsa Cock or Parrot: Puffin

Blaws Snell: A biting, chastening wind.

Inkie-pinkie: Weak beer.

Clootie Dumpling: Suet and dried-fruit pudding wrapped tightly in a cloth, or cloot and cooked by being boiled in a pan.

Haver/Haiver: Ramble, talk nonsense. As in the Proclaimers were happy to haver for 500 miles.

Silver Darlings: Herrings

Ailsa Cock or Puffin

These words hark back through Scottish history and Robbie Burns is at the very core of this book and rightly so as it speaks to the people of Scotland in everything they do no matter where they are around the world today.

Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclvers is a celebration of the richness of Scottish words, but in all of this we must remind ourselves that these words are now disappearing. Scotland’s favourite word as voted in a poll is Dreich (grey and miserable; usually applied to the weather.

As a lover of words I can only hope these words are not fading away confined to history. A beautiful book celebrating the best Scottish words many I have never before come across. There is so much to celebrate about Scotland the mountains and its islands and who can forget the Compton Mackenzie film Whisky Galore (1947) so let us celebrate the great Scottish words.

208 Pages.

#CauldBlasts @RobinACrawford2 @eandtbooks

Thank you to Alison Menzies and Elliott & Thompson for the review copy of Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers by Robin A. Crawford.

Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers by Robin A. Crawford was published by Elliott & Thompson and was published on 20th August 2020 and is now available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

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My Piece on Great Books That Nearly Never Made It #3

August Edition of The Leveller Newspaper

As a regular contributor to The Leveller newspaper, Somerset’s highest circulation newspaper, I have been writing literary based articles for the past few year’s and my latest pieces are about Great Books That Nearly Never Made It and my latest piece is the third in the series: Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding a book that I studied as part of my English Literature studies but initially rejected more than twenty times before the UK publisher Faber and Faber became interested in Golding’s book that was first called Strangers from Within and requested a change in title. Since than it has become an international best-seller and selling over 25 million copies in English alone.

You can find out more about The Leveller Newspaper via: https://leveller.live/

John Fish

The Last Word Book Review

https://thelastwordbookreview.com/

Summer by Ali Smith

Summer by Ali Smith

Summary:

In the present, Sacha knows the world’s in trouble. Her brother Robert just is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile the world’s in meltdown – and the real meltdown hasn’t even started yet. In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they’re living on borrowed time.

This is a story about people on the brink of change. They’re family, but they think they’re strangers. So: where does family begin? And what do people who think they’ve got nothing in common have in common?

Summer.

My Review:

That day in October 2016 when there was a thud on my doormat as the postman delivered Autumn by Ali Smith in what was the first instalment of the seasonal quartet. Fast forward four years and the final book has just been released this month. Summer (Hamish Hamilton) really is a magnificent finale.

Since Autumn was released in 2016 the world has gone through a seismic shift with Trump in the Whitehouse, the Brexit vote, refugees, the enviroment and elections in the UK now with Boris Johnson in Number 10 and the Coronavirus pandemic. The world is in trouble. What Ali Smith has achieved in Autumn, Winter, Spring and now Summer is staggering, writing at breakneck speed to take into account our troubled world and in each of the novels troubled characters to match.

There are characters that we have met previously as much as each book is a separate storyline each of the seasonal books are linked via the characters that appear. In Summer we meet the Greenlaw family the siblings are clever but they are split by politics and their mother Grace and the father who left have separated but despite the politics the siblings are close. A family trying to get to grips with who they really are. But there is another brother and sister from Summer’s past and they face a real threat to their lives.

The one aspect of Summer is how Ali Smith has managed to bring the current news agenda into a book that has just hit the bookshelves there is the real shock of Corvid-19 and how it has affected the world and even the death of George Floyd gets into the story. Summer flits between time frames and yet is the most current corvid novel of our times.

We are at an end now of the quartet by Ali Smith but I have a feeling that in the years that lie ahead new readers will discover the four seasons and debate about these current times.

400 Pages.

Summer by Ali Smith was published by Hamish Hamilton on 6th August 2020 and is now available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor

The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor

Summary:

In the summer of 1944, Eva Mozes Kor and her family arrived at Auschwitz.

Within thirty minutes, they were separated. Her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, while Eva and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man who became known as the Angel of Death: Dr. Josef Mengele. They were 10 years old.

While twins at Auschwitz were granted the ‘privileges’ of keeping their own clothes and hair, they were also subjected to Mengele’s sadistic medical experiments. They were forced to fight daily for their own survival and many died as a result of the experiments, or from the disease and hunger rife in the concentration camp.

In a narrative told simply, with emotion and astonishing restraint, The Twins of Auschwitz shares the inspirational story of a child’s endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil.

Also included is an epilogue on Eva’s incredible recovery and her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis. Through her museum and her lectures, she dedicated her life to giving testimony on the Holocaust, providing a message of hope for people who have suffered, and worked toward goals of forgiveness, peace, and the elimination of hatred and prejudice in the world.

My Review:

Eva and her twin sister Miriam was born in Portz, Romania on 31st January 1934 to a hardworking Jewish farming family. They were the only Jewish family in the village. The Twins of Auschwitz (Monoray) by Eva Mozes Kor is the remarkable story of endurance and survival. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

In the Spring of 1944 the family were moved to a regional ghetto. They had no shelter and made tents out of sheets. Later they were moved by the Nazis to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the twins were aged ten. On arrival the mother was approached to confirm if Eva and Miriam were twins. The parents and their two other daughters Edit and Eliz were separated from Eva and Miriam. The parents and Edit and Eliz were sent to the gas chambers.

The Twins never realised they were never going to see their family again and over the next ten months the twins became the property of SS Doctor Josef Mengele known as the Angel of Death and as twins they would be subjected to experiments at one point Eva became very ill and Mengele said she would die within two weeks. Eva was determined to survive and wanted to see her sister again. She did survive.

It was January 27th 1945 that the Red Army liberated Auschwitz and both Eva and Miriam were among about 180 children that were rescued. Many were sent to a convent in Katowice and later they were taken back to Romania were they lived with their aunt.

The fact that Eva publicly forgave both Mengele and the Nazis helped her and Miriam move forward with their lives. She spent the rest of her life giving talks on the Holocaust and giving messages of peace and reconciliation and the removal of hatred.

Miriam had kidney problems years later and Eva donated one of her kidneys to help her twin sister. Sadly, Miriam died in1993 of Kidney cancer. Eva died in July 2019 at the age of 85.

I cannot recommend The Twins of Auschwitz highly enough. In this year the commemorates the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz it is a powerful and important book.

240 Pages.

Thank you to Monoray (Octopus Books) and Anne Cater (Random Things Tours) for the review copy of The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor.

The Twins of Auschwitz by Eva Mozes Kor was published by Monoray and was published in paperback on 6th August 2020 and is now available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

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The Joy of Bookshops

The Joy of Bookshops

Step inside a bookshop and a world of literary delights awaits

Blog Journal: #3

4th August 2020

When was the last time you visited a bookshop? That may seem like a strange question to ask but so much of our lives have changed over recent months and since bookshops have reopened many are still very quiet like many high street outlets. But there is something very special about visiting a bookshop.

During these strange days of social distancing and the wearing face coverings there is still a joy to be had in going to visit a bookshop. May be you are looking for that big summer read you have promised yourself or one of the books on the literary prize you are following. September is going to be a big month for book releases as publishers held off book launches during the lockdown. The key date is September 3rd and 250 hardback books will be launched on that day. Booksellers across the country will be busy that week and it will be a critical time for all bookshops including the indie bookshops who have suffered during the lockdown.

Since the high street started to reopen I have visited my local bookshops a number of times and the staff have done an incredible job in making sure that both staff and customers feel safe and making the bookshops welcoming and I have felt more at ease in a bookshop than the local supermarket. May be it is the book hunter gatherer in me that I want to visit bookshops and the bookish delights that await instore and socially distant book chats with the staff.

As I write and review books on my blog and through magazines, I tend to hear the ‘thud’ on the doormat as the postman delivers book packages from publishers. In the years that I have been reviewing books I still feel real gratitude that publishers and authors have trusted me with proofs ahead of publication but saying that you just cannot better walking into your local bookshop.

Then of course there are the bookshops that also have their own instore coffee shops and for me this is heaven, books and coffee and not forgetting the cake of course. Since the lockdown the one joy that I have missed is the visiting author and the interview. Will we ever get back to the pre-Corvid19 days of writers being interviewed in front of a packed audience in a bookshop. We can only hope.

Sales of books during the lockdown really held up as people discovered the joy of books, but the dreaded spectre of Amazon is always never far away and they threaten the existence of our local independent bookshops across the country. Footfall in independent bookshops dropped off, our indie bookshops are part of the local community and it is vital they survive. Many are still taking orders online and will help track down that hard to find book for you.

Then of course there is the antiquarian bookshops, as you walk in there is that aroma of the old books, I have missed some of my favourites on the Charing Cross Road which was of course famous for Marks & Co who sold rare and second hand books at number 84 Charing Cross Road. You know the book by Helene Hanff which also inspired the film with Anthony Hopkins. Sadly, they are long gone but there are still second hand bookshops in Charing Cross Road.

Bookshops are a delight to visit and spending time just browsing the bookshelves, maybe it is just me but I find it really relaxing spending time looking for that book I really want to read that is where you will find me. But wearing a face covering.

John Fish

The Last Word Book Review