Month: July 2022

#BookReview Operation Moonlight by Louise Morrish

Operation Moonlight by Louise Morrish

Summary:

1944: Newly recruited SOE agent Elisabeth Shepherd is faced with an impossible mission: to parachute behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied France and monitor the new long-range missiles the Germans are working on.

Her only advice? Trust absolutely no one. With danger lurking at every turn, one wrong move for Elisabeth could spell instant death.

2018: Betty is about to celebrate her 100th birthday. With her carer Tali at her side, she receives an invite from the Century Society to reminisce on the past.

Remembering a life shrouded in secrecy and danger, Betty remains tight-lipped. But when Tali finds a box filled with maps, letters and a gun hidden in Betty’s cellar, it becomes clear that Betty’s secrets are about to be uncovered . . .

Nostalgic, heart-pumping and truly page-turning, OPERATION MOONLIGHT is both a gripping read and a novel that makes you think about a generation of women and men who truly knew what it meant to survive.

My Review:

I love nothing more than curling up with a fabulous historical fiction novel and if it is set in WWII more the better, then recently a copy of Operation Moonlight (Century Books) by Louise Morrish landed on my doormat and I was swept away in what is a beautifully written novel which is set in both the present day and 1944.

The year is 2018 and Betty is going to be celebrating her 100th birthday and it is her carer Tali who is there helping her ready to celebrate, but it is an invitation that arrives from the Centenarians Club that could well bring back memories from her wartime past that was shrouded in mystery. But it is when her carer finds an old suitcase than contains her past it all comes back to Betty when she would rather stay quiet.

The year is 1944 and the allies are preparing for D-Day and the hope of the free world resting on the soldiers about land on the shores of Normandy. Meanwhile Elizabeth Shepherd who is fluent in French has been recruited and trained by the SOE has been given a dangerous mission to be parachuted into  Nazi-occupied France to seek and report back on the long range missiles that the Germans are about to unleash that will cause death and destruction without being tracked.

So, what does Betty do? Does she go to the Centenarians Club to celebrate her birthday and everything that will entail? Can Tali persuade her to go and what of the contents of the suitcase? The memories are flooding back for Betty when she has been trying to forget the past and her role in WWII.

Operation Moonlight is a wonderful book, it is nostalgic and heartwarming but also gripping when we are taken back to 1944 and the night Elizabeth Shepherd was parachuted behind enemy lines for the first time, knowing that is she is caught she will almost certainly never see home again.

Louise Morrish writes beautifully and has crafted her story so well and the time frames come together well in what is a compelling novel of incredible bravery.

448 Pages.

#OperationMoonlight

@LouiseMorrish1

My thanks to Isabelle Ralphs (Publicity Manager) and Century Books UK for the review Copy of Operation Moonlight by Louise Morrish Published on 21st July 2022 and is now available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org that supports your local independent bookshop. UK Bookshop.org

#BookReview Katastrophe by Graham Hurley

Katastrophe by Graham Hurley

Summary:

confidant of Goebbels. Instrument of Stalin. What’s the worst that could happen?

January 1945. Wherever you look on the map, the Thousand Year Reich is shrinking. Even Goebbels has run out of lies to sweeten the reckoning to come. An Allied victory is inevitable, but who will reap the spoils of war?

Two years ago, Werner Nehmann’s war came to an abrupt end in Stalingrad. With the city in ruins, the remains of General Paulus’ Sixth Army surrendered to the Soviets, and Nehmann was taken captive. But now he’s riding on the back of one of Marshal Zhukov’s T-34 tanks, heading home with a message for the man who consigned him to the Stalingrad Cauldron.

With the Red Army about to fall on Berlin, Stalin fears his sometime allies are conspiring to deny him his prize. He needs to speak to Goebbels – and who better to broker the contact than Nehmann, Goebbels’ one-time confidant?

Having swapped the ruins of Stalingrad for the wreckage of Berlin, the influence of Goebbels for the machinations of Stalin, and Gulag rags for a Red Army uniform, Nehmann’s war has taken a turn for the worse. The Germans have a word for it:

Katastrophe.

My Review:

Part of the Spoils of War series, this is book seven and Katastrophe (Aries Fiction) by Graham Hurley is set in the final months of WWII. The vast Russian army is gathering like a storm on the horizon, but this horizon is Berlin. Nazi Germany is facing defeat. But in a Soviet Gulag is Werner Nehmann, a journalist and worked with the infamous Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.

Nehmann was captured at the battle of Stalingrad and spent two years in the Gulag, but at the same time as a meeting at Yalta between the Allied leaders it is clear the Stalin believes that both the Americans and the British are trying to do a deal with the soon to be beaten Germans. Now Nehmann is meeting Stalin and is handed a letter that he must take to Berlin and hand it personally to Goebbels, Nehmann is now riding on the back of a T-34 tank heading in the direction of Berlin. He is going home but to a city in ruins as the carnage continues. But what is the contents of the letter? At the same time Nehmann was captured at Stalingrad Willi Schultz who is part of the German Military Intelligence was also captured now he too is meeting with Stalin and is handed a letter that he must take to his master Himmler. Clearly Stalin is trying to manipulate a situation in favour of the Soviets.

But to add to the mystery a member of MI5 is in Switzerland to oversee a meeting between British and American senior military officials and a German General that may lead to the surrender of German forces in Italy. Katastrophe is a gripping WWII historical fiction novel with many characters and events including the fall of Berlin and fabulous plot, that continue to give all through the near 500 pages.

I have not read the previous six in the series but if this is anything to go by, I now want to read all of them. I really enjoyed Graham Hurley’s writing and how he has created the characters. If you enjoy your WWII novels. Put this at the top of your reading wish list.

448 Pages.

My thanks to Sophie Ransom (Ransom PR) and Aries Fiction (Head of Zeus) for the review Copy of Katastrophe by Graham Hurley.  Published on 7th July 2022 and is now available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org that supports your local independent bookshop. UK Bookshop.org

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#BookReview Lyrics by Bryan Ferry

Lyrics by Bryan Ferry

Summary:

Bryan Ferry’s work as a singer and songwriter, both as a solo artist and with Roxy Music, is legendary.

Lyrics collects the words written for music across seventeen albums, from the first iconic Roxy album of 1972 via the masterpiece of Avalon to 2014’s reflective Avonmore, introduced by the author, and with an insightful essay by James Truman.

All the classic Roxy anthems are here – ‘Virginia Plain’, ‘Do the Strand’, ‘Love is the Drug’ – songs in which the real and the make-believe blend in a kaleidoscopic mix, shot through with cinematic allure.

Also included are the evocative lyrics of romantic longing and lost illusions for which Ferry is rightly revered: ‘Slave to Love’, ‘Mother of Pearl’, ‘More Than This’. As he writes in his preface, ‘The low points in life so often produce the most keenly felt and best-loved songs.’ And, it might be added, some of the best poetry.

My Review:

It was the 16th of June 1972 when a band called Roxy Music released their first studio album called Roxy Music. Here we are now celebrating one of the most iconic bands in popular music. Now their lead singer and the bands main song writer Bryan Ferry has just released Lyrics (Chatto & Windus) to coincide with the bands 50th anniversary. Lyrics is a collection of the songs and the words from the bands most successful albums. I can still remember seeing the band late one night on the BBC with Bryan Ferry standing at the keyboard. From that moment on, I was hooked.

Their first single was a song called Virginia Plain, which was written just after the first album was released and was a huge hit, it subsequently included on later editions of their first album. All the great songs from Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry himself are here, from ‘Virginia Plain’, to ‘Pyjamarama’, ‘Do the Strand’, ‘Love is the Drug’, and through the latter years and one of my favourite albums by Roxy Music was Manifesto released in 1979. With tracks such as ‘Angel Eyes’ and ‘Dance Away’. Just read the words to that powerful song. Then the album Avalon released in 1982 with songs such ‘More Than This’ and the beautifully written ‘Avalon’ and then more closely up to date is ‘Avonmore’ the title track of the album released in 2014.

Each chapter begins with the cover photograph of the album with the year it was released. As you read the lyrics to each song, you really do get an incredible sense of what a brilliant songwriter Bryan Ferry really is. There are words to some of the songs that really do pull on your heart strings. At the very beginning of the book James Truman, gives his thoughts on the band and the poetic song writing of Bryan Ferry. Bryan himself then introduces the book and tells the reader about how he loves poetry and how a Humphrey Bogart film inspired one of his songs.

There are some songs that through our lives when you hear them playing on the radio or via your own playlist, they will take you back to those moments in your life for reasons of real happiness or moments of deep sadness. There are many songs written by Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music that are key in my own life and some will always make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up with ‘Angel Eyes’ and ‘Dance Away’ being just two.  

336 Pages.

My thanks to Laura Creyke from Mark Hutchinson Management and Chatto & Windus for the review copy of Lyrics by Bryan Ferry, which is now available in Hardback through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop or through Bookshop.org that supports your local independent bookshop. UK Bookshop.org