Book after Book

Welcome to the blog tour for Mary I:  Queen of Sorrows  by Alison Weir! More about the book… Adored only child of Henry VIII and his  Queen, Katherine of Aragon, Princess Mary is raised in the golden splendour of her father’s court. But the King wants a son and heir. With her parents’ marriage, and England, in crisis, Mary’s perfect world begins to fall apart. Exiled from the court and her beloved mother, she seeks solace in her faith, praying for her father to bring her home. But when the King does promise to restore her to favour, his love comes with a condition. The choice Mary faces will haunt her for years to come – in her allegiances, her marriage and her own fight for the crown. Can she become the queen she was born to be? MARY I. HER STORY. Alison Weir’s new Tudor novel is the tale, full of drama and tragedy, of how a princess with such promise, loved by all who knew her, became the infamous Bloody Mary. More about the author… Alison Weir ...

Welcome to the blog tour for Captain Vlad and the Mary Rose by Kate and Sam Cunningham! More about the book… King Henry VIll's favourite ship, the Mary Rose, is sailing to Portsmouth to stop a French invasion. This should be the easy part of the journey, but for Captain Vlad flea and his crew of rats, the humans and their pets create dangers on every deck. More about the author and illustrator… Author: Kate Cunningham Kate was a primary teacher, and Sam is the eldest of her three boys. She is married to historian, Sean and is author of the Flea in History series. Illustrator: Sam Cunningham As well as the Vlad flea books, Sam has worked on graphic novels with The National Archives and created the murals in the Florence Nightingale Museum family corner My impressions… This is my first book in the Flea in History series, and most certainly not the last one. Following Captain Vlad – the flea in question - and his crew on an adventure above and below deck, we learn both how ...

Welcome to the blog tour for Henry VIII: The Heart And The Crown by Alison Weir! More about the book… A second son, not born to rule, becomes a man, and a king... In grand royal palaces, Prince Harry grows up dreaming of knights and chivalry - and the golden age of kings that awaits his older brother. But Arthur's untimely death sees Harry crowned King Henry of England. As his power and influence extends, so commences a lifelong battle between head and heart, love and duty. Henry rules by divine right, yet his prayers for a son go unanswered. The great future of the Tudor dynasty depends on an heir. And the crown weighs heavy on a king with all but his one true desire. HENRY VIII. HIS STORY. Alison Weir's most ambitious Tudor novel yet reveals the captivating story of a man who was by turns brilliant, romantic, and ruthless: the king who changed England forever. More about the author… Alison Weir lives and works in Surrey. Her books include Britain's Royal Families, The Si...

Welcome to the blog tour for The Echoes of Love by Jenny Ashcroft! More about the book… Under the Cretan sun, in the summer of 1936, two young people fall in love… Eleni has been coming to Crete her entire life, swapping her English home for cherished sun-baked summers with her grandfather in his idyllic shoreside villa. When she arrives in 1936, she believes the long, hot weeks ahead will be no different to so many that have gone before. But someone else is visiting the island that year too: a young German man called Otto. And so begins a summer of innocence lost, and love discovered; one that is finite, but not the end. When, in 1941, the island falls to a Nazi invasion, Eleni and Otto meet there once more. But this time Eleni has returned to fight for her home, and Otto to occupy it. They are enemies, and their love is not only treacherous, but also dangerous. But will it destroy them, or prove strong enough to overcome the ravages of war? More about the author… Jenny Ashcroft is a...

The Impossible Life of Mary Benson By Rodney Bolt Published by Atlantic Books 'As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil' was the phrase once used by Ethel Smyth to describe Mary Benson, née Mary Sidgewick. In his extremely well-researched and beautifully presented book, Rodney Bolt introduces us to this extraordinary woman. Despite being a work of non-fiction, As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil is so readable and engrossing that you almost forget that Mary is not a fictional heroine of a Victorian historical novel. Bolt has succeeded in portraying the wife, and then widow, of Edward Benson in a most exquisite way. Complete with a detailed bibliography and enriched by photographs of the Benson family and their circle of friends, this chronicle of the upbringing, married years and widowhood of Mary Benson is extremely interesting. Not only do we learn about the life of a fascinating woman but – as we follow her from birth to death (1841-1918) – we also gain a valuable insight i...

As anticipated, here are the first two titles on my reading wish list. ** The cover images are for illustrative purposes only. If you are a publisher and would kindly like to offer me a copy of any of these books for review, I will change the cover(s) so as to reflect the edition received. ** Impossible Country : Journey Through the Last Days of Yugoslavia By Brian Hall Amazon’s product description : Brian Hall journeyed through Yugoslavia in the spring and summer of 1991, just as Croatia and Slovenia were seceding and the country was starting to slide into civil war. In this book he describes a country in which the release of communism's iron grip and a wave of rumour and propaganda had reopened older wounds, turning uneasy co-existence between the various national and religious communities into open hostility. His conversations - with farmers, artists, defence fighters, politicians - demonstrate how intelligent, liberal citizens can be persuaded to believe the very worst of anot...

Published by QueenSpark Books Back Row Brighton – Cinema-going in Brighton & Hove is a glossy paperback that should feature in the library of anyone who’s interested in the history of cinema or in the past of this vibrant city. And if you’re interested in both, you will be amazed by the amount of information provided. Chapter after chapter, we learn about the cinemas that have graced the streets of Brighton & Hove from 1909 to the present. Some have had a short life, while others have lasted longer. Some have changed name an innumerable amount of times. Some were considered classy, while others were places that parents forbad their children to go to. Going to the cinema, however, whether shiny or shabby, was always considered a treat: an almost magical experience that most of the uninspiring buildings that host our cinemas today are unable to offer. The only cinema that is featured in the book and that is still operating today is the independent Duke of York’s Picture...

In her autobiographical first novel, Wild Swans , Jung Chang narrates the story of three amazing women: her grandmother, her mother and herself. A fascinating account of Chinese history that spans from 1909, when the country was ruled by warlords, to the 1990s and the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. Isabel’s Daughter , written by Judith Hendricks, focuses on Avery James and on her journey from a founding home in Colorado to the art élite of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s there that, piece after piece, she puts together the puzzle of the mother she never knew. Two books, five strong women – it doesn’t matter whether they are real or fictional. And again: two book and two authors who, with their skilful words, are able to bring times and places to life.

1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War By Juliet Nicolson Published by John Murray After The Perfect Summer, Juliet Nicolson returns with a new and extraordinary book that delves deep into the emotions that dominated the lives of the British population after the Great War. Published at the end of 2009, The Great Silence focuses on the two years after the end of the hostilities and, as the author writes in her introduction, it is “a book about silence, the silence that followed the ‘incessant thunder’ of the four years and four months of the First World War.” Guns fell silent on 11th November 1918. People stood still and observed a two-minute silence on 11th November 1919, “to commemorate the Great War” and “to remember the Glorious Dead and their Great Sacrifice.”. On 11th November 1920 the Unknown Soldier was then lowered beneath Westminster Abbey shrouded in silence and “invested with the millions of identities that the bereaved willed upon him.” The country was not silent o...

By David P Elliot The first novel written by David P Elliot, ‘CLAN’ is hard to define. Supernatural thriller? Mystery novel? Historical fiction? Horror story? I am confident in saying that it is a perfect blend of all these genres and even more, as it also touches on themes such as the importance of family and the value of friendship. ‘CLAN’ intertwines past and present, taking its readers from the 14th century – where a battle over the Throne of Scotland is under way – to the present times and back again. In 2007 England, David Elliot starts on a journey of self-discovery accompanied by his daughter, Kate, his son-in-law and his baby grandson, Thomas. Their destination is the borders of Scotland, where the Elliot family stems from and where David, interested in genealogy, hopes to find out more about his ancestors. What he cannot imagine is that his family is in great danger. Lord William de Soulis is waiting for them, observing them using his supernatural powers and aided by his evil...

Published by Brighton Town Press I approached this book knowing nothing about Brighton’s royally-approved Queen’s Park. 72 pages later, I reached the back cover of this exquisite volume – whose glossy cover shows a watercolour by the architect Charles Barry – feeling that I have been part of the park’s life since its beginnings. Brighton Town Press, in collaboration with the Friend’s of Queen’s Park, has done a masterly job in reconstructing the story of the park. From the lease of the land by a Mr Armstrong through the various following ownerships – the most important being those by the Attree and Duddell families – and up to the purchase by the Corporation in the late 19th century. And then, in more recent times, the survival of the park through two World Wars and its active role in the community up to the present year. But the book is not just about the park. It is about the great buildings that surround it, the people that enjoy it, the plants and the animals that have a hom...