Five in March

I read five books in March.

 

 

The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry

Set in mid 19th century Edinburgh, the second in the Raven and Fisher mystery series – and featuring real-life medical hero Dr James Simpson.

Will Raven, assistant to Dr Simpson, has been in Europe for a year and has returned to the esteemed doctor’s practice in Edinburgh. He’s taken aback to find that former housemaid Sarah Fisher, for whom he had feelings (while at the same time thinking she was socially beneath him) is happily married to another doctor.

A series of mysterious deaths, one of which is being laid at Dr Simpson’s door, bring Will and Sarah together to find the cause – Sarah, with medical ambitions of her own being more than a match for Will.

 

 

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

I read this many years ago but didn’t have a copy in the house so when I saw one in a charity shop I bought it (although it didn't have this nice cover – there are dozens of editions). It stood the test of time – manages to be both erudite and very funny. My favourite set piece was of his friend Harris’s experience in the maze at Hampton Court.

Recently I adjudicated a Humorous Short Story competition for the Scottish Association of Writers. It made me think about what makes a piece of writing funny – although of course one person’s rolling in the aisles reaction is another person’s poker face. But, although I could think of quite a few funny novels, I couldn’t think of any writer who consistently writes humorous short stories – please let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations.

 

Death on the Small Screen by Jo Allen

I was lucky enough to read this before it went ‘live’ online as I know the author. (We are in a group called Capital Writers.)

It’s the latest in the DCI Jude Satterthwaite police procedural series set in the lovely Lake District.

A murdered body is found on the fells by a young actress. It turns out there is no shortage of suspects, mostly thanks to the victim’s tangled love life.

 

American Housewife by Anita Abriel

Farmer’s daughter, turned radio personality in 1950s New York, Maggie Lane is thrilled to be asked to host her own television show The Maggie Lane Baking Show. She has to ‘bake’ (I use inverted commas because all the cakes and desserts are from packet mixes … ) – and to sign a ‘morality clause’ and ensure that nothing will spoil her squeaky clean image. But Maggie has a past she is hoping to keep hidden, even from her husband.

Enjoyable, but reminiscent of Lessons in Chemistry without that book’s depth.

 

 

A Half-Baked Idea by Olivia Potts

Grieving the death of her mother, barrister Olivia Potts decided to leave the law and enrol on Diplôme de Pâtisserie at Le Cordon Bleu, in London. If that wouldn’t concentrate her mind on something else it’s hard to see what would – the course must be the most exacting anywhere, with its team of classically trained teaching chefs demanding perfection from their students.

She describes her progress – with recipes and very mouth-watering they sound (if someone else has made them).

 

 

Wooo Wooo

Are you ready for some Dark Stories?

 

 

Coming through the mist towards you are …

 

The Homecoming

 

Blaze of Glory

 

Colour Blind

 

The Cemetery House

 

by, respectively, Jennifer Young, Kate Blackadder, Jane Riddell and Anne Stenhouse aka Capital Writers as they all live in that most haunted of cities, Edinburgh.

 

Dark Stories can be yours for a very unscary 99p

 

And while you’re there check out our three other collections:

 

Capital Stories

 

‘ … each in their own distinctive style and each one charming and cleverly written.’ Amazon reviewer

 

 Capital Christmas Stories

 

 ‘… Four beautifully crafted stories, each one a little gem - it’s not a cliche when it is true.’ 

Amazon reviewer

 

and Capital Collection which combines Capital Stories and Capital Christmas Stories with four stories specially written in support of the charity CrossReach.

 

 

 

 

Free book!

A Christmas present for you ...

 

In my previous post I told you about Capital Writers’ new anthology Capital Christmas Stories (you can read the beginning of my story here).

And, just for you, our first anthology, Capital Stories, which came out last year, is FREE for five days only, from 20-24 December.

You’re welcome.

Edinburgh International Book Festival poem

I wrote this years ago – I doubt it would win any poetry prizes but it's from the heart about one of the highlights of my year, the Edinburgh International Book Festival in Charlotte Square:

Charlotte Square

From a dictionary unravelled

words take wings, soar in the blue,

around America and France,

Spain, Africa and England too;

like homing birds drop from the air

– and come to earth in Charlotte Square.

For two blissful weeks of summer

prose and poetry take the stage

new plots and images enthrall us

ideas pour from page to page;

as poems are read we stand and stare

– and catch the rhymes in Charlotte Square.

Writing workshops, cappuccinos,

chocolate brownies, books galore,

queues to see our favourite authors

it’s all here, and much, much more;

it’s raining words, but all is fair

– the Book Festival’s in Charlotte Square.

Sad end of August, skies are bare

– the words have flown from Charlotte Square.

And if you want to know who I've seen so far at the 2018 Edinburgh International Book Festival visit the Capital Writers' website.

Five in June

I read five books in June.

A Life of My Own by Claire Tomalin

Read for book group. Before she found her metier as a biographer (of eg Charles Dickens and, one of my heroes, Samuel Pepys) Claire Tomalin was a successful literary editor. That career would be enough for me to find her autobiography of interest as I worked in publishing in London around the same time (albeit not moving in the same circles … ) But her personal life is so interesting too, from a rather extraordinary childhood, to the death in Israel of her journalist husband Nick Tomalin, tragedies involving her children, and her second marriage to the playwright and novelist Michael Frayn.

Hello, My Name is … the Remarkable Story of Personal Names by Neil Burdess

Read on Kindle – but in retrospect it would have been better to have a print copy as it’s the sort of book which would be handy to have on a shelf to dip into. I am a little obsessed by names so any book on the subject is grist to my mill. This one covers first names – from Anglo-Saxon kings to today’s celebrity baby names – surnames and their origins, professional names, and the history of titles (Mr, Mrs etc). A good addition to my collection – even if I can’t put it on a shelf.

Looking for Charlotte by Jennifer Young

Read on Kindle. An excellent, gripping read (and I’m not just saying that because Jennifer is a fellow Capital Writer … )

Divorced and lonely, Flora Wilson is distraught when she hears news of the death of little Charlotte Anderson. Charlotte’s father killed her and then himself, and although he left a letter with clues to the whereabouts of her grave, his two-year-old daughter still hasn’t been found.

Flora embarks on a quest to find Charlotte’s body to give the child’s mother closure, believing that by doing so she can somehow atone for her own failings as a mother. As she hunts in winter through the remote moors of the Scottish Highlands, her obsession comes to threaten everything that’s important to her — her job, her friendship with her colleague Philip Metcalfe and her relationships with her three grown up children.

The English Girl by Katherine Webb

‘Secrets, feuds, passion and turmoil in 1950s Arabia.’ KW never writes the same book twice and her backgrounds are always fascinating. My favourite is The Legacy but I enjoyed this dual-narrative, inspired by the true story of an English woman who crossed the Empty Quarter, the world’s largest sand desert.

My Life by Annie S. Swan

Bought in Christian Aid book sale. Although virtually unknown today, in the first half of the twentieth century Annie S was a household name, finding fame as a writer of serials for The People’s Friend whose circulation at the time ran into many (many) hundreds of thousands. From fairly humble beginnings in the Scottish Borders she married a doctor and lived in London where she moved in some of the upper echelons of society – and doesn’t she like to tell us about it …

As a writer of PF serials myself (now on Kindle and in large-print in libraries ... ) I would have preferred less name-dropping and more on her writing process (as we would say now) and on her relationship with the publisher D C Thomson. But she does relate an incident where she was passing a shop and witnessed women coming out and turning pages of the magazine, desperate to find out what happened in the next instalment of her current serial. Ah well, one can only aspire.

Seven in April

I read seven books in April.

Hygge and Kisses by Clara Christensen

Bo is in a relationship – or is she? And she’s just been made redundant. So when her flatmate Kristen suggests Bo have a holiday in Kristen’s native North Jutland off she goes. She meets an annoying girl who calls everyone Babe, and a new love interest, and she makes chocolate muffins quite a lot. And that’s about it. ‘Bo’ is short for Boughay, apparently a family name but we’re given no clue how to pronounce it – Buffy? Boogie? I’m afraid I found this book ‘bo’ – short for boring.

The Button Box by Lynn Knight

Bought in the bookshop of the V&A in London and it kept me excellent company on the train all the way home to Edinburgh. Lynn Knight tells the story of three generations of her family, and the larger story of women at home and in work from the Victorian age to the 1960s, through the clothes they wore and the clothes they made. A book you definitely want to have a print copy of so you can admire the buttons on the cover.

The Bookshop of New Beginnings by Jen Mouat

Loved this! The characters have such depth – we are shown their back-stories which flesh them out and perfectly explain their contemporary situations and personalities. The opening of a (second-hand) bookshop is always going to be a subject that appeals to me, and I also loved the setting of the Solway Firth, a part of Scotland that is not as well-known as it should be. The descriptions, while not overdone, make it sound absolutely beautiful.

In the Blink of an Eye by Ali Bacon

Really enjoyed this book set in Edinburgh in the days of the early photography pioneers, in particular D O Hill. I was sent an advance copy to review on the Capital Writers website. You can read the the review here.

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

Read on Kindle for book group; this has been long/shortlisted for the major literary prizes. A Muslim family find themselves divided by radicalism and politics. Told from several viewpoints, the siblings’ stories give more insight than any news report can, and make a gripping read.

Mrs Pargeter’s Public Relations by Simon Brett

Simon Brett was the keynote speaker at the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference this year; he is extremely funny. He is also a very prolific writer. Mrs Pargeter is one of his sleuths, a most original creation. She is wealthy widow, on the right side of the law, which is more than can be said for her late husband. This means she has all sorts of experts who will come to her aid in an instant – safe crackers, bodyguards and so on. A hoot.

Lilian Boxfish Takes A Walk by Kathleen Rooney

This I just adored. It was inspired by a woman who was the highest paid female in American advertising in the 30s.

Now aged 85 in the 1980s, Lilian is at a bit of a loose end on New Year’s Eve. She’s been invited to a party that won’t start until midnight and although it is in an unsalubrious part of New York (more dangerous then than now for the late-night wanderer) she decides to walk there. As she travels through familiar and unfamiliar areas, she meets and charms a variety of characters, and she recalls her life. It’s a potted history of her beloved city as well as of Lilian herself. The book is cleverly constructed; I loved the writing and Lilian herself is an inspiration. Go read!

Four Capital Writers

Three fellow writers and myself, all Edinburgh based, have set up a website together. Appropriately, we call ourselves Capital Writers. 

And to give you a flavour of our writing we have produced an anthology, Capital Stories, one story from each of us.

The stories in the anthology are arranged chronologically and are set in Edinburgh, from Regency times to the present day:

A Close Encounter

Anne Stenhouse

Afternoon Tea with Angelica

Jennifer Young

The Letter

Jane Riddell

An Ordinary Joe

Kate Blackadder

Apart from being writers living in Edinburgh we have something else in common. None of us were born in Scotland’s capital city but we have come to live in it at different times and for different reasons – and we love it.

We have each posted on the website an account of how we came to be here. This is mine, a tale that encompasses the murder of Rizzio, a horde of mice, and a name on a telephone list …

Anne, Jane, Jennifer and I propose to blog about things that interest us, to tell of the delights of Edinburgh including its past and present literary heritage (and promote our books along the way … )

We are looking forward to that and hope that you will travel virtually from wherever you are to join us …

… and we hope that you enjoy Capital Stories (99p).