Six in November

 

I read six books in November.

 

 

The Postcard by Anne Berest

This translated French best-seller is a harrowing read. It’s the story of the author’s ancestors’ flight from Russia and their moves to Latvia, Palestine and Paris. Each time they thought they were moving to safety. In 1930s France, this Jewish family was the opposite of safe. Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents and her teenage grand-aunt and grand-uncle uncle died in Auschwitz. Through chance, her grandmother did not suffer the same fate.

Why ‘The postcard’? In 2003, a postcard arrived for the family. On one side was a picture of the Opera Garnier. The other side bore only the names of their dead relatives. By the end of the book, we know who sent it and why. No spoilers about the who but I’ll tell you the why – so that the names of Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie and Jacques would never be forgotten.

Anne Berest has done an incredible job of researching her family’s traumatic history and recounting it in a way that’s as page-turning as a novel. Harrowing, yes, but highly recommended.

 

And now for something completely different …

 

 

My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes

Perhaps the last book about Marian Keyes’ much-loved Walsh family. This one focuses on Anna, returning to live in Ireland with burnout from her high-pressured job in PR for a cosmetic company in New York. The timing turns out to be good as family friends whose new business is in trouble are in dire need of someone with her experience.

This being the Walsh family, they all get involved with much shenanigans along the way. Great escapism. This, by the way, is the first book I’ve read on the Kindle app on my phone and it worked a treat. Now I’ll never be caught without something to read …

 

 

Without Fail by Lee Child

The mixture as before. More escapism.

 

 

Death at the Double by Jo Allen

‘On her return to Cumbria after years in Australia, Connie Sheldon’s first stop is the nursing home where she hopes to mend her relationship with her estranged elderly father, Edwin, but she’s in for a shock. Not only has Edwin been dead for three years but another woman, passing herself off as his daughter, has stolen Connie’s inheritance — and disappeared.’

Intriguing or what? Jude Satterthwaite investigates.

 

 

No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym

I reread my Barbaras regularly. This one, about spinster Dulcie and her curiosity (some might call it stalking … ) about charismatic academic Aylwin Forbes is one of my favourites.

 

 

Crusoe’s Daughter by Jane Gardam

Motherless six-year-old Polly Flint is sent to live with two aunts in a yellow house on a marsh; soon she is fatherless too. This excellent, atmospheric book follows her into extreme old age.

The household is not geared towards a small child so Polly’s early reading is from her grandfather’s library of classics. Robinson Crusoe, rather comically, becomes her hero; she sees a similarity between his situation and her own. In modern terms, she frequently asks herself: What would Crusoe do?

 

And if you are looking for another read this Christmas-tide how about this?

 

 

Or this?

 

Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful 2026.

Jingle bells, jingle bells ...

 

New collection of short stories available for pre-order now:

Fourteen short stories, all previously published, six with a Christmas theme. Other topics include the pros and cons of vinyl, teenage rebellion, sunbathing, long-distance love, names given to babies and to storms, punctuality and a king’s coronation. 

 

My story A Year to Remember is the first one in The People's Friend Annual this year (available in bookshops).

 

 

And I have the last story, Pass the Parcel, in The Magic of Christmas (from newsagents).

 

And if you'd like to read about a snowy Christmas in Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders:

May all your wishes come true this Christmas.

Having fun this Christmas!

(with thanks to https://photofunia.com/ )

Stella's Christmas Wish, The Ferryboat, The Family at Farrshore and A Time to Reap are all available from Amazon, and in large print from libraries.

Stella's Christmas Wish

Stella’s Christmas Wish is set in Edinburgh and ….

… On her right-hand side a train glided into Waverley Station. Down in Princes Street Gardens water had been flooded in and frozen to make a skating rink and it was busy both with competent skaters and people holding on to each other, laughing if they fell over. That was a comic Christmas-card scene – but the wider picture showed the dull winter green of the gardens; stalls selling food and mulled wine; the wheel – Edinburgh’s equivalent of the London Eye over the Christmas period.

 … the beautiful Scottish Borders

The Eildon Hills were white on the top, like a snow queen’s tablecloth. It was said that fairies lived there and that long ago the Queen of the Fairies enticed a Borders man called Thomas the Rhymer away to fairyland. When he returned years later – thinking he’d been gone only a few days – he had the ability to see into the future. Alice read Stella and Maddie that story one winter when they were little and for years they imagined that their Christmas-tree fairy had come from that fairyland in the hills.

Wherever you are I hope your Christmas wishes come true.

'Perfect for the festive season'

Stella’s Christmas Wish, published in November 2016 by Black and White, has had some delightful reviews in the last week. 

From Fictionophile (a booky blog I hadn’t come across before but will now be following):

‘ … This is a charming Christmas novel that will be appreciated by anyone who likes the work of Kate Hewitt or Rosamund Pilcher.  A ‘feel-good’ love story set over the Christmas season, and a heart-warming testament to the importance of family.’

(How brilliant to be compared to two (best-selling) authors whose books I love!)

From Withloveforbooks (again, a book blog I didn’t know; they did a lovely feature on the book, asking me to write a guest post (which I did, on sending Christmas cards) and doing a review which included:

‘ … Kate Blackadder's writing has a lovely flow. Her vivid descriptions of Melrose made the town come to life really well. It was easy to picture Stella's friends and family. I love stories about close communities and Stella grew up among wonderful people. I enjoyed reading about every single one of them. Stella's Christmas Wish is a charming and sparkling Christmas story with a terrific moving and fabulously romantic ending.’

From Lothian Life, an online magazine. Anne Hamilton raised some points about the book that I have been hoping someone would!

‘ … there are several other dimensions to this tale that raise it above being ‘just’ another decent bit of chick-lit.

I’ve said it many times, but the fiction world needs more strong and engaging older characters! And  it’s here that Kate Blackadder delivers that something extra. Stella and her ex, Ross, may be young, but other characters are not – Alice, Gray, Lilias – and rather than these being consigned to the realm of supporting cast, they are main players with their own stories, both developed and resolved.

Kate Blackadder has produced a light but not light-weight read, perfect for the festive season – or actually any other time of year.’

Why not have a read and see for yourself? Stella's Christmas Wish is available on various e-platforms including Amazon http://amzn.to/2dYQOrY

Ups and downs

It’s been an ‘up’ week at katewritesandreads:

On Monday, to celebrate National Short Story Week, I brought out a new collection of eleven stories, nine of which have won/been placed in competitions. See last blog post for further details.

On Wednesday I was interviewed on radio, a first for me. Crime writer Wendy H. Jones has a fortnightly radio show called Wendy’s Book Buzz on Mearns Radio, which operates from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire. My first instinct when Wendy asked me was to say No! I couldn’t do that but then I remembered that my new policy when it comes to stepping out of my comfort zone (where my writing is involved ...) is to say Yes, I'd love to! and worry about the details later. So there I was clutching the phone and chatting to a very-well prepared Wendy about Stella’s Christmas Wish. 

It was the nearest I shall ever get to being on Desert Island Discs … I’d chosen six songs in advance and in between playing them Wendy asked me some great questions. Later, I plucked up courage to listen to the whole thing – how weird it is to hear your own voice. Good music choices though! See what you think – it’s available on listen-again (go down the list to find Wendy's Book Buzz) until about the 24th of November I believe.

And on Saturday, as well as having lunch with 32 of the brilliant Authors and Book Bloggers in Scotland Facebook Group, I acquired a couple of copies of The People’s Friend Special, no 149 with its lovely Christmassy cover. 

I have a story in it The Overnight Guest: Judith is dreading Christmas. Instead of it being a quiet day spent with her son like last year, she’s with him, his new girlfriend – and her three children. But on Christmas Eve there’s an unexpected development …

Four in December

Or, more accurately, I read three books and finished a fourth in December.

Family Britain 1951-57 by David Kynaston

This has been one of the non-fiction books I dip into between novels. (I previously read his Austerity Britain 1945-51.) I started it a while ago and finished it this month – 776 pages (including notes and index) encompassing exhaustive research through newspapers, books, magazines, Mass Observation diaries and other archives.

As the blurb says this was the era when: ‘Britain was starting to move away from the hardships of austerity. Great national events jostle alongside everything that gave 1950s Britain its distinctive flavour from Butlin’s holiday camps, Kenwood food mixers and Hancock’s Half Hour to Ekco television sets, skiffle and teddy boys.’

I was born during this time so one item gave me particular pause for thought. There was a very popular radio quiz programme called Have a Go! compered by ‘Halifax’s Wilfred Pickles’. His opening catchphrase – ’Ow do, ’ow are yer? – was followed by ‘amiable chat with the mainly working-class contestants about their lives’ and there was (my italics) ‘a large round of applause if a contestant turned out to be over 60’.

From which I conclude that 90 is the new 60.

Gingerbread and Cupcakes by Claire Watts

As hinted above I am an ‘OA’ and not a Young Adult at which market this book is aimed. I was already aware of the author’s excellent non-fiction book The Covenanters so was interested to know about her novels. She is one of four YA authors who have collaborated to publish their books under the banner Paisley Piranha.

Although this title is the third in a series about a group of 17/18-year-old girls it can be read as a standalone. It’s the summer before Lily and Simon go to university. Simon has been one of their school’s heart-throbs (to use an OA expression) while Lily is quieter, more in the background. They are thrown together when Simon’s cake-shop-owing mum has an accident and he and Lily step in to help. Their sweet romance is told from both their viewpoints – and there is bonus material in the form of cake recipes at the back. Loved it.

Betty: The Story of Betty MacDonald, Author of The Egg and I by Anne Wellman

Betty MacDonald is an author I re-read, most recently in October this year. So I was delighted to find out that there are a couple of biographies newly out on her. It was great to fill some of the gaps in my knowledge about her  – her four books for adults (she also wrote very successfully for children) are ‘lightly fictionalised’ accounts of her life. This book is self-published and my only gripe is that I would like to know what the author’s connection, if any, was to Betty MacDonald/her family. They sound such fun – even during the Depression they were able to keep cheery in their overcrowded household and made a ceremony out of every meal however frugal.

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

This is 514 pages but I read it in just over a day in the Christmas holidays – not as impressive a feat as it might appear as the type in my hardback copy is large and many of the chapters are just one page so there’s a lot of white space.

I’ve loved Curtis Sittenfeld’s books which are all quite different. The last one was Sisterland which I read in March this year. She’s such a stylish writer.

So I was really looking forward to Eligible, her modern take on Pride and Prejudice. Her Fitzwilliam Darcy is a neurosurgeon newly moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where live the feckless Bennett family. Mr Bennett has had a heart attack and as Mrs B is more interested in her Ladies’ Luncheon Club than in looking after him, 40-year-old Jane and 38-year-old Liz come home from New York to help. It was fun seeing what CS did with the characters (although perhaps too many ‘issues’ are ascribed to them) but it’s told in a kind of reportage style which I found distancing (and another reason why it was a quick read); all in all I confess I was rather disappointed.

What would Jane Austen make of 21st-century life were she to take this as her guide? I expect she’d be delighted that women can now live independently, and amused to know that they can make the running in a relationship … but I’m sure she’d be sad that, in 2016, romance (dictionary definition: a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love) would appear to be well and truly dead.

Let’s hope that’s just in Cincinnati ...

Wishing you a happy and peaceful 2017. Oh – and, wherever you are, if you are looking for a book that does give a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love, may I recommend ...

See reviews here. And buy it here. And may all your Christmas wishes come true.

Six in November

I read six books in November.

I'm playing catch-up, posting this in late December. My last few blog posts have been about my own book Stella’s Christmas Wish which was published by Black & White on 3 November. I’m thrilled that it’s attracted so many lovely comments.

I squeezed in reading six books in November – between doing guest posts for lovely book bloggers and looking at reviews. Find out more about all that here. 

So, I read:

Return to Kilcraig by Rosemary Gemmell

Read on Kindle. ‘The legacy of her beloved grandmother's cottage in the Scottish village of Kilcraig seems like the ideal solution after Christy Morrison’s recent trauma. Until the threats begin.’ I do love a romantic suspense novel. Great sense of place here and some heart-stopping moments.

A Yorkshire Christmas by Kate Hewitt

Read on Kindle. I hadn’t read ‘Kate Hewitt’ before but have enjoyed books by this author under the name Katherine Swartz (see her website here). I was enjoying A Yorkshire Christmas and was surprised that the story was being wrapped up although only showing 50% finished, then I realised that what I’d downloaded was two books in one; the other was called Falling for Christmas (Book 1 in the Falling for the Freemans series).

And blow me, if it didn’t have exactly the same plot as A Yorkshire Christmas – just before Christmas a city girl running away from her life gets snowbound in a remote area, is rescued by attractive man who is going to be spending Christmas on his own, they fall for each other, and get married in the local church the following Christmas Eve. However Falling for Christmas is set in upstate New York.

I forgave the author because what’s not to like about that scenario plus I love books set in upstate New York – and I went on to buy and read the second in the series, set in the same location:

Falling Hard (Falling for the Freemans Book 2)

‘Quinn Freeman has spent his life avoiding the dangers of commitment, but his reluctant return to his home town stirs up memories and emotions he’d intended to leave buried.’ This is the only book I’ve read where the female protagonist is a plumber – Meghan's skills come in handy when Quinn Freeman decides to renovate his family’s abandoned hotel.

I look forward to Book 3.

And now for something completely different …

A House in Flanders by Michael Jenkins

In 1951 Michael Jenkins aged 14 was sent to spend the summer in a country house in Flanders, in a household consisting of elderly ladies who had previously been connected (in a way that eventually became clear to him) with his own family. He was soon irrevocably entwined with a family that had taken him to their hearts – and found out about the scars that two world wars left on his hosts and on the area. Beautifully written account of events seen through the eyes of a boy.

Displacement by Anne Stormont

Read on Kindle. Loved this book with its dual setting. First there’s the Isle of Skye (where the author lives) and the loveliness of its geography and geology, and the work involved in looking after sheep, plus the interaction between friends and neighbours. Then we move to Israel, its beauty and its problems – and its wonderful food. Through her time in both of these places we get to know author/artist/crofter Rachel – her heritage, and her coming to terms with recent traumatic events in her family. An engrossing read and – my test of a good book – one that brought tears to my eyes more than once.

Let it snow ... and read Stella's Christmas Wish

Bookloversbooklist

Thankfully, Kate Blackadder keeps Stella’s Christmas Wish on the right side of syrup. This is a lovely, heart-warming festive read. Blackadder writes confidently and with a great sense of pace.

Daydreamer's Thoughts

I fell in love with the characters and actually wished they were real … I loved reading about them and the way their lives intertwined … I really, really, want there to be a sequel …

Shaz's Book Blog

Later on as we discover the truth I thought the reasons for Maddie's absence were heartfelt and brought a lovely tone and atmosphere to the story.

Book Mood Reviews

Stella quickly became a very sympathetic character for me.

http://booksofallkinds.weebly.com/home/stellas-christmas-wish-by-kate-blackadder

The beauty of Scotland comes alive in this story, and the characters are so engaging and really make you care about them.

http://bookaholicswede.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/blog-tour-stellas-christmas-wish-by.html
 ... I enjoyed reading this book and if you are looking for a Christmas read I recommend this one.

https://portobellobookblog.com/2016/11/23/stellas-christmas-wish-by-kate-blackadder-review-k_blackadder-bwpublishing/

a delightful, warm-hearted Christmas read which I thoroughly enjoyed.

And see reviews on Amazon/Goodreads including:

‘This is a lovely story told against the backdrop of a beautiful part of the world. I love the author's descriptions of the Border country and Edinburgh in the run-up to Christmas.’

‘Loved all the tiny details that brought places and characters to life.’

‘From the very beginning of this novel I was really intrigued by Stella and her family.’

‘Stella’s Christmas Wish by Kate Blackadder is a really entertaining read, and I highly recommend it!’

‘ … populated with engaging, credible and interesting characters, and a couple of good twists along the way.’

‘Kate Blackadder has created characters which are a delight to spend time with. Warm a glass of mulled wine, forget the Christmas to-do list... and enjoy!’

Blog tour guest posts/Q&A

Q&A with Janet Emson

https://fromfirstpagetolast.wordpress.com/2016/12/01/kate-blackadder-qa/

Q&A with Helena Fairfax

www.helenafairfax.com

www.myreadingcorner.co.uk

Guest post: The times I celebrated Christmas in July/November

http://www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/2016/11/christmas-traditions-love-them-hate-them.html

Guest post: Christmas traditions

 

See also:

 

Jenny Harper Author

Guest post: Sisters and secrets

Linda's Book Bag

Guest post: Three Christmas wishes

Wendy's Writing Now

Guest post: Christmas …. my favourite things

Stella's Christmas Wish is published by Black & White Publishing at 99p.