A Gift From the Gods by Martin Gunn

A science fiction thriller which isn’t usually my ‘bag’ but I couldn’t put this down. A brisk pace, and an imagination that proves the theory that everything is impossible until it is done – or so Gunn proves in this intriguing novel. It has everything – aliens, gods, Dinosaurs, Nazis, the CIA and let’s not forget the Mafia. This must have had the authors brain whizzing at a rate of knots, but somehow he puts it all into this rock ‘n’ roll of a page turner. Set in 1985 a Nazi cell busies itself attempting to create a Fourth Reich (horrible thought) using – wait for it – technology from a crashed UFO . The hero? One of the rolling eyes brigade – a teenage boy. Give it a try. It’ll make you breathless and it’ll be worth it.

A Gift From the Gods by Martin Gunn. pb pub Matador. Price £10.99

The Doll House  by Phoebe Morgan

I find creepy books disconcerting. It’s all right while it’s daylight but then one lies in bed wondering quite what is creaking its way up the stairs. This is rather like that feeling as Corinne’s dream of children seems to be imploding after a series of failed IVF attempts.

Then – oh crikey – she starts to find pieces of a dolls house turning up. Not only that, but as they accumulate and furniture is included she realises that it is a replica of her house. is she being stalked? How long has this been going on? What do ‘they’ want…

It’s the stuff of nightmares. Stalking, waiting, not knowing is haunting. Not to be read in bed.

The Doll House by Phoebe Morgan. pb pub HQ  £7.99

Mission Critical by Mark Greaney comes with a quote from Lee Child… ‘Hard, fast and unflinching – exactly what a thriller should be.’

I concur, and thought it would make a fabulous film. Would there be room for little old me?

Court Gentry’s flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want  to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. Thank heavens thank heavens… The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/M16 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley.

When they land in an isolated airbase in the UK, they are attacked by a hostile force and the prisoner is kidnapped. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers but what can one operarative do against a trained team of assassins?

Oh the bliss of it. Can’t you just see it. Bruce Willis to the rescue, but – perhaps someone younger? No, no, Bruce…

Fabulous book, love every minute, and somehow not dark, no awful shadows to infiltrate one’s dreams. Just great thrills, suspense, turn the page, quick quick. Loved it – please, please – deserves to be a film.

Mission Critical by Mark Greaney pub Sphere Large pb £14.99 and ebook.

This unpretentious book landed on my desk, and I flipped through it, intrigued by the blurb: Edinburgh is a city full of historical attractions and world famous festivals, a magnet for visitors from around the world. But away from the city, hidden amongst a 17th century landscape, lies Cammo Estate. Its history far stranger than fiction. The ruined mansion was once home to the infamous last residents, the Maitland-Tennent family.

Torn apart by divorce, feuds and financial scandal.

A mansion filled with antiques, left to rot, open to the elements and thieves. This is Cammo, once home to the reclusive Black Widow.

The author, Simon Baillie first became fascinated by Cammo when on a walk with his neighbour and decided to find out more about this neglected estate, so off to Edinburgh Central Library he went. Like Topsy, the book ‘growed’.

It is divided up into sections. There is a brief history of Cammo House, the building of the house, the Maitland-Tennent Family, Financial dealings and so on. It could have been proofed rather better but this doesn’t detract from this intriguing book.

Fascinating. And the Black Widow? Ah, read it and see.

The Private World of Cammo by Simon Baillie – £13.45 from Amazon.co.uk

In March the week-long festival of letters, My White Best Friend and Other Letters Left Unsaid comes to The Bunker. How do you start the conversation with someone you love about how their beliefs, their unthinking actions, their politics undermine, hurt, erase you?

With performers including Inès de Clercq (Broadchurch, ITV; Jerusalem, Channel 4), Rosie Day (Watership Down, BBC; Outlander, STARZ), Tom Moutchi (Famalam, BBC; Twitstorm, Park Theatre) and Zainab Hasan (Tamburlaine, RSC; Shakespeare Trilogy, Donmar Warehouse) each evening promises to be fascinating and thought provoking because every night new letters will be given to performers to read for the first time onstage.

Rachel De-Lahay and director Milli Bhatia have commissioned eleven writers to pen these letters saying the unsaid to the people that matter most. These will be reflecting on intersections of identity, and explore lived experiences – of people of colour, people who identify as non-binary or LGBTQIA+, of people’s whose voices have been side-lined.

De-Lahay’s provocative act of letter writing engages with racial tensions, microaggressions and emotional labour, asking the privileged to step back to allow rest of the room to take up space.

My White Best Friend and Other Letters Left Unsaid

The Bunker, 53A Southwark Street London SE1 1RU

Performance Dates Monday 18th – Saturday 23rd March 2019, 7.30pm

Box Office Tickets are £10 and available from https://www.bunkertheatre.com/ and 020 7234 0486.

2019 marks 50 years since the debut flights of the Boeing 747 and Concorde.

It also marks 100 years since Alcock & Brown departed on the first non-stop transatlantic flight.

Flight is something that has fascinated us for centuries, until here, in our century, it has become commonplace. But what do we really know?

Flight – The Evolution of Aviation is a tour through the hinterland of flight with illustrations to warm the cockles. This book absorbed generations within my family, from a 70 year old to an eleven year old –and what’s more, each wanted to find out, flesh out, areas of interest. So as an introduction to, and overall view, of flight it is absolutely perfect.

Read about The Wright Brothers, The Aeroplane  during the 1^st and 2^nd world wars. Air travel in in the post-war world, and on, and on.

And what about the hot-air balloons and onto the technology behind military jets and space rockets.

Yes, all here. Enjoy.

Price £20..00 pub. Carlton Publishing Group. Distributed by HarperCollins.

When I first qualified as a doctor nobody talked about cancer. Staff and relatives hid the diagnosis from the patient – too shocking to bear, or share. Often one only knew that someone had had cancer after they’d died.

Today we are much more aware of success stories, due to improvements in treatment but also to a more open attitude. Many people have written their cancer ‘stories’, insights into living with the big C, and some doctors, like myself, who have had cancer, have written guides to help others.

India Desjardin’s book is a welcome addition to the growing cancer genre. An established author, her ‘A Story About Cancer (With a Happy Ending)’ was inspired by a young girl she met, who had leukaemia. Sympathetically illustrated by Marianne Ferrer, it addresses the feelings, fears and insights of a teenager going through what no young adult should have to face – the possibility of imminent death.

The book touches on the raw honesty of youth – why are hospitals always decorated in boring colours?

The story reminds us that young adults are much more aware than we may wish in these stressful situations. Yes, they know exactly what ‘that look’ in people’s eyes means; they also understand why Mum needs to keep telling them they are brave, even though it drives them crazy; they have the wisdom to understand that being strong and positive isn’t always the answer, sometimes even the most positive people die.

The author addresses the thoughts that adults pray their children don’t have – like would it be better for everyone if they died? She covers a teenager’s need to deal with being ‘different’ at an age when everyone is desperate to fit in.  Romance. Can anyone fancy someone with a bald head?

Finally waiting for those crucial results – an integral part of living with cancer. In this story the news is good.

Teenagers, like everyone else, can vary in their approach to cancer literature. Some find the resonance of someone understanding their issues helpful, and this book could break through the isolation common amongst cancer sufferers of any age. Response to such a book will depend on individual circumstances though and it may not be for everyone. For the right person this book is beautifully written and illustrated, delivering gentle messages for people who may not be in a state to absorb copious detail.

By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q

http://faitobooks.co.uk

One of my favourite places in Thirsk, and something of a rarity these days – is a thriving independent bookshop, one which works hard to achieve its award winning success. The White Rose BookCafe sells not only books, but gives you a chance to put your feet up, sip a coffee and sample good food, then you can go back to browsing. But let’s not stop there, the owners and staff have fingers in many bookish pies –  arranging talks which attract fabulously popular authors who like to chat to their readers and a super-fast book dispatch service, and… Well, let’s just have a closer look:

Jan and Joanna Trollope

White Rose Book Cafe came into being 23 years ago when Sue Lake and her late father Steve Clements opened the door and welcomed in their first customers. It has thrived every since, partly because they have been forward looking, and have  invested in the technology that gives the staff access to all British and American books, and which helps them to dispatch orders, often overnight. Roll over Amazon… But it’s more than that. A bookshop has to somehow be at the heart of the community and interact with it, and this one certainly does that, in spades.

Sue and Bob Champion

White Rose BookCafe draws customers from far and wide not just for the books, or food but also for the talks they arrange:

Just look at the 2018  line up of authors, poets & musicians – Joanna Trollope, Tommy Banks, Mary Jayne Baker, Gemma Hogg, Bob Champion, Carol Ann Duffy, Imtiaz Dharker, John Sampson, Jackie Kay, Gillian Clarke, Kate Fox, Em Lynas, Dan Smith, Chloe Daykin, Chris Callaghan, Peter Robinson, Jane Clack, Damon Young, Salley Vickers, Kate Atkinson, Julian Norton, Peter Wright, Jonathan Tulloch and Herd on the Hill, Nick Ahad, Vicky Foster, Alfie Crow & James Turner.

Add to this their support of  authors at Ripon International Festival, the Deer Shed Festival, Countryside Live, Thirsk Christmas Weekend, & they also welcome visits from local primary schools.

Julian Norton launching his latest book: Horses Heifers and Hairy Pigs

What about Book Groups? Well, of course. Not one, but  3 thriving Book Groups regularly meet in the Story Room upstairs. The bookshop’s  40 seating café (winner of Tea Room of the Year 2018, voted for by Flavours of Herriot Country Awards), and mezzanine floor housing older children’s books, and nonfiction, story room and not forgetting the large garden terrace.

Peter Wright

Sue Lake of White Rose BookCafe, Thirsk says that “In 2016 our sales of the new book by Yorkshire Vet, Julian Norton had outstripped sales of Harry Potter books here” she added “ We were absolutely delighted when Julian asked us to hold a Party to launch his new book Horses, Heifers and Hairy Pigs: The Life of a Yorkshire Vet.”  We launched Julian’s new books in 2017, 2018 & will be working with him in 2019, as well as our other famous vet and talented writer Peter Wright.’

They have over 800 Privilege Card Members who receive monthly offers and events information, helping to spread the word about their business and thriving local community.

So these are the facts, but let me tell you that White Rose BookCafe is more than this. It has heart, its staff are a joy; relaxed and friendly, its choice of books wide, and if they haven’t got it, they’ll get it – quickly, and their windows make even the youngest child want ‘That book, Mummy.’ In this day and age, this is priceless.

White Rose Books, 79-81 Market Place, Thirsk, North Yorkshire YO7 1ET    01845 524353