Under Italian Skies by Nicky Pellegrino Reviewed by Jan Speedie

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Margaret Graham

It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to summer holidays. Nicky Pellegrino novel, Under Itlaian Skies y will surely put Southern Italy on your list of places to visit. Relax and let Nicky transport you there.
For the past 25 years Stella has worked for Milly Munro in her fashion business. Milly’s untimely death throws Stella’s well controlled life into confusion. At 49, Stella wonders what her future holds.
Following a chat with her friend, Birdie, Stella investigates the idea of a house swap to bring some changes to her life. Soon she swaps her small London flat for a beautiful old villa in Southern Italy (who wouldn’t).
At first it is very strange and a little lonely but as her confidence grows she makes friends in the village and so the fun begins.
Nicky Pellegrino has once again written a delightful, sensitive and fun story. It is clear she has a real love for Italy, so join her in her passion, immerse yourself in Italian village life.
Nicky Pellegrino now lives and works as a freelance journalist in New Zealand. She was born and brought up in Liverpool. Her father was Italian and they spent all their family holidays visiting Southern Italy. Her books are distributed in the UK, Australia and New Zealand and have been translated into 12 languages.

Published by Orion Publishing Group on 14th April 2016 at £12.99

Take Time App Review by Alex Bannard

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Margaret Graham

There is no doubt that the ancient practice of meditation is gaining mainstream popularity with its benefits being increasingly recognized and applauded (see infographic below). Indeed a Harvard study recently confirmed that meditation actually improves our grey matter. Having practiced meditation for several years and been subtly, but profoundly affected by the benefits it affords my mental and physical health, I was delighted when Frost magazine invited me to review the new meditation app TakeTime.

I’ll be honest – I have a love/hate relationship with modern technology: on the one hand it offers such a wealth of information at our finger tips but the constant demands of always being available can sap us of both time and energy whilst creating even more stress, one of the greatest health issues facing us in 21st century. However, I love it when technology can be used beneficially and help support a new habit such as meditation, making it more accessible, more available to everyone.

And this is where TakeTime steps in. Available to download on iTunes, it offers a modern way to meditate on the move. Simply plug in your earphones, choose from 7 of the different themes and transport yourself away from modern stresses. Sounds simple? And it is. The earphones and harmonic sounds and music enable you to completely focus attention on the sounds without being distracted by other auditory stimulus. The sublime images and beautiful landscapes enable you to direct attention purely on the sights in front of you. These are indeed valuable tools to the meditator: using the senses to bring the attention inward or help avoid being distracted and swept away with your thoughts.

My problem is that there is no introduction to the app or the meditations so I was left confused – who will this app appeal to?

You see, in order to meditate, a little understanding helps such as; different techniques and styles. Meditation is not about turning your thoughts off – initially it can be alarming how as soon as we still our body, our brains go haywire. It’s important to understand how to calm the mind in order to observe thoughts like clouds in the sky. This idea is only briefly touched upon in the serenity meditation. Therefore, I feel this app is geared towards a more experienced meditator.

And therein lies the dichotomy as I feel an app is generally geared towards the more inexperienced beginner than the expert. After all if you have a regular mindfulness practice that works for you, why would you use an app? Since most of the meditations are unguided, perhaps this makes them less accessible for a beginner?

However, I really liked the variety of options and lengths of meditations – from 5 to 21 minutes – all of which are perfect time frames to be slotted into busy lifestyles. The headphones and images mean the meditations can practically be performed anywhere. Although I found practicing these meditations whilst on holiday slightly unnecessary, as I only had to gaze away from the screen across the beach and towards the horizon to see stunning scenery. But I can imagine the benefit of using TakeTime on the tube when such scenic distractions are sadly missing.

I really enjoyed and benefited from the balance, relaxation and serenity meditations and I am sure I will return to them. One night I couldn’t sleep so I tried the nighttime meditation it worked effortlessly taking me from sunset imagery into nightscapes, distracting my mind from whatever was troubling it and encouraging a relaxed sleep. I would recommend this meditation before bed rather than in the middle of the night, to avoid the temptation of logging into emails or social media.

The shorter meditations of prepare and recharge were less resonant. I felt they needed guidance rather than just some random and irritating plinky plonky music or harmonics. The longer Icelandic Harmony just sent me to sleep, both times I practiced it. But then I applied compassion and kindness to myself (both ideologies which go hand in hand with meditation) and accepted that was clearly what I needed at the time.

I found the male voice on the guided meditation gentle and soothing, the female voice less so (both are accented) and again this boils down to personal preference as if a voice irritates that meditation app isn’t for you. I didn’t much like the opening images of people plugged into laptops. They are surely there to convey how the app works but I felt they were not very in keeping with the meditation vibe. But I am probably being picky here.

So in short it’s a nice app if you have a basic background in meditating.

The key thing I believe to any of these things is to try before you buy. There are plenty of mindfulness and meditation apps available. It’s essential to find one where the approach and voice resonate. I cannot stress enough that the benefits of a regular mindfulness practice are subtle but profound and I completely recommend taking up a meditation practice with or without an app to support you. After all you wouldn’t want to get left behind in what many suggest is a revolution that will become such common practice that not meditating will be frowned upon – in the same way not wearing a seat belt is.

Price and availability

TakeTime can be downloaded for free in App Store. The meditation themes can then be downloaded in two different versions: With advertisement (for free) and without advertisement (from 79p to £2.99). The premium version can be purchased for £19.49.

http://taketimeapps.com/

Surreal? Probably, but it’s my life Alex Bannard – Bangkok correspondent

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Being an expat affords some amazing experiences, luxuries and some frustrations. In a previous expat life I had friends who described it as ‘not real life’ – it is real, it’s our life right now, surreal though it might sometimes be.

Take a typical moment in time in Bangkok. I was invited to join a friend in her first ante-natal appointment for her fourth pregnancy. Hubby felt his role was done so it was my privilege to share a wonderful moment with her and to have some fun too. Afterwards we were waiting outside for a taxi to go to lunch. I say waiting, we actually got proactive and went straight to the area where they are dropping off to pick one up.

‘We were met with, ‘No madam you go get number, please’.

There’s a system. Wow.

We went to the taxi desk & got number 49. There are many people milling around and obviously we don’t expect to get in the first taxi. Several minutes later a lady with number 52 clutched in her palm was clearly edging to the front of the ‘queue’…there is no queue just a mass of people.

I don’t really like pointless rules but if there is a system, queue or not – you wait your turn lady or I will take you down. I’m British after all, and we invented the queue.

Realizing we probably needed to register with Clipboard-lady I told her our destination & she wrote it next to 49. We’re back in the game. Number 52 can wait in line.

After many more minutes it became apparent that the system is not a system.

Clipboard-lady approached the next available taxi and gave him a range of options on which location he wanted next, which often he declined & drove off. Oh for goodness sake -it’s 37 degrees humid as a Chinese Laundry we’ve be waiting for almost 1/2 hour, my friend is in wedges and I am watching my long awaited Dean & Delucalunch disappear up the ‘system’.

So I took things into my own hands & walked down the line and asked a taxi way back in the taxi queue if he will take us to Emporium. ‘Madam, number?’ he said.

I replied, ‘We have a number but there is seriously no system. Taxi just choose where he wants to go. You want to go to Emporium?’

‘Ok but 100bht’

‘Done.’ We jumped in with our laminated 49 (stick that in your ‘system’) and drive off.

The traffic is horrible. We pass a Dean & Deluca and get stuck in a nose to tail traffic, so I hand him his 100bht & say ‘Kap kun ka we get out here.’

‘No madam. Just round corner.’ He replies.

‘Oh ok’

Finally we pull up at…Central Embassy. Not quite where we wanted to be.

Yep, surreal it is. But we love it.

The Daughter’s Secret by Eva Holland Reviewed by Frances Colville

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Surely a scenario which all mothers dread, the abduction of a child is the focus of this first novel by Eva Holland which won the 2014 Good Housekeeping novel competition. It’s an intriguing and emotional read, telling the story of Rosalind as she struggles to cope with the imminent release from prison of her teenage daughter’s abductor. Flashbacks to the time of the abduction six years earlier are skillfully interwoven with her current life and the reader soon becomes aware that both situations are far more complicated than they initially seem. Eva Holland is spot on with her characterisation and successfully maintains tension throughout. There are one or two annoyances (is so much snow realistic in Milton Keynes in late November/early December and in any case is it really necessary for the plot to work?) but they do not detract from the fact that this is a good story worth the read.

The Daughter’s Secret by Eva Holland is published in paperback and as an eBook.

The Mother by Yvvette Edwards Reviewed by Frances Colville

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Margaret Graham

The Mother is Yvvette Edwards’ second novel. Her first, A Cupboard Full of Coats, was longlisted for the Man Booker prize and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize. So I began reading The Mother with high expectations, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The story opens on the first day of the trial of Ryan’s alleged killer and is told through the eyes of Marcia, mother of Ryan who, aged 16, was stabbed to death. How would you feel if you had failed to keep your beloved and only child safe? How could you ever come to terms with the knowledge that you would never see him again, and that he had missed out on a full, long and happy life? And how do you deal with the guilt? In fact, as Marcia says – “as a parent of a child who has been violently killed, is it possible, ever, to completely absolve yourself of blame?”

Yvvette Edwards writes so compellingly and so fluently that it’s hard to put this book down. And it’s the sort of book which will stick in your mind long after you have finished it, especially if you are a parent.

The Mother is published by Mantle in hardback and eBook

The life of a Second Wife by Margaret Graham

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Frost is so pleased to see Elizabeth Buchan’s novel, The Second Wife picked out by Daisy Goodwin in her feature in the Daily Mail: Second Marriages – key novels to help you through the trickier times in life.

Daisy Goodwin discusses Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, Before She Met Me by John Barnes, and Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author, and patron of Words for the Wounded, Elizabeth Buchan, and her novel The Second Wife.

The Second Wife explores the world of the mistress who becomes the wife – overtones of Sir James Goldsmith who did just that, and thereby created a vacancy. Ouch.
According to Buchan the second marriage is a world that can be less than appealing, full of pitfalls and of course, baggage. Elizabeth Buchan, who spoke recently at the Words for the Wounded LitFest at Downley, High Wycombe, (Frost’s editor, Catherine Balavage spoke later in the day) examines Minty’s experiences of a second marriage sympathetically, but with her usual incisive wit and elegance. It is a compelling and heart-warming novel, as are her others, the most recent being the thought provoking and excellent I Can’t Begin to Tell You set in Denmark during the 2nd World War.

It’s great to see The Second Wife having another outing. Go on, give yourself a treat – it is very well worth reading.

Elizabeth Buchan’s latest book The New Mrs Clifton will be out in August 1016. Frost is looking forward to reviewing it.

The Second Wife                 published by Penguin
I Can’t Begin to Tell you        published by Penguin
The New Mrs Clifton             published by Penguin August 2016

Spare me the Truth by C J Carver Reviewed by Margaret Graham

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Margaret Graham

Simon Kernick says of this novel ‘it is right up there with the best.’ So is it?

I have become a picky reader. I become impatient at any hint of sloppiness by an author, my attention is on the whole, increasingly hard to hold. So is Simon right?

Yep, I couldn’t put Spare me the Truth down. I read until too late at night, which made me grumpy, but I picked it up again as soon as I could.

Spare me the Truth is clever. As an author myself I could imagine the intricacies of the plotting as Dan Forrester is approached in a supermarket by a woman to tells him everything he remembers about his life – and his son – is a lie. We are in Dan’s point of view, his body, and are rocked as he is by this news. We know nothing more than Dan. Is this a lunatic? Or is there something nudging at his memory.

We are led into the point of view of Stella Reavey who has so unsettled Dan, and begin to see that there is indeed something strange about Dan, some other life. What on earth has he done? Is he good or bad? And what about his wife? Is she who she seems?

We are as lost as Dan, but such is the writing that rather than feel confused and irritated, the reader totally buys into the mystery.

Then enter another character enters – stage left. , Grace Reavey who is Stella’s daughter, a doctor who has plans for her life, plans which are superseded by this tangled web that wraps itself around her, when her mother dies. Who is good, who is bad we ask again, and the what hell is going on?

A policewoman becomes involved, Lucy Davies – such a fascinating and complex character who shoves the book along.

This is a confident thriller, one that is written by an author who has a unique voice, a magical plotting ability, and a clarity of presentation that keeps us fully on track. I felt there was room for a series here. I do hope that is planned.

Brilliant. Read it, and lose yourself, and be glad you live in a simpler world.

Spare me the Truth Published by Zaffre, established in 2014 by Quercus founder Mark Smith. Available in paperback £7.99

The Queens Award for Enterprise 2016 has been awarded to the fabulous charity Forces Support

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Margaret Graham

A charity much admired by Frost is Forces Support which supports families who have lost a loved one in Afghanistan. The brilliant news is that to coincide with The Queen’s Birthday, they have been awarded with the prestigious Queens Award for Enterprise 2016 in the Innovation Category, for their innovative approach to supporting bereaved military families.

Founded by father and son, Bill and Billy McCance, the charity has a national support team helping about 80 families a year, and is supported by 22 shops throughout Britain. It is such a simple idea, isn’t it, to provide families with Remembrance areas, children’s play areas, and playrooms, garden and household maintenance when they are reeling with grief. It is simple yes, but inspired. Just imagine hearing the news that your husband or father has been killed and you need to move from a quarter into a new house when you are bereft and feeling helpless. Or if it is your son… Where can you go for solace?

Forces Support helps to ease the way along the rocky path of grief and adjustment. It creates a peaceful area, or decorates a house so that is fit to live in.

The charity funds the support they give through the profits from their furniture shops, making the charity self-sufficient and sustainable, and support also comes from donations.

This award is utterly deserved, and Bill and Billy, and all the builders, maintenance personnel and apprentices who help the families of service personnel should feel enormously proud of their efforts. Wonderful thought the Award is, work, of course, will continue unabated, as they have a waiting list of 8 months and more will be added to this, with each passing day.

There is no rest for Forces Support, because the need continues.

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