Category Archives: Culture

The Ugly Truth by L.C. North Book Review

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The Ugly Truth is a rollercoaster of a book that has you hooked from the first page. Told in an original way: through transcripts, interviews and social media posts, it is a damning indictment of our tabloid media and celebrity obsession. It’s also a heartbreaking exploration of mental illness. 

Your heart will be in your mouth throughout this book. I think it’s impossible to read it and not feel passionate about it’s characters and subjects.. The Ugly Truth is not for the faint hearted. It’s original, blistering and brilliant. A triumph. 

 

Melanie Lange has disappeared.

Her father, Sir Peter Lange, says she is a danger to herself and has been admitted to a private mental health clinic.

Her ex-husband, Finn, and best friend, Nell, say she has been kidnapped.

The media will say whichever gets them the most views.

But whose side are you on?

#SaveMelanie

#HelpPeter

The Ugly Truth is a shocking and addictive thriller about celebrity culture, coercive control and the truth behind the headlines.

The Ugly Truth is available here.

ROMANTIC FICTION MATTERS

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To launch Frost magazine’s support for #RespectRomFic, Sara-Jade Virtue, Brand Development Director, Fiction, for Simon & Schuster UK explains why the campaign is important and reveals her favourite romance books.

There is NOTHING I enjoy as much as a Big Love Story. Preferably on the page rather than on a screen, whether the love is of the romantic, familial or friendship kind, I adore j’adore and have done all my adult life.

Which is why I feel so passionate (no pun intended) about the #RespectRomFic movement I’m leading, and why it’s so important to me. For far too long the contribution to the literary landscape of the books written by the authors writing in the Romance & Saga space has been at best ignored, at worst dismissed. And yet these are the books that dig into the very heart (every pun intended) of the human condition, love. Love is what makes the world go round and these ten novels from my all time favourite dessert island reads list, show love in all its glorious forms – escapist, romantic, heart-warming, heart-breaking, laugh out loud funny, moving, poignant and painful.

Lily and the Octopus (Steven Rowley) – a heart-breaking, charming and unforgettable novel about life, love and long walks.

These Days of Ours (Juliet Ashton) – a gloriously irresistible romance about what happens when the person you love can’t be yours.

Letters to the Lost (Iona Grey) – a poignant, absorbing and tender story of love and loss.

Together (Julie Cohen) – a bold, breath-taking and compelling love story that manages to be as complex as it is compelling.

Rescue Me (Sarra Manning) – heartfelt, funny and wonderfully uplifting, this is total joy from start to finish.

The Last Letter From Your Lover (Jojo Moyes) – passion, loss and romance, and arguably in my Top 3 Favourite Novels Of All Time.

Seven Days in June (Tia Williams) – an extraordinary novel that manages to be both utterly hilarious and completely heart-breaking.

The Photographer of the Lost (Caroline Scott) – a vivid story of forbidden love and longing, this took my breath away.

When We Were Young (Richard Roper) – incredibly moving, hilariously funny, utterly heart-breaking.

The Man I Think I Know (Mike Gayle) – redemption, love, trust and second chances. Incredibly moving, funny and clever.

The stats back up the importance of romantic fiction too – here are some figures taken from publishing industry bible, The Bookseller, with the numbers provided by Nielson.

In 2022 Romance & Sagas had its second best year ever at £53m, only bettered by the Fifty Shades bonanza of 2012 (£68.3m).

This is way up from the more normal value of £25m, which is still seriously significant in terms of the market as a whole.

These figures exclude love stories coded as General & Literary Fiction, for example Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (£2m), Marian Keyes’ Again Rachel (almost £1m), Elena Armas’ The Spanish Love Deception (£851k) and Beth O’Leary’s The Road Trip (£459k).

The Sunday Times bestseller list has no category for romance, yet in 2022 the top twenty contained no fewer than six books that could be regarded as romantic fiction; four by Colleen Hoover, including the top selling novel of all, It Ends with Us, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley.

 

 

 

Three Romance Novels To Read Now

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Secretly Yours by Tess Bailey.

This is the first Tess Bailey book I have read and, damn, now I believe the hype. It’s fun, deep, rom-com steaminess. Secretly Yours is a fun book with so many layers and excitement that I raced through it. Brilliant.  

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and TikTok favorite Tessa Bailey comes a steamy new rom-com about a starchy professor and the bubbly neighbor he clashes with at every turn…

Hallie Welch fell hard for Julian Vos at fourteen, after they almost kissed in the dark vineyards of his family’s winery. Now the prodigal hottie has returned to their small Napa town. When Hallie is hired to revamp the gardens on the Vos estate, she wonders if she’ll finally get that smooch. But the grumpy professor isn’t the teenager she remembers and their polar opposite personalities clash spectacularly. One wine-fueled girls’ night later, Hallie can’t shake the sense that she did something reckless—and then she remembers the drunken secret admirer letter she left for Julian. Oh shit.

On sabbatical from his ivy league job, Julian plans to write a novel. But having Hallie gardening right outside his window is the ultimate distraction. She’s eccentric, chronically late, often literally covered in dirt—and so unbelievably beautiful, he can’t focus on anything else. Until he finds an anonymous letter sent by a woman from his past. Even as Julian wonders about this admirer, he’s sucked further into Hallie’s orbit. Like the flowers she plants all over town, Hallie is a burst of color in Julian’s grey-scale life. For a man who irons his socks and runs on tight schedules, her sunny chaotic energy makes zero sense. But there’s something so familiar about her… and her very presence is turning his world upside down.

Secretly Yours is available here.

The Ex Next Door by Jo Platt.

If you want to immerse yourself in a pacy romance with characters you love, and others you can hate, then grab a copy of The Ex Next Door. A smart idea well executed. 

Thank you, n(ex)t.

After burst pipes destroy Esme’s city-centre flat, she temporarily relocates to a delightful and small cottage in a village on the edge of town. The change is a big one, but Esme soon settles in and, as the art gallery she co-owns with her business partner, David, continues to thrive, life is sweet.

Until Elliot – an ex whom she hasn’t seen or spoken to for years – moves in next door, along with his perfect new girlfriend, Morgan. Suddenly, Esme’s past is right on her doorstep, or at least just over the fence.

When Elliot and Esme decide to keep their former relationship a secret from those around them, their subterfuge sets off a chain of events which not only forces Esme to re-evaluate her past relationship with Elliot, but also puts her friendship with David under the microscope and under pressure.

A laugh-out-loud romance of second chances and near misses, perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane and Jenny Colgan.

The Ex Next Door is available here.

The Corner Shop on Foxmore Green by Lilac Mills.

I loved this wholesome and happy novel. It’s a lovely story about community and love. Single mum Rowena lives in a beautiful village  with her daughter Nia. She has hopes and dreams and you root for her. Perfect for lovers of romance. 

Can a new shop change the village’s future – and Rowena’s?

Single mum Rowena is always looking for ways for her and Nia, her four-year-old daughter, to live more sustainably. So when she visits a zero-waste shop in Cardiff, she’s inspired to start one up in her home village of Foxmore, where local businesses and artisan shops are a core part of the community.

For Huw, it’s love at first sight when he bumps into Rowena the day he moves to Foxmore. But a series of misunderstandings keeps the two from getting closer, and now a conflict of interest over Rowena’s shop might put a stop to any fledgling romance…

When a figure from Rowena’s past makes a surprise appearance, both her shop and her relationship with Huw are suddenly under threat. Can Rowena still realise her corner shop dreams and find love?

A gorgeously fun and feel-good cosy romance, perfect for fans of Sue Moorcroft, Holly Martin and Suzanne Snow.

The Corner Shop on Foxmore Green is available here.

WRITERS ON THE ROAD: CHARLIE COCHRANE

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Imagine a castle. A castle that was confiscated by Henry VIII after he’d chopped off the owner’s head. A castle that may not have been “knocked abaht a bit” by Cromwell, but which went seriously downhill after the civil war. One that was restored in the 19th century and may—rumour has it—have been where they hid the crown jewels during World War Two. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Better still, it’s a place where you can stay because it’s now a hotel, so it provides a tremendous venue for an author who writes historical novels and who wants both inspiration and an opportunity for immersive research. That’s my story about why we’ve stayed there several times and I’m sticking to it.

There’s nothing better than experiencing the era you write about, albeit at several removes. Work a sash window and see how tricky—and draughty—they can be. Trot up and down a spiral staircase and discover how that fight scene you had in your mind could physically never work. Stand next to a thick stone wall and see how much cold the thing radiates. While none of the detail might make its way into your story, it’ll give you a clearer idea of what your characters experienced in their everyday lives and why, for example, people wore bed socks and night caps, because their rooms would have been so flipping freezing.

Research is little use unless it turns into or backs up a story, so inspiration for what that story will be is the other factor writers can find when on the road. The Cochrane family first stayed at Thornbury Castle back in 2006, which was just before I started work on my first murder mystery. I needed a family home for Jonty Stewart—one of my pair of amateur sleuths—and it was obvious that Thornbury had to provide the template for it. I could so clearly see the characters occupying the place in its new guise as The Old Manor, especially the glorious walled garden which is a little jewel of colour and tranquillity. That garden was the setting for some significant scenes, and the strange grey cat we encountered there had to be incorporated, especially when the staff said he didn’t belong to the hotel or to any of the local houses. This mysterious moggy became a ghost cat who had inhabited The Old Manor since the time of Shakespeare and may just have been the “harmless, necessary cat” the Bard refers to in The Merchant of Venice. A small thing, maybe, but the kind of element that can enrichen a story and provide a useful thing for your characters to chat about while you’re fleshing them out.

Real life occurrences can spark a fictional equivalent, too. That rumour about the crown jewels being stored at Thornbury Castle…where would you hide such valuables? In a hidden vault, surely. What else could you hide there? A body. All of a sudden there’s a story up and running. In my case, it inspired the cosy mystery The Case of the Undiscovered Corpse, which is part of my 1950s Alasdair and Toby series. (Imagine two actors who play Holmes and Watson onscreen and off and you’ve got the idea.)

I’d always advise aspiring authors to keep their eyes and ears open and their imaginations ready to be launched, whether they’re on their travels or simply in the local supermarket. So often I hear fellow authors talk about the tiny seeds—a snatch of conversation overheard, an interaction observed or a place visited—which have subsequently developed into full-grown stories. Be alert!

 

Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Undiscovered-Alasdair-Cambridge-Fellows-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0BHLN5HB8

 

 

 

 

JANE CABLE REVIEWS…

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Three books read for pleasure and another for research… My book of the month for January is the brand new family drama from Judith Barrow, Sisters, which was published by Honno last week.

Sisters by Judith Barrow

This novel about how childhood lies spiral into adulthood had me gripped from the very first chapter. One sister causes a dreadful accident and the other is blamed. The set up sounds simple enough – one moment changes both their lives. But it is the complex and realistic emotions involved that made this book as we follow Angie and Lisa from the estrangement of their teenage years into their twenties and beyond.

Judith Barrow is such a skilled storyteller I was completely immersed in the narrative, living alongside the characters as the plot played seamlessly out. It is hard to say too much about the story itself without including spoilers, but take it from me, Sisters is a first class read.

 

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

I’m not sure why I didn’t expect to enjoy this book; perhaps it was the style of the prologue and first few pages that put me off, but once I got into the story I forgot all about it.

I have to say that happened very quickly. Such brilliant characters, I think I could have forgiven them anything, and there were plenty of things to giggle at too, which I didn’t really expect. As for the mystery I enjoyed the ride and the red herrings very much, but I wasn’t completely convinced by the final outcome. It just didn’t seem as well embedded as the rest of the plot, which was a bit of a shame.

 

A Christmas Miracle for the Railway Girls by Maisie Thomas

I can hardly believe that this is the sixth Railway Girls saga; I have enjoyed them all so much and the stories still feel fresh. Of course the characters are familiar and this book focuses on Cordelia, Mabel and the return of Colette. I had a hunch that would happen, but how it came about, and how this important strand of the story was hold surprised me.

The tension attached to this storyline had such emotional power I was so invested at one point I had to put the book down. I couldn’t bear to carry on reading, and yet I had to know what happened. Always an excellent writer, think is Maisie Thomas hitting a new high. Challenging, uncomfortable, and it made me angry.

But the book ends at Christmas and of course miracles do happen. And the gentler counterpoint of Cordelia’s story was perfect foil to Colette’s making it a brilliantly rounded read.

 

The Four Swans by Winston Graham

I love a Poldark novel; they are fast becoming a go-to comfort read, although in this case I read the next in the series to immerse myself in the era in Cornwall. Although I am writing some fifteen years later I was delighted to discover that the family inspiring me, the Bassets of Tehidy, had more than walk on parts in The Four Swans.

The swans are the four women in Ross’s life and although I loved the full richness of the tapestry drawn, the thread that drew me most was Demelza’s and Hugh Armitage’s pursuit of her. As ever the whole novel was superbly written and brilliantly researched. These are not modern classics for nothing.

 

 

WRITERS ON THE ROAD: SUZANNE FORTIN

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When I first started out writing, my novels were all contemporary, so I didn’t need to do a great deal of research as most of the things I wrote about were within my own experience. However, when I moved into writing historical fiction and, in particular, the Second World War, research became one of the key elements. With so much information out there, it was important that I got my facts right.

Prior to this point in my writing, I had never been much of a historian. I moved into historical fiction by accident really, when my editor wanted me to expand on the backstory of one of my characters. I wasn’t sure if I could do it at first. Researching the Second World War seemed a huge task but the internet, friends, family, colleagues and the local library/bookstore have all been my assistants in helping me in this area.

Most of my novels have been partly set in France – a country that has been close to my heart for many years. Me and my husband first started visiting France in the early 90s and fell in love with the country and culture, so much so, that in 2003 we bought a cottage of our own to renovate in the Morbihan department of Brittany.

Little did I know back then how the area would influence and inspire my writing. Since then, I have found a wealth of information, a lot of which is widely known and many things that are smaller more personal stories of events during the occupation and the efforts of the local French Resistance who fought to disrupt the German war effort as much as possible, proving invaluable in the lead up to D-Day and beyond.

One of my research trips in Brittany took me to the Musée de la Résistance Bretonne in Saint-Marcel. It is, in fact, built of the very site that was once woodland where the local resistance group lived, trained, organised their attacks from and saw actual fighting as Brittany was liberated after the D-Day Landings.

Some of the displays within the museum have recreated scenes of the fighting as well as what every-day life was like under the occupation. All the displays are very detailed. There are some personal accounts, and these helped greatly to the authenticity of what I was writing, rather than just relying on well-documented war facts.

As with so many villages and towns within the area, memories of the war are never far away. On the edges of a village near to our cottage, is a small stone cross on the side of the road with the names of three local men engraved who were captured and executed by the Germans for being part of the Resistance. I have always felt a great sadness when I pass this memorial and initially it was hard to find out any information about the local men but over time this has become recorded online. Their personal stories have stayed with me and although not directly recounted in my writing, I hope I have managed to include the sentiment and acknowledge the sacrifice made by so many men and women in Brittany during the occupation.

 

 

Book link: https://bit.ly/3Z0ECxk

 

DIANE HARDING ON HER HARROWING MEMOIR, ALWAYS IN THE DARK

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My memoir ‘Always in the Dark’ tells of secrets, scandal and survival.  It is an extraordinary account of my bizarre homelife and is my search for answers from a family shrouded in secrets.  A mysterious tale of growing up, unbeknown to me, with my mother trapped in a menage a trois on a continent from which there was no escape, it tells of her selflessness, sacrifice and of putting others first.

After my parents emigrated post war, my idyllic and cosy childhood was ruined at the age of three after the arrival of a mysterious and glamorous visitor with my roller coaster existence and mother’s mental breakdown adding to my confusion during my formative years.

Although the first half of the mystery unfolded in the leafy suburbs of Cape Town, after moving to England at the age of fourteen the scandal continued to follow us around.  It was obvious my home life was a weird one and it was only after my mother’s death decades later that I rummaged through her secret box and discovered a wealth of staggering information I did not know about, the unimaginable circumstances cleverly hidden from me during my early years.  But I was a young child when it all began and the fact that I had lived my life to the point of naivety was beyond baffling.  But it was my mother’s life-long confidante, her sister Linda, who supplied me with many missing pieces of the puzzle and whose revelations helped clarify many of my childhood mysteries including the reason why I was to be an only child.

Making my heinous discovery was difficult to grasp and the realisation that I had lived through the trauma as the child of the victim equally upsetting; rage, bitterness, anger and a disbelief that my childhood had been dismantled by greed and my mother treated with such humiliation consuming me.  And because of the hurt and embarrassment my shocking revelation was not something I felt willing to talk about, least of all with my husband, a secret I kept from him for two long years.

The search for the truth sent me on numerous missions to talk with close friends and family only to discover that I was the last to know, hence the title ‘Always in the Dark’.

For too long domestic abuse has been a hidden issue and in order to raise aware of the horrors of coercive control I am now on a mission to encourage people to open up and tell their story which for me has been life changing.  It is a known fact that it is particularly hard for older people to open up and will experience abuse for twice as long before seeking help compared to those who are younger.  Writing my memoir has not been an easy ride but out of it has come great solace which has allowed me to come to terms with my past and move on.  I did not want to be someone with a massive grudge, determined never to allow my past to spoil my future.

This is a book about final freedom, my openness which I hope will help others to come forward and speak out and to understand that however traumatic a situation there is hope and a way through to happiness.  I am a firm believer that to experience the tough times gives us backbone in order to cope with what life throws our way.

 

 

 

 

 

WRITERS ON THE ROAD: GILL THOMPSON

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Back in spring 2018, I visited Prague to research my second novel, The Child on Platform One. Known as ‘The City of a Hundred Spires,’ the capital of the Czech Republic is characterised by gothic splendour and quaint medieval charm. It’s dynamic and vibrant, a brilliant collision of past and present.

But I wasn’t just there to admire the scenery, stunning though it was. If my story was to come to life, I wanted to see for myself the locations I’d placed my characters in. First the conservatoire, a large sand-coloured building situated close to the river between two of its central bridges. My novel starts with a young girl and piano-playing prodigy, Eva, having a music lesson at this famous musical venue. But she is late – we don’t initially know why – so has to hurry home to her parents who will be anxiously awaiting her. For this reason, she takes a short cut through the old Jewish cemetery, a decision with fateful consequences. I was shown round the cemetery by a wonderful Czech guide, herself called Eva, who stood amused whilst I checked my Eva’s route through the graveyard. She agreed with me that Eva would have been able to enter and exit at different points, essential to my plan.

My next destination was even more sobering: Terezin, the old eighteenth century fortress 60 km northwest of the capital which was converted to a Jewish ghetto for the duration of the war. When I first read about this ‘holding camp,’ the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Although they were prisoners, fed a meagre diet, and worked until they dropped, the Jewish inmates were allowed to paint, sing, dance and act in their ‘free time,’ most notably performing Verdi’s Requiem to an audience of Germans, who were unaware that the choir were singing of God’s judgement on their captors. As I was shown round the camp with its poignant gallery of portraits, reconstructions of dormitories and the terrifying crematorium, I was moved, appalled and inspired in equal measure. What came across to me most strongly was people’s capacity to use their creative talents to make meaning in the darkest of times. I hope I have brought this quality to life in my novel. It was certainly a tour I will never forget.

My final destination was the Wilson station. It was here, on platform one, that I discovered the statue of Sir Nicholas Winton, the British man who rescued 669 children from Nazi-occupied Prague before the start of World War Two. Later in my novel Eva, terrified for the safety of her child, sees her daughter Miriam safely onto one of Winton’s trains before Eva herself is sent to Terezin. It was this episode that finally provided the title for my novel: The Child on Platform One.

The novel has been published now, and I am delighted that it was also translated into Czech and sold in bookshops throughout the republic. Eva’s story will finally be shared with the people who inspired it.

The beautiful city of Prague won my heart. This is an amazing place to visit but its history is sometimes dark and terrible. I hope I have done these events justice in my novel.