The Model Wife

Early in her marriage Natalie's mother-in-law had given her a small book, written in 1928, entitled The Model Wife.  This book became an annotated guide to marriage but also a diary of significant events in the life of the family.

Natalie King married Milt almost thirty-five years ago and during that time has endeavoured to be an ideal wife devoting herself to her family as well as assisting to run the family property. She also continued to teach part-time at the local primary school but after facing a medical emergency she realises that not only has she lost her identity she has also lost faith in her marriage. Natalie needs time out from the family routine and, when her husband says he is too busy to go on holiday with her, she decides to go alone.

Author, Tricia Stringer, has set the location for the novel on a property in South Australia and also in the town of Broome and its surrounding area in Western Australia. The book deals not only with the relationship between Natalie and Milt but also examines individual decisions facing the couple's three adult daughters.

Readers who enjoy reading the books of Monica McInerney and Maeve Binchy should enjoy this book.

Dead Man Switch

Dead Man Switch is the first book in a new crime series by Tara Moss, an author who lives in New South Wales and Canada.

It is 1946 and Billie Walker has taken over the Sydney private investigation agency previously operated by her father. Billie had spent much of the war in Europe covering war stories so she is used to many forms of danger, however it takes a strong character to adapt to the prejudice she faces when working in what is perceived to be a strictly male occupation.

When a woman arrives at the office asking Billie to find her missing son, Billie is pleased to have the opportunity to work on a case that does not involve tracking unfaithful marriage partners. However it is not long before Billie and her assistant, Sam, find that they are investigating  not only a possible kidnapping but proceedings tied in with criminal activities during the war. Set in parts of post war Sydney and in the Blue Mountains this book is another welcome addition to the expanding world of Australian crime fiction.

Tidelands

Philippa Gregory has been writing books, particularly historical fiction, since 1987. She is perhaps best known for her series of books on the women associated with the Plantangents and the Tudors. As co-author of Women of the Cousins' War  she described in the introduction how she undertakes the research for the stories that she writes, when information is available, but also it is often necessary to imagine what life would be like living in the historic period described based on the known facts.

Tidelines is the first novel in a new series - The Fairmile series. It is set in the year 1648 and tells the story of Alinor and her family who live in a small fishing village an hour or twos walk from Chichester. Alinor's husband has disappeared so she is left to bring up her two children working as a midwife and a herbalist plus any other work that she can find. This is a time of prejudice and fear of witchcraft making life particularly difficult for a young woman trying to make an honest living without the support of a man.

This is the time of the English Civil War (1642-1651) and the parallel story in this novel concerns James, a priest and loyal supporter of King Charles I, who is on a mission from the King's wife living in France to assist the King to escape from his captors in England. Alinor's brother, Ned was a soldier in the army fighting the supporters of the king. Consequently the reader is aware of the tensions the Civil War has created in different parts of the country and the constant state of fear in which people live.

Tidelines is a detailed and sometimes dark novel conveying a picture of life in a small village during these troubled times. It will be interesting to read the second novel in this series when it is published.

Philippa Gregory takes a new direction in four book deal - The Bookseller 21 April 2017

Philippa Gregory on the challenges and thrills of launching her new series - Explore Entertainment 19 August 2019

Philippa Gregory biography 

Twisted 26

In 1994 American author, Janet Evanovich, wrote her first Stephanie Plum mystery - One for the money. The twenty-sixth book in the series is Twisted 26. Each year we look forward to more wacky adventures from the regular cast of these books - bounty hunter Stephanie and her colleague Lula, Joe Morelli and Ranger and, of course, Stephanie's family.

The plot of this installment concentrates on the marriage of Grandma Mazur to a gangster, Jimmy Roselli - a marriage that lasts 45 minutes before Jimmy has a heart attack and dies. Stephanie has to support her grandmother from the wrath of members of Jimmy's family, including a former wife, who suspect that they may be deprived of their cut of the family fortune. A greater threat comes from members of Roselli's former gang who are looking for keys that Roselli possessed. As well as facing these challenges Stephanie and Lula also have a number of bail absconders to apprehend. And yes, a car does explode. Looking forward to next year's episode in the chaotic life of Stephanie Plum.

Meet me at Lennons

In October I read Khaki Town by Judy Nunn which was predominantly about the effect of the arrival of American soldiers in Townsville during the Second World War. Meet me at Lennons by Melanie Myers is a novel set in Brisbane during World War II also looking at relationships between the military stationed in that city, both US and Australian, and the general public.

Events are revealed via two time frames: the present - concerning PhD student, Olivia Wells and her attempts to  write a thesis about women in Brisbane during the war, particularly the writer Gloria Graham - and the past - recounting stories of experiences of women during the war years. A focus of the book is the story of the River Girl murder, an event which was glossed over at the time by the press and hidden from the public by the military.

Relationships between some Australian women with  American soldiers, jealousies between some of the Australian soldiers regarding the Americans moving into their city plus the insistence of the American military hierarchy that only they would deal, quietly, with possible crimes committed by American soldiers are some of the themes in the novel. There is, however, also a strong focus on the lives of the Australian women living and working in this new environment created by the war.

It took a while to really become involved with events in this book as, particularly initially, there are many stories about different women and their experiences. Over time the varying threads begin to make sense and I eventually became involved with the story. I suspect that this is a book that should be read when there is plenty of time to really become involved with the story and the characters. The novel certainly provides an overview of life in Brisbane in the early 1940s.

Confessions of a bookseller

This is the second volume about Shaun Bythell's life as a second-hand bookseller in Wigtown, Scotland. It is therefore the sequel to The diary of a bookseller. Shaun Bythell also has a Facebook page, The Booshop, in which he regularly publishes updates of his experiences with customers.

Each chapter covers a month from January 2015 until the end of December. At the commencement of each chapter is a quote from Augustus Muir's book, The intimate thoughts of John Baxter, bookseller (1942) followed by the author's comments on the passage. He then includes daily sections from his diary of sales, the weather, comments made by customers, life in Wigtown plus the activities of his cat, Captain. An important part of a second-hand book shop is the need to access collections of books as possible stock for sale and this takes up much of his time. Increasingly he also (much to his disgust) has to rely on sales of books via online sellers such as Amazon.

The two volumes provide a commentary not only on the state of the book trade but also on life in a small town in Scotland. Wigtown has a variety of bookshops and book festivals and author events are featured during the year. The bookshop is a central part of the community with a number of groups regularly meeting in the building, especially in the room upstairs. This is not, therefore, just an amusing account of the experiences of someone trying to make a living selling second-hand books. It is also a record of living in a small Scottish community in 2015.

The women of the cousins' war

This non-fiction book contains sections by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin and Michael Jones about three of the women prominent in the Wars of the Roses - the Duchess (Jacquetta of Luxembourg), the Queen ( Elizabeth Woodville) and the King's Mother ( Margaret Beaufort).

In the introduction Phillipa Gregory writes about her love of history plus the writing of historical fiction. She then relies on original documents, plus some site visits and archaeology, to write a short biography of Jacquetta of Luxembourg. David Baldwin then writes about Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of Edward IV while Michael Jones writes about the mother of Henry VII, Margaret Beaufort. The Woodville and Beaufort families figure prominently in the story of the Wars of the Roses.This book provides interesting background to attempting for understand events in English history from 1455-1485.

Bruny

Heather Rose has set this novel in the south of Tasmania. It is November 2021 and the bridge being built between the Tasmanian mainland and Bruny Island is nearing completion. Then early one morning part of the the bridge collapses after a bomb explosion. The premier announces that the bridge will be rebuilt by the beginning of March with the assistance of teams of Chinese workmen brought to Australia to do the work.

Astrid (Ace) Coleman is summoned from New York to return to Hobart to act as an arbitrator between the various parties for and against the building of the bridge. The Coleman family are prominent in Tasmanian politics with her father a former long time member of parliament, her brother the current premier and her sister leader of the opposition. The family situation is further complicated by her mother receiving cancer treatment and her father only speaking in Shakespearean quotes after a stroke.

This novel contains many political themes including foreign investment and interference in another government, the increasing power of China in the region, references to current events in the USA, climate change etc. Ace takes some time discovering what is really going on in Tasmanian and Australian politics and who she can trust. The book also explores family relationships. It is some time into the novel before the reader learns the real reason why Ace has returned to Australia.

Silver

Silver, the new book by Chris Hammer, is the sequel to Scrublands.

When journalist Martin Scarsden returns to Port Silver, the coastal town where he lived as a boy, he did not expect to find the body of his best friend lying in a pool of blood in the apartment. He also did not expect his girlfriend, Mandy Blonde, to be the main suspect.

Martin and his lawyer assist the police with their inquiries but also work to try and find not only who murdered Jasper but what is happened at a settlement on the beach resulting in the deaths of another seven people. Martin has a strict deadline in which to work as his newspaper wants to be the first to break aspects of the story.

This is a story with many twists and turns as the plot is revealed. Martin is also forced to revisit his past and come to terms with previous family relationships and events that occurred as he was growing up. As in Scrublands, the town of Port Silver and the surrounding environment and its community are crucial to the story.

Why you should read children's books

The full title of this short book about reading by Katherine Rundell is Why you should read children's books even though you are so old and wise.

Rundell argues that adults should read read or reread children's books as adults in order 'to enlarge their world'. She discusses the childhood joy of reading books and discovering new worlds, the joy of entering a world of imagination and encountering a love of words, even when they may not be fully understood. She discusses the emergence of books written specifically for children dating back to the fifteenth century, the genre of fairy tales told in many versions, plus how political themes can be found in many early twentieth century children's books.

The author concludes:

Children's books are not a a hiding place, they are a seeking place. Plunge yourself soul-forward into a children's book: see if you can find in them an unexpected alchemy; if they will not un-dig in you something half hidden and half forgotten. Read a children's book to remember what it was to long for impossible and perhaps-not- impossible things. Go to children's fiction to see the world with double eyes: your own, and those of your childhood self. (page 62)

See also Storytime by Jane Sullivan

Owl be home for Christmas

This title is the sixth Meg Langslow book by Donna Andrews with a Christmas theme. Like all the books in this series a bird features in the title.

Meg's grandfather has organised an Owl Fest at the Caerphilly Inn a few days before Christmas. When a severe snow storm hits the area cutting off the ornithologists and other guests from the outside world it looks as if Christmas may need to be spent at the Inn. As usual Meg and her family have to create contingency plans.

Most of the conference attendees join in the spirit of the season except for Dr Frogmore so when he dies at a conference dinner there are many suspects to investigate. Another murder mystery with many twists and turns laced with the antics of a range of entertaining characters, plus a dose of Christmas (and other festivals) cheer.