20 Wednesday Jun 2018
It’s a truth universally acknowledged – and if it isn’t, it should be – that life is full of what if’s and maybe’s where every choice, every decision, changes the course of a life.
That’s the premise of Lucy V. Hay’s thought-provoking Proof Positive where bright, ambitious Lizzie locks herself in a public toilet with a pregnancy testing kit.
When the test proves positive Lizzie is faced with what could be the most important decision of her life.
16 Saturday Jun 2018
Would you be gullible enough to fall for a charming con man who loves you for your bank balance rather than your GSOH and desire for FTA and an LTR?
Me? I’d have said no, I wouldn’t be so daft.
Although, let’s be honest, any confidence trickster attracted by my bank balance is in for a big disappointment.
But that was before reading Deception Wears Many Faces by Maggie James. Continue reading
15 Friday Jun 2018
Posted in Meet the author
Tags
@rararesources, Cuttin' Heads, DA Watson, Dunedin Robert Burns Poetry Competition, Falkirk Storytelling Festival, Pushcart Prize
Prizewinning author DA Watson spent several years working in bars, restaurants and call centres before going back to university with the half-arsed plan to become a music teacher.
Halfway through his degree at the University of Glasgow, he discovered he was actually better at writing, and unleashed his debut novel, In the Devil’s Name, on an unsuspecting public in the summer of 2012.
Plans for a career in education left firmly in the dust, he Continue reading
05 Tuesday Jun 2018
The epiphany moment came halfway through the first term at high school.
That’s when I realised I didn’t really like EP, the most popular girl in the class – a perfectly nice person but just not my type.
I suspect the feeling was mutual – but we managed to rub along together, probably because we were the only two kids in our form to be promoted to the year group netball squad. Continue reading
01 Friday Jun 2018
Posted in News
Tags
Fans of the tea-time TV quiz Pointless might spot a couple of familiar faces onscreen next week.
Yes, Susan and I are making our Pointless debut on Friday, June 08.
Sorry, we can’t tell you how we did – you’ll need to tune in to BBC1 at 5.15pm to find out – but click here for Susan’s write-up of being on a show.
And don’t forget to tune in on Monday, June 11, as well.
Oops! Is that a clue?
22 Tuesday May 2018
Posted in Reviews
Tags
Anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by a never-ending stream of work emails will experience an instant surge of sympathy for Dr Clancy Mclean, the over-worked psychiatrist at the heart of Lead Me Home, a suspenseful debut from CS Savage.
Those pesky emails are a recurring theme that clearly reflects the reality of an under-resourced mental health service.
Mclean’s days are filled with endless, interminably dull Continue reading
13 Sunday May 2018
Posted in Read an extract
It’s 24 years since women were first ordained into the Anglican priesthood in a ceremony conducted by Bishop Barry Rogerson in Bristol Cathedral in March 12, 1994.
Thirty-two women were consecrated – the youngest was aged 30 and the oldest was 69.
Bishop Rogerson predicted then that it would take approximately a decade for the first women to join the ranks of the bishopric.
He was wrong – ten years later women made up around one fifth of the clergy, but few were in senior posts, and Continue reading
11 Friday May 2018
Posted in Meet the author
![Thirty-five Minutes from St Tropez (2)[2605]](https://bookloversbooklist.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/thirty-five-minutes-from-st-tropez-22605.png?w=200&h=319)
Sometimes author Jane Dunning, whose first novel Thirty-five Minutes from St Tropez was inspired by her love of Provence, wonders if France is in her blood because she was born in Guernsey in the Channel Islands.
‘I’m not sure,’ she says, ‘but I truly love our neighbour across the English Channel.’
Which, perhaps, explains why Brexit is testing her patience.
Her first visit to France was in 1978 when it had few Continue reading
08 Tuesday May 2018
Posted in Reviews
It’s every woman’s nightmare: to slip the key into the lock and realise there’s an intruder inside.
What to do?
You can’t back out because the door always closes with a juddering sound that’s bound to attract attention.
And you can’t call the police because whoever’s broken in might hear you.
And then you hear a woman whimpering and moaning. Continue reading
06 Sunday May 2018
Posted in Reviews
It may seem a little like stating the blindingly obvious but Audrey Davis has a way with words.
I’ve enjoyed the witty word play in both of her Hattie Hastings novellas which I read earlier this year.
And A Clean Sweep is just as clever, packed with dry asides and witty observations.
In the opening pages, for instance, 50-something Emily is considering the Kim Kardashian question – how can a Continue reading
