Six Degrees of Separation from Land to The Burry Man’s Day

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. This month we are starting with Land by Maggie O’Farrell, her latest release. I’ve read a sample and it looks like a book I’d enjoy.

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

My first link is the first book by Maggie O’Farrell that I read – The Hand that First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell. I read it in March 2013 and loved it, but it’s such a sad story. It’s beautifully written, so much so that it took me a while to realise that for the most part it’s written in the present tense.

My second link is Mrs McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie which I also read in March 2013. Hercule Poirot, assisted by Mrs Ariadne Oliver solve the mystery. There are plenty of surprises and a lot of misdirection before the killer is revealed. It was first published in 1952 and written not long after the end of the Second World War, reflecting the difficulties of finding employment and the changes for the post-war impoverished middle classes.

My third link is another book with the word ‘Mrs’ in the title Mrs Harris goes to Moscow by Paul Gallico. It’s a lovely little book. Mrs Harris is a London char lady who wins a trip to Moscow, where she wants to find her employer’s long-lost love. Mayhem ensues when she is thought to be Lady Char (the Russians not understanding what a ‘char lady’ is had converted it to ‘Lady Char’) and also a spy.

The setting of Moscow is also my link fourth in my chain in Private Moscow by James Patterson and Adam Hamdy, a conspiracy thriller novel. Jack Morgan, the head of Private, a detective agency with branches across the globe, sets out to hunt for the killer of his best friend and former marine, Karl Parker. There are spectacular car chases, with violent shoot-outs, miraculous escapes and fight scenes, and intense danger throughout as intrigues, conspiracies, old secrets and deep-cover agents are revealed.

My fifth link is Let it Bleed by Ian Rankin, which also features a dramatic car chase. Set in Edinburgh, this chase ends in a crash on the Forth Road Bridge. Rebus and his boss Chief Inspector Lauderdale are both injured, whilst the youths they were chasing stumble from their car and plunge from the Bridge embedding themselves in the metal deck of a Royal Navy frigate in the Firth of Forth hundreds of feet below.

My final link is The Burry Man’s Day by Catriona McPherson which is also set on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, part of the city of Edinburgh in South Queensferry. It’s the second in Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Gilver series. Dandy is a wealthy aristocrat who is also an amateur sleuth. In this book she investigates the death of the Burry Man. He is a local man dressed in a suit covered in sticky burdock burr seedheads who walks round Queensferry during the annual Ferry Fair. Dandy is there to present the prizes when he drops down dead.

The links in my chain are words in the titles, books I read in March 2013, books featuring car chases, and books set in Edinburgh.

Next month (September 6, 2026), we’ll start with start either with your book group’s current selection or if you’re not in a book group, start with the book that you’re currently reading.

A Far Cry from Kensington: Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

I’ve borrowed A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark from my local library. After reading Like a Cat Loves a Bird by James Bailey about Spark’s life and works, I wanted to read more of her books. In the introduction to this novel William Boyd states that her novels are very varied –

there are surreal novels, allegorical novels, some philosophical fables – but all are united by a tone of voice, a very dry sense of humour, and a particularly honed terse style … However, A Far Cry from Kensington … belongs in a loose group of novels in the Sparkian canon that has a recognisable footing in history and the real world – environments that Spark was familiar with and with a clear connection to her biography.( page xi)

The book begins:

So great was the noise during the day that I used to lie awake at night listening to the silence. I eventually fell asleep contented, filled with soundlessness but while I was awake I enjoyed the experience of darkness, thought, memory, sweet anticipations.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Page 56:

Before we sent Wanda to bed I gave her a notebook and told her to write down as soon as possible everything she could remember about the voice and what it said. ‘I don’t want to write down things’, said Wanda. I think already she had an inkling of who the voice belonged to. Perhaps, already, she had started putting two and two together.

Description from Goodreads

Set on the crazier fringes of 1950s literary London, A Far Cry from Kensington is a delight, hilariously portraying love, fraud, death, evil, and transformation. Mrs. Hawkins, the majestic narrator, takes us well in hand and leads us back to her threadbare years in postwar London.

There, as a fat and much admired young war widow, she spent her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher (“of very good books”) and her nights dispensing advice at her small South Kensington rooming house. At work and at home Mrs. Hawkins soon uncovered evil: shady literary doings and a deadly enemy; anonymous letters, blackmail, and suicide. With aplomb, however, Mrs. Hawkins confidently set about putting things to order, little imagining the mayhem that would ensue.

Now decades older, thin, successful, and delighted with life in Italy–quite a far cry from Kensington–Mrs. Hawkins looks back to all those dark doings and recounts how her own life changed forever. She still, however, loves to give advice: “It’s easy to get thin. You eat and drink the same as always, only half…I offer this advice without fee; it is included in the price of this book.”

If you have read this book, what did you think?

This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint

Published on by Margaret10 Comments

This is the oldest love story of all time . . .

Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, wields unparalleled power over every divine and mortal heart. Though her world is one of beauty, she is the most dangerous god of all, ruled by passion regardless of the consequences.

Ares, God of War, is her perfect contradiction: feared, unwanted and relentless in his devotion to chaos. Where she breathes life into longing, he thrives in destruction.

And yet gods are no more immune to love and loss than anyone else, and soon their lives collide. But even divine love can’t protect them from the fates of Mount Olympus, and whilst the God of War may be capable of greater love than anyone else, so may the Goddess of Love be capable of the gravest mistakes . . 

I’ve read several books retelling the Greek Myths, but none by Jennifer Saint, and none about Aphrodite so when I saw This Immortal Heart on NetGalley I decided to request it. Aphrodite is the goddess of love, sexual desire, beauty and procreation and in this retelling Saint focuses on her relationship with Ares, the god of war and with his brother, Hephaestus, the god of fire, blacksmiths, and metallurgy. She also includes several other stories in which Aphrodite appears. It’s episodic, not a plot driven story, but rather a collection of stories about Aphrodite as she is seen interacting with the other gods and humans.

The book begins with a Prologue in which Saint describes how Aphrodite was born. Ouranos, the ancient god who personified the sky, split apart as he sank beneath the waves pounding the rocky shore of Cyprus. He was slain by his son and Aphrodite was born from his agony, as his golden blood was scattered across the earth and fell into the churning froth of the sea. Aphrodite rose from the surface and strode forward onto the island shore. Flowers sprang from the ground where she walked and she felt ‘her power awakening in every glorious inch of her body’.

It took me a while to get settled into reading this long book of nearly 400 pages. For a while I was tempted to stop reading because Aphrodite initially came across to me as rather immature but I carried on reading. It’s too romantic for my liking – her affair with Ares, the god of war, whilst passionate and fiery, comes across as a classical example of ‘opposites attract’. Ares is not intelligent, lacking imagination, thinking of little else than war and violence. Aphrodite thinks he is ‘savage and utterly unreasonable, handsome though he may be‘. The standout sections for me are about Hephaestus – his story is much more interesting, from the myth about Pandora to that of his mother, Hera bound on the golden throne that he had made. He refused to release her and Zeus declared whoever made Hephaestus free her would be rewarded with Aphrodite’s hand in marriage. I found this completely engrossing keeping me glued to the book.

Saint’s writing is richly descriptive and lyrical, and gives a vivid picture of the different settings. However, I think the ending was rushed. Overall I found this an interesting book, but by the end I was left feeling I wanted to know more.

My thanks to the author and NetGalley for a review copy.

A Small Part of History: Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott, is one of the books I’ll be reading soon. It’s one of my TBRs, historical fiction I bought in 2008. I’m featuring it today as the book caught my eye this morning as I browsed my bookshelves. I took it off the shelf and it made me think of all those cowboy series on TV that I used to watch about pioneers venturing out West. More recently I’ve enjoyed watching Taylor Sheridan’s television series Yellowstone and the prequels 1883 and 1923. 

It’s described on the back cover as:

an epic, heartfelt story of courage in the face of appalling adversity, and a haunting portrayal of how America was forged. Above all, it is a story of people and how the ties that bind us most strongly are those of friendship, of family and of love.

But what makes this book look a bit different is that it’s told from a woman’s perspective. In her Author’s Note Peggy Elliott explains that she’d read ‘a wonderfully thought- provoking book, Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey which pointed out how different women’s experience on the Oregon Trail had been compared to men’s.’

The book begins :

My papa always told me it was best to start a story at the beginning when I confused him by jumping into the things somewhere in the middle. so I am not going to talk about where I am today or even last month, because it all really begun back in June of 1845.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Page 56:

Poor Lizzie! There were dark shadows beneath her eyes and Rebecca could see pale blue veins throbbing in her forehead. What words of comfort could she possibly bring her, not being a mother herself? To have a young child on the trail brought one set of worries, but to bring yet another into the world while still travelling must present even more of a burden.

The map at the front of the book shows the length of the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City.

Description from the back cover:

In the summer of 1845 Rebecca Springer and her family join the Oregon wagon train in search of land thousands of miles away. It’s a hard and dangerous journey through blizzards and searing heat, over prairies, desert plains and mountains and, at times, it seems as if it will never end. But an unbreakable bond develops amongst the travelling women as they are tested, physically and emotionally, and their shared experiences of new life and tragic death will bring them closer than blood ever could.

And now I’m really looking forward to reading this book.

If you have read A Small Part of History, what did you think?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my TBR by Authors I’ve Never Read Before

Published on by Margaret19 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog

The topic today is Top Ten Books I Want to Read by New to Me Authors. (Share books from your to-read list that are written by authors you’ve never read before.)

Robert Graves – The Greek Myths the Complete and Definitive Edition

Graham Norton: Frankie

Christopher Isherwood – Mr Norris Changes Trains

Lesley McEvoy – The Murder Mile

Jo Leevers – The Museum of Second Chances

Antony Beevor – D-Day: The Battle for Normandy

Benjamin Wood – Seascraper

Alan Davies – Just Ignore Him (autobiography)

Bonnie Baylock – The Water Women

James Clavell – Tai-Pan: The Second Novel of the Asian Saga

I am really hoping I’ll enjoy these books!

Spell the Month in Books July 2026

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

I am delighted to say that Jana is now back on her blog and she and her new baby are doing well. She is currently not assigning themes so I’ve chosen to feature cookery books, all of which I own, apart from the last one!

J is for Jamie’s Italy by Jamie Oliver

I have watched Jamie Oliver’s cookery programmes for years and have several of his books. This is one of my favourites as I love Italian food. In the introduction he explained that he wrote it while travelling around Italy, working and eating, wanting to find the food of the ‘real’ Italy and to celebrate the recipes from the people he met from fishermen to family bakers.

U is for Ultimate Slow Cooker by Sara Lewis

I love my slow cooker – but I don’t use it as often as I should. So, I bought this book to learn how to adapt my favourite recipes as well as to try new ones. It contains over 100 recipes from around the world from risottos and roasts to cheesecakes and chutneys, recipes for making family meals, or entertaining friends.

L is for The Love of Italian Cooking by Mary Reynolds

This is now out of print. I love this book and what I particularly like, apart from the recipes and colour photos is the description of the various regions of Italy, highlighting their traditions and specialities, from Sicily and Sardinia moving north through the country to Piemonte in the north-west corner. One of my favourite recipes in this book is Minestrone Alla Casalinga in the chapter on Lombardy, a large region that includes most of the Italian lakes, stretching from the Alps in the north to the valley of the River Po in the south. It takes hours to make, plus the time overnight to soak the haricot beans and is very filling. 

I did want to make this month’s selection Spell the Month in Books all from my own cookery books, but I don’t have any beginning with Y. However, I found this book.

Y is for Your Daily Veg: Modern, fuss-free vegetarian food by Joe Woodhouse

The description on Amazon UK does tempt me to get a copy:

Your Daily Veg celebrates everyday vegetables in a fresh and modern way. Chapters focus either on one core vegetable or on a group of similar vegetables, celebrating seasonality and encouraging you to experiment.

Joe Woodhouse blends textures, spices and flavours to create satisfying meals that use minimal ingredients but achieve maximum flavour. With tips on how best to prep dishes and advice on minimising stress and time in the kitchen, each recipe is as straightforward as possible.