Karen @ Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Lizzy @ Lizzy’s Literary Life are hosting #ReadIndies for the fourth time. This year’s badge has been populated with the 41 micro publishers (publishers with 5 employees or less) that have, under the aegis of Will Dady of Renard Press, gathered together to form the Indie Press Network.

Here are the two rules that apply to #ReadIndies: 

• Reading material (whichever format, whichever language) must come from publishers who are currently operating as independents.
• Self-published titles are not eligible.

This is my first time taking part and I’m concentrating on the Dean Street Press books. I have 11 books to choose from:

1. Arrest the Bishop? by Winifred Peck
2. The Draycott Murder Mystery by Molly Thynne
3. Evenfield by Rachel Ferguson
4. The Fledgeling by Frances Faviell
5. A Harp in Lowndes Square by Rachel Ferguson
6. A House on the Rhine by Francis Faviell
7. The Other Side of the Moon: David Niven by Sheridon Morley
8. The Red Lacquer Case by Patricia Wentworth
9. Thalia by Francis Faviell
10. There’s a Reason for Everything by E.R. Punshon
11. Who Pays the Piper? by Patricia Wentworth

I think I’ll read The Fledgeling by Frances Faviell, first because I enjoyed The Dancing Bear recently.

Synopsis:

‘I can’t go back. I’d rather die—I’d rather be dead.’

Neil Collins is going AWOL from his National Service – for the third time. Twice he has served time for previous desertions and been sent back, despite being hopelessly unsuited to military life. This time, terrorized by a bullying fellow soldier determined to escape himself, Neil intends to make his escape a permanent one. He heads to London, to the dreary, claustrophobic rooms where his twin sister, Nonie, and their dying grandmother live, periodically invaded by prying neighbours, a little girl who has befriended Mrs Collins, a curious social worker, and other uninvited visitors.

The Fledgeling (1958) traces the single day following Neil’s desertion, and its impacts on Neil, Nonie, the tough-as-nails Mrs Collins, and others. Each of the characters comes vividly alive in Faviell’s sensitive and observant prose. At times containing all the tension of a thriller, at others a profound drama of familial turmoil, Faviell’s third and final novel is dramatic, compelling, and emotionally wrenching. This new edition features an afterword by Frances Faviell’s son, John Parker, and additional supplementary material.