Category: Six Degrees of Separation

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.

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. This month we are starting with Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

According to the blurb this is A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. I think I may like to read this book.

My first link is The Year Without Summer by Guinevere Glasfurd, a novel that illustrates how the impact of the extreme weather conditions affected the lives of six people. They never meet, or know each other, but their stories are intertwined throughout the book in short chapters, giving what I think is a unique look at the events of 1816. 

My second link is A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble, a novel about dissatisfaction and not knowing what you want, about family relationships (sisterly rivalry in particular), and the nature of marriage – the cages we live within. Whilst not a lot as regards plot happens in this short novel, it contains many ideas, attitudes and character studies. And it’s beautifully written.

My third link is Nothing To Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes, a family memoir in which he shares details about his family’s beliefs and the deaths of his parents and grandparents, of the rivalry between him and his brother, his mother’s solipsism and manipulative behaviour, his father’s seemingly passive approach to life and the difficulties of really knowing a person.

The fourth book in my chain is another book by Julian Barnes – The Sense of an Ending. It’s a novel about memory and the effect of time, about ageing, about the nature of history and literature, about nostalgia and the question of responsibility.

My fifth link is Playing With the Moon by Eliza Graham – historical fiction, capturing what life was like during the 1940s. The book deals with the power of memory, with loss, grief and bereavement. It’s also about war, the legacy of war, and of how to make sense of our lives.

My final link is also set in the 1940s – Murder by Matchlight by E C R Lorac. The setting is London in 1945, in the darkness of the blackout as the bombs are still falling. A murder takes place in almost complete darkness in Regent’s Park, witnessed by Bruce Mallaig who heard it happen and briefly saw both the victim and his assailant by the light of a struck match. It is not only darkness that shrouds the mystery – who is the victim?

The links in my chain are words in the titles, books about rivalry, books by the same author, about memory and books set in the 1940s.

Next month (August 1, 2026), we’ll start with Maggie O’Farrell’s new release, Land.

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.

This month we are starting with Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. It was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026. As it’s a book I’ve not read this is the description from Goodreads:

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A storm gathering force.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.

Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.

I think I may like to read this book.

My first link is Wild Mary by Patrick Marnham, a biography of Mary Wesley, the author of The Camomile Lawn (I remember watching the TV adaptation) and other books. It’s based on her personal papers, and conversations between Mary and Patrick Marnham in 2002. One of the most fascinating things about Mary’s life for me was her wartime experiences, working for MI5 in the decoding unit. 

My second link is another biography Daphne du Maurier by Margaret Forster, a candid account of her relationships, eg her troubled married life; wartime love affair; and friendships with Gertrude Lawrence and Ellen Doubleday, as well as an excellent source of information on Du Maurier’s method of writing and views on life. 

My third link is The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, a novel about the end of the affair between Maurice Bendrix and his friend’s wife, Sarah. Their affair had begun in 1944 during the London Blitz. It’s a study of love and hate, of desire, of jealousy, of pain, of faithfulness, and of the interaction between God and people.

The fourth book in my chain is The Death of Shame by Ambrose Parry and another character called Sarah. It’s the 5th and final Raven and Fisher book, set in Edinburgh in 1854 . It’s a combination of historical fact and fiction, a tale of murder and medical matters, with the social scene, historical and medical facts slotting perfectly into an intricate murder mystery.

My fifth link is another book on the history of medicine. It’s the The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, a biography of Henrietta’s life and death. She died of cervical cancer in 1951. Her cancer cells became known as HeLa cells and have formed the basis for much medical research and drug development ever since. It is also a history of the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and considers the ethical issues around ownership of her cells and the distress, anger and confusion this caused her family.

My final link is linked by the title – Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith by Valerie Grove. Dodie wrote  I Capture the Castle and The Hundred and One Dalmatians amongst many other books and plays. She was born in 1896 and died in 1990. During her lifetime the world went through enormous changes and numerous wars. This biography not only relates Dodie’s life, but is also a record of those years, containing so much about the changing society, culture, values and recalling an unknown (to me at any rate) theatrical age.

The links in my chain are words in the titles, biographies, books about love affairs, characters called Sarah, and books about the history of medicine. Four of the books are biographies and only one is crime fiction.

Next month (June 2, 2026) we’ll start with book by Austrian author Stefan Zweig – The Post Office Girl. Kate has chosen this book in honour of Eurovision being held in Vienna.

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.

This month we are starting with an epistolary novel, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. It was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026. As it’s a book I’ve not read this is the description from Amazon:

Every morning, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to attend a class she desperately wants to take, to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence – witty and wise – to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arms’ length… Until letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.

Now, Sybil must send the letter she has been writing for all these years – and find forgiveness within herself in order to move on.

My first link is also an epistolary novel, Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole and also a book I haven’t read yet, one of my TBRs. It’s a novel told in a series of letters written spanning the years from the First World War to the Second between a poet living on Skye and a fan of hers living in Illinois.

My second link is Star Gazing by Linda Gillard, which is also set on Skye. Marianne who has been blind from birth falls in love with Keir, a solitary Highlander and geophysicist, who works on the oil rigs, but who spends his time on shore at his house on Skye. The locations in Star Gazing are just beautiful, described so vividly you could almost be there. Marianne falls in love with Keir and with Skye.

My third link is The Stars Look Down by A J Cronin, a family saga chronicling the lives of a number of interconnected families over a period of thirty years. beginning in 1903 in a North Country mining town. It was first published in 1935. The story starts in 1903 in Sleescale, a fictional town, as its inhabitants experienced social and political upheaval. It ends in 1933. I loved it.

The fourth book in my chain was also first published in 1935. It’s Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. Tortilla Flat is on the hill high above Monterey, an old city on the coast of California. The book is a collection of stories, some humorous and some tragic. about Danny and his friends. They are paisanos, being a mix of Spanish, Indian, Mexican and assorted Caucasian bloods, living in old wooden houses in the midst of pine trees.

My fifth link is to The Dutch House by Anne Patchett, which has another character called Danny. Danny, Maeve and their mother, Elna and father, Cyril lived in the Dutch House, but when Danny was just three his mother left home. Cyril remarried, and his second wife, Andrea was the epitome of the  wicked stepmother. When their father dies he leaves the Dutch House, to Andrea. 

My final link is to The House on the Strand. Dick Young moves between the present day and the 14th century set in Cornwall – around Par Sands and the Manor of Tywardreath. Dick is staying at Kilmarth (where Du Maurier lived after she was forced to leave Menabilly). He’s the guest of his friend Magnus, a scientist researching the effect of a psychedelic drug that produces hallucinations of time travel. As Dick moves in his mind to the 14th century he physically moves across the present day landscape crossed by roads and railway lines that he cannot see. The difference in the landscape plays a central part in the story.

The links in my chain are epistolary novels, books set on Skye, books with ‘star’ in the titles, books published in 1935, with characters called Danny, and finally books with the word ‘house’ in the titles.

Next month (May 2, 2026) we’ll start with Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy.

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.

This month we are starting with Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. This was one of my favourite books when I was a teenager.

My first link was also a favourite book I read as a teenager, Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill, historical fiction based on the real-life Lancashire witch trials.

My second link is possibly the first historical fiction book I read, The Children of the New Forest by Captain Frederick Marryat, one of the first historical novels written specifically for children and published in 1847, set during the English Civil War.

My third link is The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier, also historical fiction that I read as a teenager. It’s a blend of fact and fiction set in Cornwall also during the Civil War. It was first published in 1946.

The fourth book in my chain was also first published in 1946. It’s Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey, set in a Physical Training College where was a’nasty accident‘. But this is not a conventional crime fiction novel. It’s a psychological study focusing on the characters.

My fifth link is to a biography of Tey – Josephine Tey: a Life by Jennifer Morag Henderson, a book I have yet to read. Josephine Tey was the pen-name of Elizabeth MacKintosh, who was a Golden Age Crime Fiction writer.

My final link is to another biography, The Brontës by Juliet Barker, based on research among all the Brontë manuscripts. This is a biography of the Brontë family – which I should have read a long time ago.

My chain is mainly made up of historical fiction and crime fiction and two biographies. The links are some of my favourite books I read as a child and then a teenager, books published in 1946 and biographies of two of the authors.

My final book links the starting book by Emily Brontë to the last, a biography about her and her family.

Next month (April 4, 2026) we’ll start with Virginia Evans’s epistolary novel, The Correspondent, a book I’ve never heard of before.