Tag Archives: Frances Colville

Love You Better by Natalie K Martin Reviewed By Frances Colville

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Love You Better by Natalie K Martin Reviewed By Frances ColvilleNatalie K Martin’s second book Love You Better is about domestic violence.  Set in London, Thailand and Ibiza with links to other parts of the world, the story is fast paced with well-drawn characters and a good if somewhat predicable story line.  We all know that domestic violence can occur in all sorts of households and relationships, and any book which reinforces this and flags up some of the telltale warning signs is welcome.  The author has done her research well.  And her love of travel shines through too.

However, the ending of the book was clearly signposted from the early pages and for me this detracted from the impact of the story as it evolved.  It’s hard to care enough about the development of a character – even one you empathise with as much as Effie – if you’ve already worked out what is going to happen to her.  There were a few other things which pulled me up short. Is the character Oliver intended to be the same age as the other main characters (that is, mid twenties) and if so, how can he possibly be one of the most sought-after lawyers in London?  A three storey whitewashed Georgian house in a quiet street in Clapham for £500,000?  I don’t think so.  Nitpicking?  Yes.  But why not get it right?

This book is still a good read though.  It flows well, it’s interesting and I did actually want to know if I guessed the right ending.  And I liked the play on words in the title.  A book worth reading in fact.  I’m going to search out the author’s first book Together Apart and look forward to future offerings as well.

Love You Better is published by Lake Union Publishing and will be available in the UK in paperback and ebook versions from 8th October 2015.

 

 

Tolkien- An Illustrated Atlas by David Day Reviewed by Frances Colville

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TOLKIEN - AN ILLUSTRATED ATLAS by David Day Frances Colville

If you have a Lord of the Rings or Hobbit fan amongst your friends or family members, this little book could just be the perfect Christmas present.  It looks fantastic (in both senses of the word) and it’s reasonably priced.  The sort of book you could read right through and examine in great detail – or simply dip into when you have a spare half hour.

Designed as a companion to Tolkien’s books from The Hobbit through to the Silmarillion, there is a satisfying mix of illustrations, genealogies, chronologies and maps.  An unofficial book, not authorised by the Tolkien estate, it was never intended to be a substitute for reading the original books and you won’t find any complete stories.  But you will find a wealth of information which will make following the books themselves more straightforward and arguably even more compelling than they already are.  Be careful though if you already possess the Tolkien Encyclopedia or World of Tolkien or the Tolkien Bestiary as some of the information included in those books is repeated in this new one.

Even if you are, like me, not someone who knows your orks from your ents and doesn’t particularly care about the exact time-line of the development of Middle Earth, you will find much to like in the artwork, the varied fonts and the colour and feel of the pages on which this book is printed.  The faux leather cover is a work of art in its own right – much more interesting than it sounds.  And as far as I can tell, not being an expert on the subject myself, the author David Day knows his stuff.

Tolkien-An Illustrated Atlas is published by Cassell and is available in bookshops now.

 

 

Month 9 of my Reading Challenge By Frances Colville

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My first two books this month both dealt with hugely important issues.  I Do Not Sleep by Judy Finnigan   focuses on grief and in particular coming to terms with the death of a child, while the main theme of Love You Better by Natalie K Martin is domestic violence.  Both were interesting reads, but neither wowed me.  The storyline in I Do Not Sleep struck me as unrealistic and contrived, and I didn’t feel any real empathy with the main character.  The book was somewhat redeemed by its ending, so it’s worth persevering.  Love You  Better felt like a missed opportunity and the ending was obvious throughout which detracted from my involvement with the progress of the story.

Month 9 of my reading challenge By Frances Colville2

Next I turned to another of the books on my Agatha Christie pile – on my mind no doubt because of visiting Agatha Christie’s former holiday home, Greenway, in Devon last month.  This one The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was one I picked up at last year’s Cheltenham Literary Festival and  I was swiftly transported back to Agatha Christie world with all its preconceptions and prejudices.  You always get what you expect with an Agatha Christie – and there are times when nothing else will do.  This one didn’t disappoint.

Month 9 of my reading challenge By Frances Colville3

All of which reminded me of a new Agatha Christie story.  Sophie Hannah (whose psychological thrillers I also enjoy) has with the approval of the Agatha Christie family written The Monogram Murders featuring Hercule Poirot, arguably Christie’s most famous character.  I wondered if anyone else could effectively recreate Poirot and his world – and my answer having read and enjoyed The Monogram Murders is a slightly confused yes and no.  Hercule Poirot is well recreated and the storyline is as intriguing and enjoyable as any other Poirot mystery.  And yet I would never mistake this for an original Agatha Christie.  Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be.  Perhaps Sophie Hannah intended all along for this to be an updated, twenty-first century version. To me it did indeed feel more like one of her own psychological thrillers with a cast of Agatha Christie characters rather than a mystery of the type Christie herself wrote.  The confusing thing is that I don’t mind that at all.  As I’ve said before I enjoy reading both books by Sophie Hannah and books by Agatha Christie.  So a fusion of the two was always going to work for me.

Month 9 of my reading challenge By Frances Colville4

Rosanna Ley is the author of The Saffron Trail which is partly set in my local town of Bridport and the neighbouring town of Lyme Regis –  a fact which added to my enjoyment as I ticked off all the places I recognise and love.  The story also takes us to Cornwall, Morocco and the US and the descriptions of all these places is done very well.  It’s a good story too with believable and likeable characters.  This is the first  book by this author I have read, but I will certainly look out for another.

So it turns out (by chance rather than design) that all the books I’ve read this month have been books telling stories – and I’ve enjoyed them all to a greater or lesser extent.  They have provided relaxing and pleasant entertainment.  But entertainment isn’t the only reason I read; I also want to be educated, stimulated and challenged.  So now I find myself wanting a book which meets at least one, and preferably more of those criteria.  The only question is: what will it be?

October 2015

 

 

Love You Better By Natalie K Martin Book Review

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By Frances Colville

loveyoubetterbookreviewNatalie K Martin’s second book Love You Better is about domestic violence. Set in London, Thailand and Ibiza with links to other parts of the world, the story is fast paced with well-drawn characters and a good if somewhat predicable story line. We all know that domestic violence can occur in all sorts of households and relationships, and any book which reinforces this and flags up some of the telltale warning signs is welcome. The author has done her research well. And her love of travel shines through too.

However, the ending of the book was clearly signposted from the early pages and for me this detracted from the impact of the story as it evolved. It’s hard to care enough about the development of a character – even one you empathise with as much as Effie – if you’ve already worked out what is going to happen to her. There were a few other things which pulled me up short. Is the character Oliver intended to be the same age as the other main characters (that is, mid twenties) and if so, how can he possibly be one of the most sought-after lawyers in London? A three storey whitewashed Georgian house in a quiet street in Clapham for £500,000? I don’t think so. Nitpicking? Yes. But why not get it right?

This book is still a good read though. It flows well, it’s interesting and I did actually want to know if I guessed the right ending. And I liked the play on words in the title. A book worth reading in fact. I’m going to search out the author’s first book Together Apart and look forward to future offerings as well.

Love You Better is published by Lake Union Publishing and will be available in the UK in paperback and ebook versions from 8th October 2015.

Month 8 of My Reading Challenge By Frances Colville

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 This month I deliberately set out to base my book choices on recommendations from other people.  This decision in part came about because my first book  The Book of Lost and Found by Lucy Foley (Harper Collins 2015) was lent to me some time ago by a friend who has been wondering why I hadn’t yet got round to reading it.  So now I have.  And a good story it is too, telling of the relationship between two people over the course of the 20th century from the viewpoint of a younger family member.  It’s well-written and well-constructed.  I enjoyed it.  But it isn’t memorable in any way and I suspect I’ll have forgotten all about it in a month or two.

thebookoflost&found

I met Harry Bucknall, the author of my next book, Life of a Tramp, Life of a Pilgrim (Bloomsbury 2014), at a recent creative writing workshop. He mentioned his book and I was intrigued enough to pick up a copy the next time I was in a bookshop. He writes about a pilgrimage he took from London to Rome on foot, following the old Via  Francigena.  This is a fascinating mix of travel book, history and memoir and I recommend it to anyone who likes any of those genres.  I also found a personal link to the book – the author mentions Eric Newby, who escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy during WW2 and went on to write about his experiences.  My father was in the same camp as Eric Newby and frequently talked of him and his successful escape.  As I’ve said before, I like to look for connections in and between books and this one was very satisfying!

likeatramplikeapilgrim2

Next up was The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Faber & Faber paperback 2010).  I read The Poisonwood Bible (about Belgian colonialism amongst other things) by the same author many years ago when I was living in Belgium and it has stuck in my mind ever since.  So I was very pleased when her latest book was suggested by a member of one of my book groups.  It’s a long book, and has been 10 years in the writing.  It took a bit of getting into, but the language is memorable from the start and I was soon completely hooked by the story as well. This novel works on many different levels. It’s full of information about life in Mexico and the US in the 20th century, about Trotsky, his exile from the USSR and murder in Mexico by Stalin’s men, about the art world of the early 20th century, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in particular and about McCarthyism in the US. A fascinating mix of fact and fiction. Above all a book about people, their inner lives and their relationships.  But I think what will stick in my mind most of all is the power and beauty of the descriptive passages. This is a book which has so much to admire, it might require reading several times. When though?  That’s the problem.

thelacuna

My youngest son has been recommending Moby Dick by Herman Melville for a long time (years probably) telling me that my life is much the poorer for never having read it.  However, having tracked down his copy and had a flick through I decided to opt instead for another of his recommendations, the much shorter The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (Vintage 2011) .  It proved to be a great choice, reminding me of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan and Stoner by  John Williams, both of which I enjoyed very much.  Much of it resonated with me, having grown up in the 60s and 70s, and the idea of writing a novel out of relatively little appealed to me greatly.  What I didn’t get – ironically given the title – was any sense of the ending. I’m not sure it fitted the rest of the book.  And Moby Dick?  On my list for the future, but probably not this year.

thesenseofanending

 

 

 

One Man’s Everest by Kenton Cool by Frances Colville

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kentoncool

You don’t have to be an expert, or even a novice climber to enjoy Kenton Cool’s memoir, One Man’s Everest. I’m a wimp of the first order when it comes to heights, particularly if there is a sheer drop in the vicinity. So was this book for me? Yes – I couldn’t put it down.

Kenton Cool (what a fabulous name for a mountaineer) has devoted most of his adult life to climbing, whether completing challenges, or as a climbing guide.  He writes with humour and self deprecating understatement which belies the enormous achievements of his career, the summit (no pun intended) of which has not in his opinion yet been reached.

Cool keeps technical language to a minimum and while I’m sure his fellow mountaineers and climbers would find much to enjoy in the book, there is also plenty to interest the rest of us.  For this is the tale of one man’s determination to conquer not only the highest peaks in the world, but also his own physical handicaps and his self doubts about what his choice of lifestyle does to his wife and young family.  He talks about motivation and about the hardships he and fellow climbers endure.  He writes too of the toll the increasing popularity of ‘big peak’ mountaineering takes on the environment and the dangers casual commercialism brings to climbers and their support networks.  Poignantly he also talks about the terrible impact of the recent earthquake in Nepal and the devastation it has caused to a people he clearly holds in very high regard.

I’d have liked more information about how he recovered sufficiently from his ear ly accident – after which he was told that further climbing was completely out of the question – to be able to climb Everest on several occasions.  You can’t please everyone.

Perhaps appealing to a wide range of readers is one of the best tests of a successful memoir and One Man’s Everest achieves this. It is readable, inspiring, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

One Man’s Everest will be published as a Preface hardback on 27th August 2015.

http://www.prefacepublishing.co.uk

 

 

My Stratford Friend – Dominick Reyntiens by Frances Colville

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pic 1.Stratford

Taking the reader back to the time of Shakespeare and setting the scene of his early years – what’s not to like? Once the author  Dominick Reyntiens gets into his stride, he captures the essence of the period and creates believable characters and settings.

I love the way Reyntiens integrates actual names and phrases which appear in Shakespeare’s writing.  For example on page 1 we learn that Tom’s horse is called Prospero (an important character in The Tempest), and later on we meet the matched pairs of horses, Lysander and Hermia, Helena and Demetrius, all names used by Shakespeare for characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  A man wearing the head of an ass appears as a precursor of Bottom.  And we’re introduced to a Robin Goodfellow otherwise known as Puka – a clear link with Shakespeare’s Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream.  This is clever stuff and makes for a fascinating read.  I found myself constantly looking out for references to the plays, and at the same time wondering just how many I had missed.

I don’t know, not having done extensive research on Shakespeare’s life myself, whether this is the true version of events.  But I don’t think that matters.  It’s definitely a possible version, an interpretation of the evidence we have, and a personal view of what might have happened, and that after all is what historical fiction is all about. What’s more, it’s a fast paced well-plotted story.  And I very much look forward to reading the next instalment.

Available from Amazon.co.uk

 

 

Month 7 of My Reading Challenge by Frances Colville

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At the beginning of this month for various (non-book-related) reasons, I wanted to read something light, enjoyable and relaxing, and I found just that in Erica James‘ latest book The Dandelion Years.  A quick and easy read, this is a good story with characters I could identify with and of course a happy ending.  Just what I needed.  And any of Erica James’ 18 other books would have done the same job for me.

Month 7 of my reading challenge by Frances Colville1ericajames

All month I’ve been dipping into a fascinating little book called One Hundred Great Books in Haiku by David Bader.  For anyone unfamiliar with the term haiku, it describes a very short poetic form, originally Japanese, which traditionally uses no more than 17 syllables, divided into 3 lines in a 5,7,5 format.  This particular book as its title suggests, uses the haiku form to express the titles of a hundred famous books.  My personal favourite  is the following which describes Brave New World by Aldous Huxley:

Euphoric drugs, sex,

cloning, the past forgotten.

So what else is new?

My bet is that once you’ve read the book you’ll want to try writing haiku yourself!

Month 7 of my reading challenge by Frances Colville2haiku

I have my family well trained and they know that a well-chosen book is always at the top of any present list of mine. The haul on my birthday this month didn’t disappoint.  The first thing I picked from the pile was an old and battered copy of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.  I hadn’t read this before and I was intrigued by a quote on the back cover saying that this might just be the best short story ever written.  Maybe – maybe not.  I don’t feel qualified to judge.  But it is superb. And I’m sure that this seemingly simple tale of an old man’s battle of wills against a huge fish, and at the same time against old age and loss of dignity, will stay in my mind for a long time.

Month 7 of my reading challenge by Frances Colville3

I’ve also been reading a couple of very recently published books this month and recommend both for different reasons.  One Man’s Everest by Kenton Cool is a fascinating account of the author’s life as a climber, his motivations and obsessions and his many climbing successes.  Not just a book for people interested in climbing, and well worth reading.  My Stratford Friend by Dominick Reyntiens is also fascinating; the story is told from the point of view of Tom, a lifelong friend of William Shakespeare and is a good combination of fact and fiction as well as being a compelling read.  Fuller reviews of both books can be found elsewhere on Frost.

Month 7 of my reading challenge by Frances Colville4

I thought I was ending the month back where I began, with something light and relaxing.  But a few chapters into Us by David Nicholls I decided this was a book with hidden depths. It is funny and it is entertaining, and it will make a good film, I’m sure.  But it also has serious points to make about relationships (husband/wife and parent/child) and in particular the big question of how you go back to being just a couple once your children have left home and being a parent is no longer the definitive role in your life.

Month 7 of my reading challenge by Frances Colville5us