Hobbies and Crafts

Dermot, you can find a lot of interesting and fun facts from these dip in and out books. They can be very useful if you like quizzing.

I had an email from my local library to say they had got C J Sansom’s “Heartstone” in for me so I went to collect it. I haven’t started it yet as I am part way through another book but I shall have to get a move on. It’s a long book and I won’t be able to renew it as there is a waiting list for it.

Dermot why am I not surprised.

Mersey I had forgotten Anita Butgh, used to read her books.

Don't laugh!

'The Penguin Dictionary Of English Idioms' by Daphne M Gulland & David Hinds-Howell. (Penguin Books Ltd 1986)

It's the sort of publication that can be opened at any page to gain some exciting & unexpected information.

Hi lovely bookworms :-D :-D <3 <3 Hope all is well with you lovely lot


Not been on for a while, planning a wedding and all things to go with it, also
had a lot of things going on at the moment, so not had much chance to read.

I am still choosing to read actual books at the moment rather than me kindle,

I started readingThe House At Harcourt by Anita Burgh this morning

It is 1859. Eliza Forester is left motherless at the tender age of three when her father orders his wife from the house, accusing her of infidelity. He keeps the child, not out of love since he is certain she is not his, but to spite his wife. Her name is never mentioned at Harcourt Barton, the beautiful Jacobean house and estate near Exeter owned by Eliza's father. Eliza grows up believing her mother is dead.
Her happiest times are spent with Ruby and Jerome, the children of tenant farmers on her father's estate. When, at sixteen, Eliza's innocent friendship with Jerome turns to love, Eliza - like her mother - is banished to London to live with her aunt. Her father, determined she will make a 'good' match, lies to her that Jerome has married, and forces her to wed aristocratic, dissolute Hedworth Lambton. It is the greatest mistake of her life . . .

Happy reading!!

As always thank you for your posts and reads

<3 <3

Enjoy your book Elizabeth. You’ve now given me another one to add to my “To be read” list which gets longer and longer every day. I do like Anne Cleves and I enjoy the Shetland series on TV

Am about to take "Wild Fire" by Anne Cleeves off my my wish list as i need a treat!

I’ve been reading a few “genealogical mysteries” over the last couple of weeks.

“The Somme Legacy” and “The Irish Inheritance” are both by M J Lee and feature Jayne Sinclair, ex police detective turned professional genealogist. I got a bit irritated at times as she seemed to be constantly clicking on FindMyPast and getting the information she wanted. However I did find the historical background to the two novels interesting, particularly “The Irish Inheritance”, where the background was the Irish troubles around the 1910-1920 period and the Easter uprising.

The other book I read was “Letters from the Dead” by Steve Robinson, number 7 in his Jefferson Tayte series. It is based around a series of letters from an English woman in India in the 1800s and flits around between nineteenth century India and modern day Scotland. I usually like this series but found this one disappointing. Not enough real genealogy and too many murders.

On another subject, a little while ago I downloaded Libby, the library app, after it was mentioned on here. A couple of months ago I “reserved” C J Sansom’s “ Heartstone” and was told I was 11th in a queue of 11. I thought it odd there would be this queue for an ebook as I presumed lots of people could read it at the same time. Today, as I hadn’t heard anything I checked on the app. I am now no.11 of 14 and I have discovered that the library service doesn’t have this ebook, and doesn’t know when or if they are going to get it :-S. So why are they letting people reserve it? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Anyway I have now ordered a paper back version from our local library :-)

Vera am enjoying it so far, it's about time I read
about my Scottish history for a change :-)

Emma, I read that one a while ago and found it very enjoyable. It was good for me as I learnt a bit of Scottish history from it.

Now reading Three Queens, Three Sisters by Phillipa Gregory.

Ann so many books to read and not enough time :-)

Must stop adding to collection but ...... :-D

thanks Emma, will bear them in mind. Although I really should read the books on my shelves first. :-D

Finished the trilogy and if you enjoy reading history
I recommend these three books.

Now reading the Autumn Throne the last in the
trilogy about Eleanor of Aquataine.

She was a very wealthy and powerful woman in her own right.

Henry11 , was power mad even to the detriment of not sharing
his land with his sons.
He trusted no one except his mother even though he did not
take her advice. It was always his way or no way.

Eleanor loved all her children but her favourite was Richard,
he inherited her lands which she guarded throughout her life.
Henry imprisoned her falsely for plotting with her children
to overthrow him. She saw or spoke to no one in those years..

She was stubborn and always challenged him in all his decisions.

This last book goes to her release from Sarnum where she was
imprisoned.

I have now started the 4th book of the 7 sisters.

The Pearl Sister is the fourth book in the number one international bestselling Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley.

CeCe D’Aplièse has never felt she fitted in anywhere. Following the death of her father, the elusive billionaire Pa Salt – so-called by the six daughters he adopted from around the globe and named after the Seven Sisters star cluster – she finds herself at breaking point. Dropping out of art college, CeCe watches as Star, her beloved sister, distances herself to follow her new love, leaving her completely alone.

In desperation, she decides to flee England and discover her past; the only clues she has are a black-and-white photograph and the name of a woman pioneer who lived in Australia over one hundred years ago. En-route to Sydney, CeCe heads to the one place she has ever felt close to being herself: the stunning beaches of Krabi, Thailand. There amongst the backpackers, she meets the mysterious Ace, a man as lonely as she is and whom she subsequently realizes has a secret to hide . . .

A hundred years earlier, Kitty McBride, daughter of an Edinburgh clergyman, is given the opportunity to travel to Australia as the companion of the wealthy Mrs McCrombie. In Adelaide, her fate becomes entwined with Mrs McCrombie’s family, including the identical, yet very different, twin brothers: impetuous Drummond, and ambitious Andrew, the heir to a pearling fortune.

When CeCe finally reaches the searing heat and dusty plains of the Red Centre of Australia, she begins the search for her past. As something deep within her responds to the energy of the area and the ancient culture of the Aboriginal people, her creativity reawakens once more. With help from those she meets on her journey, CeCe begins to believe that this wild, vast continent could offer her something she never thought possible: a sense of belonging, and a home .

I have just finished The Swallow and the Hummingbird by Santa Montefiore.
"The war has ended and Rita Fairweather is waiting for George Bolton, her childhood sweetheart, to return home to Devon. She wants their future to be a continuing reassurance of their past. But George comes back as a man changed by the horrors he has experienced.

Unable to settle back into a small-town life, George decides to travel to Argentina. And Rita promises to wait. But George faces irresistible temptation and an agonising choice. As the years pass, Rita keeps her word... but how long should she wait for the love of her life?"


I wasn't sure when I started this one but I do always like her books so persevered and I am pleased that I did as it was a real saga involving their families and their lives at home and in Argentina, a really good read.

Finished the first of the trilogy on Eleanor of Acquitaine,
The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick.

Enjoyed reading about her and found her to be a very powerful
wealthy woman of her time. She was Queen of France till she
divorced Louis V11, she was then vulnerable as a single woman
so she married again and he became Henry11 of England.

Have started The Winter Crown and looking forward to finding
out about her next journey.

'How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered The World' - (by Francis Wheen - recommended especially for me by Rollo the Red).

Jeremy Paxman commented: 'Francis Wheen is the intelligent sceptic's intelligent sceptic'. :-D

Thank you Vera and Ann, look forward to reading her.

Yes I like Elizabeth Chadwick too don’t think I have read those though.

I have read The Winter Crown and The Autumn Throne but never got to read the first one in the series. I’ve also read a couple of other Elizabeth Chadwick historical novels. I’ve always enjoyed her books.