Hobbies and Crafts

No problem Jan. Hope you have a lovely few days.

Managed to get away for a few days at a favourite hotel... will join in next time if that's OK....we needed the break as you can imagine

Regards Jan

I have contacted Jan but I know a week or so ago she had computer problems with e mails. If I don'y hear by this afternoon I will put the vote up.

Shadow of the Serpent by David Ashton


1880, Edinburgh, Election fever grips the city. But while the rich and educated argue about politics, in the dank wynds of the docks it's a struggle just to stay alive. When a prostitute is brutally murdered, disturbing memories from thirty years ago are stirred in McLevy who is soon lured into a murky world of politics, perversion and deception - and the shadow of the serpent.



Custard Tarts and Broken Hearts by Mary Gibson

They call them custard tarts - the girls who work at the Pearce Duff custard and jelly factory. But now the custard tarts are up in arms, striking for better conditions. Among them is Nellie Clark, trying to hold her family together after the death of her mother. She has the most desperate struggle to make ends meet, often going hungry to feed her little brothers.
Two men vie for Nellie's love. One is flamboyant, confident and a chancer. The other is steady, truthful and loyal. But the choice is not as easy as it might seem.
Looming over them all - over Bermondsey, over the factory, over the custard tarts and their lives and loves - is the shadow of the First World War. And that will change everything and everyone.

Queen Victoria's Youngest Son - The untold Story of Prince Leopold by Charlotte Zeepvat ....Kindle price 99p

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, was the most intelligent of Queen Victoria’s four sons. He was the youngest, a strong-willed, likeable character with an immense thirst for life who faced two overwhelming handicaps. One was haemophilia, then barely understood, which might have killed him at any moment, and in any case subjected him to recurring pain and disability. The other was his mother’s determination to keep complete control over his life.

Leopold’s struggle for independence is a compelling human story, using previously unseen correspondence to explore his illness and treatment, his troubled and often stormy relationship with the Queen, and his place in the royal family. It touches on the wider worlds of Victorian Oxford and of literature, art and politics and the varied friendships he made, with Lewis Carroll, John Ruskin, Oscar Wilde, and Disraeli among others. Set against this background, Leopold’s story is a moving account of one man’s search against the odds for personal happiness and a meaningful role in the world.

"This admirable biography is a moving tribute to a prince who overcame much suffering, and it gives us a better understanding both of Victoria royal history and of a family coping with disability." - The Daily Telegraph

"One of those rare biographies that you will read again and again."


The Railway Man by Eric Lomax.....£2.99 Kindle, £3.98 paperback

This account of the author's experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war is, as you'd expect, a fairly harrowing one. But what lifts this remarkable tale is the book's humanity and compassion, and the tenderness of its narrative.
Whether Eric Lomax is re-living his childhood fascination with steam locomotives and trams, or describing the horrendous, inhuman acts of torture, the prose are consistently imbued with an almost poetic and innocent sense of wonder.
The details, observations and character sketches are authentically andvividly drawn. But it is the final passages of this book which document the author's determination to come face to face with one of his torturers, that make this extaordinary book so moving, compelling and ultimately uplifting.

Making History Stephen Fry

Michael Young is convinced his brilliant history thesis will win him a doctorate, a pleasant academic post, a venerable academic publisher and his girlfriend, Jane.

A historian should know better than to think that he can predict the future.

Leo Zuckermann is an ageing physicist obsessed with the darkest period in human history, utterly driven by his fanatical hatred of one man.

A lover's childish revenge and the breaking of a rotten clasp cause the two men to meet in a blizzard of swirling pages. Pages of history. When they come together nothing - past, present or future - will ever be the same again.

"A sci-fi comedy that is also a time-travel thriller, constantly topical and always surprising ...... (Literary Review).
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The Devil's Feather Minette Walters

With private security firms supplying body guards in every theatre of war, who will notice the emergence of a sexual psychopath from the ranks of the mercenaries?

Reuters correspondent Connie Burns is no stranger to the world's trouble spots, including the vicious civil unrest in Sierra Leone and the war in Iraq. But as she begins to suspect that a foreigner is using the chaos of war to act out sadistic fantasies against women, her efforts to bring him to justice leave her devastated.

Degraded and terrified, she goes into hiding in England and strikes up a friendship with Jess Derbyshire, a loner whose reclusive nature may well be masking secrets of her own.
Connie draws from the other woman's strength and makes the hazardous decision to attempt a third unmasking of a serial killer ....
Knowing that he will come looking for her ........

citadel £2.99 for kindle
Evening Class £3.99 for kindle
Midwife's confession £4.58 kindle
Mill River Recluse £3.59 Kindle £3.85 paperback Amazon
the Gift £3.99 kindle
sleep with the lights on £4.67 kindle

The midwife's confession and the mill river recluse were two for £7.50 at Tesco don't know if they astill are

Greaders Suggestions Jan – Feb 2014.

Mill River Recluse by Darcie Chan
No one has seen her for sixty years. But now the world will know her story and her secret....
Hiding from a dark past, the widow Mary McAllister has spent 6 decades secluded in a white marble mansion overlooking the town of Mill River. Her links to the outside world are few: the mail, and elderly priest and a bedroom window with a view to the town below.

Few long time residents of Mill River have ever seen Mary. But now three newcomers – a young police officer, his daughter and a new school teacher – are curious about the reclusive old woman, and the secret she keeps..... a secret that, once revealed, will change the town and its people for ever.
A story of triumph over tragedy, the value of friendship and the mysterious ways that love can come from the most unexpected places.


The Midwife’s confession by Diane Chamberlain
Would you read a letter never meant to be opened? Would you want to know secrets never meant to be told? Or should a woman’s mistakes stay buried?
An unfinished letter was hidden among Tara and Emerson’s best friends things after her suicide. Noelle was the woman they entrusted to deliver their precious babies into the world, a beloved friend. Her suicide shocked them both. But her legacy could destroy them.
For her letter reveals a terrible secret that challenges everything they thought they knew. Taking them on a journey that will irrevocably change their own lives – and the life of a desperate stranger – for ever.

Sleep with the Lights on by Maggie Shayne

Rachel has been blind for twenty years since she was twelve and since she had a corneal transplant and now able to see again, things happen. The donor was a murderer and she has nightmares of murder.

The Gift – by Cecelia Ahern

If you could wish for one gift this Christmas, what would it be? Lou Suffern wishes he could be in two places at once. His constant battle with the clock is a sensitive issue with his wife and family. Gabe wishes he was somewhere warm. When Lou invites Gabe, a homeless man who sits outside his office, into the building and into his life, Lou’s world is changed beyond all measure…

Citadel by Kate Mosse
Carcassonne 1942. A spirited and courageous young woman, Sandrine, finds herself drawn into the world of the Resistance in Carcassonne under German Occupation. Her network - codenamed 'Citadel' - is made up of ordinary women who risk everything to fight the sinister battles raging in the shadows around them.

As the war reaches its violent and bloody conclusion, Sandrine's fate is tied up with that of three very different men. But who is the real enemy? Who is the real threat? And who is the true guardian of the ancient secrets that for generations have drawn people to the foothills of the Pyrenean mountains?


Evening Class by Maeve Binchy

The Italian evening class at Mountainview School is like hundreds of others starting up all over the city. But this class has its own special quality - as the focus for the varied hopes and dreams of teacher and pupils alike.

Aidan Dunne needs his new evening class project to succeed almost as much as his pupils do. They too are looking for something more: Bill to find a way to keep spendthrift Lizzie at his side and Fran to make sure that young Kathy finds her way out from behind the kitchen sink.

The key to their success lies with the Signora. Her passion has drawn her from Ireland to Italy and back home again with a burning desire to share her love of all things Italian - and a secret hidden in her heart ...

x Jill

Two books as usual please.

Watch the boards as the vote will be when all the suggestions are in.