Catherine Meyrick's Blog, page 12

Book Review – The House Children by Heidi Daniele

My birth was a sin and a crime. I was born in the Tuam Mother Baby Home to an inmate serving a year of penal servitude, her crime an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

The House Children begins when Mary Margaret Joyce is six years old and living with the Cleary family who she has been fostered to. There was no welcome for the little girl; instead she has no place at the table, is fed scraps at the hearth after the family has eaten, sleeps at night on the floor by the fire with a blanket and the f...

Book Review – The House Children by Heidi Daniele

My birth was a sin and a crime. I was born in the Tuam Mother Baby Home to an inmate serving a year of penal servitude, her crime an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

The House Children begins when Mary Margaret Joyce is six years old and living with the Cleary family who she has been fostered to. There was no welcome for the little girl; instead she has no place at the table, is fed scraps at the hearth after the family has eaten, sleeps at night on the floor by the fire with a blanket and the f...

The House Children by Heidi Daniele

My birth was a sin and a crime. I was born in the Tuam Mother Baby Home to an inmate serving a year of penal servitude, her crime an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

The House Children begins when Mary Margaret Joyce is six years old and living with the Cleary family who she has been fostered to. There has been no welcome for the little girl; instead she has no place at the table, is fed scraps at the hearth after the family has eaten, sleeps at night on the floor by the fire with a blanket and ...

My Reading – May 2023

Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregor
You need to start talking, Webber.
Why should I talk to you?

Fat Dogs and French Estates by Beth Haslam
Part 1 It was a dark, filthy night just south of Limoges. Our car was at a standstill, surrounded by police brandishing glowing neon batons and torches, like extras from Star Wars.
Part 2 Jack took a hasty gulp of his rosé and glanced at the fresh set of property details our estate agent, ItsWill, had thrust at him.

Book Review – Sea of Shadows by Amy Maroney

With the first few paragraphs of Sea of Shadows by Amy Maroney the reader steps into the reality of fifteenth century Rhodes – the heat and shadows, the swirl of myriad scents and colours, the bustle of the city and the port, the people drawn from countless nations, all under the control of the of Knights of St. John.

Anica Foscolo is a gifted artist who, as her father’s sight is failing, is doing far far more than merely preparing the backgrounds to his paintings, as most assume. She is ...

Mothers and Mother Figures – Jean Margaret McGrath (1926 – 2017)

On Mothers Day we celebrate not just our mothers and grandmothers but all those women who take on the role of mothers for us. One such woman was Jean Margaret McGrath, my mother Mary’s younger sister – Aunty Jean to me.

Jean and Mary, around 1930/31.
Mary hugging the cat.

Jean was born just over twelve months after Mum on 9 April 1926 at St David’s Hospital Maffra where Mum and all her siblings were born. Jean was the third child of John Daniel McGrath and Catherine O’Connor. The family...

My Reading – April 2023

The Convent Girl by Tania Crosse
How had it all begun? It was a question Maisie O’Sullivan had asked herself so many times, but could never answer.

The House Children by Heidi Daniele
My birth was a sin and a crime.

The Sum of our Sorrows by Lisette Brodey
Lily Sheppard twisted her torso as she sat in her mother’s floran armchair, her back now facing the assemblage of darkly dressed people in the living room.

Muskets and Masquerades by Lindsey S Fera

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Lindsey S. Fera’s newly released novel, Muskets and Masquerades, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Muskets and Masquerades is set against the backdrop of America’s war with Britain.

Annalisa awoke. The giant sea thundered upon the deck of their three-masted barque; a sea that sought to press her flat upon the ocean floor. She clutched her stomach from the roil of nausea made worse by the ship’s continuous heavin...

A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the Days of the Phoenix by Judith Arnopp

Today I’m delighted to be introducing Judith Arnopp’s newly released novel A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the Days of the Phoenix as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. A Matter of Faith is the second book of Judith’s series, The Henrician Chronicle.

Finally free of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII, is now married to Anne Boleyn and eagerly awaiting the birth of his son. In a court still reeling from the royal divorce and growing public resentment against chur...

Cold Blows the Wind – Streets and Lanes of Hobart Town

Hobart Town 1879

At the Australian census of 1881, Tasmania was recorded as having a population of 115,705. Of these, 21,118 people lived in Hobart. Hobart was by this time an established city, the capital of the island state, with elegant sandstone buildings and the same well functioning institutions found in Britain: Parliament, Courts and a gaol, cathedrals and churches, hospitals, theatres, schools and a university, a museum, a Royal Society and Botanic Gardens as well as those organizat...