Catherine Meyrick's Blog, page 9

A Burst of Sunlight

The sun is shining brightly here in Melbourne today – too nice not to share. Here, as a break from my usual history- and book-heavy posts, is a collection of photos of the sky in some of its many moods that I have taken over the years.

Blues skiesMidwinter sky – July 2021Cat on a warm tin roof – August 2019Christmas Day – 2021

Rooftops

Painted skiesSunrise over Merri Creek – July 2021Sunset on Port Phillip Bay – February 2019

Late afterno...

My Reading – October 2023

Ancestry by Simon Mawer
What is the past?

These Days by Lucy Caldwell
It’s Emma who wakes first.

The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War by Bill Gammage
Before 1914 most Australians wanted a paradise for the majority in Australia.

Who She Left Behind by Victoria Atamian Waterman

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Victoria Atamian Waterman’s newly released novel, Who She Left Behind, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Blurb

Who She Left Behind is a captivating historical fiction novel that spans generations and delves into the emotional lives of its characters. Set in various time periods, from the declining days of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey in 1915 to the Armenian neighborhoods of Rhode Island and Massachusetts in t...

The Merchant’s Dilemma by Carolyn Hughes

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Carolyn Hughes’s newly released novel The Merchant’s Dilemma as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. The Merchant’s Dilemma is a companion novel to The Meonbridge Chronicles and is a little more romantic and lighthearted than the other Chronicles.

Blurb

1362. Winchester. Seven months ago, accused of bringing plague and death from Winchester, Bea Ward was hounded out of Meonbridge by her former friends and neighbour...

If It’s the Last Thing I Do by David Fitz-Gerald

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from ’s newly released novel as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Blurb

It’s 1975, and Misty Menard unexpectedly inherits her father’s business in Lake Placid, New York. It never occurred to her that she could wind up as the CEO of a good old-fashioned manufacturing company.

After years of working for lawyers, Misty knows a few things about the law. Her favorite young attorney is making a name for himself, helping...

Burning Secret by R J Lloyd

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from R J Lloyd’s latest novel, Burning Secret, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Blurb

Inspired by actual events, Burning Secret is a dramatic and compelling tale of ambition, lies and betrayal.

Born in the slums of Bristol in 1844, Enoch Price seems destined for a life of poverty and hardship-but he’s determined not to accept his lot.

Enoch becomes a bare-knuckle fighter in London’s criminal underworld. But...

Faces in the Street – ‘A beautiful head of hair’

Unidentified young woman c1870-1900
Photographer: George & George’s Federal Studio

The use of the term crowning glory to describe a woman’s hair has around since the middle of the nineteenth century. As the Albury Banner and Wodonga Express put it, ’Whether the locks be golden-hued or ebony, one of the greatest gifts of the Creator to women is, undoubtedly, a beautiful head of hair’.1

A beautiful head of hair during this period meant, invariably, that the hair was long, occasionally below w...

My Reading – September 2023

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey (Perveen Mistry Book 3)
‘Well done.’
Perveen Mistry spoke aloud as she slid the signed contracts into envelopes.

The Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey (Perveen Mistry Book 4)
Sisters will fight.

Dancing in the Ring by Susan E Sage
Catherine stared at an oak tree outside the classroom window without seeing the young man on the branch staring back in at her.

My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories by Frank O’Connor
Some kids are cissies by nature ...

Dancing in the Ring by Susan E. Sage

Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Susan E. Sage most recent novel, Dancing in the Ring, as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Based on fact, Dancing in the Ring follows the fortunes of two idealistic lawyers Catherine McIntosh and Robert Sage through the 1920s and ’30s in Detroit.

Blurb

Detroit in the 1920s proved to be the Paris of the West for many – including Catherine McIntosh and Robert Sage. These two law school students become as passionat...

Book Review – Dancing in the Ring by Susan E Sage

Detroit 1920 – the Great War and the influenza pandemic are over and people are looking towards a better future. Catherine Macintosh and Robert Sage are law students in their final year. Robert is a charming, exuberant, up-and-coming boxer. Catherine, one of the first women in Detroit to become a lawyer, is beautiful, intelligent and strong minded.

Both are from extended working-class families of Irish Catholic background and, like so many of their time, they have experienced the loss...