Sally Wragg's Blog, page 2

Villa Cassiopeia - online launch party!

COME TO THE PARTY! It’s now only NINE days until the launch party for my book, ‘VILLA CASSIOPEIA’. EXCITING competitions with FABULOUS PRIZES to be won, including BOOKS and EBOOKS from GREAT AUTHORS, KATE HARDY, SEUMAS GALLACHER, TINA.K. BURTON, EVA FLYNN AND BETH CAMP, plus other mystery prizes, too.
DON’T miss OUT! EVERYONE is WELCOME!

https://www.facebook.com/events/20976...

'Villa Cassiopeia'

My new novel, 'Villa Cassiopeia' is set on the beautiful Greek island of Paxos and is available for pre-order on amazon kindle by clicking on the link below. It's a light-hearted, humorous read, ideal for these long, hot and sultry summer days (or if you happen to live in England, how you fondly imagine summer might possibly be!) It will be available in paperback at a later date...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073XL11MG

Call Home the Heart

I am very excited because I have just brought out a new book on Amazon Kindle. It has no reviews, as yet and I have my fingers crossed that one or two people might like to read it. Much as I enjoy writing, publishing a book is the end of a sometimes fraught journey and the feeling of having survived it is just tremendous.

'Loxley'

Loxley

My novel 'Loxley', first of the Loxley trilogy, is available for free down load today, Friday 18th November, for one day only.

Please follow the links below:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Loxley-Sally...

or

https://www.amazon.com/Loxley-Sally-W...

'Loxley'

Special Promotional Offer!

'Loxley', the first of the Loxley Trilogy, will be available for free download on Amazon Kindle on Friday 18th November.

For anyone interested in reading a review of the book from The BookBag, please follow the link below:-

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/i...

'The Invitation'

If anyone would like to read my short story, 'The Invitation,' please click on the link given below to my Facebook Author Page:- https://www.facebook.com/Sally-Wragg-...

'Make Hay Whilst the Sun Shines'

If anyone would like to read my short story, 'Make Hay Whilst the Sun Shines', the link to my Facebook Author Page is:- https://www.facebook.com/Sally-Wragg-...

A Woman of Courage

A Woman of Courage
by
Sally Wragg

For anyone who might be interested in reading an uplifting and warm-hearted (hopefully!) short story, ideal for a coffee-break, please follow the link to my Facebook Author Page below:-

https://www.facebook.com/Sally-Wragg-...

An Early Morning Walk...

It was wonderful walking in the fields with Mags, my dog, this morning, accompanied by a rich variety of birdsong and with a real warmth in the sun, shining from an unaccustomed bright, blue sky. The only problem was that according to guidelines, recently issued by NICE, before I went out, I forgot to apply the recommended eight teaspoons of sunblock. Furthermore, I fully intend to compound the error, by drinking a glass or two of wine on Friday night, and even Saturday and Sunday, too, if I feel like it. And no, I won't be thinking of increasing my rates of cancer when I reach for the glass, as Dr. Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer, has so charmingly pointed out that I should. I shall be relaxing, catching up on the tv or my reading and thinking, what a blissful way to end a busy week. It's called enjoyment, thus increasing my levels of happiness and recharging my batteries for the week ahead. I thought the advice given about eight teaspoons of sunblock was a joke when I read it. Why eight teaspoons exactly? And why issue it now, after the wettest and most miserable winter in living memory? Have they never heard of vitamin D deficiency and that rickets, the result of it, is spreading?
The only way to deal with the absurd advice currently being issued by our nanny state is to have a good laugh (which will do you more good than anything) and then ignore it!

Claire Harman 'Charlotte Bronte, A Life'

Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart by Claire Harman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I thought this was an excellent biography, giving a real sense of Charlotte Bronte as a fully rounded individual rather than merely adding to the Bronte myth. Charlotte Bronte was shy and retiring but it didn't stop her going out into the world, visiting her publishers in London for instance and attending school at the Pensionnat in Brussels, as both pupil and teacher - a big undertaking for a young woman in those days. Claire Harman doesn't refrain from showing her subject's darker side, either. If she was a dutiful daughter to her father Patrick, she turned against the excesses of her adored brother, Branwell and refused to offer a shred of sympathy for his state. Addiction (to both opium and alcohol) wasn't properly understood in those days, only its consequences and difficult to deal with in the cramped circumstances of the parsonage, I should imagine. Whilst living in Brussels, she fell in love with her tutor Constantin Heger, an unrequited love that made her unhappy and bitter and she used the vehicle of her novel 'Villette' to paint an unflattering portrait of Heger's wife, Zoe. The book deals with its subject on both a personal and a professional level (if the two can be separated!), she was passionate of her craft and determined, despite her gender, to fulfil her potential, at all times asserting that she should be judged on the worth of her written work. She was also encouraging and incredibly protective of her sisters, particularly the genius that was Emily Bronte. Whilst following the generally held view that Emily was working on another manuscript when she died, Claire Harman offers no opinion of what might have happened to it after her death. Emily was much misunderstood by the reading public and in a misguided attempt to protect her reputation, other biographies have suggested that Charlotte most likely destroyed it - I understand her reasoning but I do find it hard to forgive her for this. Thoughts of the equal, or even an improvement to 'Wuthering Heights', ending on the back of the fire, just doesn't bear thinking about...



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