Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 93

Three Weddings and a Proposal by Sheila O’Flanagan

Delphine is at a wedding when the shocking news comes. Suddenly her life changes for ever.

Delphine has worked hard for her success and she knows she’s got everything she wants. But not everyone agrees. Her opinionated family aren’t convinced that living alone with no plans to ‘settle down’ could possibly make her truly happy, and no one appreciates it when she drops everything, day or night, whenever her boss Conrad calls. Yet Delphine wouldn’t change a thing. And when Conrad makes her a surprise offer, it’s clear that her hard work is going to pay off.

#ThreeWeddingsandaProposal @sheilaoflanagan @headlinepg #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours

A few short days later, Delphine’s life is unrecognisable. The man who once broke her heart has suddenly reappeared, and a shocking tragedy turns her world on its head. Delphine must rethink everything that matters to her, and to those around her, and decide, once and for all, if love, family and a little compromise should come before career, security and independence… and if she’s prepared to make that choice.

My Review

Delphine is a great protagonist and her wit and wisdom is only outshone by that of the author. She likes to think she is a feminist and a tough independent woman, but at times she wonders if she is really a doormat. In spite of being a qualified lawyer she works for Conrad Morgan, the CEO of a highly successful financial company. She is his executive assistant and earns a huge salary, travelling all over the world with him and attending glamorous parties, but she still has to book his flights and hotel rooms like a glorified secretary – I wonder if she collects his dry cleaning and picks out the flowers for his ex-wife Martha. In the opening chapter she is bidding at auction for an emerald bracelet for his new love, Bianca, his personal stylist who happens to be 20 years his junior.

To me this is a nightmare job – being at the beck and call of a rich financier – she even gets drawn into the problems of his love life. But then when tragedy strikes, her life changes overnight. She will need to rethink everything she has worked so hard for and begins to wonder if she has made the right choices. Her family think she has spent so much time on her career that she is going to end up a lonely old spinster with only a cat for company and she doesn’t even have a cat. She is happy with that until she meets her ex-boyfriend Ed – the only man who ever dumped her – and they rekindle their relationship.

Three Weddings and a Proposal is set in and around Dublin, over the course of one summer. The title comes from the three weddings that Delphine attends, once with a plus-one and twice as one. The proposal I won’t reveal!

This book focuses on relationships, work and female friendship and asks the question, as a woman, can you have it all? Delphine thinks she can, but in the end, does she really want it?

I loved this story. I loved all the characters, though I had my favourites and one or two I really didn’t like. It’s a fairly slow burn and no-one gets murdered (as in the books I usually read), but I became really invested in Delphine’s happiness. I wish her well for the future!!

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.

About the Author

Sheila O’Flanagan is the author of nearly 30 bestselling chart-toppers, including The Women Who Ran Away, Her Husband’s Mistake, The Hideaway, What Happened That Night, The Missing Wife and All For You (winner of the Irish Independent Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award). After working in banking and finance for a number of years, Sheila’s love for writing blossomed into curating stories about relationships in all their many forms.

www.sheilaoflanagan.com | @sheilaoflanagan | Facebook.com/sheilabooks

Suspicions by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

He’s not my Jack…

Margaret has been in a car accident and was hit on the head. When she wakes up in hospital after a long time in a coma, she doesn’t know who the man is who has come to take her home. She thinks this ‘Jack’ is not her husband, he’s an imposter, a robot.

But what’s wrong with her? Has Margaret suffered a more severe brain injury than the doctors at first thought, or is there some truth in her suspicions?

A great story with a twist in the tail. Really enjoyed it.

Written by Joanne Toon
Adapted for radio and directed by Emmeline Braefield

With
Jason Parkes as Dr Pallaway
Elliott Bornemann as Jack
Genevieve Swift as Margaret
and
Helen Fullerton as Martha and the Official

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

Music:
Devoid by ELPHNT

The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield

Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.

Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.

And if you really enjoyed Suspicions listen to Theatrephonic’s other plays and short stories and consider becoming a patron by clicking here…

Mrs Narwhal’s Diary by S J Norbury

“It was Woman’s Hour who suggested I keep a diary. They said it was good for mental health, and I must say I did feel much less frazzled after writing everything down yesterday. The frustrations were all still there, but somehow smoothed out – as if by a really good steam iron.”

#MrsNarwhalsDiary #SJNorbury @LouiseWalters12 @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours

Mrs Narwhal is overwhelmed. Her husband, Hugh, is unkind and unhappy – working every hour at a job he hates to save the ancestral home he never wanted. Then there’s Hugh’s sister, Rose, who’s spurned her one true love, and ricochets from crisis to crisis; and not to mention two small boys to bring up safely in a house that could crumble around their ears at any moment…

When Hugh’s pride receives a fatal blow, and he walks out, Mrs Narwhal is plunged into a crisis of both heart and home. With help from Rose she sets out to save the house her husband couldn’t. But can she save her marriage? And does she really want Hugh back?

Funny, charming, and moving, Mrs Narwhal’s Diary is an irresistible story which will enchant and delight its readers.

My Review

I couldn’t make this out at first. The writing is very different – ah! of course, it’s written in diary form – silly me.

I’ve never wanted to keep a diary, not since I was about fourteen. Monday – Met friends. Played our Beatles records. Talked about boys. Tuesday – Met friends. Played our Beatles records. Talked about boys. Boring and I soon gave up.

Mrs Narwhal’s diary is quite different. Woman’s Hour suggested keeping a diary is good for one’s mental health, so she starts writing things down. She muses about her life, her husband, her marriage, her boys and her high-maintenance sister-in-law Rose. Then there’s Jo the rude, bad-tempered cleaner, uptight Juliet down the road, Rose’s ex-husband Nick, Ian who has known Narwhal Hall forever and Tony who rents the workshop. She muses about them all, as well as the Tree House, which is on its last legs (or branches), the stuffed polar bears in the attic and her nemesis – the late-but-not-great, more grating on her – mother-in-law Greer.

She muses a lot to begin with, without any real direction, until one day husband Hugh disappears, leaving her a note and asking her not to try and call him. This is where the story ramps up for me. I enjoyed the first half, but it is now that I started to get that can’t put it down feeling. While the dramatic saga of Rose and Nick – will they won’t they – is exciting, it’s Mrs Narwhal’s relationship with her husband Hugh that is central to the book. Mrs Narwhal copes rather too well with the sudden change to her life, though without Rose and the others she might have struggled a bit more.

Mrs Narwhal’s Diary is charming and funny and often sad. It is much more than the story of mid-life crises – it pulls in the familiar (how many times have we felt that way) with the hilarious and the unusual. I loved it.

Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours

About the Author

S J Norbury lives in Herefordshire with her family. Mrs Narwhal’s Diary is her first novel.

Purchase Links :

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3aDOjKw

Book Depository: https://bit.ly/3xscUMc

Waterstones: https://bit.ly/2R5p3pt

WHSmith: https://bit.ly/2QZkOMq

Foyles: https://bit.ly/3gHJMKX

Nook: https://bit.ly/3aEgMQf

Blackwells: https://bit.ly/3tXM1xk

Before You Knew My Name by by Jacqueline Bublitz

This is not just another novel about a dead girl.

When she arrived in New York on her 18th birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe, an unidentified murder victim.

Ruby Jones is also trying to start over; she travelled halfway around the world only to find herself lonelier than ever. Until she finds Alice’s body by the Hudson River.

From this first, devastating encounter, the two women form an unbreakable bond. Alice is sure that Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her life – and death. And Ruby – struggling to forget what she saw that morning – finds herself unable to let Alice go. Not until she is given the ending she deserves.

Before You Knew My Name doesn’t ask whodunnit. Instead, this powerful, hopeful novel asks: Who was she? And what did she leave behind? The answers might surprise you.

My Review

Written from the point of view of the dead girl – Alice – we know right from the start that she has been murdered. Just turned 18, her childhood has been hard. Her beautiful mother moved from place to place every year or two, running away each time a relationship failed. Alice has no roots. When her mother dies, she goes to live with a relative called Gloria, who frankly doesn’t care a hoot about her, but at least Alice doesn’t need to pass through the foster system or end up in care.

Ruby (who initially got on my nerves) is obsessed with Ash, who won’t let her go, but is eventually going to marry someone else. Ruby really needs to tell him where to go, but instead she leaves her hometown of Melbourne, Australia, to start a new life in New York, texting him constantly and hoping for what? Nothing is going to change.

And it is Ruby who finds Alice’s body, mangled and lying face down in the dirt, on the banks of the Hudson River. We see everything through Alice’s eyes. If she can stay close by to Ruby, maybe she can give her a push to help her find the killer.

Before coming to New York, Alice had an affair with her art teacher – Mr Jackson – who believed Ruby was already 18. He was more than twice her age. He started off drawing her, but it soon progressed to semi-pornographic photos, taken with an old camera that his late mother gave him.

When she tells him it’s her birthday and she will be 18, he realises he has broken the law, and Alice bolts with the camera and heads to New York to start a new life, lodging with Noah and his dog Franklin. Noah knows everything about New York’s history and culture and they soon become friends.

As I said, I struggled to warm to Ruby – her obsession with Ash is unhealthy and destructive, but she did grow on me. It is really when she meets Lennie, who ‘makes up’ dead people ready for open caskets, that she starts to open up and become more likeable. Lennie is just one of the friends Ruby makes through the aptly named Death Club.

I could go on forever about this fantastic book, but I am sure there would be spoilers and I don’t want to ruin it for others. I can’t praise it enough. It is so beautifully written, with stunning insights into love, loss, suffering and the human condition. Definitely one of my favourite books of the year so far. It will take some beating. I just wish Alice hadn’t died but then there would have been no story.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.

About the Author

Jacqueline ‘Rock’ Bublitz is a writer, feminist, and arachnophobe who lives between Melbourne, Australia and her hometown on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. She wrote her debut novel Before You Knew My Name after spending a summer in New York, where she hung around morgues and the dark corners of city parks (and the human psyche) far too often. She is now working on her second novel, where she continues to explore the grand themes of love, loss, and connection.

The Phantom Bagpiper by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

SURPRISE! An additional mini-play from Theatrephonic completely ad free!

DI Arthur Meadowes (of Orchid Fields fame) and his wife Deidre have a relaxing cruise.

Deirdre is loving it, especially the bagpipe player who provides the music for the Scottish dancing (Deirdre hasn’t done The Dashing White Sergeant since she was at school). But why does he stop at Casablanca to see his friends and never play on the journey home? DI Meadowes might be on holiday, but he’s never off-duty. Great stuff!

Listen to the end for the bloopers.

Written by Barbara Jennings, based on an idea by Carl Willetts
Directed by Emmeline Braefield

With
Helen Fullerton as Deidre Meadows
and
Jonathan Legg as DI Arthur Meadowes

Music: Saint Patrick’s Parade by Doug Maxwell_Media Right Productions

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield

Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.

Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.

And if you really enjoyed The Phantom Bagpiper listen to Theatrephonic’s other plays and short stories and consider becoming a patron by clicking here…

The Nurse by J A Corrigan

When you hear her story, will you believe her?

Rose Marlowe is a hard-working nurse, a loving wife, and a merciless killer. Or so she says. Despite her confession, it is hard to believe that this beautiful, kind woman could have killed her vulnerable patient in cold blood.

#TheNurse  https://www.instagram.com/corriganjulieann/  @corriganjulieann @canelo_co @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours

Down-on-his luck author and ex-journalist, Theo Hazel, is convinced that there’s more to what happened than Rose is telling, and so decides to visit her behind bars to write her story. His first surprise comes when Rose reveals that the victim was not a stranger to her.

As time goes on, it seems that Rose is letting Theo see behind her perfect mask. With each new visit, he learns terrible new things about her heart-breaking past. With each new visit, he becomes more and more convinced that she can’t be a killer. But is he trying to free an innocent woman, or falling prey to a calculating murderer?

A gripping and unputdownable thriller that will keep you guessing into the early hours of the morning.

My Review

I really enjoyed this book. Some very well-developed characters including Rose Marlowe and Theo Hazel. Some others were less well-defined, particularly Ed Madden, Miles and Abigail, with Daniel Deane and Rose’s mum Marion somewhere in the middle.

I liked Theo much better than Rose, I have to admit. In fact there is nothing about him to dislike. He has experienced sadness and unbelievable heartache, but he is kind, empathic and measured in his responses. Except where Rose is concerned. Then he is overcome by his growing feelings of love, in spite of her being a ruthless killer. He says he feels like those women who write to death row prisoners and then claim to be madly in love with them when they haven’t even met.

Rose, on the other hand, is a complicated protagonist. She is serving twenty years in prison for murdering one of the patients in her care. You want to like her if you don’t think she did it – or maybe you want to hate her if you think she is guilty – but there is always something niggling away, something not quite right.

At first Rose doesn’t want to meet with Theo. Then she changes her mind and starts to tell him her life story – the story she doesn’t even tell her prison therapist Don. In fact Don seems pretty useless. Maybe the prison is saving money by employing someone cheap. Theo used to be a journalist, then a writer of fiction and non-fiction and initially he wants to write a true-crime story about Rose and the victim, a young man called Abe. The publisher will want the salacious details, but Theo soon realises that he doesn’t want to exploit Rose. So he listens. He is a good listener.

As for Rose, what is she hiding? What is she not saying? What didn’t come out in court was about her relationship with an older man in 1991 when she was a year four med student. Daniel Deane was a doctor, but working as the CEO of Bluefields private hospital. Rose was very naive and couldn’t see the hold he had over her and how he was manipulating her.

There were some things I worked out before the end (I’m not saying any more) and some that I definitely didn’t (Ed and Abigail). But this is Rose and Theo’s story. Rose killed her patient and Theo wants to know why or if she really did it. Everyone else is just a spectator or is there more to it? Well it wouldn’t be the great story it is if there wasn’t.

Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours

About the Author

Julie-Ann Corrigan was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. She studied in London, completing a BA (Hons) Humanities degree, majoring in Modern History and English Literature. Travelling in Europe for several years, she taught in both Greece and Spain – countries and cultures she found fascinating. On return to the UK she gained a BSc (Physiotherapy), becoming a Chartered Physiotherapist. She lives in Berkshire with her family.

Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/juliannwriter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacorrigan

Website: http://jacorrigan.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juleshayes6/

Purchase Links :

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3xbd5eR

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3eqQ6DK

NOOK: https://bit.ly/3ncdSYf

Hive.co.uk: https://bit.ly/3v9WV3l

Web of Lies by Sally Rigby

A trail of secrets. A dangerous discovery. A deadly turn.

Police officer Sebastian Clifford never planned on becoming a private investigator. But when a scandal leads to the disbandment of his London based special squad, he finds himself out of a job. That is, until his cousin calls on him to investigate her husband’s high-profile death, and prove that it wasn’t a suicide. 

#WebOfLies @SallyRigby4 #DetectiveSebastianClifford @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours

Clifford’s reluctant to get involved, but the more he digs, the more evidence he finds. With his ability to remember everything he’s ever seen, he’s the perfect person to untangle the layers of deceit.

He meets Detective Constable Bird, an underutilised detective at Market Harborough’s police force, who refuses to give him access to the records he’s requested unless he allows her to help with the investigation. Clifford isn’t thrilled. The last time he worked as part of a team it ended his career.

But with time running out, Clifford is out of options. Together they must wade through the web of lies in the hope that they’ll find the truth before it kills them.

Web of Lies is the first in the new Detective Sebastian Clifford series.

My Review

Even though I enjoyed the Whitney and George detective novels, this new one about former police officer Sebastian Clifford is undoubtedly my favourite. Seb is the son of a Viscount, handsome (obviously) and 6ft 6inches tall. The banter between him and PC Lucinda Bird known as Birdie is hilarious. And of course we mustn’t forget Seb’s beloved dog Elsa.

Having quit the police after his squad was disbanded, he goes to stay in Market Harborough for a rest, but his cousin Sarah asks him to help investigate the ‘suicide’ of her husband. He was involved in some very shady financial deals, ending up in a highly illegal Ponzi scheme. Sarah believes he was murdered, but the evidence doesn’t support that idea.

For anyone who doesn’t know what a Ponzi scheme is, it’s basically a fraudulent investing scam which generates returns for earlier investors with money taken from later investors. Famously Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, which likely ran for decades, defrauded thousands of investors out of tens of billions of dollars. Investors put their trust in Madoff because he created a front of respectability, his returns were high but not outlandish, and he claimed to use a legitimate strategy.

In 1992, my husband and I were the victims of a Ponzi scheme, so the subject of Web of Lies immediately peaked my interest. I still blame myself for being so easily taken in – if something is too good to be true it probably is. The perpetrator went to prison, but as in this story, the money is gone. The victims get nothing apart from a feeling that they had been somewhat naive.

But enough about me. I love Seb – he reminds me of Inspector Lynley (love Nathaniel Parker – where is he now?), but I much prefer Birdie to Barbara Havers. Birdie doesn’t have that chip-on-the-shoulder attitude that Havers did. She treats Seb with humour and takes no prisoners. She tells him to wait outside her mum’s house when he picks her up so the neighbours don’t think she’s going out with an ‘old man’ – she’s 26 and he’s 39! I’d want to show him off. Who wouldn’t?

As always with Sally Rigby’s books, it’s a fast-paced, easy read, with plenty of intrigue, twists and excitement. Please make this a TV series. It would be so good if they can find someone tall enough…

Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours

About the Author

Sally Rigby was born in Northampton, in the UK. She has always had the travel bug, and after living in both Manchester and London, eventually moved overseas. From 2001 she has lived with her family in New Zealand (apart from five years in Australia), which she considers to be the most beautiful place in the world. After writing young adult fiction for many years, under a pen name, Sally decided to move into crime fiction. Her Cavendish & Walker series brings together two headstrong, and very different, women – DCI Whitney Walker, and forensic psychologist Dr Georgina Cavendish. Sally has a background in education, and has always loved crime fiction books, films and TV programmes. She has a particular fascination with the psychology of serial killers.

Check out her website for a FREE prequel story….. www.sallyrigby.com  

Social Media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SallyRigby4

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Sally-Rigby-131414630527848/posts/?ref=page_internal

Website: https://sallyrigby.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sally.rigby.author/

Purchase Links :

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3dF6txq

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3sBJeIJ

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

‘My story would not be one of death and suffering and sacrifice, I would take my place in the songs that would be sung about Theseus; the princess who saved him and ended the monstrosity that blighted Crete,’

As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur – Minos’s greatest shame and Ariadne’s brother – demands blood every year.

#Ariadne @jennysaint #RandomThingsTours  @annecater  @RandomTTours

When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods – drawing their attention can cost you everything.

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne’s decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover’s ambition?

Ariadne gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods. Beautifully written and completely immersive, this is an exceptional debut novel.

My Review

If you are a fan of classical Greek mythology, you will love this retelling of the story of Ariadne and her sister Phaedra. One version of the original story goes something like this:

“One year, when the fourteen young people of Athens were about to be sent to Crete in sacrifice, Theseus, son of King Aegeus of Athens, volunteered to be sent in order to kill the Minotaur and end the sacrifices for good. When they arrived in Crete, Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and decided to help him in his quest. She gave him a sword to fight the Minotaur, as well as a ball of thread; she advised him to tie one end near the entrance of the labyrinth and let the thread unroll as he delves deeper into the twisting and branching paths. When Theseus found the Minotaur, he managed to slay him, and then followed the thread back to the entrance, where Ariadne was waiting.”

(Source: https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Ariadne/ariadne.html)

In this version, after killing the Minotaur with a club, Theseus takes Ariadne to the deserted island of Naxos, and having first taken her virtue, he abandons her with a week’s supply of food and continues to Athens. Eventually, he marries her sister Phaedra, telling her that Ariadne is dead. But this book goes into far more detail about the other events that took place and the relationships that ensued. Ariadne does not stick to the traditional tale and you will need to suspend disbelief (though these are myths so that probably does not apply) as the author has exercised her wonderful artistic licence a lot here.

However, what this book is really about is the concept of sisterhood. The Gods are portrayed as mean and nasty and they frequently punish the wives for the sins of their husbands, or the children for the sins of their fathers. The Goddess Hera, for instance, rather than be part of the sisterhood, never punishes her husband Zeus for his many misdemeanours, she punishes his mistresses and his bastard offspring.

As I’ve already said, the Gods were cruel and this story, written for a modern audience, does not shy away from the violence against women, rape, ritual sacrifice, women being made to birth monsters and other atrocities. Much of it is extremely unpleasant and certainly anyone who has watched films like Clash of the Titans or Jason and the Argonauts will find this non-sanitised version of the myths rather more distasteful. It is, however, beautifully written, with fabulous descriptions of the places like Crete, Athens and Naxos, and also the suffering of the women involved. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

(PS I’d love to see how this would pan out if it kept to the myth, but took place nowadays. I guess the Gods would be celebrities, everyone would have a mobile phone to call for help, Theseus would go into the maze with an AR15 and Ariadne would never starve as she could always get a delivery from Ocado. But the concept of sisterhood would still remain.)

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.

About the Author

Due to a lifelong fascination with Ancient Greek mythology, Jennifer Saint read Classical Studies at King’s College, London. She spent the next thirteen years as an English teacher, sharing a love of literature and creative writing with her students. ARIADNE is her first novel and she is working on another retelling of ancient myth for her second.

Jennifer Saint on her inspiration for the novel:
The inspiration for Ariadne first sparked when I was at university and studied the Roman poet Ovid for the first time. When I read the Heroides, a collection of letters written by the women of myth to the men who had wronged them in various ways, I was captivated by seeing these familiar stories from a different perspective.

Ariadne writes a powerful letter to Theseus after she has given him the clue to lead him safely from the Labyrinth, lair of the Minotaur, betraying her father and kingdom to do so. Her younger sister Phaedra writes a letter of her own, full of clever rhetoric and persuasion and we see that they are intelligent and passionate women trying to carve out their own destiny in a world where the odds are stacked against them. Years later, I would read my children the Greek myths I had always loved and I was reminded of Ovid when I came to the story of the Minotaur in which Ariadne’s crucial role was reduced to a couple of sentences in the background of Theseus’ legend. I felt that Ariadne deserved her own voice and I wanted to put her in the spotlight where she belongs.

Although Phaedra had her own individual story, I also wanted to explore the relationship between the sisters and how growing up in the shadow of the Minotaur shaped their experiences. I felt that the myths I had encountered about Ariadne and Phaedra were focused on the men in their lives and I wanted to make their sisterhood central in my book. The richness and complexity of female relationships, especially that of sisters, is so interesting and the two sisters of the Minotaur, whose fates were so devastatingly interlinked, offered such a compelling story that I was really excited by the idea of telling it.

Orchid Fields by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

A chance encounter…

Loved this. Just up my street. What happens when you meet an old school friend, who you idolised when you were teenagers, and she asks you to help her out? You agree of course. But should you?

She’s beautiful, confident and charismatic and you are the kind of person that no-one remembers. Not even her. But she tells you she is a freelance fraud investigator, helping the police to catch dodgy investors. And you of course believe her.

Then the police come knocking…

A great story, well constructed and I really felt for poor, mousy Rachel. Brilliant!

Written by Barbara Jennings
Directed by Emmeline Braefield

With
Emma Wilkes as Rachel Trent
Dru Stephenson as Beryl O’Brien
Matt Salmon as Greg Ratcliffe
Jonathan Legg as Detective Inspector Meadowes
Lydia Kenny as Detective Sergeant Casey
and
Danica Corns as Sam Daines

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

Music:
Sprightly Pursuit by Cooper Cannell
First Time Experience by Nate Blaze
Fond Memories by SYBS

The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield

Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.

Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.

And if you really enjoyed Orchid Fields listen to Theatrephonic’s other plays and short stories and consider becoming a patron by clicking here…

Jaipur Journals by Namita Gokhale

From the co-founder of the Jaipur Literary Festival, a brilliant, funny, and moving novel set against the background of the festival, and the characters that make it tick.

Told from multiple perspectives, from the authors enjoying moments of adulation after years of creative isolation, to the star-struck public mingling with their cultural icons, to those in-between, who are both author and fan, these diverse stories of lost love and regret, self-doubt, and new beginnings come together in a narrative that is as varied as India itself.

#JaipurJournals @NamitaGokhale_ @hoperoadpublish #RandomThingsTours  @annecater @RandomTTours

From a septuagenarian who has completed her semi-biographical novel but does not want to part with it, to an author who receives a threat in the form of a poison pen letter; from a historian who reunites with a past lover, to a burglar who is passionate about poetry; from a young woman who has no idea what this world has in store for her, to an American woman looking for the India of her hippie youth, this metafictional, wryly funny novel is an ode to literature.

Partly a love letter to the greatest literary show on earth, partly a satire about the glittery set that throngs the festival year after year, and partly an ode to the millions of aspiring writers who wander the earth with unsubmitted manuscripts in their bags, Jaipur Journals is a light-footed romp that showcases in full form Gokhale’s unsparing eye for the pretensions and the pathos of that loneliest tribe of them all: the writers.

My Review

What does it mean to be a writer? Why do writers write? Namita Gokhale tries to answer these questions together with a series of tales centred around a group of visitors and participants at the Jaipur Literary Festival. This book is a ‘love letter to the greatest literary show on earth’.

We have a plethora of characters who come together in Jaipur, the pink city, for this cosmopolitan festival. We have Anura, a gifted 12-year-old, who is going to take part in a talk given by seven teenagers. Then we have Rudrani Rana, a 72-year-old lady who wears her messy hair in a loose bun. She carries her UNSUBMITTED novel around with her in a bag and never shows it to anyone. She also uses a purple gel pen to write poison pen letters for amusement. Rudrani befriends Anirban M. a graphic artist, who for some reason appears to be fascinated by her.

Poet and thief Betaab turned to burglary due to poverty and his father’s cancer. But one day his hoard of stolen money becomes useless and he must find another way to earn a living. ‘I was not born a burglar,’ he says, ‘but I was born a poet and I will remain a poet.’

We also have Gayatri who meets her old love Sumedh Kumar, and author Zoya Mankotia who is deeply upset after receiving a poison pen letter in purple handwriting (no prizes for guessing who wrote it), an American woman Anna Wilde who went to India 30 years earlier on the hippie trail and never returned until now, and many others.

This is not a traditional story with a beginning and an end. It is a series of mini stories, all beautifully written and all of which converge at the Festival. I loved it, mainly because of the poetic writing and the richly-drawn, charismatic characters.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.

About the Author

Born in Lucknow, India, NAMITA GOKHALE, is an award-winning writer, publisher, and the co-founder/director (with William Dalrymple) of the Jaipur Literary Festival. She is the author of over twenty fiction and non-fiction books including the best-selling Paro: Dreams of Passion, Priya, and Things to Leave Behind. In 2017 Namita was awarded the first ever Centenary National Award for Literature by the Literary Society of Assam for her service to the Indian nation in supporting and showcasing Indian writing talents. Described as one of the finest Indian writers, she lives in New Delhi.