S.C. Skillman's Blog, page 6

Cover Reveal for ‘A-Z of Warwick’ to be released on 15 November 2023 by Amberley

I’m delighted to share the cover design of my forthcoming book A-Z of Warwick, due out on 15 November 2023.

Cover design of A-Z of Warwick by SC Skillman

In A-Z of Warwick I look at the past, the present and even the future of Warwick!

Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great, built her fortress Waeringwicum on the river Avon in the year 914; it grew into the town of Warwick. Her conquest of the Viking Danelaw secured the creation of the Kingdom of England.

Ever since then, Warwick has been at the centre of England’s history. After William the Conqueror ordered that a castle be built on Aethelflaed’s chosen site, that castle and the Earldom of Warwick became one of the highest prizes in the dangerous and treacherous power game played around the English throne for centuries.

Today, Warwick retains many of its beautiful historical buildings, and is packed with the richness of the human story besides being a lively modern town. Here in this book, you will find not only several of its most treasured ancient buildings and glorious gardens but also some outstanding examples of its people, commerce, creativity, science and endeavour, community events, birds, and animals. All of this is accompanied by my own photographs in full colour. My hope is that I have, through this book, given you a flavour of the life of Warwick and its people: past, present and future.

The book comes out on 15 November and so far I have the following events planned after publication day:

I’ll be doing a book-signing at Kenilworth Books, Talisman Square, Kenilworth on Saturday 18 November 2023 10.30am – 1.30pm. I’d love to see you if you’re in the area!

Come to the Book Launch Party in Warwick Visitor Information Centre, The Court House, Warwick on Saturday 25 November 2.30-4.30pm. There’ll be drinks and refreshments, and I’ll be interviewed by the fabulous author Fran Hill, author of Cuckoo in the Nest, published by Legend Press this year to high acclaim! Fran is a very funny writer and I can guarantee she’ll ask me some unexpected questions! Finally, of course, there’ll be the opportunity at the end to buy a copy of A-Z of Warwick and have your copy personally signed and inscribed with any message you wish.

From 6 weeks before it will be possible to book a free ticket on EventBrite for this event – that’s just so that we know how many people to expect, so we can provide enough refreshments.

And don’t forget, if you’re unable to get to either of these events, but would like a copy of the book, it’s available for Pre-Order online, on Amazon, and Bookshop.org, and also from Kenilworth Books and Warwick Books, and of course, Waterstones.

Why not join me on my writing journey, and sign up on my mailing list to receive my newsletter straight to your inbox, in which I share gems and snippets from my research discoveries, and news and insights on the writing and publishing worlds. Also you’ll be the first to know when I have a new book coming out.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog and enjoy my articles you can also support me here on buy me a coffee and I’d be very grateful.

Book Review: ‘The Girl with the Louding Voice’ by Abi Dare

Today I share my reviews of ‘The Girl With the Louding Voice’ by Abi Dare, published by Sceptre on 5 March 2020.

MY REVIEW

Initially difficult to get into, because of the broken / pidgin English of the first person narrator Adunni, this story becomes compelling, tragic, and horrific.

A 14 year old girl from a Nigerian village is sold into marriage to a 60 year old man, because her father needs money to buy his ‘community rent’. Adunni’s fate – and worse – is shared by many girls in countries bedevilled by corruption and misgovernment, who are not able to enter education because of lack of money.

Book cover image ‘The Girl With the Louding Voice’ by Abi Dare

Adunni’s passion for education is evident from the first, and it is heartbreaking to think how much wealth is squandered in corruption in a country like Nigeria – and doubtless several others around the world – when it could be used to create free universal education for all.

Apart from the issue-led nature of this story, the power of the narrative sweeps the reader through. We are behind Adunni every step of the way, through her relationships with supporters and allies like Khadija, Kofi, Mr Kola and Ms Tia, her sufferings under the cruel and sadistic, such as her enforced husband Morufu, and her bosses Big Madam and Big Daddy; and the strength of her spirit driving her through these life experiences.

In the end the reader may feel angry because of the huge injustices this author exposes about human greed, political injustice and corruption; and yet there is hope at the end, characters who warm the heart, and we may see some light in the future for our heroine, and perhaps a changed outlook for at least some of her oppressors.

This is certainly a 5 star read, a very powerful book which I hope will bring about huge social and institutional change, along with a radical transformation of attitudes to human rights and especially the rights of women.

Abi Dare, author of ‘The Girl with the Louding Voice’

Why not sign up to join me on my writing journey and you’ll receive my monthly newsletter straight to your inbox in which I share gems and snippets from my research discoveries, and news and insights from the writing and publishing worlds. Also you’ll be the first to know when I have a new book coming out.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog posts here and would like to support me on my writing journey you can do so here at buy me a coffee, and I’d be very grateful.

Book Review: Local Killer by Paul Trembling – crime fiction published by Resolute Books

Today I’m pleased to be sharing with you my review of crime novel ‘Local Killer‘ by Paul Trembling.

Local Killer by Paul Trembling – book cover image of crime novel published by Resolute Books 2023

This tale of Alison, Crime Scene Investigator on the trail of a psychopathic killer whom nobody else even knows exists, is compelling. I’ve read Paul Trembling before in this genre, and know how good he is, with ingenious twists in the plot near the end, but this story was much more chilling and terrifying than ever before.

Paul Trembling, former Crime Scene Investigator, now crime fiction author, and author of the ‘Local Killer’ series.

I notice that pleased reviewers quite often like to say, ‘This book kept me turning pages late into the night.’ Not this one, for me, I’m afraid. It was late at night. I was turning pages. And I knew I should put the book down now. I did not fancy going to bed having just read about the calculations, preparations and plans of the most callous, inhuman killer imaginable.

Paul Trembling carried me to the place where the main protagonist was trapped in a situation that seems utterly impossible to escape, awaiting a death and a disposal which means multiple crimes will go unpunished, written off by the police as ‘disappearances’ – including that of Alison herself.

This author brought me very close to the mind of a psychopathic killer and it was a truly terrifying experience.  This story takes us into the dark heart of humanity, reminding us once again how ill-advised it is to make assumptions about people on the basis of their external appearance and the stories they choose to tell about themselves.

But the goal and purpose of all crime fiction is that truth, and justice, will prevail. Take heart from that!

The book was extremely clever. I began by not liking Alison particularly, then my empathy for her grew and eventually I was totally on her side and gunning for her, together with her new special companion Sam, hoping against hope for her success in exposing the truth, in the face of an indifferent and rigid response by the police investigating the crime.

Highly recommended to crime fiction lovers.  

Local Killer, crime fiction by Paul Trembling, published 2023 by Resolute Books

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Flowers to Cheer our Spirits – and to send an Author and Artist Out to the Summer Festivals Again August 2023!

Some of the loveliest things can be found hanging over fences and in our gardens (and I don’t mean talkative neighbours!) No, I mean flowers, and so here is an uplifting gallery of them to cheer the spirits.

Sometimes, for my weekly blog post, I just include my photos. But don’t forget I also send out a monthly newsletter to my subscribers and you can easily join them here.

Today, I’d also like to let you know that I’ve started to book stalls at summer festivals and fairs in Warwickshire and I’ll be out on Sunday, 6th August 2023, 11am – 4.30pm, at the Classic Car Festival at Town Thorns, Brinklow Road, Easenhall, near Rugby. CV32 0JE. I’ll be displaying my books and selling signed copies, and will also have art prints of my original acrylic paintings for sale. If you’re in the Rugby area, I hope to see you there!

Below are three of my original artworks of which I have a limited edition of 10 prints for sale.

Princess of Twilight Shadows, original artwork by Sheila Robinson Autumn Fairy, original artwork by Sheila Robinson Aqua Fairy, original artwork by Sheila RobinsonJoin me on my writing journey and sign up to the SC Skillman mailing list. I send a newsletter direct to your inbox every month sharing gems and snippets from my research discoveries news and insights from my writing and publishing journey and also you’ll be the first to know when I have a new book coming out. Exciting news coming soon!

And for those regular readers of my blog who would like to support me on my writing journey, you can do do here at Buy Me a Coffee, and I’d be very grateful.

Book Review: ‘How the Irish Saved Civilization’ by Thomas Cahill

How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill has the subtitle: ‘The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe.’

Book Cover: ‘How the Irish Saved Civilization’
by Thomas Cahill

I loved the title of this book and was led to read it after I visited Tintagel; the Roman remains and exhibition at St Albans; and also the Roman Wall exhibition near Aldgate, London. My imagination was fired up and once again I longed to find out more about why exactly the Romans left Britain, how the Celtic and Roman Britons left behind felt about it, and about the very first entry of Christianity into Britain. So this book seemed to come along at just the right time for me.

I found the first part of the book exactly what I wanted: an exploration of what is known about the departure of the Romans from Britain, and about the fall of the Roman Empire. I was sad to realise that we have very little archival historical evidence at all of what happened in Britain through the 300s and the 400s. Only two writers fill that gap: St Patrick in Ireland, who lived from approx. 380 to 464, and wrote Confessio and Letter to Coroticus, and Gildas, a British monk who lived from 500 to 570, and wrote De Excidio et Conquesta Brittanniae.

I wondered: was this because Britain fell into complete illiteracy or they were too taken up with fighting off the Picts, the Scots and the Saxons? Or was it because all the manuscripts have been destroyed or lost over the centuries?

So this book filled in a huge gap for me. The author is very much on the side of the Irish and I did feel inspired by the life and work of St Patrick, especially as I feel a connection with him anyway – as I was born on St Patrick’s Day! St Patrick probably lived from approximately 380 to 464 though no dates are given on his manuscripts.

Within the Confessio (his spiritual autobiography) he gives a vivid account of his abduction into slavery in pagan Ireland at the age of 16, his time there and his escape back to Britain later on. Ultimately he chose to return to Ireland and begin his work there among the people he loved – even though some of them had enslaved him. He set in motion the inspiring work of the next few centuries, as the Irish took the lead in teaching Celtic people Christianity that would sit alongside the beloved Irish pagan stories, and thus find its way into their hearts.

They set up monasteries with monks and hermits, each in their little beehive cell. The monks recovered literacy and copied out ancient classical manuscripts lost and destroyed by the ravaging Germanic tribes, Ostrogoths and Visigoths etc, known to the Romans only as ‘barbarians,’ who sacked Rome and then overcame most of Europe: their first act seemingly to destroy libraries.

I have seen the exhibition on the Lindisfarne Gospel at Lindisfarne, and it is deeply moving. The work is exquisite: and this of course is just one of the few remaining manuscripts of such quality produced by Irish monks in numerous monasteries over the next few centuries. How much value and reverence we place on the surviving manuscripts now would be of great solace to those Irish monks, for their adversaries were ever keen to destroy libraries when they swept in and subdued the people of their conquered territories.

I found it very helpful indeed to clarify all the dates when it is believed certain key events happened, from the first invasion of Caesar and his troops into Britain in 43 BC onwards. Many dates are only conjectural of course but there is much scholarship to provide circumstantial evidence for the accuracy of these. It helps us become clear in our minds how Christianity first entered Britain, probably through the stories of Roman merchants and servants during the time of the Roman occupation.

Patrick was one of these Roman Britons who heard the stories and was entranced by them, hungering to learn more, gaining literacy and the ability to act upon his passion – thus began Celtic Christianity.  St Augustine is so often held responsible for bringing Christianity to Britain (at the command of Pope Gregory, after which ‘the Roman system’ of Christianity was imposed). This is not true. Christianity was already in Britain long before he arrived in 597. The first evidence of Christianity in Roman Britain dates from the year 180. In fact, by the year 400, Christian worship had reached Ireland through interactions with Roman Britons. It’s St Patrick who is our true pioneer in that regard.

This book gave me a fascinating exploration of the Irish character and soul, and the story of the missionary monks from Ireland, moving into the West of Britain, into Scotland, into Europe, establishing monasteries, restoring literacy, creating their exquisite manuscripts. Many of the names of the Celtic saints who followed St Patrick – Columba, Aidan, Cuthbert, and of the monasteries the Irish monks set up in Britain and Europe – Iona, Durham, Ripon, Glastonbury, Amiens, St Gall, Reims, are names to conjure with, in any history of world renowned sacred places.  As the author says,

Wherever they went, the Irish brought with them their books, many unseen in Europe for centuries… their love of learning and their skills in bookmaking… re-established literacy and breathed new life into the exhausted literary culture of Europe.

This is a truly inspiring and enlightening book.

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And for those regular readers of my posts here who’d like to support me on my writing journey you can do so here on Buy Me a Coffee and I’d be very grateful.

Book Reviews: ‘A Great Deal of Ingenuity’ by Ruth Leigh, published by Resolute Books 16 July 2023

Today I am pleased to share with you my review of the new book by Ruth Leigh, A Great Deal of Ingenuity. I first wrote about Ruth’s book in my blog post here.

Book cover of A Great Deal of Ingenuity by Ruth Leigh

BLURB

The pages of Pride and Prejudice sparkle with household names. Proud Darcy
and prejudiced Elizabeth, book-loving Mr Bennet, the snobbish Bingley sisters,
predatory Mr Wickham and oily Mr Collins.
But what about all the other people busy cooking, mending, flirting, walking
and socialising in the background?
In this entertaining collection of short stories, Ruth Leigh shines a light on the
lives of nine characters from the novel. For instance, how is married life at
Hunsford for Mr and Mrs Collins? Will mousy Maria Lucas ever find a
husband? How does Sally the maid feel about mending Lydia’s worked muslin
gown? Which Meryton matron will triumph in luring a respectable and
marriageable young man into their parlour? These stories give the reader a
window into the worlds of Meryton, Rosings Park, Pemberley and Hunsford as
you’ve never seen them before.

Ruth Leigh Author of the Isabella Smugge novels and new book A Great Deal of Ingenuity

MY REVIEW

The author give us an assured depiction of the world of Jane Austen, opening our eyes up to some of the realities of life for minor characters in the novel, and vividly depicts, for instance, the lives of the servants and many others to whom only passing references are made by Jane Austen.

These stories are beautifully done, observant of the closest details, and bring out many aspects of 18th century life we may have disregarded, such as how they made soap, remedies they used for the cut and sore hands of housemaids, and how it would have felt to be the one washing all the menstrual rags, nappies and dirty underclothes of the family who employed them, and also constantly called upon to make sponge cake and lemon tarts for the frequent social callers on the lady of the house.

I felt so sorry for Sally, maid to Colonel and Mrs Forster, who, along with all her other duties, is just expected to mend the tear in Lydia Bennett’s worked muslin gown. I also had a strong sense of fateful destiny for young, hopeful Mr Bennett, charmed by pretty young Miss Gardner who is to become the redoubtable Mrs Bennett of the future, when his youthful delusions will be thwarted.

I like the way the author gives a page of context first before each story, reminding us of the reference within the text of Pride and Prejudice which she has used as the basis of her own imaginative extension.

Harriet Harrington’s voice is brilliant, exactly right for a flighty young girl of the time, fixated on the soldiers in town. The story sparkles and is a perfect alternative perspective on the events of Pride and Prejudice.

I found a sharp and vivid depiction of life in those days and how vital it was for a young woman to seek financial security in a husband, and also how easily disease and death arrives in a family, and how relentless the arrival of babies. In addition, we realise the extent to which servants saw and knew everything we might choose to keep hidden these days. They would often have fallen prey to the temptation to earn extra cash through blackmail in those social circles.

Some of the stories are very sad: the background of Mrs Eleanor Jenkins, Ann de Bough’s companion; and some shocking – Mr Bingley’s cook Mrs Nicholls, bitter, resentful, conspiratorial. These stories give such a wonderful insight into those times, their values and customs and language, and close observation of the psychology of each character.

Highly recommended for all Jane Austen lovers!

Order the book here.

ABOUT RUTH

Ruth is a novelist and freelance writer, the author of the Isabella M Smugge
series, contemporary humorous page-turners. She lives in rural Suffolk with
three children, one husband and a cat. Ruth has been an Austen devotee since
the age of fifteen and is a proud member of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Century Nerd community. You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
and Twitter at ruthleighwrites and at her website, http://www.ruthleighwrites.co.uk.

If you’d like to join me on my writing journey please do sign up here to receive my monthly email straight to your inbox. I share gems and snippets from my research discoveries, news and insights from the worlds of writing and publishing, and you’ll also be the first to know when I have a new book coming out.

For those regular readers of my blog who’d like to support me you can do so here at Buy Me a Coffee and I’d be very grateful!

BLOG TOUR My review of Hunter’s Blood, the new book in the Edinburgh Crime Series by Val Penny

Today I’m delighted to be reviewing Val Penny‘s latest Edinburgh crime mystery as part of her blog tour. Hunter’s Blood is published by Spellbound Books.

I met and chatted with Val at a writers conference at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, and found her an ebullient character. Her Edinburgh crimes give me a new concept of that lovely city. Certainly a different idea to the gentile, socially conscious one we receive from reading Alexander McCall Smith‘s Scotland Street series!

Book cover image – Hunters Blood by Val Penny

Here in Hunter’s Blood I found again the characters whose personal situations had so engaged me before – DI Hunter Wilson himself, and the petite pathologist Meera Sharma. Will their relationship blossom or not? Can Hunter overcome his personal demons? (every fictional detective absolutely needs his or her legion of inner demons!) Then there’s Jamie and Frankie, and Jamie’s twin daughters, born in tragic circumstances – I was so caught up before in Jamie’s heart-breaking situation. And Tim Myerscough and his friends – I find Tim intriguing and I want to know how thing work out for him too. Along the way we find violent and unsettling deaths, shady business people, gangsters, drug dealers, flawed police constables, troubled relationships among apparent law-abiders, and new seamy alliances and vigilante acts of revenge behind bars.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Val Penny has an Llb degree from the University of Edinburgh and her MSc from Napier University. She has had many jobs including hairdresser, waitress, banker, azalea farmer and lecturer but has not yet achieved either of her childhood dreams of being a ballerina or owning a candy store.

Until those dreams come true, she has turned her hand to writing poetry, short stories, nonfiction books, and novels. Her novels are published by Spellbound Books.

Val is an American author living in South West Scotland. She has two adult daughters of whom she is justly proud and lives with her husband and their cat.

BLURB

DI Hunter Wilson never has just one problem to solve.

Three elderly women he knows have died in mysterious circumstances. Hunter appears to be the only link.

A little girl goes missing on a cold winter’s night. When his team discovers cocaine hidden at the farm where she was living, the search becomes even more urgent.

Why did the women die? And what did the child witness?

Hunter must find the answers to these questions to ensure his family and his city are safe.

MY REVIEW

Val Penny is very good at intriguing the reader and opens the novel with three separate subplots, involving three different groups of people who are all going to be drawn together by a single tragedy: Hunter and Meera; Tim, Bear, Gillian and Mel; and Jamie and Frankie. All see the same van race past them dangerously fast, and roll into a ditch. Who reports the incident, and when, and how their reports are responded to or not, becomes a central focus of horror, death and fatal human error.

Later, two vulnerable, frightened people flee from a threatening situation, and come to the attention of Police Scotland: a little girl, and an old lady. But what lies behind their fear? Is it real or imagined? Three highly suspicious deaths follow and a complex plot for the police to untangle.

The story is pacy, cleverly structured and full of characters whose relationships with each other intrigue and captivate the reader. My only slight caveat would be that I never find it quite convincing that the person finally unmasked as the killer would be capable of such an evil act. But I find this with some Agatha Christie stories too, and that may be because I personally am looking for deeper psychological insight than is usually offered by this genre.

Nevertheless, for lovers of crime mystery this comes highly recommended.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Author Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/valerie.penny.739
Author Twitter Page @valeriepenny
Author Instagram Page https://www.instagram.com/valerieepenny/

WEBSITE LINKS

Website – https://www.valpenny.com
Amazon Author Page – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Val-Penny/e/B07C4725TK

Val Penny, author of the Edinburgh Crime Mysteries

Sign up here to join me on my journey, and to receive my monthly newsletter in which I share gems and snippets from my research discoveries, and news and insights from the world of writing and publishing.

For those regular readers who enjoy my posts, reviews and articles here and would like to support me on my journey you can do so at Buy Me a Coffee and I’d be very grateful.

Sunset over the Sea at Newquay, Cornwall

Today I share some views from Narrowcliff at Newquay, Cornwall. I took these photos on 6th and 7th July 2023.

Sometimes blogs are best with fewer words!

Sign up here to join my mailing list. I send out a monthly newsletter in which I share gems and snippets from my research discoveries, and news and insights from the writing and publishing worlds.

To those regular readers of my blog who enjoy my post and would like to support me on my writing journey you can do so here at Buy Me a Coffee and I’d be very grateful.

Book Review: Jane Austen the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly, and introducing a new upcoming series of Jane Austen Short Stories by Ruth Leigh

Today I offer my review of a provocative book for Jane Austen fans.

Book cover: Jane Austen the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly

Jane Austen the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly is published by Vintage.

I also introduce you to a new book of Jane Austen short stories, coming soon.

Book Cover: A Great Deal of Ingenuity by Ruth Leigh

As a keen reader of Jane Austen’s novels I was intrigued to read Helena Kelly’s take on the great author.

I’ve visited Jane Austen’s cottage at Chawton, learned something of her family situation, and read a number of books about her as well as all her novels, but found it very sobering to read Kelly’s account of Jane’s family, and her relatives’ attitude to her as a novelist. To me it showed how – in the case of the greatest novelists who attract so much admiration perhaps a century or more later – what a dangerous thing writing novels can be. Family members can feel threatened by what their relatives’ novels reveal when they become hugely popular. There are many curious stories about actions that literary executors chose to take – for instance in the cases of Lewis Carroll, James Joyce and Franz Kafka.

With Jane Austen in particular, the attitude taken by her nephew James-Edward, her second biographer, and by Henry, her brother, who wrote a biographical note to go in her first published novel, give us much cause to reflect. Henry, for example, makes it clear his chief concern is his anxiety to prove that his sister Jane didn’t need to write books for money; he himself considered her novel writing as just a minor amusement, and that was how Jane felt about it too. Kelly states that he deliberately lied about Jane. Cassandra, too, Jane’s beloved sister, and sole literary executor, also does not escape censure – we learn that she wrote letters about Jane Austen which cannot be trusted.

No other writer of this genre – ostensibly romance – is so penetrating, so incisive and so radical, Jane Austen’s books are timeless and have never dated because she transcends the social conventions of her time.

Having read Pride and Prejudice several times, on each reading, I’ve always noticed something new. Some of Kelly’s observations focus on things I’ve previously noticed in the text, but I certainly did not draw the same conclusions; lacking the deeper knowledge of the specific political, social and cultural context of the times in which Jane Austen was writing. I found some of Kelly’s conclusions shocking and disturbing.

This radicalism of Jane Austen’s, Kelly argues, lies at the very heart of why she is set apart, and so special – a radicalism you can feel without even being able to specify it, a lack of superficial predictability and conventional presumptions behind her tone and plots, involving things like snobbery, slavery and laws of female inheritance.

Kelly’s analysis of Mansfield Park makes it sound like a coded wartime top secret tract about slavery and the Church of England. Sometimes I found myself thinking Kelly may be reading too much into Jane Austen’s novels, for instance, the hidden mercenary agenda of Mr Knightly in Emma.

An intriguing question raised by Kelly is this: How much of a disconnect is there between ‘who a writer truly is’, as shown within their writing, ‘how they appear to be’, to family members, friends and acquaintances during their lifetime – and ‘how they choose to show themselves to others’ too. As I read Kelly’s book, I came to feel we could not trust Cassandra either. Just because she was “close” to Jane, doesn’t means she understood all of Jane’s heart and who she truly was.

Finally, when I finished this book, I felt our only sure and certain evidence is within Jane Austen’s novels themselves. And different readers can choose to interpret them differently, on many diverse levels, according to their own perceptiveness, background, and life experience. You can blind yourself to what Jane Austen says because it is too uncomfortable – or you can wilfully misinterpret it.

With this in mind, I was delighted to find fellow-author Ruth Leigh had chosen, for her next literary project, to write a series of Jane Austen short stories focusing on minor characters in the novels. The first in the series, A Great Deal of Ingenuity, is a collection of Pride and Prejudice short stories, which is published by Resolute Books very soon and I have already placed my pre-order.

Book cover: A Great Deal of Ingenuity by Ruth Leigh published by Resolute Books

BLURB

The pages of Pride and Prejudice sparkle with household names. Proud Darcy
and prejudiced Elizabeth, book-loving Mr Bennet, the snobbish Bingley sisters,
predatory Mr Wickham and oily Mr Collins.
But what about all the other people busy cooking, mending, flirting, walking
and socialising in the background?
In this entertaining collection of short stories, Ruth Leigh shines a light on the
lives of nine characters from the novel. For instance, how is married life at
Hunsford for Mr and Mrs Collins? Will mousy Maria Lucas ever find a
husband? How does Sally the maid feel about mending Lydia’s worked muslin
gown? Which Meryton matron will triumph in luring a respectable and
marriageable young man into their parlour? These stories give the reader a
window into the worlds of Meryton, Rosings Park, Pemberley and Hunsford as
you’ve never seen them before.

Knowing as I do how perceptive Ruth Leigh is, within the pages of her books published so far, I am expecting many fresh nuances and insights among all the sparkle!

Author Ruth Leigh

Ruth is a novelist and freelance writer, the author of the Isabella M Smugge
series, contemporary humorous page-turners. She lives in rural Suffolk with three children, one husband, and a cat. Ruth has been an Austen devotee since the age of fifteen and is a proud member of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Nerd community. You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter at ruthleighwrites and at her website, http://www.ruthleighwrites.co.uk.

Join me on my writing and publishing journey here

And for those regular readers of my blog posts here who’d like to support me on my writing journey you can do so here at buy me a coffee. I’d be very grateful!

Book Review: ‘A Walk in the Woods’ by Bill Bryson

Today I review Bill Bryson‘s very entertaining account of his attempt at walking the entire Appalachian Trail alongside Katz, an ill-prepared friend, who becomes the highlight of the book.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson is published by Black Swan with beautiful line drawings by David Cook – though as I read I did wish it was lavishly illustrated with photos! On several occasions throughout my reading, I turned to Google Maps and Google Images, and I feel I know a lot more about the USA than I did before.

The book opens with several pages of preparatory thoughts and research about the Trail, which presents a fireworks display of comic writing and is almost painfully funny to read, as Bill gets the idea, tells his nearest and dearest, starts reading books about it, listening to horror stories, stocking up with equipment, and trying to persuade one of his friends and acquaintances to come with him. Ultimately the most unlikely person of all volunteers: which is after all the stock-in-trade of the comic writer.

The 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail takes walkers from Georgia to Maine through fourteen eastern states in America; it is a huge challenge, and many set out but do not finish it. Anybody who sets themselves a goal to walk the entire trail wins my admiration, whatever else may be their weaknesses or foibles. Bill Bryson’s travelogues often shine their brightest through the inclusion of hilarious conversations with different people along the way. In this book, my favourite character is his friend Katz, who is totally relatable, setting out unfit, overweight and inadequately prepared. The author’s conversations with Katz are often very funny.

Bryson rarely includes any kind of emotional sense of connection with the mountains and forest which to my mind would make a huge wilderness challenge worthwhile. A lot of the story is about the physical duress involved. I can understand the addiction to walking, the compulsion to keep going, and the desire to complete the challenge. But it does make me think that when one sets out upon an enterprise like this, the major benefit is simply pitting oneself, in all one’s weakness, against a force which threatens to overwhelm you, and proving you can survive it.

So there are very few nature notes or descriptions of wildlife or the natural wonders of the trail. We find a factual and historical piece about the great American chestnut tree and its ultimate fate, and one lovely passage about a surprise meeting with a moose, and one reference to being surprised by bears at night, but he doesn’t see them: only their eyes shining in his torchlight.

Within this book, we find several passages where the author recounts different types of facts like an encyclopaedia, and laments government decisions in many areas including their failures of planning, inadequate employment of knowledgeable rangers and responsibility for the severe lack of good quality shelters.

Also, the regular consumption of junk food intrigued me! I wondered why the two walkers didn’t stock up with better quality food like rice and beans, and relied so much on noodles. Perhaps that’s because noodles are lighter to carry, don’t involve cans, and are quick and easy to cook after an exhausting day of walking and climbing!

Although Bryson gets a lot of humour out of the annoying fellow hiker Sue Ellen, and out of Katz, I couldn’t help admiring both of them anyway, for even embarking on such a challenge in the first place. That in itself requires strength of character and resilience. In fact, those supposed personal characteristics make their determination even more remarkable. The wry humour in setting out for an enterprise like this with inadequate supplies and preparation does tend to make the readers feel not so bad themselves about “falling short”.

I couldn’t help comparing this account at times to Raynor Winn’s narrative of her journey with her husband Moth along the South-West Coastal Path in Cornwall, England in The Salt Path. Both she and Bryson write disparagingly about people who walk with expensive high-quality walking gear, equipment and clothes, seeming to take pride in it and considering themselves superior. It becomes a source of satire, perhaps because the writer sees that some people use the “wild experience” as an excuse to show off wealth, style and taste, overlaying the experience with the false values of the very consumer society they’re supposed to be getting away from.

The end of the book denies the reader any kind of glib spiritual or psychological epiphany, to compensate for the intense and sustained physical discomfort. But that in itself says something deeper about the experience: its ultimate value cannot be immediately felt, but works its way out in subsequent years.

Reading interviews online I get the impression that Bill Bryson struggled quite a bit as he tried to decide how to pitch this account. He observes that a walk of a similar length in the UK would entail many more meetings with other people, who do after all provide the lifeblood of his humorous travel writing. He eventually decided to fictionalise certain aspects of ‘Katz’. However, I read an interview with the friend, who stated that most of it is true, and ‘just about how it was’.

The end of the account comes as abrupt and slightly sad. One might say at first that ultimately the wilderness defeated them.  But this of course would not be true, when viewed long-term. They learned from the wilderness, and this kind of experience would stay with you for life. And especially for a writer, of course, it’s pure gold!

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