Theresa Smith's Blog, page 116

Christmas Feature: Mr Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva

Mr Dickens and His Carol…
About the Book:

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Charles Dickens should be looking forward to Christmas. But when his latest book, Martin Chuzzlewit, is a flop, his publishers give him an ultimatum. Either he writes a Christmas book in a month or they will call in his debts and he could lose everything. Dickens has no choice but to grudgingly accept…

My Thoughts:

This book is, most of all, a fan letter – a love letter – to the ‘Inimitable Boz’ himself that says, “I know you were a flawed man who had a heart as big as the world. That you saw Christmas as a time to reconnect with our humanity and revel in even our smallest blessings. And that you lived with so much darkness, inside and out, but leant – urgently, frantically – always towards the light.” — Author’s note.

Mr. Dickens and His Carol is a mash-up between real circumstances in Dickens’ life that led to the writing of the Carol, and my imagination. The set-up is all pretty accurate: he was a literary star, over-extended financially, had a growing family, a lavish lifestyle, friends and relatives who depended on his largesse, and was a great philanthropist. It’s also true that Martin Chuzzlewit was a flop, and that Dickens desperately needed a money-spinner to get him out of debt. The rest is my flight of fancy; I wanted to take Scrooge’s journey and imagine Dickens experiencing it for himself as the inspiration for the book. – Author, Samantha Silva – Goodreads.

Mr Dickens and His Carol is a beautifully written story that combines a little bit of biography with a whole lot of imagination and dash of Christmas spirit. I loved the way it was so infused with atmosphere, Victorian London coming alive on the pages: the sounds, the smells, the people, and the places. You would be forgiven for thinking this novel had been written in Dickens’ era. At the time of writing A Christmas Carol, it seemed that England was going through a Christmas revolution of sorts. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had introduced the ‘new tradition’ of having a tree for Christmas inside your house (this was more of a European tradition prior to this time) and Christmas was taking on a rosy commercialisation that had not been seen before. I really enjoyed how the author framed Dickens’ reactions and views on all of this, particularly his initial disdain for writing a Christmas story.

‘Writers told what to write. Readers told what to read.’

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Mr Dickens and His Carol is a lovely novel to curl up with and get lost in amidst the busyness of preparing for Christmas. If you’re a fan of Christmas movies, the warm-hearted ones, then you’ll enjoy this novel. It would also make a terrific gift for lovers of all things Dickens. I couldn’t even get Elf to stop reading long enough to pose for a photo, he was that swept up!

2018 Reading Highlights

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At the time of compiling this list, I had read 170 books throughout 2018. To be honest, I find it overwhelming to come up with top titles lists, yet, every year, I’m still drawn to the task. I’ve read a lot of books this year that I’ve given 5 stars to. I’ve also read some that were not so memorable, many that were above average, and a special few that have not left my mind. My list below is 25 titles, but it could easily have been 75. How lucky we are as readers to be so spoiled for choice!

In no particular order, here are my reading highlights for 2018:

1. The Secrets at Ocean’s Edge by Kali Napier

2. Lady Bird & The Fox by Kim Kelly

3. This is How it Ends by Eva Dolan

4. Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey

5. The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal

6. The Lace Weaver by Lauren Chater

7. The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester

8. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

9. The Au Pair by Emma Rous

10. The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton

11. Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer

12. Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig

13. The Kinship of Secrets by Eugenia Kim

14. Becoming Mrs Lewis by Patti Callahan

15. Hey Brother by Jarrah Dundler

16. Book of Colours by Robyn Cadwallader

17. The Desert Nurse by Pamela Hart

18. The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell

19. Mr Peacock’s Possessions by Lydia Syson

20. The Second Cure by Margaret Morgan

21. The Thief of Light by Bernard Schaffer

22. The Children’s House by Alice Nelson

23. The Book of Ordinary People by Claire Varley

24. The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry

25. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

*Selected from titles published in 2018

Overall, my book of the year for 2018 is:
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

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Book Review: The Messenger by Markus Zusak

The Messenger…
About the Book:

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Meet Ed Kennedy – cab driving prodigy, pathetic card player and useless at sex (self-proclaimed). He lives in a suburban shack, shares coffee with his dog, the Doorman, and he’s in nervous love with Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence – until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That’s when the first Ace turns up.

That’s when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town, helping and hurting (where necessary) until only one question remains. Who’s behind Ed’s mission?

Protect the diamonds, survive the clubs, dig deep through spades, feel the hearts… The Messenger is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists and love.

My Thoughts:

There’s a story as to why I’ve read The Messenger at this point in time, and it’s only partially to do with my book bingo category of ‘read a book that is more than 10 years old’. Truth is, I had never read a Markus Zusak novel before now. I’ll let that rest with you for a moment, I know, it’s almost un-Australian of me. Not even The Book Thief. Yep. That’s right. Even my daughter, who hardly ever reads, loves The Book Thief. It’s like the only book she has read more than once. It’s almost the only book she has read at all. So when fellow reviewers started reading and talking about Bridge of Clay, Markus’s long awaited new release, I started getting messages from them asking me what I thought, how was I going with it, did I agree about this or that. I had to admit, with a certain amount of bracing, that I, well, I just wasn’t going to read it because, you know, (at this point my voice would lower to a whisper as I uttered those last words) I don’t read Zusak. To their credit, they all still speak to me. Two friends, one of whom is also a reviewer, were not having a bar of this. You have to read Zusak, they said, but start with The Messenger. Now, I just want to clarify, that these two friends don’t know each other, but they both said pretty much the same thing to me. Eerily coincidental. I ordered a copy of The Messenger and here I am, no longer free of Zusak. My life will never be quite the same.

The Messenger is brilliant. There’s probably not a whole lot I could add to the existing commentary about The Messenger. It was published in 2002 and there are so many reviews out there written about it and so many online discussions about the ending. It’s got a feel to it that I really love. Through Ed, you slide into this existence of ordinariness that is so Australian and so very familiar. It’s funny, it’s tragic, it’s suspenseful, it’s romantic, it’s sometimes utterly ridiculous. I loved every single word of it. To me, The Messenger encompasses everything we need to know about being a decent human being. It may have been published 16 years ago, but its message is just as valid, if not more so, today. As we bump along in life, wrapped up in our dramas, increasingly isolating ourselves with our technology, we need to remember that there is validity in human connection. In taking notice, reaching out, and making a difference, even if it’s just in giving someone an ice-cream or really listening to what a person has to say. The small things can weigh in just as much as the big things. We need to avoid falling into the trap of never asking, never looking, and never listening. Ed put in me in mind of a guardian angel, but for Ed, being the messenger was not his only task, because as the novel progresses, it becomes apparent that there was a message hidden in there for Ed as well.

‘Already, I know that all of this will stay with me forever. It’ll haunt me, but I also fear it will make me feel grateful. I say fear because at times I really don’t want this to be a fond memory until it’s over. I also fear that nothing really ends at the end. Things just keep going, as long as memory can wield its axe, always finding a soft part in your mind to cut through and enter.’

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The ending is rather powerful, but many don’t like it, and equally as many freely admit they don’t get it. I want to talk about the ending but without giving it away. Markus uses metafiction to pull off his ending, and for me, it really worked. But I had to think about it for a while, let it really sink in, because it re-orders everything about the novel and pushes the reader into a zone that they may not have inhabited before. In a nutshell, metafiction is fiction that is not only aware of its construction as a fiction, but also makes outright reference to that fact. The goal is to make the reader uncomfortable and question the line that exists between the fictional realm within the text and the world he or she inhabits. Supernatural, the TV show, does metafiction really well – and once again I am able to demonstrate that all things can be clarified with an example from Supernatural, ha! They’ve had several episodes across the seasons where Sam and Dean are parodied, even one that went so far as to have them pretending to be in a movie playing characters with their own real life names. And then there’s the well known storyline where they meet an author writing Supernatural fan fiction with events happening as the author writes them within the show. Confused? Sorry, it’s hard to explain but works well when you see it. In books, it’s obviously a bit more tricky. Nicholas Sparks used metafiction in the prologue and epilogue of his latest release, Every Breath. It didn’t work as well for me as what Markus Zusak has done here in The Messenger, but still, it’s a good example of the author placing themselves within their own text. Atonement is another example of metafiction in literature – a very good example although it has its haters as well. Anyway, I’m going on a bit here so I’ll get to the point. I like the ending of The Messenger. For me, it makes the whole point of the novel, the idea that we can all make a difference, no matter who we are, simply from observing and reaching out, all the more present. By suspending the fictional element through the use of metafiction, Markus is demonstrating that what Ed did, need not exist only in fiction. It can crossover into the real world. We too can be messengers. It doesn’t get more profound than that.

‘But just remember that I was the one – not him – who gave life to these pages.’

To finish up, I just want to pay homage to The Doorman. Best stinky ice-cream eating coffee drinking loyal dog ever.

New Release Book Review: The Lost Man by Jane Harper

The Lost Man…
About the Book:

The man lay still in the centre of a dusty grave under a monstrous sky.

Two brothers meet at the border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of outback Queensland.

They are at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last chance for their middle brother, Cameron.

The Bright family’s quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish. Something had been troubling Cameron. Did he lose hope and walk to his death? Because if he didn’t, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects…

For readers who loved The Dry and Force of Nature, Jane Harper has once again created a powerful story of suspense, set against a dazzling landscape.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 INDIE BOOK AWARDS FOR FICTION

My Thoughts:

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In Jane Harper’s third novel, she takes the reader on a journey into remote Western Queensland, a hot, dry, arid region with a vast and unforgiving landscape. Jane did much of her research for this novel in the area of Birdsville (see her author notes for more detail). About 11 hours directly north, you reach Mount Isa, my home, so the landscape and lifestyle depicted in The Lost Man is all too familiar to me. Jane Harper has such a keen sense of place and her writing brings the scenery of her story to life with vivid, and accurate, detail. Right from her first novel, this has been one of Jane’s strengths.

‘At night, when the sky felt even bigger, he could almost imagine it was a million years ago and he was walking on the bottom of the sea. A million years ago when a million natural events still needed to occur, one after the other, to form this land as it lay in front of him now. A place where rivers flooded without rain and seashells fossilised a thousand miles from water and men who left their cars found themselves walking to their deaths.’

The Lost Man opens with a crime, but as the novel progresses, it becomes less of a case of who killed Cameron and more about why he ended up dead. In line with this, The Lost Man is styled as a family drama, with the dynamics between the family members and their respective histories, both on an individual basis as well as collectively, taking precedence over the crime. This really appealed to me, particularly the issues that Jane honed in on. Intergenerational family violence within the context of remote isolation is intimately explored and I feel that Jane handled this well, balancing out the effects over the three brothers, along with the far reaching consequences of this legacy for all members of the Bright family. She also brought in themes of consent and masculine manipulation, casting a light on the vulnerability of women in the outback, where help can be hours away and support rather thin on the ground. And of course, this isolation does not only affect outback women. Rural Australia can be a lonely place, a stressful existence, for both men and women, where hope is sometimes stripped away and slow to return. The Lost Man is an important novel, depicting a part of Australia that many will never see, spotlighting very real and serious issues that are uniquely rural, and consequently, more hidden. Intelligent narratives that raise awareness of the unique aspects associated with living in rural and remote Australia will always have my full support.

‘The blunted edges of the memory had suddenly become cut-throat sharp, threatening to slip and slice him if not handled with care.’

Behind the Pen with Téa Cooper

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Welcome to Behind the Pen. Today my guest is the ever-popular Téa Cooper, here to chat about her latest historical fiction release, The Woman in the Green Dress.

When did you start writing and what was the catalyst?

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write, or tell stories. My mother branded me a storyteller at an early age, and while she wasn’t being complimentary, these days I relish the title! When I left school I refused to sit my university entrance exams. I wanted to be a journalist. I talked my way into a job as a cub reporter but, to cut a long story short, ended up doing a Bachelor of Education majoring in History and English. My English lecturer Alan Brownjohn, the English poet, seemed to think I could write a good yarn but at that point in time I was interested in fact not fiction. Fast forward thirty-five years to the catalyst … I woke one morning and decided I’d been a teacher for long enough. I took long-service leave, discovered a competition called New Voices (Mills and Boon) and wrote the first three chapters of a story and entered. I didn’t win but I retired from teaching and those three chapters become my first published book, Tree Change.

How many novels have you written and published?

I’ve written and published fourteen stories but it wasn’t until my first print book, The Horse Thief, (2015) I felt I could say I had written a novel. Since then I’ve written several other historical novels for Harper Collins.

How long on average does it take you to write a novel?

It’s almost impossible to calculate because every story is different. I work on more than one at a time and the different stages overlap. Currently I’m writing, and researching, the very dirty draft of The Cartographer’s Secret which, if everything goes to plan, will be my December 2020 book. My December 2019 book, The Girl in the Painting, will go to edits in the new year and The Woman in the Green Dress is about to release, meanwhile I’m fiddling with some mad ideas for 2021!

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What inspired your most recent novel?

Without a doubt Baron Charles von Hügel’s New Holland Journal written during his visit to Australia from Austria between November, 1833—October, 1834.

How much planning do you do? Do you plan/plot the entire story from beginning to end, or let it evolve naturally as the writing progresses? In terms of characters, are they already a firm picture in your mind before you start writing or do they develop a personality of their own as the story progresses?

This is an interesting question and there’s been a lot of discussion about this recently in some author groups. I would love to be a plotter, (most people look at me sideways and wonder how I can say this because of all the research) but I’m not. There is usually one fact that makes me start what if-ing and my characters emerge. When I wrote The Naturalist’s Daughter it was a line in an old journal that said Sir Joseph’s Banks had received a platypus pelt from an unknown source in the Antipodes prior to 1799 when Governor John Hunter claimed to have seen an Aborigine spear a ‘Small Amphibious Animal of the Mole Kind’. A line in the introduction to the translated version of von Hügel’s journal sparked The Woman in the Green Dress. It said his journal had been transcribed by an amanuensis, a ghost writer. In a flight of fancy I dreamt up this character and the story began.

How would you describe The Woman in the Green Dress if you could only use 5 words?

I’m going to cheat … deadly, nineteenth century, mystery, opals … with thanks to my lovely publishers for the artwork!

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How much research do you do? How do you balance the demands of getting the facts right and telling a good story?

I do a lot of research, and I love it. More often than not fact feeds fiction, however occasionally I tamper with the truth or the timeline for the sake of the story. My over-riding aim is to produce historical fiction that is feasible … it might have happened.

What book is currently on your bedside table?

More than one … The Nowhere Child by Christian White, four copies of The Old Machinery Magazine, (I’m researching Tarrant cars pre WW1!) and Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak.

Are you more of a print, e-book, or audio book fan?

I like e-books for research because it is so easy to bookmark important bits and pieces and use the search function, however this causes a huge amount of conflict. I love print books, old books especially. I’m not a fan of audio books although The Woman in the Green Dress will be available in audio so I may change my mind. I haven’t listened to it yet!

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If you could go back in time for a year, which historical era would you choose to live in and why?

This isn’t going to come as a surprise! November, 1833—October, 1834 so I could travel through the Hunter with my very own Austrian Baron!

The Woman in the Green Dress

A mystery from another era draws Londoner Fleur Richards deep into its web in pursuit of an inheritance, the first Australian opal, and a poisonous legacy…

1853 Mogo Creek, NSW

Della Atterton, bereft at the loss of her parents, is holed up in the place she loves best: the beautiful Hawkesbury in New South Wales. The unexpected arrival of Captain Stefan von Richter on a quest to retrieve what could be Australia’s first opal, precipitates Della’s return to Sydney and her Curio Shop of Wonders, where she discovers her enigmatic aunt, Cordelia, is selling more than curiosities to collectors.

1919 Sydney, NSW

When London teashop waitress Fleur Richards inherits land in Australia from her husband, Hugh, killed in the war, she finds herself ensconced in the Berkeley Hotel on Bent St, Sydney, the reluctant owner of a Hawkesbury property and an old curio shop, now desolate and boarded up.

As the real story of her inheritance unravels, Fleur and damaged returned soldier Kip, are drawn deep into the past by a thread that unravels a mystery surrounding an opal and a woman in a green dress … a green that is the colour of envy, the colour buried deep within an opal, the colour of poison…

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THE WOMAN IN THE GREEN DRESS by Téa Cooper

Published by HQ Fiction

Released on 17th December 2018

Available in Print, ebook and audio

Buy Links:

Harper Collins

Amazon

iBooks

Booktopia

Kobo

Google Play

New Release Book Review: Mutiny on the Bounty by Peter Fitzsimons

Mutiny on the Bounty: A saga of sex, sedition, mayhem and mutiny, and survival against extraordinary odds…
About the Book:

The dramatic story of Captain William Bligh, Fletcher Christian and history’s most famous mutiny, brought to life by Peter FitzSimons, Australia’s storyteller.

The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history’s truly great stories – a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order – and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before.

Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty’s crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave. Under the leadership of Fletcher Christian most of the crew mutinied soon after sailing from Tahiti, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 loyal crewmen adrift in a small open boat. In one of history’s great feats of seamanship, Bligh navigated this tiny vessel for 3618 nautical miles to Timor.

Fletcher Christian and the mutineers sailed back to Tahiti, where most remained and were later tried for mutiny. But Christian, along with eight fellow mutineers and some Tahitian men and women, sailed off into the unknown, eventually discovering the isolated Pitcairn Island – at the time not even marked on British maps – and settling there.

This astonishing story is historical adventure at its very best, encompassing the mutiny, Bligh’s monumental achievement in navigating to safety, and Fletcher Christian and the mutineers’ own epic journey from the sensual paradise of Tahiti to the outpost of Pitcairn Island. The mutineers’ descendants live on Pitcairn to this day, amid swirling stories and rumours of past sexual transgressions and present-day repercussions. Mutiny on the Bounty is a sprawling, dramatic tale of intrigue, bravery and sheer boldness, told with the accuracy of historical detail and total command of story that are Peter FitzSimons’ trademarks.

My Thoughts:

You know how you see those questions on social media about who you’d like to have at your dinner party? I want Peter Fitzsimons at mine. He is one entertaining man. I’ve been buying his books for my father for years now, but this is the first time I have cracked one open for myself. It will not be the last. Sorry Dad, you’re not getting this one! Mutiny on the Bounty is without doubt the most entertaining book of history I have ever read. Anyone who says history is boring needs to regard it through the Fitzsimons gaze. Grounded in fact (just check out the footnotes!), yet told in the present tense, he has constructed this historical account in the manner of a novel. Creative non-fiction – is that even a thing? I love it. Mutiny on the Bounty is a huge book, but it rollicks along with sharp wit, meticulous detail, entertaining exchanges, and a tangible sense of atmosphere.

‘They comprise a fairly typical rogues’ gallery of men who have built their lives sailing the Seven Seas, whoring, fighting, drinking, pissing razor blades with venereal disease, occasionally wielding swords and muskets in shore fights, suffering scurvy, sleeping damp and hot with rats and lice, eating weevils at every meal, swabbing decks, heaving ropes, tying knots until their fingers bleed, shinnying up masts, setting sails, and standing watch as the waves crash, the wind blows, the lightning bolts strike, and the ship surges onward beneath the starry skies and searing suns alike.’

Captain Bligh must be one of the most ridiculous human beings to have ever inhabited the earth. There’s no disputing his navigational brilliance; truly, this man sailed from a point of abandonment in the Pacific Ocean all the way to Timor, 3168 nautical miles (which is a heck of a long way), in an open boat that was crammed with 18 other people. Yet, as humbling as this experience may have been, Bligh remained a jerk throughout, and the most astonishing part of this daring journey was that all of the 18 men stuck in the boat with him resisted the urge to toss him overboard.

‘Captain Bligh is not pleased, and, as ever, expresses his discontent with much the same passion, and even much the same noise, as an exploding volcano.’

Peter captures, through a variety of consulted sources, the true flavour of Bligh’s character. He’s done a superb job at giving balance to a very unbalanced man. There was a risk of Bligh becoming a caricature, and while I laughed a lot at Bligh, I still felt as though I got a good sense of who he was. He was rather brilliant and instinctively in tune with navigation. What he lacked in people skills he made up in bluster.

‘Yes, among the most famous of the miracles of Jesus Christ was turning water into wine. Well, Bligh has performed a miracle of his own, healing a cripple by turning most of his wine into water!’

The mutiny itself was an extraordinary event, but so was all that followed after. I love a good deserted island story, I have to say, and knowing that this was all real was an absolute bonus. Pitcairn Island has a rather horrifying history, and the way they were all going for a while there, it’s amazing they actually survived. I did a little reading up on Pitcairn after I finished this book, and it’s not a pretty history, particularly its most recent affairs. But it is fascinating, to think of those original inhabitants, hiding out from the Royal British Navy, as the beginnings of a new society. I was a little shocked and disappointed about Christian’s fate, but fact is fact.

Mutiny on the Bounty is a vastly comprehensive book, with nothing left unexplored. I loved that about it, that people didn’t just drop off the radar. We got to know what (supposedly) happened to everyone, before, during, and after the mutiny. The ripple effect of the mutiny was depicted with precision. You’d never really normally consider a 600+ page history book entertaining reading that you devour from cover to cover, but this is exactly what Mutiny on the Bounty is. With the inclusion of colour photographs along with maps and other visual aids, Peter has written a book that contributes greatly to the historical accounts of this amazing event. And it’s funny. Really, genuinely, funny. Which is why I’m inviting Peter to dinner. I highly recommend Mutiny on the Bounty to all readers, and it would make a great gift this Christmas – except for you Dad, sorry, because it took me longer than anticipated to read and I needed to get your parcel in the mail. Birthday, then?

‘He seems so…angry. Well, come to think of it, they had left him in a tub in the middle of the ocean with few supplies and a maniacal commander, laughing and cheering as they sailed away, but still…’

Behind the Pen with Emma Rous

Last week I reviewed The Au Pair, a brilliant and atmospheric debut by British author Emma Rous. Today I am pleased to welcome Emma to Behind the Pen.

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How would you describe The Au Pair if you could only use five words?

Uncertain identities and family secrets.

I love the contrast of the two family homes in The Au Pair. The city home being called Winterbourne while the country home is known as Summerbourne. Where did the inspiration to set up the houses like this come from?

I had an image of Summerbourne in my head right from the beginning – this big, rambling country house that’s been in the family (whose surname was originally Summerbourne) for generations. It was a while later that it occurred to me that a Summerbourne ancestor with a sense of humour might have named their London home Winterbourne – goodness knows how long that idea had been brewing in my subconscious before it popped up! I’m really glad you liked the contrast between the houses, thank you – Winterbourne is much more formal and sophisticated, but I still wanted it to be a place that the younger generation are fond of and feel safe in.

While we’re talking about inspiration, at the heart of The Au Pair is a complicated (and rather tragic) family mystery. Is this inspired by real events (historic or contemporary) that you’ve heard about or just a cracker of an imagination?

It wasn’t inspired by real events at all, but it may well have been influenced by my childhood love of stories involving identity-swaps, like Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, Mary Rodgers’ Freaky Friday and, of course (as I got older), Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr Ripley. I began by establishing exactly what happened on the day the twins were born, and then the rest of the story spiralled outwards from there.

Is any one character more of a favourite to you than the others?

I have a soft spot for Danny, actually, because he’s so laidback and kind, although I suspect his laziness would irritate me if he was my brother!

In terms of writing The Au Pair, did one timeline spring from your imagination more easily than the other?

I wouldn’t say either one was easier, but they felt very different to write. Laura’s chapters have a certain seasonal rhythm to them, because they cover her eleven months working at Summerbourne, from one summer to the next. Seraphine’s story takes place over just ten days (barring the epilogue), so her chapters felt much more adrenaline-fuelled.

The Au Pair

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A tautly plotted mystery of dark family secrets, perfect for fans of Kate Morton.

Seraphine Mayes and her brother Danny are known as the summer-born Summerbournes: the first set of summer twins to be born at Summerbourne House. But on the day they were born their mother threw herself to her death, their au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of dark-cloaked figures and a stolen baby.

Now twenty-five, and mourning the recent death of her father, Seraphine uncovers a family photograph taken on the day the twins were born featuring both parents posing with just one baby. Seraphine soon becomes fixated with the notion that she and Danny might not be twins after all, that she wasn’t the baby born that day and that there was more to her mother’s death than she has ever been told…

Why did their beloved au pair flee that day?

Where is she now?

Does she hold the key to what really happened?

Published by Hachette Australia – Piatkus

Released on 11th December 2018

Read my full review here

Christmas Feature: One Day in December by Josie Silver

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Looking for a non-Christmassy story that is infused with the spirit of Christmas to read this Christmas? My little Elf has just the pick for you. It’s lucky I read an advanced copy, because he’s not letting this one go! And by the way, that first sentence is all Elf, he’s yet to master the art of non-repetition and he seems to want to make everything about Christmas.

‘One Day in December is a novel that wraps you up in a comforting embrace. And that ending…incredibly wonderful. A truly perfect way to finish such a gorgeous novel.’ – Me, not Elf.

One Day in December…

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Two people. Ten chances. One perfect love story.

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist. After all, life isn’t a scene from the movies, is it?

But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic…and then her bus drives away.

Laurie thinks she’ll never see the boy from the bus again. But at their Christmas party a year later, her best friend Sarah introduces her to the new love of her life. Who is, of course, the boy from the bus.

Determined to let him go, Laurie gets on with her life. But what if fate has other plans?

Following Laurie, Sarah and Jack through ten years of love, heartbreak and friendship, One Day in December is a joyous, heart-warming and immensely moving love story that you’ll want to escape into forever.

One Day in December by Josie Silver has been chosen as Reese Witherspoon’s December book club pick.

Published by Penguin Random House Australia

Read my full review here

Thanks is extended to Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of One Day in December for review.

Book Bingo! The Messenger by Markus Zusak

Last bingo for 2018 and the final category I needed to fill was:

A book written more than 10 years ago

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For this final bingo I’ve selected The Messenger by Markus Zusak, first published in 2002, so it more than fits the bill for this category. The Messenger was recommended to me recently by two friends whose opinions on books I regard highly. Both, completely separate to the other, said this was the ideal ‘first Zusak’ for me.

I haven’t got a review to link to for this one yet as I am not quite done. Hoping to have a review up for it next week.

Big thanks to Mrs B’s Book Reviews and The Book Muse for playing along with bingo so enthusiastically this year. We are joining up again for an even bigger (and slightly more categorically challenging) bingo for 2019. Stay tuned for the new card!

Here’s a recap on what I read for each category this year:

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Behind the Pen with Kate Morton

One of my top reads for 2018, without any doubt, is The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton, an author who has long been a favourite of mine. I am so thrilled to welcome Kate to Behind the Pen today.

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Kate Morton (Photo Credit – Davin Patterson)

Birdie Bell is a departure from your usual character and yet I feel as though you have been hinting at such a character for many novels now. Was writing her a creative challenge or a complete liberation?

I loved writing Birdie Bell. Not only did she give me the opportunity to depict the grimier streets of nineteenth-century London, she also allowed me to edge ever-closer to making the house of my novel a character rather than a simple setting. On a practical level, Birdie was a very liberating character to write: she had an almost omniscient view, having been privy to the lives and time of each of the other characters and was able to reveal as much or as little as I needed her to, and fill in gaps with respect to the lives of the other characters.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter has a far more present gothic atmosphere than any of your previous novels. Is this something you have been inching towards over time? Is there any great inspiration from literature or real life that you have drawn from in the creation of Birchwood Manor and Birdie Bell?

I am obsessed with houses. I love them architecturally and aesthetically, but most of all I’m drawn to them as repositories of memory. I find it impossible to set foot inside an old house and not begin to wonder immediately about the different human lives that have played out within its walls. All of the houses in my books are haunted in some way by the imprints of the past, but in The Clockmaker’s Daughter I was able to take my usual metaphorical haunting a little further. I liked the idea of giving voice to a ‘forgotten woman’ of history, and was inspired, in the creation of Birchwood Manor, by a number of real houses, for instance Avebury Manor, Great Chalfeld Manor and, of course, Kelmscott Manor.

With so many voices telling their stories within The Clockmaker’s Daughter, was there any one in particular who spoke to you louder than the others, inspiring the story from the beginning?

Birdie Bell’s voice was the first that I heard. Some years ago, I’d been reading about the English Romantic poets, in particular the legendary summer that Byron, Shelley and friends spent on the lake in Switzerland, during which Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Around the same time, I’d also been thinking about Harvington Hall, a real-life house in Worcestershire with a particular architectural feature that sparked my imagination. These two ideas collided and Birdie Bell was born. I sketched the first scene – about a group of young artists who escape London for a summer of creativity, but for whom something goes terribly wrong – and then put it aside (while I wrote another novel) until I met an archivist and the rest of the story began to take shape.

How long does it take to create a novel as vast as The Clockmaker’s Daughter, from inspiration through to completion? The research alone is so vast, I am so curious about your tracking of all of the information. Are you a visual researcher, in that it surrounds you as you write, or is it all neatly contained and filed away?

The writing process is immersive for me. I write about things that interest me as a person and so the veil between the world of the book and my real life is porous, each constantly informing the other. I do a lot of broad world-building research at the outset, as I narrow in on the characters, setting and story, and then become more focussed. I take copious notes at this early stage, but rarely look at them again. My aim is to take on the information so that the research becomes part of my own knowledge and I am therefore able to embody my character, writing in their viewpoint and about their world as if it were my own. I continue to research all the way through the writing process – whether by reading, visiting museums, galleries and real-life locations, listening to music or watching documentaries.

Is there any particular season you find more creatively inspirational?

All of them for different reasons. I love to write in autumn and winter, for the simple fact that it’s a pleasure to be inside where there’s a fire on, with a blanket across my knees and a warm drink on my desk, bringing the world of my book to life; but I am also inspired by the rush of joy that I feel when I step outside on a perfect spring or summer’s morning. It electrifies me with a need for action, an urgent sense that I need to be doing something, and more often than not, that ‘something’ is writing.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter

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My real name, no one remembers.

The truth about that summer, no one else knows.

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor on the banks of the Upper Thames. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe’s life is in ruins.

Over one hundred and fifty years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist’s sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river.

Why does Birchwood Manor feel so familiar to Elodie? And who is the beautiful woman in the photograph? Will she ever give up her secrets?

Told by multiple voices across time, The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a story of murder, mystery and thievery, of art, love and loss. And flowing through its pages like a river is the voice of a woman who stands outside time, whose name has been forgotten by history, but who has watched it all unfold: Birdie Bell, the clockmaker’s daughter.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter

Published by Allen & Unwin

Released 12th September 2018

Read my review here