The Little Book of Lincolnshire by Lucy Wood @lucywoodwriter

The Little Book of Lincolnshire is a compendium of fascinating information about this historic county, past and present. 

Contained within is a plethora of entertaining facts about Lincolnshire’s famous and occasionally infamous men and women, its towns and countryside, history, natural history, literary, artistic and sporting achievements, loony laws, customs ancient and modern, transport, battles and ghostly inhabitants.

A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped in to time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage, the secrets and the enduring fascination of the county. 

A remarkably engaging little book, this is essential reading for visitors and locals alike.

The Little Book of Lincolnshire by Lucy Wood was published by The History Press on 5 September 2016.


I've lived in Lincolnshire for twenty years, I didn't move very far to come here, I was brought up just over the River Trent in north Nottinghamshire.  Lincoln was always our shopping town of choice, being nearer to our village than the county town of Nottingham.

My husband is a proper 'yellow-belly' though, having lived here for all of his life and I've totally embraced the Lincolnshire way of life. I love the culture, the history and the food. I've worked out in the Lincolnshire Wolds and in some of the smaller towns as well as the majestic cathedral city of
Lincoln itself. It's really home. I love it here.

Lucy Wood's gorgeous little book is the perfect gift for anyone who knows Lincolnshire, or who wants to know more, or for the lover of historical facts. She's researched it incredibly well and it is packed full of snippets that are interesting, funny, weird and just a little bit strange. Some of them I'd heard already, but the majority were new to me ... and to my husband.

I was especially interested in the Aviation Heritage parts included as I've spent a lot of time working in the old RAF Base villages in the area. Some of the ghostly goings on that Lucy Wood has unearthed are fascinating, as are the accounts of the bombing raids that flew from the area and the heroes who lost their lives.

This is not just a collection of historical facts though. There's fascinating facts about the famous people who are associated with Lincolnshire; lots of odd customs and folklore, some sporting heroes and lots of political and royal connections too.

The Little Book of Lincolnshire is an absolute joy. I enjoyed finding out more about our beautiful county.

My thanks to The History Press who sent my copy for review.

Lucy Wood qualified as a journalist in 1999. She worked at the Grimsby Telegraph for fifteen years as a journalist and news editor. She now works in public relations, and is a qualified PR practitioner.
A keen local history enthusiast, she lives in Louth, Lincolnshire.

Also by the author:  The Grimsby Book of Days

Find out more at www.lucywoodauthor.com
Follow her on Twitter @lucywoodwriter

The Silence Between Breaths by Cath Staincliffe @CathStaincliffe

Passengers boarding the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston are bound for work, assignations, reunions, holidays or new starts, with no idea that their journey is about to be brutally curtailed.

Holly has just landed her dream job, which should make life a lot easier than it has been, and Jeff is heading for his first ever work interview after months of unemployment. They end up sitting next to each other. 

Onboard customer service assistant Naz dreams of better things as he collects rubbish from the passengers. And among the others travelling are Nick with his young family who are driving him crazy; pensioner Meg and her partner setting off on a walking holiday and facing an uncertain future; Caroline, run ragged by the competing demands of her stroppy teenage children and her demented mother; and Rhona, unhappy at work and desperate to get home to her small daughter. And in the middle of the carriage sits Saheel, carrying a deadly rucksack . . .

The Silence Between Breaths by Cath Staincliffe was published in hardback by Constable on 22 Septembr 2016.

I've read most of Cath Staincliffe's books, she's been a favourite of mine for many years. Two of my reviews are featured on Random Things: Blink Of An Eye (September 2013) and Witness (March 2011).

The Silence Between Breaths is based on a terrifying, but completely plausible premise, and it is this that makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand up. For this is such an up-to-the-minute story, a reflection of the times that we live in and a story that really makes the reader think about the 'what if?'.

Passengers board the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston. This is an ordinary day for a bunch of average people and the author picks out eight of the passengers to introduce to the reader. Whilst this is only a short novel, and is a quick read, each one of those eight passengers is brought to life by this very accomplished author. We learn about them, their reasons for travelling. We find out about their lives, their loves, their troubles and their sorrows. Immaculately constructed, the characterisation is almost perfect.

From the young cleaner, Naz, in his first job, helping to keep the customers happy whilst dreaming about the day that he will open his own restaurant, to Nick and his young family. Nick is stressed, overworked, overwhelmed by being a young father and harbours thoughts that are unsavoury to say the least. There are Jeff and Holly, two young people, from different walks of life, but have a definite attraction to each other.  And then there is Saheel; Asian, bearded, nervous and sweating, with a large rucksack that he keeps a tight grip on.

The ninth lead character is not a passenger. She is Saheel's young sister, back at home in Manchester and borrowing her brother's laptop to finish off her art project. What she sees when she switches it on turns her world upside down. Nothing will ever be the same again.

Cath Staincliffe expertly turns up the tension with every chapter. As the train gets nearer to Euston and the reader knows that Saheel plans to do, it becomes almost unbearable at times. The reader has come to know the characters so well.

And then. CRASH. It happens.  Some characters survive, some don't. The aftermath for everyone involved is horrific, and painful and has been written so perfectly. It felt as though I really was a part of this.

Cath Staincliffe is incredibly talented. I love her writing. Her characters are fabulous and her plots are tense and satisfying. She poses questions to the reader. You ask yourself all the time; what would I do? How would I deal with that? Could I do that? Would I say that?

The Silence Between Breaths is a book that has lingered in my head for the past few days. It raises questions, it is excellently told. Really impressed with this one, and highly recommended.

Cath Staincliffe is an award winning novelist, radio playwright and creator of ITV's hit series Blue Murder. Her books have been shortlisted for the CWA's Best First Novel award and for the Dagger in the Library and she won the Short Story Dagger in 2012.
In 2014 her novel Letters To My Daughter's Killer was shortlisted for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Book Club.
Cath is also the author the Scott and Bailey novels based on the popular ITV series.

She lives in Manchester with her family.

For more information visit www.cathstaincliffe.co.uk
Follow her on Twitter @CathStaincliffe



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Himself by Jess Kidd @JessKiddHerself

When Mahony returns to Mulderrig, a speck of a place on Ireland's west coast, he brings only a photograph of his long-lost mother and a determination to do battle with the lies of his past.

No one - living or dead - will tell Mahony what happened to the teenage mother who abandoned him as a baby, despite his certainty that more than one of the villagers knows the sinister truth.

Between Mulderrig's sly priest, its pitiless nurse and the caustic elderly actress throwing herself into her final village play, this beautiful and darkly comic debut novel creates an unforgettable world of mystery, bloody violence and buried secrets.

Himself by Jess Kidd is published by Canongate on 27 October 2016 and is the author's debut novel.


Prepare yourself for a story that is written so beautifully, so poetically, with wit and humour and ghosts and fables. Himself really is a stunning book and Jess Kidd paints such colourful characters, Her use of language is beguiling and creates such a sense of place, and of people that the reader feels almost part of the small town of Mulderrig in rural West Ireland.

Mahony is a man with a mission. He's travelled to Mulderrig to uncover the mystery of why his mother left him at a convent. He's only just found out that a letter was tucked alongside him when he was found on the steps of the convent, and there is no way that he is leaving town until he finds the truth.

Mahony's arrival stirs up a whole lot of tension, memories and anxieties in the town and disturbs the ghosts of previous occupants. Quite literally. For Mahony can see those ghosts, of people, of animals and the author's use of this supernatural element adds an intriguing and quite superb layer to the story.

Mahoney draws women to him, they find him irresistible, and he finds willing helpers in Mrs Cauley, Shauna and Bridget; three colourful women who each have their own reasons for aiding Mahoney in his quest. They uncover secrets and danger, and terrible people. Wicked priest Father Quinn and Widow Farrelly being two of the most obnoxious, but brilliantly created characters I've come across for a very long time.  The hypocrisies of the inhabitants of this small town are exposed, just as Orla; Mahoney's late mother did her best to expose them, which ultimately was her downfall.

Himself is a book that is hard to describe, yet is one that I want to recommend to everyone. It's different, it sparkles. It is so funny, yet so so sad. The characters amaze, the writing is superb. Just read it, please!


My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy of Himself for review.

Jess completed her first degree in Literature with The Open University after leaving college to have her daughter. She continued to work and study part-time, finally gaining a PhD in the field of creative writing studies. Jess’s dissertation focused on the ways in which disparate modes and genres can be brought into correspondence to create new hybrid forms in crime fiction. Her research covered several key crime fiction and magical realist texts, along with the work of John Millington Synge and Dylan Thomas. Jess has taught creative writing at undergraduate level and to adult learners. She has also worked as a support worker specialising in acquired brain injury, a PA to a Rector, and an administrator at a local community centre.

Jess was brought up in London as part of a large family from Mayo, and plans to settle somewhere along the west coast of Ireland in the next few years. Until then, she lives in London with her daughter.

Jess is now finishing her second and third novels, planning her fourth, and working on her first collection of short stories – many of which are either set in Ireland or have Irish protagonists. HIMSELF is Jess’s first novel.

For more information visit www.jesskid.com
Twitter @JessKiddHerself

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My Life in Books ~ talking to author Kate Eberlen @KateEberlen

My Life in Books is an occasional feature on Random Things Through My Letterbox

I've asked authors to share with us a list of the books that are important to them and have made a lasting impression on their life.

I'm really thrilled to welcome Kate Eberlen to Random Things today. Kate is the author of Miss You, published by Mantle Books on 11 August. I read and reviewed it here on Random Things a couple of months ago. I adored it. Here's a little taster from my review:

"Miss You is a truly wonderful story, an absolute joy to read. It's so cleverly structured and whilst it deals with themes that include terminal illness, mental health, grief and loss, it is also full of sparkling wit and evocative locations. London city stars and Italy takes equal billing, both brought to life; the hustle, the bustle, the culture, the people."

Kate Eberlen grew up in a small town thirty miles from London and spent her childhood reading books and longing to escape.  She studied Classics at Oxford University before pursuing various jobs in publishing and the arts.  More recently, Kate trained to teach English as a Foreign Language with a view to spending more time in Italy.  She is married with one son. 

Kate’s novel MISS YOU was published in August 2016 by Mantle Books in UK and translation rights have sold in 24 languages throughout the world. 

Visit her website at www.kateeberlen.com

Follow her on Twitter @KateEberlen

My Life In Books ~ Kate Eberlen

Umphy Elephant Window Cleaner by Anne Hope    This is the first book I can remember reading,  or rather,  having read to me.   My father was one of those men who loved to buy the latest gadgets, but, after the initial flurry of enthusiasm, never used them again.  When I was a very small child, he bought himself a tape recorder, and the first recording he made with it – actually one of the few recordings he ever made - was of him reading me this bedtime story on my second birthday.   Umphy Elephant is a window cleaner who rides a tricycle with a bell and a pail of water on a hook under the seat that goes slip slop.  On the tape, my father can be heard pointing out some of the things in the pictures.  ‘There’s a pussy cat!’  Suddenly, I interrupt him. ‘Tidn’t! It a doggie.’ ‘Well, I think actually it is a cat…’ ‘No, tidn’t!’ My father moves swiftly on to the last two pages which contain a joke that I always found hilarious.  This treasured recording demonstrates three important early lessons I learned about reading – books are for sharing;  they can make you laugh; they are things people can have strong and different opinions about.

A Traveller inTime by Alison Uttley  Almost as soon as I learned to read myself, I realised that books were also a wonderful escape into different lives, places, eras.  I devoured all the girls’ classics like Ballet Shoes, What Katy Did, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, especially when there were sequels, so that I didn’t have to say goodbye completely to characters I loved at the end of a book (something I still find really difficult).  The book I loved most though was this story about Penelope who goes to convalesce with her great aunt’s family in a remote Derbyshire farmhouse, and finds herself slipping back to Elizabethan times.  As I was quite a lonely child living in an old house that murmured and creaked with ghosts of the past, I longed to step back in time as Penelope does and play a part in a more exciting story.   The novel has a gripping plot alongside a poignant coming-of-age story, and the sights, sounds, smells and simple pleasures of country life are all beautifully evoked.  To this day, I cannot visit an old house or a walled garden without feeling a powerful sense that I am somehow connected to lives that have gone on there before.  I love the novel so much I still keep a small stock of copies to press upon any children (or adults) I meet who have not read it.

A Kind of Loving byStan Barstow.   The seventies were my teenage years but there were no YA books then,  so when you’d finished with children’s books, you went straight on to the classics.  Because I was a fast reader, I loved long books.  Thomas Hardy and D H Lawrence were particular favourites – although I’m not sure all that gloom, doom and sexual frustration was healthy for a teenager with an overactive imagination.  Nor do I think it was a particularly good idea for me to light upon all the orange Penguins about angry young men that my father had enjoyed when he was an angry young man himself.  However, I would still recommend any teenager to read A Kind of Loving, and I believe it appears on some exam syllabuses.  Though very much a book of its era,  it feels fresh and universal because the author writes about the see-saw emotions of first love with such tenderness and honesty. 

BridesheadRevisited by Evelyn Waugh  It was primarily my passion for good stories that led me to choose Classics as the subject I wanted to study at university, but the first friends I made at Oxford were studying English Literature and they introduced me to modern classics by writers such as Muriel Spark, Iris Murdoch, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh.  Again, as soon as I’d ‘discovered’ a  new writer, I wanted to read every single book they’d written, so I spent much more time reading English Literature than the Greek and Latin I was supposed to be studying.   Of all Waugh’s brilliant novels, Brideshead Revisited  is my favourite, and not just because evokes memories of the dreaming spires.  In fact,  I find Waugh’s depiction of the thwarted love between Charles Ryder and Julia Flyte  more affecting than his arcadian Oxford days with Sebastian.   What I so admire about this book is the unflinching observation of character (from the fully-realised flawed narrator to the pin-sharp walk-on parts) sometimes wincingly funny, sometimes deeply tragic.  Some readers are offended by Waugh’s critique of the more egalitarian society emerging, post WW II, from his lyrically nostalgic portrait of a socially stratified past.  Whilst his views are alien to me, I never find his writing didactic, and he is so skilled a novelist,  I am always totally immersed in the world of his characters as they struggle with changing fortune, human frailty and faith.  

Scruples by JudithKrantz   During the eighties,  I discovered blockbusters.   Arthur Hailey, with his multi-stranded tales of disparate people brought together in a location, like Hotel, was a favourite,  but Judith Krantz took high-octane storytelling to another level.  As well as the wealth, the power games and the sex, she gave us shopping too.  Scruples is the classic ugly duckling fairy tale  set in a dream department store and Krantz’s secondary characters, Spider and Valentine, are as stylish, appealing and memorable as the heroine Billy Ikehorn herself.  Unlike some other writers in the genre, Krantz creates fully-realised women and men with flaws and insecurities, who also relish their sexuality and power.  It’s as perfect an example of glamorous escapism in book form as Pretty Woman is in film, and just as cheering a way to spend a rainy afternoon.  

Love in the Timeof Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez  From its opening sentence ‘It was inevitable:  the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love’  this novel draws the reader into a world that is  real and identifiable yet mesmeric and magical too.  From the tragi-comic death of a beloved husband as he tries to capture a parrot in the branches of a mango tree, to a river-voyage of discovery with an obsessed and devoted admirer,  this is the  strangest of love stories between two old people facing their mortality in a lush and putrefying landscape, written in prose that veers from sinuous subtley to glorious exuberance, yet remains always incredibly human.  Like hearing the tenor Juan Diego Florez sing an aria, or watching Carlos Acosta dance, reading Marquez feels like being in the presence of genius - a privilege, as well as a scintillating pleasure.     

Pumpkin Soup byHelen Cooper.  One of the many delights of having a child is reading with them. Of all the wonderful picture books I shared with my son, Pumpkin Soup was our favourite.  Cat, Duck and Squirrel live in a cabin with pumpkins growing in the garden.  Every day they make a delicious pumpkin soup by a tried and tested method:  Cat slices up the pumpkin, Squirrel stirs in the water and Duck adds a pipkin of salt.  But, one day, Duck decides he wants to do the stirring, with hilarious results.   Like all the best children’s books, it’s both funny and a little bit spooky, and has wonderful messages about friendship and trying new experiences, even if things don’t quite work out as you’d like.  The words have a lilting rhythm, almost like a song with a chorus, and the illustrations are beautifully detailed, so that you see new things each time you read.  It’s another book I keep copies of to give to any new parents I know. 
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My BrilliantFriend and the Neapolitan novels of Elena Ferrante.  My Brilliant Friend is one of the few books I’ve ever bought simply because of the cover.  It was soon after the novel appeared in the UK, but I hadn’t heard of the author, nor read a review. I just loved the way it looked, and, having a passion for Italy, thought it would be interesting to read a contemporary Italian author.   Though I wasn’t the first person to discover Ferrante, I somehow felt I was.  This is clearly the experience of many of her readers.   The sweep of the story is epic, and yet it is so intimate and searingly truthful that you often find yourself thinking ‘How did she know that about ME?’  Once the characters are sorted in your mind - and there are a lot of them, so it takes about 150 pages of quite hard work at the beginning – all four novels are totally compelling and addictive.   I bought the  last volume, The Story of the Lost Child, in Italian because I couldn’t wait for it to come out in English.  My Italian wasn’t really up to it, but I struggled for a month until the English edition appeared.   As the final pages drew closer, I found myself reading increasingly slowly, almost as if I couldn’t bear there to come a time when I wouldn’t be reading it.  I cried at the end,  not only because it is fittingly disturbing and enigmatic, but also because I knew my life would be much emptier without the continuing presence of Lila and Lenu.

Kate Eberlen ~ October 2016

  

   

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Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye by Marius Gabriel @Scribbler4Bread

In a period of irreversible change, the Redcliffe sisters face monumental love and loss that will stretch the bounds of sisterhood to their limits…

As the perils of World War II loom ever closer, Chiara is more interested in the joyful whirl of the season than matters of faith or ideology. But even her breezy innocence cannot survive the harsh lessons of heartbreak and war. Meanwhile older sister Isobel is forced to face her misguided Fascist political beliefs in Nazi Germany as the shocking realities of the regime hit home. And then there’s Felicity, the youngest and most introverted of the Redcliffe sisters, who is about to take her vows and enter the convent against her sisters’ wishes. But a chance meeting with an American soldier threatens the very foundations of her decision.

As each sister follows her own path, will their differences force them apart and take them beyond the realms of forgiveness?

Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye is the first book in the Redcliffe Sisters series, but can also be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel.

Wish You Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye by Marius Gabriel was published in paperback by Lake Union Publishing on 4 August 2015 and is the first book in the Redcliffe Sisters series. Back in April 2014 I read and reviewed The House of Many Rooms by this author and enjoyed it.

This book has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for far too long. I took it away to Corfu with me and was absolutely entranced by the story of the three Redcliffe sisters. This is wonderfully written, with expertly imagined characters, set against the horrors of both the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War.

Beginning in Spain as the fighting gets fiercer, Isabel and Felicity find themselves holed up in a cottage. These two sisters are as different as chalk and cheese, with differing views and ideals, but their sisterly bond is as strong as iron. Felicity intends to join a convent and devote her life to God. Isabel is a feisty Fascist sympathiser who cannot understand why Felicity would do such a thing. Isabel has led a life of danger and glamour, meeting Hitler and writing controversial pieces for the press.

Meanwhile, in London, the other Redcliffe sister, Chiara continues to enjoy hectic social life, barely recognising that the the rest of the world is in turmoil.

The story follows the lives of the three sisters over the next few years and Marius Gabriel expertly brings each one of them to life. Each girl has their flaws, but these add to their personalities, and whilst the reader can, at times, disagree wholeheartedly with things they do, and say, they are all so cleverly crafted and incredibly realistic, that their mistakes can be forgiven, and understood.

Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye is a haunting and wonderful read, a story to lose yourself in. Sweeping and engrossing, this author is a very talented storyteller. I loved it and am very much looking forward to number two in the series; Take Me To Your Heart Again which was published in July this year.

My thanks to the author who sent my copy for review.



Marius Gabriel served his author apprenticeship as a student at Newcastle University, where, to finance his postgraduate research, he wrote thirty-three Mills & Boon romances under a pseudonym. 

His identity as a man had to be kept secret until he turned to longer fiction under his own name. Gabriel is the author of eight sagas and historical novels, including the bestsellers The Mask Of Time, The Original Sin and The Seventh Moon, and was once accused by Cosmopolitan magazine of ‘keeping you reading while your dinner burns’. 

He very seldom burns his own, however, being an enthusiastic cook, as well as an artist and a musician. Born in South Africa in 1954, he has lived and worked in many countries, and now divides his time between London and Cairo. He has three grown-up children.







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The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn @OrendaBooks #BlogTour

TV presenter Allis Hagtorn leaves her partner and her job to take voluntary exile in a remote house on an isolated fjord. But her new job as housekeeper and gardener is not all that it seems, and her silent, surly employer, 44-year-old Sigurd Bagge, is not the old man she expected. 

As they await the return of his wife from her travels, their silent, uneasy encounters develop into a chilling, obsessive relationship, and it becomes clear that atonement for past sins may not be enough.

Haunting, consuming and powerful, The Bird Tribunal is a taut, exquisitely written psychological thriller that builds to a shocking, dramatic crescendo that will leave you breathless.

Welcome to the Blog Tour for The Bird Tribunal by Agnes Ravatn, published in paperback by Orenda Books on 1 September 2016.


Every so often a book comes along that completely blows my mind, this is one of those books. The Bird Tribunal is absolutely exquisite, it left me feeling quite stunned.

This is such a short book at just less than 200 pages, and I've often felt a little let-down by short
novels in the past. Sometimes they can feel unfinished, or rushed .... not this one. Oh no, this is perfectly paced and has been expertly translated from the Norwegian by Rosie Hedger.

Allis Hagtorn and Sigurd Bagge are the lead players; this is their story. The reader knows nothing about either of them as Allis arrives to take up the post of Siguard's housekeeper. His house is isolated, sitting alongside a fjord with no neighbours. Gradually, we learn a little about Allis' past, but it is only her side of the story and it's a patchy history, affected by her guilt and her shame.

Siguard is a complex character, with many different moods. Sometimes surly and defensive, occasionally rude and almost violent, and at other times he's friendly and warm. He is a total mystery, and although Allis is desperate to know what lies behind the locked doors in the house, his coldness also allows her to deal with thoughts about her own life.

The Bird Tribunal is a gently paced story, developing the characters and the location with ease. The writing is haunting, it is melodic and I was completely transfixed, hating the times that I had to put the book aside, and desperately wanting to get back to it as soon as possible.

And then, the last quarter of the book, the last 50 or so pages. The story quickens, as does the reader's heartbeat as the author increases the tension page by page. Realisation of the true story behind Siguard's isolation hits, and the terror begins.

I have no doubt at all that The Bird Tribunal will feature in my Top Books of 2016. The characters still lurk in my head. The writing is absolutely sublime. Quite simply .... excellent.

My thanks to Orenda Books who sent my copy of The Bird Tribunal for review and who invited me to take part in this Blog Tour.

Agnes Ravatn is a Norwegian author and columnist. She made her literary debut with the novel Week 53 in 2007. Since then she has written three critically acclaimed and award-winning essay collections: Standing, Popular Reading and Operation Self-Discipline. in which she recounts her experience with social media addiction, and how she overcame it.
The Bird Tribunal won the cultural radio P2's listener's prize for this novel, a popular and important prize in Norway, in addition to The Youth's Critic's Prize.
The Bird Tribunal was also made into a successful play, which premiered in Oslo in 2015.

Fell by Jenn Ashworth @jennashworth @SceptreBooks

 When Annette Clifford returns to her childhood home on the edge of Morecambe Bay, she despairs: the long-empty house is crumbling, undermined by two voracious sycamores. 

What she doesn't realise is that she's not alone: her arrival has woken the spirits of her parents, who anxiously watch over her, longing to make amends. 

Because as the past comes back to Jack and Netty, they begin to see the summer of 1963 clearly, when Netty was desperately ill and a stranger moved in. Charismatic, mercurial Timothy Richardson, with his seemingly miraculous powers of healing, who drew all their attention away from Annette... 

Now, they must try to draw another stranger towards her, one who can rescue her.

Blurring the boundaries between the corporeal and spirit worlds and subtly echoing the myth of Baucis and Philemon, this is an eerily beautiful, evocative and highly original novel, which underlines the eternal potency of hope.

Fell by Jenn Ashworth was published in hardback by Sceptre Books on 14 July 2016 and is the author's fourth novel. I have read and enjoyed all of Jenn Ashworth's books, she has a very distinctive writing style, sometimes challenging but always compelling. I reviewed her second novel, Cold Light here on Random Things in March 2011.

Fell is an incredibly clever and complex story that centres around an old house, The Sycamores, in the run-down seaside town of Grange-over-sands in the North of England.

Annette has returned to The Sycamores, her childhood home. The house is empty, her parents are dead. It is dirty and dusty, but packed full of memories. Also there are the voices of her mother and father; Netty and Jack, and it is their voices who tell the story of what happened in 1963. As Netty and Jack watch Annette sweep and clean, they reflect and enable the reader to realise who Annette is, and how she became that woman.

In 1963 Netty was desperately ill. She and Jack opened their house to lodgers; young men working away from home who each had a room and two meals per day. Jack had to take on more of the domestic duties than the average 1960s husband would, and both of them protected Annette from the horrors of Netty's pain. Yet they also distanced themselves from her, and the reader realises that Annette still bears the scars of her childhood.

When a young man, Tim Richardson comes into their lives, Netty and Jack see hope. Tim appears to have a magical touch, maybe he can heal Netty? Their hope and desperation enable Tim to push them to their limits.

Fell is an atmospheric story, created so skilfully and snaring the reader in, and not letting go. The damp old house, the almost claustrophobic small town and the overwhelming feeling of despair could feel gloomy and depressing, but instead the author has created a story that is comforting, even uplifting in places.

Haunting and forceful, Fell is excellently structured, I enjoyed the time shifting. Although there's the supernatural element, this isn't a ghost story. It is, however, a clever and interesting way of telling the story of these intriguing characters.   Excellent. Highly recommended by me.

Jenn Ashworth was born in 1982 in Preston. She studied English at Cambridge and since then has gained an MA from Manchester University, trained as a librarian and run a prison library in Lancashire.
She now lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster.

Find out more about Jenn Ashworth and her writing at www.jennashworth.co.uk
Follow her on Twitter @jennashworth









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