Me and Mr Jones by Lucy Diamond

Me And Mr Jones is Lucy Diamond's seventh novel and is published by Pan Macmillan, released on 6 June 2013.

The story revolves around the Jones family; the four Mr Jones and the women and children that share their lives.
Eddie Jones and his wife Lilian have lived in Mulberry House for over forty years, this is where they brought up their three sons; Hugh, David and Charlie.  Mulberry House is now a guest house and Lilian and Eddie have managed their business very well over the years.  Lilian has realised though that Eddie's health is not so good,  it is time for them to retire, but will any of their sons want to take over the business?

Be warned!  Once you start reading Me And Mr Jones you will won't want to put it down.  This is the perfect summer read, full of entertaining and vividly drawn characters who immediately begin to feel like members of your own family.     Hugh has been married to Alicia for around twenty years, they appear to be the model family; good jobs, nice house and three lovely children.  Alicia is approaching her fortieth birthday and is beginning to feel unsettled, she is tired of being the perfect wife, always cleaning and cooking, she want a little excitement in life.  Little does she know that good old Hugh has a little secret of his own.

David, the middle son has lost his job.  His wife Emma is desperate for a baby, everything seems to be crumbling around them.  Emma wants a baby, she is determined to get pregnant, and nothing will stand in her way.

Charlie, the youngest son, is a charmer.  Totally unreliable, but Lilian's favourite son. Everything that he touches fails, yet he is lovable and honest and loyal. When he meets Izzy, on the run from an abusive husband with two young daughters in tow, everyone assumes that this is going to be another of Charlie's failures.  They don't know Izzy though!

Lucy Diamond has written a novel that is a joy to read.  It's a pleasure to sit down with this book and totally lose yourself for a few hours.  Although funny, it also deals with some pretty serious issues, and she deals with them very well.    I found myself completely caught up with each of the characters and their lives.
We meet Lilian and scowl in frustration as she bitches at her daughters-in-law and undermines anyone who dares to speak back to her, then we get to know her a little better and find that underneath the bluster there is a loving wife who is worried sick.  She is worried sick about Eddie - a wonderful father character who I loved instantly.

Lucy Diamond

This is sparkly, summer reading at its very best.  Characters to love and a really engaging storyline.   I enjoyed every page, and really hope that Lucy Diamond will consider writing a sequel.  I'd love to know what happens to the Jones family in the future.

Lucy Diamond has a website here where you can find out more about her other book.  You can also find her on Twitter here.

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Me And Mr Jones when I attended the Pan Pacmillan Women's Fiction Party a few months ago.  I also found myself standing next to Lucy Diamond in the queue to get our name badges at the party, but was a little star struck and didn't say hello!  Silly me!

Accidents Happen by Louise Millar

Accidents Happen by Louise Millar is published today (11 April 2013) by Pan Macmillan and is her second novel.    Her first novel The Playdate was published early last year, and was one of my favourite reads of the year.

This is a dark, sinister and at times, downright scary read.   Kate's life has been a succession of terrible events.  Her parents died in a car accident and her husband Hugo was killed five years ago.  Kate is convinced that she is cursed and will do anything possible to ensure that she and her son Jack are safe.  Kate and Jack move from London to Oxford, to be near to Hugo's parents and sister.  Kate is completely obsessed with statistics, she can't make any decisions without thinking about the 'numbers' that creep into her brain.

You have 55% chance of dying if you are hit by a car at 30 miles per hour.

40% of catering staff do not wash their hands after going to the toilet.

Kate knows the statistics for everything and this is preventing her and Jack leading normal, everyday lives.  By trying to protect Jack, she's harming him.  Jack is an unhappy little boy, gentle and sensitive, he hates the way that his mother pretends to be carefree, he can see in her eyes that she is faking it.

Hugo's family are at the end of the line with Kate, they are grieving too but they cannot bear to see how unhappy she is making little Jack.   The battle lines are drawn and Kate really has to prove to them that she is a good mother.

When Kate meets Jago, a Scottish University professor by chance one day, she is amazed to find that he understands her, and can help her to overcome her fears.

The cleverest thing about this story is that the reader knows that Kate's fears are actually real. Although Kate's paranoia is totally over the top, Louise Millar has ensured that the reader can empathise with her.  Only we know that danger is lurking, that Kate's fears are real, she's not going mad at all.

Louise Millar weaves a story that keeps the reader gripped from the opening lines.  There are twists and turns all over the place, the biggest and most shocking being towards the end.  I certainly didn't see it coming, and that for me, makes the perfect reading experience.  I love it when a book shocks and surprises me and this one certainly did that.

There is no doubt that Louise Millar is an excellent author and has now produced two very well-written, suspenseful novels that are a must-read for any fan of psychological thrillers.

Louise Millar

Louise Millar was brought up in Scotland. She began her journalism career in mainly music and film Kerrang!, Smash Hits, the NMEand Empire. She later moved into features, working as a commissioning editor on women's magazines. She has written for Marie Claire, Red, Psychologies, Stella (Telegraphmagazine), the Independent, theObserver, Glamour, Stylist andEve.

magazines, working as a sub-editor for

She lives in London with her husband and daughters.

Louise Millar can be found on Twitter here, and on Facebook here

The Safest Place by Suzanne Bugler

The Safest Place was published by Pan Macmillan on 14 March 2013 and is Suzanne Bugler's third adult novel.

The central theme running through this story is that 'the grass is not always greener', although Jane Berry does her very best to convince herself and everyone else that she comes into contact with that by moving her
family out of London and into the countryside, she really has found happiness.  The story is narrated by Jane, a forty-something mother of two, married to David and now a stay-at-home-Mum.  Jane and David had a great life before the kids came along, based in central London, working in the magazine publishing industry, close to the shops, the best places to eat and the theatres, life was good.  They were delighted when the children came along, but life changed.   The house seemed to be smaller, Jane no longer went to work, the pressure to make sure that the children had the best of everything, including the best education became overpowering and engulfed their lives.   It was seeing their son Sam become a victim of bullying and retreat into himself that was the final straw for Jane.   Her mission was to find her family the perfect home - the safest place - away from the pressure of London, away from the rough local schools. Somewhere where the family could live in peace.    OK, so David will face hours of commuting, maybe Jane and the children won't see him as much as they would like, but surely coming home to the peaceful and tranquil village that they move to will be better all round than the noise and the dirt and the pressure of London?  Won't it???

The Safest Place is narrated by Jane, some would say that she is a typical unreliable narrator, that she does her best to convince the reader that every action that she took during this story was for the benefit of her family.  Looking a little deeper, it is clear that Jane is an incredibly truthful narrator, she is telling her story as it really was, and not as she wanted and even prayed for it to turn out.  Jane is truthful and honest and acutely aware of her failings.

Suzanne Bugler has created an ordinary world, yet her extraordinary writing transforms the everyday happenings into a dark, forbidding story that builds intensely page by page until the unthinkable happens.  Jane, despite her constant justification for her behaviour, is an honest, if unpleasant character whose life goes completely out of control once she has got her wish and the family move to the country.   The author draws characters with ease, from the flighty and somewhat dangerous new friend Melanie, to the shy and tormented son Sam.  David the husband is a shadowy figure throughout the story, the reader never really gets to find out just what goes on in his mind, he is portrayed as a sad, almost downtrodden guy who just wants to please everyone.

There is something about this dark story about ordinary, everyday people that is utterly compelling and very hard to put down.  I found myself almost screaming at Jane at time, her behaviour is so frustrating and the reader knows that things are just not going to work out, even if the character pretends not to.  The shock though, for the reader, is that the incident that finally breaks Jane is totally unexpected, and never quite resolved.

This is a short novel at just over 300 pages and becomes more compelling as each page is turned.  Most certainly my favourite book by Suzanne Bugler yet.

Suzanne Bugler lives in south west London with her husband and two sons. She is the author of This Perfect World, and The Child Inside and has also written two novels for young adults: Staring Up at the Sun and Meet Me at the Boathouse.

Find Suzanne on Facebook here.  Follow her on Twitter here 

Flappers by Judith Mackrell - Pan Macmillan Reading Group Panel

A change of direction for the Pan Macmillan Reading Group Panel this time.  We moved away from fiction and read Flappers by Judith Mackrell.

Judith Mackrell is the Guardian's dance critic and is the author of four other books, all non-fiction, and all based around dance.

Flappers, sub-titled 'Six Women of a Dangerous Generation' is a multi-biography.  Judith Mackrell follows six women from the 1920s who between them were the faces of this generation.

Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Tallulah Bankhead, Zelda Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker and Tamara de Lempicka were either adored or scorned by the public.  They were women who broke the mould, who dared to be different, to be independent and to be noticed.

I was instantly intrigued by the thought of reading about these six women, especially Diana Cooper as her family home; Belvoir Castle is not far away from where I live and I'd also recently read The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey which had aroused something of a fascination with the strange, almost dysfunctional Rutland family of Belvoir.   Judith Mackrell has cleverly interwoven the six separate stories by only allowing each women two chapters each.  Each has one chapter in the first half of the book, and one chapter each in the second.  I thought this was an excellent way of keeping the reader's interest in each of the women.

There is no doubt that these six women caused chaos and controversy everywhere that they went.  With the exception of Josephine Baker, each of them came from rich and privileged backgrounds and were able to use their contacts to achieve their aims of wealth, fame and, to some extent beauty.  Surrounding themselves with the beautiful people of the day, dancing in the fashionable clubs and wearing the highest fashions, these women broke boundaries.  Not for them, the stay-at-home, traditional female role, their aim was to shock, whether that meant taking drugs, lesbian love affairs, sleeping around or dancing naked in public.

Each woman, in their own way was damaged to some extent, and although Judith Mackrell has relayed documented facts in this book, her writing does not try to force an opinion upon the reader.  It becomes our choice as to whether we can forgive such awful behaviours because of things that may have happened to Zelda, or Diana, or Tallulah in the past.

Beneath the glamour and the excess, the tragedy and the fame, this is the story of how six women changed the world for a little while.  They were a new breed; daring and explicit and paved the way for women, especially in show-business and in art.  Regardless of what we may think of their behaviour, there is no doubt that they made being female more equal and probably easier for generations to come.

Judith Mackrell

The Pan Macmillan Reading Group Panel had a lively debate about this book.  We particularly found it interesting to compare and contrast the six women and their lifestyle to celebrities of today.  Comparisons ranged from Kerry Katona, to Katie Price to Courtney Love.  There were also the parallels to the 1960s and also to some extent the 1980s, with the money, the drugs and the complete hedonism of that decade.  Another comparison that would apply to the 1980s is the fact that the behaviours peaked before a Depression or Recession.  We wondered just how far women would have moved forward without the disruption of financial collapse.

We all agreed that we would recommend Flappers to reading groups, even if groups do not traditionally read non-fiction this is written in such a style that it could almost be fictional.  It most certainly isn't a dull list of times and dates, it's an entertaining and educating read.   Groups that have enjoyed books such as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks or The Suspicions of Mr Whicher would certainly enjoy this.
Our advance proof copies did not have any illustrations, but the Pan Macmillan assure us that the finished edition will include photos - all of us agreed that this is essential.  We all admitted to Googling pictures of the women whilst we were reading as Judith Mackrell's descriptions are so well written that as a reader you find yourself dying to look at real photos.

Diana Cooper                        Nancy Cunard                 Tallulah Bankhead

Zelda Fitzgerald                      Josephine Baker                   Tamara de Lempicka

Flappers is published in hardback by Pan Macmillan on 23 May 2013.

I'd like to say a huge thanks to Jodie Mullish who co-ordinates our Panel Group meetings so well, to Philippa McEwan, Publicity Director at Pan Macmillan for telling us more about how the book came to be. We were so lucky that Judith Mackrell came along to our meeting and discussed the book with us, it was fascinating to compare what we thought to what she had wanted to achieve - huge thanks to Judith.
As always, Sandy Mahal from The Reading Agency led our debate with some fascinating questions.

Home Front by Kristin Hannah - a guest review

I'm really delighted to welcome a guest reviewer to Random Things today.   I've known Josie now for around six years or so, and although we've never actually met in the flesh, we are connected by our love of books.  We often love the same stories.  Josie started her lovely blog Jaffa Reads Too at around the same time as I started Random Things.   She is ably assisted in her blogging by the lovely Jaffa - famous in book circles as a very well-read cat.   Please take a little time to visit Josie and Jaffa's blog, you can find it here.

Josie and Jaffa - what a handsome pair!

Josie kindly agreed to review Home Front by Kirstin Hannah which was published by Pan Macmillan here in the UK in August 2012.

Here's what Josie and Jaffa thought of Home Front:

Jolene and Michael Zarkades seem to have everything, two beautiful girls, a lovely home and established careers, and as both of them take part in work they enjoy, they give the impression that they are content with their life together. However, bubbling under the surface are hidden tensions and disharmony, which once voiced cannot be unspoken. When Jolene is unexpectedly deployed to Iraq as part of her duties as a helicopter pilot, Michael is left to juggle, not only his career as a successful lawyer, but he must also learn how to hold his fragile family together in the most difficult of circumstances.

What then follows is an empathetic and perceptive look at military service and how it affects the lives of those who are left behind. The apprehension of those personnel who are fighting in a war zone is handled with great sensitivity, and yet what really shines throughout the narrative is the way in which the ‘ordinary’ lives of those who are left behind at home is altered beyond recognition.

Home Front is an incredibly emotional read, mostly the story doesn’t shy away from addressing the real issues of war, and even as the devastation caused by post traumatic stress is described as an ever present problem, there are also personal losses which must be analysed and forgiven. Kristin Hannah has a great capacity for recording the finer points of family life. She describes the overwhelming devastation suffered by families in the wake of unadulterated loss with great compassion, and yet it is in the minutiae of small details where the point is really rammed home, that war has the capacity to hurt and destroy even the most stable of families.

Overall, Home Front is a difficult book to enjoy, I sobbed through most of the last third of the book and to be honest I felt emotionally wrung out, not just by the story which was gut wrenching in places, but also because ultimately, the theme of grief, love and forgiveness shines through like a beacon of hope.

I'm so pleased that Josie enjoyed Home Front, her review really has whetted my appetite for the story.

Thanks so much Josie and Jaffa xx