My Life In Books ~ talking to author Ruth Dugdall

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

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

Today I'm thrilled to welcome Ruth Dugdall to Random Things. 

Ruth's books are published by Legend Press, and I've reviewed three of them here on Random Things;  The Woman Before Me (November 2013), Humber Boy B (March 2015), and Nowhere Girl (October 2015).

Now, over to Ruth with her My Life in Books choices;

Childhood Books

Does every forty-something year old's life in books begin the same way, with Enid Blyton? Sorry for being predictable, but I was completely mesmerised by The Magic Faraway Tree. Blind as I was to the gender and class problems, I was swept up that tre and into a magic world. Sliding down the tree, being drenched by Mrs Wisher-Washy, meeting Moonface; it was all as real to me as Saturday Morning Swap Shop and spending my 15p pocket money on penny tray each Friday after school.

As I grew, so did my choice of books, but it was still Enid for me. Even more dubiously, I was now transported into a private boarding school for girls where the heroine was the sporty Darrell and the victim of the girl's scorn was Gwendoline, who brushed her hair one hundred times each night before bed. How I longed to be sent to boarding school!

As an adult I re-read these books to my own kids and was stunned that I had failed to see how I was nothing like Darrell, far more like Gwendoline, and how poorly I would have fared at Malory Towers.

Teenage Books

The next book that made an impact was our first class read after I started secondary school: I Am David by Anne Holm. As I type it is in a pile next to me, ready for my next creative writing lesson at a local school. Unlike the Blytons, this is a book that did not disappoint me when I re-visited it as an adult. David, helped by his abusive captor, escapes from a labour camp. The novel tells of his struggle for survival in war-torn Europe and is a wonderful companion to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Book Thief, all of which look at the impact of war through a child's eyes.

And then, along with boys and budding breasts, I discovered Judy Blume. Are You There God, It's Me Margaret? was an especially powerful initiation into teenage angst. I have always like to find my own experience reflected in books, and this is what I discovered with Judy Blume, an author who 'got it'. Which, at that age, no other adult seemed to. 

Adulthood

By the time I was 16 it was clear that English Literature was my subject, so for the next five years (A Levels and degree) my reading was prescribed by the syllabus. So, I read Thomas Hardy, LP Hartley, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Homer .... anything strike you about this list?

No women.

That's right, not a SINGLE female author in five years prescribed reading! Luckily, I took a (short, optional) course in feminist literature when I was at Warwick and this introduced me to Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale is a book that still resonates - only yesterday I was with some refugees from Iraq and the women had to ask their husbands if they could take a walk in the nearby park. What Atwood does is take religion and history as it actually 'is', then she fictionalises it in such a way that it still makes strong comment on the world we live in now. A very clever book by one of my favourite authors, and I must have read it every year since I was 18. I still get as much pleasure as the first time and I would say that there is no better time to read it than right now.

In one of my summer breaks from university, when I took the rare chance to read something off-timetable, I picked up a book called Perfect Victim. This is a true crime book about Colleen Stan, a nineteen year old who was kidnapped whilst hitchhiking, and kept prisoner for nine years, most of that time she was kept in a box under her kidnapper's bed.

It is a story that (sadly) we have become familiar with, through recent cases as well as the fictional novel Room, but back then I had never heard of such a crime. I'm placing it as an influential book, not because of its great prose, but because it showed me how a book can challenge the reader, and how real crime can be presented in as gripping a way as fiction. I remember puzzling over the fact that the victim had many chances to escape (including a trip home to her family) but simply didn't take them, she was so conditioned to be afraid. Reading that book, I was learning about Stockholm syndrome, about the relationship between abuser and victim. In a few years I would train as a probation officer and a few years after that I would begin to write crime novels. So maybe it started with Perfect Victim.

As a writer .....

I said that I like to have my own experiences reflected in what I read, so I am very fond of a book called Mortifications which has writers describe their most embarrassing moments. 

There are some absolute classics; Margaret Atwood describes a book signing in a fur shop where no-one came, Emma Donoghue was interviewed by a radio presenter who had no clue whom she was and moaned about it whilst she was listening .. the book makes me laugh and also reminds me of the absurdity of this job I do, which has given me a few mortifying moments of my own.

Finally, as a crime novelist ...

What I search for now, is that perfect example. The book that is going to leave me feeling, I wish I'd written that. The book that is going to show me just how far a writer can go. And the best examples, for me, are American. (I don't think this is a co-incidence; the British publishing industry is so very conservative).

I've said before, but I still haven't found a crime novel to beat Sharp Objects. Although it was Gone Girl that really shot Gillian Flynn to fame, her first novel is far darker, with a grim series of event sin a bleak landscape. Our protagonist, Camille, is so likeable and so fucked-up, she is a cutter who stabs wounds into her flesh, and we want to save her as much as we want to discover who is killing young girls in Wind Gap. I recommend it highly!

Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane!

Ruth Dugdall worked as a probation officer for almost a decade in high security prisons in the Suffolk area. Now living in Luxembourg, she is currently working at a local prison.

Ruth has years of experience working with children who have been convicted of murder, having been based at one of the UK's three prisons that specialises in this area.

Ruth's writing is heavily influenced by her professional background, providing authenticity and credibility to the crime genre.

Ruth has published five novels: The James Version (2010), The Woman Before Me (2010), The Sacrificial Man (2011), Humber Boy B (2015) and Nowhere Girl (2015).

Visit Ruth at www.ruthdugdall.com

Follow her on Twitter @RuthDugdall

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Brooklyn ~ Book v Film ~ Special Feature

Nominated for six BAFTA Awards

 and three Academy Awards®

Books versus films.  Usually, I don't like to compare a film to the book that it is adapted from, books and films are two very different mediums and it's almost impossible to exactly replicate any written story to film.

I always read the book before I watch the film - never the other way around. I like to imagine characters and settings for myself, and I feel that if I watched the film first, then I'd have a ready-made image in my head. Strangely enough though, it doesn't matter to me that I know how a film is going to end because I've already read the book, but I NEVER want to know how a book will end.

When I was contacted by Saffeya from Premier and she asked me if I'd like to do a feature that looked at Brooklyn, the book versus the film, I decided to take a chance. I'd recently watched the film and I read the book, written by Colm Toibin, back in January 2010. I loved both the book and the film, although I feel very differently about each of them.

The cover image of the originally
released novel (2009)

Brooklyn was adapted for film by author Nick Hornby, from the original book by Colm Toibin, and for me, this is the most apparent thing about the whole film. Toibin and Hornby are both excellent
authors, I enjoy their books very much, but their writing style is very different. Hornby gives a freshness to the movie, it feels brighter and there is more cheer and hope about his adapted story than there is in Toibin's original story.

I remember becoming totally immersed in Eilis' story when reading the book and becoming angry
and frustrated by the injustices that she suffered. The small Irish town, and the narrow views of it's inhabitants are so wonderfully portrayed via Toibin's skilful writing.

The re-released novel with new cover image

The film really is a joy, and deserves every one of the awards that it was nominated for. Brooklyn was up against some really strong films this year, so those nominations count for a lot. The casting of Brooklyn is superb and Saoirse Ronan is absolutely top class in her role as Eilis, she has an old-school glamour and poise, and at times it is difficult to believe just how young she is. There are scenes within the film when words are not needed, when the camera stays on her face, and her expression speaks louder than any words can.

The theme of homesickness and heartbreak that are central to the book are expertly played out by this fine cast of excellent actors, yet the wonderfully timed and extremely realistic flashes of humour, especially from Julie Walters stop the story from becoming depressing.

For me, the film has more colour and is more vibrant than Toibin's original story, which is essential for the big screen. Brooklyn is a wonderfully, brilliantly adapted story, the film perfectly complements the novel.

BROOKLYN 

 Own it from February 29^th, 2016

A young woman must make the difficult choices that will define the rest of her life as the BAFTA and Academy Award®-nominated BROOKLYN arrives on Blu-ray, DVD and EST from February 29^th, courtesy of Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Based on the award-winning novel by Colm Tôibín and transformed into a BAFTA and Academy Award® nominated screenplay by Nick Hornby, BROOKLYN stars 2016 BAFTA and Academy Award® nominee Saoirse Ronan (Hanna, Atonement) as Eilis, a young woman who moves from small town Ireland to Brooklyn, where she has the opportunity for work, for a future - and love, in the form of Italian-American, Tony (Emory Cohen; The Gambler, The Place Beyond The Pines). When a family tragedy forces her to return to Ireland, she finds herself drawn back into the life she left behind. As a secret threatens to reveal itself, Eilis has to confront a terrible dilemma - a heart-breaking choice between two men and two countries.

2016 BAFTA Best Supporting Actress nominee Julie Walters (Mamma Mia, Harry Potter franchise), Academy Award® Winner Jim Broadbent (TV’s London Spy, The Lady in the Van, Iris), and (Domhnall Gleeson; About Time, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) also star in this beautifully told story. Surprisingly funny and yet deeply moving, BROOKLYN is about the meaning of ‘home’ and the intricacies of the human heart and is an emotional tour de force that has already garnered plenty of awards attention including Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nods, five British Independent Film Award nominations and a Best Actress Award for Ronan from the New York Critics’ Circle.

As noted, the film is now also fresh from receiving three Academy Award® nominations for Best Film, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. Add to that those BAFTA nods for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay along with nominations for Make-up & Hair and Costume Design and BROOKLYN is firmly cemented as the year’s first essential home entertainment title as awards season gets into full swing.

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Anatomy of a Soldier by Harry Parker

Captain Tom Barnes is leading British troups in a war zone. Two boys are growing up there, sharing a prized bicycle and flying kites, before finding themselves separated once the soldiers appear in their countryside.

On all sides of this conflict, people are about to be caught up in the violence, from the man who trains one boy to fight the infidel invaders to Barnes's family waiting for him at home.

We see them not as they see themselves, but as all the objects surrounding them do; shoes and boots, a helmet, a trove of dollars, a drone, that bike, weaponry, a bag of fertilizer, a medal, a beer glass, a snowflake, dog tags, an exploding IED and the medical implements that are subsequently employed.

Anatomy of a Soldier is a moving, enlightening and fiercely dramatic novel about one man's journey of survival and the experiences of those around him.

Forty-five objects, one unforgettable story. 

Anatomy of a Soldier by Harry Parker was published by Faber on 25 February 2016 and is the author's debut novel.

I have never read a novel quite like Anatomy of a Soldier. It is original and clever and told in voices that are savage and brutal, yet beguiling and beautiful at the same time.

Harry Parker recounts Tom Barnes's story of survival, and the stories of the young boys who are reaching maturity in a homeland that is a battlefield, by using inanimate objects as the narrative voices. This unusual and intriguing structure and style has enabled him to tell the story without any human emotional baggage, or viewpoint or bias. We all have objects that remind of us certain things, and it is often the inanimate thing that plays a large part in the memories that shape our world, this is so evident in this story of life, and death on the battlefield.

"I have BA5799 written on my tongue
and he walked me across the tarmac
towards a city of white tents and cream hangars,
floating on that shimmering desert mirror."© www.anatomyofasoldier.com

I cried before I reached the end of page two of Anatomy of a Soldier, as Tom Barnes suffers the injury that will shape the rest of the book. The words are brutal and savage, and the reader is not spared from the full horror of what humans do to each other, on a daily basis, all over the world.

After the initial horrific incident, the reader is taken back and forth. We learn about Tom Barnes before he was blown up, and about his recovery. He meet his family, and his friends, even the woman who always quite fancied him, but doesn't know what to say to him now. But this is not a one-sided story, it also looks deeply at the lives of the insurgents; the people who were born and raised in the land that is now littered with bombs and land mines, where tanks and guns and soldiers march pass front doors and gardens every day. We see the human side of the so-called enemy, we meet their parents and friends, we share their joy at riding a bicycle and flying a kite. Harry Parker gets under the skin of his characters, allowing the reader to take a good look at what makes men become enemies and how death and injury can impact feelings and beliefs.

There are times when the novel feels disorientating, it switches quickly, from place to place, from time to time and from one viewpoint to another, but having read an interview with the author, I now realise that this was his intention. Anatomy of a Soldier is about a bomb exploding, it's about opening your eyes and wondering where you are, and what is happening and he creates that feeling with his words and structure.

Anatomy of a Soldier is brilliantly written, it certainly shows rather than tells, and the horror and brutality is there in every detail. Yet it is also a story of hope and new beginnings, of tenacity, determination and stamina. The words are creative and artistic, yet genuine and so very very important.

My thanks to Faber, the publisher, who sent my copy for review.

Author photo © Gemma Day

Harry Parker grew up in Wiltshire. 

He was educated at Falmouth College of Art and University College London. He joined the British Army when he was 23 and served in Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2009 as a Captain. 

He is now a write and artist and lives in London.

Check out the website for Anatomy of a Soldier
www.anatomyofasoldier.com

Follow him on Twitter @harrybparker

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The Travelers by Chris Pavone *** BLOG TOUR ***

Will Rhodes is an award-winning correspondent for The Travelers, on assignment at a luxury Argentinian resort - fine wines and gourmet food, polo fields and the looming Andes.

But Will's life is about to be turned upside down when a new flirtation turns into something far more dangerous, and he only realises too late.

Turns out he's been targeted, he just doesn't know why. He doesn't know what these people truly want and how far into his life they will reach, to his friends and his colleagues, to his boss and his wife. He doesn't know that they will stop at nothing in their pursuit, and he doesn't know about the secrets he has already been keeping ...

Welcome to my spot on the Blog Tour for The Travelers by Chris Pavone, published by Faber on 10th March 2016, and is the author's third novel.


The Travelers is the first book that I've read from Chris Pavone, he's been published in over twenty countries and has some big name fans including John Grisham, Stephen King and Patricia Cornwell.

The novel opens with a prologue, set in Mendoza, Argentina and introduces the lead character, Will Rhodes to the reader with something of a bang. It's clear that he's got himself into a dangerous situation, and those three pages of prologue are fast-paced and a real hook for the rest of the novel.

Chris Pavone then takes the reader back, five weeks earlier in New York City, and we are introduced properly to Will Rhodes, we learn a little about him, and his job and his relationships. He's a travel journalist, working for one of the big magazines, The Travelers. He's been married to Chloe for a few years and he and his wife really want to start a family. Will spends most of his time travelling around the world, sampling the finest of wines and sleeping in the swankiest of hotels, he returns, writes a piece for the magazine and then starts over again.

His latest assignment was supposed to be a few days in France, but a last-minute alteration to plans finds him in Argentina, surrounded by luxury and also by temptation. He makes a decision that he will come to regret and succumbs to the charms of a beautiful and very available lady.

This is more than a rash decision, this is his catapult into a world of undercover espionage, and the reader is hurled along with him, travelling across the world, taking in London, France, Italy and Iceland amongst other places.

The plot of The Travelers is complicated and fairly intricate, and the reader is as much in the dark as Will for much of the time. It's a thriller, a spy novel and is hugely entertaining. It's a bit of a roller coaster at times, and it becomes very clear that the things that Will believed to be true, really are not what they seem at all, and that includes The Traveler magazine and Chloe, his wife.

Chris Pavone is a skilled author, he keeps his readers on their toes. He's created a lead character in Will who is at times incredibly gullible and naive, but ultimately a good bloke.


Chris Pavone's first novel, The Expats was a New York Times and international bestseller, with twenty foreign editions and a major film deal and received both the Edgar and Anthony awards for Best First Novel. The Accident, published in March 2014 was also an instant New York Times bestseller.
Chris grew up in New York City and attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn and then Cornell University. He worked at a number of publishing houses over nearly two decades, mostly as an editor.
He is married and the father of twin schoolboys, and they all live in New York City on the North Fork of Long Island.

For more information about the author, visit his website www.chrispavone.com

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Hester and Harriet by Hilary Spiers *** BLOG TOUR ***

Sisters Hester and Harriet are reluctantly driving to visit relatives when they come across a young woman hiding with her baby in a bush shelter. Seeing the perfect excuse for returning to their own warm hearth, the pair insist on bringing Daria and Milo home with them.

But with the arrival of a sinister stranger looking for a girl with a baby, followed quickly by their cousins' churlish fifteen-year-old son, Ben, who also appears to be seeking sanctuary, Hester and Harriet's carefully crafted peace and quiet quickly begins to fall apart. And, perhaps. that's exactly what they need ... 

Hester and Harriet by Hilary Spiers is published by Allen & Unwin in paperback on  3 March 2016.

Welcome to the Hester and Harriet Blog Tour, I'm delighted to be the first stop on the tour. I'm thrilled to welcome Hilary Spiers to Random Things today, she's written a fabulous guest post which I'm really pleased to share with you. But first, my thoughts about Hester and Harriet ...

I love the cover of Hester and Harriet, it's colourful and eye-catching and really does represent the story inside. There have been a lot of recent best-selling novels that my blogging and reviewer colleagues have raved about, I won't mention titles. I've kept quiet about most of these as I have a real distaste for anything that I feel is a little twee, or life-afirming, or that has a 'moral message' running through it. Those sort of books just annoy me. When I was told about Hester and Harriet, I must admit that I thought it was going to be one of those books, and that it really wouldn't be my sort of thing.
However, there was something about the premise of the story that really did spark my interest, and I decided to give it a chance.  I'm so pleased that I did. Hester and Harriet is a gorgeous story, well-written and full of down-to-earth and relevant humour that really appeals to me.

I've spent the last couple of days totally engrossed in this story that features two sparky and vibrant widowed sisters, living together in a small cottage in a large village. Hester and Harriet may be sisters, but they are two very different characters, and it is this that makes the novel so enjoyable. Their differences of opinion are often hilariously told, and their story is both fun yet heart-warming at the same time.

Hilary Spiers is an accomplished author. She's created a plot that deals with so many modern-day issues. The story takes place over the Christmas period, Hester and Harriet are reluctant to spend Christmas Day with their cousin Harry and his family. They like the finer things in life; good wine, smoked salmon and goat's cheese, and the thought of dry turkey and cheap supermarket wine is almost more than they can bear. They've used every excuse in the book in previous years, so eventually they set out, in the hope that the day will pass by quickly and they can get home to their own kitchen, and the delights that await them in their fridge.

Their plans go pear-shaped when they come across a young girl and a baby, huddled in the village bus shelter, and their instinctive kindness, and nosiness, and the thought that this could be their chance to avoid a terrible Christmas dinner, means that they stop and offer her a place to stay.

The arrival of Daria and her small baby Milo brings upheaval and chaos to Hester and Harriet's life. They are visited by strange men, asking awkward questions, they learn things about neighbours that they've known for years and they spend a lot of time careering around the countryside in their old and battered car. When their cousins' son Ben arrives on their doorstep, their lives become even more complicated.

Hester and Harriet really is a wonderfully constructed story, the writing flows so easily and the two lead characters are tremendous. The supporting cast, especially young Ben are expertly created, and the dramas and characteristics of village life are excellently portrayed. And, it is not in the least bit twee!!

I fell totally in love with this book, and with Hilary Spiers writing. I look forward to reading more by this very entertaining author.

A huge welcome to Hester and Harriet author, Hilary Spiers .....

'How do I look?' says Harriet.

'Dowdy.' says Hester.

'Excellent.' says her sister. This year, they have decided to see if they can appear so shabby and unkempt that their hosts will finally decide that - duty notwithstanding - they ought not to expose their friends and neighbours to their indigent and faintly repellent relations any longer.

'You've a far worse cardigan than that,' says Hester. 'The one you do the gardening in?'

Harriet struggles into a mud-coloured cardigan belonging to her late husband, a garment now bereft of buttons and sporting a multitude of moth holes. The sisters regard it for some moments.

'Trying to hard,' says Hester, shaking her head.

Reluctantly, Harriet reverts to the bobbly cable knit. 'Slippers?' she suggests

'We're going for eccentric, not doolally,' snaps Hester.

She marches into the kitchen and flings open the fridge to gaze longingly at the Serrano ham, the Roquefort, the pressed partridge terrine. Her mouth floods with saliva. Grimly, she closes the door.

Harriet places a hand on her shoulder. 'Five hours,' she says. 'We can last five hours, can't we?' This year, they have decided that in addition to the batty old women routine they will eschew any alcoholic fortification until the ordeal is over. 'Pleasure delayed ..' says Harriet and reaches for the car keys. 'Come on, let's get it over with.'

I'm on a mission.

I read voraciously - fiction, mainly. I love novels about all sorts of characters, young, not so young, nice, nasty, past, present, but I hunger (and I use that word advisedly) for books about older women. Real older women. Older women who are the main protagonists. Not wife or, sister of, aunt of, grandmother of ... Not wacky eccentrics, not ageing nuisances (dying or losing their marbles or both), not comic devices to show how out of touch they are with modern life (or conversely, how they've managed to shatter every preconception and surprise their family, their friends, their husbands by behaving badly). No, my mission to give ordinary older women their rightful place in the sun where their wisdom, their life experience and their complex personalities shine through. Heroines.

Now, a little back story. When I'm not writing (which I am most of the time- or intending to write or pretending to write), I'm involved with matters theatrical. Have been since I was an 11-year-old slip of a thing (oh, happy days!) essaying a Scottish accent in a melodramatic Jacobite one-acter called Campbell of Kilmour (if anyone has heard of it or, better yet, has a copy, let me know). These days I write plays, direct plays and, when directors are kind, I act in them. Except that there are so few parts for women of a certain age. For obvious historical reasons, the classics are male-dominated. I get that. But new writing? Why do so few new plays feature really strong older female protagonists? And who makes up the bulk of theatre audiences? Quite so.

So I started to write plays featuring strong central female characters somewhat past the first flash of youth. And once I'd started down that road, I noticed more and more the same dearth in literature. Of course there are some wonderful examples of gutsy older women in novels - Beryl Bainbridge, Bernice Rubens, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Barbara Pym, Anita Brookner for instance have all done sterling service in this regard - but I'd argue that they are in the minority. And yet who are the must numerous readers of fiction? Exactly, I rest my case.

When sisters Hester and Harriet, who first featured in a short story on my MA in Creative Writing, met with almost universal approbation and encouragement to do more with them, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and write a novel about them. For them, as it were. Give them centre stage and see where they took me. See if my theory - that older women are endlessly fascinating, surprising, funny, tragic, extraordinary and worthy of a starring role - held water. A lifetime later, months if not years of writing, re-writing, finding my life invaded by these two spiky sometimes infuriating but always entertaining creatures, who rise about everything I throw at them, I think it does. I very much hope readers will agree.

© Hilary Spiers, 2016 

Hilary Spiers has had a varied career - including law, speech therapy, teaching, youth work and the NHS. She has also been involved with the theatre as an actor, director and playwright, and her dramatic work has been performed in a number of theatres including Hampstead Theatre and Riverside Studios.

Hilary has won several national short story competitions and had work broadcast on the radio.

She lives in Stamford, Lincolnshire

For more information about Hilary Spiers and her work, visit her website www.hilaryspiers.co.uk

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Peter Duggan's Artoons

Ever wondered why The Scream brings a smile to the faces of people worldwide? Felt inadequate because you don't find the Sistene Chapel ceiling as funny as it should be? After reading this book you'll never be daunted by art again.

From Pop Art to Pollock, Renoir to Rodin, Hockney to Hirst and Matisse to Monet, Peter Duggan's Artoons is a clever and satirical series of cartoons on artists, artworks and all things art related from the popular Guardian Online series from Peter Duggan.

With over 100 unique takes on the history of art, Peter Duggan's Artoons will have you laughing along with the rest of the gallery crowd.

The perfect gift for people who love both art and smiling and will make you look at your favourite paintings in a new and surprising way. 

Peter Duggan's Artoons was published by Virgin Books on 29 October 2015.

I love newspaper and magazine cartoon series. When I was a child my Grandmother in Ireland used to cut out the 'Love Is ...' cartoons for me every week, she'd save them all and when we arrived in

Ireland for our summer visit, I would spend hours looking through them.

Another favourite was Andy Capp, from the Daily Mirror, and the Peanuts characters, and who remembers saucy George and Lynne from The Sun?? We also got the Broons annual every Christmas, along with the Dandy and the Beano and I really did enjoy all of them.

When Peter Duggan contacted me and asked if I'd like to see his collection of art-inspired cartoons - Artoons, as featured on the Guardian Online, I jumped at the chance.

This is really lovely. small hardback book with a colourful and embossed cover. Inside there are over 100 black and white cartoons, expertly drawn and all featuring the art world.

As well as cartoons, I'm also a fan of satire, and this collection really does appeal to my sense of humour. Peter Duggan pokes fun of celebrity selfies, The Queen and the Last Supper to name a few - so a very eclectic bunch of cartoons, covering lots of different areas.  I even found myself laughing at my art hero Antony Gormley

Finely drawn, with an intricacy that is so detailed and stands up to intense examination.There's an interesting note from the author at the back of the book, along with an index of the Artoons and the artworks that inspired them.

Artoons is one of those books that you can pick up at any time and find something else to laugh about, it would make an ideal gift.



Peter Duggan's Artoon series has been featured on the Guardian Online since 2011.
He spent 7 years as a registrar at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.
Moving to London in 2005, Peter has worked for several years at the prominent London commercial gallery, The Alan Cristea Gallery and has made the acquaintance of the some of the artists he has depicted.
Peter has a BA and an MA in Fine Art from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions, and has painted numerous portrait commissions over the years.
He has also made a number of short films, all of which are very silly.

Find out more about Peter Duggan at www.duggoons.com
Follow him on Twitter @duggoons

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The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell *** BLOG TOUR ***

Think you know Charlotte, Emily and Anne?

Think again.

Samantha Whipple is the last remaining descendent of the illustrious Bronte family, of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre fame. After losing her father, a brilliant author in his own right, it is up to Samantha to piece together the mysterious family inheritance lurking somewhere in her past - yet the only clues she has at her disposal are the Bronte's own novels.

With the aid of her handsome but inscrutable Oxford tutor, Samantha must repurpose the tools of literature to unearth an untold family legacy, and in the process, finds herself face to face with what may be literature's greatest secret. 

The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell is published by Quercus on 3 March 2016.  I'm happy to welcome you to my Blog Tour spot for this debut novel.


2016 marks 200 years since the the birth of Charlotte Bronte, she was born on 21 April 1816, there are many bi-centenary celebrations taking place in honour of her and her sisters Emily and Anne.

Catherine Lowell celebrates Charlotte's work in The Madwoman Upstairs and and some of her interpretations of Bronte's classic novels are unusual and thoughtful. She makes some good observations, in amongst the story of modern-day Samantha Whipple and her quest to find out more about her heritage.


I'm not sure about the character of Samantha, she's something of an odd-ball. At times she's incredibly ridiculous, at times I wondered just how she managed to get herself a place at Oxford, and at times I just got annoyed by her. Despite this, there is an interestingly plotted mystery in Samantha's life and it was this that kept my interest.

The Madwoman Upstairs is a mash-up of theme and style. There's the romantic-comedy between Samantha and James, which is tender in places, although their feelings are far more obvious to the reader, than to themselves.  There is also a touch of mystery and drama, and the literary observations are there too. Catherine Lowell's writing does make this work, but only just, and I wonder if the story would be better without the romance, but maybe that's just me?

There is a very American feel about The Madwoman Upstairs, which of course should be no surprise as the author is from California. However, this does impact on the story, as Oxford University and the Brontes are the most British of British landmarks, and heroines.

Wit and mystery, a blend of themes and styles. The Madwoman Upstairs is an easy and entertaining read.




Catherine Lowell received her BA from Stanford University, California, and currently lives in New York City. 


The Madwoman Upstairs is her first novel.  

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