#Blogtour The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour with Jude Dobson

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Last Secret Agent: The Extraordinary Story of a WW2 Spy in Her Own Words by Pippa Latour with Jude Dobson

About the Author

Pippa Latour - following the war, Pippa settled in New Zealand where she raised four children. For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats during WWII. For seventy years, Pippa's contributions to the war effort were largely unheralded, but she was finally given her due in 2014 when she was awarded France's highest order of merit, the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Pippa was the last surviving F (France) Section Special Operations (SOE) agent from World War II.  

In the final months of her life, Pippa finally decided to tell her remarkable story, written with the assistance of award-winning historical documentary producer and writer Jude Dobson. Pippa died in 2023, at the age of 102. 

About the book

The Last Secret Agent, by Pippa Latour is the extraordinary untold story of Latour, who parachuted into occupied France in 1944 as an undercover agent and sent secret messages back to Britain.  

In June 1940, a covert new force - the Special Operations Executive (SOE) - was set up to wage a secret war. Its agents were tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and over the course of the next five years, 470 special agents would be sent into France. Only 26 female SOE agents, including Pippa, would return. 

Pippa had an extraordinary life – born in 1921 she lived in Congo, Kenya and France before eventually landing in London. In 1943, aged 23, she was parachuted into France, where she travelled around the occupied countryside, concealing her codes in a hair tie and her Morse key underneath her bicycle seat, and sending crucial information back to Britain in the lead-up to D-Day. More than once, she came frighteningly close to being discovered. For decades, Pippa told no one - not even her family - of her incredible feats. Now for the first time, her story can be told in full.  

It is an incredibly rare first-person story. Although there are several biographies of female WW2 spies, there are no other first-person memoirs of this kind. And as the last female WW2 SOE agent to die, Pippa's story will be the first and last to be told in this way. It is a rare and privileged glimpse into her life, and in many ways, it is Pippa’s last public service, her last contribution to freedom. It is a remarkable testament to a remarkable and brave woman. 

Review

I've said this before, it's important that witnesses tell their stories and future generations hear or read them. As survivors pass away it is paramount that we share history and experiences in order to understand the sacrifice, the loss and the harsh reality of war.

Pippa's story is an excellent example of trauma, and to some extent training, the habit of secrecy, and perhaps knowing that only someone who went through a similar experience can comprehend the truth and the secrets. Pippa's family being completely unaware of her bravery during the war and her contribution to the path of freedom, isn't an uncommon story and I wonder how many more people sit or have sat on life experiences without ever breathing a word of them to anyone.

The bittersweet ending is made sweeter by the beautiful homage Dobson pays to Pippa and her fellow comrades, which is made even more compelling by adding the details and names of the fellow agents. Cementing their names and fates on paper, that they may never be forgotten.

It's a beautifully crafted memoir woven together through conversations with a centenarian, her memories often brought forward to the present day by photos, objects, names and places. It's an excellent read, often a nostalgic and sometimes sad one, but at the forefront the courage, selflessness and sacrifice of these women and Pippa shines through.

Buy The Last Secret Agent at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Monoray: pub date 7 November 2024 |  hardback  |  £22. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Sunny Side of the House by David G. Bailey

It's my turn on the Blogtour The Sunny Side of the House: When Life Gives You Strawberries – Memories of a Fenland Boy by David G. Bailey.

About the Author

David G. Bailey's debut publication in 2021 was Seventeen, a football fantasy adventure novel aimed at and beyond young adults. Them Roper Girls (2022) returned to a world more recognisably our own, tracing in their own voices the lives of four sisters over more than sixty years from their 1950s childhood. 

A husband of a Roper sister takes centre stage in Them Feltwell Boys (2023). With the same gritty realism and sometimes dark humour found in its predecessor, this follows Ray Roden's crude attempts at teenage love in counterpoint to his cynical womanising as an adult. The Sunny Side of the House (2024) is a first venture into non-fiction in another projected series, When Life Gives You Strawberries - Memories of a Fenland Boy. The origin story of Seventeen appears within the clear-eyed narrative of a 1960s boyhood in East Anglia, where both David's contemporary novels are partly set. He currently lives in the Midlands.

To read more of and about David's work, including a quarterly newsletter and new content daily comprising extracts from diaries and other writing over more than fifty years, visit his website davidgbailey.com. Visit David Bailey on @dgbaileywriter on X,  @davidgbaileywriter on Instagram

About the book

You can’t choose your mum and dad, even when they choose you.

In my early teens I had a taste for horror comics. In one strip I read of a handsome young couple at last alone in their honeymoon suite. He is crisply suited, clean-cut. She, lovely in her wedding finery, offers him the chance to watch her disrobe.

The bride is not shy. She reveals herself, frame by frame, to be a hideous crone gloating at having tricked her new husband. He is unfazed, setting her to screaming as he removes his own head to stow it, grinning still, under his arm. Years later, when I thought of writing a memoir or fictionalised account of my parents’ marriage, the title I toyed with was ‘The Hag and the Head’.

If this gripping narration of a 1960s Fenland boyhood sometimes reads like fiction, the detailed evocation of characters and events, by turns humorous and traumatic, anchors it in remembered facts. The author does not soft-pedal the dysfunction at the core of a wide, supportive family in which the boy faces adult challenges, including jarring discoveries about his parents’ past and wartime history.

Review

I often feel in memoirs that brevity is the gatekeeper to the core emotions connected with memories. A coping mechanism that has become a life companion, and indeed one that is hard to detach yourself from. Behind the brevity - the gate - lies a certain level of disconnect or disassociation, which is the key to said gate. Everything seen through the coping mechanism and retold for self and scores more - it becomes a way of life.

That was my experience when reading, perhaps equally you recognise elements of self in the way you retell things or the way actions and words are framed for strangers ears or eyes. It's what resonated with me, and that in itself is testament, because any resonance with words, story, memoir is better than none at all.

I wonder also how often this picture of dysfunction that functions with often invisible threads of a greater socially, economic and familial expected connections, is actually the truth for the majority of us. Life, in general, isn't a picket fence adventure with a delightfully inspiring family and bountiful chapters of joy and peace. It's usually a roller coaster ride of trauma, pain and realisations with moments of laughter and snuck in for normality.

It's a story full of self- deprecation, humour and insightful observations. The magnifying glass observation from above, but in a way that doesn't sever heads or pass judgement - well perhaps a bit here and there. 

Buy The Sunny Side of the House at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏ : ‎ SilverWood Books, pub date 17 Aug. 2024. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour House of Kwa by Mimi Kwa

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour House of Kwa by Mimi Kwa.

About the Author

Mimi Kwa has been a journalist and television newsreader for twenty years as well as appearing in TV series and commercials. She and her partner, John, live in Melbourne, with their four children, a cavoodle and a burmese cat. Mimi loves to paint and write. This is her first book.

About the book

Wild Swans meets Educated in this riveting true story spanning four generations - The dragon circles and swoops ... a tiger running alone in the night  

Mimi Kwa ignored the letter for days. When she finally opened it, the news was so shocking her hair turned grey. Why would a father sue his own daughter?

The collision was over the estate of Mimi's beloved Aunt Theresa, but its seed had been sown long ago. In an attempt to understand how it had come to this, Mimi unspools her rich family history in House of Kwa.

One of a wealthy silk merchant's 32 children, Mimi's father, Francis, was just a little boy when the Kwa family became caught up in the brutal and devastating Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. Years later, he was sent to study in Australia by his now independent and successful older sister Theresa. There he met and married Mimi's mother, a nineteen-year-old with an undiagnosed, chronic mental illness. Soon after, 'tiger' Mimi arrived, and her struggle with the past and the dragon - began ...

Riveting, colourful and often darkly humorous, House of Kwa is an epic family drama spanning four generations, and an unforgettable story about how one woman finds the courage to stand up for her freedom and independence, squaring off against the ghosts of the past and finally putting them to rest. Throughout, her inspiration is Francis's late older sister, the jet-setting, free-spirited Aunt Theresa, whose extraordinary life is a beacon of hope in the darkness.

Review

I have to admit the last sentence of the last chapter (not the epilogue) made me smirk. It just encapsulates the history, the heritage, the genealogy, the family web and entirety of this memoir, with such accuracy. The fragile balance between sanity, safety, happiness and peace, which appears to be in a constant state of imbalance because at the core is always this expectation of living up to tradition of prior generations.

It's a fascinating memoir, there is no question that House of Kwa brings its own building size sense of history, myth and importance with it. That is drawn in direct comparison to the present generations and their attempt to navigate deeply ingrained entitlement.

I think it's fair to say that it takes an almost out of body observation of self, loved ones and family to be able to not only view and engage her family members in a way that is compassionate, and yet simultaneously stand her ground and fight for what is right.

I really enjoyed the read, Mimi is commendable for being so patient and coming out the other side without falling prey to the traditions and expectations of such an auspicious legacy, and equally finding firm footing in a chaotic modern version of family.

Buy House of Kwa at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎HarperCollins pub date 9 May 2024. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Strong Female Character by Fern Brady

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Strong Female Character by Fern Brady.

About the Author

Fern Brady is a woman. She is also autistic. She was born in Scotland (no, not Glasgow). She has no pre-sets for being a 'good woman' - she never hated her body or indulged in messy millennial shame. She now lives out of wedlock in London. She has zero children.

Fern's caustic wit, exceptional writing and electric stage craft has made her one of the UK's hottest comedy stars. As seen on Live from the BBC, Live from the Comedy Store, The Russell Howard Hour, and Live at the Apollo. She's had viral success with her BBC Life Lessons and supported Frankie Boyle and Katherine Ryan on tour. She can currently be seen on Taskmaster on Channel 4. Follow @FernBrady on X

About the book

Fern: A summary of my book:

1. I'm diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it.

2. My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc.

3. My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed.

4. Homelessness.

5. Stripping.

6. More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns.

7. I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc.

8. REDACTED as too spicy.

9. After everyone tells me I don't look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax.

10. REDACTED as too embarrassing.

Review

I'm going to stray from the well trodden path of observations and experiences of finding this memoir 'a riot or funny' - I did however find it a deeply introspective experience. A memoir that is an open living document of memories, visceral reactions and constant questioning.

As a parent of a diagnosed and undiagnosed neurodivergent persons, I found the interactions with her parents quite interesting. Thirty-three to forty years ago the Western world was still on the cusp of discovering and trying to understand neurodiversity. A time when blame was sought in food sources, environmental reasons, and of course the great vaccine and mercury poisoning theories. Also a time when many countries didn't recognise neurodiversity and bad parenting was a word often thrown about. 

Also, I might add, a time when the possibility of a genetic trait or link had yet to be introduced or proven. Now many parents of neurodiverse children, both young and of adult age, are realising that one or both of said parents are also neurodivergent. 

Schools refusing to engage with medical, therapeutic care or suggestions. The reality of trying to help your child succeed, progress, stay safe and healthy in a world created for neurotypical children and adults, and doing so whilst climbing insurmountable mountains for them. There is basic lack of understanding of this at first, but towards the end of the book there are some moments of clarity.

I concur with the sentiment of young neurodiverse individuals being brave enough to withstand the judgemental world of social media in our era, and doing so to give insight into their world, minds and neurodiversity. They have become a teaching tool, and I would include newly diagnosed adults in the same group.

It's a fast-paced memoir fuelled by frustration, anger and this element of not being able to reach something that is just ever so slightly out of reach. When Fern does receive confirmation it also comes with the realisation that nothing changes, despite an overriding label. The daily battle, the need for masking to suit societal expectations, the meltdowns, the shutting down - all that changes is knowing the why. Everything else is one step at a time, day by day.

Buy Strong Female Character at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Octopus, pub date 11 January 2024. Buy at Amazon com. At Bookshop.org.

#WOW #Blogtour My Unfurling by Lisa May Bennett

 It's a pleasure to take part in the WOW! Women On Writing Tour - My Unfurling: Emerging from the Grip of Anxiety, Self-Doubt, and Drinking by Lisa May Bennett.

About the Author

Lisa May Bennett is the author of the memoir My Unfurling: Emerging from the Grip of Anxiety, Self-Doubt, and Drinking. She had a flourishing career in marketing and communications for more than two decades before finally embracing sobriety and chasing her dream of becoming an author. Her upcoming book will demystify the self-publishing process, and she hopes to encourage more people to tell and publish their own stories. You can follow @lisamaybennett on X, @lisamaybennett on Instagram, lisamaybennett on Facebook or visit lisamaybennett.com

About the book

Wicked hangovers. Scary blackouts. Ugly fights with friends. The results of binge drinking weigh heavily on Lisa May Bennett. She tries repeatedly to savor “just a few” glasses of wine—only to find herself passed out on the couch again.

Lisa has a bucket list full of exciting adventures with zero check marks next to them. Her anxiety and self-doubt are crying out for real solutions, not more booze. And her dream of becoming a published writer is fading away. She worries that her love of a good buzz will keep her stuck in this rut. Can she take charge of her life, or is she headed for a disastrous rock bottom?

This touching and funny memoir explores the childhood experiences that paved the way for Lisa’s drinking habit. She examines her complicated relationship with her mother, her experiences as a late bloomer, and her ongoing search for validation. In an engaging and relatable voice, the author shares how she began to “unfurl” without alcohol holding her back. But will she stay sober and discover how to truly thrive?

Anyone wondering if they'll ever burst out and follow their dreams will find My Unfurling compelling and hopeful.

Review

I'd like to to start my review my supporting and congratulating the achievement of sobriety. It must seem like such an easy thing to write and then share with the world, however it takes strength to acknowledge, face and fight the inner call.

There are a lot of moments in the book that can be applied to anyone, who regardless of whether they are seeking a core understanding of self to help themselves deal with addiction, can use certain aspects to understand themselves better. Having a greater comprehension of the why won't change the why, but it might change the way a person views their frame of reference.

I think it's important to understand that an element of peace can be found when a person finally realises that we are unable to change the past, unable to change the impact or reasons others played a role in our development and the whether that impact had repercussions. What we can control and change is the energy and power we choose to invest in those moments and people.

There are various types of alcoholism, I won't delve into the variations, suffice to say one of them fits into the renamed so-called grey/gray area drinker mentioned in the first few chapters. I think the avoidance and inability to accept the term alcoholism and the need to reinvent is a type of denial, but if that in itself is a coping mechanism that keeps someone sane and sober, then so be it.

It's an intimate look behind the door of a journey to find the root of the problem, the examination of self and life to understand triggers and ultimately to find the right coping mechanism to maintain sobriety, and to celebrate self.

Buy My Unfurling: Emerging from the Grip of Anxiety, Self-Doubt, and Drinking by Lisa May Bennett at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Bookshop.org. Barnes and Noble.

#Blogtour The Dolphin Who Saved Me by Melody Horrill

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Dolphin Who Saved Me: How an Extraordinary Friendship Helped Me Overcome Trauma and Find Hope by Melody Horrill.

About the Author

Melody Horrill is an award-winning journalist, presenter, and documentary producer, with more than twenty years’ experience in broadcast media. She is well-known for her passionate writing and filming about the endangered wild dolphins in Australia. Her documentary Dance with a Dolphin was broadcast across the world on CNN, with Melody presenting it from the U.S.

About the book

When Melody Horrill arrived at university she was a troubled and lost young woman, hiding behind a carefully crafted exterior. She had experienced a childhood of emotional and physical trauma, mainly at the hands of her violent father, that was as damaging as it was brutal.

One day Melody volunteered to help her lecturer monitor pods of nearby river dolphins. There for the first time she encountered Jock, a solitary dolphin with a maimed fin, who lived apart from the highly social pods. Melody grew to form a bond with Jock that gave her the key to freeing herself from the demons of her own past, their extraordinary friendship being the start of her long-term mission to save river dolphins.

Beautifully written and filled with insight and compassion, Melody’s memoir details her life-changing friendship with the river dolphins, and how Jock helped her to heal.

Review

In a sense the two beings mirror each other in certain ways, which is probably something Melody instinctively and subconsciously recognises, but perhaps only realises the importance of as time passes. The damaged mammals echo pain in body and soul, and their closeness is an emotional and visual healing process. I think it's equally important to take note that this is also a message about the way we treat not only the most vulnerable, but also living beings in general. The path they have both taken seems to be one of isolation, one as the outcast the other perhaps more as a coping mechanism.

It's a beautiful and poignant journey and story. Whilst the reader can only assume what the response one side is I think the experience and response is evidence that the connection between Jock and Melody is a core memory, a connection one of them will ever forget. It has clearly left a positive mark in the life of the author, and one can only hope it has helped to heal previous trauma.

The other important element of this book is the discussion about how attitudes have changed when it comes to interacting with marine life and the way we should be supporting the conservation of species, the reintroduction or naturalisation of captive marine life. I think the world has taken a step in the right direction when it comes to the general public, but we have a long way to go. If this story leaves any kind of impact it should be the special relationship between human and dolphin, and the remarkable journey the two of them experienced together.

Buy The Dolphin Who Saved Me at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Greystone Books, pub date: 28 September 2023 Paperback • £14.99 U.K. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Love & Care by Shaun Deeney

It's my turn on the Blogtour Love & Care by Shaun Deeney.

About the Author

Shaun Deeney is a former journalist and Emmy award-winning film and TV producer. He has made current affairs programmes for ITV on social issues, including care. He is also the creator of a podcast on caring for his mother called Love and Care. Shaun has a degree in English and American Literature from Kent at Canterbury. He has two daughters and loves listening to Frank Sinatra. For more information visit shaundeeney.com.

About the book

Shaun is finally free of responsibilities to anyone but himself; single, with two grown up daughters, he is just embarking on a new life in a new country when he gets a call to say his father is dying.

His mother has Parkinson's Dementia and is in a care home. Shaun faces a stark choice: should he give up his new-found freedom, or turn his back on the woman he'd fought so hard to protect, not least from his own father? Shaun's mother had loved and cared for her son all her life. Could he now do the same for her?

Review

It's a peculiar thing to experience, the next stage of life and having to take on certain on certain responsibilities when life comes full circle. The child becomes the carer to the parent. The once strong person in charge becomes vulnerable, frail and needs support.

There is always someone who ends up having to make a choice about stepping in, the question in this case is whether the past can be laid to rest to do so. You have to be able to separate the past and the present.

I think this is a read that will resonate just slightly more with readers who have lived experience of the subject matter. In fact perhaps those who are at different stages of their caring journey will be able to draw from it, both emotionally and practically,

It's an emotional read, but written with the ability to see the humour in situations that are often fleeting moments, anchors to the past often appearing in the present like small wormholes. The strength needed to be the reverse role, especially when the past still lays on a person like the rubble from a implosion.

The feeling of having a a slipping grasp on what used to be, which is an emotional minefield, is evident throughout the book. Its also what makes the read  frank, poignant and memorable.

Buy Love & Care at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : ‎Endeavour pub date 9 Feb. 2023. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Life and Death Decisions by Dr Lachlan McIver

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour - Life and Death Decisions: Fighting to save lives from disaster, disease and destruction by Dr Lachlan McIver. 'An action-packed tale of medicine in the most remote, poverty-torn areas of the globe from a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor.'

About the Author

Dr Lachlan McIver is a rural medicine and public health specialist with a PhD in the health impacts of climate change. He currently works as the Tropical Diseases and Planetary Health Advisor at the headquarters of Médecins Sans Frontières in Geneva. Lachlan is an Associate Professor at James Cook University and is the founder and past Chair of Rocketship Pacific Ltd - an international non-profit organisation dedicated to improving health in Pacific Island countries. 

Lachlan's work has taken him to thirty different countries, and he has published over fifty scientific articles and textbook chapters. He regularly speaks at international conferences on health. For more information, visit drlachlanmciver.com or follow @lachlan_mciver on Twitter

About the book

Lachlan was sixteen when he found his father dead on the side of a dirt road in North Queensland, Australia. He had suffered a sudden heart attack and died alone. It was this tragedy that motivated Lachlan to train as a doctor specialising in providing medical care for people living in remote, resource-deprived locations.

Lachlan's work with the World Health Organization and Médecins Sans Frontières has taken him to some of the world's most extreme environments from the sinking islands of the Pacific to epidemics and war zones in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.

In this no-holds-barred memoir, Lachlan recounts his experiences treating patients ravaged by tropical diseases, managing war wounds with drug-resistant infections, delivering babies by the light of a head torch, dealing with the devastating effects of climate change and narrowly avoiding being kidnapped by militia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Tackling such impossible problems day in and day out inevitably takes a personal toll. Lachlan is ultimately forced to face his own battles with depression, alcohol abuse and bankruptcy.

Life and Death Decisions is a deeply human look at the personal cost of our broken global health system and a vital call to action.

Review

Lachlan presents the good, the bad and the uncomfortable in this frank memoir. It's not just a facts, experiences and accomplishments. It's a stripping bare of emotions, of choices, and an examination of consequence of actions.

I found the most interesting aspect of this read was the way the author relates to his achievements. It's as if it is a never-ending race to save and help as many people as possible, and yet never feeling a true sense of accomplishment, perhaps because the underlying trauma of a death he had no way of changing always sits on his shoulders as a constant companion.

There appears to be a lack of acknowledgement of his impact on the world and the people he endeavours to help and has helped throughout the years. The drive, the selflessness and often reckless regard for his own life and his close relationships. Even the last pages are a testament to how he wants to live life by example to change the path we have created, which is at odds with saving lives at this moment in time. 

It's a remarkable read, perhaps more so because he makes the hard work and dangerous situations look like second nature. It is food for thought - small steps for some of us, which will lead to bigger ones.

Buy Life and Death Decisions at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Endeavour pub date 1 Sept. 2022. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour #Audiobook Women Like Us: A Memoir by Amanda Prowse

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour for the Audiobook - Women Like Us: A Memoir by Amanda Prowse.

About the Author

Amanda Prowse is an International Bestselling author whose twenty-six novels, non-fiction title and seven novellas have been published in dozens of languages around the world. Amanda is the most prolific writer of bestselling contemporary fiction in the UK today; her titles also consistently score the highest online review approval ratings across several genres. Her books, including the chart topping No.1 titles What Have I Done?, Perfect Daughter, My Husband’s Wife, The Girl in the Corner and The Things I Know have sold millions of copies across the globe.

A popular TV and radio personality, Amanda is a regular panellist on Channel 5’s ‘The Jeremy Vine Show’ and numerous daytime ITV programmes. She also makes countless guest appearances on BBC national independent Radio stations including LBC and Talk FM, where she is well known for her insightful observations and her infectious humour. Described by the Daily Mail as ‘The queen of family drama’ Amanda’s novel, A Mother’s Story won the coveted Sainsbury’s eBook of the year Award while Perfect Daughter was selected as a World Book Night title in 2016. Follow @MrsAmandaProwse on Twitter

About the book

Amanda Prowse has built a bestselling career on the lives of fictional women. Now she turns the pen on her own life. From her childhood, where there was no blueprint for success, to building a career as a bestselling novelist against all odds, Amanda Prowse explores what it means to be a woman in a world where popularity, slimness, beauty and youth are currency – and how she overcame all of that to forge her own path to happiness.

Sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious and always entirely relatable, Prowse details her early struggles with self-esteem and how she coped with the frustrating expectations others had of how she should live. Most poignantly, she delves into her toxic relationship with food, the hardest addiction she has ever known, and how she journeyed out the other side.

One of the most candid memoirs you’re ever likely to read, Women Like Us provides welcome insight into how it is possible – against the odds – to overcome insecurity, body consciousness and the ubiquitous imposter syndrome to find happiness and success, from a woman who’s done it all, and then some

Review

I thought it was interesting how Amanda simultaneously gives the reader, the audience, this trifecta of reasoning and emotion that pings off itself. Acknowledging the truth of her family, upbringing and all the nuances of the working class background and feeling the societal guilt the world (very much a British thing, sorry) forces into our very psyche at the same time. You're supposed to feel inferior and as if those around you are too. Somehow feel ashamed for who you are.

When you take that invisible burden and it is weighed down by layers of remarks and what people like to refer to as banter, however the way the target receives it can be completely different. In this case it has created a foundation of almost self-loathing and doubt, which leads to seeking comfort in external sources.

It's a frank and open dialogue about herself and her life, one that is a rollercoaster of emotions. As a reader you go on that ride and often find correlation in situations, thoughts and experiences. It's brave to open yourself up in such a way, even if it is a self-examination of sorts. It's definitely an audiobook I would recommend to others.

On a side note - the author narrates the story herself and does so extremely well, but what I wanted to mentioned is what a perfect voice for audio she has - deliciously soothing with a hint of sultry. Combined with her story, which I think most women will be able to relate to in one way or another, it makes it such an easy listening experience.

Buy Women Like Us at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher - Audible UK: pub date: 6th September 2022 | Paperback: £8.99. Buy at Amazon com. Buy via Audible Uk.

Listening Length - 12 hours and 16 minutes, Author - Amanda Prowse, Narrator - Amanda Prowse, Audible.co.uk Release Date - 06 September 2022, Publisher - Brilliance Audio, Program Type - Audiobook, Version - Unabridged, Language -  English.

#Blogtour The Island House by Mary Considine

It's my turn on the Blogtour The Island House by Mary Considine. 'An unforgettable new memoir that will transport readers to the wilds of Cornwall and a remote island life.'

About the Author

Growing up in the flat landscape of Bedfordshire, Mary fell in love with Cornwall and the sea on her first visit as a small child. Distracted by the garlands of London, she spent the 90s writing and directing plays in the London and Edinburgh Fringe, and scriptwriting. 

Work included Angels, Time Out Critics Choice, The Other Half, commissioned by The Carlton Tv screenwriting initiative; and a short film The Hand Job, shortlisted for the Lloyds Bank/Channel 4 short film competition. 

The noughties were spent teaching drama in secondary schools in the hills of North Yorkshire and, in pursuit of her now husband, back in London, before realising her impossible dream of moving to St George 's Island in 2010.

About the book

Mary and Patrick's dream was to live in London, have 2.4 children, the nice house, the successful jobs. But life had other plans, and one traumatic year that all came crashing down.

bruised and battered, Mary finds herself pulled towards Cornwall and dreams of St George's Island, where she spent halcyon childhood summers. So, when an opportunity arises to become tenants of they renovate the old Island House, they grab it with both hands.

life in the island is hard, especially in winter, the sea and weather, unforgiving. But the rugged natural beauty, the friendly ghosts of previous inhabitants, and the beautiful isolation of island life being hope and purpose, as they discover a resilience they never knew they had.

Review

I think the sentence that resonated most with me was - he knows the island is calling. I think at the core of decisions to sever oneself from the societal norm and rat race, which may or may not go hand-in-hand with trauma, stress, burn-out or other great upheavals there can be an element of gut instinct. The instinct that tells us we need to readjust, re-evaluate and seek change.

The isolation seems to adhere to those lines, although in this case it can bring both peace and hardship. Imagine cutting yourself off from the extended world, where you often rely on nothing else but your own strength and stamina. Survival instinct kicks in, but perhaps also a resonance of forgotten ancestral genetic instincts.

I found the story, the memoir, quite fascinating. There must be plenty of people who think of going slightly off-grid and retreating in a way - I know I certainly have. However I am more realistic about being able to cope with the extreme situations, and reverting to more basic comforts. It's tough, albeit that fact is obscured by the scenery and the fantastical notion one has stepped back in time and staking a claim and place in the unknown. This imaginary fantastical notion of a fantasy life doesn't do justice to the people who actually do make these choices and live in isolated areas.

Buy The Island House at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Monoray; pub date 9th June 2022. Buy at Amazon com. Buy via Octopus Books.

Through a Vet's Eyes by Dr Sean Wensley

 It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Through a Vet's Eyes by Dr Sean Wensley. With foreword by Miranda Krestovnikoff, RSPB President.

About the Author

Dr Sean Wensley is an award-winning UK veterinarian and recent President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA). He chairs the Animal Welfare Working Group of the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), which represents veterinary organisations from 40 European countries.

Sean has contributed to animal welfare and conservation projects around the world and in 2017 received the inaugural World Veterinary Association (WVA) Global Animal Welfare Award for Europe. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and is Senior Veterinary Surgeon for Communication and Education at the national UK veterinary charity, the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA). 

His media appearances include BBC Radio 4 Today, BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine and The Big Questions. Follow @SeanWensley on Twitter

About the book

Dr Sean Wensley is an award-winning vet and lifelong naturalist who has contributed to animal welfare and conservation projects all over the world. His debut book is about how we can choose a better life for animals, from the chickens we eat to the pets we keep.

As our societies become more urbanised, we are further removed from the reality of where and how our food is produced. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the humanisation of our pets is a risk to their welfare; with 60% of UK dogs being overweight or obese, we are effectively killing them with kindness. Through a Vet’s Eyes seeks to redress this imbalance so that we see all animals as thinking, feeling beings not dissimilar to ourselves. 

There is high public and political interest in animal welfare, with current attention focused on high-profile topics such as animal sentience, humane and sustainable global agriculture and breeding pets, such as flat-faced dogs, for looks over health. To fully consider and improve the lives of animals, evidence-based information is needed to help us all understand these issues, what they mean from the animals’ perspectives and what we can all do to help.

A polemic with elements of memoir and nature writing, the book takes us through the years in which Sean trained to become a vet and shares his first-hand experience of how animals are treated and used for our benefit. It interrogates the different levels of welfare afforded to them and reveals how we, as consumers and informed citizens, can reduce our animal welfare footprint through the choices we make every single day.

Review

- Reported surveys have suggested that 1 in 4 UK adults don’t know that bacon comes from pigs. - Pretty mindboggling. Have we become so distanced from the concept of animals as a food source that we no longer wish to acknowledge the meat we consume are in fact carcasses of animals. Is that why it is so easy to push the mass production, the inhumane transportation and slaughtering to the back of our minds.

It is possible to put pressure on governments and they in turn on the corporate world to demand accountability in regard to animal welfare, production systems that minimise suffering instead of putting maximisation and profit at the forefront to compete with national and international markets.

This book is so much more than our moral conscience in regard to the world of wildlife and animals, indeed the world we inhabit. It is also a love song to the beauty we are surrounded by, especially the variety of species and life we tend to only acknowledge on the periphery or during a short moment of admiration. 

I think that's what I loved about it the most, the passion and the way the author embraces every single aspect of movement, sights and interactions. Taking more than just a Kodak moment of the space we are in, more than just a second to remember the joy is often in the small gestures and experiences.

In a way it's a book that reminds us of the importance of remembering living beings deserve to be treated with compassion, but without doing it in a preachy flag waving manner, and simultaneously being a love letter to all creatures great and small.

Buy Through a Vet's Eyes at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Gaia pub date 28th April 2022 | £20.00 . Buy at Amazon com. At Octopus books.

#BlogTour Trouble: A memoir by Marise Gaughan

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Trouble by Marise Gaughan - a stunning literary memoir from an exceptional Irish writer and comedian.

About the Author

Marise Gaughan was born in Dublin in 1991, and began doing stand-up in the open mic nights of Los Angeles in 2016. Now living in London, she continues to perform in all the major UK and Irish clubs and festivals. 

Her award-winning debut show 'Drowning' premiered at the Dublin Fringe festival in 2018 and was awarded the Women's Irish Network Arts Bursary. Se presented a weekly radio segment on Ireland's lyric.fm during lockdown that the Irish Times called 'edgy, honest and funny'. This is her first book. Visit marisegaughan.com

About the book

Marise was nine when she first realised there was trouble, 14 when her Dad tried to end it all, and 23 when he finally succeeded.

In a turmoil of conflicting emotions Marise, the child who is left behind, runs - from Dublin to Amsterdam to Los Angeles, leaving a trail of sex and self-destruction in her wake. Until finally, she finds herself facing what she’s become in a California psych ward, a girl imploding through trying to make sense of her father’s suicide.

In this brave and powerful memoir Marise retells her unravelling, from child to adult, she strips back her identity and her relationship with her father, layer by layer, until she starts to understand how to live with him, years after he has gone.

Written beautifully, with wit and unflinching honesty, Marise has produced one of the most profound coming-of-age memoirs of recent years, a stunning new voice in Irish writing.

Review

If you read a lot of memoirs and biographies, then you will know the difference between a memoir written with boundaries and one without. Boundaries can mean holding back for friends, family or even yourself, and there can even be a certain level of dissociation. Then there are memoirs like this one that are so open, brusque and frank, that the reader can feel all ranges of the emotions acutely.

The author reveals her journey from childhood to young adult, and the impact her relationship with her father and his subsequent suicide has on her. Coming to terms with her anger, disappointment and lack of control over the his actions, takes its toll on her and the relationships she cultivates. It's sometimes a hard journey to comprehend that your parent may have trauma, mental health issues that lead to destructive coping mechanisms.

I had to remind myself that there is such a thing as cultural divide when it comes to the interactions between parent and child in this book - Irish banter is very much a thing unto itself. It makes snark look like high-profile sniping. In the context of this family it is also what the family feels comfortable with, where perhaps others wouldn't.

The author has no filter, which means it can often be crude, explicit and viscerally challenging. In the same breathe it is also extremely honest, which could mean the difference between someone taking something away from this or nothing at all. I thought it was exceptional - a deep dive that will hopefully lead to some peace and healing.

Buy Trouble at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Monoray, pub date 7th April 2022 | Hardback | £12.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour My Own Worst Enemy by Robert Edric

 

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour My Own Worst Enemy by Robert Edric.

About the Author

Robert Edric was born in 1956. His novels include Winter Garden (James Tait Black Prize winner, 1986), A New Ice Age (Guardian Prize Runner-up, 1986), The Book of the Heathen (W H Smith Literary Award, 2000), Peacetime and Gathering the Water (both Booker Prize-longlisted) and In Zodiac Light, shortlisted for the 2010 International IMPAC award. He lives in Yorkshire.

About the book

Robert Edric is a widely celebrated novelist, winner of the James Tait Black Prize and W H Smith Literary Award, and with nominations from the Booker Prize and Guardian Prize. He now applies his trademark candour to his first wry, honest and moving memoir of a now-vanished era of working-class 1960s Sheffield.

My Own Worst Enemy explores the relationship between a touchy, overbearing and tragicomic bully of a father and a son whose acceptance to grammar school puts him on another track entirely.

In clear-eyed but compassionate prose, Robert Edric vividly depicts this lost era of working-men’s clubs; of tight-knit communities in factory towns; and of a time when a woman’s place was only in the home. He brings to colourful life his family, both immediate and extended – over which hovers the barely-repressed frustration and anger of his own father.

My Own Worst Enemy is a brilliantly specific portrait of both a particular time and place and a universal story of childhood and family, and the ways they can go right or wrong.

Review

I think it's important to view the minutiae of Edric's relationship with his father and his roots from a broader perspective. When you grow up in working class surroundings in a working class family and endeavour to 'better' yourself, and I say that with the greatest irony, because the class structures determine that view of course, stepping outside of your circle and into a different one comes with certain advantages and disadvantages. 

A working class boy who rises from one class to another through an academic path, thereby possibly entering the middle class, upper middle or even upper - he enters a complex structure which closes and opens doors. The structure is also an unforgiving master. The working class no longer accepts the person who has entered the upper level, and the next circle will never fully accept the working class boy as one of their own.

It helps make sense of the fractious relationships and perhaps give a different slant on things. I've read the Guardian's elitist incomprehensible fawning, but then perhaps you have to have lived or seen it to make the right connections. Of course, in the end the only person who can talk with any authority on his memoir is Edric - I do wonder what his father's view on everything would be. 

The father who saw his son as the emerging elitist, the person looking down on him, instead of being proud of the accomplishments. Instead of acknowledging the drive and intellect, the aforementioned becomes the grain of sand in the eye that irritates on a constant basis. Of course that doesn't negate any pre-existing predilection to abuse those you allegedly love and care for, it just adds fuel to the inner anger. 

I found the emotional disassociation in the memoir quite interesting, but then perhaps that is a coping mechanism learnt very early on to deal with the contentious and dysfunctional relationship between father and son - one that still looms over him at times.

It's a dry, factual account of someone dipping into their beginnings. An attempt at closure, to comprehend, and of course give readers the key to the man behind many excellent reads.

Buy My Own Worst Enemy at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Swift Press pub date 24 Feb. 2022. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Swift Press.

#BlogTour Clothes... and Other Things that Matter by Alexandra Shulman

 It's my turn on the BlogTour Clothes...and Other Things that Matter by Alexandra Shulman

About the Author

Alexandra Shulman is a journalist, consultant and commentator. She was Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue from 1992–2017, the magazine’s longest serving editor. She has been Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery and The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and is an honorary fellow of the University of the Arts. She won 2017 Periodical Publisher’s Association Editor’s Editor Award and The Drapers Award 2017 for Outstanding Contribution to Fashion. 

She is Vice President of The London Library and was awarded the CBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List. She has a weekly column in the Mail on Sunday, is a contributor to other national newspapers and has written two novels: Can We Still Be Friends? (2012) and The Parrots (2015). Inside Vogue: The Diary of My 100th Year was published by Fig Tree in October 2016 and sold more than 30,000 copies in hardback and paperback (Nielsen TCM). Alexandra was featured in a three-part primetime BBC series on Vogue’s centenary year in 2016. Follow @AShulman2 on Twitter, 

About the book 

In Clothes... and other things that matter, Alexandra Shulman delves into her own life to look at the emotions, ambitions, expectations and meanings behind the way we dress. From the bra to the bikini, the trench coat to trainers, the slip dress to the suit, she explores their meaning in women’s lives and how our wardrobes intersect with the larger world - the career ladder, motherhood, romance, sexual identity, ambition, failure, body image and celebrity.

By turns funny, refreshingly self-deprecating and often very moving, this startlingly honest memoir from the ex-Editor of British Vogue will encourage women of all ages to consider what their own clothes mean to them, the life they live in them and the stories they tell. Shulman explores the person our clothes allow us to be – and sometimes the person they turn us into.

Review

Not sure how many other bookworms do this, but I often think about who I am going to recommend a book to, both during and after the read. For the majority of books it's not hard, and I love it when I can introduce someone to a genre or author they might not have ever considered reading. I think this book is more than just a lifetime of experiences or a history of fashion viewed through a leader and influencer in the world of clothes and fashion.

You can feel the awe, emotions and pride Shulman feels when she speaks about certain combinations, outfits, pieces and also accessories, such as bags and jewellery. Then she connects the aforementioned with our sense of self, being, our presence and statement to the world.

It made me think about my own relationship with clothes, which if I am quite honest has been two things - a way to define my individuality and my reluctance to conform to the norm and fashion trends has been a way to cement that over the decades.

At times I thought Shulman never really loosens the reins or lets the public facade slip to reveal the true person behind the incredible lifetime of experiences, which is why it's a little dry in places and less of a memoir and more of an homage to the beauty of fashion items and accessories. Definitely a memorable read.

Buy Clothes... and Other Things that Matter at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Published by Octopus Books - Cassell, pub date 10 June 2021 | £9.99 | Paperback. Buy at Amazon com.