Book Review – Woman on Ward 13

Title and Author: Woman on Ward 13, by Delphine Woods

Background/plot:

This is the first book in a proposed series of several more, but the ending didn’t really lend itself for a sequel and it stands alone as a complete story. Well, almost.

The story is all about a nurse who is looking after a woman in an asylum, who in her day was also a nurse who looked after another woman in an asylum.

Who are the main characters?

The main characters are Iris, the nurse who is looking after Kath, who was known as Katy when she was a nurse looking after Mrs Leverton, who was also known as Percey, short for Persephone.

Where is it set?

Confusingly and irrelevantly it is set in 1900 and 1956 in two asylums/nursing homes

Writing style, technicalities

The book alternates viewpoints between Iris in 1956 and Katy/Kath in 1900. Iris’ chapters are written in the omnipotent third person, and Kath/Katy’s are written in the first person. I guess that is to help the reader recognise which narrative voice is speaking because the settings in both time eras are so very similar and were quite confusing.

My thoughts on the book:

This has to be one of the most frustrating books I’ve read for ages. I wanted it to work so much that I persevered with it long past the point that I might have given up. The premise is that Kath/Katy has been in an asylum for a long time, following an unknown episode that isn’t even hinted at until right at the end of the book. She was a nurse to another lady, Persey, who was also in a (different) asylum for reasons that were only ever hinted at and never fully explained. It ought to have been a fantastic book, with parallel stories that could have been explored in more detail and depth, but it was disappointing in that neither of the women were ever fully explained, and the whole thing was never really fully realised or completed.

I found there were too many extraneous characters, such as Iris’ friend Shirley in 1956, with a whole second plotline of how she was in an abusive relationship with a doctor and how their friendship suffered because of it. I didn’t see the point of this plotline, but if it had been drawn in order to show something of an abusive relationship in the past maybe, then I could have understood why it was there as a subplot. But it wasn’t. It just came across as clunky and pointless. It wasn’t even a metaphor for anything and so would have been better not writing it.

I don’t know why those two times were chosen to tell this story; any gap of about 50 years would have done, and it might have been a bit more exciting to have the later one closer to “real” time to make it more relevant.

There were too many anachronisms in the book, such as the telephone in Shirley’s supposedly working class house, and some of the figures of speech that the characters used which I found distracting as I read.

I didn’t feel that I connected with any of the characters at all, and by the end of the book, I found I didn’t even cheer on the supposed victims like you’re supposed to do as a reader. There were no redeeming features or characteristics from any of them, and the book ended as a damp squib really. It could have done with a good edit to tighten the plotlines and get rid of the superfluous characters before it was published.

Will I read the next in the series?

No. The next one is supposed to be about Iris again, but I don’t think I could take any more of that insipid, uninspiring character with no redeeming features at all. Sorry!

Would I recommend it to my friends?

No. It isn’t a thriller, nor a romance, nor a comedy or a crime novel. It’s barely even a historical novel and so no, I won’t be recommending it to my friends who like any of these types of stories.

My final thoughts:

I’m usually a big fan of new writers and I like to keep up to speed with what’s new in the publishing world, but this book was a big disappointment. I wanted it to be so much better than it turned out to be. The premise was pretty sound, and if it had been better executed then it would have been a cracking novel. The idea that women at the turn of the 20th Century could be incarcerated “for their own good” is a fascinating one and deserves exploring, especially given that most of the time it was because they were victims of sexual assault or emotional abuse by husbands and boyfriends. This book has echoes of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which is a novella about a woman suffering from what we now know to be post partum psychosis. I just wish that The Woman on Ward 13 could have gone deeper into Kath/Katy’s and Percey Leverton’s story to really get to grips with some of these themes and it would have been a whole different book.

Blast From The Past

One of my favourite books as a child was the Blue Peter “Make, Cook and Look Book”. My mum and dad bought it for me one Christmas, and I absolutely LOVED it. My dad used to pronounce it differently to the rest of us – we would say the “oo” to rhyme with “uh”, but my dad said it to rhyme with “ew”. I think it’s a Lancashire thing, and we used to be in tucks (or “tew-ks” laughing when he’d try to correct us…

I don’t remember what happened to my copy all those years ago, but I was gifted a copy today by a lady who I visited at home. She was having a clearout, and it had resurfaced in amongst some other stuff she had, and she has let me have it. I’m beyond thrilled!!

Thank you D, I shall treasure this!

Love and light,

Pamster x

Book Review – “From Green to Blue”

Title and Author

From Green to Blue by Jonathan Cox

Background/plot:

This is the first book in a seven book series about a young Police Constable who is fresh out of training with the Metropolitan Police. This book takes us through his interview right to the end of his “puppy walking” stage of training.

Who are the main characters?

The main character is PC Christopher Pritchard, and the next “main” is WPC Dawn Matthews who supervises him. However, throughout the book we might lots and lots (and lots) of other characters – police, public, victims and criminals.

Where is it set?

It is set in 1983 in Stoke Newington, London

Writing style, technicalities

It is in the first person narrative style, from the viewpoint of PC Pritchard, and each of the chapters is an almost self-contained “episode” of action. As I read this, I was convinced that it was autobiographical, and I was really surprised that it isn’t. I don’t know why I didn’t pay attention to the author’s name and the character’s name, but had I done I would have realised sooner, but there we go. One of the reasons why I thought it was biography rather than fiction was that the writing style was a bit amateurish and read more like a journal or a diary than a work of creative fiction. There is no discernible plot to speak of, other than that Chris and Dawn gradually get to know each other and by the end are more or less friends. There is a definite trajectory of his learning of what to do and what not to do to support your colleagues,

My thoughts on the book:

I did enjoy the book, but that’s because I thought it was a biography. Once I realised that it wasn’t (after I’d finished it) the shine had gone off a little bit. Once I got into it, it was a book that I was drawn back to, and I finished it in a marathon reading session this morning and afternoon. The ending is pretty powerful and comes from nowhere. I actually shed a tear in shock at the ending and to be honest, it was these final scenes that made realisation dawn on me that I was reading a work of fiction. Call me thick!

Will I read the next in the series?

I downloaded the next one as it was being offered free with Kindle Unlimited, and I did start to read it, but after a couple of chapters I felt I didn’t want to go on with it. The tone is very different from the first book, and Chris seems to have had a personality and morality transplant since the last book and it’s a bit off-putting. I might give it another go tomorrow, but I’m not convinced.

Would I recommend it to my friends?

I would and I wouldn’t. Some parts of it were very graphic – too graphic for fiction, but understandable in a biography – and I don’t think as a story it stands up as entertainment. If you are interested in a fictionalised account of the racist, homophobic, misogynistic police of the 1980s in London then go for it, but it’s not the best version, I promise you.

Book Review – Nobody True by James Herbert

Title and Author – “Nobody True” by James Herbert

Background/plot: – Jim True has developed the skill of having out of body experiences, or “OBE’s” as he calls them. Whilst on one of his OBEs one night, Jim is brutally attacked and murdered, and his spirit cannot return back to his body. The plot is what happened in the run up to the attack and what Jim does next.

Who are the main characters? The main character is Jim True, but also heavily featured are his business partners Oliver and Sydney, his wife Andrea and his daughter Primrose. And the killer… obviously…

Where is it set? It is set in modern day London

Writing style, technicalities: The book is written in the first person narrative, from the viewpoint of Jim True. I like the fact that it is also written in the past tense, which might sound like an odd thing to say but hear me out. I have been reading a lot of new authors recently, and the trend for writing in the present tense is one that really bugs me. It feels really clunky and contrived, especially if it is not handled well by new authors, but it feels like an unnecessary device in order to try and be “cutting edge” and “gritty” I guess. But this was written in 2003 before that device was really a thing, and I rather enjoyed it.

In terms of storytelling, I liked the way that it (eventually) unfolded in linear time. There are some passages that are from past events in Jim’s life, but they are not critical to the plot and it’s different from some modern fiction where these past events form the story. In this book they fill in the details that explain certain choices the characters make but are not flashbacks as such. The result – for me – is that the story is told much more naturally.

One last thing on the technicalities of the writing is that as the narrator is the person in spirit form, he can take an omniscient view which is unusual in a book that is written in the first person. An example is when Jim visits his wife and daughter at home after his body is dead. The narrative shows the reader what is happening there because we are seeing through Jim’s spirit eyes. In books that are written in the first person, the reader would only ever see what the narrator sees and therefore scenes like this couldn’t be written. Having the narrator as a spirit, then it gives the reader an insight into those situations that we wouldn’t normally see.

My thoughts on the book: I loved this for about three quarters of the book, but I found it was very slow (and boring) to get going. I was fascinated by the OBEs that the main character describes and the promise that the story involved a new scenario for me, and so I stuck with it. I wanted to see how a story would unfold where a spirit/soul could be separated from its body and where things then go wrong. I’ve not read anything like this before and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. However, the beginning bits were not necessary and provided so much backstory that was not of interest nor pertinent to the story at all.

The concept was great, and I loved the way that the main character had faith in God, and the expressions of confusion he had because things were not going the way he thought they would do. That was an interesting aspect that we don’t usually get in fiction.

Putting aside the idea of OBEs and souls being separated from bodies for a moment, I thought the characterisation of the main characters were entirely believable and they all (more or less) behaved as you’d expect normal people would do. The expressions of grief, and reactions to certain conversations felt very realistic, and they lent an authenticity to the characters that made the idea of OBEs a little bit possible too. However, as realistic those characters are, there is one that is drawn as completely grotesque and almost in caricature. I won’t spoil it by saying who or how in case you want to read it yourself, but this one character is the one that just tips this book from the literary fiction genre into the world of horror.

The denouement was good, and the story felt finished at the end, which as a reader I found entirely satisfying.

Will I read the next in the series? This is a standalone book, but I would definitely read more of James Herbert’s work.

Would I recommend it to my friends? I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in people’s motivations and exploring why people act in the way they do, and I would recommend it for those who enjoy a good yarn. It is well into the supernatural end of reality, and so might not suit all readers. But for those who don’t mind suspending reality for a little while in order to enjoy a good story then yes, I would recommend it to you.

Book Review: The Madness of Grief

The Madness of Grief by Richard Coles

What is it all about?

This is a beautiful book written by the Reverend Richard Coles in the aftermath of his beloved husband David’s death just before Christmas 2019. It is billed as a “memoir of love and loss”, which I find is a bit of an understatement. This is not just a memoir, but a ripping open the most intimate secrets – I hesitate to use that word, but bear with me – living through the experience of losing a loved one and dealing with the world that has been forever changed.

Writing style, technicalities

The book tells the story of David’s last few days, and how Richard spent the time leading up to his death and the days between that and his funeral nearly two weeks later. It is interspersed with memories of their life together before his death, and with passages of the time at which it was being written. These three distinct time “zones” paint a picture of what life has been like for both Richard and David, growing up in different parts of the country, from different backgrounds, with different personalities and temperaments but who found each other and carved a life together for many years.

Richard has a wonderfully poetic style of writing, using many cultural references that give us an insight into his complex and multi-layered interest in life, food, art, music and theatre. He has a beautiful way of naming things that lend them a romance and depth that perhaps ought not to be there. My favourite example is how he describes hand cream as not simply lotion, but “an unguent”. Another favourite is his term for the clothes that he wears at home to be comfortable. I would refer to mine as “comfies”, but Richard’s name for them is “scamper pants”.

I feel that the book has been written as much to exorcise guilt as it is to talk about what it is like for a Church of England clergyman to lose the love of his life and how he rationalises his faith in the face of that incredible loss. Richard is quite open about saying he feels he ought to have done more to “save” David, or to support him when his illness began to take hold, or how he should have been at home more, or less complaining while he was alive… This is what I mean by exorcising guilt; it is a way for him to get a handle on their relationship and how David’s illness affected them both.

It is a sort of diary, a sort of journal, a sort of record, a sort of confessional, a sort of love letter and a sort of prayer.

My thoughts on the book:

I have been a fan and admirer of Richard Coles for many years now, and I have followed him on Twitter for as long as I have had an account. I knew about David’s death on the day that Richard announced it (he tells us about this in the book), and I was under the impression that he had liver cancer. I don’t know where I had got that from, but it must have been from what Richard had posted online that day. However, what I didn’t realise until I read a couple of previews and reviews of this book is that David suffered with alcoholism, and the GI bleed that was his final injury was as a result of heavy and sustained drinking for many years.

It is at approximately half way through the book that this is revealed, and the paragraphs that reveal this are probably the most powerful testimony I have ever heard about what it is like to live with an alcoholic partner. I have lost several family members to the associated affects of alcoholism, and I know what it is like to witness those you love in the grip of this brutal illness. However, reading Richard’s words about his own reaction to it have got to be the most intimate, raw and truthful picture about living with alcoholism that I have ever read. It moved me to tears and my heart goes out to both of them; Richard in his loss and David in the life that was taken from him by this illness.

As an ordinand who is soon to be ordained, God willing, into the Church of England myself, I was moved by Richard’s use of Scripture throughout his writing. He talks about prayers said for the dead and the dying, and his own reliance on things like the daily office to help him in his grief. He replicates verses and passages from the Psalms that have helped him, and he takes us through the funeral service and his reaction to the prayers and sentences from scripture that sustain him in his faith and in his grief. They took on a new meaning for me too, because I have used the same sentences and Psalms in funerals and home visits before funerals, but never before had I seen it from the priest’s own personal view through the lens of their own grief.

The book is relatively short – only about 250 pages – and it covers just over two weeks in time, but it packs an emotional punch that can’t possibly leave the reader unchanged by the end of it. I read it in just over a day, and if I hadn’t had to stop to sleep or to weep I would have read it in less time. It was an emotional read, and it has given me much food for thought.

Would I recommend it to my friends?

Yes, I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in helping those who are bereaved and grieving, and anyone who is interested in Richard’s story as a priest and media celebrity. It is poignant and emotional, intimate and revealing, and it would appeal to anyone who is interested in anybody else’s life story.

A final word on this

My prayers tonight are for all those who suffer from alcoholism – the people with the illness, their families and loved ones, the people who are left behind in the wake of an untimely death that it can bring. And of course, for Richard Coles and the family of the late David Coles. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

St David’s Day

Image via Wikipedia

I first posted this on 1st March 2011 and as it is a whole ten years ago I thought I would reblog it today. Happy St David’s Day!

St David’s Day is the feast day of the patron saint of Wales and falls on 1^st March, believed to be the anniversary of his death in AD 589.

David was a fifth century teacher and preacher born into Welsh royalty (son of St Non and grandson of Ceridigion) who founded churches and settlements all over Wales, including a Celtic monastery at Glyn Rhosyn in Pembrokeshire, Wales. St David’s Cathedral now stands on the spot of this community, which is also where David was originally interred and a shrine was made until it was raided and destroyed by the Vikings during the 10^th and 11^th centuries. The Cathedral is a fascinating building – the slanted floor and almost comically leaning walls and pillars make it amazing to be still standing today.

David’s monastic rule was extremely harsh, even by the standards of the day. His monks had to refrain from consuming meat and beer, eating only bread with herbs and salt and drinking only water. Toil was prescribed, including pulling their own plough instead of using animals for the job.  The monks were expected to spend their evenings in prayer, or partaking of writing and reading activities. They were not allowed any personal possessions and to refer to something as “my…” was considered sinful.

St David is believed to have lived to be over 100 years old and he preached his final sermon on the Sunday before his death. It is recorded that e spoke the words “Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.”

It is interesting that the phrase “Do the little things in life” (‘Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd’) which is today a very well-known phrase in Welsh, is echoed by Mother Theresa almost 1500 years later when she says “We cannot do great things, but we can do little things with great love”.

St David was canonised (made a saint) in 1120 by Pope Callixtus II. The best-known miracle associated with David happened during an occasion when he was preaching in Llandewi Brefi to a large crowd.  Many of them couldn’t see him properly and when they complained the ground he was standing on rose up to form a small hill, and a dove came down to rest on his shoulder – a sign of God’s grace. It was thought significant that this happened shortly after he had denounced Pelagianism (a school of thought that believed moral perfection could be attained in this life without the grace of God, by human free will alone).

The traditional Welsh symbol is the leek which was worn in battle to differentiate between them and the English, who would have been dressed in similar garments and colours.  Later, the symbol of the daffodil was adopted in addition to the leek. In the Welsh language the name for the leek is “Cenhinen” and the daffodil is “Cenhinen Pedr” or, “Peter’s leek”.

Traditionally on 1^st March children would have a half day holiday from school to take part in concerts (eisteddfodau) to celebrate their Welsh heritage by singing and recitations.  It isn’t officially a practice carried out today but some schools do still observe the tradition. Calls in recent years by the Welsh nation for 1^st March to become a national holiday have been rejected by the government, most recently by Tony Blair in 2007.

St David has inspired many works of art and music for the last 1500 years, and as recently as 1999 where the Welsh composer Karl Jenkins composed a suite of choral music called “Dewi Sant” in his honour.

“Dydd Gwyl Dewi Dedwydd!” to our Welsh neighbours – Happy Saint David’s Day.

Book Review – The Night Hawks

The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths

The Night Hawks book cover

Background/plot:

A dead body is found on the shoreline by a group of amateur metal detectorists who call themselves the Night Hawks. It is quickly linked to the deaths of two people at a nearby farm that has a rather dark history in the local community. Once again DCI Nelson finds himself with a complicated and confusing investigation on his hands, whilst battling his personal feelings and emotions around his family and of course, Ruth. Throw in a local legend of Black Shuck, a satanic dog that is the size of a small pony who foreshadows death and the threat posed to Ruth from a new upcoming colleague at the university, this is a book that is multi-layered with tonnes of interest.

Who are the main characters?

The main characters are Nelson and Ruth, but there is a large supporting cast of returning characters with the introduction of one or two new ones that keep the book familiar and fresh at the same time.

Where is it set?

As with the other books in the series, this is set in and around Norfolk, England in the present day.

Writing style, technicalities

It took me a while to get used to the writing style in this series of books, and even now, 13 books in it can jar a little bit sometimes. The main thing is that the narrative style is in the present tense, which on the whole makes me feel as a reader that I’m in there with the action, that the story is unfolding in real time but can be a bit disconcerting until you get used to it. That the narrator is telling us as things happen helps me as a reader feel that the ending of the story has not been revealed yet and literally anything can happen. It works on the whole but now and again a sentence feels a bit forced and the urgency of the present tense feels a bit clunky and false. However, it’s a great technique for helping that sense of “what’s going to happen next?” for the reader.

My thoughts on the book:

I have waited a long time for this book to come out (I think I pre-ordered it about 4 months ago) and I was absolutely thrilled when it landed on my Kindle this morning. The previous book in the series felt a bit tired and I feared that this one might have continued in that same way, but I was delightfully relieved to find that this was back on form. I love the way that the author spins two timelines in these books – the book-by-book story of body/death/murder/investigation/solution – and the overarching storyline of the main characters. I have to admit that I started reading this at about 9am today, and by teatime I had finished it. It has been a long time since I read a full novel in such a short space of time, but this one kept me reading long past the time when I should have been doing other things. There is just enough of everything to keep my interest in the story. Just enough technical jargon, just enough blood and guts, just enough thrill and wonder, just enough folk lore, just enough history, just enough mysticism, just enough romance… The thing is with all of these I wish there were more of each one, but that’s the gift of Elly Griffiths that she knows just how much rope to play out for us to become ensnared in the plot for it to be just enough and it leaves us wanting MORE.

Will I read the next in the series?

Absolutely YES! There is a big cliff-hanger at the end of this one regarding one of the main characters and I have to find out what their decision is.

Would I recommend it to my friends?

I would recommend it as a standalone, yes, but for anyone to get the full effect of this I would recommend that you read the others in the series first. There is enough description for a new reader to understand the references, but it’s like anything that is so far deep into a series like this, it is impossible for a new reader to understand all the nuances of relationships between the characters and the subtle subtext that is going on beneath the surface etc. The stories will stand on their own, but it’s better if they are understood in the context of the whole series.

A final word on this

I would absolutely love to see this series being made into a TV series one day. I don’t know if this has been in the mind of Elly Griffiths at all, but the way she writes about the wonderful, ethereal coastline of Norfolk and the larger than life characters within this police procedural style story just lends itself so perfectly for visual representation on screen. I just hope that if it does make it to TV the integrity of the written stories stays intact. It would be a shame to see them go the way that other successful book series’ have gone, such as Vera, DCI Banks, Shetland, Bones, Rizzoli and Isles, Wire in the Blood etc have all gone.

A couple of things tend to happen –

1. the TV series quickly catches up with and then overtakes the book series and the episodes begin to grow away from the storylines in the books (I’m thinking of Vera or Morse here), or
2. the other thing is that the writer begins to change the characters within the books to reflect the way they are portrayed on screen (I fear the Harry Potter books went down this route), or
3. the TV series takes the characters and then loosely bases their series on the characters in the books and the reader ends up reading completely parallel but unconnected stories about their favourite characters (Rizzoli and Isles and Bones I’m looking at you here!).

So while I would love to see this series on screen, maybe it’s better not to push for that and to keep it perfect and intact as it is now. Hurry up Elly and write the next one!!

Day 14, Jan 14: Book Review “How To Stop Time”

Background/plot:

A 479 year old man moves – again – in order to protect himself and those in the Albatross Society, but he’s had enough. Having loved and lost over all that time, he is tired of living among the “mayflies” who live a normal lifespan. Will he ever find Marion?

Who are the main characters?

The main protagonist is Tom Hazard, although over the course of his lifetime he has had many names. I don’t want to give the plot away by describing any of the other characters, but look out for Rose, Marion, Grace, and Hendrich.

Where is it set?

This book has scenes located all around the world and in different eras, but the “now” time is in London in the present day.

My thoughts on the book

I absolutely loved this book! The premise is that Tom has unusual genes which means he ages very, very slowly. Being born just before the advent of the 16^th Century witch trials, Tom was unlucky enough to have had his gift spotted by the locals and being the loving, caring and enlightened people like we are in the 21^st Century, Tom realises that it is dangerous to stay in one place for too long.

The book itself is beautifully plotted and paced, and most importantly for me, it has a proper ending. All too often, well-told stories like this end badly, with a rushed denouement or an unbelievable twist that ruins it, but I’m so glad that this one has a good ending that kept me wondering “what next” every paragraph of the last chapter.

As with the last book I read of Matt Haig’s – The Midnight Library – there was lots in the text that made me stop and think. It raises questions about the value of love, about judgement of others, and the human desire we all have of wanting to belong.

Will I read the next in the series?

I don’t think there will be another in this series, but I will definitely be reading more by Matt Haig. This is the second of his that I’ve read now, and both of them have been intelligently written, thought-provoking and have lasted in my consciousness long after I finished reading.

Would I recommend it to my friends?

Yes, absolutely. It would appeal to anyone who likes to have their thinking stretched a little, and anyone who loves a good story that is well written.

Quote from the book:

I don’t usually share passages from books that I read, but this particular passage has stayed with me since I read it and it gives you a little flavour of the quality of writing in this story.

She stops, right then Points through the trees. There is a deer. It turns and looks at us, holding our gaze for a moment, before darting away. Abraham tugs on the lead half-heartedly.

‘I don’t know what will happen,’ Camille says, staring at the space where the creature had been. ‘I don’t know if I will make it through the afternoon without having a seizure. Who knows anything?’

‘Yes. Who knows?’

I keep staring between the trees at the air that had been inhabited by the deer and realise it is true. The deer isn’t there, but I know it had been there and so the space is different than it would otherwise have been. The memory made it different.

I urge you read this, it’s fantastic!

Middleton Shopping Centre

I went to Middleton Shopping Centre today for the first time in I don’t know how long, and for the first time EVER noticed this frieze on the wall.

It’s quite difficult to get a proper photo of them because to see them properly, but from my (very poor) pictures you can see some of the fine artwork on display. The frieze runs the whole length of the shopping centre and these pictures are from the centre towards the right hand edge. I admit that I should have taken the left hand edge too but I couldn’t immediately identify the history it was showing, so I left that out.

I took the ones I did because I recognised the Middleton archers fighting under the patronage/direction of Lord Assheton at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. According to the local story, the archers all survived the battle because they mistimed their arrival and missed the main action. I don’t know how true that is and I’m sure a more academic historian than me will be able to dig out the details. I just love the fact that archery is a theme that runs throughout Middleton’s history, and wherever you look in Middleton there are symbols and signs of both archery and Lord Assheton.

The Assheton coat of arms features heavily, especially the star which you can just about make out on this frieze. The local secondary school’s badge is very similar to the Assheton coat of arms, and the North Manchester Golf Club just down the road has it as their emblem too.

Middleton Band have the Middleton archer as their logo, and a couple of years ago they were gifted the opportunity to premiere a piece of music written especially for them by Andrew Baker called “The Sword and the Star”, the star in question being the one on the Assheton coat of arms.

The Middleton archer is also commemorated in the parish church of St Leonard with a window dedicated to all those who fought at Flodden.

Isn’t it amazing how history can feel both ancient and current at the same time?

Book Review – The Serpent’s Mark

Background/plot:
Tilbury, England in the winter of 1591. This is the second book in the series (the first was The Angel’s Mark) and this book takes off more or less exactly where that one ended.

Nicholas Shelby, physician and reluctant spy, returns to his old haunts on London’s lawless Bankside. But, when spymaster Robert Cecil asks him to investigate the dubious practices of a mysterious doctor from Switzerland, Nicholas is soon embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens not just the life of an innocent young patient, but the overthrow of Queen Elizabeth herself.

With fellow healer and mistress of the Jackdaw tavern, Bianca Merton, again at his side, Nicholas is drawn into a sinister world of zealots, charlatans and dangerous fanatics…

Who are the main characters?

As above, the main characters are Nicholas Shelby and his friend Bianca Merton. He is a physician who has turned his back on the practice, and she is an Italian apothecary – licenced only because Nicholas put in a word for her at the guildhall – who runs a tavern. Along with a handful of small characters, these two form the backbone of both books in this series, but this book introduces a plethora of other minor characters that will probably not return in the next.

Where is it set?

It is mainly set in Bankside, which is the south bank of the River Thames in London and  known as Southwark today. It is a tough area of London and houses a lot of immigrant workers from the ships as well as the more nefarious characters who would rob you as they looked in your eye and said good morning.

My thoughts on the book:

I desperately wanted to love this book, but was disappointed that I only liked it. I am a big fan of C J Samson’s work of the same period (the Matthew Shardlake chronicles) and I was hoping that this would be as good as those, but sadly it’s not. The first in this series was a promising start – a likeable and well-rounded central character in Nicholas Shelby, a likely and believable supporting character in Bianca Merton, a decent enough plot with enough subplots and secondary plots to it that it looked like it was forming the basis of a decent series. However, this second book doesn’t live up to that same standard as the first in my opinion. The plot – Nicholas trying to stop a fellow physician from doing experiments on a young lad with epilepsy, a secret son/grandson who may or may not have been Queen Mary’s, a very improbable Kit Marlowe hanging about in the Jackdaw tavern testing out a dodgy play and so on – just feels a bit too contrived and a bit too forced to me. The subplot of the developing relationship between Nick and Bianca also felt a bit too contrived to me too. The narrative is quite repetitive in telling us that he is grieving for his wife who died giving birth to his child, and yet by the end of the book, all of a sudden there is a romance in the air. Doesn’t quite sit right for me.

I have read a lot of other reviews on this (Goodreads and Amazon) and I find that I am alone in finding it lacking somewhat. There are hyperbolic statements from other authors and critics all over the book’s Amazon page saying it is “sumptuous” and “delicious” etc, but I think I might have been looking at a different book! I have to give it credit for being a good paced narrative, with a proper story arc that had a beginning, a middle and an end, and I am (as ever) in awe of any author who can get his nose to the grindstone day in and day out to get a novel written in the first place. But I am a bit disappointed by it and found that there was a bit too much repetition, cliché and obvious plot twists for it to deserve the hype on Amazon and elsewhere.

Will I read the next in the series?

Do you know what, I probably will. I have a feeling that this is a series that will probably mature and develop as the books are written – so long as they are not rushed and are not “dumbed down” to meet publishing deadlines etc. The two main characters have grown on me during the two book series so far and I genuinely want to know what they get up to next. Just, next time, can we have a bit more of an original plot and not so many occasions where we are told about Nicholas’ love for his dead wife please?

Would I recommend it to my friends?

Yes. It is a historical novel in the sense that it is set in 16^th Century Tudor England, but the writing style makes it an easy read. It is not bogged down by a lot of “old” language and even though I’ve moaned about it being not as good as the first one, it is a decent read if you don’t want anything too challenging to tax you.