A lovely book - the kind where when you get to the last page you return to the start again and read everything with fresh insight. As with other Salley Vickers' novels, art comes to into play, ending up centre stage - I really enjoy the vicarious art education I get from her books. And if you're reading the hardback, take note of the dust jacket.
I had not realised that Salley Vickers had a former 'life' as an analyst; I presume she has drawn upon her experiences from that time in writing The Other Side of You, particularly in capturing the characters, their stories and inner thoughts and self analysis. It's not a happy book, but I found it a real page turner - given the opportunity I would have read it in one sitting. Instead it was evenings and a train/replacement rail journey between St Pancras and Milton Keynes.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Other Side of You - Salley Vickers
1809, Portugal: Richard Sharpe and his riflemen are separated from the British Army, and under orders to locate and protect Miss Kate Savage, only daughter of one of the wealthy English Oporto wine merchants. A ripping yarn, featuring battles against overwhelming odds, where base born soldiering skills outwit French mortars and Dragoons, and horrific violence of victor over vanquished. The action culminates in the battle to liberate Oporto, and a route march through the mountains, as British and Portuguese armies and partizans try to cut off the fleeing French Army's only escape.
Amazon.co.uk: Sharpe's Havoc - Bernard Cornwell
A lovely anthology of short stories on the theme of "nowhere", published by Lonely Planet.
Lovely though the collection is, I do have a couple of gripes:
- Most of the pieces are written by professional travel writers, which was a bit disappointing as I'm sure most travellers have tales to tell of their own personal visits to nowhere. And the resounding theme was that one person's nowhere is the centre of another person's universe: not exactly an earth shattering conclusion.
- Why are most of the travelogues written by Americans? Not that I have anything against Americans travelling - in my book, travel can only broaden the mind - but reading the biographies almost all of the contributors were born and/or based in the States, and I know the Americans can't hold the monopoly on independent travel. Perhaps they do have a monopoly on travel magazine article writing, or self conscious self discovery.
Still, a highly readable collection - here's my list of the most memorable six:
- The most disheartening: On the trail
- The one that won in the wanderlust stakes: A picture of a village
- And one that didn't: Postcard from the Edge
- The one that made me well up: Meeting Echo
- The one that triggered nostalgia: North of Perth
- The one I'll remember the most: A visit to Kanasankatan - you need to be reading aloud to appreciate it, and perhaps save that approach for a rapid reread.
Amazon.co.uk: Tales from Nowhere - Don George (Ed)
A good read, featuring a variety of journeys - emotional, physical and geographical. Dual plotlines lie at the heart of the novel which revolve around cousins Rosa Barr and Mariella Lingwood whose stories unfold as events take them from rural and suburban Victorian England to the frontline of the Crimean War. Plotline one starts in 1844 with Mariella's account of the first summer she and her mother spent with Rosa and Rosa's mother and stepfather in Stukely Hall, and remerges as plotline two ten years later with the unexpected arrival of Rosa and her mother in the Lingwood's Clapham house. These two plot stands entwine themselves throughout the course of the book.
There is plenty of historical detail, covering medical and military developments, the growth of female emancipation and Victorian morals, and an engaging range of characters with feisty Rosa and reserved Mariella at opposite ends of many a spectrum.
Amazon.co.uk: The Rose of Sebastopol
One of Michael Connolly's best crime novels featuring Harry Bosch.
In City of Bones Harry seems a much younger version of the grizzled, cynical, persistent and effective LAPD homicide detective than he must be in terms of when the book is written/set. He's still the jazz loving cop, with sidekicks Jerry Edgar and Kiz Rider, but there's no mention of his ex wife and child and instead the love interest focus is on rookie cop Julia Brasher who he meets investigating the murder of a child whose bones are unearthed in the Hollywood Hills.
Amazon.co.uk: City of Bones - Michael Connelly