The travels of Mary Loosemore

I don't know why I do it. Every time I plough through one of Elizabeth Chadwick's historical novel I get irritated by the knowing / deliberate use of words and phrases unearthed in this season's research (my bête noires from in this particular novel are: solar plexus and dapifer) and the mediaeval Mills and Boon plot.

No More!

Amazon.co.uk link: To Defy A King - Elizabeth Chadwick

A slow read.

Set in a fictional Devon seaside town, King of the Badgers starts with the abduction of a local girl with echoes of Shannon Matthews, and ends with her release. In between we follow the lives of, amongst others, London escapees/retirees, snobbish middle class academics living beyond their means, and the open and hidden the gay scene on sea.

Amazon.co.uk link: King of the Badgers - Philip Hensher

Deftly connecting characters from previous novels in the Shardlake series to Henry VIII's futile final war against the French and the sinking of the Mary Rose.

Smashing.

Amazon.co.uk link: Heartstone - C J Sansom

Catherine Musgrave's mother died when she was 6 months old, leaving her daughter a Memory Box. Thirty years later, as she at last tries to understand the significance of each item her mother put into the box, Catherine discovers that there is more about herself and her family's relationships than she'd previously allowed herself to appreciate.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Memory Box - Margaret Forster

Daniel Metcalfe's 2004 journey in search of "the lost peoples of Central Asia".

Leaving Iran he travelled through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, winding up with the Kalash in the NWFP valleys of Pakistan.

A good read if you're thinking of doing either of these trips or similar:

• Central Asia Overland
• Hindu Kush Adventure

My appetite for these Wild Frontiers expeditions has been (re)whetted:

• Kyrgyzstan & Tajikistan: High Pamir Explorer
• Tajikistan & Afghanistan: Wakhan Corridor Trek
• Tajikistan & Afghanistan: Wakhan Pamir Adventure

Amazon.co.uk link: Out of Steppe - Daniel Metcalfe