October 2004 Archives

I missed out on the mini series they made of this stand-alone Philippa Gregory novel - I'd not caught the PG bug, and the adverts made the whole thing seem a bit worthy.

I was wrong. The book is great, and the end leaves you with more unknowns than you might expect. Although the early chapters give you a lot of insight into what's going on in Mehuru's head, I found it disappointing that this tailed off once he'd got to Bristol at which point the book became much more action-narrative based. That said, the action's gripping, and you are still aware of the emotions that the main characters go through and the battles between the upwardly mobile Traders and the downwardly mobile niece of the Gentry as well as the ensalved Africans, and the host of lesser characters that make up the backdrop of 18th century Slaves and Sugar Trade.

An excellent and accessible book for people who don't know much about England's 18th century slave trade, and the way it underpinned many other trading activities, and influenced Parliament.

Buy it: Amazon link

I started this one evening after a heavy day at the books, revising - yawn - for my OU Project Management exam. Fatal. There followed three successive nights of 2am plus lights off, as the story kept me turning the pages to find out Will they? Won't they?

It would have been perfect holiday reading, but too late - it was devoured in 72 hours (most of them of the wee small variety).

I like to think of it as useful additional reading for the Teams and Human Factors unit of the course. It certainly takes you through a whole host of emotions.

Buy it: Amazon link