This was a very interesting book, based on Prisinors of War kept in Wales. Contrasting their lives with those of the local Welsh Villagers. It also includes the interrogation of Rudolph Hess.

Written by a man part Welsh, part Chinese, and living in America.

Good book, hard to put down.

"It is August 1935 and the Duke of Mersham is hosting one of his influential parties, bringing together public figures interested in improving Anglo-German relations. One of his guests is General Sir Alistair Craig VC, who swallows poison in the duke's excellent port and dies just as latecomers Lord Edward Corinth and journalist Verity Browne arrive on the scene.

The unlikely pair - the younger son of a duke and a journalist committed to the Communist Party - find common ground as they seek the truth behind the general's murder and discover that everyone present, including the duke himself, had a motive for wanting Sir Alistair out of the way.

But more deaths will follow before Verity and Lord Edward get to the bottom of this singular mystery..."

My mother had always been into the old fashioned murder mystery since i was very small. It always worried me slightly how she would be able to now commit what is known as the perfect crime as she has read that many books and seen that many midsummers. I had never once thought of picking up a murder mystery until i came across these little beauties. There are 9 in the series and the first one being "sweet Poison" the tenth is being penned as we speak and i wait with baited breath. These books have it all and as you turn each page the 30's spring to life in front of your face and seep up your nostrils into the back of your brain where it trasports you into a world of sexy murder mixed with youthful communism ignorance for a better world with Stalin topped with an oncoming war which we would NEVER be involved in. Whilst your wrapped up in all this it washes it all down with a four course meal at the Ritz with your best pearls on.

I absolutly adore these books and will be sorry to see the series come to an end. you grow with the characters and see their lives ufold as you leap from book to book...dare i read the last?

Andre Brink.

Thrice nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature and twice short-listed for the Booker Prize, Andre Brink might still turn out to be one of the best novelists of the modern era who never achieved either of these prestigious accolades. He is undoubtedly a brilliant story-teller with an eminent gift for reflecting the human condition and its cultural and political ambience; this is particularly true about his natural cultural milieu, South Africa.
His very latest novel does not disappoint. In Other Lives Brink, cleverly and subtly interweaves three apparently unconnected human stories, featuring overlapping characters, which culminates or merges when one arrives at the end of the novel.
Each of the individual, constituent parts can be read as a unity within itself, although such a reading leaves one with a sense of 'incompleteness'. I read the first entity when first published as The Blue Door. On reading it as a constituent of Other Lives I was left with a greater sense of participation in a 'greater whole'.
To quote from the dust cover of Other Lives:
“A white painter in South Africa comes to his studio in the afternoon. On his doorstep he sees a woman with curly hair and a dark complexion. He has never seen her before, but she embraces him; she knows him intimately. As he steps past her, two strange children rush to his feet, yelling, 'Daddy!' This family welcomes him back home, but he knows none of them.

On the other side of Cape Town, a white man pulls himself out of bed and toward his mirror, where he is confronted by his suddenly black face.

A concert pianist falls passionately in love with the celebrated singer he works beside but cannot bring himself to touch her, until one night they sit down to eat dinner and look up to see themselves surrounded by armed men.

In this new novel, Andre Brink is at his best, exploring the fractured yet globalized world where we find ourselves and our lives transformed.”

Andre has been compared with Camus, and with very good reason. It is a privilege to know him, from way back....an even greater privilege and joy to access his giftedness through his craft. Treat yourself!

Finished it this morning, a book by Anouar Benmalek called The Child of an Ancient People.

It is 1872. Lislei is a youg French woman escaping from the turmoil of the Paris commune. Kadar is an Arab Prince fleeing from the revolt of the Saharan tribesmen in Algeria. Together they board an old sailing ship bound for Australia. With them is an orphan, who is the last representative of his people the Tasmanian Aboriginals.

Three very different characters, who have adventures, loves, and travel

A fictional book based on history, some strong themes. Hard to put down. Got it from the Library.

This is written by the woman who wrote 'Tipping The Velvet'. I never read that one, but I saw it on the telly, so when this turned up in my bookclub I thought I would give it a shot.

What a thoroughly depressing book!

It is basically about a rich Victorian woman who is a prison visitor, and how she meets and falls in love with one of the female prisoners.

I cannot think of one thing in this book that made me smile, or feel happy. If I tell you why it was depressing, then I would need to give away too much of the plot, so I can't.

However, the verdict is - I am not sorry I read it. I shan't read it again, but the characters drew me in - particularly the heroine, Margaret - and I could feel her pain. I completely misread the prisoner - Selina - and was pretty shocked at the twist in the tail. I think that one is supposed to misread Selina, to believe in her as Margaret does, and then to doubly feel the twist at the end. I have to say I was expecting the author to say "this happened, this happened", and then turn it all around and say "ah, it was all a mistake" and she didn't.