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Book Review: ‘Braver’ by Deborah Jenkins, published by Fairlight Books June 2022

Today I am delighted to share with you my review of a new novel, ‘Braver‘, prior to publication on 30th June 2022. I’ve met its author, Deborah Jenkins, during a recent writing conference and we are fellow members of the Association of Christian Writers, and often in touch via our Facebook group. Deborah is very helpful, supportive and encouraging to her fellow authors, and it was lovely to find advance copies of her new novel available to buy at the recent conference, and I snapped up a copy!

Book cover for ‘Braver’ by Deborah Jenkins published by Fairlight Books 30 June 2022

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Hazel has never felt normal. Struggling with OCD and anxiety, she isolates herself from others and sticks to rigid routines in order to cope with everyday life. But when she forms an unlikely friendship with Virginia, a church minister, Hazel begins to venture outside her comfort zone.

Having built her own life after a traumatic loss, Virginia has become the backbone of her community caring for those in need and mentoring disadvantaged young people. Yet a shock accusation threatens to unravel everything she has worked for.

MY REVIEW OF ‘BRAVER‘ BY DEBORAH JENKINS

A sensitive, thoughtful, touching novel about our contemporary society and the many ways in which people can be broken or vulnerable or ‘odd’ – along with the multitude of techniques with which people attempt to protect themselves, or try to cover it up.

We all have our own personal backstories which affect us now: our behaviour, our relationships, our approach to life. In this story, the main protagonist Hazel, living on her own in the London suburbs, and working as a Teaching Assistant in a local school, suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety, and we see how she encounters a group of people who give her the opportunity to change her life.

The key people she meets are young Harry, bullied at school, terrified ‘the Social’ will find out about his abusive home life with his alcoholic mother; and Virginia, a warm, compassionate and caring church minister with her own tragic past, whose eagerness to help others gets her in deep trouble. I found the story very poignant and discerning.

The novel has been compared to ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ and I can see a clear relationship between the two stories. By the end of Deborah Jenkins’ novel, we have a deeper insight into the complex and sometimes surprising ways we may become “braver” in our lives, no matter how diverse our circumstances. A beautiful and compelling story.

AUTHOR BIO

Deborah Jenkins is a freelance writer and primary teacher who has worked in schools in the UK and abroad. She has written several educational textbooks, as well as articles for the TES online and Guardian Weekend, among other publications. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies, and she has also published a novella, The Evenness of Things. She lives in Sussex and enjoys reading, walking gardening, travel and good coffee. She writes a blog at stillwonderinghere.

‘Braver’ will be out on 20th June but you can pre-order a copy here

Deborah may also be found on Twitter here:

and on Instagram here

Book Reviews: ‘Heaven is For Real’ by Todd Burpo and ‘Eye Can Write’ by Jonathan Bryan

Recently two related memoirs have come into my hands within a short space of time. The first, Heaven is For Real I picked up from a secondhand book sale at a local Warwickshire Open Gardens event.

The second, I bought at a writing conference in the Hayes Centre, Swanwick, just this weekend (3-5 June 2022).

There at the Association of Christian Writers 50th Anniversary Conference, “Worth Our Weight in Gold”, we listened to the author of the book Eye Can Write, Jonathan Bryan, a 16 year old boy prodigy with severe cerebral palsy, give a presentation to us, with the assistance of his mother, Chantal Bryan.

Jonathan and Chantal Bryan, courtesy of Optimus Education Blog

This must have been the most stunning of all the talks we listened to during the weekend. The queue that formed afterwards to buy his book was the longest in the whole conference!

The curious relationship between the two books immediately struck me: for within both of them a child recalls his impressions during an apparent near-death experience, and over the course of time, relates the details to the adults in his life. It was fascinating to read both accounts, in different circumstances, and to pick out the many ways in which they corresponded with each other.

Jonathan Bryan’s account is probably the most outstanding because it emerged later after he had been taught to read and write, via his perspex spelling board from which he chooses letters and words using his eye movements. His experience took place in Intensive Care while he was in an induced coma during ventilation, which he was highly unlikely to survive.

“Alive. I had never felt so alive.” He describes a beautiful garden which he identifies as “Jesus’ garden” and he vividly relates how he walked and ran around and swung his free arms, sauntering through an orchard full of “trees laden with delectable fruit”, playing with other children by the trees: all things he had never experienced in this life in a crippled, dysfunctional body.

“With the sibilance of the oxygen silenced, I inhaled deeply, the fresh air revitalising my new body and filling my soul with joy… the atmosphere was saturated in a deep, contented peace.”

His most compelling image was “As I stretched my body to its full height (my scoliosis had elongated and vanished altogether), I realised the dragon cerebral palsy had been banished from the lair of my body.” He also describes meeting his friend Noah who had died the year before from a brain tumour. Four year old Colton Burpo also refers to meeting family members, some of whom had died before he was born. Jonathan refers to the choice he was given, to stay to meet the gardener, or to go back to his fragile, sick body, back to “my mind trapped in my silence; back to the family I loved.”

In Todd Burpo’s book, little Colton, whose experience took place when he was three years old and seriously ill with a ruptured appendix, also refers to the choice he was asked to make. This does seem a common feature of accounts of near death experiences.

I found both books very moving but Jonathan Bryan’s was the most powerful. Children’s author Michael Morpurgo wrote the foreword to the book, and Jonathan has founded a charity called “Teach Us Too” pleading for all children regardless of their “label” to be taught to read and write. A significant proportion of the profits from his book will go to that charity.

Do let me know if you’ve read either of these books, and what you think. But if you haven’t yet come across them, I do recommend both to you.

National Garden Scheme Open Gardens in Hunningham, Warwickshire

Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire blog tour

This week Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire goes on tour through seven book blogs.

Thank you to Ruth Leigh who began the tour and to Ritu Bhathal who looks at the book on her blog. Both bloggers have shared lovely reviews of the book.

On 11th May, it’s the turn of Joy Margetts. Shelley Wilson follows her on 12th, Mari Howard on the 13th, Maressa Mortimer on the 14th and Marje Mallon completes the tour on the 15th.

I’m very grateful to all these lovely bloggers for their willingness to read advance copies of the book and share their reviews.

The book is widely available in bookshops and online, and signed copies may be ordered direct from me.

If you do read the book I hope you enjoy it, and remember, authors always love Amazon reviews!

Folklore in Action at Book Launch

On the day of writing this blog post I shall be launching my new book Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire at Hill Close Gardens in Warwick.

Full cover of Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire by SC Skillman published by Amberley 2021

Illustrated Tales of Warwickshire is published by Amberley, and the book deals with strange stories from around Shakespeare’s county, stories which cover many topics: folklore, ancient ceremonies, spooky experiences, intriguing people, witchcraft, mysterious murders among them.

One of my topics under the heading of folk customs was the tradition of Morris Dancing, and I interviewed two members of Plum Jerkum, Warwick’s own Border Morris side. You will see a photo of them has made it to the front cover.

So I was delighted to hear that they were keen to dance at my book launch, which will certainly add to the atmosphere of the occasion!

The bridge and river at Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire

Plum Jerkum Border Morris Side, Warwick’s own border morris dancers

I hope you enjoy this selection of photos from my book.

It’s available worldwide in paperback and you can order it here, or go to the books page on this website to order signed copies from me.

Plum Jerkum, Warwick’s own border Morris Side, dancing in the street

Hall’s Croft, otherwise known as Dr John Hall’s House, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

Farmyard Scene in the village of Lower Quinton, Warwickshire

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Blog Tour: ‘Burrowed’ by Maressa Mortimer

I’m pleased to be taking part in a blog tour today for fellow author Maressa Mortimer. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Maressa several times at different author events and conferences, and she is a lovely ebullient lady with endless energy, who despite being the wife of a Baptist pastor and the mother of four children, is amazingly prolific as an author and also fantastic at design and author promotion!

Book cover for novel ‘Burrowed’ by Maressa Mortimer

‘Burrowed‘ is Maressa’s fifth novel and it was published on 12th April 2022.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Maressa grew up in the Netherlands, and moved to England soon after finishing teaching training college. Married to Pastor Richard Mortimer they live in a Cotswold village with their four children. She is a home-school mum, enjoying the time spent with family, travelling, reading and turning life into stories, she wants to use her stories to show practical Christian living in a fallen world.

BURROWED

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The beautiful island of Ximiu has a plan for a more sustainable future. But not everyone living on the island is on board. Jasira, daughter of the governing matriarch, is determined to uncover the dark forces threatening her home. With the help of her friends she embarks on a desperate bid to save her island community. When the price is higher than she had bargained for, will Jasira still find faith and beauty in the world around her?

MY REVIEW

I found this novel captivating, set in the rather sinister but beautiful fictional island of Ximui. The island is run by a matriarchy, and is striving to go “green” – very quickly. The main protagonist, teenager Jasira, is daughter to the leader of the community, who is known as The Xibai. Jasira’s best friend Ilori is the son of the Vice-Xibai. The author demonstrates great skill at creating a creeping sense of anxiety in a setting which is in many ways like our own world, but at one remove. She refers to The Mainland as the place to which people escape, who cannot endure the pace at which the island of Ximui is going “green”; but it is also the place, possibly, to which “the disappeared” are taken. For the story concerns the disappearance of female babies and young girls.

This gives us enough resonance with some of the evils of our own world, to build our sense of unease. Throughout the story, the author sustains an underlying sense of this world being out of alignment with our own, especially in the unusual choice of names, which fascinated me. In the way it deals with contemporary societal issues, it may be regarded as a “speculative” novel.

The author deals with the issue of “going green” so cleverly that I began by thinking, “So, it’s going green. That’s good, isn’t it?” and I ended up by feeling totally different about it. In fact, although the author may not have intended this, it almost put me off “going green” at all! It made me grateful for all the advantages of our modern world: for asphalt roads, for electricity, for supermarkets, television, cars, diesel, and many other things. Other issues which arise in this novel include “combining genetics” and interference with DNA.

In this story, the ruling Council of the island have an official agenda which sounds good but a current of disturbing reality runs along beneath it, in the way these principles are worked out in the people’s lives, and the unpleasant consequences that result from this. A fear arises, that the changes made on Ximui have caused all the baby girls to be stillborn. Jasiru and Elori, seeing themselves as detectives, pursue the strange albino brother and sister, Axixa and Kamau, believing them to be behind all the strange disappearances. So many things are inexplicably going missing, as well as the babies and young girls: cars, electricity, energy, asphalt from the roads, even bags of flour.

The story takes a dramatic turn when we discover who the strange pair are, and where they come from: who are their people, where they dwell, and the truth about their malevolent agenda which threatens the island and everyone on it.

Ultimately Jasira must take a decision to put herself and her friends in extreme danger as she commits to a seemingly impossible mission to save the island. I found this part of the story very vivid and compelling.

A most unusual novel which may be thought of as Young Adult, but I believe to be of crossover appeal, because of the strong emphasis on serious societal issues in contemporary society.

HOW TO BUY

Click here for Amazon

and here for eden.co.uk

WEBSITE LINK

http://www.vicarioushome.com/

Book Reviews: Works by Charles Harris

I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Harris as we were both among the authors who attended the Brechin Book Festival in Brechin, Scotland in November, 2021.

The authors at the Brechin Book Festival, Angus, Scotland, November 2022

It was great chatting to Charles, award-winning film director and screenwriter, and fiction author. He has also written, besides his fiction, a complete screenwriting course.

Charles Harris, film director, screenwriter and author

I’ve now read two of Charles’ dark and witty books, and here are my reviews below.

The Breaking of Liam Glass

This satirical book is compulsive reading as we follow the disastrous journey of desperate journalist Jason on the trail of a story. The only trouble is, this story involves a real tragedy, a 14 year old boy stabbed in the street and now in a coma, while his grieving mother sits at his bedside hoping he will be restored to life. And in order to clinch the story, and grab the exclusive, Jason makes ever more inethical, illegal and even callous choices.

I spent the first half of the book mostly in sympathy with Jason. I think we all have an instinctive desire to be the one to “break a story”. Imagine what it must be like for journos in the hard world of newspapers whose careers hang on that byline, along with money and fame and praise and everything that goes with it. I believe all writers can probably identify with that base desire, no matter how much they claim higher motives.

As this is a satire of our contemporary British society, focused on a particular area of London, nobody comes out with any kind of noble or high-minded sheen. The novel is peopled with huge number of named characters from the kaleidoscope of our familiar world, and I admit I wrote them all down on a list to try and keep track of them. (The last time I felt I had to do that was when I read JK Rowling’s ‘The Casual Vacancy’). The author here drives the narrative along with a waspish wit reminiscent of SJ Perelman and Joseph Heller. Several moments are hilarious. I particularly loved the description of all the rival journos and photographers descending upon the private hospital.

A must-read for all who love satire!

The Cupboard

The Cupboard is a collection of short stories and one novella, bringing together several ‘tales of the unexpected.’ Contained within these short stories are the creepy, the disquieting, and the macabre. Charles Harris here gives us his curious and unpredictable take on life, in stories that sometimes remind me of Roald Dahl and and at other times have a Woody Allen-like flavour. They are the sort of stories that leave you with a frisson of unease. I do like the Classic Tales of the Macabre and in some ways the author’s style puts me in mind of those: an elegant narrative that suddenly twists you round and drops you into a dark pit. Recommended to all lovers of noir, and to those who like to be shocked out of their habitual ways of seeing things.

Book Review: ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’ by Annie Dillard

This is a very intense, exquisitely observed book of nature observation, which took place over the course of one year at Tinker Creek in South Carolina in the USA.

The author wrote ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek‘ back in 1972, at the age of 27. I was captivated by the way she relates her nature observations to spiritual insights.

She sees a knot of snakeskin shed by a snake, and finding the knot has no beginning, she reflects on time as the continuous loop or as an ascending spiral.

“Of course, we have no idea which arc on the loop is our time, let alone where the loop is,” she remarks. “The spirit seems to roll along like the mythical hoop snake with its tail in its mouth.”

I was struck by these words: “I have always been sympathetic with the early notion of a divine power that exists in a particular place or that travels about over the face of the earth as a man might wander.” They reminded me of JRR Tolkien’s observation: “Not all those who wander are lost.”

The book is quite demanding to read, as her use of language is so compact, poetic and intense, while she spends time with muskrats, praying mantises, grasshoppers and humming-birds.

Some of her narrative comes over as stream of consciousness, exquisitely detailed, as if she is in a state of heightened perception. She writes of “bumblebees the size of ponies”. She draws philosophical or mystical insights from a meeting with a copperhead snake, from the sight of a mosquito feeding on that snake, or from her presence at the terrifying event of a frog sucked dry by a giant water-bug.

The book also includes a dazzling array of facts about insect pests and their parasites. This leads her on to metaphysical speculations about life and dying. In dying, she imagines, we say, not “please…” but “thank you”, in recognising the extraordinary gift and sheer wonder of life on this earth. She shows, too, the wastefulness, the extravagance, the randomness, the horror and the cruelty of nature; and how all things move from perfection and wholeness to brokenness.

Late in the book, she cites Gerald Durrell (an author I have loved) as expressing the view that creatures live a much better life in (enlightened) captivity than they ever do out in the harshness of nature.

I have heard that view expressed again, quite recently, by a naturalist and wildlife conservationist: animals can expect a much healthier and longer lifespan in (good) captivity than they could ever expect in nature, their well-being catered for in a protected environment, safe from the astonishing but pitiless natural world “out there”.

‘Beasts in My Belfry” one of the many books by Gerald Durrell, naturalist, conservationist, writer and zoo keeper

This is a fascinating book, which repays slow and careful reading.

Book Review: ‘The Secret River’ by Kate Grenville

As one who lived in Australia for nearly five years, before returning to live in England, I found this novel by Australian author Kate Grenville totally immersive.

The Secret River – novel by Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville takes her main protagonist William Thornhill from his life as a Thames waterman in the late 1700s out to New South Wales on a convict transport, and brings him to the piece of land he has dreamed of owning on the Hawkesbury River. I found myself visualising and experiencing his life and daily environment as if I was there with him. I could imagine the grandeur of the wild scenery at Thornhill’s Point, and sense it in every way. Yet I felt a deep sorrow for the indigenous Australians – the aboriginal people – and for the tragic failures of understanding and communication between them and the European settlers.

I could empathise, too, with how Will’s wife Sal felt, longing to ‘go home’ to London, and living every day in the hope of returning; and I could also feel the profound dilemma for Will. He knows that if he returns to his former environment by the Thames he will be back among people who consider him the lowest of the low, a felon, cutting him off forever from fulfilling his dreams.

Powering along through this story is the sublime evocation of the New South Wales climate, atmosphere and scenery along the Hawkesbury River, and the feeling of majesty and beauty from the unyielding wilderness, upon which the white settlers will need, in some way to impose their own will, their needs and demands.

Modern Australia has come a long way in acknowledging that dreadful betrayal of the birthright of the indigenous peoples, in the assumption of the early settlers that the land was unoccupied and there for the taking. I have been very conscious of the efforts made in the direction of repentance and reconciliation in all my most recent visits to Queensland and New South Wales. And yet we cannot read this book, and others like it, on this topic, without feeling again the terrible clash of cultures between the so-called ‘civilisation’ that the Europeans brought with them, and the values of the First Nation peoples.

Blog Tour for Author SL Russell: ‘The Wounds of Time’ published 21 March 2022

Today I’m delighted to be taking part in a blog tour for fellow author Sue Russell, with her new novel The Wounds of Time.

I have read a few of Sue’s novels, and they are challenging contemporary novels focusing on a central female protagonist who has to deal with traumatic personal and ethical dilemmas in today’s society, often bound up with difficult family relationships. I believe those who love Jodi Picoult’s fiction will enjoy Sue’s novels.

Today I’m pleased to be able to post my own review of Sue’s latest novel, The Wounds of Time.

MY REVIEW

I enjoyed meeting again some of the characters from SL Russell’s previous two novels, The Healing Knife and The Thorn of Truth. This time the story centres upon Janet Yates, a workaholic Barrister’s Clerk, colleague of Anna Milburn, Head of Chambers, main protagonist of The Thorn of Truth.

Janet is the first person narrator: married to Bob, a paramedic, with a son, Drew, she comes over as a hard, brusque person. Bob is her second husband, and she bitterly regrets her first marriage to Terry.

In the legal firm where Anna and Janet work, they are about to start interviewing candidates for a clerk position. We meet Jan’s sisters Pauline and Christine, their father Desmond and brother Ben, and we get a strong sense of a dysfunctional family. Desmond is an elderly bully, and Ben has a mental disability. Jan’s sour attitude extends to all her family members: to her father, to Pauline, her husband, son and daughter; to Christine and her husband Giles. We build up a picture of an unforgiving, harsh personality, through Jan’s carping inner voice and critical thoughts.

Jan also disapproves of her son Drew’s choice of girlfriend. This is Tiffany, whom we met before in The Thorn of Truth, where she had befriended Anna’s daughter Millie and caused concern then, because her wealthy father, Calvin Leaman, is believed to be a drug dealer and has been in prison.

Meanwhile, at the legal firm, Jan’s colleagues interview for the new clerk during Jan’s absence to tend a family crisis, and they appoint Lauren Barclay, who starts ringing alarm bells as soon as she enters the role. Back at home, to Jan’s alarm, Drew announces he will marry Tiffany. Alongside all this, we start to get intimations that Jan has a medical condition building up, and, true to her character, she brushes it off; but we, the readers, feel this is going to be serious.

Then we learn that Jan secretly stores significant items related to her childhood trauma in a white suitcase. We discover her mother died in violent tragic circumstances; Jan witnessed the death and consequently became emotionally damaged, having borne the burden of her mother’s loss, in helping to bring up her six siblings, two of whom have grown up to be crooks and con-tricksters.

Jan continues as an unemotional and dry person, described by others as a hard nut. Meanwhile, Lauren is in her new job, making serious mistakes and revealing a bad attitude. But her father is an important and influential solicitor, and her new bosses are afraid to discipline her for fear of the repercussions from him.

I find SL Russell’s presentation of complex family relationships and the psychological effects of trauma very absorbing and interesting. We learn Jan and Bob’s marriage is not good – they are becoming more distant with each other. Jan has a Catholic background, which she has rejected. The kindly Father Gerard, we discover, knows all about Jan’s family history, and could probably help her: but her own negativity cuts her off from that source of healing. Then vulnerable Ben gets drawn into a scam by his two nefarious brothers and plunges into another crisis. He is discovered to have been stealing expensive goods from his employer; will he lose his precious job, so hard-won and vital to his mental wellbeing? We wonder whether Bob and Jan’s marriage will collapse. Is Bob having an affair? What is Jan’s health problem? What’s wrong with Lauren?

I was fascinated by the way the author incorporates several notorious traumatic incidents in the recent life of the UK; terrorist outrages and appalling tragedies with huge loss of life: these are woven into Bob’ story as he is a paramedic.

Although for much of the story Jan may appear to the reader as hard, patronising, and cynical, her story shows how transformation is possible. Through Jan’s story, the author shows how resistant we can all be to change, even when that change is very much in our own best interest. As our questions are answered and the various dilemmas reach crisis point, we see how breakthrough often comes through shocking, life-changing circumstances. Often, only then do people reveal for the first time their inner resources of goodness, begin to see others differently, cracking the hard rock of resentment and pride, opening up to the possibility of forgiveness and true healing.

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