Hello lovely people 🙂 Today is my stop on the Random Things blog tour for Three Words for Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. I’ve read one other book by this writing duo, Last Christmas in Paris, which I’m actually planning to reread later this year. I’ve also read one of Gaynor’s solo books, The Cottingley Secret. Both of those I loved and I’m happy to say that I also loved this latest offering from the pair!
Huge thanks to William Morrow, imprint of Harper Collins, for sending me an ARC of this fantastic story!
New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine Sommers learn their grandmother is dying, they agree to fulfill her last wish: to travel across Europe—together. They are to deliver three letters, in which Violet will say goodbye to those she hasn’t seen since traveling to Europe forty years earlier; a journey inspired by famed reporter, Nellie Bly.
Clara, ever-dutiful, sees the trip as an inconvenient detour before her wedding to millionaire Charles Hancock, but it’s also a chance to embrace her love of art. Budding journalist Madeleine relishes the opportunity to develop her ambitions to report on the growing threat of Hitler’s Nazi party and Mussolini’s control in Italy.
Constantly at odds with each other as they explore the luxurious Queen Mary, the Orient Express, and the sights of Paris and Venice,, Clara and Madeleine wonder if they can fulfil Violet’s wish, until a shocking truth about their family brings them closer together. But as they reach Vienna to deliver the final letter, old grudges threaten their reconciliation again. As political tensions rise, and Europe feels increasingly volatile, the pair are glad to head home on the Hindenburg, where fate will play its hand in the final stage of their journey.
This was genuinely such a wonderful story! I’ve only really discovered a love of historical fiction in recent years but I’m so glad to be fully embracing it. I’ve read quite a few stories set around WWII (it’s a popular choice, after all) but this still managed to feel original and unlike anything I’ve read before! I even went off and did some further reading on the Hindenburg so I’m grateful to the authors for highlighting that particular event in history and encouraging me to learn something new.
I’ve always enjoyed stories featuring letters, so the premise of this one really intrigued me. I loved that Violet tasked her two grand-daughters with delivering letters to people with whom she needed to make peace or reconnect. I felt soinvested in her story.
The characters were one of my favourite aspects of this novel. Violet herself was fabulous and sisters Clara and Madeleine were superb. Everyone felt fully realised and had a distinct narrative voice. I loved Maddie’s passion for journalism and Clara’s eye for art, and thought that these hobbies/interests added further layers to an already-great story. There was also a wonderful cast of side characters, every one of whom felt believable no matter how short a time they were on the page.
I loved following the sisters on their journey from New York to Paris, Venice and Vienna, and back again. Everything was perfectly described and gave me serious wanderlust! Gaynor and Webb both have a real talent for conjuring places. And seeing Clara and Madeleine put aside their differences and become closer through their journey together was completely heart-warming.
I whole-heartedly recommend this book to fans of historical fiction, people who like to travel, those who enjoy family stories, or anyone who needs to be reminded that life is short and we must live it to the fullest! I will definitely be seeking out more of Gaynor and Webb’s books!
Make sure you check out the other stops on the tour for more reviews of this one!
Hey everyone! Today I’m on the blog tour for One August Night by Victoria Hislop, to celebrate its paperback release! One August Night is the sequel to the incredible best-selling novel, The Island, and it released in paperback in the UK yesterday! Huge thanks to Headline Review for sending me a free copy.
When time stops dead for Maria Petrakis and her sister, Anna, two families splinter apart and, for the people of Plaka, the closure of Spinalonga is forever coloured with tragedy.
In the aftermath, the question of how to resume life looms large. Stigma and scandal need to be confronted and somehow, for those impacted, a future built from the ruins of the past.
Number one bestselling author Victoria Hislop returns to the world and characters she created in The Island – the award-winning novel that remains one of the biggest selling reading group novels of the century. It is finally time to be reunited with Anna, Maria, Manolis and Andreas in the weeks leading up to the evacuation of the island… and beyond.
I only read The Island for the first time last year (I was very late to the party) but I adored it. It was such a rich and fascinating historical fiction, with the most wonderful cast of characters. So when I was offered the chance to review its sequel, I didn’t hesitate.
I’m delighted to say I really enjoyed this follow-up! One August Night picks up slightly before the final events of The Island, which I actually found very helpful as I was worried I wouldn’t remember all the details. By opening the novel in this way, Hislop actually did her readers a huge favour and I really appreciated it. The book then goes on to explore the aftermath of those final events and the paths that the different characters take in the years that follow.
Any follow-up to The Island was inevitably going to be compared to its predecessor and yes, it is not as sweeping a novel (it’s half the size after all!) But I believe Hislop achieved exactly what she set out to do with this one, which was to explore where her characters would go in the years subsequent to The Island‘s ending and how they would cope with the fallout of what happened. I loved revisiting this incredible cast and seeing where their journeys went next.
Sometimes, when a book has such a large cast, I can find myself more invested in certain characters than others but that wasn’t the case here and I was equally captivated by all of them. Hislop clearly has a real talent for creating multi-faceted characters with believable motivations and flaws.
Once again, Hislop’s portrayal of Greece was wonderfully evocative and I felt utterly transported while reading (helped along by the fact we’ve been having a heatwave in the UK!) In fact, her writing keeps pushing Greece further up my travel wishlist! I hope I can visit this beautiful country at some point in the future and see for myself the place she writes about with such passion.
I definitely recommend both The Island and its sequel, One August Night, to fans of captivating historical fiction. I also plan to read the rest of Hislop’s books at some point, as they are the perfect summer reads!
As always, here is the schedule for the rest of the blog tour if you want to check out the other reviews!
Happy book birthday to Jonathan Stroud and The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne! And a big thank you to Walker Books for sending me an ARC and my very own cuss box and coins! (This does not affect my review opinion in any way.)
Set in a fragmented future England, The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne introduces us to a world where gunfights and monsters collide, and where the formidable outlaw Scarlett McCain fights daily against the odds. When she discovers a wrecked coach on a lonely road, there is only one survivor – the seemingly hapless youth, Albert Browne. Against her instincts, Scarlett agrees to escort him to safety. This is a mistake. Soon, new and implacable enemies are on her heels. As a relentless pursuit continues across the broken landscape of England, Scarlett must fight to uncover the secrets of Albert’s past – and come to terms with the implications of her own.
In his first new project since Lockwood & Co., Jonathan once again fuses action, humour and mystery to create a uniquely exciting adventure with two fascinating heroes at its heart.
I’ve never read anything by Stroud but, from this book, I can tell that he is clearly a talented writer. From the very beginning, I felt excited by this book. I just knew it was going to be exactly the adventure I was in the mood for. I was immediately invested in Scarlett’s character and wanted to know more about the world she was inhabiting. Then Browne was introduced and I was simply hooked.
The characters were definitely my favourite thing about the book. Scarlett was sassy and sarcastic, whilst Arthur didn’t understand her humour at all. Their exchanges had me laughing out loud at times, and that’s not something I do often when reading. Albert is honestly one of the most tactless and lackadaisical characters I’ve ever read but I couldn’t help loving him!
The story itself was also great. There were plenty of suitably tense action scenes that kept the pace moving along nicely. One scene was so intense that I was holding my breath! (When you read it, you’ll know.) While a lot of the story did surround a journey, it was always exciting and never felt like the characters were simply moving from one place to another; there was always something happening.
I enjoyed the setting and the concept of a Britain split into seven kingdoms. There were a lot of interesting elements to the world. I will say that I would have liked to know a bit more about how certain things actually came about – however, I know this is the first in a series so maybe we’ll find out more of the backstory as we go along.
Overall, this was a fun and fast-paced story that provided some much-needed escapism from the monotony of lockdown life. I very much enjoyed this one and can’t wait to see where the author takes these characters next.
Thank you again Walker Books for sending me a promotional ARC!
Have you read anything by Stroud? What are your thoughts on this one? Let me know in the comments!
Sorry for bombarding you all with a lot of reviews lately but I really let them get away from me and now it’s causing me stress! Today, I want to talk about The Sealwoman’s Gift which was another of my February reads. It was the backlist title I had selected for the month and I ended up really enjoying it!
In 1627 Barbary pirates raided the coast of Iceland and abducted some 400 of its people, including 250 from a tiny island off the mainland. Among the captives sold into slavery in Algiers were the island pastor, his wife and their three children. Although the raid itself is well documented, little is known about what happened to the women and children afterwards. It was a time when women everywhere were largely silent.
In this brilliant reimagining, Sally Magnusson gives a voice to Ásta, the pastor’s wife. Enslaved in an alien Arab culture Ásta meets the loss of both her freedom and her children with the one thing she has brought from home: the stories in her head. Steeped in the sagas and folk tales of her northern homeland, she finds herself experiencing not just the separations and agonies of captivity, but the reassessments that come in any age when intelligent eyes are opened to other lives, other cultures and other kinds of loving.
The Sealwoman’s Gift is about the eternal power of storytelling to help us survive. The novel is full of stories – Icelandic ones told to fend off a slave-owner’s advances, Arabian ones to help an old man die. And there are others, too: the stories we tell ourselves to protect our minds from what cannot otherwise be borne, the stories we need to make us happy.
As the blurb says, The Sealwoman’s Gift is a book full of stories. I have always had a soft spot for books that highlight the importance of words and storytelling, and this one is no exception. It shows that no matter where you are in the world or in what age you are living, stories have always and will always be important. And as a book-lover, I couldn’t help but connect with that concept.
The scene-setting was another aspect of this book that I loved. From the rugged Icelandic wilderness to the stifling heat of Africa, every scene was described in stunning detail. I could picture everything so vividly – even down to the visceral scenes that took place on the pirate ship, which I might not have wanted to visualise so clearly!
One of the things that had worried me going into this book was the amount of Icelandic terms used throughout. However, it actually wasn’t too much of a struggle. There was a handy glossary of names and phrases at the back of the book, though I didn’t like to use this too much as it would pull me out of the story. But it was good to have it there for times when I really couldn’t figure something out!
Now, I can’t talk about this book without mentioning its main character. Asta is an incredible, fearless woman who remains true to herself throughout all of the trials she faces. Her strength was truly one of my favourite things about the book and I felt I related to her on a fundamental level as a woman.
My one complaint would be that the book didn’t always flow easily. The author used a lot of parentheses, meaning there were a lot of convoluted sentences. It was a struggle sometimes to keep hold of the initial thought and see it through to the end. There were also quite large jumps between time periods, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; I just wasn’t expecting the pace to move as it did. It was a strange juxtaposition between the slowness of the chapters themselves but the speed at which the story was actually moving, if that makes sense?
Overall, this was a fascinating book about a time in history that I knew nothing about prior to reading. While there were some blander moments, these were more than made up for with some really beautiful writing and the strength of the novel’s protagonist.
Have you read this book? Let me know what you thought of it in the comments!
Those of you who have been following this blog for a while might remember me interviewing the lovely Helen Steadman, author of historical fiction duology Widdershins and Sunwise. Helen is an author from the area in which I grew up, so I love to support her work whenever I can. Helen was extremely generous at the end of 2020 when she sent me a free copy of her newest book, The Running Wolf, plus some added goodies! Though I am not obligated to provide a review in return, I wanted to do so anyway as a thank you. So read on to find out more about The Running Wolf and what I thought of it!
When a German smuggler is imprisoned in Morpeth Gaol in the winter of 1703, why does Queen Anne’s powerful right-hand man, The Earl of Nottingham, take such a keen interest?
At the end of the turbulent 17th century, the ties that bind men are fraying, turning neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend and brother against brother. Beneath a seething layer of religious intolerance, community suspicion and political intrigue, The Running Wolf takes us deep into the heart of rebel country in the run-up to the 1715 Jacobite uprising.
Hermann Mohll is a master sword maker from Solingen in Germany who risks his life by breaking his guild oaths and settling in England. While trying to save his family and neighbours from poverty, he is caught smuggling swords and finds himself in Morpeth Gaol facing charges of High Treason.
Determined to hold his tongue and his nerve, Mohll finds himself at the mercy of the corrupt keeper, Robert Tipstaff. The keeper fancies he can persuade the truth out of Mohll and make him face the ultimate justice: hanging, drawing and quartering. But in this tangled web of secrets and lies, just who is telling the truth?
As with Helen’s first two books, the writing was beautiful. It’s not overly flowery but still has a lovely lyrical quality to it. I also enjoyed the structure of the book, with its alternating perspectives that begin around 15 years apart and gradually move closer together in time until they finally align.
One of this novel’s biggest strengths is its characters. Each one had a distinctive voice and felt believable, even minor side characters. A particular favourite of mine was Grandmother Mohll, who was extremely witty. I loved the banter between her and her daughter-in-law.
I also appreciated the setting. As I mentioned in my introduction to this post, one of the reasons I like Helen’s books so much is because they are set in the North East of England; the places are all familiar to me. Reading Helen’s work is a lovely taste of home.
I have rated all three of Helen’s books highly but I think this latest might actually be my favourite. Helen managed to take the very niche subject of sword-making and make it interesting, which is no easy feat. Indeed, I was a tiny bit nervous before starting the book that I wouldn’t connect with the subject matter. I needn’t have worried. My attention was held until the very last page.
I would definitely recommend The Running Wolf, and Helen’s previous duology, to fans of historical fiction with a strong sense of place and characters you can invest in.
I’d love to know which authors are local to you! Let me know in the comments down below 🙂 x
Hello my beauties ❤ Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Butcher’s Daughter by Victoria Glendinning! This is part of the Summer Reads series hosted by Duckworth Books all month long – so thank you to them for sending me a free copy to review! All opinions are my own.
In 1535, England is hardly a wellspring of gender equality; it is a grim and oppressive age where women—even the privileged few who can read and write—have little independence. In The Butcher’s Daughter, it is this milieu that mandates Agnes Peppin, daughter of a simple country butcher, to leave her family home in disgrace and live out her days cloistered behind the walls of the Shaftesbury Abbey. But with her great intellect, she becomes the assistant to the Abbess and as a result integrates herself into the unstable royal landscape of King Henry VIII.
As Agnes grapples with the complex rules and hierarchies of her new life, King Henry VIII has proclaimed himself the new head of the Church. Religious houses are being formally subjugated and monasteries dissolved, and the great Abbey is no exception to the purge. The cosseted world in which Agnes has carved out for herself a sliver of liberty is shattered. Now, free at last to be the master of her own fate, she descends into a world she knows little about, using her wits and testing her moral convictions against her need to survive by any means necessary . . .
The Butcher’s Daughter is the riveting story of a young woman facing head-on the obstacles carefully constructed against her sex. This dark and affecting novel by award-winning author Victoria Glendinning intricately depicts the lives of women in the sixteenth century in a world dominated by men, perfect for fans of Wolf Hall and Philippa Gregory.
The Butcher’s Daughter is an assured addition to the world of historical fiction. Glendinning sets the scene extremely well, conjuring a vivid picture of the 1500s, a time period which I have not read about often. The historical detail was accurate but not over-bearing, giving the story a chance to shine in its own right.
The long chapters in this book make it easy to get caught up in this story, despite its slow pace. Most people would claim to know something of Tudor history – even just the story of Henry VII’s wives at its most basic. This book offers a fresh take on that time period and I felt like it gave me a greater understanding of the possible reasons behind what happened during this era, despite some of the historical events not being described in great depth.
The narrative voice is confident and readers cannot help but root for the protagonist, Agnes. It was refreshing to read about a woman of that era who knew her own mind and could confidently convey her thoughts to the reader, while maintaining a meek appearance as demanded of her by the society in which she lived. (Yes, I’m aware that I’m talking about Agnes as if she were a real person but she was just such a fully realised character!) I would describe this as a quietly feminist book; it doesn’t shout about its themes but there is a definite sense of righteousness evoked when reading about Agnes.
Overall, this is definitely a slow read but one which fans of historical fiction should find worthwhile!
To hear what other readers thought of this book, check out the other stops on the tour! x
Are you a fan of historical fiction? If so, what are some of your favourites? Let me know in the comments! x
Hello everyone! I hope you’re all having a great week 🙂 Today, I’m reviewing Last Letter From Istanbul which I received from Harper Collins UK, along with a lovely box of Turkish-themed goodies! Sadly, while I loved the box of gifts, the book was a little disappointing.
Constantinople, 1921
Each day, Nur gazes across the waters of the Bosphorus to her childhood home, a grand white house, nestled on the opposite bank. Memories float on the breeze – the fragrance of the fig trees, the saffron sunsets of languid summer evenings. But now those days are dead.
The house has been transformed into an army hospital, it is a prize of war in the hands of the British. And as Nur weaves through the streets carrying the embroideries that have become her livelihood, Constantinople swarms with Allied soldiers – a reminder of how far her she and her city have fallen.
The most precious thing in Nur’s new life is the orphan in her care – a boy with a terrible secret. When he falls dangerously ill Nur’s world becomes entwined with the enemy’s. She must return to where she grew up, and plead for help from Medical Officer George Monroe.
As the lines between enemy and friend become fainter, a new danger emerges – something even more threatening than the lingering shadow of war.
I struggled a lot to get into this one. There were a LOT of perspectives and time jumps which made it difficult for me to get sucked into the story; I felt like it was darting around too much and I couldn’t focus.
I also found the tone of the book a little pretentious at times. I don’t know what it was exactly that bothered me; I think it was just trying too hard to be this piece of great literary fiction but it did not succeed. The writing got quite convoluted and irritating at times.
In terms of characters, I didn’t really feel like any of them were very fleshed out. I didn’t feel invested in their lives and found them all to be forgettable. I felt totally apathetic towards them all.
As for the plot, I was promised a sweeping historical romance but this was non-existent. I don’t know, maybe I went in with the wrong expectations but I thought there would be some level of intimacy between Nur and George. There was none. Not until the very end of the book was there a flicker of something but even then, there was no chemistry whatsoever.
So, sadly, I didn’t enjoy this book. I’d say I was fairly bored most of the time. Maybe it’s partly my own fault for expecting something of a romance but I also don’t think the book was marketed accurately. Though I’m still super grateful to the publishers for sending me a free copy and the accompanying gifts!
Have you ever gone into a book expecting one thing and been surprised to find it was something completely different? Let me know in the comments! x
Hey everyone! Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Photographer of the Lost and I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt alongside my review! Thank you to Anne Cater/Random Things Tours and the publisher Simon and Schuster for sending me an ARC 😀
1921. Families are desperately trying to piece together the fragments of their broken lives. While many survivors of the Great War have been reunited with their loved ones, Edie’s husband Francis has not come home. He is considered ‘missing in action’, but when Edie receives a mysterious photograph taken by Francis in the post, hope flares. And so she beings to search.
Harry, Francis’s brother, fought alongside him. He too longs for Francis to be alive, so they can forgive each other for the last things they ever said. Both brothers shared a love of photography and it is that which brings Harry back to the Western Front. Hired by grieving families to photograph gravesites, as he travels through battle-scarred France gathering news for British wives and mothers, Harry also searches for evidence of his brother.
And as Harry and Edie’s paths converge, they get closer to a startling truth.
An incredibly moving account of an often-forgotten moment in history, The Photographer of the Lost tells the story of the thousands of soldiers who were lost amid the chaos and ruins, and the even greater number of men and women desperate to find them again.
I’m going to keep my thoughts on this one brief because I want you to see for yourselves how gorgeous the writing is!
I was immediately hooked by the prologue of this one (which you can read below, you lucky devils). The writing flows absolutely beautifully and I was completely swept away in the story. The setting was conjured so effortlessly; I could picture every desolate French field and every detail in Edie’s Lancashire home.
The author made me feel for every single character in this book, even those we only meet in passing. I totally felt like I was on this journey with them. And wow, was it an emotional one. This book will seriously make you feel things.
The book moves seamlessly between past and present, and between Harry and Edie’s perspectives. I loved the chapters detailing the brothers’ time at war; these chapters felt so raw and visceral, and I couldn’t get enough! I definitely recommend this one for fans of historical fiction!
I know I haven’t said a lot in this review but I really think one of the best ways for you to get a feel for this book is to let you read a sample of the it for yourselves. So what are you waiting for?!
Read on for an extract of this gorgeous novel!
Prologue
Edie
Lancashire, May 1921
Edie doesn’t hear the postman. She only notices the envelope, there on the linoleum, as she passes through from the kitchen to the sitting room. She bends to pick it up, sure it is a thing of no great consequence, just another bill that will have to wait, until she sees the postage stamp. It is the same stamp that used to be on their letters from France.
She turns the Manila envelope in her hands. The address is typed, so that it has a vague look of being official. She has written a lot of letters to France and Belgium over the past four years and, in return, receives envelopes full of apologies and repetitions. Her mind flicks through the names of agencies and bureaus, charities and associations, official offices and cemeteries.
At first it is merely a white sheet of paper inside the envelope, with nothing written or printed upon it, but when she turns it over, she sees it is a photograph. For a moment she doesn’t know the face. For that one moment it is the face of a stranger with no place or purpose being here, in her hallway, in her hand. It is an item of misdirected post, a mistake, a mystery – but only for a moment.
Edie leans against the wall and slides down the tiles. She hugs her arms around her knees. There’s a flutter in her chest like a caged bird beating its wings against the bars. The photograph has fallen from her hands and is there, at an angle to the chequerboard pattern of the floor, an arm’s stretch away. She rocks her head back against the wall and shuts her eyes.
Edie tells herself that she needs to look at it again. She must look. She ought to look, to bring it up close to her eyes, and to be certain, because while those are surely his eyes in the photograph, everything else makes no sense. How can it be? Certainly it is only a resemblance. It can’t possibly be him, after so long. Can it? But she doesn’t need to see the photograph a second time to know the truth. It is undoubtedly Francis.
She bites at her knee and makes herself look up. She can see her own footprints on the floor, the habitual patterns that she makes around this house. The linoleum needs mopping again. She should find time to paint the scuffed skirting boards and to beat the doormat. An oak leaf has blown under the hall table, and there next to it is that library card she’s been searching for. She notices all of these things, so that she doesn’t have to look at his face.
‘How?’ She asks the question out loud.
The envelope has crumpled in her hand, but she needs to check inside it. There must be more than that picture. There must be an explanation. A meaning. But there is nothing else there. No letter. Not a sentence. Not one word. She turns the envelope over and sees her address has been typed on a machine with worn keys. The curve of the u is broken, the dot on the i is missing, but the inky perforation of the full stop is emphatic. She can’t read the smudged postmark. There are hyphens in the chain of letters, she makes out, and it is perhaps a Saint- Something- or- Other, but the blur is a divine mystery. Her hands leave damp fingerprints on the brown paper. She has grown to accept that there must be a full stop after Francis’ name, but could she have got that wrong? Could there really be a chance? It is strange to see her own fingers tremble that way.
She rocks onto her side and feels the cold of the floor against her cheek. The photograph is there, inches from her hand. She hears footsteps going along the pavement outside, the buddleia tapping against the sitting- room window in the breeze, the beat of a waltz on Mrs Wilson’s wireless next door, but mostly there is the noise of her own breathing. She shouldn’t be here, lying on the hall floor on a Tuesday morning, with her face pressed down against lino that needs mopping, but how hard it is to make herself move. Why is it so difficult to stretch her hand out towards the photograph? To believe that it really is him?
The sun is slanting through the fanlight now, and the harlequin colours of the glass are elongating across the tiles, jewelling his face in red and green and gold. The face of her husband, who has been missing for the past four years.
I hope you enjoyed that! Make sure you check out these other stops on the tour to find out more, see the official cover reveal and be in with the chance of winning a finished copy!
The Photographer of the Lost will be released on October 31st 2019!x
Hey everyone! I’m delighted to be on the blog tour today for Horizontal Collaboration, a graphic novel originally published in French, written by Navie and illustrated by Carole Maurel. I haven’t read a lot of graphic novels but they’ve been catching my eye lately (particularly thanks to bloggers with great recommendations, such as the lovely Sara!) So I took a chance on this one when I was offered a copy for review and I’m really glad I did.
“Horizontal Collaboration” is a term used to describe the sexual and romantic relationships that some French women had with members of the occupying German forces during World War II. In this poignant, female-centered graphic novel created by writer/artist duo Carole Maurel and Mademoiselle Navie, the taboo of “sleeping with the enemy” is explored through the story of a passionate, and forbidden, affair.
In June 1942, married Rose (whose husband is a prisoner of war) intervenes in the detainment of her Jewish friend and then accidentally embarks on a secret relationship with the investigating German officer, Mark. There is only one step between heroism and treason, and it’s often a dangerous one. Inside an apartment building on Paris’s 11th arrondissement, little escapes the notice of the blind husband of the concierge. Through his sightless but all-knowing eyes, we learn of Rose and Mark’s hidden relationship, and also of the intertwined stories and problems of the other tenants, largely women and children, who face such complex issues as domestic violence, incest, and prostitution.
This fascinating graphic novel tackles the still-sensitive topic of who it is acceptable to love, and how, and the story’s drama is brought vividly to life by intimate and atmospheric illustrations.
As I mentioned in my introduction, I haven’t read many graphic novels but I’m going to do my best to review this one well because it deserves it. I’ll start by talking about the art itself since obviously that is a large percentage of the story.
Before I even started reading, I flicked through the pages and I was struck by the beauty of the colour scheme. The neutrals and muted tones really added to the book and allowed the story to shine. There were, however, pops of brighter citrus colours at appropriate moments, which I loved because they added emphasis to important plot points.
The illustrations were also really beautiful. I’ve photographed a couple of my favourite spreads for you to see!
Now in terms of the story, I thought this was a very unique take on a period of history that has been written about often. I have a soft spot for WWII fiction but I acknowledge that the market is somewhat saturated. However, this is the first time I have read about that era from this perspective. Navie captures the innocence of children, the hardships of war and the complexities of loveless marriages with nuance.
I will admit that I would occasionally lose my bearings while reading, as the scenes would change very quickly and without warning. I don’t think it helped that I was tired while reading though! I was able to sort things out in my mind without too much difficulty and didn’t have any problems understanding what was going on.
Finally, I enjoyed how the characters’ stories all interlinked and I was impressed with the amount of empathy the author and illustrator were able to evoke from me in such a short amount of pages. The ending was very poignant.
I definitely recommend this one to fans of WWII fiction! Thank you to the publisher and Anne Cater/Random Things Tours for providing me with a free copy!
If you’re interested in this one, keep an eye open for the rest of the stops on the tour!
Can you recommend some more graphic novels that I should try? I think I’ve got the bug now! x
Hey everyone! I’m delighted that today is my stop on the blog tour for Sunwise, the sequel to Helen Steadman’s Widdershins which I read in 2017 and loved! I have been eagerly awaiting the sequel since I found out that Widdershins wouldn’t be a standalone – especially since I’ve had a fair bit of communication with the author on social media and she is so lovely! So not only am I reviewing Sunwise today but I’m also sharing an interview with Helen herself! I hope you’ll enjoy it 🙂
When Jane’s lover, Tom, returns from the navy to find her unhappily married to his betrayer, Jane is caught in an impossible situation. Still reeling from the loss of her mother at the hands of the witch-finder John Sharpe, Jane has no choice but to continue her dangerous work as a healer while keeping her young daughter safe.
But, as Tom searches for a way for him and Jane to be together, the witch-finder is still at large. Filled with vengeance, John will stop at nothing in his quest to rid England of the scourge of witchcraft.
Inspired by true events, Sunwise tells the story of one woman’s struggle for survival in a hostile and superstitious world.
Straightaway, I was reminded of how fantastic the author’s writing is. There is a real sense of quality to it, in her word choices and sentence composition. I particularly enjoyed the kern supper scene; Helen’s talent for descriptive writing is really displayed well here. It made me so hungry! Honestly, you could probably get away with reading this book as a standalone but I recommend reading the whole duology simply because the prose is such a treat.
Just like Widdershins, the narrative voices in this sequel are distinct and believable. I had no trouble whatsoever switching between the two perspectives; it was an instant shift. The reader goes from sympathising with Jane one minute to incredulous loathing towards John the next, and there is never any confusion or delay.
Once again, I adored the familiar settings of Scotland and North East England. I think part of why I love these books so much is that I recognise the local area and feel a connection with it.
I love witchy stories anyway but what Helen Steadman has created here is one of my favourites. The multitude of herb lore included shows that the author clearly knows her stuff, lending a wonderful level of believability to the story. Widdershins and Sunwise are both fabulous, and I passionately recommend them!
And now onto the interview!
Hi Helen! I’m delighted to be helping promote Sunwise today and I’m so grateful to you for agreeing to answer my questions. Can you tell us what inspired you to write your first book, Widdershins?
I signed up for an MA in Creative Writing to help improve my novel-writing. I had ages to think about what to write before starting. After reading Hilary Mantel’s amazing Wolf Hall, I immediately knew I wanted to write a historical novel (even though I’d not read many and had no real clue about research). I had no idea what to write about, but I wasn’t too worried as I had a considerable stretch of time ahead of me. One day in the woods, I came across loads of felled trees, which revealed a natural amphitheatre. This set me thinking about what might have gone on there. Florence Welch’s song ‘Rabbit Heart (We Raise It Up)’ sprang into my head and I knew I was going to write about witches. So, I started reading widely about witches and was stunned to learn there’d been witchcraft trials on my own doorstep.
I read that despite the witchfinder being accused of fraud, sixteen people were still hanged on one day, making it one of the biggest (and least well known about) witch trials in England. I was intrigued by the girl who escaped the hangman’s noose, and so Widdershins came into being. That makes it sound a bit easy, but in reality, there were six years from having the idea to getting the book in my hand. At the outset, I was terrified of doing the research, and it seemed very daunting, but once I started, I absolutely loved it.
It’s fascinating that Widdershins is based on true events. Did you always plan to write a sequel or was Widdershins originally going to be a standalone?
Widdershins was going to be a standalone, and by the time it was published, I’d begun a PhD at the University of Aberdeen to write my next book. But once Widdershins was out in the world, the characters sprang back to life in my head and I realised they had a lot of unfinished business. The only way to get them out of my head would be to write them out, so Sunwise came along.
Who would you say are your writing influences?
I’ve always loved reading and it’s always hard to answer this question! Hilary Mantel inspired me to write historical fiction – I’ve read all of her books, but I love her historical ones best and cannot wait for her next book. My favourite book is Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News and I read this at least once a year. She has such amazing economy of language, and yet she elevates it into something quite beautiful. My favourite author is Peter Carey, and for me, no one does character better. I particularly love Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda, and Theft: A Love Storyby him. The book that had the biggest effect on me in my whole life was George Orwell’s 1984. I read this at school, and it exposed me to new worlds of ideas and writing. I’m currently reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck and I’m hugely impressed with how he deals with landscape. And poetry-wise, I love Sylvia Plath.
One of the things I loved most about your first book was the setting; I grew up in the North East of England, so I recognised a lot of the places mentioned. Did you always plan to write a book set in your local area?
I hadn’t really thought about writing about my local area at all, but when I found out about the Newcastle witch trials, it was impossible to write about anywhere else. My third book is set pretty much on my doorstep and the fourth will be a little further up the east coast. What’s good about writing about the local area is that I know it so well – so I have years and years of pictures of plants, landscapes and so on through all the seasons and can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that a particular plant blossoms at a particular time, which is vital in Widdershins and Sunwise, given the number of plant-based references.
It was a brave decision to include some Geordie colloquialisms in your books (though one that I thoroughly appreciated!) Were you ever worried that non-local readers would have difficulty understanding certain phrases?
While I wanted to use some vernacular language to make the characters’ speech authentic, I tried to have a light hand. During my MA, we studied Lewis Grassic Gibbons Sunset Song, which made me think about dialect and how much is too much. In the end, I pared it right back, because what works in real life can quickly become overwhelming on the page. What I tried to do was to keep the Geordie dialect primarily with Tom and Meg. Likewise, I tried to be light-handed in the Scottish chapters. I hope what I’ve done is given a flavour, without bogging the reader down too much, or sending them off to dictionary corner too often.
Your two main characters, Jane and John, both had very distinctive narrative voices in Widdershins and Sunwise. How easy do you find it to write from different perspectives?
I found this quite easy, really, and I like trying on new people for size. In the original draft of the book, which ran to well over 120,000 words, there were seven different points of view. If memory serves: Jane, John, Tom, Rev Foster, Meg, Lambert Hobson (the ship’s surgeon) and Annie. A few people in my critique group complained (vociferously, in some cases) that this was too many and so I cut it down to three: Jane, John and Tom. This was still a very long version. Slightly before I submitted the novel for my MA, I worried that it was still over long, and I rewrote it without Tom’s perspective. This was a bit of a shame as he has quite an adventure at sea, and I really enjoyed all the medical and nautical research.
I love all the natural remedies featured throughout your books. Are you a believer in these practices yourself?
I suffered from terrible allergies for many years (face and head would swell up alarmingly, huge lumps all over me) and nothing helped – it just kept getting worse and worse. My GP insisted on sending me to the NHS Homeopathic Hospital in Great Ormond Street. I protested, saying I’d tried homeopathy, and it hadn’t worked, but she asked me to trust her. I chatted to a lovely homeopathic doctor for about an hour and she prescribed three vials of Calc. Carb. along with a list of what not to do while taking them (no strong-smelling food or drink like coffee, mint toothpaste, etc). After I took them, I had one of the worse reactions in my life and thought I was about to die, but as promised by the doctor, each subsequent attack was less violent until eventually I had no further problems. So that converted me!
Once I realised that many people accused of witchcraft were just healers quietly going about their business, I decided to learn more about herbal medicine. So I signed up for a course in Tree Medicine at Dilston Physic Garden and I can highly recommend it for courses, herbal remedies and just for a lovely day out. I learned to identify different trees and plants (probably the single most important skill to learn in herbal medicine) and then gathered various barks, leaves, berries and flowers and turned them into a variety of linctuses, tinctures and powders. I then bought lots of herbs and set up a herb patch at home. This really helped me to understand the plant lifecycles, smells, tastes, properties and so on. My cupboard is still full of various herbs, spices and essential oils! That said, sometimes all else fails and I get a bad chest infection and then I’m usually to be found begging the GP for antibiotics.
How do you switch off and unwind when you’re not writing?
In the past, I would unwind by reading and writing, and by taking occasional walks, but my sedentary lifestyle is catching up with me, so, I’ve recently bought a bike. I must confess that this is an e-bike as I live in a very hilly area, and between my dodgy knee and my asthma, I wouldn’t make it up some of the steep hills without a bit of battery assistance. I haven’t been out over the winter, but I’m looking forward to getting back out in the spring. I was really pleased when I managed to get all the way to Newcastle Quayside and home by myself. I’ve also changed my office into a home gym to try and get a bit fitter and I’ve been surprised at how much I enjoy this – especially the cross-trainer and weight lifting. Otherwise, I take my dogs for walks in the woods and on the moors, and I still spend a lot of time reading and writing, because that’s what I love. I would have added drinking red wine at the weekend, but I’m on the wagon for a bit (we’ll see how that goes)!
Are there any aspects of your work that you find particularly challenging?
The thing I struggle most with is just not having enough time. I work full-time, I’m doing my PhD, writing and researching novel 3 and currently promoting novel 2. But I love writing and researching, so these are lovely problems to have really. I sometimes find social media a bit overwhelming. I had to get to grips with Twitter and Instagram quite quickly when Widdershins came out, but it feels like sometimes it can take over your life if you let it. I’m trying to limit the number of times per day I look at email, social media and so on to try and get back some control (and much-needed time)!
I think you do very well with the social media side of things! Can you tell us anything about the projects you currently have on the go? Anything exciting that we might get to see in the future?
I’m currently writing book 3, whose working title is Running Wolves. This is about a group of Lutheran swordmakers who left Prussia in the late seventeenth century and came to live in the north east of England. The research for this has been very exciting as I’ve carried out some blacksmith training. So far, I’ve made a (badly burned) pendant, a rat-tailed poker, a firesteel and – best of all – my very own sword! I also have a substantial chunk of book 4 written, but to keep myself relatively sane, I’ve banned myself from doing any work or research on it until next year. I must confess, though, there is a sparkly notebook next to my bed (bought by a kind friend with excellent taste) and bits of book 5 keep finding their way into it…
How exciting! I look forward to the day we get to read more of your work. Thank you so much, Helen, for your wonderfully eloquent answers; it was fascinating to learn more about you and your writing process.
Thanks very much for having me along to talk about Widdershins and Sunwise today, Alex, I’ve really appreciated it, and thank you for being such a champion of my writing.
Well I hope you all enjoyed that! Helen is genuinely such an interesting and lovely person to chat with; I could have gone on all day! If you’re a fan of historical fiction, particularly stories about witches, I highly recommend Widdershins and its sequel Sunwise.
You can find Helen at the following social media links:-
Reading Between The Notes 