On Friday March 11th 7pm at Kenilworth Library Eleanor Allitt will be launching her book ‘Daring To Discover’

“Daring to Discover” is a retelling of an Ancient Sumarian Myth and is a beautifully presented book with Eleanor’s atmospheric illustrations on every page. This will be a lovely evening, and you will find that the author is a great story-teller. You will be greeted with a glass of wine, then given time to chat,  and look at a display of the illustrations from the book. Eleanor will then give a short talk followed by questions and answers, after which she will sign copies of ‘Daring To Discover’ for those who wish to purchase it on the night.

The book tells the tale of Inanna who was the most important deity of ancient Sumeria, the land now called Iraq. She was revered as the goddess of fertility, of rhythm and the seasons. She represents many opposites, light and dark, life and death, body and spirit, passivity and action. Without the dark resting period of winter there can be no growth in the summer. Without the peacefulness of thought there can be no just and wise decisions. A bunch of reeds is her symbol, for reeds which grow at the edges of the dark watery depths represent the transition between one stage and another. She was a vital life-giving figure who gave a sense of balance and equilibrium. Her tale was written in cuneiform script on clay tablets around 2,500BC and is one of the very first recorded stories. It is only comparatively recently that it has been translated.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Psychological thriller writer Sophie Hannah  talked about her brand new novel ‘Lasting Damage’

at Warwick Library on Wednesday 23rd February at 7pm as part of our ‘Meet The Author’ series.

Sophie gave a wonderfully entertaining talk to an audience of over 50 people, giving a reading from ‘Lasting Damage’, which has just been published, and then talking about her background, why she writes thrillers as well as poetry, how she plans her novels, her methods of working, and much else besides. Everyone enjoyed a thoroughly interesting evening, and if they weren’t fans of Sophie before they certainly are now! We all hope she comes back again soon….. 

 Sophie Hannah is the author of five internationally bestselling psychological thrillers –Little Face, Hurting Distance, The Point Of Recue, The Other Half Lives and A Room Swept White. Her novels are published in 20 countries, with more foreign rights deals under negotiation.  The Other Half Lives was shortlisted for the 2010 Independent Booksellers’ Book of the Year Award.Little Face and  Hurting Distance were both longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, and Little Face was longlisted for the IMPAC Award. The Point Of Recue is currently being made for television, and will appear on ITV1 in 2011. Sophie has also published five collections of poetry.

‘Lasting Damage’ is sure to be a best-seller…….

It’s 1.15 a.m. Connie Bowskill should be asleep. Instead, she’s logging on to a property website in search of a particular house: 11 Bentley Grove, Cambridge.She knows it’s for sale; she saw the estate agent’s board in the front garden less than six hours ago. Soon Connie is clicking on the ‘Virtual Tour’ button, keen to see the inside of 11 Bentley Grove and put her mind at rest once and for all. She finds herself looking at a scene from a nightmare: in the living room, in the middle of the carpet, there’s a woman lying face down in a huge pool of blood.In shock, Connie wakes her husband Kit. But when Kit sits down at the computer to take a look, he sees no dead body, only a pristine beige carpet in a perfectly ordinary room …

On Wednesday March 2nd 7pm at Warwick Library Ian Mathie gave a very interesting and entertaining talk about his new memoir ‘Bride Price’

Ian Mathie is the author of the African Memoir series of books, published by Mosaique Press. Recorded in notebooks kept during his years working as a rural development officer, his stories offer a unique view of Africa from the inside. Illustrating the intimate lives of the communities he lived and worked amongst and revealing facets of their cultures seldom seen by outsiders and the uninitiated, his writing will transport you deep into the hinterland and keep you reading right to the end.

‘Bride Price’ is about Abélé, an orphan girl Ian was asked to foster as the price of him being allowed to live in a forest village near his work. All went well until an unpleasant man from another village demanded her hand in marriage and asked him to name her bride price. That’s when the problems started. Nobody could advise him, their culture prevented them, and he was obliged to conform to the complex local customs and taboos, yet he was determined that Kuloni Nkese would not have the girl. He had to be very creative in setting a price the man could, but would not, pay.

Full of dramatic events, mysterious characters and intimate insights into the life and beliefs of a forest community, this is the true story of how the situation unfolded.

A Review By Carolyn Dews 

This bestseller was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2005 and is being released as a film shortly.

The book opens with a 31 year old Kathy looking back on her time at ‘Hailsham’ a seemingly idyllic school set in the English countryside.  Their artwork is a key factor of their school life.  Kathy attempts to come to terms with the fate that awaits herself and her friends.  At the heart of  ‘Never Let Me Go’ is the friendship between herself, Ruth and Tommy.

As a reader you become aware of what awaits them in the wider world.  It raises many questions about humanity and what is deemed as acceptable.

I found it to be a similar genre to Maragaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. I thought it was a brilliant novel and well worth reading, and it is rightly especially popular with  bookgroups.

 A Review By Carolyn Dews 

This excellent crime novel is set in the Isle of Lewis. 

Fin MacLeod is a detective living in  Edinburgh.  He is sent back home to Lewis to investigate a murder similar to a brutal one committed in Edinburgh. 

Fin is transported back to his childhood and to a time when life was harsh.  He arrives at the time of year when the hunting of the gugas occurs.  This catching and killing thousands of gugas was part of the Isle’s customs and necessary for survival. 

This novel captures the remote existence on the Isle of Lewis, but at the same time it depicts its wild beauty.  It also visits a time when the Church was central to the community. Peter May’s novel captures the very essence of the human soul. Recommended.