A Review By Zoe Boulton

This is another novel that I have been intending to read since it was published. As it is a ghost story, and Christmas always seems like a good time to read a ghost story, I read it over the holiday period a couple of weeks ago.

Set in an old Warwickshire country mansion after WW2, down country lanes not far from here, The Little Stranger sees country GP, Dr. Faraday becoming entangled with the troubled lives of the Ayres family who live at Hundreds Hall. Dr. Faraday was fascinated by the house as a small boy, his mother had worked there as a servant, and one bright summer’s afternoon he defaced the beautiful plaster border decorating the hallway by removing an ornamental acorn with his pocket knife. Thirty years later, he arrived back at the house to treat an unhappy servant, and is shocked at the tumble-down state of the building, and the genteel poverty of the remaining family. He becomes ever more involved with their lives as terrifying and inexplicible things begin to happen.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I couldn’t put it down. I love that it is set in Warwickshire, I went to school in a former regency era house, which was filled with plaster ceiling decorations, marble fireplaces, old call bells, and quite a bit of mould sprouting behind the wallpaper. It wasn’t difficult to imagine myself walking around Hundreds Hall. The story itself slowly builds up to become chilling, and intertwines class divides, obsession, changing social attitudes with a traditional style ghost story. It is brilliant, perfect for reading on wintery afternoons.

 A Review By Alice Walden

The Lifeboat is Charlotte Rogan’s debut novel set at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The story revolves around Grace, a determined young woman and the three weeks she spent on an over crowded lifeboat after the ship she was on mysteriously explodes. She is recently married and even more recently widowed. 

There were parts of this book that gripped me, but more that did not. One of the problems that i encountered was, you can never really worry about the fate of Grace and her fellow passengers as you are told in the opening chapter, by Grace herself, that she survived. 

The book builds and goes into such detail about the first few weeks, with each day taking up a chapter, which does give you a feeling of what was going on and the politics and moral issues that were on board the boat. Yet this effect is ruined when the last and perhaps most crucial days are skipped over and merge into one, giving the climax of the story a rather rushed feel. Although this does reflect how the passengers would be feeling at that moment in time, delirious with hunger and thirst. 

I never warmed to Grace as a character, finding her as someone i was unable to relate to. This may well be why i did not get on with this book. In sections of The Lifeboat you can tell that this was a first novel, but the parts you could not show great hope for future works by Charlotte Rogan.

A Review By Zoe

17 year old orphan Alex Adair is battling with the “monster” in her brain. She is a cancer patient and after having had enough of invasive treatments she decides go hiking in the wilderness of Michigan before saying no to further treatment. Whilst there she meets an elderly man and his sulky nine-year old Granddaughter Ellie.  Suddenly, mid- conversation, an unbearable “zap” of energy hits them, causing the Grandfather to die. Alone and afraid, Alex and Ellie walk the dozens of miles to the nearest ranger’s station. Along the way they discover that all of their electrical equipment no longer works. Then they meet others affected by the “zap”, a few are unhurt, some are dead and others have been changed in terrifying ways.

The premise of this book, as with much dystopian teenage fiction, sounds quite daft, and in fact “Ashes” did become quite daft towards the end when it seemed to lurch into a story that, in my opinion, belonged in another book entirely. The first half was brilliant, however. I read it late at night and at one point was afraid to turn the page, which rarely happens to me. The second half of the book threw in a whole host of new situations and questions without addressing any from the previous chapters. It is also a very gory book with some strong language at times, so I wouldn’t recommend it for younger teenagers. I will read the next novel, because of course this is the first in a trilogy, as I would like to know what this life-changing “zap” actually was!

A Review by Tamsin

Tasting India is one of the most beautiful cookery books on the market. I know one should never judge a book by its cover, but how about a gorgeous deep yellow raw silk cover, embossed with a swirling design of peacocks and climbing flowers and inlaid with touched of deep royal purple?

 This is part travel diary, but mostly it is a sumptuous cookery book with authentic Indian recipes from across south Asia. Organised by region, many of the recipes are street food or popular dishes served in union cafes, but there are also recipes and rituals here which have been passed from grandmother to mother to daughter in ordinary Indian families, as well as dishes truly fit for a maharajah. Taking the chance of a huge family meal to cook over Christmas, I tried five recipes from Tasting India; they all worked well, were enjoyed by my guests and were a pleasure to cook.

 Alongside the mouth-watering recipes, the photographs offer a visual feast: cloud draped mountains, markets bursting with colour and the swirling Ganges. Paradise. A hugely enjoyable book.

A Review By Zoe

Jane James is 18 years old and lives with her unhappy Aunt in Norbury in the early 1960s. She has a job in a dress shop in the West End by day, and studies her copy of “Lady Be Good” by night, and practises her poses in the mirror. She knows she is destined for more. One evening, Jane’s destiny awakes when she is handed a designer handbag, complete with £100 in notes and a photograph of a glamorous girl who looks quite like herself. Intrigued, she tracks down the owner- the “model” Suzy St. John, and so Jane becomes Janey, and begins her shadowy life of luxury and looking great.

 I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even though it became ever darker, and spiteful, and Janey slowly became highly unpleasant, I still found myself rooting for her. Normally, she wouldn’t be the type of person I could warm to, but there is something about her that I still found endearing. This is one of the best books I have read for a long time.