Here’s my current top 10 books, all of which I recommend.
1. Human Planet.
‘Human Planet’ is a major natural history documentary series currently being broadcast on BBC1. It is the first to turn the camera on ourselves, the human species. It explores how humans have learnt to live in every habitat and follows the remarkable story of our relationship with nature. The book accompanies the eight episodes, and provides additional information alongside extraordinary and beautiful photographs.
2. Bluestocking, by Jane Robinson
In 1869, five women enrolled at university for the first time in British history. This was a period in which the average female brain was thought to be 150 grams lighter than a man’s. Doctors warned that if women studied too hard their wombs would wither and die. This book tells the story of defiance and determination, of colourful eccentricity and of self- discovery.
3. Italians, by Luigi Barzini.
‘Italians’ presents a guided tour through centuries of Italian history. The book examines Machiavelli and Casanova, Mussolini, Popes, pilgrims and prostitutes, clichés, conspiracies and the crippling power of the church. It also shows us a divided nation, injustice, ignorance, poverty and fear. Yet alongside this exuberance and spectacular display Luigi shows us the Italians’ love of life. This is an accessible, informative labour of love written by a true Italian, and it will make you fall in and out of love with the country and her people.
4. Chocolate Wishes by Trisha Ashley.
Life is sweet in the picture perfect village of Sticklepond where confectioner Chloe dispenses inspirational sweet treats containing a prediction for each customer. If only her own life was as easy to forecast – perhaps Chloe could have foreseen being jilted at the altar, and having to put her life on hold to bring up her younger brother Jake. Luckily with the help of her tea-reading great aunt Zillah and her grandfather, who practises witchcraft, her little chocolate hobby is turning into a flourishing business. But just as things seem to be going well a new vicar arrives in the village and the rumour mill goes into overdrive. Not only is Raffy the charismatic ex-front man of a famous rock band he’s also Chloe’s first love and the man who breaks her heart. I really enjoyed this book which was light and totally absorbing. I must say that I only read this book over Christmas to do this review, chick flick books are not my usual cup of tea, but since then I have read all of Trisha Ashley’s books. I thoroughly recommend them with a cosy blanket, chocolates and wine!
5. A Winters Tale, by Trisha Ashley.
This is the perfect novel for curling up with on these long winter nights. It’s a romantic comedy about a hard-up single mum inheriting a stately home. But Sophy Winter is not your typical Lady of the Manor. When she unexpectedly inherits Winters End, a crumbling mansion in the beautiful Lancashire countryside, it seems like all her prayers have been answered. She eagerly swaps life as an impoverished housekeeper in favour of her own team of staff. But Sophy soon realises the challenges on her hands, the house is decrepit and its eccentric inhabitants are a nightmare. And once it is discovered that Winter’s End played host to a young Shakespeare, the entire village becomes curious about Sophy’s plans, especially charming Jack Lewis……luckily Sophy’s gorgeous head gardener, Seth, the strong and silent type, has a lot of history with Jack and can see right through his charms, but will Sophy?
6.Baking Made Easy, by Lorraine Pascale
Lorraine Pascale the model turned baker has brought out this lovely baking book to accompany her new TV series, Baking Made Easy. Patisserie is her passion; she has gained experience working in Harrods and the Hummingbird bakery, and has since opened her own cupcakery in Covent Garden. This is a straightforward, no airs and graces, cookbook great for beginners or even the most experienced cook. My daughter Megan and her boyfriend James made the Cookies and Cream Fudge brownies last weekend and I can thoroughly recommend them with vanilla ice cream. Yummy.
7.Stranger in the Mirror by Jane Shilling
“ I looked in the mirror one morning, and saw the face of a stranger. Who was she, this haggard, bun-faced woman with the softening jaw line, the down turned mouth, the world weary air of a woman who hasn’t had what she wanted from life, and knows she isn’t going to get it now. Why, it was no one else but me, myself and I”
Middle age took Jane Shilling by surprise. She hadn’t seen it coming, and she certainly wasn’t ready for it. The result is a very personal meditation about what it’s like to be at the mid-point, looking both backwards and forwards. It definitely won’t reverse the signs of ageing or hold them at bay, but it will make you laugh, it will make you think and it could just make you look at yourself in the mirror in a slightly different way.
8.The Hand that Fist Held Mine. By Maggie O’Farrell
A gorgeously written story of love and motherhood, this is a tour de force from one of our best-loved novelists. When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life.
In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child. Elina struggles to reconcile the demands of motherhood with the sense of herself as an artist, and Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood that don’t tally with his parents version of events. As Ted begins to search for answers, an extraordinary portrait of two women is revealed, separated by fifty years, but connected in ways that neither could have ever expected.
9. Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
A literary landmark when published, ‘Birthday Letters’ marked the first time Ted Hughes had publicly articulated his feelings about his late wife Sylvia Plath, their relationship and her suicide. This publication was made all the more poignant by the poet laureate’s own death in October 1998. The poems, written over a period of more than 25 years, take the form of an intimate and candid narrative the tone of which varies between anger, guilt and happiness. ‘Birthday Letters’ is a very intense, moving read, which sheds light on one of the most turbulent, yet productive literary relationships of our time. If you enjoy this, there is a huge canon of Plath and Hughes material to plunder including the more recent work of their daughter Frieda Hughes, their only surviving child. And just to mention that, if you’re in that kind of mood, this years Costa Prize Winner is the poet Jo Shapcott with her book on poetry called ‘Of Mutability’.
10. Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore.
The epic story of Jerusalem, told through the lives of the men and women who created, ruled and inhabited it. In the course of its history Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. It’s been Arab, Persian, Jewish, Roman, Greek, Babylonian, Turkish, Mameluke, British, Byzantine, Crusader and Ottoman. Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilisations.
Montefiore illuminates the mysteries of the city, its identity and empire, in a unique story of the place that many believe will be the setting for the Apocalypse. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem: the only city that exists twice – in heaven and on earth.
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