Category: Blog Tour

#BookReview Love and Miss Harris (Company of Fools 1) by Peter Maughan @RandomTTours @FarragoBooks

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Love and Miss Harris bt Poster

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Love and Miss Harris by Peter Maughan, the first in his new ‘Company of Fools’ series. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Farrago Books for my digital review copy.

Love and Miss Harris CoverAbout the Book

Titus Llewellyn-Gwynne, actor/manager of the Red Lion Theatre, has lost a backer who was going to fund a theatrical tour – when unexpected salvation appears.

Their home theatre in the East End of London having been bombed during the war, The Red Lion Touring Company embarks on a tour of Britain to take a play written by their new benefactress into the provinces.

As they make their vagabond, singing way, they remain unaware that they leave behind in London a man consumed with thoughts of revenge. Revenge which follows them obsessively from town to town, ending in its final act before the last curtain.

Format: Paperback (320 pages)  Publisher: Farrago Books
Publication date: 6th May 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction, Humour

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

The blurb describes the Red Lion Touring Company as ‘a collection of theatrical misfits’ and it’s certainly the case that the members of the company come from a range of backgrounds.  Although the reader doesn’t learn as much about some characters (Simon, Hugo or Lizzie, for instance) as others, their back stories all share a common theme. Namely, the ebb and flow of fortune. At one point, the company’s leading actor Jack Savage, even quotes Brutus’ line from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar ‘There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life, Is bound in shallows and in miseries.’  From time to time, the reader gets a glimpse of the sadness that lies behind the clown’s mask as it were, such as Jack’s memories of traumatic wartime experiences.

The book conjures up the atmosphere of post-WW2 Britain from the bomb-damaged streets of London and the frequent ‘pea soupers’ to the Lyons Corner House cafes and the continuation of rationing.  I also liked how the author peppered the story with theatrical terms, such as references to a ‘dark house’ to describe a theatre closed to the public between productions, ‘flats’ (pieces of painted theatrical scenery positioned on stage to give the appearance of a building or other background) and ‘blocking rehearsals’ (working out where actors should move on the stage for dramatic effect or to ensure clear sight lines for the audience). And, of course, the uttering of the phrase ‘Break a leg’ to an actor about to go on stage.

A secondary plot introduces moments of melodrama although I was slightly disappointed by the author’s choice of a Jewish character to be the villain of the piece, even if the anti-semitism rife at the time is made clear. By the end of the book, some of the characters find a way to leave their former lives – and mistakes – behind and find happiness.  For the others… well, you’ll have to read the book to find out and/or wait for the second book in the series, Miss Harris in the New World, due to be published later this year.

I enjoyed my time spent with The Red Lion Touring Company as they travel the country bringing Love and Miss Harris to audiences keen to experience the joys of live theatre. And isn’t that something we can all identify with?

In three words: Humorous, amiable, lively

Try something similar: Miss Treadway and The Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson

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Peter Maughan Author picAbout the Author

Peter Maughan’s early career covered many trades, working on building sites, in wholesale markets, on fairground rides and in a circus. He studied at the Actor’s Workshop in London, and worked as an actor in the UK and Ireland, subsequently founding a fringe theatre in Barnes, London.

He is married and lives currently in Wales.

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#BookReview This Other Island by Steffanie Edward @bookouture

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The Other Island - Blog Tour Poster

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for This Other Island by Steffanie Edward. My thanks to Sarah Hardy for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Bookouture for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

This-Other-Island-KindleAbout the Book

Things between me and Papa are so different to what me and Mum have. It’s been that way since the first day. An invisible bond. Papa was the one who never stopped encouraging me to strive for my goals. ‘Take every opportunity dis country give you, ich mwen,’ he’d always said…

When Yvette receives a call to say her estranged father Joe has been attacked in a seemingly random act of violence, she rushes to his side. She’d stayed with her mother after her parents separated, but never forgot her father’s kind and caring ways. Memories of his wide smile and loving embraces – so different to her mother Doli – have always sustained her.

But when she arrives, ready to make peace and help him in any way she can, she finds a man different to the larger-than-life father she remembers. Joe is fighting for his life, but is also haunted by memories of his past. He begs Yvette to help him find out the truth… About the journey that brought him and a beautiful young woman called Doli together, as they both travelled – as part of the Windrush Generation, to start new lives in Britain. About the lives they left behind in St Lucia. And about a dark secret – one that he has carried with him since stepping off the ship that wet and chilly August day. That threatened his and Doli’s marriage from the very beginning…

Only Yvette can find out what really happened on that crossing. Because, for forty years, Joe has believed that he killed a man. A man who had had feelings for Doli too. And who – as Joe knows – might hold the key to Yvette’s own story…

Format: Paperback (312 pages)   Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date: 21st May 2021 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

I’ll admit I was drawn This Other Island because it features St Lucia, one of the Caribbean islands I’ve been fortunate enough to visit. And, given the miserable weather we’ve been experiencing recently, I must say I’m rather jealous of the author who now divides her time between the UK and St Lucia.

I confess it took me a little time to get straight in my head the different members of Yvette’s extended family and the relationships between them.  The twists and turns the story takes, although essential to the plot, added to the challenge.

The book alternates between different points of view: Yvette herself, her father Joe and her mother, Doli. The sections written from Doli’s point of view are in the first person and use patois, providing a constant reminder of her Caribbean heritage. Although this may not be a feeling shared by other readers, for me the use of patois, vernacular words and phrases throughout the book wasn’t a barrier to understanding the story; on the contrary, it enhanced it by adding a sense of authenticity.  It also references the theme of identity which is a key element of the book. For example, whilst honouring her heritage by cooking her father Joe his favourite spicy soup with eddoes, Yvette has pretty much lost (or perhaps removed) all trace of her Caribbean accent, despite having spent her early years being brought up by Dolinda’s sister, Agnes, in St Lucia.

I mentioned earlier that I had been to St Lucia.  In fact I have been fortunate enough to visit a number of Caribbean islands, albeit only as ports of call on Caribbean cruises. I’m not afraid to admit that, initially, I thought of the ‘West Indies’ as a homogenous entity and imagined the people of one island frequently ‘popping across’ to other islands. Of course once I learned more about the islands, I realised they have very different histories, cultures and even languages. For example, Dominica and St Lucia, having both been colonized by the French, share a language which would not be easily understood by the inhabitants of other Caribbean islands. I mention this because Doli, who recalls the racism she faced when she arrived in England in the 1960s, initially rejects the advances of Cedric because he is Jamaican whereas she comes from St Lucia.

Yvette’s efforts to discover the fate of the man Joe encountered on the boat to England becomes increasingly important to her, not only because it offers the possiblity of restoring the close relationship she and her father once enjoyed, but because it provides a welcome distraction from her concerns about his health and the complications in her own personal life.  Before long, finding the truth becomes more important than ever.

This Other Island is an intriguing multi-layered story about family and identity that contains moments of happiness and sorrow. Yvette’s search for the truth about her father’s past adds an element of mystery but for me the book’s appeal lay chiefly in its careful unpicking of the complexities of family life and its celebration of Caribbean culture.

In three words: Insightful, assured, emotional

Try something similar: The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon

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Steffanie Edward author photoAbout the Author

Steffanie Edward was born in St Lucia, brought up in London and now straddles between the two. Anancy, Crick-crick and other Caribbean folk stories have been a part of her life since childhood. In her late teens she enjoyed reading Susan Howatch and books on slavery. Her absolute favourite reads have been Wild Seed by Octavia E Bulter, and Woman At Point Zero by Naawal El Saadawi.

Her writing career started with short stories, five of which have been published. Her first attempt at writing a novel was over twenty years ago, whilst living and working in Abu Dhabi. That novel, Yvette, didn’t make it into print, but the main protagonist, Yvette, has muscled her way into Steffanie’s debut novel, This Other Island.

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