Tag: Reviews

My Week in Books – 29th May 2022

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MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared my review of Only May by Carol Lovekin as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Bookish Quotes. 

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is my weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Thursday – I shared an extract from historical novel The Dark Earth by Gordon Doherty to celebrate publication day. I also published my review of The White Girl by Tony Birch as part of the blog tour. 

Friday – I shared my review of Twenty-Eight Pounds Ten Shillings by Tony Fairweather as part of the blog tour.

Saturday – I indulged my other love – gardening – by participating in the Six on Saturday meme.  

New arrivals

Thea and DeniseThea and Denise by Caroline Bond (ARC, Corvus via Readers First)

Two women. An open road. The trip of a lifetime.

Thea is confident, sorted, determined to have fun, but there are sorrows beneath the surface of her life. Denise is struggling under the weight of her many commitments and in desperate need of some excitement. When these polar opposites meet, and unexpectedly become friends, they realise they’re both looking to escape.

So begins a road trip that leads them far from home and yet closer to their true selves.

But they can’t outrun their pasts forever and when things start to become complicated, both women have an important decision to make. Do they give up or keep going? Turn around or drive on?

KatastropheKatastrophe by Graham Hurley (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

January, 1945. Wherever you look on the map, the Thousand Year Reich is shrinking. Even Goebbels has run out of lies to sweeten the reckoning to come. An Allied victory is inevitable, but who will reap the spoils of war?

Two years ago, Werner Nehmann’s war came to an abrupt end in Stalingrad. With the city in ruins, the remains of General Paulus’ Sixth Army surrendered to the Soviets and Nehmann was shipped to Russia’s arctic gulags. But now he’s riding on the back of one of Marshal Zhukov’s T-35 tanks, heading home with a message for the man who consigned him to the Stalingrad Cauldron.

With the Red Army about to fall on Berlin, Stalin fears his sometime allies are conspiring to deny him his prize. He needs to speak to Goebbels – and who better to broker the contact than Werner Nehmann, Goebbels’ one-time confidante?

Swapping the ruins of Stalingrad for the wreckage of Berlin, swapping Joseph Goebbels for Joseph Stalin, Nehmann’s war has taken a turn for the worse. The Germans have a word for it.

Katastrophe.

The White HareThe White Hare by Jane Johnson (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

In a valley steeped in legend lies an abandoned house where Edens may be lost, found and remade…

The White Valley in the far west of Cornwall cuts deeply through bluebell woods down to the sea. The house above the beach has lain neglected since the war. It comes with a reputation, which is why Mila and her mother Magda acquire it so cheaply in the fateful summer of 1954.

Magda plans to restore the house to its former glory: the venue for glittering parties, where the rich and celebrated gathered for bracing walks by day and sumptuous cocktails by night. Mila’s ambitions, meanwhile, are much less grand; she dreams of creating a safe haven for herself, and a happy home for her little girl, Janey.

The White Valley comes with a long, eventful history, laced with tall tales. Locals say that a white hare may be seen running through the woods there; to some she’s an ill omen, to others a blessing. Feeling fragile and broken-hearted, Mila is in need of as many blessings as she can get. But will this place provide the fresh start she so desperately needs?

The Bone FlowerThe Bone Flower by Charles Lambert (ARC, Gallic Books)

On a grey November evening in Victorian London, Edward Monteith, a moneyed but listless young man, stokes the fire at his local gentleman’s club, listening to its members: scientists, explorers and armchair philosophers discussing their supernatural experiences and their theories of life after death.

Edward is taken under the wing of some sceptics and attends a supposed seance where he is captivated by a beautiful young woman selling flowers outside the theatre.

What follows is a quintessential Gothic novel, a ghost story, and an uncanny love story. 

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Young Women by Jessica Moor
  • Book Review: The Death of Remembrance by Denzil Meyrick
  • My Five Favourite May 2022 Reads
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Fire Killer by Ross Greenwood
  • #6Degrees of Separation
  •  

#BlogTour #BookReview Twenty-Eight Pounds Ten Shillings by Tony Fairweather @RandomTTours

whatcathyreadnext4 Comments

Twenty Eight Pounds BT PosterWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Twenty-Eight Pounds Ten Shillings by Tony Fairweather. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to HopeRoad Publishing for my digital review copy. Do check out the Instagram post by my tour buddy for today, Lisa at numberslady_reads.

Twenty Eight Pounds Final CoverAbout the Book

It is 1948, and post-war Britain is on her knees. The call has gone out to the British Empire for volunteers to help rebuild the ‘Mother Country,’ and young men and women from across the Caribbean have been quick to respond, paying the considerable sum of £28 10s to board HMT Empire Windrush – the ‘ship of dreams’ that will take them to their new lives.

Meet Mavis, a 22-year-old Trinidadian nurse who just wants to see the world. Chef, the best cook on the island, desperate to get to London and his wounded soldier son. Norma, who wants to teach the British how to teach, and her funny best friend Lucretia, who is sure that every man wants her, and that English food is very… English.

Their epic journey took two weeks, but for some it was a lifetime. Friendships were made and broken. There were love affairs and fights; dancing and dominoes; gambling and racism. Many of the young people on board that ship had never left their parents or their parishes, let alone their islands. Their lives would never be the same again.

Format: Hardback (320 pages)      Publisher: HopeRoad Publishing
Publication date: 26th May 2022  Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Twenty-Eight Pounds Ten Shillings on Goodreads

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My Review

Set largely aboard the HMT Empire Windrush, what the book does particularly well is demonstrate that those who travelled from the Caribbean were not a homogenous group. They come from different islands each of which have their own unique culture. The passengers also have a variety of reasons for deciding to travel to England. For some it’s out of necessity or to be reunited with family. For others it’s a desire for a new life or a way to make some money before returning home. Many of the passengers are – rightly, as it turns out – wary of the reaction that will greet them upon their arrival in England.

Although the Second World War is over, its legacy is still felt. For example, amongst the passengers is a group of recently demobbed West Indian soldiers who feel their contribution to the war effort has been overlooked, even belittled by the authorities and by the British soldiers they fought alongside. The most stark reminder of the longlasting impact of war is the character of Mickey.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of and I found myself having to create a list of who was who, who was travelling with whom and, latterly, who was pairing up with whom. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the frequent switching between different characters within a single chapter (with no identifiable breaks, at least in my digital copy). At times this became rather confusing. Longer sections from the point of view of a smaller number of characters would have made me feel I’d got to know them better. Having said that, my favourite characters were probably Mavis and Chef, along with the Captain of the HMT Empire Windrush who we discover has reasons of his own to fear discrimination.

Much of the dialogue is rendered in the patois of Jamaica and Trinidad, and although this gives a wonderful sense of authenticity I occasionally found myself having to reread a sentence. There is however a useful glossary at the end of the book. For those who are sensitive to such things, there is frequent use of strong language and some descriptions of sexual intimacy.

I enjoyed the moments of humour in the book, such as the Caribbean passengers’ univerally negative opinion of the food served up by the British chefs. Given most of the passengers are young, there’s plenty of dancing, drinking and eyeing up of the opposite sex. There are moments of melodrama and some serious topics are covered ranging from racist abuse to sexual assault and even murder.

I would liken Twenty-Eight Pounds Ten Shillings to a Caribbean cocktail, perhaps a rum punch.  It has some fruity elements, an authentic flavour and a generous slug of stronger stuff.

In three words: Authentic, dramatic, characterful

Try something similar: The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon

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Tony Fairweather Author PicAbout the Author

Tony Fairweather was born in Clapham, the son of Jamaican parents. He opened one of the first Black bookshops in the UK, before going on to work for the Voice newspaper, where he managed the Voice
book club. In 1989, Tony founded ‘The Write Thing’, an events company established to promote Black authors, which led to his working with a veritable who’s who of the Black literary world, including Bernardine Evaristo, Dr Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Terry McMillan, and many more. Tony is also the founder and curator of the Windrush Collection, a touring exhibition of artefacts associated with the Windrush generation. He lives in South London.

Connect with Tony
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