Lotus-Eating Days

Lotus-Eating Days is a memoir written by Caroline Repton.

It tells the true story of two very different people who came from vastly dissimilar backgrounds who, however, met and married.

Geoffrey Christopher Tyrwhitt Repton was the eldest child of a middle-class English family.

Whilst Theresa Repton (nee Pang Kim Lui) was the 13th child of a family of Chinese immigrants living in the British colony of Singapore.

In her fascinating and extremely well researched book she tells their stories. How, although they grew up on different sides of the world and had very different backgrounds, the common bond they found was that they had both survived the Second World War in the Asian warzone.

Christopher had been a prisoner of war forced to work on the Burma-Siam railway, whilst Theresa was a young woman working in Japanese-occupied Singapore.

Caroline Repton brings to life a whole variety of characters from witty former prisoners of war, loving siblings, cousins who were in the armed forces, idiosyncratic spinster aunts, ex-girlfriends, chipper colonials.

The story is told in their own words by means of a wide range of letters and diary entries from the 1930s to 1959. And Theresa's tape-recorded memories put to tape in 2000.

As well as being very well written the book is profusely illustrated with a delightful array of intimate family photographs and wartime postcards.

It's published by The Book Guild at £16.99 in hardback.

Common Sense

It's 2029 and there has been a major upheaval in the world of British Politics. The Common Sense Party, which campaigned on eliminating crime has swept the board in British Politics, claiming an astounding 400 seats with Labour and the Conservatives limping in with 99 seats each.

Broadcaster David McDougall is the joint leader of the new party and is a shoo-in to be Prime Minister. 

Except there has been a sort of a palace coup within the new party and the new Prime Minister is Bob Goodwin, rather than David McDougall.

In his debut novel, Common Sense, Colin Wreford examines what might happen in the not-too-distant future.

At first the new party has the full backing and support of the public as it works hard to put into practice its new policies.

However, things soon start to look a little less promising as corporal punishment and the death penalty are brought back and gay marriages are declared illegal.

The story open with an interview between TV presenter Sara Molan and new Prime Minister Bob Goodwin. 

Soon their professional and personal lives become interlinked and his lust for Sara starts to cloud his judgement.

Inevitably protests about the new and draconian laws develop but the public and the establishment is shocked at the severe punishments that are meted out to the protesters and the actions of Prime Minister Goodwin range between a little bit odd to utterly weird.

Former co-leader of the party David McDougall forms an opposition to what he sees as the excesses of Goodwin. Can Goodwin defeat McDougall? Can Goodwin corrupt and manipulate Sara, a former colleague of McDougall, to keep the McDougall, the public, the media and opposition politicians under control as he battles to remain in power for his full five year term of office as he continues to try to mould the UK into whatever it is he wants to to become?

As he continues his machinations the situation in the country rapidly heats up and disorder and violence rapidly breaks out.

Who will win? Who will survive the worsening political maelstrom? 

Wow. What a wild and thrilling ride, with a twist in the tail.

I do hope to read more novels by Colin Wreford, he's a good new voice in the world of thriller fiction.

It's published by Matador at £9.99.