The Lanes Also Remember

The Lanes Also Remember is part of a series of poems by Tristram Cooke.

As well as being a poet, Tristram Cooke was educated at Westminster School and also at Trinity College, Oxford.

He worked as a language teacher (majoring in Spanish) for nearly 40 years.

He lives with his girlfriend Mariacruz and her family in Mexico.

The poems are stripped back and bare. Yet the humour of the poet usually shines through.

Their style is refreshingly simplistic and is strikingly reminiscent of the art works of Grandma Moses, one of America's best-known folk artists.

Tristram Cooke's poems cover a wide range of topics from love and lust to conflicts, from friendships to the legacies that our parents leave us.

Incidentally, your reviwer's favourite is to be found on page 23.

All 20 of the poems are all stunningly illustrated with exquisite paintings by Valentina Cherneva-Cherry.

It is published by BARS-AGENCY and is available in the UK through Troubadour Books.

It is available via The Thats Books and Entertainment bookshop at £4.99.

Caravan

Caravan is a new novel by Cassandra Keen.

It is a gripping read as it takes the reader through a journey of blame, retribution, revenge, love and hatred.

Lucien was many different things to many different people.

To some he was a difficult young man.

To others he was a victim. To others he was merely disaffected.

But Ruth, his stepmother, knew the real Lucien. And she despised what he truly was.

She decided to confront him at his caravan.

His death when the caravan burst into flames was witnessed by Ruth.

She remained silent about what she witnessed, perhaps scared that she might be blamed for the tragedy.

Ruth decides to holiday by herself on the island of Malta.

But is she truly alone? Or is Lucien with her? A ghostly, ghastly presence, haunting her, being a rather more destructive ghost than most?

After his death it seems that Lucien presents a larger version of himself than he ever did in his life.

But there are forces at work that are pulling Ruth's life apart. What exactly is Lucien's birth mother, Morgana up to? And where does Paul, Ruth's husband and Morgana's ex, fit in with all this?

What of the two children that she has with Paul?

And what of the ghosts from Ruth's own past?

Could she, would she be alright?

This is a very compelling book and a real bargain at £8.99 from Matador.

It will make a good stocking filler and is available via the Thats Books and Entertainment bookshop, which is to the right of this review.

Disclosure: The Future is Now

Disclosure: The Future is Now is a new sceince fiction novel by novelist and scientist Dr Graham Clingbine.

Dr Clingbine has a BSc and an MSc form the University of London in Biological Science and Neuroscience.

He has brought his considerable technical expertise to create a taut and compelling science fiction thriller.

The novel follows the life of Kevin Powell from his eight summer when we find him living with his mother, Sylvie.

As a young child he is subject to a a variety of unusual experiences that his youthful mind cannot comprehend or understand, trey as he might. He logically presumes that they are just a normal part of growing up and that everyone must go through the same experiences.

When he becomes a teenager, his mother falls prey to poor health and it is now Kevin's turn to look after her.

But all is not as it seems. His mother requires surgery to remove an object from her body. What is it? Where is it from? What was its purpose? Nobody knows.

However, Kevin knows that he has seen this before. When he was a child of eight.

By the time Kevin enters adulthood, he again falls victim to visions that seem to be realistic, yet also nightmare-like.

He sees a depopulated Earth, a vision from the future of his home world.

He loves his daughter, yet would he be able to sacrifice that love should it impinge on the future of planet Earth?

What, exactly, does Kevin's mother know? And where is his father?

The book relies heavily on Dr Clingbine's research into UFO sightings and the like.

Incidentally the latter portion of the book is made up of accounts of alien abductions, UFO sightings and the like.

It costs £9.99 and is published by Matador and is available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop.

Know Your Onions

Know Your Onions by Allan Goodbrand is the kind of book that I like and which are always good to find in your Christmas stocking.

It is described as a "light-hearted look at popular idioms and sayings" and that is exactly what this book is.

If you always wondered why a hat trick is called a hat trick, why a red herring means something that distracts us from our goal, why our bacon is saved, why your timbers might be shivered, what the Whole Nine Yards is, why we go from pillar to post, why it is a dime a dozen, who was Bob and whose uncle was he and what is a Dog Day of Summer?

Allan gives explanations for each phrase in  the book and offers alternative explanations to the origin of a saying referenced to in  the book should there be multiple explanations for the origins  of a phrase or saying.

The book is written in an amusing, conversational tone and is ideal for either reading straight through or for dipping into multiple times after Christmas dinner and before the Queen's Christmas speech.

This book is an ideal Christmas present for people of any and all ages and is published at £9,99 by the Book Guild. It is available through the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, links to which are to be found on the righthand side of this review.

In Fidelity

In Fidelity is a new novel by Jack Wilson, it covers a period from the 1950s to the late 1970s.

In it we meet Christine, an attractive and vivacious wife and mother who is greatly loved by her children and, of course, by her husband, Dick.

Unfortunately Christine falls victim to a cancer that attacks and ravages her beautiful face.

It steals her good looks from her when the surgeons who worked to save her life had to remove her left jaw and part of her mouth.

Dick no longer finds her attractive. He falls for the temptations of the wife of a friend, a very close friend, and Dick takes the coward’s way out by fleeing from his family and his old life by leaving home to teach law in Africa.

He then meets an attractive woman who, like Dick, has also fled from her own past life.

But secrets have a nasty tendency to turn up when they are least expected. And past actions always seem to come back to haunt one, often with a terrible price to pay.

This novel is very well written and thoughtful book that contains some rather painful glimpses into the lives of ordinary people when they react to extraordinary events, or, sometimes, when they fail to react to them in quite the way that perhaps they should.

It is published by Matador at £10.99 and is available via the That’s Books and Entertainments bookshop, to the right of this review.

It will make an ideal Christmas present for the reader who likes their novels thoughtful and with meaning.

Dear Clementina

Dear Clementina is a new book by Colin Burke, with first rate illustrations by W. H. Mather.

It's a book that all dog lovers -and even, dare I suggest this?- people who do not have such a deep affinity toward our canine compatriots, will absolutely adore.

It tells the tail (sorry! Tale!) of the friendship of two charming and enchanting Border Terrier puppies after they have a chance meeting as 12 week-olds in a park in Manchester.

It examines their friendship through the medium of the spirited and loving letters that Stanley writes to Clementia.

It explores their relationship and the relationships of the humans that surround them, of the imposition of things that vets do to poor, unsuspecting doggies, of pestilential cats, of the things that a dog just has to do, as Clementia and her friend Stanley grow up through their first year.

The story behind the book is equally enchanting.

Colin received an email from a sympathetic friend who was enquiring how Stanley had coped with having the snip?

Instead of addressing the reply to his friend, Colin decided to write the letter as a reply from Stanley to his friend's own Border Terrier puppy, Clementina.

And from that beginning, grew the book: "Dear Clementina."

At £9.99 from Matador, it's  sure to be a fantastic Christmas present for dog lovers, and those who love humorous books) of all ages.

It's available via the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, to the right of this review on the site.

A Scrapbook for Summer

A Scrapbook for Summer is an incredibly moving tale written by Alan Flitcroft.

It was inspired by his 2013 experience of taking part in the annual Shine Walk which is organised to raise money for the charity, Cancer Research UK.

He was participating in it for a young girl who was recovering from Cancer.

He realised that the Shine Walk, which is a marathon walk that takes place overnight, taking the participants past the most iconic landmarks of London, would make a very good basis for a novel.

A Scrapbook for Summer follows Ben as he participates in the Shine Walk, having taken the decision to take the place in the walk left vacant by the death of his free-spirited girlfriend, Summer, who was taken away from Ben by the cancer that had taken over her body.

Ben sees this as one last thing that he can do for Summer.

It begins as sad evening, but as it progresses through the 26 miles, it transforms into something beautiful when he meets fellow walker Annie who encourages him to participate, using the scrapbook of London's rich history that Summer had encouraged him to keep.

As they progress through the long walk, passing the many iconic sites of the capital city of England, many thoughts and memories, some good, some bad, flood through Ben's mind.

There were secrets from Summer's past life that Ben felt guilty about, even though they were not his responsibility. Secrets that split them apart yet, paradoxically, bring them back together at the end of Summer's life.

And after the 26 mile walk, Ben feels, at last, able to continue with his life.

This is a remarkably human romantic novel, filled with joy, pathos and the promise of new beginnings.

It is published by Matador at £8.99 and will make an excellent Christmas gift for the readers in your life who like cerebral romantic novels.

It is, of course, available for purchase through the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, to be found to the right of this book review.