Even Stranger

Even Stranger is a new novel in the "Strange" series of novels by Marilyn Messik.

It was the time when the Swinging Sixties were turning into the stolid seventies.

Stella's life is not quite what she had hoped it would be.

Stella is just an ordinary girl. Well, except for the fact that she possess (or is possessed by?) some rather remarkable psychic abilities.

She wants a normal life. She craves a normal life, but unfortunately abnormal things will just keep on happening with to her or near to her.

But exactly who can she trust? What was wanted of her? Could she help? Were they endangering her life? Did the even care?

Could her life ever, really, be normal?

This book is published by Matador at £7.99 and is available from the that's Books and Entertainment book shop.

Invisible Pleasures

Invisible Pleasures is the début work of architect turned author R. Pollard.

Although he was trained to be an architect, it has always been the burning desire of R. Pollard to write a book and this is that book, written under the main literary influences upon the author, Dostoevsky, Naipaul and Proust.

The book is a mixture of a paean  to unrequited love and a travelogue to a variety of far flung locations around the world before the march of "progress" rendered them less than they once where.

The book explores the first tremors of his imagination  as a young child, it then touches on his memories of the Second world War, then it cavorts through the wild and exuberant life of London in the vibrant and exciting swinging sixties.

It then shifts focus to the other side of the world where he finds gainful employment as an architect in both Borneo and Malaya.

But as well as being an amusing and agreeable travelogue memoir and as the French might put it an "la mémoire de l'amour" it also raises some deep and, perhaps pertinent, questions such as "What are we?" and "Where are we coming from or going?" (This is looked at from the divine or the humanistic perspectives.)

The book is well-written. Extremely well-written. We read, well, almost live, really to horrific and confused life of Great Grandmother Dix, (who was "all of a much sweat!" of how he meets a variety of characters falls in love with some, falls out of love with some and lives life as fully as he could.

There are also little discursive trips down memory lane -what it is like for a toddler to fill its nappy- and a brief but edifying discussion on the deeper philosophical undercurrents of Robocop.

And there are a panoply of bon mots that season this delightful book.  

It is the author's first. Hopefully it will not be his last.

It is published by Matador at £12.99 and can be bought at the That's Books and Entertainment Bookshop, which you'll find to the right of this review.

Trackbed Tales

Trackbed Tales is a new collection of  short stories by author N. M. Scott.

The stories are all set in and around the very British world of preserved steam railway lines.

But it is not just the locomotives, the vintage railway carriages, the antique signal boxes and the mid-Victorian station buildings, the old, echoing engine sheds and the mile after mile of preserved railway tacks and boxes and boxes of railway paraphernalia that are preserved.

For along with the ephemera there are the spectral presences that cling to the physical.

There are places where the dead do not rest in peace, but in pieces, there are creatures that know far, far too much, there are curiously marked human skulls found in hat boxes, and a variety of links with the past. Links that would far better be forgotten.

In hardback at £9.99 this Book Guild publication (available at the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop) is ideal for lovers of ghost stories and for those who are fans of preserved railway lines.

Libby at the Botanic Gardens

Libby at the Botanic Gardens is a charming book by Basabi Banerjee.

It tells, for children and the adults in their life, the story of Libby the Labrador.

Libby was born in Australia but moved to Singapore to be with her new family.

Libby lived with her Mum, her Dad and Tipper and Ricky.

And they enjoyed living in Singapore, known as "the city within a garden" so she had lots of lovely walks.

One day a magic palm tree gives Libby a very precious, special gift. This leads to some wonderful walks and a exiting adventure in the Botanic Gardens.

In just one morning Libby learns to dance, foils a cruel bully and befriends some very special heritage trees.

Of course, Libby then wants to relate all of these wonderful tales to her new friend, the palm tree.

This book is illustrated by the skilful hand of Jeffrey Seow, an artist and illustrator with 30 years of experience.

The book is hard back and large format and costs £7.99.

It is published by The Book Guild and is available via the That's Books an d Entertainment bookshop. You'll find it to the right of this review.

A Sister's Crusade

A Sister's Crusade is a historical novel set in the times of the Crusades.

Written by novelist Ann Turner (author of Heartsease) tA Siater's Crusade tells the story of two sisters, Aubrette and Rowena. However, they grow to maturity unaware that they are related, that they are, in fact, sisters.

Rowena meets the man who is destined to become her future husband, Simon Fitzroy, who is one of the illegitimate offspring of King Henry II.

However, that day was to be a fateful day for other reasons, as it was also on that day that Aubrette discovers that they are related. That they are, actually, daughters of the local lord.

Aubrette stays with her sister, even serving as her maid after Rowena becomes married.

There is an incident that is most tragic and, Aubrette becomes the secret lover of Simon, her sister's husband.

Her sister is kept in the dark about the affair, until Aubrette becomes pregnant by her lover.

After the child is born, the baby boy is taken away from Aubrette and is given to Rowena for her to raise as her own child.

Aubrette, who thought that Simon was truly in love with her, was married, however unwillingly, to Hugh, who is a companion to Duke Richard who is a loyal and faithful friend of Simon.

However, when the King dies, Richard I succeeds him to the throne and he journeys with Simon to the Holy Land for a Crusade.

Aubrette and Rowena accompany them on the long, perilous journey as attendants to Queen Berengaria, Richard's wife, who has not been given the attention that is due to the wife of the King.

There are a whole series of calamitous and traumatic events that beset them and Simon marries Aubrette in Cyprus, before they return to England.

Now back at home, Aubrette believes she has settled into a life of comfortable domesticity. Life, it seems, is perfect.

Or is it? Can a threat from an enemy from a totally unexpected quarter spell ruin for her happiness?

This book is destined to become a classic of its genre.

It costs £9.99 and is published by Matador and is available through the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, the portal to which is to the right side of this review.

A Stitch in Time

A Stitch in Time is the début novel from new author Ian Murray-Watson.

It relates the story of how a group of research scientists hidden away in a remote part of rural Wales are involved in a project which, unbeknown to them, has the capacity to destroy time itself, thus destroying the entire universe as it is known to us. And the rest of its inhabitants, also.

Unfortunately the Gods are, due to their somewhat restrictive terms of reference, unable to offer any interference to stop the cataclysmic events that the scientists are about to unleash  upon the universe.

However, what the Gods can do is they can send a special envoy to the dream world, Astralia, to seek help.

The inhabitants of Astralia, the Astralians, make the offer to send agents to the world. Unfortunately when these agents arrive it is usual that they have no clue about why they were dispatched to the world.

However, back in reality, or what is passing for reality at the moment, the leader of the scientific team, Tom, meets up with Lucy, who is the woman of his dreams.

And, true to the ways of the world, they fall in love. Or do they? And do they really, really have any idea of who they are, in reality?

Reality as we understand it starts to disintegrate. So can they, or anyone for that matter, really step in to save the universe? Yes or no? Or is the answer more complicated than that?

The novel is challenging, intriguing and exceptionally well written and is a worthy début novel.

It is published by Matador at £10.99 in paperback and is available through the That's News and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find to the right hand side of this review.

Rebel Without a Clue

Rebel Without a Clue is a memoir by Janet Green.

Janet was a social worker and a senior one, at that.

However, the pathway that Janet took to this position in her life, both professional and personal was just a little unusual and just a tad interesting, though that's probably an understatement, to be honest.

The memoir begins in the 1950s.

On the first page we find that Janet was more than a little bit stoned as she began her first gig as a stripper in a less-than-salubrious pub in Hackney.

She points out that at age 27 she should, probably, have been married to a Jewish accountant, had a couple of children, perhaps with another on the way. And maybe living in Croydon.

But, instead, there she was a dope smoking, stripping lesbian.

Her first gig was a little nervous as one would expect, but it went over quite well. As far as she could tell.

But how did she end up there?

Her family life was troubled, she was sexually abused at 14 and entered into a range of jobs from stripping to nude modelling, nursing, shop worker, secretary, student and finally a social worker.

She lived in a hippy commune, went from relationship to relationship, was a mother best described as "mad" and now, after her retirement, she decided to write her memoirs.

As an apparently respectable spinster (Janet's description) her friends were surprised at her decision to write her memoirs. After all, they thought, what had she got to write about?

Well, now they know!

Janet was a person of the swinging sixties, free love, sexual experimentation, hash smoking, the pain of discovering that her sister had been subjected to sexual abuse by their father during her childhood.

And how she finally managed to get it all together to become no less of a rebel but far more clued than she had been.

This is a very interesting book that probably tells something of  the stories of many people who lived through the swinging sixties. But thankfully Janet had the courage and the ability to tell her story.

It is published by Matador in paperback at £9.99.

It is available from the Thats Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you'll find to the right of this review.