Belinda: The Forest How Red Squirrel

Belinda: The Forest How Red Squirrel is an utterly charming and highly captivating book that is a three-year photographic study of red squirrels in their natural habitat by squirrel enthusiast Peter Trimming.

The study was undertaken by Peter in Forest How, which is situated in Eskdale, Cumbria.

During his research he witnesses a terrible and highly destructive outbreak of squirrel pox. Sadly this outbreak killed the entire adult population in Forest How.

However, despite this dreadful event a small number of the younger red squirrels who were born in the spring of 2014 managed to survive the outbreak and began to rebuild their shattered colony.

They emerged in gu4esthouse gardens from the late summer of 2014. A squirrel, named as Belinda, is chosen by Peter as a special recipient of his attention and he watches her closely.

This book is about wildlife conservation and it contains a wealth of detail about the colony, but it also features a multiplicity of full-colour images of the squirrels and their lay-to-day lives.

The introduction was written by Helen Butler MBE, who is of the Wight Squirrel Project and the IOW Red Squirrel Trust.

As Helen Butler MBE puts it: “Peter is not only a keen observer but a very good photographer.”

The book is published by the Book Guild in hardback at £12.95 and is a must buy Christmas present for the wildlife lovers in your life. Or even for your own Christmas stocking!

You can buy it from the That’s Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find just to the right of this book review.

A Door Marked Hawker

A Door Marked Hawker is an intriguing mystery, written by novelist Nigel Milliner.

It tells the story of Dorgy Pascoe, a village artisan and what happens after is untimely demise.

Jack is faced with the task of acting as the executor of the estate of Dorgy.

Jack believes that the matter will be a simple affair which he would be able to deal with in a very straightforward manner.

But Jack soon learns that nothing could be further from the truth.

Jack discovers there is a complicated web of intrigue surrounding Dorgy Pascoe. And that some attacks that seemed to surround Pascoe before his death had more significance than might have seemed possible at the time.

Jack feels compelled to dig deeper into matters that took place in the past and he becomes aware that the past that he is uncovering is far more dark and dangerous than he could have imagined possible.

Will Jack be able to resolve the matters that he has discovered to the satisfaction of the Pascoe family?

Or might the dark and murky past of Pascoe mean that Jack might even be endangering his own life?
This is an ideal Christmas present for those who like their mysteries.

It’s published by The Bookguild at £9.95.

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

Snatched

Kieran. He is a normal, average businessman, running a normal, average (but high end) ticket agency.

But the truth is that Kieran is not, by any means, what he seems.

In truth Kieran, with his degree in Child Psychology, runs a high end agency, a very high end agency indeed, that deals in a very precious commodity.

In fact, Kieran deals in the most precious commodity that there is. Stolen children.

It's probable that you could describe his business as being a sort of adoption agency. Although the parents and the child are unwitting and completely non-consenting participants.

All goes well for Kieran as children are spirited away from their families to be delivered to super rich oligarchs who have much more money than sense or moral fibre.

Until, that is, Kieran decides to kidnap Thomas who lives in the London borough of Chiswick.

He is on holiday with his family and it is planned that the family's au pair will snatch Thomas.

However, things go very badly wrong and the consequences for everyone concerned, but especially Kieran, are, to put it mildly, shocking.

This is a very well written book and will make an ideal Christmas present for lovers of thriller novels.

It is published by Matador at £7.99 and is available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find to the right of this book review.

Eugene

Eugene is a novel from author John G. Smith.

John G. Smith was talking with a veteran of WW2. He heard a tragic story of how the veteran was torn from his first true love, a beautiful Burmese girl.

Even now, all these years later, he secretly carried a photograph of himself and his girlfriend, hidden within his wallet.

As it does with every other good author, this set up a "what if...?" moment within the imagination of John G. Smith.

And he brings to his readers the story of Eugene.

Eugene had been conscripted into the RAF and suffered a particularly harrowing tour of duty in Burma.

All Eugene wanted to do was to return home to Britain and to be welcomed back into the family butchery business.

But due to the infighting of his brothers and the fact that at 74 his father had lost control of the business, Eugene was, in effect, banished from the family business.

He decides to move forward, setting out to become a successful businessman in his own right, embracing the opportunities that existed in post World War 2 Britain.

For all his advancements in his life, both business and pleasure, Eugene still resents the fact that he had to leave behind him is girlfriend, a Burmese nurse called Chit.

Because so-called fraternisation with a local girl was considered a serious offence.

Eugene thrives commercially, even during times when others are going under, yet his personal life began to disintegrate around him.

This is a well-written and very moving novel.

It is published by Matador at £8.99.

In No Time At All

Do you remember the novel by N. A. Millington, Time for Tanechka?

Now it is time for In No Time At All, the long-waited sequel, which also features Ary and Tatiana as they find themselves, once more, grappling with the problems and vicissitudes of travelling through time.

Winston Peabody is described as being "incomparable." He is a cat burglar and jewel thief for part of his life. And for the rest of his life? He is an apparently blameless dean of a very famous college in the English county of Lancashire.

He has been given an assignment by a shadowy and somewhat sinister organisation called the Masters Club.

The task? One that seems impossible. To track down and purloin or rescue a religious relic known as the Parchment of Life.

This relic is said to be so important that whoever is in possession of it would gain utter and total control over the whole of humanity.

There are two devices, cunningly disguised to make them look like egg timers, that are able to transport whoever handles it through time, both the past and the future.

During this operation Winston Peabody is shadowed by his accomplice Charles Henry Smith.

They are compelled to experience a horrifying range of unpleasant and nightmarish events and situations in order to comply with the dark desires of not only the mysterious Masters Club, but also of the dark desires of Winston Peabody himself.

However, there's many a slip between the cup and the lip, as they say. Especially when time travelling is involved!

It's published by Matador at £9.99 and will make a nifty Christmas present for the book lover in your life.

You can purchase it now by visiting the That's Books and Entertainment book shop, which you will find to the right of this book review. Along with tens of thousands of other books and Christmas presents and food and drink of all types.

The Road to Corbyn

The Road to Corbyn a Modern Day Pilgrim's Progress, is a new book from author Rob Donovan.

When the financial crisis burst forth in 2008, Rob Donovan was able to sense the historical significance of the event.

He began to collect and collate material from a wide range of sources. He hoped that this activity would help him to understand what had happened and what was still happening.

By the year 2013 Rob Donovan had begun the task of writing what he described as "a secular fantasy" in the style of a pilgrimage through the landscape of the UK.

In this way, he proposed to "expose the real meaning behind austerity and Tory neo-Liberalism."

In the style of Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, The Road to Corbyn starts with the conceit of a dream in which Pilgrim, described as a "contemporary seeker after truth" is introduced to the characters of Hope, Charity and the Interpreter.

The role of the Interpreter is to act as Pilgrim's guide, offering him the "big picture" of humanity and its developmental, especially during the last several centuries.

The book is, in essence, a sort of anti-Pilgrim's Progress, working as a anti-Christian counterpoint to the beliefs of John Bunyan.

I am sorry to say that I fear the book does not work particularly well in that it is based on a number of presumptions that might or might not have any validity.

It is published by Matador at £8.99.

Abdication

In his latest work, Abdication, historian and biographer Mark Hichens takes a detailed and percipient look at the story of the man who could well have been Britain's shortest serving monarch, King Edward VIII.

This year 2016, is the 80th anniversary of the dramatic abdication of King Edward VIII.

Mark Hichens realised that there were still questions from those events that remained unanswered, and ambiguities that remained unsettled.

He undertakes a detailed examination of the psychological character of King Edward VIII, making note of the various character flaws that were identified and noted by his peers.

Chief of which and one might hold the most damaging for a person in his postilion was the instability of his character and his lack of maturity.

He also examines the Duchess. She was arguably a woman who possessed no great beauty and had somewhat limited intellectual gifts. Yet she had captivated and married two men, plus had a number of lovers, before she captured the heart of someone described by some as "the world's best-loved man."  

The book looks at how she was able to bring the Prince to his knees.

Mark Hichens looks at the key players in this rather sordid episode, including Stanley Baldwin, King Edward VII's Prime Minister, who was the lead figure in the negotiations.

Although a book which adheres to academic rigour, it is written throughout in a style that is open and accessible.

It is published in hardback by The Book Guild at £14.99 and will make a warmly received Christmas present for lovers of history or biography.

It's also available from the That's Books and Entertainment book shop. Just take a look to the right hand side of this book review and you will finds the portal to the book shop. You'll also find thousands of other books, plus DVDs, Christmas gifts and festive food and drink.