Tag: blog tour

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Blog Tour: A Little in Love – Florence Keeling

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The little village of Weddington is fast becoming THE place to get married. With its stately home, castle and two churches it has something for everyone, and now, famous after appearing in huge romcom movie hit A Little In Love, it’s hosting a monthly wedding fayre…

Rose Pedal is the proud owner of Pedals & Prosecco, a brand new business serving ice-cold fizz from a vintage bicycle, and she’s excited to be attending her first wedding fayre. But, on the way to Weddington Hall she’s involved in a near miss crash involving dashingly handsome James from Blume’s Florist.

Arriving at the beautiful stately home drenched and disheveled, Rose is horrified to find James is not only not sorry for nearly knocking her off her bike, but he’s gatecrashing her allocated spot on the lawn. His arrogance gets her back up and it’s definitely a case of hate at first sight. But as the wedding fayre season continues, James gently wins Rose over, and their relationship starts to bloom.

Can being just ‘a little in love’ help Rose and James find their own happy-ending…

A Little in Love is the most charming romantic comedy you’ll read this year, from a hugely talented author, perfect for fans of Cathy Bramley, Phillipa Ashley and Cressida McLaughlin.

Florence Keeling LOVES weddings. She married the man she met when she was four months old, and 21 years of married bliss later, they are still VERY much in love. Her love of stories started with Mr Men and Topsy and Tim, she longed to attend Cackle’s Academy and spend days sharing adventures with the Famous Five. As a grown up, she wrangles two grown up kids, two mad huskies and three day jobs. A Little In Love is her third work of fiction. Follow her on twitter at @KeelingFlorence

My thoughts: I really liked the idea of Pedals & Prosecco, it’s cute and unusual, and Rose seems like a total sweetheart. I’ve been to a few wedding fairs, back when I was planning my own, and found them a bit overwhelming, the smaller ones were nicer, and most of the people seemed lovely, which is what Rose finds when she joins her local wedding fair circuit. Except for an obnoxious wedding planner and the florist who almost runs her over!

He turns out to be actually quite charming and kind, unlike his awful dad and brother, they were terrible. But Rose has great support in her mum and dad, grandparents and best friends. And when she hits a stumbling block in business and love, they’re there to scoop her up and get her back on her bike!

The path to true love is never easy and both Rose and James have to overcome a few tricky things to get there. But in love and in business, they might just make it with the help of those around them and some determination. A charming and enjoyable read, I was rooting for Rose all the way.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Sherlock Holmes and the Silver Cord – M.K. Wiseman

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“I speak of magic, Mr. Holmes.”
Mr. Percy Simmons, leader of London’s Theosophical Order of Odic Forces, is fully aware that his is not a case which Mr. Sherlock Holmes would ordinarily take up.
These are not ordinary times, however.
For something, some unquiet demon within Holmes stirs into discomfiting wakefulness under the occultist’s words. The unassuming Mr. Simmons has spoken of good and evil with the sort of certainty of soul that Sherlock yearns for. A certainty which has eluded Holmes for the three years in which the world thought him dead. While, for all intents, constructions, and purposes, he was dead.
But six months ago, Sherlock Holmes returned to Baker Street, declared himself alive to friend and foe alike, took up his old rooms, his profession, and his partnership with Dr. J. Watson—only to find himself haunted still by questions which had followed him out of the dreadful chasm of Reichenbach Falls:
Why? Why had he survived when his enemy had not? To what end? And had there ever, truly, been such a thing as justice? Such a thing as good or evil?

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M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

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My thoughts: I quite enjoy this author’s take on the Sherlock Holmes stories, she sticks to the feel of the original stories well and to the style Arthur Conan Doyle used so they seem authentic. This one was interesting to read as it’s narrated by Holmes, not Watson, so there’s more of the great detective’s inner life, something that isn’t always there in the original stories. Holmes is struggling with the events of Reichenbach Falls and after, the years he was supposedly dead. He’s not a killer, rarely using any weapons, preferring his great intellect and his involvement in the death of Moriarty and his followers haunts him.

He rejects religion so is unable to find comfort in prayer or faith, unlike his creator who was a famous spiritualist, so when he meets the leader of the Theosophical Order of Odic Forces, a Mason-like order of those who believe in a form of magic, he is intrigued. He envies their faith and certainty in something other than what he can see. But something has stricken several of the order’s members, and they’re dying. But it’s no ordinary illness of the flesh. Mr Simmons believes they are under a spiritual attack by a hostile magician and he needs Holmes and Watson’s help to stop this enemy.

It’s a very interesting bent to take, Holmes prides himself on his rational mind and struggles with the concept of a hidden world beyond ours, that magic exists and can be wielded to cause harm. Having identified a possible suspect, he is too late to prevent another death. But can he stop more? With his faithful Watson and his medical bag at his side, Holmes searches for a rational cause, but refuses to believe anyone is capable of magic. Could the mysterious Mr King merely be an illusion?

A clever and enjoyable addition to the Holmes continuation, giving us an insight into the mind of the consulting detective at a strange point in his life, back from the dead but not yet feeling truly alive.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Artful Antics at St Bride’s – Debbie Young

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When English teacher Gemma Lamb’s school flat is wrecked by storms, maverick headmistress Hairnet insists the girls must fund its repair by setting up their own businesses – the start of a series of hilarious unintended consequences.
Meanwhile Gemma’s worries are compounded by the arrival of bossy new girl Frieda Ehrlich, sponsored by a mysterious local tycoon whose wealth is of dubious origins. Fearful for the school’s
reputation, Gemma recruits an old friend to help investigate the tycoon’s credentials, jeopardising her romance with sports teacher Joe Spryke.
What is Frieda hiding? Why is her sponsor living in a derelict manor house? Why is his chauffeur such a crazed driver? And what has become of McPhee, Hairnet’s precious black cat? With a little help
from her friends, Gemma is determined to solve these mysteries, restore her flat and save the school.
For anyone who loved St Trinian’s – old or new – or read Malory Towers as a kid. St Brides is the perfect read for you!
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Debbie Young is the much-loved author of the Sophie Sayers and St Brides cosy crime mysteries. She lives in a Cotswold village where she runs the local literary festival, and has worked at Westonbirt School, both of which provide inspiration for her writing. She is bringing both her series to Boldwood in a 13-book contract. They will be publishing several new titles in each series and republishing the backlist, starting in September 2022.

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My thoughts: this series continues to be utterly delightful, with more mysterious goings on and one day maybe we’ll learn the truth about Max Security’s past! Turns out, he speaks German, so that’s something Gemma can add to her information about him.

This term at St Bride’s the roof has finally given up the ghost and now Gemma and Oriana are having to stay in the old servants quarters, not as nice as their flats at all, but better than wet walls! Time to get making some money and the eccentric headmistress has decided that the girls should start their own businesses to raise the cash. Cue pet detectives, cake bakers, an art show and all sorts of hijinks.

There’s also a strange new student in the Sixth Form, she’s a bit off as far as Gemma can tell, and she’s determined to figure her out. Her dad works for a new local businessman, except he doesn’t seem to have a business. Very odd. Are these new faces a risk to St Bride’s? Gemma’s on the case.

Lots of fun, intrigue and whizzing around the local lanes in fast cars ensues. It’s all highly enjoyable and entertaining. There’s little real jeopardy, although McPhee has disappeared and without their mascot, the headmistress is in a bit of a tizz.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Claire and the Missing Heir – Amanda Nelson

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Who loves a cozy mystery? Then check our Claire and the Missing Heir by Amanda Nelson!

KDP_Claire and the Missing Heir_Paperback_new-060923 (1)

Claire and the Missing Heir

Publication Date: June 19, 2023

Genre: Cozy Mystery/ Romcom

When Mr. Johnson, the abrasive and crotchety bank manager who was almost universally disliked, is found dead in his house under suspicious circumstances. Best friends CC and Claire decide the new sheriff doesn’t know enough about small towns, and the people who live there, to solve the case. They begin asking questions, and generally annoying the sheriff, but one person points the finger at another until there are no answers, just more questions. With lots of reasons to want Mr. Johnson dead, what finally caused somebody to kill him? Could somebody they know really be a killer?

Claire’s inability to keep her thoughts to herself cause hurt feelings, hilarity, and bodily harm wherever she goes, but that won’t stop CC and Claire from trying to find who might be a murderer. Nor do the sheriff’s hopefully idle threats, and pointed statements, to keep out of his investigation. As far as Claire is concerned, he doesn’t have much of an investigation.

To make matters worse every time Claire and the sheriff are in the same area, he ends up injured. She didn’t mean to hit him with her car, or slap him, or hit him with a door, or feed him dog biscuits, or run over his foot, or … well you get the idea. A smart person would avoid the walking hazard that is Claire, but the sheriff keeps turning up wherever Claire goes. Is it a coincidence, or something more? The sparks and injuries fly as Claire and the new sheriff both try to solve the suspicious death of Mr. Johnson.

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Available on Amazon

About the Author

Writing has always been a hobby for Amanda Nelson. However, it was not always something she thought she could make a living with. After years of teaching elementary school, she finally sat down and wrote her first book. A cozy mystery about best friends solving a murder in their small town.

Since turning her passion into a profession she is never happier than when she sits down at her desk and puts the opening words to a new book or story on paper.

Amanda lives with her husband of over 20 years, her two grown children, and a lot of pets. When not writing she likes to spend time with family and friends, walk on the beach with her dogs, read, and take photographs.

Follow Amanda on Amazon for notifications when new books release and connect with her directly at amandanelsonauthor.com.

My thoughts: this was a really fun book, Claire is very funny, very scatty and her inside thoughts never manage to stay there.

Thankfully her best friend CC lives next door with her husband Jake and their seven children, a multitude of pets and CC’s a brilliant cook too. Which is great as Claire doesn’t eat in her own house as there’s only pet food there.

When the local crotchetty bank manager dies, Claire’s boss at the insurance company can’t find out who the person he’s left his five million dollars to. And Claire and CC start looking into it.

There’s a hunky sheriff, a teenager off to college, Claire’s useless boss and creepy colleague, lots of cake to eat, dogs to pet and a cat that likes to take showers. It’s very funny and entertaining. I want more Claire!

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July 31st

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August 2nd

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August 3rd

https://www.instagram.com/novels.coffee.librairie/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D – Review

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August 4th

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*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own

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Blog Tour: A Stranger in Baghdad – Elizabeth Loudon

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In beautifully rendered prose, a mother and a daughter struggle as outsiders in Baghdad and London in this intergenerational drama set against a background of political tension and intrigue

“Who would be charmed by tales of life in the beautiful old house on the banks of the Tigris—looted now no doubt, its shutters torn and the courtyard strewn with mattresses?”

One night in 2003, Anglo-Iraqi psychiatrist Mona Haddad has a surprise visitor to her London office, an old acquaintance Duncan Claybourne. But why has he come? Will his confession finally lay bare what happened to her family before they escaped Iraq?

Their stories begin in 1937, when Mona’s mother Diane, a lively Englishwoman newly married to Ibrahim, an ambitious Iraqi doctor, meets Duncan by chance. Diane is working as a nanny for the Iraqi royal family. Duncan is a young British Embassy officer in Baghdad. When the king dies in a mysterious accident, Ibrahim and his family suspect Diane of colluding with Duncan and the British.

Summoning up the vanished world of mid-twentieth-century Baghdad, Elizabeth Loudon’s richly evocative story of one family calls into question British attitudes and policies in Iraq and offers up a penetrating reflection on cross-cultural marriage and the lives of women caught between different worlds.

Elizabeth Loudon is a former college lecturer and charity development consultant. She has an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MA in English from Cambridge University, and has taught at Smith, Amherst, and Williams Colleges. She’s published fiction and memoir in the Denver Quarterly, INTRO, North American Review, and Gettysburg Review, among others, and received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship. She drew on her experiences traveling in Iraq and Lebanon in the 1970s when writing A Stranger in Baghdad, her first novel. It was longlisted for the Bridport Novel Award and won the Stroud Book Festival Fiction Competition. She lives in London.

My thoughts: bringing Baghdad in the 1930s to life beautifully, this is a moving and complex novel about family, secrets, spies and loss. Diane’s impulsive marriage to a young Iraqi doctor, will lead her down dangerous paths. She moves with Ibrahim to his family’s home, where his widowed mother reigns and his sisters resent his new wife. Desperate and lonely, she clings to the British Embassy and the local contingent of ex-pats, which brings her into Duncan Claybourne’s orbit and into danger.

Relayed to daughter Mona, years later in London, Duncan’s story of espionage and coups, murder and her mother, is shocking and terribly sad. Mona completes the story with her own. The loss of her father, brothers and home, as she and Diane fled to England. While she’s made a life for herself, there have always been questions and now she finally has some answers. But has what she’s learnt from the former spy helped her at all or left her with more?

Rich and rewarding, this is a clever and enthralling thriller set in a lost world, vividly written and utterly captivating.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: The Exiled – Sarah Daniels

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Trust no one.

It is six months since the Arcadia set sail for the first time in forty years. But this wasn’t the freedom the inhabitants were hoping for. Esther Crossland did what she had to do, but it has left a trail of destruction in her wake. Now the wrecked ship is abandoned. Its inhabitants are in exile, trapped in sprawling make-shift shelters made up of warehouse, tents, shipping containers.

Esther and Nik, architects of the rebellion, are on the run. Esther is in hiding, desperate to do something to help her people, and Nik seems to have abandoned all hope, on a journey taking him further and further from home. And neither of them want to face up to their true feelings about one another . . .

Not only that, there is a new villain in town. With the fall of Commander Hadley, it’s left to the ruthless Admiral Janek to deal with the traitors, and her own past is beginning to catch-up with her.

Then the shaky ceasefire negotiated by General Lall, Nik’s mum, falls apart. Nik and Esther find themselves in a world of betrayals and double crossings – a game of power, with no one to trust but themselves.

It’s time for the final showdown.

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Sarah Daniels is an ex-archaeologist who escaped academia and now writes stories from her home in rural Lincolnshire. Her work has been published in various online magazines and has been nominated for best British and Irish Flash Fiction and Best Small Fictions. 

If you want to contact her, you can do so at the following locations: Website Instagram TikTok Twitter

My thoughts: it’s been 6 months since Esther crashed the Arcadia into the Federated States and the ship’s residents are now housed in a hastily built fenced in refugee camp, complete with poor sanitation, disease and grim rations. Maine, not part of the Fed, has offered them refuge, but first they have to get there.

Nik’s escaped and is hiding out in Florida under an assumed name, except that someone knows where he is and is trying to kill him.

Esther and Corp are trying their best to help people with medical treatment, while staying off the radar as the Fed has branded them terrorists and wants to execute them, which doesn’t help the refugees’ plight at all. General Lall, Nik’s mum, is supposedly negotiating with the Fed’s government but Esther smells a rat. Could she really be planning to sell everyone into a form of slavery?

As events start to unravel, Esther and Nik are brought back together and after discovering what’s been negotiated, must work together to stop it and rescue the ship folk for good. If they can stop bickering for five minutes.

Another fast paced and skillful teen thriller, no teenagers should have this much responsibility dumped on them, but no one else seems to be trying.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Who Killed Jerusalem? – George Albert Brown

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Welcome to the book tour for Who Killed Jerusalem, a madcap murder mystery by George Albert Brown! Read on for more details and the opportunity to win HUGE prizes! You can also visit one of our Instagram hosts and win 1 of 3 book boxes!

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Who Killed Jerusalem

Publication Date: February 6, 2023

Genre: Murder Mystery/ Literary Mystery

Publisher: Galbraith Literary Publishers

A budding cult classic that dramatically splits the reviewers. Which side will you be on?

A seamless melding of the intricate plotting of Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose; the side-splitting humor of John Kennedy Toole in A Confederacy of Dunces; and the fabulous world of William Blake.

In 1977, Ickey Jerusalem, San Francisco’s golden-boy poet laureate, is found dead in a locked, first-class toilet on an arriving red-eye flight.

Ded Smith, a desperately unhappy, intelligent philistine with a highly developed philosophy to match, is called in to investigate the poet’s death. Thus begins a series of hilarious encounters with the members of Jerusalem’s coterie.

Ded soon realizes that to find out what happened, he must not only collect his usual detective’s clues but also, despite his own poetically challenged outlook, get into the dead poet’s mind. Fighting his way through blasphemous funerals, drug-induced dreams, poetry-charged love-making, offbeat philosophical discussions, and much, much more, he begins to piece together Jerusalem’s seductive, all-encompassing metaphysics.

But by then, the attempts to kill Ded and the others have begun.

Before Ded’s death-dodging luck runs out, will he be able to solve the case, and perhaps in the process, develop a new way of looking at the world that might allow him to replace his unhappiness with joy?

Available on Amazon

About the Author

George Albert Brown

George Albert Brown, a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Law, started as a hippie in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury and retired at age 40 after having co-founded a successful international finance company. Following stints thereafter as a humorous author (The Airline Passenger’s Guerrilla Handbook) and an angel investor in over a score of high-tech university spinouts, he built a catamaran in Chile and for more than a decade, cruised it across the globe with his significant other. Today, as a father of three grown children, a grandfather of four not-yet-grown children, and an involuntary lover of stray cats, he continues his peripatetic lifestyle by other means.

Who Killed Jerusalem? is the book that George, a life-long devotee of William Blake, had always wanted to write.

Who Killed Jerusalem

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Blog Tour: One Beats the Bush – Riall Nolan

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Meet Max Donovan, a man who was kicking butt when Jack Reacher was still in diapers…

Vietnam veteran Max Donovan is in Bangkok, and very hungover, when his friend “Fat” Freddie Fields is arrested in San Francisco for the murder of an Australian diplomat. He knows his old buddy would never hurt a fly, so he rushes back to the Bay Area to help. There he locks horns with the District Attorney who seems intent on pursuing the case. Suspecting Freddie is being framed, Donovan tries to rustle up some cash to bail him out, but only succeeds in getting into trouble with the local mob.

He’ll have to solve the case on his own. Unfortunately, the only clue he has suggests the answers lie in the jungle-covered mountains of Papua New Guinea, and the shark-filled waters of the Coral Sea.

As he comes face to face with smugglers, hostile tribesmen, insurgents, and a web of corruption and deception, can Donovan achieve what is seemingly impossible in this high­octane, action-filled adventure full of nail-biting suspense?

The second book in the series, WITH TOOTH AND NAIL will be published later this year.

These books will be great for fans of Lee Child, Wilbur Smith, Raymond Chandler, and Ernest Hemingway.

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Riall Nolan grew up in upstate New York, and joined the Peace Corps after graduating from college. He got sent to Senegal, in West Africa, an experience from which he has never fully recovered.

While there he began to notice that many development projects didn’t work very well, largely because outside experts lacked basic cultural understanding of local communities. That’s when he decided to become an anthropologist.

He headed to the University of Sussex where he obtained a doctorate, and began working around the world as a development planner. He spent nearly twenty years overseas, in places like Papua New Guinea, Senegal, Tunisia and Sri Lanka. When he returned to the US at long last, he became a university administrator in charge of international education at several large research universities. His goal was simple: get as many young Americans out of the country as possible, by any means necessary.

In 2010, he finally moved back into the ranks of the faculty, where he taught courses in development anthropology, cross-cultural adaptation, and the application of anthropology to global grand challenges. Before retiring in 2020, he split his time between Purdue University in Indiana and the University of Cambridge in the UK.

He is the author of eight academic books on anthropology and numerous articles. He has also published a guide to mountaineering in Papua New Guinea. Now his focus is on adventure novels.

Today, he lives with his wife Christine in a small university town, venturing forth as often as possible on exciting trips to faraway places. Aside from writing gripping fiction, he writes, hikes, makes furniture and tries to fix the house.

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My thoughts: an action packed, globe trotting adventure as former helicopter pilot Max Donovan tries to help his friend and fellow vet, Fat Freddie out of trouble. Freddie suffers from horrific PTSD and prison would be the very worst place for him. Besides he’s not a killer, and Max will prove it.

Taking in political corruption, smuggling, collectors of illegal goods, drug addled tribespeople, changing global times and a genial professor with a bone through his nose (one of my favourite characters), this is non stop mayhem. Max angers a drug dealer, a slimy DA, a scary so-called missionary and a lot of other nefarious people as he goes all the way to the top and bottom of this to save his friend.

Accompanied by San Francisco detective Sam Young, who is possibly tougher than he is, Max somehow just manages to avoid death multiple times and get the answers he needs. Cracking stuff.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Killer Bodies – Heleen Kist

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BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

In a prestigious Edinburgh apartment building, gym receptionist Evie whiles away long hours doodling the deaths of residents who’ve annoyed her.

On her birthday of all days, a man slumps off the exercise bike — dead. She tries to get help, but someone has locked the doors and the phones are out of reach.

When another resident collapses inexplicably, Evie realises the deaths resemble those she drew … and her sketchbook is missing.

Was she framed…

… or is she next?

KILLER BODIES is a modern locked room thriller full of old-school ‘impossible crimes’, darkly humorous and with some visual surprises inside! Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware ‘The Turn of the Key’, Catherine Cooper ‘The Chalet’ and Sarah Pearce’s ‘The Sanatorium’ — with a dash of Knives Out.

Heleen Kist is a Dutch, formerly globetrotting career woman who fell in love with a Scotsman and his country, and now writes about its (sometimes scary) people from her garden office in Glasgow. ‘Killer Bodies’ is her fourth novel, inspired by her hatred of exercise.

She was chosen as an up-and-coming new author at Bloody Scotland 2018. Her novels have been finalists in a variety of awards, both in the UK and USA, and she years to some day ‘be the bride’.

Heleen hopes you enjoy her writing, and would love to hear from you on twitter (@hkist), Faceboook (@heleenkistauthor) or Goodreads. You can also sign up to her newsletter on http://www.heleenkist.com

My thoughts: this is why I don’t like gyms! Evie is trapped in the gym she works in as the receptionist with some of the residents of the fancy apartment building housing it. They’re twelve floors up, nothing’s working and then people start dying in bizarre and sudden ways that mimic the sketches she’s drawn of them. Is the killer using her as inspiration or is there something even stranger going on? Oh, and it’s her birthday.

As the bodies keep dropping, Evie and the increasingly smaller number of residents try to figure out what’s going on, what is killing these people, who is it? Is it one of them? Paranoia grows, this is the worst birthday ever.

I felt for Evie, what a horrible thing to be dealing with, she’s going to be having nightmares for sure. Although she does form a bond with Suki, the new tenant, and that helps them both cope with the horror around them.

The ending lets up the carnage, thankfully, and the survivors get what they need and deserve. Blackly comic and very cleverly done, I really enjoyed this one.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own

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Blog Tour: So Last Century – Charles Nevin

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Sherlock Holmes, Butch Cassidy, Margaret Thatcher’s bloomers and a racehorse strongly resembling Shergar feature in SO LAST CENTURY, the new collection of whimsically witty stories from award-
winning journalist and writer Charles Nevin. SO LAST CENTURY begins with Edward VII on a tricky country house visit and ends with one of the first national lottery winners struggling with fame,
fortune and romance. On the way you will also meet two music hall comedians in the First World War and two remarkable double agents in the Second, get raided in a 1920s London night club, take part in some lively Coronation celebrations and discover what really might have happened when the World Cup was stolen in 1966.

SO LAST CENTURY follows the format of Nevin’s last book, the widely praised SOMETIMES IN BATH, providing an afterword for each story which separates fiction from fact and provides fascinating background to those breakneck, tumultuous times. And be warned: after
this, you will never view the Twentieth Century in quite the same way ever again.
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CHARLES NEVIN has written for The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Sunday Times,The New York Times and many others. So Last Century follows his
acclaimed Sometimes In Bath, featuring stories happy and sad throughout the city’s history. He has also published three non-fiction books, including the highly popular tribute to the overlooked romance of his native county, Lancashire, Where Women Die of Love.
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My thoughts: this was such a fun book, beginning with Edward VII in a spot of bother, with Holmes (yes, that one) hiding in the bushes, and ending in 1995, a story a decade for the whole 20th Century is pretty impressive. They’re also very funny, there are real people, fictional people and characters who bear a strong resemblance to real people, throughout.

I was highly entertained by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on a trip to Blackpool, Ted Heath and his longing for Mrs Thatcher (urgh) and a few other familiar, and not so, having the strangest times. The World War One story was full of pathos and inspired by some remarkable real people, as was the almost too ridiculous to be true World War Two one.

King Canute makes an appearance to celebrate the crowning of the late Queen, and there are all manner of horses, donkeys and dogs in the stories. Something for everyone really.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.