I do absolutely adore Agatha Christie books and can read them over and over again, although I think I slightly prefer Miss Marple to Hercule Poirot. This is a Poirot tale, and the story begins with a girl coming to Poirot and asking for his help as she thinks she may have committed a murder, [...]
This book is about the life of Roseanne, an old lady who has been incarcerated in a mental institution for much of her life and who is now determined to record this life in the form of a secret journal. Her psychiatrist, Dr Grene, is keen to find out more about her, mostly because the [...]
This is a chilling ghost story that I was very keen to read, but ultimately ended up feeling frustrated and confused by. It is the story of a young governess sent to a large stately home to look after two orphaned children, Miles and Flora, and as her employer (the children’s uncle) determinedly states that [...]
Review supplied by Stephen Page In The Wild Iris, Louise Glück allows flowers and other plants to speak. A gardener tending the plants also speaks, most often in prayer. Another voice, the deity prayed to by the gardener, speaks omnisciently. Glück’s garden, like life, brings unexpected joys and disappointments—the first sprouts, an early bloom, reoccurring [...]
The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe Firstly, I was amazed by how similar the detective’s methods were to Sherlock Holmes’ and, I have to admit, this made me quite disillusioned with the great Conan Doyle as I’d always thought of his detective as completely ground-breaking and unique – obviously not. Dupin, [...]
I was interested to read this book again after reading it many years ago as I enjoyed it then but it left me feeling quite down, and I wondered if I’d feel the same way reading it now I am older. It is the story of Tess, a beautiful girl from a poor family, who [...]
This is the true wartime diary of Nella Last written throughout the 2nd World War, and is absolutely fascinating. The Mass Observation Project asked for volunteers to write a diary to record their thoughts and, thankfully for us, Nella decided to take part. She is a woman suffering from nerves and depression with a domineering [...]
This book details the amazing and terrifying ease with which women were sent off to mental institutions in the past; how their ‘madness’, and therefore fate, could be decided upon with such little evidence and how this method was often used by husbands and fathers to easily dispose of women. I thought the story itself [...]
I struggled with this book as I found the subject matter upsetting and quite difficult to read. It is the story of Poppy and Serena’s relationship with Marcus, which begins when they are underage, develops into him dominating and abusing them, and results in him being killed. Poppy suspects Serena killed him, and Serena suspects [...]
Oooh, this is such a delicious book and I enjoyed every second of reading it, it felt like a window into another world and was such a treat to read, it is fantastic and I can’t stop recommending it to people and raving about it! It is a story about magic in 1800s England where [...]