Simon Savidge Reads

An Entertaining & Unusual Read, 21 Jun 2012

`Bleakly Hall' is really a book of two halves (which sounds like I am starting with a cliché) one half of the story is that of the people working and staying at a hydropath after the First World War, Monty and Ada having been two female comrades on the frontlines, Monty having been a nurse and Ada an ambulance driver. Monty also nursed with a woman called Sophia who died yet left an old score to settle with a Captain Foxley who Monty learns resides at `Bleakly Hall' where Ada now works, the narrative switches between Monty coming to the hall to confront Foxley, but getting beguiled and sidetracked by staff and the likes while there, and the story of the war unfolding to reveal what… Read more

Wry, If Sleepy, Mystery, 15 Jun 2012

Jerry Burton is sent from London to the sleepy village of Lymstock on doctors orders and brings his sister Joanna in tow. Initially they are utterly charmed with the idyllic surroundings and quaint people that they meet. Yet soon they receive an anonymous poison penned letter accusing them of being lovers not siblings and they soon discover that most people in the village are getting equally scandalous letters too. Things soon take an even darker twist when one of the receivers of these letters dies, at first people think it may be suicide until the facts start to point to murder and another soon follows.

Hopefully that hasn't given too much of the plot away, however I am about… Read more

Roach Rocketing To Become My Favourite Non Fiction Writer, 12 Jun 2012

I have to admit that when I heard that Mary Roach's new novel was going to be about space the thought of `what, really?' went through my head. She had already covered death (`Stiff'), the supernatural and paranormal (`Six Feet Over') and sex (`Bonk') so space worried me, I admit I was intrigued by the planets and stars as a youngster, but I have never had even the slightest interest in being an astronaut or humans travelling through the unknown. I certainly don't rush to see films like `Apollo 13' though the idea of aliens intrigues me. That said `Packing for Mars' being packed - do you see what I did there - with wit, humour and the questions you would like to ask but probably wouldn't… Read more