M. Cookson-carter

Trez Predictable and Gauche, 19 Aug 2007

I was seduced by the beautiful cover (tut tut) but the pages between were a bitter disappointment;

Handsome Philosopher, his beautiful and self-obsessed wife, their emotionally neglected daughter. The pretty nanny....the affair, oh quelle surprise!

The batty lady with the pet sparrows was the best character and she throws herself off the roof.

Dark, but not delightfully so.

A tender tale, which should be read with caution, 10 April 2007

Oh, I love Alice Hoffman's writing so very much and this book is one of the reasons why...

When a woman resues the young and handsome 'Wolf Man' from an assylum, her town soon finds out his story and when dead animals are found around the town, all eyes point toward him.

Stephen had been institutionalised for some time after being captured in the forest by a trapper, naked and whining like a wolf, his hair matted and his foot shattered.

Take the story from there yourself and read Hoffman like she is a river, taking you from source to sea with her wonderful storytelling. It is grim in places, her novels always are but so worth the effort.

If you… Read more

A story to make the modern Briton feel guilty about the past...brilliant!, 21 Jan 2007

How can the story of the colonisation of Australia be told without including the ravaging details? In short, it can't and Grenveill does not hold back in her, sometimes very uncomfortable, detail.

William Thornhill, after a sad chain of occurences escapes the death sentence, which is waved over his head and is transported, along with his wife to the new colony in Australia...a sentence, which to some is far worse.

Indeed in this day and age we would think "what is so bad about that?"

After almost a year on board the ship they are faced with a climate and landscape, which is unforgiving and very different to their London home. Each day his wife counts the… Read more