Welcome To Our Reading Room

Welcome! Come in! Pull up a chair! You have entered our reading room where the writers on the Novel Points of View blog are reviewing a book they have read this summer. The views expressed in each review is purely subjective to the reviewer, but we do hope you enjoy the selection of books chosen and what we thought of each one! 

Meghan and Harry: The Real Story by Lady Colin Campbell 
Review by Victoria Cornwall

The author, Lady Colin Campbell, is a Jamaican-born British writer, socialite and a television and radio personality. She is well connected to the aristocracy and has written several books on the royal family. She has a detailed knowledge of the history of the British monarchy, and how and why it is run the way it is.

In Meghan and Harry, The Real Story, Campbell provides a snapshot of Meghan and Harry’s childhood and how she believes their experiences moulded them into the adults they are today. Her connections and sources, from both sides of the couple, provide a fascinating insight into how this couple responded to life’s experiences pre and post marriage, which shaped their characters, personalities and goals in life. These traits will, in turn, ultimately effect their response to advice, guidance, protocols, criticism and restrictions placed upon them. 

She is far kinder to Meghan than many others have been, and gives her perspective on why Meghan found it so difficult to work and live within the Royal Institution, where hierarchy and protocols are very different to anything found in America, different cultures clash and the reality that 'duty' (many of which are low key royal visits) is not always glamorous. This has resulted, we are lead to believe, to misunderstanding, anger and hurt by all. Campbell also attempts to explain the press scrutiny of the Royal Family (whether fairly or not) and why it is unique to Britain. The reasons are based in history and are too long to explain here.

If you are interested in royalty or human behaviour, this will be of interest to you, which will leave you with a greater understanding of what was going on behind the scenes and leave you unsettled by the complexity of human behaviour. I wish Harry and Meghan well in their new life. Everyone in this book deserves a happy, stress-free life, from the lowest member of staff to the Queen herself, and if that is achieved by Harry and Meghan striking out on their own, that can only be for the good of all concerned. If only it was possible for all those involved to have read this book first, then perhaps they would have had a greater understanding of the pitfalls ahead and how to overcome them to benefit all... but that would have been impossible because the people involved are the story itself. This book may not change your opinion about the couple or the reason and method of how they stepped down as senior royals, but you will be left feeling that you had a glimpse of what has been going on behind the scenes over the last few years, which is why I chose to read it in the first place.

Last of the Moon Girls by Barbara Davis
Review by Terry Lynn Thomas

I’ve read all of Barbara Davis’s books. The audio version of When Never Comes nursed me as I recovered from my broken wrist in 2018. The Last of Moon Girls, Barbara’s latest, is a brilliantly crafted story. Tight writing is Barbara’s jam, and this book does not disappoint. Not only is the story well plotted, but Ms. Davis’s sentences invoke a rich feel of magic in this charmingly witchy story. The author takes us full circle as her characters explore important memes such as tradition, loyalty, and confronting darkness. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I would give it ten stars if I could. 

Escape to the French Farmhouse by Jo Thomas

Review by Linda Mitchelmore

I’ve read very little this summer. At first it was because the thought of what was to come was too terrifying for me to concentrate on reading. But then I began to get to grips with it and got back to writing. I rarely read other authors when I’m writing something of my own. But the book has been sent off and a friend came round with Jo Thomas’s Escape to the French Farmhouse.

This should really be my friend’s review. For the past thirty-four years she’s spent the entire summer in Provence. But not this year. And she is missing it. ‘This,’ she said as she handed me the book, ‘is what I’m missing. Her sense of place is absolutely spot-on. For the time it took me to read it, I was there.’

So I thought I’d give it a go.

I see Jo Thomas is a previous holder of the Katie Fforde Bursary, as am I. While the title – in my opinion – is very unimaginative I like that Escape to the French Farmhouse is written in first person present tense – it gets you inside the head of the protagonist. It is very fast-paced. The sentences are short, as are many of the chapters – not even half a page some of them. It makes you want to read the next page. I like that the French is accurate – not always so in novels. I liked Del immediately and wanted her to succeed, alone in this huge mas with no furniture and very little food and no man as the story opens. Soon a whole cast of characters appear and while I thought some of the romances that evolved were a bit unrealistic I’ll forgive that because the characters were all so well-rounded. There was, perhaps, a bit too much walking along the riverbank with attendant flora – however beautifully described – and if you didn’t know what lavender looks and smells like you will by the time you reach the end. I felt it held up the story at times but those short sentences and the cliff-hangers Jo Thomas throws in every few chapters kept me reading to the end. It’s rare for me to read a whole book in a day (a very wet and dark August day) but this is what happened here. I agree with my friend – this book is as close to being on holiday in Provence you could get

without actually being there. 

Paris for One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes

Review by Rae Cowie

Fans of Jojo Moyes, author of best-selling Me Before You trilogy, were recently treated to a follow-up short story, entitled Lou In Lockdown, available HERE. Not only is it timely, but Lou and her mum made me laugh so much that I was delighted when I remembered I had a copy of Moyes’ Paris for One and Other Stories on my bookshelf, waiting to be read. A warm hug of a collection, these stories were first made available on radio and in magazines, brought together to create an easy-to-read coffee break compendium.

Composed of nine short stories plus two that are bit longer (arguably novella in length) they are feel-good tales with a cast of relatable characters, focusing on the everyday issues that beset women, told with gentle humour. Not all are set in Paris, but those that are – Paris for One, and Honeymoon in Paris - were my favourites. Perhaps because I honeymooned in Paris too – although without the fictional drama! An uplifting read, perfect for dipping into when a pop of positivity is needed.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Review by Jennifer Young

I’ve just finished reading Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale — heavily gothic, crammed with increasingly implausible events and written with incredible intensity. The author gives no date for when it’s set and references no historical events with which to fix it, but it feels set in the seventies or thereabouts, with flashbacks perhaps as far as the turn of the century. Lonely bookseller Margaret Lea is approached by reclusive author Vida Winter to tell the extraordinary tale of her life, which she does in a book that pays clear and sometimes clumsy homage to the likes of Charlotte Bronte, Wilkie Collins and Henry James. 

I think I liked it, though I don’t think it’s a great book, unlike Setterfield’s extraordinary Once Upon a River. I found it a bit OTT. Vida Winters’ story itself had perhaps just a few too many twists. There’s a full cast of Bronte/Collins/James characters and tropes in there if you fancy a game of Gothic Novel Bingo and I thought some of them could have been left out. (Governess: check. Aged housekeeper: check. Missing baby: check. Violent lunatic: check. Ghostly figure: check. Narrator with a secret of their own: check. House fire: check…and so many more.) Most problematically for me, too many of this full cast of characters were not just not likeable but downright unlikeable. (More on this in my next blog post!) 

It’s beautifully written, though, and worth a read for that alone. When I looked up the author afterwards I found this was her first book, written twelve years before her most recent, and I think the development in her writing is obvious. The Thirteenth Tale is good…but Once Upon a River is much better. 

Black and British - A Forgotten History by David Olusoga

Review by Kath McGurl

Write a review of a book you've read this year, asked Victoria Cornwall, for this week's joint blog. I have read loads - I always have 2 or more books on the go - but the one that immediately jumped into my mind is a non-fiction book. I read it initially to educate myself, but ended up being inspired to start a novel based on something I read in it...

The book is Black and British - A Forgotten History by David Olusoga. He's the chap who presents the House Through Time series on TV, so I was already following him on Twitter as I love those programmes. It was the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, and he tweeted a link to his book that he wrote a few years back; I think it accompanied another TV programme. Anyway, I decided to buy the book and learn more about this aspect of English history.

It's a hefty tome - over 500 pages of quite small print - but really well written and therefore easy to

read. It's fascinating - did you know there were blacks in Britain in Roman times, part of the Roman

occupying army? The book covers everything from then, through the years of the English slave

traders, the abolition of slavery, to black American GIs charming young women during the war, and

right up to the Windrush generation.

It was a chapter on blacks in Georgian England, and an early abolitionist I had never heard of,

named Granville Sharp, that inspired me the most. He became a friend to runaway slaves in

London, and over the course of a number of court cases, paved the way for the eventual ending of

the slave trade and subsequent abolition of slavery in Britain. There's a novel in there I am sure, and I am having a go at writing it, although it's a long way from my usual genre!

I'd recommend this book for anyone who likes to get their teeth into social history books. It's a long

but worthwhile and fascinating read.

I hope you enjoyed reading the reviews of our little mixed selection. Whatever book you choose for your next read, we hope you enjoy it and come away feeling the better for reading it. Happy reading to you all!