Author Guest Post - Helene Harrison - #author #guestpost

It is my great pleasure to welcome author, Helene Harrison, to the blog today. Helene is going to be talking to us about why she thinks we are still so fascinated with Anne Boleyn.

If you missed my review of her latest book, The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception, you can find it here.

Welcome Helene.

Why are we still so fascinated with Anne Boleyn?

Firstly, thank you so much for having me on your blog, Annie! My third and most recent book is called The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception so today I thought I’d offer some of my thoughts on why we are so fascinated with Anne Boleyn. None of the others of Henry VIII’s six wives get so much attention, or so many books written about them. Even books which cover all six wives, the majority is Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn with the other four wives condensed into the last third or quarter of the book. 

The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception by Helene Harrison [2025].

So, what about Anne Boleyn makes us so enthralled by her story? Well one thing is the sheer drama of her rise and fall. The fact that Henry VIII annulled his first marriage to Katherine of Aragon and broke with the Roman Catholic Church in order to marry Anne, means that she was a very controversial person by the time of her coronation on 1 June 1533. But less than three years later when she was arrested for multiple adulteries, incest with her brother, and treason, her reputation disintegrated further. Anne Boleyn basically became taboo on her execution.

However, her life and reputation have been both rehabilitated and attacked over the nearly 500 years since her death. For me, in choosing to write this book on Anne Boleyn, I consciously decided that I didn’t want to write a traditional biography, but more of a study of how her image and reputation have been tackled over 500 years. The fact that we have Anne recurring through 500 years gives a sense of how much her story means to people – we don’t have the same interest in the other wives, or even in other consorts or regnant monarchs from across time!

Today, we have popular culture. The popularity of the likes of Philippa Gregory, or Showtime’s The Tudors, or Wolf Hall, or SIX The Musical, brings Anne Boleyn and Tudor history to new audiences. We are spoiled in the modern age with television, film, theatre, and a glut of historical novels. Anne Boleyn is a prime candidate for featuring because of the drama of both her rise and fall, as well as her position as the mother of Elizabeth I, often considered to be England’s first successful queen regnant, paving the way for later ruling queens like Victoria and Elizabeth II.  

Anne Boleyn, mid-16th century, at Hever Castle and Gardens, Kent, England.

The lack of concrete knowledge about Anne Boleyn is also intriguing. Once people start digging into her life, they want facts but that often isn’t possible. We don’t know when Anne was born, what she really looked like, whether she really did hold Henry VIII at arm’s length for seven years, or how many pregnancies she underwent during her marriage. The portraits and images we have of her are all from after her death, aside from a crude sketch from her coronation banquet which doesn’t show any features, and a portrait medal from 1534 which has been damaged. The most popular images we think of are later creations. Not knowing her year of birth (estimates vary from 1501 to 1507 generally) means that we don’t know her age at significant events. The state of her relationship with the king is something that intrigues everyone who looks at her life, specifically Henry VIII’s involvement in her downfall.

What we find so alluring about Anne Boleyn is that she is a bit of an enigma, surrounded by drama, and ripe for modern entertainment drama. But we need to remember that Anne was a real person, who really was beheaded on the orders of her husband, a mother who lost at least two children, and spent years serving a queen, only to replace her on the throne. We will never be able to know or understand what she was feeling because times have changed hugely. We need to be careful not to put 21st century thoughts and feelings onto a 16th century woman. Anne Boleyn will no doubt continue to fascinate, and I hope that my book, The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception, will give some insight into how some of the myths about Anne came to be, and why I don’t think interpretations of Anne will ever stop – we just need to dig down into what we actually do know and strip away the layers of myth and perception to try and get closer to the real Anne Boleyn.

Thank you for being my guest on the blog today. That was so interesting and I thought your book was fascinating.

More About the Author

Helene Harrison studied at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, achieving both a BA and MA in History before going on to complete an MSc in Library Management. Her passion for Tudor history started when studying for A Levels and completing a module on Tudor rebellions. Her master’s dissertation focused on portrayals of Anne Boleyn through the centuries, from contemporary letters to modern TV and film adaptations. Now she writes two blogs, one Tudor history and one book-related, and works in the university library of her alma mater. In her spare time, she loves visiting royal palaces and snuggling up with a book or embroidery project. Her books are ‘Elizabethan Rebellions: Conspiracy, Intrigue and Treason’ (2023), ‘Tudor Executions: From Nobility to the Block’ (2024) and ‘The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception’ (2025), all published by Pen and Sword.

Purchase Links to Helene's Publications

‘Elizabethan Rebellions: Conspiracy, Intrigue and Treason’ (2023)

Bookshop.org   Pen & Sword

 ‘Tudor Executions: From Nobility to the Block’ (2024) 

Bookshop.org     Pen & Sword

 ‘The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception’ (2025)

Bookshop.org    Pen & Sword

"Small Business Saturday weekender! Buy ANY book 5-7 Dec, and you could win a £250 Bookshop.org digital gift card. Every sale supports independent bookshops: Bookshop.org"

(media courtesy of the author)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception by Helene Harrison - #bookreview

Anne Boleyn is an absolutely fascinating figure in English history...

The Blurb

Mistress. Queen. Reformer. Traitor. Icon. 

This book is not like any others you might have read on Anne Boleyn. It is not a biography of the life of Henry VIII’s second wife and queen. What this book does is to examine Anne Boleyn through images and perceptions of her. Through documents, letters, images, propaganda, films, novels and historical biographies, this book explores Anne Boleyn through more than 500 years of history. 

Explore how perceptions of her have changed and developed over time. Whether she is seen as a mistress, a queen, a mother, a reformer, a traitor, or a tragic heroine, Anne Boleyn continues to inspire so much exploration and even new discoveries today. See Anne through the eyes of people who knew her, loved her, hated her, and studied her. 

In the present day, Anne Boleyn has quite a devoted scholarship, honed through perceptions built over the last half a millennium. Her life, reign, and tragic death at the hands of the man who tore England apart to be with her have made Anne Boleyn one of the most divisive and exciting figures in English history. 

My Review

Before I even begin to review this book, I want to let you know that tomorrow the author of this fantastic book, Helene Harrison, will be here on the blog, talking about why we are still so fascinated by Anne Boleyn. Having read this book, I couldn't be more excited to hear from her.

Once in a while I read a book on my Kindle that I love so much that it makes me want to buy a physical copy to have on my bookshelves, that I can take down and dip into whenever I want to. This was one such book.

It begins with an excellent foreword by Dr. Owen Emmerson, who is a historian, author and Assistant Curator at the childhood home of Anne Boleyn at Hever Castle in Kent.

Published in July of this year, the book takes a slightly different path to many books in the Anne Boleyn canon. It is based on the author's Master's degree research, whereby she considered the different interpretations of Anne Boleyn through history by drawing on both historical sources and historiography. She uses both primary and secondary sources, as well as an array of articles, books and paintings. In addition, she looks at how Anne is presented on stage and screen and in fiction and non-fiction alike.

The book is divided into twelve chapters, and I think it is worth providing the title headings here in order to demonstrate the breadth of the interpretation through the sources.

Chapter 1 - Portraiture and Image

Chapter 2 - Anne as Mistress

Chapter 3 - Anne as Queen and Mother

Chapter 4 - Anne as Traitor

Chapter 5 -  Anne Through Foreign Eyes

Chapter 6 - Anne as Reformer

Chapter 7 - Anne as Tragic Heroine

Chapter 8 - Anne on Stage

Chapter 9 - Anne on Film

Chapter 10 - Anne on the Small Screen

Chapter 11 - Anne on the Page

Chapter 12 - Historiography

This was an interesting and informative book to read, which has been written in a highly accessible and approachable manner. Ms Harrison has looked at Anne Boleyn with fresh eyes and considers how she has been interpreted through the centuries, from the plays of Shakespeare to the modern interpretation of Anne in the stage show, The Six. Whether the reader is a relative newcomer to Tudor history or an academic, I believe that there is something for everyone in this book.

For me, the sign of a good book, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, is when it makes me want to go away and learn more about the subject. Although I am a history graduate, I focused on modern history and only touched on the subject of the Tudors. Of course, I have read much about them since my studies were completed. However, this book has left me with a thirst to learn more, and I suspect that it will have a similar effect on many of its readers.

The author's research is extensive and included is a long bibliography which I will definitely be looking into for further reading. The book also has a selection of images which were interesting when viewed alongside the text.

I don't want to finish this review without telling you a personal story about Hever Castle. A couple of years ago, I celebrated a big birthday and arranged a whole family trip there - complete with husband, sons, their wives, grandchildren, and not forgetting the family dogs. Throughout the day, we visited all of it, from the castle to the coffee shop, taking it in turns to do the parts not suitable for dogs. 

Hever Castle really worked its magic on my granddaughter that day, who was about nine at the time. Not only did she fall in love with the castle but also with history itself. I couldn't be more proud.

This is an intelligent book which is easy to read. I highly recommend it to lovers of history.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1036105020

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Formats:  e-book and hardback

No. of Pages:  296 (hardback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Pen & Sword Books

Blackwell's

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Helene Harrison studied at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, achieving both a BA and MA in History before going on to complete an MSc in Library Management. Her passion for Tudor history started when studying for A Levels and completing a module on Tudor rebellions. Her master’s dissertation focused on portrayals of Anne Boleyn through the centuries, from contemporary letters to modern TV and film adaptations. Now she writes two blogs, one Tudor history and one book-related, and works in the university library of her alma mater. In her spare time, she loves visiting royal palaces and snuggling up with a book or embroidery project. Her books are ‘Elizabethan Rebellions: Conspiracy, Intrigue and Treason’ (2023), ‘Tudor Executions: From Nobility to the Block’ (2024) and ‘The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn: Interpreting Image and Perception’ (2025), all published by Pen and Sword.

You can also find Helene at:

Author Website

Substack

Facebook

Instagram

Bluesky

Threads

(ARC and media courtesy of the author)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

10 Ten Books I Want to Read in November 2025 - #booklist

 

Hello November! It's so lovely to see you again with your crispy brown leaves and warm indoor fires.

Here is my list of ten books that I hope to read this month.

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

I've been following her for the past few days.

I know where she buys her groceries, where she has her dry cleaning done, where she works.

I don't know the colour of her eyes or what they look like when they're scared. But I will.

Mia Dennett can't resist a one-night stand with the enigmatic stranger she meets in a bar. But going home with him might turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life…

Purchase Link

 In Memoriam by Alice Winn

In 1914, war feels far away to Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood. They're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that his best friend is in love with him too.

When Gaunt's mother asks him to enlist, he signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings. But Ellwood and their classmates soon follow him to the front. Ellwood and Gaunt find love in the trenches – but just as war brought them together, it can tear them apart…

An epic, unforgettable love story between two soldiers in the First World War, In Memoriam is a breath-taking debut.

Purchase Link

  The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn by Helene Harrison

Mistress. Queen. Reformer. Traitor. Icon.

This book is not like any others you might have read on Anne Boleyn.

It is not a biography of the life of Henry VIII’s second wife and queen.

What this book does is to examine Anne Boleyn through images and perceptions of her.

Through documents, letters, images, propaganda, films, novels and historical biographies, this book explores Anne Boleyn through more than 500 years of history.

Explore how perceptions of her have changed and developed over time.

Whether she is seen as a mistress, a queen, a mother, a reformer, a traitor, or a tragic heroine, Anne Boleyn continues to inspire so much exploration and even new discoveries today.

See Anne through the eyes of people who knew her, loved her, hated her, and studied her.

In the present day, Anne Boleyn has quite a devoted scholarship, honed through perceptions built over the last half a millennium.

Her life, reign, and tragic death at the hands of the man who tore England apart to be with her have made Anne Boleyn one of the most divisive and exciting figures in English history.

Purchase Link

 The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams

Spitalfields, 1840.

A murderer nicknamed The Man of Crows.

A heroine with a mysterious past and a vivid imagination.

Catherine Sorgeiul lives with her Uncle in a rambling house in London's East End. When a murderer strikes, ripping open the chests of young girls and stuffing hair into their mouths to resemble a crow's beak, Catherine is fascinated, and devours news of his exploits.

As the murders cause panic throughout the city, she comes to believe she can channel the voices of his victims and that they will lead her to The Man himself. But she's already far closer than she realises - and lurking behind the lies she's been told about her past are secrets more deadly and devastating than anything her imagination can conjure.

Purchase Link

 The Broken Afternoon by Simon Mason

A SHOCKING DISAPPEARANCE

A four-year-old girl goes missing in plain sight outside her nursery in Oxford, a middle-class, affluent area, her mother only a stones-throw away.

A TRIGGERING RESPONSE

Ryan Wilkins, one of the youngest ever Detective Inspectors in the Thames Valley force, dishonourably discharged three months ago, watches his former partner DI Ray Wilkins deliver a press conference, confirming a lead.

A DARK WEB

Ray begins to delve deeper, unearthing an underground network of criminal forces in the local area. But while Ray's investigation stalls Ryan brings his unique talents to unofficial and quite illegal inquiries which will bring him into a confrontation with the very officials who have thrown him out of the force.

Purchase Link

 Christmas Wishes at the Station Bookshop by Margaret Amatt

After one toxic relationship too many and more failed jobs than she can count, spirited Scarlett Finch has lost her sparkle and doesn’t think she can face this year’s festive season. The last thing she expects is to land a Christmas job at Glenbriar’s Little Station Bookshop, especially not thanks to a slightly unhinged older woman with a parrot, a pug, a wild imagination, and some crackpot ideas for displays – not to mention a flair for making unexpected decisions, like hiring Scarlett without telling the owner.

Widowed dad-of-three Lloyd Miller is just trying to keep life on track. Between moving house, juggling his day job, and preparing to take over the bookshop from his retired mum, the chaos inside the shop is the last thing he needs, particularly when it includes Scarlett, the woman he shared a no-strings summer fling with… and hasn’t stopped thinking about since.

While Glenbriar twinkles with Christmas lights, both Scarlett and Lloyd are haunted by their pasts, drawn together in their present, and uncertain of their future.

A bookshop full of anonymous wishes might just give them the courage to make their own – but with neither convinced they deserve a second chance, it’ll take more than festive magic to open the book on a new romance. They can’t change the past – but they can still choose how the story goes.

 Queen Esther by John Irving

Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board a ship from Bremerhaven to Portland, Maine, and anti-Semites murder her mother in Portland. In the orphanage at St. Cloud’s, it’s clear to Dr Larch, the physician and director of the orphanage, that the abandoned child not only knows she’s Jewish, but she’s familiar with the biblical Queen Esther she was named for. Dr Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; he doubts he’ll find any family to adopt her.

When Esther is fourteen, soon to become a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic family with a history of providing for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren’t Jewish, but they detest anti-Semitism and similar prejudice. Esther’s gratitude to the Winslows is unending. As she retraces her steps to her birth city, Esther keeps loving and protecting the Winslows – even in Vienna.

The final chapter of this historical novel is set in Jerusalem in 1981, when Esther is seventy-six.

Purchase Link

  A Christmas Gift by Sue Moorcroft

Can the happiest time of year heal the most broken of hearts?

Georgine loves Christmas. The festive season always brings the little village of Middledip to life. But since her ex-boyfriend walked out, leaving her with crippling debts, Georgine’s struggled to make ends meet.

To keep her mind off her worries, she throws herself into organising the Christmas show at the local school. And when handsome Joe Blackthorn becomes her assistant, Georgine’s grateful for the help. But there’s something about Joe she can’t quite put her finger on. Could there be more to him than meets the eye?

Georgine’s past is going to catch up with her in ways she never expected. But can the help of friends old and new make this a Christmas to remember after all?

Purchase Link

 Falling Apart and Other Gifts from the Universe by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Two disparate people—lost in their own way—find an unexpected healing connection in a poignant novel about redemption and chosen family by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.

An army veteran with a career as a beat cop behind her, security guard Addie Finch is tough—on the outside. Internally, she’s in crisis mode. She’s lonely, introverted, struggling through AA, estranged from her son, and, at sixty-two years old, questioning her role as a protector. She also has a soft spot for the underdog that’s about to change her life.

Addie finds Jonathan, a homeless teenager abandoned by his mother, holed up in a warehouse and vulnerable to the elements and to predators. Touched by the boy’s gentle nature and a wisdom beyond his years, Addie offers him temporary shelter in her garden shed in exchange for maintaining the sprawling property. It’s an act of kindness and purpose that means the world to Jonathan. But when Addie faces a situation that sends her internal world tumbling, the emotional connection with Jonathan, once the unlikeliest of strangers, becomes her lifeline as well.

As both process past traumas, Addie and Jonathan forge a surrogate grandmother-grandson bond—a chosen family that could restore trust and heal hearts they thought were broken forever.

Purchase Link

  The Bestest Big Brother, Ever by Ben Mantle

Nano loves his big brother, Felix, but sometimes Felix gets annoyed and frustrated – he wants some SPACE; he's fed up of Nano following him around. Feeling hurt and sad after Felix bans him from the garden treehouse, Nano decides he can make his own fun. He doesn't need anyone else. But when his game in the garden goes wrong, and he ends up feeling even worse than he already did, there's only one person who knows exactly how to cheer him up. Can you guess who that is?

Writing from his own fraternal experience, as well as being a dad to two little boys himself, Ben Mantle captures all the little (and big) ups and downs, laughs and tears (and sometimes shouts!), of sibling relationships that will give children the confidence to try and sort out their own differences through patience, imaginative play and making compromises.

Purchase Link

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

10 Ten Books I Want to Read in July 2025

 

July is here, and in my part of the world, the weather is glorious. I am very much hoping to carve out time to sit outside with a book, plastered in factor 50 and preferably in the shade. 

I hope you find lots of time to sit and read this month. It is so important that we take a little time out for ourselves, take a deep breath, and live in the moment. I hope you all have a wonderful month.

Here are ten books that I would like to read this month.

The Bewitching by Silvia Morens-Garcia

'Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches': that was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva - stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that's why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.

In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay's most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay's manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.

Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.

Preorder Link

 The Many Faces of Ann Boleyn by Helene Harrison

Mistress. Queen. Reformer. Traitor. Icon.

This book is not like any others you might have read on Anne Boleyn. It is not a biography of the life of Henry VIII’s second wife and queen. What this book does is to examine Anne Boleyn through images and perceptions of her. Through documents, letters, images, propaganda, films, novels and historical biographies, this book explores Anne Boleyn through more than 500 years of history. Explore how perceptions of her have changed and developed over time. Whether she is seen as a mistress, a queen, a mother, a reformer, a traitor, or a tragic heroine, Anne Boleyn continues to inspire so much exploration and even new discoveries today. See Anne through the eyes of people who knew her, loved her, hated her, and studied her. In the present day, Anne Boleyn has quite a devoted scholarship, honed through perceptions built over the last half a millennium. Her life, reign, and tragic death at the hands of the man who tore England apart to be with her have made Anne Boleyn one of the most divisive and exciting figures in English history.

Order Link

 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Nolan family are first-generation immigrants to the United States. Originating in Ireland and Austria, their life in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn is poor and deprived, but their sacrifices make it possible for their children to grow up in a land of boundless opportunity.

Francie Nolan is the eldest daughter of the family. Alert, imaginative and resourceful, her journey through the first years of a century of profound change is difficult - and transformative. But amid the poverty and suffering among the poor of Brooklyn, there is hope, and the prospect of a brighter future.

Purchase Link

The Lady in the Tower by Elizabeth St. John

London, 1609. Lucy St.John, a highborn orphan at the glittering court of King James, is drawn into a dangerous affair with the Earl of Suffolk—a fateful choice that creates powerful enemies. Betrayed by her sister, Barbara and cast out in disgrace by the formidable Countess of Rochester, the Earl's vengeful sister, Lucy’s life at court is shattered.

Armed with her intelligence, education, and skill in healing, she refuses to accept defeat. In a world where women’s fates are often sealed by the ambitions of men, Lucy fights her way back into society. An unexpected marriage elevates her to the position of mistress of the Tower of London, where she faces the harsh realities of plague, political upheaval, and tragic executions of both enemies---and friends. Inside the walls of the Tower, she tends to aristocratic prisoners and criminals alike, confronting the stark brutality of the world around her.

As Barbara's fortunes rise through a marriage into the powerful Villiers family, Lucy is drawn into a dangerous game of power and survival. Her sister’s alliance with the king’s favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, promises wealth and influence but brings treachery and peril that could destroy Lucy and everything she holds dear.

In a court rife with deceit, ambition, and shifting loyalties, Lucy must navigate a perilous path, fighting to protect her honour, her family, and her very survival.

Based on the true story of Elizabeth St.John’s ancestor, Lucy St.John, this critically acclaimed novel offers a vivid portrayal of one woman’s resilience in the face of betrayal, and her courageous journey through the turbulent politics of seventeenth-century England.

Purchase Link (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

Murder on the Train by John J. Eddleston

In the spring of 1910, a shocking murder rocked Edwardian England. John Innes Nisbet, a quiet, unassuming man, was found brutally shot five times in the head aboard the 10.27 Newcastle Central train, and the colliery wages he had been carrying were stolen. Days later, John Alexander Dickman, a gambler by trade, was arrested and convicted of the crime, despite the conviction resting solely on circumstantial evidence.

Sent to the gallows, Dickman maintained his innocence until the end. Over a century later, this gripping investigation reopens the case, re-examining the evidence and exposing the flaws in Dickman’s conviction. Could the real killer have escaped justice? With new insights and a compelling alternative theory, Murder on the Train unveils what might truly have happened that fateful day.

Purchase Link

 The Last Laugh Club by Kate Galley

In life, Norman George – passionate knitter, excellent friend and secret youtube sensation – liked nothing better than a good laugh. And, it seems, he gets the last laugh even in death, because at his funeral, he invites his three closest friends to scatter his ashes in a place close to his heart, the Shetland Islands. The only issue is, while Bridget, Gloria and Derek might have loved Norman, they can’t stand each other.

So it’s with trepidation that the eclectic trio set off in their minivan on the ferry to Lerwick, each harbouring their own reason for wanting to grant Norman this last request. But as storm clouds roll in over the Shetland Islands, all of them are about to discover that some secrets are best shared, and that even after death, good friendship can change everything…

Purchase Link

 Bleak Times at the Orchard Cottage Hospital by Lizzie Lane

Somerset, 1932

In the dead of night, a young woman is abandoned on the steps of Orchard Cottage Hospital and a man is seen fleeing. Nobody knows their identities.

When the young woman dies, Doctor Frances Brakespeare is keen to solve the mystery of her identity and find those responsible for her fatal injuries.

With her mother’s failing health and a very patient admirer, the last thing Frances needs is a dream job offer from a top London hospital. Torn, Frances must decide what matters more to her; her career or remaining in a small town she’s become attached to surrounded by those who need and love her…

With the society wedding of the year fast approaching will Nurse Lucy Daniels be able to unburden her shattering news and will Devlin Compton-Dixon be honest with his feelings and anxieties?

As Christmas blossoms into Spring there are huge decisions to be made, honest truths to be told and long kept secrets to be revealed – let’s hope happiness doth prevail.

Purchase Link

 Stormy Times for the Dockyard Girls by Tracy Baines

The Great War is over, and few families have been left untouched. Those who remain face a tough and uncertain future.

Letty Hardy has managed to keep her family afloat by running a café and chandlers on Grimsby Docks. She’s grateful for the safe return of her husband Alec from minesweeping duties, when many women were not so fortunate.

War has left deep scars buried beneath the surface and one explosive secret is set to blow the family apart.

Trawler owner Richard Evans worked hard to leave a legacy. Something to hand down through the generations. With his sons lost to war, Ruth, his only daughter, stands to inherit the Excel Trawler Company, so it's important that she marries well. But is her current suitor the right husband for Ruth?

Can the folk of Great Grimsby rebuild their lives and find the peace they so desperately seek?

Purchase Link

  There's Something About Mira by Sonali Deve

Mira Salvi has the perfect life—a job she loves, a fiancé everyone adores, and the secure future she’s always imagined for herself. Really, she hasn’t a thing to complain about, not even when she has to go on her engagement trip to New York alone.

While playing tourist in the city, Mira chances upon a lost ring, and her social media post to locate its owner goes viral. With everyone trying to claim the ring, only one person seems to want to find its owner as badly as Mira does: journalist Krish Hale. Brooding and arrogant, he will do anything to get to write this story.

As Krish and Mira reluctantly join forces and jump into the adventure of tracing the ring back to where it belongs, Mira begins to wonder if she is in the right place in her own life. She had to have found this ring for a reason…right? Maybe, like the owner of the lost ring, her happy ending hasn’t been written yet either.

Purchase Link

 The Girl on the Balcony by Diana Wilkinson

Jade’s new life in Spain is quickly unravelling. Homeless, broke, and out of options, she’s struggling to make it as a real estate agent.

But Jade isn’t just hiding from the truth of her situation. She’s hiding from her past. And maybe, from a particular person. Someone who knows exactly what she did that fateful day in Marbella...

When journalist Hayley stumbles across a story that could make or break her career – a suspicious death, a murderous widow and a personal invite to the scene of the crime – she jumps on the first plane to Marbella.

However, soon paradise feels like a prison, and Hayley may have made the worst mistake of her life coming to the mansion of a self-confessed killer. Will she get out alive?

Purchase Link

(I am Bookshop.org affiliated)

10 Ten Exciting New Releases in June 2025

 The midyear month is fast approaching and with it a whole host of brand new book releases.

Here are just ten that have caught my eye, all of which I would love to read.

The Union Street Bakery by Mary Ellen Taylor

Daisy McCrae’s life got off to a rocky start. Abandoned by a mother she never really knew, she was adopted into a family she’s never truly felt a part of. Thirty years later, her life is just as rocky. Between losing her job and her boyfriend, she’s lost all sense of self.

Now Daisy is back where it all began: the Union Street Bakery. She’s resigned to living in the bakery’s attic, learning the family business, and saving it if she can. But patching up the holes in her relationship with her sisters is another story.

So, too, is the century-old journal she inherits. Written by an enslaved girl named Susie, the weathered pages offer Daisy a glimpse into a past that has everything to do with her present.

As Daisy learns more about Susie, the town, and her family, she starts to see who she’s been and who she wants to be―and realizes that maybe, no matter how much you’ve lost, there’s always something more to find.

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The Heirloom by Julie Brooks

A surprise inheritance. A hidden past.

Brisbane, 2024 Barista and budding artist Mia Curtis is shocked to receive a package all the way from England informing her she's the heir to her late grandmother's cottage. Feeling lost in her own life, Mia travels across the world to claim her inheritance, where she begins to unravel the secrets passed down through the generations of women in her family.

Sussex, 1821 Philadelphia Boadle wakes to find her husband, the tailor Jasper Boadle, dead. As the daughter of the local cunning woman, Philadelphia is soon accused of murder by witchcraft. Her future and that of her own daughter is at stake, unless she can convince the village she's done no wrong.

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All Change at Harbour House by Fenella J. Miller

Wivenhoe May 1940

A moment that changes everything...

The war continues to rage, but for now, Harbour House continues to keep the Roby family safe from harm. Not so for new lodger Richard Stoneleigh. As one of the few men who can captain a ship, Richard is called to help with the dangerous evacuation of troops from Dunkirk – it’s a perilous voyage that almost costs Richard his life…

Housemaid, Annie Thomas, initially disliked Richard and his hoity toity ways, but after his heroic return she sees a changed man. Richard seems to know the value of life and is eager to grab every day and make it count. And Annie, recently widowed and feeling slightly adrift in life, finds him compelling.

As their friendship develops, so too do their feelings for one another. But Annie knows that she can never truly be with a man like Richard – he is far above her own lowly class.

But war changes everything and with the fear of imminent invasion hanging over everyone, Anne and Richard decide that perhaps it’s time that they change too…and take a chance together?

Will they overcome the social divides between them and find love in the darkest of times?

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The Woman Who Laughed by Simon Mason

In the first months of 2020 there was a spate of murders of Black sex workers in northern cities. One of them was Ella Bailey, last seen talking to a punter in an alley in Sheffield city centre, and although no trace of her was ever found, the punter, Michael Godley, soon confessed to all three murders.

Five years later, as another sex worker is murdered in the same district, the bag Ella had been carrying with her reappears, hanging on the door handles of a café, and a local vagrant claims to have seen Ella sitting on a bench in a churchyard near the site of the murder. South Yorkshire Police call in the Finder.

So begins a search that takes him back to the strange days of the pandemic, to talk to those who knew Ella best, such as her wayward girlfriend 'Loz', abusive boyfriend Caine Poynton-Smith and respectable foster-parents still struggling to come to terms with Ella's life. How did their intelligent, strong-willed daughter - bright student and national schoolgirl athletics champion - end up in that alley?

As fear grips the city, our Finder must court danger to discover the truth.

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Troubled Times at Harpers by Rosie Clarke

Trouble’s brewing and times are changing. If you play with fire you may just get burnt!

London 1929

Torn between the love of his family life in London and a deathbed promise to an American relative, Ben Harper makes a fatal decision that may change the course of many lives.

Honour-bound, Ben remains in New York to investigate who is responsible for the suspected fraud and corruption and the department store's failings. His findings point towards organised crime and shadowy gangsters who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Meanwhile Sally Harper and their children return home to safety and to oversee the smooth running of their thriving Harpers Emporium. With the help of Beth Burrows, Kitty Wilson, and Ruby Rush, Sally plans for an ever-changing future with the cards she’s been dealt.

Will Ben heed the deadly warnings before it’s too late or will his honourable promise bring despair to those he loves?

A tale of hope, dreams and survival set against an ever-changing era.

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The Forever Cottage by Jill Steeples

The start of Jill Steeples's uplifting Lower Leaping series, set in the beautiful English Cotswold Countryside

It's never too late to change your story...

Tess Alexander lives an enviable life with her husband Charles, at Hollyhocks Cottage in the idyllic Cotswold village of Lower Leaping. Dreaming of their early retirement, Tess’s plans are dashed when Charles shares some devastating news and suddenly she’s left alone with only Barney, her adorable Beagle dog, for company.

Facing an uncertain future, Tess tries to reconnect with her old self. She begins to transform the neglected garden office into a beautiful retreat, the perfect spot for her to indulge in her long-forgotten creative passions.

However, a chance encounter with charming but down on his luck, Rob Templeton, soon puts pay to her plans, when she offers him the place to stay instead, sensing a kindred spirit.

With the support of old friends, Gina and Suzy, Tess must now step out of her comfort zone and embrace a different way of life, one that is filled with secrets, possibilities and second chances, if only Tess is prepared to take them.

With so many demands on her attention, will Tess find a way to follow her heart and discover her own happy ending?

A wonderfully warm story of hope, friendship and second chances.

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A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant

Death has come to her doorstep . . .

Retired nurse, avid gardener, renowned cake maker and fearless sleuth Miss Hortense has lived in Bigglesweigh, a quiet Birmingham suburb, since she emigrated from Jamaica in 1960. She takes great pride in her home, starching her lace curtains bright white, and she can tell if she's been short-changed on turmeric before she's even taken her first bite of a beef patty. Thirty-five years of nursing have also left her afraid of nobody - be they a local drug dealer or a priest - and an expert in deciphering other people's secrets with just a glance.

Miss Hortense uses her skills to investigate the investments of the Pardner network - a special community of Black investors, determined to help their people succeed. But when an unidentified man is found dead in one of the Pardner's homes, a Bible quote noted down beside his body, Miss Hortense's long-buried past comes rushing back to greet her, bringing memories of the worst moment of her life, one which her community has never let her forget.

It is time for Miss Hortense to solve a mystery that will see her, and the community she loves, tested to their limits.

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Named by Camilla Balshaw

What’s in a name? Everything we carry, and everything we are.

Our names are a shadow we carry around with us. They are part of who we are. Our names are a marker of our self-identity and our sense of self. Our names have the power to shock. They have the power to heal, and they have the power to trigger conversations around race, class, social mobility and belonging. But what is a name? What do our names tell us about ourselves? And why do they matter?

Named is a fascinating exploration of names, global naming conventions and identity politics woven into a moving, personal narrative about the finding of family and self. At the intersection of memoir and social and cultural history it is a truly fascinating book about the seemingly ordinary and every day.

The author's own narrative about her estrangement from her Nigerian father, the grapples with her Jamaican mother and her journey towards identity is woven through the chapters making it an engaging and intimate investigation of what makes us who we are.

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The Island of Hopes and Dreams by Kate Frost

The All-NEW escapist read from bestselling author Kate Frost as she transports us to the beautiful island paradise of Sardinia.

When the beginning of the end is just the start…

Newly single Lola Wild has had her fill of well-intentioned matchmaking friends. Her best friend Mirabel’s hen weekend highlights all that’s wrong with Lola’s life and she knows something has to change.

With Mirabel’s luxurious wedding in Sardinia fast approaching, Lola is looking forward to switching off, spending time with her friends and keeping her non-existent love life off everyone’s agenda.

Meanwhile, fellow wedding guest Rhys Strickland has his own problems. So when a chance encounter brings Rhys and Lola together they decide to help each other out.

To the idyllic backdrop of white sand beaches and azure bays, they bond over shared heartache, and friendship blossoms as they attempt to navigate the hurt and hard truths of past relationships.

Opening up their hearts and embracing change might be the last thing they expected, but what if a holiday of make-believe can turn into something real?

A heart-warming and uplifting story of vulnerability, self-renewal and finding love when you least expect to.

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Power Couples of the Tudor Era by Jo Romero

Step into the dazzling yet perilous world of Tudor England, where power was often a shared endeavour, and the most influential players were not always those who stood alone. In Power Couples of the Tudor Age, Jo Romero uncovers the remarkable stories of the dynamic duos whose partnerships shaped the course of English history. From the legendary marriage of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, which set the stage for England's religious transformation, to the political machinations of Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, these couples navigated the treacherous waters of court intrigue, international diplomacy, and personal ambition. Some stood together against the rising tides of reform, while others united to end wars and forge new dynasties. These couples wielded their influence in ways that changed not only their own lives but the future of the realm. Their stories reveal the intricate dance of love, power, and survival. Power Couples of the Tudor Age brings to light the incredible contributions of these figures, offering a fresh perspective on the partnerships that forged a nation.

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(all opinions are my own)

(bookshop.org affiliated)