All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison - #bookreview

 

Last night I lay awake again, remembering the day the Hunt ran me down in Hulver Wood when I was just a girl.  It was December, as it is now, and I had ventured out into the icy afternoon to cut come green boughs for the house...

***

The autumn of 1933 is the most beautiful Edie Mather can remember, though the Great War still casts a shadow over the cornfields of her beloved home, Wych Farm.

When charismatic, outspoken Constance FitzAllen arrives from London to write about fading rural traditions, she takes an interest in fourteen-year-old Edie, showing her a kindness she has never known before. But the older woman isn't quite what she seems.

As harvest time approaches and pressures mount on the whole community, Edie must find a way to trust her instincts and save herself from disaster.

***

This is a heartbreaking book that was worth every moment that I dedicated to reading it. It was suggested by one of the members of my Book Club. I must confess that until then I had not come across this book or the author.

In many ways it is an unsettling story. We witness the unravelling of the mind of the main character. Edith is a fourteen year old girl who is befriended by an older woman, Constance, who is a visitor from London and is not quite what she seems. As the reader, I suspected that she had an agenda of her own, but it is not until the end of the book that her motivations become apparent.

What we observe in this book is also the unravelling of a way of life. The book is written with a gentleness that reflects the way of life in a rural community. On one hand, it depicts the beauty of the countryside, and it's slow pace of life, but on the other, it demonstrates the harsh realities that farmers were facing during the period in which the book is set. 

The environment in which this book is set is all-consuming. The way of life is not described in sentimental terms, and it does not depict a romantically idyllic version of country life. What it does do is to demonstrate the hardships afforded such families as they faced the change of farming with mechanisation, coupled with poverty and debt.

The book is perfectly paced for its subject matter. I enjoyed the slow rhythm of the writing, coupled with the slow-moving pace of life it depicted.

This is a fantastic book that I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend wholeheartedly. 

ISBN: 978 1408897973

Publisher:  Bloomsbury Publishing

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  352 (paperback)

About the Author:

Melissa Harrison is the author of the novels Clay and At Hawthorn Time, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize, and one work of non-fiction, Rain, which was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. She is a nature writer, critic and columnist for The Times, the Financial Times and the Guardian, among others. Her new novel All Among the Barley was published in August, 2018.

(author media courtesy of Good Reads)

(all opinions are my own)

The Yorkshire Farm Girl by Diane Allen - #BookReview

 

Sally stood next to her mother, cold and ready for home, but she knew better than to say so as they both walked down the steep hillside of the graveyard to her grandparents' graves. Her long brown hair was damp and her winter coat barely kept her warm, and she shivered as they reached the graves.

Ivy Fothergill, still a good-looking woman for her age, looked down at the graves of her long-dead parents. Even though it had been more thant ten years since her father had died, she still missed them both...

***

Life is hard for the Fothergill family as they try to make a living on their farm in the Yorkshire Dales. Bob Fothergill has set his sights on buying his own farm instead of renting the one they currently hold. Sally his teenage daughter, wishes her father would see that she could help more with the farm, but he believes that a girl's place is in the home. Ben, their youngest, has no interest in farming so is ignored. Sally's mother makes do knowing her husband wants what's best for them.

But when Bob decides to take a well-paid job collecting it causes friction in the family, bringing tension to everyone. With Germany is shaking its angry fist at other nations and the threat of another war undermines everything. Times are hard and the future is uncertain, but perhaps the coming years could bring better times. But will the Fothergills survive the oncoming storm?

***

If you are wondering what that noise was, it was the sound of my very contented sigh. I adored this book from start to finish. The book came recommended by The People's Friend, and anyone who enjoys their lovely magazine will already know what to expect from this book.

The book is set during 1938/39 in the period just before the declaration of the Second World War. Rumours that the country will soon go to war are rife, and everyone is on edge. This created the perfect backdrop to place the main character, Sally, and her family, friends and neighbours.

The book begins during the winter of 1938 and with the preparations for Christmas. This was delightful to read as it described a world which is so much simpler than the present day. Life in rural Yorkshire was hard, money was scarce and pleasures were modest, and I really enjoyed reading about this family and their way of life.

It is a leisurely paced novel to read and made for easy reading. I liked the way the plot meandered along even though there was plenty going on in the plot. It felt very unhurried and made for a lovely read.

It is a very character driven novel and I really enjoyed spending time with Sally and her family. The author is very skilled at bringing her characters alive on the page. I almost felt like I had spent time with them, supping a cup of tea at the farmhouse table with Sally and Ivy.

The book depicts an old-fashioned way of life which felt full of realism. My parents were young during this period and many of their stories that I heard growing up were echoed in the attitudes of the adults in the novel.

The book left me wanting more, and I do hope that the author will write a sequel to this book.

Anyone who enjoys historical fiction will enjoy this book.  I will definitely read more books by this author. In fact, I already have The Girl From the Tanner's Yard on order.

ISBN:  978 1529093117

Publisher:  Pan

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  320 (paperback)

About the Author:

Diane was born in Leeds on Halloween. However Leeds was not my home city, I was to return to my family farm set high in the Yorkshire Dales and have an idyllic childhood. 

As a child she lived for the travelling library coming up her farm track once a fortnight and she loved to rifle through the shelves looking for a book she hadn’t read.

In her teenage years her choice of reading matter changed from lovely sweet stories to the darker side of life and she enjoyed Ira Levin’s, Rosemary’s Baby and Dennis Wheately’s To the Devil a Daughter. Her reading choices soon changed and she  read the classic’s, The Bronte sisters, being her all time favourite author’s. How could any one not fall in love with dark brooding Heathcliffe? The setting on the wild swept moor lands above Haworth not unlike the wild fell land that I was brought up with.

Now she is manager of a large print book firm in Yorkshire and have access to a host of reading matter.

(book courtesy of the publisher)

( all author info courtesy of the author's website http://www.diane-allen.co.uk/)

(all opinions are my own)

Murder on the Farm by Kate Wells - #BookReview #BlogTour

 

As Jude Gray tore down the driveway of Malvern Farm, she glanced at the clock on the dashboard...

Ben's wedding was due to begin in twelve minutes and the church was a fifteen-minute drive away. She put her foot down a little harder on the accelerator and prayed that there would be no tractors around when she pulled out onto the country lane leading out of Malvern End. Jude hated being late for anything. She'd always taken pride in her punctuality and yet she knew that it would take a small miracle for her to arrive at the wedding on time...

***

Lambing season always brings the unexpected… But no one expected murder

Jude Gray never thought she’d find herself widowed and running a working farm full-time, but here she is, living in the small Malvern village her husband Adam spent most of his life in.

After a particularly gruelling lambing season, she is looking forward to some time off, but there’s no rest for the wicked, especially when she finds the body of one of Adam’s oldest friends on her farm.

Jude refuses to believe the official line, that Sarah’s death was a suicide, and starts an investigation of her own. But as the body count rises, danger creeps ever closer to Malvern Farm.

A killer is on the prowl. And all that stands in their way is one woman – and her dog.

***

I love a good mystery that keeps me guessing, and I did not predict the murderer until the reveal in this book.

This is a cosy mystery, where we meet the main character, Jude, as well as her family and friends. Jude is a woman whose husband passed away, leaving her to run the family farm alone.  She has an employee, Noah, to help her but this is not how Jude imagined her life being. When her best friend dies on the farm and the police attribute her death to suicide, Jude decides to investigate her death as she does not believe that she would have taken her own life. This all serves to demonstrate Jude's strength of character and loyalty and the author does a great job of bringing her to life on the page.

We also meet DS Binita Khatri (Binnie) who was a good character in her own right and I would have liked her to have had a larger role in the book. It was easy to recognise that Jude was getting in over her head and it made me want to pull Binnie into the story all the more.

That said, this was an excellent story, full of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. 

There was much to like about this book. A good mystery, a cute child, sheep dogs and a lamb called Pancake.

I do hope that the author will write a sequel to this book as there is plenty of scope here to write more about Jude. I recommend this book.

ISBN: 978 1785134210

Publisher:  Boldwood Books

Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  344 (paperback)

About the Author:

Kate Wells is the author of a number of well-reviewed books for children, and is now writing a new cosy crime series set in the Malvern hills, inspired by the farm where she grew up. 

(ARC and all media info courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

(all opinions are my own)

Tails of Two Spaniels by Heather Peck - Illustrated by Helen Morrish - #BookReview #blogtour

 

Farmer Fred had lost his dog. Scratchy Patch had one white patch over one eye and one brown patch over the other eye. She also had long soft ears and the waggiest tail you ever saw. If you talked to her, she wagged her tails a lot. But if she didn't understand what you said, she sat down and scratched while she thought very hard. Patch normally spend most of her time with Fred, checking round the hens, being polite to the geese, and chasing the rats. But today she had gone missing...

***

Springer Spaniel Patch has four puppies on the farm where she lives with Marigold the House Cow, Gertie Goose, Sally-for-short the Sow, and lots of worried woollies. But the puppies can't stay forever and they have a lot to learn.

A story of the antics of puppies, told from the puppies' perspective and brought to life by charming illustrations.

***

This utterly charming book was a delight to read. It has been nicely illustrated by Helen Morrish and will appeal to any reader who likes stories about animals.

There is some useful information contained within the story about how to care for a pet dog and the committment it needs. I loved the way the majority of the book was told from the perspective of the two puppies, Bramble and Bracken, who leave the farm to go to their 'forever home', and it was interesting to envisage the world through their eyes.

This book has been categorised as being suitable for nine to eleven year olds. However, I think more able readers would equally enjoy this too. It is also ideal for sharing with younger children. Indeed, my childhood is a long time behind me but I very much enjoyed reading this and look forward to reading it to the younger members of my family. 

ISBN: 978 1915769091

Publisher: Ormesby Publishing

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  68 (paperback)

About the Author:

Heather's love of animals set her to achieve a degree in Zoology and Comparative Physiology and later a wide ranging career in the Ministry of Agriculture and Defra. She has been both a farmer and agricultural policy adviser. She bred sheep and alpacas, reared calves, broke ploughs, represented the UK in international negotiations, specialised in emergency response from Chernobyl to bird flu, managed controls over pesticides and GM crops, saw legislation through Parliament and got paid to eat Kit Kats while on secondment to Rowntree.

 She also chaired an NHS Trust, worked on animal welfare, sailed a boat on the Broads, volunteered in Citizens Advice and the Witness Service and vaccinated humans against Covid. But she never lost the love of books and writing, and in the end with her Gran’s wise advice “You can do anything if you try hard enough” ringing in her head, she took a course at the UEA/National Centre for Writing and wrote her first book.

Now, there are 4 books and a novella in the Greg Geldard Norfolk Mystery series and book 5 Dig Two Graves will be published in July 2023. A second novella, Death on the Norwich Express, is currently being serialised in her free Newsletter. 

​In May 2023 she also published her first children's book, Tails of Two Spaniels illustrated by the talented Helen Morrish.

About the Illustrator:

After the sudden death of her husband at 46, and realising with a jolt that life really was too short, Helen left her job as an art director to pursue a long-held dream of becoming an artist. To help her through her grief, she spent five minutes every day drawing their beloved dog, Rupert, and these are the illustrations that have evolved into her debut book.

In the late 1980s Helen moved to London from Hampshire to go to Art College, eventually settling in South London. 

She’s an active member of her community, and helped bring an Everyman Cinema to the area, well in fact to the back of her garden! 

She spends a lot of time in there.

In 2020 during the pandemic, Helen was asked to present her local Art and Music Festival, interviewing authors, artists and performers on it’s very own YouTube channel. Her favourite guests were comedian Marcus Brigstocke and musician Jim Bob from the band Carter USM. 

She used to dance to them at the indie disco many years ago!

Helen also takes part in a monthly open mike comedy show. She and her fellow comics write material about the week’s news in the afternoon, and perform it to an audience in the evening. 

When she’s not working on her next book or writing comedy, Helen runs her creative company Lady Crimplene, illustrating everything from local maps to designing a TV pitch for Netflix. She also sells her retro clothes and collectibles from her shop, well her front bedroom, and in the Summer, turns her garden into a department store! 

(book provided courtesy of Random Things Tours)

(author photo and bio. courtesy of the authors website heatherpeckauthor.com)

(illustrator photo and bio. courtesy of her website https://www.helenmorrish.co.uk)

Foxash by Kate Worsley - #BookReview

 

I thought he'd be here to meet me. I had it all crystal clear in my head. Letter said to come down twenty-eighth of January. Ticket was a single, same as his. Caught the ten-to-eight mainline, same as he had, three month back. I'd pictured him that day, arriving here about teatime, with the rest of the men from the Special Areas. Cold, hungry, tired, piling into an Association truck in a fog of white breath. All those nights since, I've conjured him up, stood here waiting on me. I'm not after a truck. Just my Tommy.

He's not written to say either way, of course. Not written once, bar that Christmas card. A robin, perched on the handle of a spade dug deep in snow. Crinkle edges. Greetings from the Association. And just Tommy, no love from, no news...

***

Worn out by poverty, Lettie Radley and her miner husband Tommy grasp at the offer of their very own smallholding - part of a Government scheme to put the unemployed back to work on the land. When she comes down to Essex to join him, it's not Tommy who greets her, but their new neighbours. Overbearing and unkempt, Jean and Adam Dell are everything that the smart, spirited, aspirational Lettie can't abide.

As Lettie settles in, she finds an unexpected joy in the rhythms of life on the smallholding. She's hopeful that her past, and the terrible secret Tommy has come to Foxash to escape, are far behind them. But the Dells have their own secrets. And as the seasons change, and a man comes knocking at the gate, the scene is set for a terrible reckoning.

Combining a gothic sensibility with a visceral, unsettling sense of place, Foxash is a deeply original novel of quiet and powerful menace, of the real hardships of rural life, and the myths and folklore that seep into ordinary lives - with surprising consequences.

***

Publishing today, Foxash is a remarkable novel which tells of a rural experiment during the 1930's in England.

From the very first page the author establishes a strong sense of voice with Lettie,  from whose perspective the narrative is told.

It is slow paced which echoes the changes in nature perfectly. Although this is about the characters, we also follow the story of the produce which is grown on their land. From sowing the seeds through to germination to packing up for sale, this book follows the rhythm of the natural growing season. Indeed, the land and plants are a significant aspect of the book.

The author understands her characters and the natural world with which they are surrounded extremely well. The intense and claustraphobic friendship that Lettie and her husband have with their neighbours is excellently portrayed and there were dark secrets hidden within. The truth of the plot is witheld to the very end and made this for an entralling read.

It is a disquieting book which has being beautifully written. It was involving and the atmosphere which Ms. Worsley created was palpable. She injected nature with a sensuality which we can observe through the behaviour of the characters.

I thought this was an excellent book, and I highly recommend it.

ISBN: 978-1472294876

Publisher:  Tinder Press

Formats:  e-book, audio and hardback

No. of Pages: 368 (hardback)

About the Author:

Kate Worsley’s first novel, She Rises, won the HWA Debut Crown for Historical Fiction and was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Prize in the US. She was born in Preston, Lancashire and now lives on the Essex coast.

(author photo and bio from Tinder Press)

(ARC courtesy of the publisher)