The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Set in Paris in 1482 the story of Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame, is a familiar one. He is shunned by all for his grotesque appearance until Esmeralda, the beautiful dancing gypsy, takes pity on him. So begins Quasimodo’s love for Esmerelda, but there are others who are watching her closely and whose motives are far more sinister.

I am always reluctant to review books that are classics as everything that needs to be said about them has essentially already been said by others and probably much more eloquently than I will.

This book was a re-read for me. I read it about 20 years ago immediately prior to taking my children to see the Disney film at the cinema and I can remember feeling incredibly moved by the novel and the ending has stayed with me ever since.

At the time, I had not seen the original film which was made in 1939. If you have watched either of these films it is essential to get those images out of your head prior to reading this. At no point does Quasimodo shout “The bells, the bells made me deaf” as depicted by Charles Laughton in the 1939 version of the film.

Neither can I begin to comprehend how the Disney Corporation took such a dark story and turned it into something suitable for children (although I must confess that I do love the film and have happy memories of watching this with my children.) However, in the book, Esmerelda is a 15 year old girl who is being lusted after and pursued by a priest. It was a huge undertaking to take this premise and turn it into something Disneyesque suitable for children. They were successful in this but largely at the expense of the essence of the story.

I have been afraid of re-reading this book because I loved it so much on my first reading and I was worried that my illusions would be shattered if I read it with the addition of two decades of life experience behind me. I recently explained this to my youngest son who went straight out, bought me a copy of the book and told me to read it again and see whether I felt the same.

I had forgotten how descriptive the book is. There are times where there are just pages and pages of descriptive prose that does get rather tiresome. The whole first section of the novel is devoted to describing the history of Paris. The language is incredibly dated too, bearing in mind that the story is set in 14^th century France, but I soon found that I not only adapted to this old-fashioned narrative but actually rather enjoyed it.

Work through those two things and it leaves an amazingly enthralling story which I enjoyed every bit as much as my first reading. It was an immersion into the grown up world of fairy tales; Beauty and the Beast set in 14^th century Paris.

It was also humorous in parts, hauntingly atmospheric, the characters vivid and unforgettable. It also considers themes still relevant today. The book deals with love in its many forms, corruption and inequality. My conclusion is that it is not an easy read but well worth making the effort and persevering with.

Will I ever read it again? Give me another 20 years and I probably will.

ISBN:  978 1853260681

Publisher: Wordsworth Editions

Price: £1.99

Total saving so far: £373.74

Lincoln Book Festival

I just wanted to update you all on my recent trip to the Lincoln Book Festival.  I attended the final two days of the festival with my husband and we both thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

The Friday evening session kicked off with an interview with Paul ‘Smiler’ Anderson talking about his recently published book Mods: The New Religion. Paul spoke about his personal discovery of the Mod movement during the late 1970’s revival. He also spoke about his many interviews with the Mods of the 1960’s which covered everything from fashion, music and their iconic scooters. I really enjoyed listening to Paul speak and his down to earth portrayal of the movement was fascinating.

The evening then progressed to an interview with Jenny Boyd. Jenny was a model in the 1960’s alongside her sister, Patti Boyd, who married George Harrison, and subsequently, Eric Clapton. Jenny herself was the inspiration for Donovan’s classic song, Jennifer Juniper. She spoke about her fascinating visit to India with the Beatles to visit the Maharishi and gave those of us who didn’t experience the decade at first hand a real insight into the times and attitudes of the young. Jenny has written a book called It’s Not Only Rock ‘n’ Roll in which she records the thoughts on creativity of 75 iconic musicians.

The following evening began with a presentation from Hannah Greig on her book The Beau Monde. Hannah is multi-talented. As well as being an author, she lectures on the 18^th century at the University of York and is a historical adviser for film, television and theatre productions. Hannah accompanied her talk with a power point presentation which illustrated her content perfectly and gave us a real insight into what being fashionable in the 18^th century really meant.

The festival concluded with Simon Heffer in conversation with Roger Hudson. Simon is the author of several books, his most recent of which is High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain. These two lovely chaps sat and discussed Britain of the 1840’s; a period of vast change socially, religiously and politically. I found this talk particularly interesting as my dissertation during my university days was on this period of history. I was a bit startled to realise how much of my degree I had forgotten but Simon has certainly reinvigorated my own interest in the period and I am sure his book will be in my book collection very soon.

All the books were available to purchase and the authors made themselves available for signing.

My only regret of the festival is that I wasn’t there for the whole thing as my experience was fantastic and I can well imagine that we may go again under our own steam. I would thoroughly recommend to anyone within striking distance of Lincoln to consider going next year.

Thank you to everybody at the Lincoln Book Festival and Omnivore Magazine who made this visit possible.

Disobedience by Naomi Alderman

Ronit left London to carve out a new life for herself. In New York she is a successful career woman, who smokes and drinks and is in a relationship with a married man.

When her father dies she has to return to London and the close-knit community of her childhood. She causes outrage within the Orthodox Jewish community that she left behind but Ronit finds herself questioning her past. When she meets with her childhood friend, Esti, she is forced to confront the issues that she ran away from and also to consider her future. What was intended as a quick visit to sort out her fathers effects has life changing consequences for Ronit.

I enjoyed this book very much. Set within an Orthodox Jewish community this book is in turns very serious and laugh out loud funny. The author clearly has a good understanding of her setting for this novel. She grew up in Hendon where the novel is set and was part of a community such as this. It is her background that has enabled her to describe so clearly this closed community and to do so with both poignancy and tenderness.

Each chapter begins with Jewish teaching and enables the reader to understand the motives and thoughts of the characters involved. Ronit’s behaviour to others is often outrageous and unkind but I found myself really liking her and being drawn to this character; for she is so ordinarily human and faces all the difficulties and self-doubts many people do in one situation or another.

It also deals with some interesting themes. I have seen this book described as being about same sex relationships but I think it is about so much more than that. For me, its main theme was that of self-acceptance within a judgemental environment and places this book in a whole new dimension. Ms. Alderman has written with understanding and sensitivity and has a clear affection for her characters and the dilemmas they individually face.

As added features the books includes an interview with the author and a selection of recipes typical of that which might be eaten in Jewish households during the Sabbath, some of which I have cooked and can recommend.

I loved this book and as a debut novel I think is fantastic. It is no surprise that this novel won the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers. Her style is reminiscent of Zadie Smith and Monica Ali and anyone who has read and enjoyed their work will like this book. Naomi Alderman has published two other novels since this one and I can’t wait to get my hands on them. An excellent novel and one that I highly recommend.

ISBN:  978-0141025957

Publisher: Penguin

Price (based on today’s price at Amazon.co.uk): £7.19

Total saved so far:  £371.75

The Lincolnshire Sons Who Changed the World

I do not consider myself a naturally lucky person; one of those people for whom everything comes up smelling of roses. Are they naturally blessed I wonder?

I am just not one of those people. If I fall in a pile of manure I get up smelling of.... well, manure and there isn't a whiff of rose fragrance anywhere. However. I still consider myself to be very blessed in life. I am surrounded by family and friends who love me and who know me well enough to always to give me books or knitting yarn as birthday gifts. What more could I ask? 

That said, I am still the kind of person for whom when there are 10 tickets left in the tombola barrel, nine of which are winners, you can guarantee that I will pick out the tenth losing ticket.

So, I recently entered a competition with The Omnivore Magazine which offered a choice of prizes – either a book of short stories by Margaret Atwood or a pair of two day passes to the Lincoln Book Festival including accommodation. Well, no offence intended to the lovely Ms. Atwood but there was no contest. If I were lucky enough to win this completion (yeah right) the opportunity to listen to wonderful writers coupled with the opportunity to stay in beautiful Lincoln….. well, there just was no contest which prize I was going to pick!

I am absolutely thrilled to say that I won. Yes, ME, who never wins anything and I can assure you that my excitement currently knows no bounds.

The Lincoln Book Festival runs from today through to Saturday and we will be attending at the weekend. They have some wonderful speakers attending this event which celebrates history within a literary context. The list of events covers the Lincolnshire lads who changed the world to the flowers that had a similar impact, the men who signed a Royal death warrant and the story of Parliament, the Americans who transformed our great English Houses and the story of the Sixties from a woman at the very heart of the decade’s pop culture.

If you are attending this event do give me a little wave if you see me. You’ll recognize me as I’ll be the woman with the huge happy smile on her face. Then again, if this event is as good as the line up suggests it will be then that will probably be everyone there.

Details of the event can be found at: Lincoln Book Festival 2014

In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard

Following her husband's recent death, Leonora Galloway, sets out on a trip to the Thiepval Memorial to the dead of the Battle of the Somme with her daughter Penelope. There they find the commemoration to Leonora's fathers death recorded as 30th April 1916. However, Leonara was not born until the 14th March 1917.

Penelope assumes that this is a simple story of a wartime illegitimacy but as Leonora begins to tell her the story of her
birth and her sundered connection to her wealthy and aristocratic family there are huge surprises ahead that Penelope could never have guessed at.


I was gripped from the tantalizing opening line from the prologue of this book:

"This is the day and this the place where a dream turns a corner and a secret is told."

This line sets the tone for the whole book. It is a novel full of intrigue, mystery and tragedy told in gently captivating prose. The book is broken down into three parts with an additional prologue and epilogue. Each part is narrated from a different character perspective and moves seamlessly across time and place.

The prose is simply beautiful and it was a joy to read. Mr. Goddard's style of writing perfectly captures a time almost forgotten and he is able to portray the tragedy of war within a gentle poetic prose. I regard this as hugely skillful and a great achievement on the author's part.

In fact, it is the choice of words which enables the reader to form judgments of each of the characters as they slowly develop and unravel as the book progresses. The characters are multi layered and nobody is quite as they seem and therefore, makes guessing the plot outcome very difficult. Not until the final page does the story wrap up and everything become clear to the reader. Few novels have kept me guessing as effectively as this one.

Mr. Goddard has established himself to me as a very intelligent and skilled writer through this book. It was perfectly paced with enough plot twists and turns throughout and I loved it. I am thrilled that the author has several other titles to his name and I am looking forward to reading these. I highly encourage you to read this book and am very grateful to my friend for recommending and loaning it to me.

ISBN:   978 0552162968

Publisher: Corgi

Price (based on today's price at Amazon.co.uk): £5.59

Total saving so far: £364.56

Then and Always by Dani Atkins

Rachel Wiltshire has a glittering future ahead of her. She has a loyal group of friends, a gorgeous boyfriend
and is just about to start university. However, as she and her friends meet up for a farewell dinner, tragedy strikes and Rachel's life changes forever.

Five years later Rachel is still struggling to come to terms with her past. Now, she has to return home for her best friends wedding and confront those issues that she has tried so hard to leave behind. Whilst there, Rachel has a fall and wakes in hospital to find that nothing about her life is as it should be. In fact, everything seems better in this new life that she has awoken to; but can she trust any of her memories?

Having slogged through my last read, Cross Stitch/Outlander, what I really needed was something light and entertaining which I was going be able to whip through and this book proved to be the perfect thing.

It would be true to say, that I found this book to be a little predictable and sugar sweet at times. However, in this case, predictability proved to be a good thing and I found myself itching to get back to this book at every available opportunity. I am not going to give anything away by saying that I ended my reading of this novel with a very satisfied sigh!

The characters were portrayed in such a way that it was clear from the outset who we were meant to like and who we should distrust. The latter characters were rather superficial but the authors portrayal of Rachel was excellent. She is an adorable character and her sense of confusion concerning her own memories made her into a thoroughly endearing person.

I could imagine this book transferring very well to the screen and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the film rights to this are rapidly acquired. It is a lovely gentle romance with an absorbing alternate reality theme and makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read. I am not going to pretend that this is a great work of literature but it is well worth a read if you want a book that will not be too taxing but will keep you absorbed right through to the end. I will certainly be looking out for other novels by this author.

ISBN:  978 0804178525

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Price (based on today's price at Amazon.co.uk): £9.00

Total saving to date: £358.97

Cross Stitch (UK) - Outlander (US) by Diana Gabaldon

1945 and Claire Randall is reunited with her husband, Frank, following the war. She served as a military nurse during the war years and now she and Frank are spending some time together in the Highlands of Scotland while he researches his genealogy.

Whilst out on her own one night Claire somehow steps through some standing stones and finds herself transported to 1743 and where the Scottish Highlands are a dangerous place to be. Not only is this a time of war but Claire is an outlander and somehow she has to convince these people that she is not an English spy.

Claire soon finds herself torn between two time zones because as much as she loves Frank she soon realises that she has feelings for a young Scottish clansman. How can she begin to reconcile her feelings for these two men separated by time?

This book has many of the attributes that I like in a book; an exciting plot, time travel, romance, is well written, seems well researched and is historical fiction. I have also wanted to read this book for years and bought a copy when I first got my kindle a couple of years ago.

There has been a recent increase in the popularity of this book and I decided to jump right on that band wagon with the prospect of eight books in the series. It has also been turned into a television series in America which may well make it over here at some point.

Why then, has this book been a real slog for me? It has taken me a ridiculous amount of time to read as I was feeling so disinclined to read it. Now, usually when I am not enjoying a book I grudgingly give up but because of all the hype surrounding this book I decided to keep going.

On the positive side this book really does have an exciting plot accompanied by a time travel element. It works well and the transition from 1945 to 1743 is completely believable. Ms Gabaldon has done her research well which contributes to a believably atmospheric shift in time.

However, I personally found this novel too heavy handed with the sex and violence that it completely detracted from the things I actually liked about the story. This is not a book for the faint hearted or the young as there are repeated scenes with explicit descriptions of rape, domestic violence and sodomy.

I understand that this is a very popular book and that I am in something of a minority in my opinion about it but it just wasn’t my cup of tea and I shall not be continuing with the rest of the series.

ISBN:  978 0099911708

Publisher:: Arrow

Price (based on today’s price at Amazon.co.uk for the kindle version) £3.95

Total saving so far: £349.97