The Planter’s Wife by Ann Bennett

After hearing Ann Bennett’s reasons for writing her Bamboo Trilogy, I found myself particularly drawn to the second book, The Planter’s Wife because it described the period of history, during the second world war, when all society in Singapore and Malaya was turned completely upside down in a tragic, life-changing manner.  The book moves between the late

The House with the Lilac Shutters by Gabrielle Barnby

I have mixed feelings about short stories.  In some ways they can be perfectly formed like poems and they can be read in a limited time window but lacking the total commitment to a plot it is unlikely that the reader can be involved with the characters as in a novel.  In Gabrielle Barnby’s book

Murder on the Tor by Frances Evesham

  Murder on the Tor is the third of Frances Evesham’s Exham-on-sea mysteries.   Once again Libby Forest’s life is interrupted by a crime on her doorstep.  While walking Bear, the Carpathian sheepdog, for her friend Max, she finds herself lost in the mist on Glastonbury Tor.  Briefly she meets a little girl and then she

Silent Water by Jan Ruth

  The Wild Water series includes everything I desire for a perfect read.  It describes contemporary life in all its complexities; love, passion, family connections, humour and tragedy.  After the changes in family circumstances brought about by the blossoming romance between Jack Redman and his childhood sweetheart, Anna, when they reconnect in Wild Water, the