Under Far Eastern Skies is another timeless tale of love from Stefania Hartley. I really enjoyed it. The setting and characters are perfect. The period details and dialogue give the story an authentic 1930s feel.
Will Palmer is a botanist, which is an unusual occupation for a hero. Any doubts a reader might have about his choice of career vanish during the scene where he shins up a coconut palm. It’s a perfect example of how to write an irresistible hero in a believable way!
At thirty-two, Shona Wells is older than most romantic heroines. There’s a good reason for this. For her to be single in 1930s Singapore raises a red flag. It means her parents are keen to see her married to a “suitable” man as soon as possible. Shona has other ideas…
With descriptive flourishes such as the island of Pulau Ubin, sitting on the jade-green waters like a matron on a silk sofa, characters who use phrases such as Tickety-boo, and plenty of frogs, lizards and mousedeer, readers are given an intimate sense of place. The isolation of planters and the destructive nature of their lifestyle is caught very well. It almost (but not quite) made me feel sorry for repulsive, animal-killing Anthony. He has a new tennis court but no one to play with, and nothing to look forward to but his next drink.
All in all, Under Far Eastern Skies is a great read, with an exciting and satisfying conclusion.
I had planned to review Hidden in the Mists by Christina Courtenay later this month. However, as it is shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association‘s Fantasy Romantic Novel Award 2023, I’ve brought the review forward.
Like Joanna Maitland’s To A Blissful Christmas Reunion (which I review here), this book is a great example of the use of a thinning veil between past and present.
Review: Hidden in the Mists
Set on the west coast of Scotland, Hidden in the Mists weaves together two narrative threads. It does this seamlessly, moving between 2022 and AD890.
Stressed and isolated, Skye Logan is looking out over the shore close to her home. She sees a hazy female figure in strange clothing jump out of a boat. The woman carries a sack into nearby woodland.
Bleak Present and Dark Ages
Skye puts the vision down to stress and lack of sleep. Her soon-to-be ex-husband Craig has abandoned her, after alienating half the locals.
The woman Skye saw, Ásta ThorfinnsdÓttir, was off to bury the wealth of her father, Thorfinn. He has died, leaving Ásta alone, and in danger from her horrible cousin Ketill. The hoard should have guaranteed Ásta the loyalty of the men who had supported her father. Ketill has other ideas. Knowing that Thorfinn’s men killed innocent people to amass his treasure, Ásta cannot bring herself to profit by it. She even casts away a gold arm ring given to her by her father.
Skye employs drifter Rafe to help her on the smallholding for a few weeks during the summer of 2022. He is a useful jack-of-all-trades. Skye and Rafe are drawn to each other, despite each of them having guilty secrets. Skye doesn’t want to admit to anyone that her marriage has broken down. Rafe is escaping from a past which eventually catches up with him.
Viking Ketill wants Ásta to run his household, when she should be leading the settlement. Óttarr, kidnapped as a teenager by Ásta’s father, burns with the need to take revenge on his kidnappers. Two exciting climaxes, one in Skye’s world and one in Ásta’s, bring Hidden in the Mists to a satisfying conclusion.
A Great Read
I thoroughly recommend this book. Hidden in the Mists combines the dual timelines perfectly, and the heroines and their heroes are believable and likeable. Their intertwined stories are rich with detail. Christina Courtenay describes smallholding and foraging well, and I couldn’t resist Skye’s dogs, Pepsi and Cola.
I loved the Viking-period detail. Things like Ásta’s bitter curse The trolls take Ketill, and bathing wounds in sea-water really stuck in my mind.
There was only one thing about Hidden in the Mists I didn’t care for. That was Rafe’s man-bun. I like contemporary heroes to have short hair!
You can find out more about me here, and see some of my own books here.
Only a few months ago, the name Stanley Tucci meant nothing to me. I’d heard him mentioned in The Big Bang Theory*, but that was it. Then Tucci’s Searching for Italyaired on TV. As I love both Italy and food, I watched every episode (sometimes more than once). What follows is a review of the No. 1 Sunday Times Best Seller, Stanley Tucci’s ‘Taste’.
So Who is Stanley Tucci?
Stanley Tucci is an award-winning actor, writer, director and a food obsessive. He has also worked in restaurants. Unlike some celebrities who are famous simply for being famous, when it comes to food, cooking, and ingredients, he knows what he is talking about.
A ‘Taste’ of Italy…
Both the first and second series ofSearching for Italy have won Emmys. It’s easy to see why, and how. Stanley Tucci is a hugely likeable personality. He is enthusiastic about every aspect of food: its regionality, seasonality, and the joy of eating together. He knows his way around a kitchen, and brings out the best in everyone he meets. He also knows how to turn his knowledge and affable nature into words.
Stanley Tucci, Chef
Once I’d watched the TV programmes, only one thing stopped me buying Tucci’s Cookbookand The Tucci Table. It was the groaning shelves of cookery books already lining both my kitchen and living room. I use them all (with one exception) but I really don’t have the room for more…unless they come in the form of Christmas or birthday presents, of course!
Tasteis a different matter. Although it contains recipes, it isn’t a cookery book. It is an exploration of how food has affected Tucci’s life and relationships. That may sound odd, but as you read this book you see how closely food affects so many areas of life. I hadn’t realised how fascinating the ritual, social, and celebratory aspects of cooking and eating could be.
I never expected to use this book stoveside, but I did. The recipes Taste does contain are good, easy to follow, and delicious. I tried almost all, and can recommend them. Sadly, I can’t endorse any of the drinks. The cocktails sound amazing, but the occasional glass of wine with dinner is now my giddy limit!
The Nightmare Begins
Taste is a clever title. From Chapter Twenty onwards it becomes a verb, as well as a noun. Mr Tucci helped his first wife struggle through terminal breast cancer. Then in 2018 he was diagnosed with oral cancer. He says of that nightmare, “I was stunned to the point of almost fainting”. Food plays such an important role in his life the discovery that the cancer hadn’t spread beyond the tumour in his mouth didn’t mean he was out of the woods. He had to endure the loss of taste, and the enjoyment of food—a huge part of his life.
His treatment regime was punishing. Despite the painful details he manages to inject some moments of humour. When Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds accompanied Stanley to an appointment to give moral support, the staff were so star-struck one of them almost forgot a vital part of the medical procedure.
I’m very glad I’d watched all those episodes of Searching for Italy (filmed in 2021/2) before I started reading this book. If I hadn’t watched Stanley Tucci on film munching away, talking with such animation, and looking so well I would never have been able to carry on reading. Even so, there were bits where I felt like crying.
A Happy Ending…
Taste is a great book. It has real enthusiasm for its core subject—food. It works on several levels. It’s part autobiography, an examination of extended family ties, a small window on the world of acting and directing, and it contains some excellent recipes.
Last but by no means least, if you have a hypochondriac in your life, try reading aloud to them from Chapter Twenty onwards. If that doesn’t make them pull up their big girl/boy pants and count their blessings, then nothing will.
Long live Stanley Tucci!
(Extracts from Review: Stanley Tucci’s ‘Taste’ have also been posted elsewhere online)
*The Big Bang Theory (Prady, Holland and Ferrari: Series 3, Episode 16, The Excelsior Acquisition).
It’s Spring—yay! That means it’s time to start Spring Cleaning—boo!
I love to see Tottering Towers clean and shining, but I hate housework. It’s such a bore to be stuck inside when so much is going on outside. One way to make this solitary confinement with hard labour easier to bear is by listening to audio books.
“Words are often as important as experience, because words make experience last.” William Morris
Listening while I work means my hands can be busy with what William Morris called mindless toil, while my brain relaxes with some fiction. Alternatively, my mind can be occupied with what the Wizard of Walthamstow would have called useful work—research.
This week, I’ve been listening to Dr Ian Mortimer’s The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England. It’s a real eye-opener. Did you know that in 1557, there was an influenza pandemic which hit the world far harder than Covid has? We’ve all heard of Plague and the Black Death, but that strain of sixteenth-century flu was a real horror too. It is said to have killed 7% of the English population. Compare that to the quarter of one percent death rate in England so far in the Covid pandemic.
Of course, there have been 465 years of improvements in nutrition, living conditions, healthcare, and information technology since then. The even better news is that the Elizabethan flu pandemic, terrible though it was, burned itself out in under two years.
There’s lots of valuable information about life during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), and interesting insights into the lives of beggars, aristocrats, and every level of society in between. One of these, the story of Thomas Appletree, shows the limitation of audiobooks. Their data isn’t stored in a searchable form. To make sure I’d got the details right in the story which follows, I had to resort to good old Google, as it was only in retrospect that I thought to include Tom’s story in this review. To paraphrase Omar Khayyam; the spoken word is heard, and having been heard vanishes forever. I didn’t want to rely on my memory alone.
One summer day in 1579, Thomas Appletree was fooling around in a boat on the Thames with some friends. He had a gun, and was showing off by firing it at random. It just so happened that Elizabeth I’s glass-sided barge was passing by. A stray shot from Tom’s gun hit its captain. Tom was caught, tried, found guilty of attempting to assassinate the Queen, and sentenced to hang. He pleaded his innocence all the way through, claiming that it was a complete accident, and he had no idea the Queen was near.
Right up until the second the noose was put around Tom’s neck, nobody would listen—but then a gentleman calmly stepped out of the crowd to hand over a Royal pardon. It turns out that Elizabeth knew all along Tom was no assassin, but thought he needed to be taught a lesson. Talk about a last-minute reprieve!
Image by jo-B
That is only one of a huge number of stories contained in this book. Every chapter is packed with fascinating facts. The music of Tallis and Byrd is so popular now that it’s hard to believe they apparently lost money hand over fist when they first started publishing it. However, this makes more sense when you learn that each piece of sixteenth-century sheet music only contained one part: for a single voice, a viol, or whatever. That meant no musician or singer knew what any other performer would be doing during a performance, so it’s a wonder anyone could a) afford to buy enough copies, or b) manage to organise a performance of something like Tallis’s Spem in Alium, which is written for forty voices.
I particularly liked the illustrations of Elizabethan low-life, with its colourful terms. I couldn’t help wondering whether anyone would really say; “Watch out! That woman’s a demander of glimmer!” rather than “Watch out! She’s a con artist!” (or worse). A second term highlighted another disadvantage of audio books. Despite rewinding and listening twice, I still couldn’t tell whether a horse thief would be called “a prigger of prancers” or “a pricker of prancers”. That’s a criticism of my ears rather than the narrator, actor Mike Grady, by the way.
If you only know Mr Grady’s work from Citizen Smith or Last of the Summer Wine, you’re in for a treat. From direct readings of primary sources to author Dr Mortimer’s own witty asides, he brings everything to life. His narration ranges from sombre to playful, as required.
Going back to that colourful term for a horse thief, they always say “write the book you want to read, but can’t find”. Listening to this book made me wonder if poor William Shakespeare was driven to write drama because the curriculum at Stratford Grammar was sadly lacking in excitement. I bet Cicero never threatened to “tickle the catastrophe” of any “cream-faced loon”!
I recommend this book as a fascinating read (or listen), and an absorbing introduction to this period in our history. I’ll definitely check out more of Dr Mortimer’s work.
That touches on something which applies to all non-fiction books, whether audio or actual. If you are researching a subject, always cross check every fact with other reference works. Use the sources cited, where possible (and practical) track right back to primary sources, and look for work on the same subject by other authors.
No matter how learned and talented a researcher might be, each one brings their own prejudices to a subject. When you’re writing non-fiction, it’s vital to watch out for any unconscious bias.
If you only write fiction, you might think absolute historical accuracy isn’t important. Not so! There’s always at least one reader who knows exactly how much your hero should tip an ostler in 1589, for example. You don’t want anybody in your audience to think your drop-dead gorgeous aristocrat is either mean as dirt, or a reckless spendthrift, so look up the going rate—and double-check.
Reading (or listening) widely will give you the best chance of creating a story world based on a foundation of generally accepted truths, rather than a one-sided imaginary version which might disappoint or annoy your readers.
Spending time with books is always enjoyable, anyway!
I wrote here about a course provided by the University of Gloucestershire to boost the self-esteem of women post-graduates. Every one of us who attended the course learned we suffered from so-called Imposter Syndrome to a greater or lesser degree.
Imposter Syndrome is where you live in fear of being discovered as a fraud. For example, you believe you can only have been given your job or promotion through luck, because your face happened to fit, or the boss felt generous that day. It surprised us all to find out how common this feeling is. That’s because to sufferers, it’s a guilty secret. If nobody ever lets on to experiencing this, how will any of us discover that we aren’t alone in the way we feel?
We’re all in this together…
There was a resource table available during the course. It was full of articles and books about successful women, their career tips and research. There was also plenty of information about improving self-confidence and getting that dream job. The Imposter Cure by Dr Jessamy Hibberd was on the table, and it proved a popular choice.
I can never resist a self-help book. My favourite is The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. It’s the book that persuaded me to start writing again, when I had run out of inspiration and was feeling really fed up. The Success Principles put me back on the road to, well, success!
After flicking through The Imposter Cure , I ordered it straight away. The book didn’t disappoint me. Dr Hibberd is a fellow stationery fan. Anything that includes the instruction buy yourself a notebook to use alongside this book sounds good to me. That sentence on its own promised three enjoyable experiences. I had the fun of selecting a new notebook, using it, and then checking my progress against my notes afterwards.
This book is in three sections: Understanding Imposter Syndrome, Why You Are Not An Imposter, and How To Say Goodbye To The Imposter For Good! Part One reassures the reader they are not alone, and explains how and why Imposter Syndrome takes hold. Your definition of competence has an impact on what you expect of yourself, says Dr Hibberd.
She then goes on to outline the five accepted patterns of perfection which torture us all. These are; The Perfectionist, The Natural Genius, The Soloist, The Expert, and the Superwoman/man. Most people have problems under combinations of more than one of those headings. It was fascinating trying to decide which nagging perfectionist had its claws in me. Actually, I have one perched on each shoulder! I’m a combination of Soloist (unless I’ve achieved something completely on my own, it doesn’t “count”) and Superwoman (multi-tasking to exhaustion because I can’t bear to delegate).
A notebook, some resolutions, and off you go!
This is a chatty, informative book. The text was easy to read, and included plenty of real-life case studies, flow charts, bullet points and chapter summaries. I found it useful, and learned strategies to disarm the symptoms of my own Imposter Syndrome.
The most important thing is to remember that everyone feels insecure and uncertain at times. Study your own reasons for thinking you’re an imposter, one by one. Dr Hibberd has a cure for them all. For example it wasn’t “only luck” that got you that dream job. Luck might have played a small part, but think: you did the work to get the relevant qualifications and experience, sent in the application form, and turned up for the interview. Hundreds of others never got that far. You then went on to be the best candidate on the day. That’s not simply luck. It’s a winning combination of determination, forward planning, ability and charm.
Earlier on I said this book opened with a suggestion which gave me three enjoyable experiences. There was another one waiting for me at the end. I had the satisfaction of discovering thatThe Imposter Curereally did help me stop being so self-critical. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt insecure. And remember, as Dr Hibberd states on Page 253:
There’s a reason you haven’t been found out so far: there is nothing to find out.
Have you ever found a self-help book that worked for you?
