Shirley really enjoyed a small book of Collected Short Stories by Somerset Maugham, as Shirley said these were meticulously written. Being a fan of murder and mayhem Shirley also read, Stately Homicide by S.T. Haymon, mystery in a stately manor in Norfolk where Anne Boleyn once stayed. Forty Years of Murder is the biography of Keith Simpson who was Home Office Pathologist, he spent 40 years in the midst of murder, according to Shirley there was some humour in parts of this story. The Haunted Monastery by Robert Van Dubilk AD666, travellers seek refuge from a mountain storm in a Taoist monastery where the Abbott Jade mysteriously dies.
Now another change of pace, A Ration Book by Jean Fullerton. Jean Fullerton has written a series of `Ration’ books about the era when London’s East End was being bombed during the blitz. Quite a good read. The Lost Pearl by Emily Madden, a romance saga from Pearl Harbour to the shores of Sydney. For readers of Fiona McIntosh and Anne O’Connor you will enjoy this book. Heart of the Cross also by Emily Madden, takes you from Ireland to Kings Cross, a young married woman finds life in Kings Cross is a lot different for her and their young son.
I have just finished The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley, set in France in 1699, the untold story of the woman who invented fairy tales. I enjoyed this, but probably not for everyone.
Hopefully we are coming to the end of being unable to see each other. I would like to think we could have a get together perhaps in early November, even if it is in the Benalla gardens.
Geraldine McCorkell