Book #19 The Beekeeper of Aleppo

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*SPOILER ALERT*

Nuri and Afra Ibrahim. A beekeeper and an artist. Gentle folk who live in the beautiful city of Aleppo. Nuri and his cousin Mustafa have a thriving business harvesting honey from a multitude of bee colonies. Until the devastating day when someone burned and destroyed their hives, bees left dead on the ground. As war spreads in Syria, Aleppo burns. Tragedies beset both families, children killed in the bombing. Mustafa and his wife Dahab flee. Nuri knows he must too, but his wife has gone blind after the horrific events she has witnessed.

Their journey to seek asylum elsewhere is full of anguish and danger as they journey through Turkey and Greece, relying on human traffickers to reach England. I often lost sight of the fact that this is a fictional story - so factual is it. To share the plight of these people is heartbreaking: Hope existed then in the unknowability of the future. Istanbul felt like a place of waiting, but Athens was a place of stagnant resignation.

Mustafa makes it to England and has the opportunity to take over the husbandry of a colony of black British bees. He keeps in touch with Nuri by sporadic email. Come and join me. Nuri, who now treats Mustafa as a brother. The ending is both uplifting and uncertain. And there we both stand, battered by life, two men, brothers, finally reunited in a world that is not our home.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a hymn to the refugees of war ravaged Syria, the strength of the human spirit. A book that everyone should read.

My thanks to Bonnier Zaffre and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Book #18 The Darling Buds of May

The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Celebrating 60 perfick years of the Larkins

Wonderful stuff. I loved the TV adaptations of the Larkin family, broadcast in the 90s. Saw this Penguin reissue with the delightful art-deco cover and snapped up a copy. H.E. Bates used my neck-of-the-woods as the location - the garden of England - the county of Kent, near the village of Pluckley. Pure nostalgia for me - strawberry picking, cherry blossom, home baking, balmy Kent evenings and the song of the nightingale.

The Darling Buds of May follows the raucous adventures of the Larkin clan and the local tax collector. Ma and Pop Larkin have a large brood, living in 1950s rural England. Six children, the eldest is Mariette (they were going to name her Marie-Antoinette but thought it too long!). When the local tax inspector Cedric Charlton arrives to challenge Pop Larkin that he has never filled in a tax return, well - the fun begins. Soon to be called Charley by the family (found 'Cedric' too pretentious) he becomes smitten with the beautiful Mariette and persuaded not to go back to his office but enjoy a prolonged stay with the Larkins....

It's fun, it's full of laugh out loud moments - a comedy of country manners - and takes me right back to my childhood in the 50s in the unspoilt countryside of Kent. Full of wonderful characters and hilarious moments.

I loved it!

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Book #17 Goodnight Mister Tom

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Aimed at the younger reader, this Puffin edition of Goodnight Mister Tom was reissued in 2014 with this wonderful cover artwork by David Frankland. Michelle Magorian's uplifting story of an evacuee, William Beech, and the reclusive Tom Oakley, who provided a home for Will at the outbreak of the 2nd World War. Many readers, I am sure, will have seen the excellent TV adaptation starring the lovable John Thaw. It made me want to read the book. And it is a rich experience, no matter your age.

Goodnight Mr Tom in many respects is educational. World War Two began in September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. When Neville Chamberlain declared war with Germany, over four days 1.9 million people were evacuated from areas thought to be at risk from bombing. The Blitz, the relentless bombing of Britain's cities, lasted from September 1940 to May 1941 and claimed over 40,000 civilian lives. Goodnight Mister Tom is set against this backdrop. Days of evacuees, Anderson shelters, billeting officers, blackout curtains and the old fashioned wireless. Plenty of nostalgia for me.

Goodnight Mister Tom was voted one of 100 favourite books in a BBC survey and voted favourite Puffin book at the Hay Literary Festival in 2010.

I recommend this story to all readers, the tale of William Beech evacuated to the countryside. A sad, deprived child who slowly begins to flourish under the care of kind old Tom Oakley. But then his cruel mother summons him back to war-torn London. Will he ever see Mister Tom again....?

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Book #16 Ask Again, Yes

Ask Again, Yes: A Novel by Mary Beth Keane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC of Ask Again, Yes. Mary Beth Keane's novel is a magnificent tour-de-force. In 1973 two NYPD rookies are assigned to a Bronx precinct. Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are not close friends. When Gleeson graduated from the police academy he asked Lena Teobaldo to marry him. They moved to the suburb of Gillam, soon to be followed by Stanhope and his wife Anne. Children follow: three girls for the Gleesons - Natalie, Sara and Kate. Kate - born just six months after the Stanhope's son, Peter.

Two families living side by side, one neighbourhood and a sense of false domesticity. All families have problems, don't they? And then one violent, tragic event, unexpected, unpredictable (or was it?) tears the fabric of family life apart.

The broad canvas of Ask Again, Yes spans four decades. Despite everything that has occurred, years later Peter and Kate get married. Old family wounds sit just below the surface and lives spin out of control. A very moving story told with great skill and wonderful character development. A story that draws you in and gets under your skin.

Thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommended.

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Book #15 I Looked Away

I Looked Away by Jane Corry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A complex story, a parable for our time built around dissociative PTSD, a dissociative fugue that affects Ellie with devastating consequences. Married to a philandering husband, Ellie devotes her time looking after her grandson, Josh. Until that fateful moment when Ellie was distracted....

What follows is a beautifully composed tale of how tragic events can impact on mental well-being. What happens to Ellie? Who is Jo? The two characters around who the plot is built. At times it's exasperating, time lines blurred. What happened when? At times I Looked Away is not an easy read but it deserves our attention as Jane Corry has exposed much of the brutality of homelessness and the despair that most often results. Many people end up on the streets because of mental health issues and Jane highlights how easily people can become homeless.

I would urge anyone who is concerned about homelessness and PTSD to read this hard-hitting story. My thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

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Book #14 Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I struggled to finish this. The title is captivating as is the cover. But Lucy Mangan and I are poles apart - thirty years or so in age. A woman born in the 70s, a man born in the 40s. In terms of childhood reading then there is little cross pollination. Lucy enjoyed books aimed at girls and me? Different choices. The only books we both read as kids were The Famous Five series and The Secret Seven series by Enid Blyton and rather surprisingly the Just William books by Richmal Crompton. You certainly won't find Anne of Green Gables or What Katy Did amongst my childhood memories! As well as Just William I favoured books aimed at boys: the Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge, Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School created by Charles Hamilton (writing as Frank Richards), and of course the Biggles books created by Capt. W.E. Johns.

Different childhoods, different memories and much of Lucy Mangan's book was just too boring for me (particularly the heavy use of parenthesis!)

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Book #13 Secret Service

Secret Service by Tom Bradby
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had no idea that Tom Bradby is such a prolific writer. He is my favourite ITV news anchorman (no flannel Tom - it's a fact) and I jumped at the opportunity to read an ARC of Secret Service when offered by the publisher Random House UK, Transworld and NetGalley. Thank you! So, I was rather taken aback to learn that this is Tom's seventh novel; I thought it was his first!

Stand aside John Le Carré - Tom Bradby has nailed it! Secret Service crackles with tension. Puts you right inside MI6 and the machinations of government. This is 'Spooks' on steroids. When the current Prime Minister suddenly announces that he is resigning owing to ill-health, the possible candidates to succeed him bare their teeth. Foreign Secretary James Ryan and Imogen Conrad at Education are the front runners. Intelligence at MI6 has identified that one candidate might be a Russian spy and a mole known as Viper is suspected to be amongst their own ranks.

Kate Henderson is a senior operative at the Russia Desk; her boss, Ian Granger, is head of Europe and Russia; 'C', the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, is Sir Alan Brabazon. Kate works with Rav and Julie and is married to Stuart, who happens to be the private secretary of Imogen Conrad. Could anyone of them be Viper? The race is on in a deadly game of smoke and mirrors as Kate and her crew travel to Istanbul and Greece, coerce a young Serbian, Lena Savic to work as a clandestine nanny for a high ranking oligarch family - all to try and identify who might be the spy and who is Viper. And like the best plans so much goes horribly wrong. This is real, this is clear and present danger. Heady stuff that rattles along at breakneck speed. The last twenty minutes of Secret Service had me reeling, at one moment shouting out: "OH **** NO! Completely blindsided! Never saw it coming!

This is one of the best spy stories I have ever read. Superb characterisation and an all too realistic plot. Brilliant! An unequivocal 5 STARS from me!

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