I really hope you will be able to join me, and loads of other authors ...

... at Barnsley Market at the end of the month.  Promoting Yorkshire Authors has organised an extravaganza of a Book Fair for all readers.  Read on for full details...

The event will take place at Barnsley Market, Café Space, May Day Green, The Glassworks, Barnsley S70 1GW

The timings are from 10.30 am through to 3.30 pm on Saturday, November 28th.  So that's nicely timed for some Christmas shopping.

The event is free to enter for everyone, so please bring your friends and family with you.

I will be there with all of my books.  I will have my seven Jacques Forêt Mysteries with me.  If you would like to chat about France, the Cévennes, the stories, or even Jacques himself, please drop by and say hello.  I will also be able to give you the latest info on the next book in the series.

I will be bringing the three Miss Moonshine anthologies as well.  If you are in need of a feel-good, heart-warming read for the coming festive season, then these collections of gentle stories will be just the ticket.  They might even turn out to be the perfect present for that difficult-to-buy-for person in your family.

I will also have the four multi-genre collections of short stories that comprise the Seasonal Paths Anthologies.  I work with one American and eight other Canadian authors to put these books together.  Having completed the seasons series, we are now creating stories based around the four elements, and I will have the first two of those books with me, too.

There will be lots of other authors there, too.  So, drop in, say hello, and get ahead with your shopping for Christmas.  It will be great to see you there...

I'm reviewing Paris, the secret history ...

 ... by Andrew Hussey, on my blog today.  A fascinating tome.  Read on to discover my thoughts ...

Having previously enjoyed Andrew Hussey’s Fracture France (see my review Here), I decided to have a look at some of his other books.  To my surprise, I found Paris: the secret history.  I took this to read whilst I was on my last trip to France.  What a fascinating book it is.

At 433 pages, it is an extensive look at the world-renowned city.  However, the content is divided into 9 sections, each covering a specific time frame.  If, as a reader, you need to ration your time, the book will easily accommodate that.  The first section takes you from prehistory up to AD 987.  The following parts covering various time frames right up to 2005, which at the time of publication in 2006, was the present day at that point.

There are some very useful illustrations included along with notes and references at the back.  There is a selected bibliography and an extensive index.  All of which means there is an opportunity for further reading if you choose, and an excellent aid to finding specific bits of history, places, or people, if you need to.

I read the book in its entirety across the month I spent in France.  It travelled with me as I explored the Les Alpes Mancelles and meandered along the route of the river Sarthe.  The narrative voice is clear and encouraging, and I never once had to think twice about picking up the book to continue my journey through the history of my favourite city.  Yes, this book is a vast history book, but in telling the story of Paris, Hussey is also telling the story of France, its culture, people, and psyche.  I can honestly say that it is quite a while since I have read such an informative narrative.  I'll be adding this book to my collection as it has duly earned its place on my bookshelf.  I’m also sure that I will be going back to it time after time, looking for answers as I continue my own wanderings throughout  France.

Please welcome, friend and author, Gregg Luke...

 ... to the blog today.  Hi Gregg, and thanks for making time in your busy schedule to be here today.  You write thrillers using your knowledge of science and medicine, and you have a book that was released last month.  Tell me a bit more about it... 

GL  In 1928 London, Helen Clarke has only one goal: keep her eight-year-old daughter Peggy alive.  But Peggy has contracted a disease that is almost certainly a death sentence, and Helen is single, homeless, and penniless.  When her desperate attempts to save Peggy fail, she turns to St. Mary’s Hospital—and to a young doctor whose unconventional approach to healing may be Peggy’s only hope.  While neither adult has any objective other than saving Peggy, their close association and combined efforts develop into an unexpected romance.

The one assurance Helen hangs on to is the powerful premonitions she’s had about Peggy’s future and her participation in something world-changing.  The question is whether those premonitions are an actual promise or simply the desperate hope of a mother determined to save her only child.

AW And why a setting of London?

GL  I set Premonitions in 1928 London because it was a landmark year for medicine.  It was sometime around the first of September that Dr Alexander Fleming discovered the penicillin effect while working at St. Mary’s Hospital.  But it wasn’t until ten years later that penicillin was finally isolated and mass-produced.  Up until that time, there was seemingly no way to combat lethal infections such as staphylococcus, streptococcus, clostridium, and all other deadly bacterial infections.  In fact, in all wars leading up to WWII, more people died from infections than from bombs, bullets, and bayonets.  Children were especially susceptible because of underdeveloped immune systems and poor hygiene of the period.  London was especially hard hit because of poor sanitation, sketchy water sources, and extreme poverty in many areas.  There were alternative therapies available, but the medical attitudes about infections were stuck in traditional theories of miasma and the four humors.  Acceptance of germ theory was still in its infancy.

Enter Helen Clarke.  Raised in a poor family that struggled for day-to-day subsistence, they did everything they could to survive.  When she had daughter Peggy out of wedlock, things rapidly went from bad to worse.  Now, finding herself homeless and penniless, Peggy contracts what Helen mistakes as typhoid fever.  Because Dr Almroth Wright, the inventor of the typhoid vaccination is at St. Mary’s, she seeks out his help, only to discover that Wright is semi-retired and Alexander Fleming is now department head.  Dr Fleming tells her that the vaccination only works if given before an infection.  But rather than sending her away, he has Peggy brought to the Urgent Care unit of St, Mary’s, where Helen meets the young, handsome Dr August Gardner, a newly licensed physician who recognizes the numerous limitations of contemporary medical practices and is willing to try new ideas.  Premonitions is their story of discovery, trust, resilience, determination, love, and premonitions about Peggy’s future.

about the author... Gregg Luke grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and developed a love for reading and writing at an early age.  He pursued his formal education in Biological Sciences at SBCC, UCSB, and BYU.  He completed his schooling at the University of Utah, College of Pharmacy, including an informative rotation with the Utah Poison Control Center.

Gregg is a lover of all things science, particularly natural sciences, and loves teaching about writing, medicine, and health.  He is a prolific reader and writer of fiction and nonfiction and uses his medical knowledge to write plausible, gritty thrillers.  He is the author of thirteen suspense novels, two suspense novellas, and a nonfiction book about Medicines and the Gospel.  He currently lives in Northern Utah.

about the book … Helen Clarke’s eight-year-old daughter Peggy had contracted a disease that was all but a death sentence to children in 1928 London. Single, homeless, and penniless, Helen tried to treat Peggy on her own, but her daughter rapidly deteriorated. In desperation, Helen seeks help at St. Mary’s Hospital, where she meets August Gardner, a young doctor whose approach to healing often clashes with the day's conventional medical wisdom. Focused on saving her only child, Helen finds herself in turmoil, having had premonitions about Peggy’s important future versus the dire state her daughter now clings to. Had Helen’s premonitions been a lie? Was Peggy’s future simply wishful thinking on her part? Would her daughter even live to see the next day, let alone a predestined future?

As Helen and August struggle to find a cure for a typically incurable disease, their association quickly grows into more than a friendship. But the last thing on Helen’s mind is a romantic relationship. In addition to keeping Peggy alive one more day, she must now navigate a future she’d never thought possible. And yet, as desirous as that future sounded, if it didn’t include her precious daughter, was it one worth living?

You can follow Gregg on his Website, his Amazon Author Page and on Facebook

You can get his book Here

Please welcome, friend and author, Arthur Lee...

... to the blog today.  Hi Arthur, and thanks for making time to be here today.  Your current book is Thin Places, a collection of short writings.  So, what first got you into writing and why?

AL In the first grade, I wrote a story called “The Rainbow Goes to Japan.”  It was all of one page, maybe 30 words total, but my teacher loved it and nominated me to go to this program we had called “Young Authors.”  It was a conference where you got to meet real published authors and read your story in front of an audience too.  It maybe sounds cliché, but it really was life changing.  There was something about writing stories and sharing them that I loved, even from early on.  So, the desire to write never really left me.  But when I went back to college in my 30s, I fell in love with it again, more deeply anyway.  That’s when it became more of a necessity for me.  I felt like I had to write—for my own sake.  Publication has just been a bonus.

AW  You write poetry, creative essays and other written wanderings – and that’s a description I’ve not come across before!  What is the springboard, or inspiration, for these forms of writing and is it the same for all of them?

AL You are right.  The market for poetry and literary/creative nonfiction is very small.  I always joke there is no money in poetry and essays.  There’s some truth to that, but that’s okay because I’ve never been in it for the money.  I am a huge fan of essayists like Brian Doyle and poets like Mary Oliver, among many others.  I also love Walt Whitman (AW Me too) and Zora Neale Hurston and Leo Tolstoy and Ray Bradbury (who, by the way, is more poet than fantasy writer, I’d argue).  So, these writers certainly influenced and inspired my writing early on.  But beyond published writers, honestly, everyone and everything around me is an inspiration.  I believe there isn’t any truth that nature can’t teach us, if we observe and listen deeply.  And that belief holds true for human nature too, which is just a subset of the first.  I am constantly in awe of the people I come across and come in contact with.  And the more I meet people, the more I realize everyone has a powerful story to tell, stories they need to tell.  More than that, everyone is a story, made up of a thousand chapters, and all of them are worth reading.  So people, their struggles, their resiliency, their weaknesses and strengths, their broken hearts and their scars which are testaments to healing—they are my ultimate inspiration.

AW Have you tried/dabbled with other genres/forms of writing for other media other than the printed word?

AL I’ve published a few poems in traditional poetry journals.  But beyond poetry and essays, I’ve pretty much dabbled in it all.  I’ve written screenplays, self-help, and MG/YA fiction.  I’m currently working on a stage play too.  Back in 2009, I wrote and self-published a MG western called Partners Again.  It isn’t in print anymore, but it did well on the west coast (where I’m from) and gave me the opportunity to go into a lot of schools across WA, OR, and ID talking about the book and teaching creative writing.  I am working on a second collection of essays now and then I hope the timing is right to sit down and write a novel.

AW Famous authors such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas had a special space for writing. Do you have a writing shed of your own?

AL First, I’ve loved Roald Dahl since I was young.  And Dylan Thomas is a powerful poet. When I was in my twenties, I put a lot of time into creating a writing space.  But I did that more because it seemed like a writer thing to do, and not because the space was any more sacred than another.  I would love to have my own writing place, like Thoreau, in a cabin in the woods, but for me, right now, it is more about wherever I can find peace and quiet.  It can be anywhere, but I am most comfortable in the corner of my room, at my computer, with my side window looking out over nature.  Around me are several literary posters I designed, but the one right in front boasts this favorite stanza of mine from a T.S. Eliot poem: “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.”  Also, this snippet from a much larger quote by the late essayist Brian Doyle, “I believe with all my hoary heart that stories save lives, and the telling of them and hearing of them is a holy thing, powerful far beyond our ken…”

Arthur's first story

AW And finally, what would your eight-year-old self think and say about you and your achievements today?

AL Eight years old?  That would make it 1987, and I probably would have just spent a good couple hours watching cartoons, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  So, this is actually pretty easy.  I know exactly what I would say, not being as verbose then as I am now.  I’d look at my older self, nod my head, and say, “Radical!”  Then I’d go back to watching cartoons.

about the author… Washington-born and -raised, Arthur Thomas Lee resides in Idaho, surrounded by nature.  He has a degree in English from BYU-Idaho.  He is a full-time dad.  He has, over the years, been lucky in writing and business but even luckier in love.  With the benefit of hindsight, he says, we are all able to look back and recognize moments when our lives changed for the better.  That was true for him each time one of his four sons came into the world.  He thought he could not get any luckier.  Then he did.  After a period of heartache and hardship, he met Renee.  She was not in his life, and then, one day, suddenly, she was.  That, too, became true for her three kids.  Arthur and Renee married in 2024, finding purpose in the paths preceding their union, and a set of hands to hold along the path that lies ahead.

about the book… There is, across the globe, an ever-growing disconnect.  People everywhere are divided by borders and boundaries and walls—if not geographically, then certainly as they pertain to our convictions and the untamed country that is the human heart.  Among so much dissonance, how attainable then is harmony?  And where, at last, is it to be found?

In his debut collection of interconnected personal essays and poetry, Arthur Thomas Lee introduces us to myriads of individuals not unlike ourselves, people whose stories hold, between their lines, keys to greater compassion and understanding.  To that end, Thin Places: Portraits, Prayers, and Liminal Grace takes us on a lyrical journey through which nature becomes our ever-present guide, difference gives way to deference, patchwork paths find purpose, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and each stranger—fighting for light in the thick of understory—transforms into familiar lifelong companion.  It is, at once, a heart-felt prayer, a bold beck and call for love in the face of deep division, and for greater measures of grace along the way—all while passing our time, our limited time, on this our liminal planet.

featured review… In Lee’s heartfelt essays, the quiet joys and tragedies of life—marriage, divorce, injuries, births, deaths—prompt meditations on regrowth.  The result is an entertaining and often moving homage to daily existence. A luminous collection with potent metaphors and gorgeously earthy writing.

You can follow Arthur on his Website  on  Facebook  Instagram  and on his  Amazon Author Page 

You can get the book in e-, print-, or Audio-format  Here 

I'm continuing my journey following the Granville-Paris Express...

Photo courtesy of Pixabay and Wikimedia

 ... and I've finally reached Paris.  This will be my final post in this series.  Read on... 

I’ve reached my final destination on this particular journey, and what an interesting and unusual travelogue this has been.  But I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the posts as much as I have enjoyed the research and the writing.

Although the end for the Granville-Paris express was catastrophic in some respects, for me, the arrival at the last stop is a bitter disappointment.  Read on.

Gare Montparnasse was originally named Gare de l’Ouest and was one of the central termini across the city of Paris.  It was opened in 1840 and was a glowing example of mid-nineteenth century architecture, as old photos demonstrate.  The architect was Louis Visconti, and the original building had footfall of 490,000 passengers annually as early as 1844.

In 1852, a second station was built a little further down the track, which enabled expansion to cope with the ever-increasing traffic, the addition of new lines, and the then fashion for train travel.  The passenger traffic had expanded to 1.4 million by1854 and had become a major hub for the Compagnie chemin-de-fer de l’Ouest.

In 1895, when the travellers on The Paris Express arrived at around four in the afternoon, it would have been the second building that they saw.  We now only have the old photos of those original buildings and, of course, the photo of the crash that was published in newspapers across the world.

Amazingly, there was only one fatality, Marie Aguilard, the newspaper seller whose kiosk was directly below the site of the incident.  She had taken over from her husband temporarily whilst he went to collect the next edition.  Some of the passengers and crew received some minor injuries, and the other passengers waiting for the train were similarly lucky.  Naturally, the damage resulting from the crash was repaired, and the station continued to serve the people of Paris.

The coming of the great exhibition in 1900 brought further expansion and the creation of new routes.  The twentieth century was a key turning point for Paris Montparnasse.  In 1944, the station became a landmark.  On August 25^th, General Leclerc accepted the surrender of General von Choltitz within the confines of the station, and the liberation of Paris began.  Some twenty years later, during the 60s and 70s, the station was reconstructed and integrated into a vast urban project.  In 1969 the old station was demolished, and the Tour Montparnasse was constructed as a memorial and included alongside the vast complex of glass and steel that we now see today.  The new station, designed by Eugéne Beaudouin and Urbain Cassan, now has a footfall of 50 million travellers a year.  That’s a lot of people, and I have to wonder how many of them know what happened on October 22^nd, 1895... 

You can catch up with the previous posts in this series by clicking the following links: Granville part 1, Granville part 2, Vire, Flers, Briouze, Argentan Surdon and Dreux.  My review of the book, The Paris Express, is Here

I'm reviewing the House on Cold Hill ...

... by Peter James.  A brilliant story with a supernatural edge ...

I've been reading Peter James' stories for quite a while.  I first discovered him through my village Book Club when one of his Roy Grace novels came up for discussion.  Those books are his police procedurals, and each one has the word 'dead' somewhere in the title.  I enjoyed that book so much that I went back and read all the Grace stories in order.  Having done so, I checked what else he had written and found The House on Cold Hill.  

This book is far from a police procedural, and as October fast approaches, along with Hallowe'en, it would make an apt and perfect read for the end of next month.

The story centres around a family, Ollie and Caro and their daughter Jade, who leave the comfort and security of their mid-terrace Victorian property to move into the house on Cold Hill.  They have overstretched themselves financially in order to make the move, but Ollie has a vision for the house and wants to restore it.  All of which, along with the eccentric people in the village, the strange rumours and the peculiar things that happen, make this a fascinating book to read.

I liked the constant buildup of tension, and the sense of creeping menace was palpable as I turned the pages.  The plot twists and turns in ways I could not have envisaged when I began the story.  Add to that an ending that I definitely did not foresee, and you have one of the spookiest books I have read in a long time.

 
I thought the characters were well drawn and engaging.  The narrative voice is easy to read and does not detract from the action of the book.  Overall, an amazing read that has left me wondering why it has sat on my bookshelf for so long.  Which probably means I need to do something about my extensive and ever-growing TBR pile!

Join me and loads of other authors at ...

 ... The Armouries Museum, Leeds, on Saturday, October 31^st.  Read on for more info and tickets …

This is a massive book event that will run at the museum on October 31^st 2026.  There will be many authors and vendors at the event, and I am privileged to be among them.

 
For those of you who read this blog regularly, you may recall that I had intended to be at last year’s event.  But changes in publisher and delays in the re-release of my books meant it was not to be.  But 2026 is another year.  With my books back on Amazon and the seventh in the series already out there earning its keep, attending Authors at the Armouries in October is the cherry on this year's cake!
 
All the authors will be located in the New Dock Hall.  As soon as I know where I will be, I will update this post and include the information on my website, too.  Please check back regularly between now and the event.
 
I will have my Jacques Forêt Mysteries with me, along with the full series of the Miss Moonshine, Seasonal Paths, and the Elemental anthologies.  It is also possible that I will have copies of a completely new anthology of stories created and written by the members of Doncaster Writers' Group.  If you want more info on that, then check my previous post by clicking the link. The Magic of Danum

You can purchase signed or unsigned copies of the books and chat with the many other authors in attendance, including me. too.  If you want to make sure you are not disappointed by missing out on any one of the books, then check out my Amazon page Here

 
The event will open as specified on your tickets and run from 10.30 am until 5.30 pm.
 
You can get your tickets Here
 
If you haven't done so already, please note your diaries.  I look forward to seeing you at:
 
The Royal Armouries Museum,
Armouries Drive,
Leeds.
LS10 1LT

I'm very pleased to announce that ...

 ... the next anthology of stories from the Seasonal Collective is about to hit the streets.  Read on for more info ...

I have always loved telling stories and letting my imagination run riot in the process.  Full-length novels are an awful lot of work.  But the enjoyment comes from the initial thinking that goes into creating the story.  Once the basic plan is there, the next phase - the writing - requires a lot of self-discipline over a significant period of time.  But crafting the sentences, putting the words on the page, is where the enjoyment is for me.  And once the novel is finished and away with the editor, there is a great sense of achievement as well as some regret, especially if I know there is a character that I won't meet again in another story.  Novel writing is, of course, the bulk of my job as a writer, and it is a serious business.

But short stories are a very different kettle of fish!  That's where the fun is!  In a short story you can write in any number of different genres.  At the moment I'm having great fun writing ghost stories.  Short stories give a writer the opportunity to try something new, for example, to test out a character or a situation.  See my short story in Spring Paths, Madame Beauvary's Curio Shop.  She was very much an experiment, and I've decided to keep her.

In a short story, you can try out a new or different way of telling a story, such as using monologue or the first-person point of view.  My story Eithne, in the Earth anthology, provided that chance.  Which brings me very neatly to the point of this post. Air, the next collection of tales in the Elements series of books, is about to be released.  The cover is all done - see above -, the editing is done, and the final proofread is complete.  This book may be a little shorter than the last, but the stories are still as varied, beguiling and compelling as in any of the other collections that we have released.  To give a little taste of what's to come, the blurb is below.

about the book ... Air, An Anthology - a collection of short stories that are fast, fresh and unpredictable. The second in a four-book series dedicated to the cornerstones of our existence, Air celebrates the element we cannot live without, the invisible connection to every living thing on this planet. So breathe in, breathe out and grab a front-row seat for this incredible ride.

From the pens of award-winning Canadian and British wordsmiths, this collection unleashes unbounded imaginings that feature winds of change most unexpected; a windstorm fallout in Treeless County; an Appalachian bird-watching excursion that reveals a unique creature; vital answers from the past when Tarlia’s sword falls silent, and unforeseen consequences inspired by a beautiful work of art, to the solemn truth that living in the past is no way to enjoy the future; a woman who falls unexpectedly from the sky; the compelling notion of words floating through the air; a coming of age while ice sailing, and a creation set loose into an unknown world … that used to be alive...

Discover for yourself why this multi-genre treasure trove is completely unforgettable.

You can get the book Here

Join me and many other authors for the Authors at the Coast event ...

... in Whitley Bay on November 14th.  Read on for more details ...

A multi-genre book event at a new venue on the north-east coast is coming up, and I am really pleased to say that I will be there.

Having lived in Whitley Bay for a while when I was working at the proper job that I once had before writing took over my life, it will be lovely to go back to that part of the country in my current guise as a scribbler.  I really enjoyed my time up in Whitley Bay when I was last there.  There's something magical about the scenery of that stretch of coastline, and I remember the many walks I took along the seafront after work or at weekends.  From where I was living back then, I had a view of the coast, and there were days when I would drive home and just sit there for a while watching the sunlight on the sea, before grabbing my briefcase and going indoors to get something to eat.

Enough of the reminiscences!  Authors at the Coast will be at Spanish City on Saturday, November 14th from 10.00 am until 4.00 pm.  The event is free for everyone, so please bring your friends and family.  A full list of the authors attending is on the banner below.

I will be there with all of my books.  I will have my seven Jacques Forêt Mysteries with me.  If you would like to chat about France, the Cévennes, the stories, or even Jacques himself, please drop by and say hello.  I will also be able to give you the latest info on the next book in the series.

I will be bringing the three Miss Moonshine anthologies as well.  If you are in need of a feel-good, heart-warming read for the coming festive season, then these collections of gentle stories will be just the ticket.  They might even turn out to be the perfect present for that difficult-to-buy-for great-aunt in your family.

I will also have the four multi-genre collections of short stories that comprise the Seasonal Paths Anthologies.  I work with one American and eight other Canadian authors to put these books together.  Having completed the seasons series, we are now creating stories based around the four elements, and I will have the first of those books with me, too.

There will be lots to see, and even more to talk about if you can make it.  So, please join me and loads of other authors at  Spanish City, Whitley Bay, Tyneside, NE26 1BG

I'm continuing my journey following the Granville-Paris Express ...

  ... and I'm stopping off in Dreux today.  Come and join me ...

The city of Dreux has a population of just over 31,000.  Which seems quite small to us.  But when you consider that between 1954 and 1990 the population more than doubled, you have some measure of this town's exponential growth.  In the heart of the city, you have a core of old historic buildings.  Between and completely surrounding the original confines of the ancient town, you have modern urban dwellings and the results of what must have been a significant housing crisis in the early decades of the mass influx of people into Dreux.

I've driven through this place, and more frequently, driven around it on the bypass hundreds of times.  It's not really a place that I want to come back to.  It's too noisy, too busy, too crowded. Having read Andrew Hussey's book, I can now see that it is a perfect example of the societal and urban fracturing he draws attention to in Fractured France.  The population is multicultural, the hijab is openly worn on the streets, and, despite the ban, I see a group of women wearing burkas strolling on the opposite side of the street.  For a moment I wonder which country I'm actually in.

But I'm here because I want to get to the station to see if the original building, completed and opened on June 15th, 1864, is still intact.  If it is, it will be one of the few along this rail route that has served as a station and is still used as such here in the 21st century.

I'm not disappointed.  The long wings of the first building are still identifiable as they flank the central portion, which houses the station's main entrance and primary foyer.  The solid quadrangular shape of the building was given a more modern facelift in 1932 by the Parisian architect Paul Louis Genuys (1818-1937).  The frontage of the building that we see today, with its sweeping arches, high semi-circular windows and stone pillars, was Genuys' vision and gives the impression that the traveller is entering a vast mansion.  Old photographs and postcards show the station as it was before Genuys worked his magic.  I prefer the current version to the characters' experiences on the Paris Express in 1895.

As I cross the square in front - all part of a remodelling of this area of town in 2017 - with its fountains, I notice a street name that I recognise.  There's another street in Granville - the starting place for our journey - that has the same name: Place Pierre-Semard.

Pierre Semard (1887-1942) was born into a family of rail workers and spent his youth in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne.  At the age of 13, he followed in his father's footsteps and began work on the railway.  During his career, he became a Trade Unionist.  Eventually, he held the post of Secretary General of the Federation of Railway Workers and became the leader of the French Communist Party.  During the occupation, he was imprisoned and eventually executed on March 7th, 1942, as a political prisoner.

I turn to make my way back to the car.  I need the peace, the quiet, the lilting ripple of the stream that flows beside my camping spot.  As I make my way through town, I can not think of a better-placed street name than that outside the station here in Dreux.

You can catch up with the previous posts in this series by clicking the following links: Granville part 1, Granville part 2, Vire, Flers, Briouze, Argentan and Surdon. My review of the book, The Paris Express, is Here

I'm reviewing Fractured France...

 ... by Andrew Hussey on my blog today.  An interesting take on our neighbour across the Channel.  Read on ...

The author of this tome is a journalist, biographer, lecturer and historian of French culture who appears regularly on radio and TV and is definitely the man to consult about twentieth-century France.  He was awarded an OBE in 2011 for his work and writings on France and his services to UK-France cultural relations.  He was appointed Dean of the University of London Institute in Paris in 2006.

So, when I picked this book off the shelf at Waterstones, I was very much aware that I would be reading the work of someone who actually knew what he was talking about.  Born in Liverpool, Hussey now lives in Paris, and his book takes the reader on a journey through the country from the industrial north through to the Mediterranean coast and the multi-cultural city of Marseille.  We see the country in its many guises and experience its cultural changes through the eyes of a man who has lived in, studied, and observed his adopted country over many years.

The book is part memoir, part travel log, and part observation and assessment.  With my well-used map easily to hand, I followed Hussey's journey from city to city.  It was especially interesting to me to read his views on each location.  I also found myself musing on his comments and conclusions, comparing them with my own thoughts and feelings about a country I have spent so much time in.  The fissures he sees in French city society are there in rural France, too.  Perhaps not quite so obviously, but the country is changing and has been for some time.  On revisiting Revin - a small town in le Grand Est - after an absence of ten or so years, the change in the population's composition was very marked.  On market day, the town was full, as expected, but the stalls were much more multi-cultural than traditionally French.  The numerous small individual shops had been depleted by the emergence of the out-of-town supermarkets, and the ethnicity of the local people was significantly more diverse than before.  There was a tension there, too, that I had not felt or witnessed anywhere else... until I went to Marseille a few years later.

Hussey completes his journey in what he calls the 'wicked city' of Marseille before returning to his Paris bolthole.  Marseille is one of the oldest cities in France and perhaps the most multi-cultural.  I believe I once said that, in Marseille, 'you can eat in any one of a hundred different languages'.  Having read Hussey's chapter on this 'wicked city', it is clear that this is still the case.  It was here a few years ago that I came across the Gilets Jaunes and the riot police lining the street I had inadvertently strayed into.  I scarpered quick sharp!  Hussey aptly describes this massive conurbation as a city of 'perpetual comings and goings'.  The vast port area brings in immigrants - some legal, a significant number not - freight, cruise and naval ships.  The quartiers nord, with a population of almost 250,000, is still one of the poorest, most ethnically diverse and most dangerous parts of the city.  It clearly hasn't changed since I was last there.

This book is fascinating, but for those hoping for an easy and joyful read, I think you will be disappointed for the most part.  This is an expose of a changing society across a large country.  Whilst I could identify with some of the fissures highlighted by Hussey, I also mourned some aspects of Frenchness that were on the brink of disappearing.  Regrettably, Hussey offers no solutions, but his keen-eyed observation and assessment still make this a thought-provoking read.

If you enjoyed this review, you might also be interested in my reviews of France on Trial,  The Lost King of France, or The Paris Muse

Please welcome, friend and author, Catherine Brooks ...

... to the blog this week.  Hello Catherine, and thank you for being here today.  It's great to meet you.  So, tell me what is your current release?

CB  The Soldier and the Swan.

AW What first got you into writing and why?

CB  I started reading a book from the "New Releases" section at my local library.  After the first chapter, I remember thinking, that's not what happens.  I put the book down and spent the next few years daydreaming about how the story should have gone.  Eventually, I decided to write it myself.  That became my first novel, though it will probably never be published.

AW You write historical romance; is it all imagination, or do you do research?

CB I do a lot of research, but probably not in the order most people expect.  I usually write the emotional story first and then dive into the historical details.  For The Soldier and the Swan, I researched 1940's San Francisco, ballet, and Swan Lake.  The history gives the story its foundation, but for me it's always the relationships that matter most.

AW Have you tried/dabbled with other genres or writing for other forms of media?

CB My first book was a romantasy.  Creating an entirely new world while learning to write a novel was a challenge.  Looking back, I'm glad I started there because it forced me to learn so much about storytelling.

AW Famous authors such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas had a special space for writing. Do you have a writing shed of your own?

CB I write from the smallest corner of my house on a papasan chair cushion.  The dog thinks it’s a giant dog bed and that’s kind of what it looks like.  I find my children in this corner reading a lot.  It's nothing fancy, but it's comfortable, and apparently everyone in the family agrees.

AW And finally, what would your eight-year-old self think, and say about you and your achievements today?

CB My eight-year-old self is sitting beside my mother at the typewriter, writing a story about a mermaid and a sunken ship.  I don't think she'd be nearly as surprised as my teenage self, who became afraid and started believing she wasn’t good enough.  My eight-year-old self would just shrug, smile, and say, "Figures."

about the book... She gave up the stage for love.

Now the man she married barely looks at her.

A love story inspired by Swan Lake.

San Francisco, 1943: Vivienne Hartley was once San Francisco's most celebrated prima ballerina.  But when her husband, Charlie, returns home wounded from the war, she gives up her dreams to care for him.  The man she married has become a shell of the man she once loved.  As Charlie withdraws further into himself, Vivienne tries to become the wife she believes he needs until she barely recognises herself anymore.

When Charlie's younger brother, Danny, returns home, he sees the woman beneath the caregiver and challenges her to audition for Swan Lake.  As rehearsals begin, Vivienne rediscovers the life she thought she'd buried forever.  But the more she finds herself again, the harder it becomes to ignore the impossible truth.

The only man who truly sees her...is the one she can never have.

about the author...

Catherine Brooks writes novels with love at the centre. As a former ballet dancer, registered nurse, and caregiver, she draws on her own experiences to write stories with emotional honesty. The Soldier and the Swan is her debut novel.

An Arizona native, she lives with her husband and two children, a diva dog, a very hungry tortoise, and a bird named Sprinkles.

You can buy the book on Amazon, Audible, Spotify, and Barnes and Noble

You can follow Catherine on her Amazon Author Page on Facebook and on Instagram

I am very pleased to tell you that a new book ...

 ... is on its way. Read on to find out more ... 

As a member of Doncaster Writers' Group, I've been involved in various discussions about writing stories, and even producing an anthology composed solely of the work of the group members.  Well, I'm very pleased to be able to say that what was once a pipe dream will soon turn into a reality.

We talked through the original idea and developed a plan to keep us all on track.  As is often the case with plans that rely on people giving their time for free in support of the project, real life gets in the way, and sometimes delays are unavoidable.  But what I'm really pleased to be able to say today is that the anthology, The Magic of Danum, will be hitting the streets in the early autumn.  

The collection of stories is set in Doncaster at various times throughout history, the present and the future.  All of the stories have been crafted by members of Doncaster Writers' Group.  Some of those writers are published, some self-published, and some are still chasing a publishing contract or an agent.  But that range of experience brings to the whole piece a mixture of fresh voices alongside the more established.  The variety of the subject matter for the tales is also wide.  Enjoy some time at the races, but beware, ghostly things may happen.  Visit a magical book shop right here in town or spend time with a ghostly grandpa.  If romance is your preferred genre, perhaps a story about finding 'the right one' might be more your cup of tea.  Whatever your reading preference, each of these stories, set in our hometown of Doncaster, can be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike, and the variety of narrative voices means that you could discover a writer new to you who you will continue to follow in the future.

We don't have a publication date agreed yet, but October is looking good.  We do have the cover art, the stories, the foreword, and a book that is almost ready for proofreading and final amendments.  So keep watching this space, and as soon as I know when the book will be available for sale, I will announce it here.  In the meantime, tell your friends and family that a book about Doncaster, set in Doncaster, will be hitting the streets very soon...

If you wish to join the writing group or want to know more about us and the book, check out our Facebook page DoncasterWritersGroup

I'm continuing my journey following the Granville-Paris Express ...

 ... and today I’m calling in at Surdon, an intriguing little place in the middle of nowhere!  Join me as I explore …

If you look at a map, you will see that Surdon is a tiny dot.  Getting there is not straight forward and involves a journey along narrow country roads.

From Argentan I take the D958 in the direction of Sées and cut to the left onto the D240 towards Médavy and onwards to an intersection where I have to rely on the Sat. Nav. to tell me where to take a left as there are no road signs. The roads thus far are flanked by fields, with any habitation being sparse and distant.  I keep going steadily and eventually I come a small, almost hidden, sign indicating the route to the station.  I follow, and as I get closer to the railway lines, I come across parked cars.

The vehicles seem to go on forever, but actually culminate in a large space right next to the rail tracks that is jam-packed full of motors.  I stop and explore on foot.  I cannot believe the quantity of cars in this remote place.  There is nothing here other than the parking area, an old building and a newer one further along the tracks.  Not only that, apart from myself and one gent sat behind the wheel of his Renault, there is no one else here.  I spin around, taking in the acres of cars, the tracks on my right and the complete silence and isolation.  I can’t help but think that this location might be a good place to use in a fictional capacity.  Perhaps I’ll use it as inspiration for the siting of a body in one of my books.  Naturally, I would have to rename it and move it to somewhere in the Cévennes…  But the idea has now formed, and I quickly make a note on my phone.

Ideas for novels put away, I make my way towards the old building.  A red-brick building, very much a mid-nineteenth-century building.  So, the passengers on the Paris Express of October 1895 may have seen this building.  Back then, the station would have been manned, and as I look around the perimeter, I can see evidence of a waiting room, a ticket office, and perhaps a space for the stationmaster, if there was one.

A walk to the other side of the parking area and I find the all-new, hi-tech replacement station. Everything is automated.  There’s a machine to buy tickets, there are up-to-date displays announcing the trains, and the tracks are about 5 deep.

A sudden rumbling in the distance and I’m aware a train is due.  The LED display confirms my suspicions.  Within moments, the modern train races into the station and stops.  Half a dozen people alight and go on with their days.  As I walk back to the car, I see the gentleman in the Renault is collecting a traveller.  His wife, I assume.  But then that idea I had earlier pops back into my head.  By the time I’ve reached the car, I have a whole backstory for a woman who got off a train in a location like this one...

There will be more from my journey following the Granville-Paris Express next month.  

If you enjoyed this post, you can find the previous posts by clicking the links Granville part 1, Granville part 2, Vire, Flers, Briouze, Argentan and my review of the book, The Paris Express, is Here

I'm reviewing The Blood in Winter ...

 ... by Jonathan Healey.  Read on ...

It was another writer's review of this book that captured my attention as I was working my way through my newspaper.  Having now read the book, I'm glad I decided to buy it.  Jonathan Healey is an Associate Professor in social history at Oxford who knows the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries very well.

With a subtitle of A Nation Descends, this excellent book charts the build-up to the English Civil War.  Beginning in late March 1641, we are introduced to Colonel George Goring, a soldier of some repute, who was well known for his camaraderie in the inns of London.  Goring is being cajoled by a friend, a co-conspirator, gambler, and courtier, Sir John Suckling.  Charles Stuart sits on the throne, but his popularity is at a low ebb, and one of the most hated politicians of the time, the Earl of Strafford, is about to go on trial for treason.  Strafford was a favourite of the King.  

Thus, the writer presents the reader with a seemingly convoluted puzzle to consider.  Throughout the rest of the book, Healey uses real people present at the time to tell the story of how England fell into civil war.  The detail from ordinary people's lives at that time is fascinating and varied.  It brings the action to life and offers insight into beliefs and thinking at that time.  I really enjoyed the minor details, and when set against the larger picture of a country on the brink of war, it added to the urgency and impetus for action.

For a history book, the narrative romps along, and the writing is smooth and easily readable.  I found I became drawn into the lives of the people who form the backbone of the events leading up to conflict.  This makes the book look and feel like a novel rather than a dry history.  Not that I've ever considered history to be dry and boring, but I am aware that promoting a book about a piece of English history and calling it that is enough to turn some readers away.  To those readers, I say, 'Don't look away.'  This is a fascinating read about a very important part of our history and well worth the time taken to discover its contents for yourselves.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in my thoughts on The Lost King of France,  The Paris Muse,or,  F is for France