Category: Historical Novel

A stolen painting in the pocket of my large handbag

Popular author, Anne Allen, released ‘The Betrayal’, on 22nd October.  ‘The Betrayal’ is the sixth book in the Guernsey Series.  Anne Allen has kindly selected an exclusive extract for Books in my Handbag.  The dual-time novel unfolds in the present day and during World War Two.  It is set against the backdrop of the German deportation of the Jewish community, in Guernsey, and involves a stolen Renoir painting. 

Treachery and theft lead to death – and love. 

‘The Betrayal’ is tense, powerful and spellbinding.

Anne will introduce her new novel, present an extract and tell you more about the intricate narrative.

Dear Readers,

I am delighted to present my latest in the Guernsey Novels series, ‘The Betrayal’.

This extract is from the beginning of the book and is the prelude to the modern part of the story, giving you a taste of the tension throughout the book.

Keep a copy of the book in your bag to dip into whenever you have a moment, you won’t regret it!

Happy Reading☺

Anne x

Presenting the extract:

Guernsey 2011

Something was wrong. The alarm didn’t blast out as he pushed open the back door of the shop. Standing still, he heard a noise. Someone was in the shop. Or more accurately, the basement. Nigel paused as he closed the door quietly behind him, his heart hammering against his ribs as he debated what to do. Whoever was in there knew how to disable a burglar alarm otherwise lights would be flashing and a discordant wail would be piercing the air. Best to shut them in the basement and call the police. Following the thought, he crept into the main shop, guided by the dim light coming through the rear window. His eyes adjusting to the dimness, Nigel tried to pick out the area where a rug should cover the trapdoor. For a moment he wondered who could have known about the basement, only discovered a few weeks before when they completed the renovations and replaced the flooring. Odd. And why the basement when the shop was full of valuable antiques?

Crouched at the edge of the hole, light from a torch casting shadows below, he was about to push the open door downwards when a hand snaked up and grabbed his arm.

More about ‘The Betrayal’…

Teresa Bichard and her baby are sent by her beloved husband, Leo, to England as the Germans draw closer to Guernsey. Days later they invade…

Leo, of Jewish descent, is betrayed to the Germans and is sent to a concentration camp, never to return.

Teresa returns to find Leo did not survive and the family’s valuable art collection, including a Renoir, is missing. Heartbroken, she returns to England.

Nigel and his twin Fiona buy a long-established antiques shop in Guernsey and during a refit, find a hidden stash of paintings, including what appears to be a Renoir. Days later, Fiona finds Nigel dead, an apparent suicide. Refusing to accept the verdict, a distraught Fiona employs a detective to help her discover the truth…

Searching for the true owner of the painting brings Fiona close to someone who opens a chink in her broken heart. Can she answer some crucial questions before laying her brother’s ghost to rest?

Who betrayed Leo?

Who knew about the stolen Renoir?

And are they prepared to kill – again?

What do the reviewers think of ‘The Betrayal’?

‘I am a huge fan of Anne Allen’s Guernsey series in which various locations are lovingly described. With the ‘suicide’ of her twin brother, this book has an orally different feel as Fiona tries to get to the bottom of it. With an undiscovered Renoir and links to WW2 this book has a much darker feel to it.’ Julie Ryan

‘Great characters and of course a love connection with a happy ending.’ Karen’s World

‘Having read Anne’s last book, Echoes of Time, I couldn’t wait to read her latest, and I wasn’t disappointed. The novel alternates between WW2 and 2011 and is set on the beautiful island of Guernsey. The Betrayal features twins, Fiona and Nigel, who discover a Renoir within the walls of their antique shop in 2011. When Nigel is found dead, and suicide is suspected, Fiona refuses to believe that her brother would end his own life and she sets out to uncover the truth. Unravelling the mystery will carry her on a journey back to 1940, and to the dark days of the German Occupation and the deportation of Jews.’ S. Charlton

And finally…

A late-comer to writing, Anne was a psychotherapist in a previous life.   Readers are lucky that Anne decided to tell her stories. Anne admits her characters do get under her skin and she misses Fiona and Michael, in particular. I look forward to discovering more about the characters and solving the mysteries presented by this delicious time-slip novel.

You can find out more about Anne Allen here.

 

Please see all the specially chosen extracts at Book Extracts and my blog at jessiecahalin.com. 

 

Slipping back to 499 AD with Julia Ibbotson

Julia posting her guest post to Books in Handbag Blog

Julia Ibbotson contacted me and offered me the opportunity to slip into 499AD and meet the characters of her latest novel. Lady Vivianne is from 499AD and Dr Viv DuLac living in the present day. In A Shape on the Air, the worlds of these two women collide to create a fascinating narrative.  Fascinated by the concept, I asked Julia to explain more about her novel.

Dear Jessie,

My latest novel, A Shape on the Air, is about two women, divided by centuries, united by a quest for truth. Dr Viv DuLac, a medievalist, is devastated when her partner Pete walks out (and with her best friend too) and it seems that she is about to lose everything. Drunk and desperate, her world quite literally turns upside down when she finds herself in the body of the fifth century Lady Vivianne. Lady V has her own traumas; she is struggling with the shifting values of the Dark Ages and her forced betrothal to the brutish Sir Pelleas, who is implicated in the death of her parents.  Little does Viv realise that both their lives across the centuries will become so completely intertwined. Haunted by both Lady Vivianne in 499 AD and by Viv’s own parents’ death and legacy, can Viv unlock the mystery that surrounds and connects their two lives, 1500 years apart, and bring peace to them both?

Meet Lady Vivianne

As with all authors, my characters’ voices ring around my head as I write. So I’ll imagine the women speaking for themselves and this is how they might have introduced themselves to you …

Meet Lady Vivianne …

It is the year of Our Lord 499, I am fifteen and I have a problem.  I am betrothed, against my will, to the odious Sir Pelleas, yet I am not unaware of the glances of my childhood friend, Sir Roland. It was my late father, kind as he was, who took in the tattered cast-out Saxon child Pelleas, thinking him to be a potential successor as chieftain of our settlement in the midlands of England.  Back then, it was not so usual for a woman to succeed to the chieftaincy, and anyway I was not expected, my dear mother being cursed to be childless. But she had used her pagan rituals to try to conceive, and I was the result. They named me Lady Vivianne.

I will never forget the day that my parents died, burned in the fire that destroyed our sacred hall. Sir Pelleas said that it was the tallows on the altar. But yet I knew that was not so.  And as I grew towards my sixteenth year and Pelleas had already persuaded the council in the mead hall with his military prowess to confirm him as chieftain, he was appointed my ‘protector’ and my suitor.

I hate him. I hate his brutish ways and his raucous drunken friends as they feast and carouse and stink in my father’s hall that used to display rich tapestries and religious icons, a backdrop to the travelling scōps with their beautiful poetry.

I will do anything, anything at all that is in my power, to rid myself of Pelleas and this terrible betrothal. And I have powers, like my mother, Lady Nymue, the lady of the lake, believe me …

The inspiration for Dr Viv

Meet medievalist Dr Viv DuLac …

… I get home to my apartment a couple of nights ago, totally unaware of what that night would bring. I’d had a hard day at the university where I teach medieval studies. Maybe it’s tiredness but I think I hear my dead mother’s voice in my pounding head and the name ‘Lady Vivianne’.  But my mind is full of my partner Pete’s treachery. I still cannot believe that he would stoop so low. Going off with one of my best friends and then having the gall to try to sell the apartment from under me. I’d like to hate him, but it’s not so easy to dismiss those years, is it? Are there no decent men left? I’d do anything, anything at all, to keep my beloved home and to be safe. But instead I drink far too much red wine and make for the lake where something is drawing me …

A Shape on the Air

As their lives become intertwined, the quest for truth intensifies. How is Lady Vivianne connected to Dr Viv’s parents’ death and the centuries-old mystery they tried to uncover?  By the way, Jessie, my WIP (The Dragon Tree) is the sequel to A Shape on the Air, and will be published later in 2020.

With love,

Julia

Website/blog   https://www.juliaibbotsonauthor.com
Facebook          https://www.facebook.com/JuliaIbbotsonauthor
Twitter              @JuliaIbbotson
Pinterest           http://www.pinterest.co.uk/juliai1

About Dr Julia Ibbotson

Acclaimed, award-winning author Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and concepts of time travel. She read English at Keele University, England (after a turbulent but exciting gap year in Ghana, West Africa) specialising in medieval language, literature and history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. She wrote her first novel at 10 years of age, but became a school teacher, then an academic as a senior university lecturer and researcher. As well as medieval time-slip, she has published a number of books, including memoir/history of food (The Old Rectory), children’s medieval fantasy (S.C.A.R.S), a trilogy opening in 1960s Ghana (Drumbeats), and many academic works. Apart from insatiable reading, she loves travelling the world, singing in choirs, swimming, yoga and walking in the countryside in England and Madeira where she and her husband divide their time.

Real folk in One Hundred Tiny Threads

I urge you to read One Hundred Tiny Threads

Judith Barrow’s ‘One Hundred Tiny Threads’ reawakened my reading addiction.  I stretched on a Devon beach, during a heatwave, but sat in Lancashire during 1911. Vivid figurative language moved me from the colours of a Monet painting to a Lowry painting.

One Hundred Tiny Threads is the prequel to Judith’s Howarth family saga but was the perfect book to begin with.  Bill was trapped down the mine and the explosion deafened me.  I stood in the dark, grimy streets as the ‘knocker-upper’ tapped on the Winifred’s window. I forgot the heat of the sun as ‘frost patterns covered the panes of the windows’.  ‘The clatter of clogs’ on the cobbles turned my head to the dark streets and ‘the feeling there was a shadow lurking around the corners’.

A life beyond the grocer’s shop counter ruled over by Winifred’s domineering mother.

Despite shivering with Winifred, I found warmth in her friendship.  Winifred presented me with an honest account of a woman’s plight during the beginning of the last century.  Her rebellion against her dominant mother placed me firmly on Winifred’s side.  I was driven mad to discover Winifred’s mother’s secret; I could not fathom her bitterness. Barrow demonstrates why Winifred needs to befriend Honora, a suffragette, and why she finds comfort in Conal’s arms.  Every strand of the characters’ backgrounds is woven into their actions and responses.

I stretched on a Devon beach, during a heatwave, but sat in Lancashire during 1911. ‘The clatter of clogs’ on the cobbles…

I felt for Winifred.  Her naivety and love for Conal present tender moments.  How I ached for Winifred’s happy ending.  The narrative wrenches the heartstrings and punches your senses, but the strands of the plot are taught and well structured. But there is no time to mollycoddle the characters: there’s ‘nowt’ you can do as the characters face life, love and loss. I advise you set time aside and listen to the characters’ voices and let the gritty drama unfold.  The dulcet tones of the Lancashire people rattle your emotions with the powerful dialogue. Be aware of Ethel who makes the ‘air seem rancid with hostility.’

The artfully woven narrative is populated with real folk: ‘good Northern stock’.  I couldn’t abide the hardship yet couldn’t stop reading.  I found myself thinking about the characters when not reading.  The folk got under my skin.  Barrow is not afraid to introduce some horrible people and conflict.  I loathed Bill because he is a hard-faced, rotten man.  Yet, I was forced to explore the motivation for his character.  It was most annoying to feel empathy for Bill. I wanted to banish him from the book and leave him to rot in a dark alley. Barrow made me understand the motivation for this bloke’s actions. 

‘…all they wanted was equality in voting’

Winifred was isolated from her mother Ethel and inhibited by the era but wanted to shake off the corset of stifling expectations.  Ironically, Winifred’s mother inhibits her more than her father.  Barrow demonstrates how women like Ethel were trapped by their own boundaries and expectations: fear of society’s rejection isolates those who have dared to follow their hearts.  Women such as Winifred who dared to articulate the inequalities of women in normal settings:

Women such as Winifred paved the way for the birth of the modern woman. 

‘…all they wanted was equality in voting; to be able to have as much as their husbands, their brothers, their fathers.’

The Suffragette Movement, World War One and the Irish War of Independence are threaded into the fabric of the novel.

Barrow squeezes every drop of empathy from her reader, because she explores the complex psychological motivations of the characters.  It is testimony to Judith Barrow that she creates such powerful characters.  The rhythms of the characters’ words are combined with the ebb and flow of the narrative to produce a phenomenal drama of epic proportions.  I am delighted there are more books to read in this family saga.  However, I am fearful for Winifred’s plight in the remaining novels. shh – don’t tell me what happens.  I am not sure Winifred has made a good choice of husband, but he does believe Winifred ‘was the one woman to keep him on the straight and narrow.’  Narrative perspectives of Winifred and Bill provide clever contrast in life experiences. The basis for their relationship is dynamic, yet I sense some threads will fray in the other books. Florence said, ‘men will have their way’; I hope this is not an omen.

The Suffragette Movement, World War One and the Irish War of Independence are threaded into the fabric of the novel. Hard times exasperate the loneliness suffered by the characters.  I urge you to read One Hundred Tiny Threads to find out more about the texture of these characters’ lives – you won’t be disappointed.

Judith Barrow, author

Connect with Judith at:

Website: https://judithbarrowblog.com

 

 

Find out more about Judith at:

Twitter: @judithbarrow

 https://www.facebook.com/judith.barrow.3

 

 

 

Are you ready for a real Game of Thrones? – 1066

Real Game of Thrones

Are you ready for a real Game of Thrones?  Glynn Holloway’s debut historical novel: ‘1066: What Fates Impose’ is now available.  I asked the author to explain why a reader should delve into his novel.

Dear Readers,

I am delighted to present, 1066: What Fates Impose, a novel about the fall of Anglo-Saxon England.

William the Conqueror

The extract I have chosen is from the opening chapter, which shows William the Conqueror on his deathbed. The dying king is filled with guilt and haunted by the horrors he inflicted on the English.

The reason I picked this extract is because it has a lot of impact. I felt I needed this, and also, I think the guilt he feels on his death bed and the consequences he feels he will have to face in the afterlife, poses the questions at the beginning of my novel:

Did William really think he had a claim to the English crown?

How much responsibility did he accept for the deaths of tens of thousands?

If you want those questions answered, and a lot more besides, put my novel in your handbag. If you do, you’ll be in possession of a book filled with: family feuds, court intrigues, papal plots, assassinations, loyalties, betrayals, a love triangle and a battle or two. Everything, in fact, that made living in the eleventh century such fun.

With Best Wishes

Glynn Holloway

Extract

1066 What Fates Impose

With the very last of his strength he raises his head to look around the room. There are his sons, the bishop, his brother and . . . ‘Oh God, oh God Almighty. No not him! Not now!’

His eyes bulge as he is gripped by terror. Before him, unseen by the others, stands a blood drenched warrior, tall and proud as an oak, fresh from the battle field, his lank and sweat soaked hair hangs down his shoulders, his once handsome face made ugly by an eyeless socket. As though to steady himself, he leans on his battleaxe, resting his hands on its iron head. He stares impassively at William with his single eye, blue and deep as the ocean, a stare mead all the more intense by its singularity.

William has seen him, or thought he had seen him, a number of times over the years glimpsed in crowds or spotted in enemy lines, but never has he seen him so clearly, so close and for so long as he does now.

‘Have you come for me?’ he asks.

A trace of a smile appears on the face of the apparition, who turns, swinging his axe over his shoulder as he does so, before stepping, with a swift backward glance, silently out of the room.

Hopelessness descends on the king; his temperature rises, and he feels hot again. He wants to break free from the heat, but escape is impossible. Was he like a pagan king of old to be consumed by fire?

The is hot, black and silent.

End of extract

About 1066 What Fates Impose

England is in crisis. King Edward has no heir and promises never to produce one. There are no obvious successors available to replace him, but quite a few claimants are eager to take the crown. While power struggles break out between the various factions at court, enemies abroad plot to make England their own. There are raids across the borders with Wales and Scotland.

Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, is seen by many as the one man who can bring stability to the kingdom. He has powerful friends and two women who love him, but he has enemies who will stop at nothing to gain power. As 1066 begins, England heads for an uncertain future. It seems even the heavens are against Harold.
Intelligent and courageous, can Harold forge his own destiny – or does he have to bow to what fates impose?

Jessie:  What do the reviewers say?

‘An extremely promising debut – highly recommended’. Steve Donoghue – Historical Novel Society

‘A Brilliant and Entertaining Novel of the Events that led to 1066.’  Glenn Cook – Vine Voice – Amazon Hall of Fame – Top 100 Reviewer

‘Excellent and Gripping Story.’ Avid Reader – Amazon Hall of Fame – Top 50 Reviewer

Jessie:  How did you feel when you had finished writing the book, and did you miss any of the character?

I was pleased that I’d actually managed to finish it; there were times when I thought the day would never dawn. I did miss some of the characters, particularly King Harold and Earl Godwin.  completing my novel felt a bit like saying goodbye to friends I knew I’d never see again. Harold and Godwin won’t appear in any sequel but there are other characters who will put in an appearance, one of them I’d quite like to never hear of again, but that’s the price of a good villain I suppose.

Glynn Holloway

About Glynn Holloway

G K Holloway lives in Bristol with his wife and two children. After reading a biography about Harold Godwinson, he studied the late Anglo-Saxon era in detail. When he had enough material to weave together facts and fiction he produced 1066 What Fates Impose. 

http://www.gkholloway.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/G-K-Holloway-219766941394283/
@GlynnHolloway

 

 

A tale of two continents

The Giants Look Down

 

Sonja Price

 

 

 

This gripping tale explores cultural differences, in two continents, through the life of Jaya and her brother.  An intelligent study of how one’s understanding of freedom is relative to education, experience and culture: a very poignant, contemporary message!

Jaya was born in a place where ‘the tiny mauve and yellow flowers danced in the breeze as the snowy summits of Pin Panjal meditated in the morning sun.’  Despite the beauty and implied freedom and romance of the landscape, the women are inhibited by their culture and the ugly politics of war torn Kashmir.  Jaya’s gentle, intelligent observations give an insight into her world as a Kashmiri girl.  Her mother asserts ‘you’re a girl’ and believes that ‘love rides on reason, not romance.’  It is clear Jaya is destined to search beyond this and it is impossible not to admire her questioning.

Jaya wishes on a ‘shooting star’ and the author maps out Jaya’s destiny beautifully.  The novel explores how the independent, free spirited mind can find flight if given the right opportunities.  But the opportunities must be accompanied with an inquiring mind. Jaya’s entrapment in Delhi is as stifling as the intense heat which ‘pressed down on city life like a giant hand.’ Her value, as a potential bride, diminishes once her parents have been killed.  She will find a way to escape a doomed arranged marriage – she is born to fight.

In contrast, Tahir, Jaya’s brother is forced to survive in a world of violence.  Here, Price examines how the innocent, accepting mind can become involved in terrorism.  Tahir’s life is written in the third person as he never finds his own voice.  Jaya’s story is written in the first person so that you can recognise her strength and identity.  She wants to be a wife ‘but (she) wasn’t going to give up everything.’  Ironically, the masculine stereotype and expectations shackle Tahir to a life of unfulfillment. Sadly, a lack of ambition and opportunity forces Tahir to accept his comrades as family.

Like her father, Jaya leaves ‘The Giants’ behind and moves to Scotland.  The cool Scottish breeze brings a fresh new perspective to Jaya’s life.  ‘The ocean! A slate grey stretching out to the horizon’ is symbolic of Jaya’s freedom and endless possibilities.  Meanwhile, her brother remains in Kashmir, and Tahir, believes the British to be the destructive force in his country.  He asks a British man, ‘Have you thought about the devastation your empire has left behind?’  He is unable to see how different cultures can collaborate and learn from each other. Tahir fights for his confused perception of freedom while his sister, Jaya, fights to save lives.  Jaya and Tahir’s father was a doctor. Jaya’s father involved her in his mission of caring for everyone, regardless of religion or race.

Jaya learns to inhabit the space between two cultures and finds her identity.  Her love for Alistair gives her stability, purpose and strength. Tahir is tormented by:

‘The poverty, the beauty, the peace and the violence.  Such extremes separated by the blink of an eyelid.

Tahir never examines his own world as he is too caught up in the conflict and grudges.   The natural ebb and flow of the Jaya’s narrative is enchanting while we never get inside of Tahir’s confused, inhibited mind.  The tale of two continents explores cultural difference: it is a wonderful book of contrasts.  For instance, the peaceful setting Kashmir Valley translates ‘paradise on earth’ yet it conceals conflict.  Jaya questions: ‘How could the landscape be beautiful when Alistair was suffering?’ Like Jaya, one must look beneath the surface.

This novel teaches us to have a respect and understanding of other cultures but we need the freedom to ask questions and pursue our ambition: above all, everyone needs to be loved. ‘Azadi’ (freedom) is a state of mind influenced by opportunities, the people we meet and the strength to ask pertinent questions.

A sensitive, well-crafted narrative that explores challenging themes through a beautiful central character. I recommend this novel wholeheartedly!