War’s over, cherry-print dresses, parking above the city lights, swing dancing.
Beautiful, seventeen-year-old Violet lives in a perfect world.
Everybody loves her.
In 2012, she’s still beautiful, charming, and surrounded by admirers.
Veronica “Ronni” Johnson, licensed practical nurse and aspiring writer, meets the captivating Violet in the assisted living facility where Violet requires no assistance, just lots of male attention. When she dies, she leaves Ronni a very generous bequest―only if Ronni completes a book about her life within one year. As she’s drawn into the world of young Violet, Ronni is mesmerized by life in a simpler time. It’s an irresistible journey filled with revelations, some of them about men Ronni knew as octogenarians at Fairfield Springs.
Struggling, insecure, flailing at the keyboard, Ronni juggles her patients, a new boyfriend, and a Samsonite factory of emotional baggage as she tries to craft a manuscript before her deadline. But then the secrets start to emerge, some of them in person.
And they don’t stop. Everything changes.
Alternating chapters between Homecoming Queen Violet in 1947 and can’t-quite-find-her-crown Ronni in the present, IT ALL COMES BACK TO YOU is Southern Fiction at its hilarious, warm, sad, outrageous, uplifting, and stunning best. In the tradition of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and Olive Kitteridge, Duke delivers an unforgettable elderly character to treasure and a young heroine to steal your heart.
It All Comes Back To You is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.
It All Comes Back To You is a beautiful, heartwarming read that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Firstly I loved the quirky characters in this book who were great fun to get to know and easy to warm to. The story is told in alternate chapters between Veronica and Violet which I found very interesting. It was great to learn more about these two and their past . I did love Veronica a bit more then Violet as her antics through the years did make me smile at times. She’s the kind of person I’d love to be friends with as she just had this quality that made her hugely likeable and fun. Ronnie was another amazing character and I thought it was truly heart warming how much her love for violet shone through.
I thought this book was easy to read as there was always something happening to keep my attention. The story of the two women was very moving and took me through all the emotions as I found myself crying one moment and laughing the next. It was fascinating to discover that despite their age differences the two women were actually very similar and had had a lot of similar experiences.
Overall I loved this book and will be recommending it to everyone. I think it would make a great book club read as there would be lots to discuss. This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I’d love to read more in the future.
Huge thanks to Zoe from Zooloo’s blog tours for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Beth Duke is the recipient of short story awards on two continents and is eyeing the other five. Her novels DELANEY’S PEOPLE, DON’T SHOOT YOUR MULE, and IT ALL COMES BACK TO YOU have earned a great deal of critical praise, including ‘Beth Duke is a wordsmith of the best kind and her stories rank with the best in classic Southern fiction’ from Dan Brown, Author of Reunion. Her work has been published in numerous magazines and literary digests. Beth lives in the mountains of her native Alabama with her husband, one real dog, one ornamental dog, and a flock of fluffy pet chickens. Baking is a hobby, with semi-pro cupcakes and amateur macarons a specialty. And puns-she is a proud punslinger. Travel is her other favorite thing, along with joining book clubs for discussion. Please visit bethduke.com for more information and photos of the most beautiful readers in the world.
The start of a brand NEW series from bestselling author Rosie Clarke
Cambridgeshire – March 1939
As the clouds of war begin to gather in Europe, the Talbot family of rural Blackberry Farm will be torn apart, just as so many families all over the world will be. Life will never be the same again.
Whilst in London, the Salmons family will feel the pain of parting and loss.
Brought together by war, the two families become intertwined and, as the outlook looks bleak, they must draw on each other’s strength to fight through the hard times.
Lizzie Johnson and Tom were sweethearts until a mistake caused a terrible rift. Lizzie takes herself off to London to heal the pain in a glamorous new job but she still loves Tom. His pride has been hurt – but deep down inside Tom still cares. Can they find happiness before their chance is gone and the whole world is swept into the terrible madness of war?
Warclouds Over Blackberry Farm is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
I have really enjoyed this author’s previous books so I was very excited to read this new series from her, especially as it starts in 1939 before the war so you know this is going to be a long series to get stuck into.
I was drawn into this book from the start and love meeting the characters and getting to know them. The action alternates between Norfolk and London which was interesting as it helped show how different people’s lives were in different parts of the country. The characters all seem wonderful creations who will be interesting to read about.
This book focuses on the home front and what life was like those left behind which I loved. The sense of community spirit the author describes were really heartwarming and made me wish I was there experiencing everything alongside the characters. There is a level of foreboding throughout the book not just because war is coming but due to some other storylines which I won’t go into detail about as I don’t want to spoil anything. This made the book very hard to put down at times as I really wanted to find out what would happen next.
Overall i thought this was a fabulous start to a new series and I look forward to reading more of the series in the future. I’m always impressed with how this author keeps her books fresh, interesting and gripping despite having written a huge number of books.
Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Boldwood for my copy of this book via netgalley.
About The Author:
Rosie Clarke is a #1 bestselling saga writer whose most recent books include The Shop Girls of Harpers and The Mulberry Lane series. She has written over 100 novels under different pseudonyms and is a RNA Award winner. She lives in Cambridgeshire.
The latest unforgettable timeslip novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Secret of the Chateau.
Will love lead her to a devastating choice?
1942. Three years into the war, Pam turns down her hard-won place at Oxford University to become a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. There, she meets two young men, both keen to impress her, and Pam finds herself falling hard for one of them. But as the country’s future becomes more uncertain by the day, a tragic turn of events casts doubt on her choice – and Pam’s loyalty is pushed to its limits…
Present day. Julia is struggling to juggle her career, two children and a husband increasingly jealous of her success. Her brother presents her with the perfect distraction: forgotten photos of their grandmother as a young woman at Bletchley Park. Why did her grandmother never speak of her time there? The search for answers leads Julia to an incredible tale of betrayal and bravery – one that inspires some huge decisions of her own…
Gripping historical fiction perfect for fans of The Girl from Berlin, The Rose Code and When We Were Brave.
The Girl From Bletchley Park is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
My Review:
I’m a huge fan of dual timeline stories so this book instantly appealed to me. I was not disappointed as I found this a hugely enjoyable and compelling read.
The story is set in 1943 and the present day which I always love as it’s great fun trying to solve war time mysteries. I keep hoping I might find a war time diary one day like Julie in the book so it was fun to live precariously through Julie as she learns more about her grandmother Pamela’s war time work. I must admit I did enjoy the wartime story line a bit more than the present day one but I think that mainly down to my fascination with Bletchley Park. It was interesting to see how the two women’s stories seemed to mirror each other and how they gradually came together which I thought was very clever.
I thought the research in this book was fantastic and I loved learning more about the wartime work at Bletchley Park. The author really made the place come to life and I often felt like I was actually there experiencing everything alongside the characters which I always enjoy. It was also very interesting to get to know the characters more and they soon started feeling like old friends so the reader feels everything that happens to them as if they were experiencing everything themselves.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be recommending it to others. The story had a great pace to it and there was always something happening to keep my interest. I very much look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and to HQ stories for my copy of this book via netgalley.
About The Author:
Kathleen McGurl lives in Bournemouth with her husband. She has two sons who have both now left home. She always wanted to write, and for many years was waiting until she had the time. Eventually she came to the bitter realisation that no one would pay her for a year off work to write a book, so she sat down and started to write one anyway. Since then she has published several novels with HQ and self-published another. She has also sold dozens of short stories to women’s magazines, and written three How To books for writers. After a long career in the IT industry she became a full-time writer in 2019. When she’s not writing, she’s often out running, slowly.
Good morning everyone today I’m pleased to announce the winners if The Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship and to tell you a little bit more about them. I was also lucky enough to be sent two extracts from two of Dzifa’s fabulous poems which you can find below!
About The Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship:
Three of the UK’s most exciting poets Romalyn Ante, Dzifa Benson, and Jamie Hale have been selected as the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellows for 2020/21. Each poet receives £15,000 and is given a year of critical support and mentoring. Turning the idea of an arts prize on its head, the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship provides each poet with the time and space to focus on their craft and fulfil their potential with no expectation that they produce a particular work or outcome.
Recognising the power of potential, the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship’s approach to funding advocates for a change in art funding practice in the UK, providing opportunities outside commercial pressures for artistic growth and new ideas to flourish. The Fellowship provides financial support towards the development of under-supported and diverse artistic practices across the UK, with a focus on the pursuit of artistic experimentation and the space for artists to thrive. This alternative approach to recognising and rewarding outstanding poets, is now in its third and final edition. Previous recipients are: Raymond Antrobus, Jane Commane and Jackie Hagan (2017-18 Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellows) and Hafsah Aneela Bashir, Anthony Joseph and Yomi Ṣode (2019-20 Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellows). Romalyn Ante, Dzifa Benson, and Jamie Hale illustrate how diverse and exciting poetry has become in the 21st century. Through activism, visual arts, theatre, and drawing from their personal experiences/circumstances, the three poets express their practice through a multitude of ways, opening poetry up to a wide range of audiences. Each poet has produced outstanding work to date and have demonstrated enormous, unselfish generosity towards other poets, giving far more than they have received particularly during the pandemic. They have been selected for the potential they display at this critical point in their individual careers, when the support provided from the Fellowship will make the most difference. Alongside the freely given grant of £15,000, the three Fellows will each receive mentoring from the programme’s manager Dr Nathalie Teitler FRSA and access to experts drawn from the poetry world and beyond. Nathalie has run literature programmes promoting diversity in the UK for over 20 years, founding the first national mentoring and translation programmes for writers living in exile. She is the Director of The Complete Works – a national development programme that helped to raise the number of Black and Asian poets published by major presses.
The Winners:
Romalyn Ante
Romalyn Ante is an award-winning Filipino-born, Wolverhampton-based poet, translator, editor and essayist. She is co-founding editor of harana poetry, an online magazine for poets writing in English as a second or parallel language, and her accolades include the Poetry London Prize, Manchester Poetry Prize, Society of Author’s Foundation Award, Developing Your Creative Practice, Creative Future Literary Award, amongst others. Apart from being a writer, she also works full-time as a nurse practitioner, specializing in providing different psychotherapeutic treatments.
Dzifa Benson
Dzifa Benson is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work intersects science, art, the body and ritual, which she explores through poetry, prose, theatre-making, performance, essays and criticism. She has performed nationally and internationally for Tate Britain, the Courtauld Institute of Art, BBC Africa Beyond and more, and she abridged the National Youth Theatre’s 2021 production of Othello in collaboration with Olivier award-winning director Miranda Cromwell.
Jamie Hale
Jamie Hale is a poet, script/screenwriter and essayist based in London, whose work often explores the disabled body, nature, and mortality. Their pamphlet, Shield – about disability, treatment prioritisation, and the COVID-19 pandemic was published in January 2020. Their solo poetry show, NOT DYING, was performed at the Lyric Hammersmith and Barbican Centre in 2019, and the filmed version has screened nationally and internationally since. Jamie is also the founder of CRIPtic Arts, an organisation showcasing and developing work by and for d/Deaf and disabled creatives.
How they were selected:
The three recipients were selected from a strong field of nominees by award-winning poet and writer Joelle Taylor; writer, performer, and facilitator Yomi Ṣode (Jerwood Compton Poetry fellow 2019); and award-winning poet Pascale Petit.
Nominations were made by a pool of over 200 specialists nationally including poets, publishers, editors, literary development agencies, artists, funders and festival organisers.
Selector Joelle Taylor said: ”The task of selecting only three Fellows from a longlist of 86 poets was a painful process. Each of the poets we saw were of an international standard, committed to their practice and the changes they wish to see in their work. We made decisions based not only who was ‘best’ but on who it felt most essential to support. The three Fellows we chose are at an urgent moment in their careers. They stand at a crossroads within their art, compelled to make substantial changes, to forge new narratives, to develop in a way that would not be possible without support from Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships.”
Extracts: Dzifa Benson
For the Love of Hendrik de Jongh, Drummer from Batavia
i In the beginning, he was my lord of the 6 weeks. When !Kaub showed the dark side of his face again, I had to slough off my lover’s name.
ii You are on the other side of the water. Here, my forehead touches only air. I map the radiant places of your body the seams of my skin brittle and ablaze.
iii Even when the rise and fall of our ribcages insist we are still here, I try to live above the flood. I breathe you in. You breathe me out. The world, in rain-wind and dilate-sun, leans in to learn which way to carve the howling sweep of years.
iv You asked: What parts of you are unknown to me? I answered: This too muchness of self in its not enoughness.
v Day empties through us as a Cape sugarbird sparkles thinly in the shadows. You let me follow you into your dreams. Vast night looks in, open-mouthed, leads us by a nose of buchu into its fluid corners on the //Stars Road. Our eyes don’t close. I want to bury the chameleon of this love in a secret place of nerve and sinew while we wait for the mantis to sing the !Great Hunger to sleep.
vi If I arrived at your voice again would it fatten into a new kind of passing time, pour down my back into this thousand years hollow of my spine? Your memory breathes warmth over my skin. My body catches it like when our astonished spirits were every crashing leaf on every tree, when our hallowed hands cupped soft curving and fingered lean meat.
vii You never left. We endured. I was still denied.
viii My I was him. In order to live I had to use the knife between us.
Lusus Naturae at Bartholomew Fair: Natural-Born, Made and Fake
Ms Harvey’s eyes and hair made people weak at the knees with an uncommon fervour
They say I look like an angel with my hair the pale straw colour of the silkworm’s thread my eyes, a shade lighter than Indian pink. They say I’m impertinent without being impolite while maintaining a proper feminine dignity. Yet the mob at Glasgow Fair was so unaffected by my beauty, it turned me out of my cosy booth as it also turned out a showful of wild beasts.
Ms Hipson, the tall Dutchwoman, dreams of dancing with a man tall enough to make her feel delicate
I cannot stand silence so it’s the glee and the din of the stage for me. I sway among rafters to the patter of the gaffer, to the gauge of long drum and hurdy-gurdy. I am a spiritual sister of giraffe-necked women, daughter of a stilt-walking Titan. Home is sawdust and greasepaint. Kin is the spit-snarl of the rabble, half-cut with pale ale.
Ms Morgan, the Windsor Fairy, excited in the breasts of dukes sensations of wonder and delight
It’s a big world and I’m a little person. Blood can be flowers or the very last thing you ever see. Even walking can seem like a uncanny thing when you are a simulacrum of woman, when something has been left behind. It’s a strange tongue, this one my body has to speak. But please, do not mistake the smallness of my anatomy for the smallness of a life.
Ms Sidonia married twice and retired a wealthy woman
God sent me this beard, I will not take it off! How else would they notice me? This visage is a lure, toast of the mob, I am a sight to silence the baying crowd. I cheated death, I fought and won. That makes me beautiful. I bow now to the deities who live in my whiskers.
Ms Hopwood silenced the room when they lifted her out of the womb
They look at me as if this embarrassment of limbs protruding from my chest is an act of war committed against them. A wound, God in the shape of a jest, the flight of chimaeras in hurricanes. My body is surely not the most hospitable of hosts, cobbled together in taverns and fairgrounds, in excess of the natural order of things. They can’t imagine what I choose to believe in this armour.
Ms Vaughn of the piebald skin is also a trick-roper of royal lineage
Your bodies were given to you, not chosen by you. You take your bodies for granted so you don’t exist to me. When you thought of a daughter, you never expected this. Shrivelled apple for a face, my epidermis a hot to the touch patchwork of failed answers. Myth is your yawning maw. I am the mooncalf who comes and goes. After the fifth time my mother marked me so she would know me again in other lives.
Ms Baartman wears her sense of self tightly, she musn’t let it float free
Here I am ripe and raw, carved root fashioned as woman. Stone born from the brow of a dark mother whose many limbs speak in tongues of glinting silver and singeing iron. I hang like a curtain skirting the stage, my cloth pouring down endlessly. These watchers, black holes where their hearts should be, would walk right through me. They see in me the things they would do to themselves if they were me. Who marked me while I was in the womb? Who would curse me? I prance up and down these floorboards to keep from weeping, sing myself away over and over again with the same red song.
THE ELEVENTH NOVEL IN THE BESTSELLING SHIPYARD GIRLS SERIES
Sunderland, 1944
As the promise of victory draws closer, this Christmas will surely be one to remember.
It should be a magical time for Dorothy, who has just been proposed to by her sweetheart Toby. But with each day that passes, Dorothy’s feelings for someone else are growing stronger. Now she has an impossible choice to make.
Gloria is thrilled that her sweetheart Jack is finally home after more than two years away. But his past is continuing to catch up with them both – creating untold heartache for Gloria and everyone she holds dear.
Meanwhile Helen must contend with the fall-out of a shocking family secret that has repercussions for all the Shipyard Girls, while holding out hope for her own happy ending…
Can a little festive magic help them win the day?
The Shipyard Girls Under The Mistletoe is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
I’ve been a huge fan of this series from the start so a new book is always cause for great excitement. This is actually the second to last Shipyard Girls book ever (sob) so while I was excited to read and to see where the story would go I was also trying to read a bit slowly so I could drink in every bit.
It was lovely to be back with the girls and to catch up on their lives. The author has a great way of writing her characters so the reader feels they really know them and I loved feeling part of their group. In this book the story focussed on Helen, Gloria and Dorothy which was great for me as I’ve always had a soft spot for Gloria. Helen has taken a while to grow on me but she’s also one of my favourites now. I particularly like how happy she is being accepted as part of the group, it always makes me smile.
As always there as lots of action in this book cleverly tied in to some actual events in the war which was very interesting to learn more about. The introduction of the horrible Miriam and her wicked father certainly helped create some drama filed moments. I’m very nervous to see what they’ll do next. Alongside the action there were one wonderfully heart warming moments and some lovely festive moments which I always love.
This book could be read as a standalone as the author does a great job in recapping the story but it probably is best to read them in order.
Huge thanks to Sarah Hardwood for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Nancy Revell is the author of the Shipyard Girls series, which is set in the north-east of England during World War II.
She is a former journalist who worked for all the national newspapers, providing them with hard-hitting news stories and in-depth features. Nancy also wrote amazing and inspirational true life stories for just about every woman’s magazine in the country.
When she first started writing the Shipyard Girls series, Nancy relocated back to her hometown of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, along with her husband, Paul, and their English bull mastiff, Rosie. They now live just a short walk away from the beautiful award-winning beaches of Roker and Seaburn, within a mile of where the books are set.
The subject is particularly close to Nancy’s heart as she comes from a long line of shipbuilders, who were well known in the area.
Good afternoon everyone today on Tunes For Tuesday I’m featuring The Past Is A Foreign Place the fantastic new EP from Joey Collins.
Joey is a full time musician from Nottingham in the UK. I first discovered him on twitch where he streams multiple times each week. Joey’s streams are always great fun to hang out in as he has a fantastic community and always makes me smile with his cheeky humour.
If you would like to follow Joey on twitch or social media you can do so by clicking on the links below.
The Past Is A Foreign Place is the fourth EP Joey has released and includes six amazing songs:
1. Feed Me Your Love 2. Fade Out 3. The Abyss 4. Family 5. London Town 6. Where Is My Mind?
It is available on all major streaming platforms and available to buy on Bandcamp which is one of the best ways to support musicians. I have included the YouTube video from two of my personal favourites from the EP below.
Joey was kind enough to answer some questions for me last time he was featured on my blog so you can read more about Joey and his music from Joey himself by clicking on the link below.
Over The Rainbow Blog 