Book Review: Not if I see you First / Eric Lindstrom / Teenage

 

Published by Harper Collins

Running. Everyone does it to some extent if only to catch the bus, chase after a friend. There are others who run marathons, run just around the block, some enjoy running every weekend. I sometimes see runners who run the canal bank which I can see from my study window.

Could you run though, if you couldn’t see? Would you dare to? I’m not sure I would – there are so many obstacles to get in the way – not just inanimate objects / landscape, all those people too, dogs, cats, and if I ran across my local common – there are cows as well – and they would probably come and stare at me, without my knowing they were there.

So, I’m not sure I would.

This is the story of a runner. A runner who can’t see. Who still runs. Regularly. There are some concessions she makes – she knows how many paces it takes to cross various areas of land – but basically she runs on her own and so she runs always in the dark.

It is also the story of recovery. Bravery – and not just because running when you are blind takes a lot of courage anyway. It is the story of a father, and his relationship with his daughter, of families, success and fundamentally relationships.

It is a story that is emotional, driven, touching and one you won’t forget – it is superb.

I read my proof a little while ago – so I’m late reviewing it – actually it got into the wrong pile again, and I have just found it. Many apologies, I thought I had, but on checking  found I hadn’t. Better late they say…

I am more embarrassed than I can say – this again found its way into the ‘saved’ folder and wasn’t published – last updated a month ago…

I will now publish it without further ado.

 

Book Review: Knights of the Borrowed Dark/ Dave Rudden /12 +

Published by Puffin Books

We have all at some time or another wondered what ‘that’ is in the shadows. More often than not it’s just a shadow, cast by an old coat, a tree, sometimes by something more, an animal standing still and looking back, perhaps also wondering what ‘that’ is, that thing standing so still, casting a shadow that it can’t quite make out.

This is about shadows; the absence of light.

It is not about what makes shadows, but about them, the shadows themselves – those dark areas that shape our world.

It is about families and friendship, bravery, life and death…

As is the way of things, it is also about the opposite of shadows; it is also about light – and a boy, Denizen Hardwick, brought up in an orphanage without knowing anything at all about his history, apart from his birthday. Which at the beginning of the book he has recently celebrated – he is now 13 – an important age for many, but an extraordinary age for him.

A very clever and dark tale – which I loved –  not to be read by those of a nervous disposition in the twilight. Better to wait for the morning and sunshine. Perhaps in a garden in Tuscany…

You might be safe there…

 

Book Review: Eliza Rose / Lucy Worsley / Teenage

Published by Bloomsbury

There is something about the Tudors. So much so I once caused consternation by explaining to a group of primary school boys that for me, history begins with them…and everything else then hangs off the dynasty – either backwards in time or towards the future. I’m afraid they were a little puzzled at first and then a bit shocked that an adult should think in this rather illogical fashion. Except for me it isn’t. Why not start with the bits you enjoy and then place everything around it – rather like starting in the middle of a time line puzzle…

You really can’t beat Henry VIII and his six wives for drama and for being just a human story – we know a great deal, I suspect guess quite a bit about what happened, but also know so very little too.

This is essentially the story of Katherine Howard, the one who was beheaded, before the last Queen who survived in that rather useful poem – Divorced, Beheaded, Died. Divorced Beheaded, Survived. I find the whole episode of Henry the Eighth’s drive to father a son and the repercussions of it, unbelievably sad, and have always thought that Katherine (and Anne Boleyn) perhaps wasn’t quite as she has often been depicted, in Katherine’s case as a wanton lass (and Anne’s as a witch…)

That the circumstances around Henry’s matrimonial problems, were often part of the reasons why people behaved the way they did, and often the result of just being between a rock and a hard place. Who can say why Henry only managed to produce three children? It is interesting that he was after all the common denominator in all the relationships.

Eliza Rose is Lucy Worsley’s interpretation of this part of Tudor history – Anne of Cleves and Katherine’s rise and subsequent fall. It has more depth than many of the Tudor histories I have read that have been written for young readers. Lucy Worsley’s knowledge of how palaces worked means that it fits together better, runs more smoothly and was a real pleasure to read, even though I knew the outcome of the story.

Eliza Rose is a fictional character inserted into history – a ploy that sometimes doesn’t work. In this case Lucy’s depiction of her character, and what happens to her are believable to the degree I had to check as to whether she really was a piece of imagination or had lived and was a character I just hadn’t heard about.

There was without doubt more to the tale of Henry and his six wives.

The demands were different, as were expectations. Attitudes and beliefs were different. Henry might well have been a despot. I think he was also a human, with human frailties, hopes, desires, and fears. As for his queens – all I think were victims of circumstance, some the result of just taking one too many chances (and who hasn’t done that, at least once in their lives), as well as being as brave, naïve and just caught up in other’s and their own hopes and dreams.

I really enjoyed this – I hope Katherine had someone like Eliza Rose in her life. In this book they may have been inadvertent rivals, but were also caught in the same circumstances.

I hope that Lucy will write more books about the Tudor period – this I carried around with me for 48 odd hours, and frantically searched the house late last night so I could read it before I went to sleep; only to find I’d left it in the car. Finished this evening…a very satisfactory retelling of a very traumatic story.