Hobbies and Crafts

SuffolkVera - Just started reading it & it's a light-hearted discussion/summary of the many interconnections between the UK & France over the years. Some hilarious historical insults are included.

But it is educational too & spruces up some of our mundane history lessons we had to endure at school.

Well worth a read.

I saw that book in W H Smith’s yesterday Dermot. Is it any good?

I had a Smith’s gift card to spend. I dithered for ages over different books and eventually got “Queens of the Conquest” by Alison Weir. It’s about 5 women who were influential in the century after the 1066 conquest. I’ll add it to my growing pile of unread books :-)

'1,000 Years of Annoying the French' by Stephen Clarke. ;-)

Started reading In a Class of Their Own by Millie Gray.

Bought it ages ago and it's so funny.

Read so far>>>>>> A Scottish mother who wants a better life for her children
and hounds the Council to move them to better housing.
Her husband earns very little but she makes him see the better life they can have.
The husband can't believe they have a toilet for themselves
and not have to share it with 40 other tenants.

:-)

Finished Three Queens, Three Sisters by Phillipa Gregory.

I enjoyed the book but thought it repetitive at times.

I’ve got four new books today. It’s my birthday and one present I received was a book called Blood Sisters by Sarah Gristwood. I don’t know this author but the book is about the royal women involved in the Wars of the Roses. I think it is a factual book rather than a Philippa Gregory type novel.

Then we went to Anglesey Abbey and I had to look in the second hand book shop didn’t I? I picked up 3 paperbacks for £1 each and they all look new. I got Innocent Traitor which is a book about Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir, Last Act in Palmyra which is one of Lindsey Davis’ Falco novels, and The Time of Singing by Elizabeth Chadwick.

As I also have some unread books on my Kindle I am looking forward to a few weeks of good reading :-D

Just downloaded Letters from Amelia by Jean L Backus
onto my kindle.
It is of course about her life to her early death. Amelia Earhart's
letters that her mother kept for years. Her mother never believed she was dead.

Another book added to my long store
:-)

Dermot, you can find a lot of interesting and fun facts from these dip in and out books. They can be very useful if you like quizzing.

I had an email from my local library to say they had got C J Sansom’s “Heartstone” in for me so I went to collect it. I haven’t started it yet as I am part way through another book but I shall have to get a move on. It’s a long book and I won’t be able to renew it as there is a waiting list for it.

Dermot why am I not surprised.

Mersey I had forgotten Anita Butgh, used to read her books.

Don't laugh!

'The Penguin Dictionary Of English Idioms' by Daphne M Gulland & David Hinds-Howell. (Penguin Books Ltd 1986)

It's the sort of publication that can be opened at any page to gain some exciting & unexpected information.

Hi lovely bookworms :-D :-D <3 <3 Hope all is well with you lovely lot


Not been on for a while, planning a wedding and all things to go with it, also
had a lot of things going on at the moment, so not had much chance to read.

I am still choosing to read actual books at the moment rather than me kindle,

I started readingThe House At Harcourt by Anita Burgh this morning

It is 1859. Eliza Forester is left motherless at the tender age of three when her father orders his wife from the house, accusing her of infidelity. He keeps the child, not out of love since he is certain she is not his, but to spite his wife. Her name is never mentioned at Harcourt Barton, the beautiful Jacobean house and estate near Exeter owned by Eliza's father. Eliza grows up believing her mother is dead.
Her happiest times are spent with Ruby and Jerome, the children of tenant farmers on her father's estate. When, at sixteen, Eliza's innocent friendship with Jerome turns to love, Eliza - like her mother - is banished to London to live with her aunt. Her father, determined she will make a 'good' match, lies to her that Jerome has married, and forces her to wed aristocratic, dissolute Hedworth Lambton. It is the greatest mistake of her life . . .

Happy reading!!

As always thank you for your posts and reads

<3 <3

Enjoy your book Elizabeth. You’ve now given me another one to add to my “To be read” list which gets longer and longer every day. I do like Anne Cleves and I enjoy the Shetland series on TV

Am about to take "Wild Fire" by Anne Cleeves off my my wish list as i need a treat!

I’ve been reading a few “genealogical mysteries” over the last couple of weeks.

“The Somme Legacy” and “The Irish Inheritance” are both by M J Lee and feature Jayne Sinclair, ex police detective turned professional genealogist. I got a bit irritated at times as she seemed to be constantly clicking on FindMyPast and getting the information she wanted. However I did find the historical background to the two novels interesting, particularly “The Irish Inheritance”, where the background was the Irish troubles around the 1910-1920 period and the Easter uprising.

The other book I read was “Letters from the Dead” by Steve Robinson, number 7 in his Jefferson Tayte series. It is based around a series of letters from an English woman in India in the 1800s and flits around between nineteenth century India and modern day Scotland. I usually like this series but found this one disappointing. Not enough real genealogy and too many murders.

On another subject, a little while ago I downloaded Libby, the library app, after it was mentioned on here. A couple of months ago I “reserved” C J Sansom’s “ Heartstone” and was told I was 11th in a queue of 11. I thought it odd there would be this queue for an ebook as I presumed lots of people could read it at the same time. Today, as I hadn’t heard anything I checked on the app. I am now no.11 of 14 and I have discovered that the library service doesn’t have this ebook, and doesn’t know when or if they are going to get it :-S. So why are they letting people reserve it? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Anyway I have now ordered a paper back version from our local library :-)

Vera am enjoying it so far, it's about time I read
about my Scottish history for a change :-)

Emma, I read that one a while ago and found it very enjoyable. It was good for me as I learnt a bit of Scottish history from it.

Now reading Three Queens, Three Sisters by Phillipa Gregory.

Ann so many books to read and not enough time :-)

Must stop adding to collection but ...... :-D

thanks Emma, will bear them in mind. Although I really should read the books on my shelves first. :-D

Finished the trilogy and if you enjoy reading history
I recommend these three books.

Now reading the Autumn Throne the last in the
trilogy about Eleanor of Aquataine.

She was a very wealthy and powerful woman in her own right.

Henry11 , was power mad even to the detriment of not sharing
his land with his sons.
He trusted no one except his mother even though he did not
take her advice. It was always his way or no way.

Eleanor loved all her children but her favourite was Richard,
he inherited her lands which she guarded throughout her life.
Henry imprisoned her falsely for plotting with her children
to overthrow him. She saw or spoke to no one in those years..

She was stubborn and always challenged him in all his decisions.

This last book goes to her release from Sarnum where she was
imprisoned.