Having agreed on a format for the meetings, the first proper get-together involved six of us each choosing one or two books to recommend along with a short reading, followed by a discussion about each in an informal setting, taking turns to host the meetings.

The books discussed this month were on a wide variety of subjects starting with Enzo the dog re-counting his and his family’s lives together, an involved and moving tail of the relationship between family and pet from the dog’s point of view. Garth Stein, ‘The art of racing in the rain’.

After this was a book set in Russia by the author of ‘Gorky Park’ Martin Cruz Smith. This novel was set in Tokyo beginning in the nineteen twenties up to just before the bombing of Pearl Harbour and follows the story of Harry, the son of American missionaries brought up there trying to survive  the complexities of the Japanese culture, ‘Tokyo Station’.

Another author recommended was Stella Gibbons, born in 1902 who worked as a journalist before writing prolifically from the 1930’s onwards. Her most popular book being ‘Cold comfort farm’ a comic story of a young lady’s relocation from bustling London after the death of her parents to the home of her country cousins buried deep in the Sussex countryside on a run-down decaying farm. A clever and amusing romp among the stables and haystacks with delightfully written characters at every turn.

Next up was a ‘What if’ story creating an alternative world where JFK wasn’t assassinated…..What would our world be like had he lived? Fall deep into a dark conspiracy as you follow the story of one bullet that missed, one that killed and one that changed the world. ‘3 bullets’ by R.J Ellory.

Followed by a dark historical account set against the backdrop of the second Boer war at the turn of the twentieth century came next. A story of British run ‘concentration camps’ in Lesoto, (a landlocked kingdom surrounded on all sides by South Africa) built specifically to imprison the displaced Boer families whose land they were pillaging.  a particularly shameful and shady period of time in the history of  British overseas ‘interests’. ’The Undesirables’ by Dave Boling who also wrote a detailed historical novel about the Spanish civil war- ‘Guernica’

The next was a series of books in the forensic mystery solving genre, Ellie Griffiths ‘Dr Ruth Galloway’series, for those who have an interest in the ‘bones’ of a good story. 

Have you seen ‘Vera’ and ‘Shetland’ on the tv? Ann Cleves wrote the novels behind the series, which as usual are much more detailed than the series and allow for much deeper character development while delving into complexities of the criminal mind and the methods of the detectives who seek to solve the crimes.

The final choice was ‘Pied Piper’ by Neville Chute, famous for his war time survival saga, ‘A town like Alice’.  In this book John Howards fishing holiday in France is rudely interrupted when the Nazis invade and he must try to escape back to England, taking with him the children of his friends who stay behind to help in the allied defence. In the midst of the conflict on the convoluted path back home he manages to collect five more waifs and strays, constantly beset by danger but heroically protecting his young charges. A war time story with a difference!

 I hope you like our selection for this this month and manage to track down one or two that take your fancy,

Julie Turpin