Polly and Pals Put on a Talent Show! by Vinay Nair Rather a different review from the usual. Why? Well, this delightful little book, aimed at one to three year olds, hasn’t...

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Florence Foster Jenkins by Nicholas Martin (screenplay) and Jasper Rees (biography) (The Inspiring True Story of the World’s Worst Singer) – Published by Pan Books, 2016 You’ve seen (or heard of) the film, now...

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Cry of the Gulls by Kate Ryder – Published by Create Space Romantic fiction, written by a Cornwall based author, this is a many layered book with vivid descriptions of landscapes, intertwining characters...

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The Amber Shadows by Lucy Ribchester – Published by Simon & Schuster in 2016 It’s 1942 and Honey Deschamps is a so-called typist in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park. One night she bumps...

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The Night Manager by John Le Carré – Published by Hodder and Stoughton, 1991 and by Penguin (with Afterword by the author), 2016 No prizes for guessing why I decided to re-read this...

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Iris Grace by Arabella Carter-Johnson – Published by Penguin, 2016 Iris Grace was born in 2009. She was eventually diagnosed as having severe autism. He parents tried many things to try to include...

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A Gardener’s Latin (The Language of Plants Explained) by Richard Bird – Published by National Trust books This book is a lot more user-friendly than you might imagine from the title. Once you...

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The Extraordinary life of Frank Derrick, age 81 – By J.B. Morrison – Published by Pan in 2014 From the blurb on the cover I expected something along the lines of the wonderfully quirky...

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The Big Christmas Rescue by Rory Stamp, illustrated by Hannah Cumming (A personalised adventure book available from and sold in aid of the RNLI) If shops can open their Christmas departments in...

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Doodling For Cat People by Gemma Correll Published by Walter Foster, 2015 Part colouring book, part guide to drawing, part notebook, part life story (mine by the sound of it, although I’ve...

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