Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read 2020

To vote please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below. If you are unable to leave your vote there please let me know your 1st and 2nd choices via Purple Coo 'Behind the Bike Sheds' Book Group Comments. Or you can PM me if that suits you better. Once all the votes are in, the book that gets the most votes becomes our Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read for 2020.

Grown Ups by Marian Keyes

A family saga set in Ireland, a self-made business woman is trying to run her life and hold all her family together, lots of twists and turns in relationships to keep you reading and wanting more.

The Beekeeper’s Promise by Fiona Valpy

Set mostly in the South West France before and during WW2 the book follows the stories of two women, one English and once French, generations apart, who must use adversity to their advantage and fond the resilience deep within.

The Once and Future King by T H White

As it’s a sequence of novels we’d better go for the first one of this truly epic series that are all based on Le Morte d’Arthur. So on offer is The Sword in the Stone - not the Disney version.

Till the Cows Come Home by Sara Cox

A heart-warming memoir of a Lancashire childhood by a well know BBC radio and TV presenter.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I can honestly say this is the most original book I’ve read for a very long time. Set in the coastal marshes of North Carolina, it’s a murder mystery, a most unusual coming of age story and a lyrical celebration of nature all at the same time.

Purple Coo Book Group Spring 2020

To vote for your preferred books for our Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019 please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below.

If for an reason you are unable to write your comment in there, please let me know your two favourites via the Facebook Book Group comments box. 

As soon as everyone has voted I'll add up the votes and the book with the most votes becomes our Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019.

Mr Godley’s Phantom by Mal Peet

Set in 1945, ‘part ghost story, part crime thriller and part something else entirely.’

Martin Heath returns from the war a broken man, but his new employer, a strange and preoccupied recluse, has his own hidden demons to deal with. (Something close to a masterpiece – The Guardian)

Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

A witty and humorous travelogue following Bill Bryson’s extensive 1990 trip around Europe, with many flashbacks to two summer tours he made as a young man in 1972/73

Surviving Me by Jo Johnson

The story of an out of work young man in a crisis, Surviving Me  tends to focus on the challenges facing men today by dealing with depression, dysfunctional families and degenerative disease in an honest, life affirming and often humorous way.

The Crock of Gold by James Stephens

First published in 1912, and widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest novels in the Irish comic tradition, The Crock of Gold is a medley of fantasy, satire and humour all wound up in a magical narrative.

The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary

Written in 1942, just seven months before the authors untimely death, this book is considered to be one of the classic texts of World War II

(Not the easiest reading but well worth the effort)

(The picture is A change in the Seasons by Cheryl Culver)

 

 

Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019

To vote for your preferred books for our Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019 please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below.

If for an reason you are unable to write your comment in there, please let me know your two favourites via the Facebook Book Group comments box. 

As soon as everyone has voted I'll add up the votes and the book with the most votes becomes our Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2019.

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

A series of brilliant vignettes set in the cannery district of Monterey USA during the Great Depression. Disturbing but life affirming, a truly Great American Novel.

Bookworm by Lucy Mangan

An all absorbing memoir of what is was like to be a bookish child in Margaret Thatcher’s South London.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

A coming of age story. Over 6 turbulent months 17 year old Cassandra relates the adventures of her eccentric family and their struggle to live in genteel poverty in a ruined Suffolk castle during 1930s.

Love is Blind by William Boyd

Set at the end of the 19^th C young musician Brodie Moncur seizes the chance to flee his strict Edinburgh father to start a new life in Paris. A typical Boyd tale of dizzying passion, dangerous consequences and brutal revenge.

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

The real life secret diaries of a junior doctor, now turned successful comedy writer, this book is almost too painfully truthful and very nearly as painfully funny.

(The picture is A Hinds Daughter by James Guthrie)

Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read 2019

Remember, to choose your preferred books for our Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read 2019, all you have to do is make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below. If you are unable to comment for any reason, let me know your two favourites via the Purple Coo Main Site or tell me through Face Book, Behind the Bike Sheds.  As soon as everyone has voted I'll publish our favourite and that becomes our Purple Coo summer choice. I think you'll agree we've got something  to suit everyone this time. 

All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison

It’s 1933 and young Edie is all set to spend her life, like her family before her, on an impoverished Suffolk farm when an outsider from London arrives, determined to record what she see as fading rural traditions and beliefs. But this glamorous stranger is not all that she seems. This is a novel about how in the wrong hands, nostalgia can wield a dangerous and seductive power.

My Kind of Blue by Ken Clark

The memoir of a well-respected Tory maverick and jazz aficionado.

Sea Room by Adam Nicholson

Aged 21 the 5th Baron Carnock, hubby to Sarah Raven and grandson of Vita Sackville West, inherited the Shiant Islands, not far from the Isle of Harris and Lewis, to his mind one of the most beautiful places on earth. Sea room is an island history of birds, boat, hermits, fisher folk mixed in with the perils and pleasures of island living.

The Olive Tree by Lucinda Riley

The complex nature of relationships, families and family ties, lies and deceptions, love and intrigue. Set mostly in Cyprus, the story centres on a house called Pandora and those who have been touched and influenced by its magic.

The Templar’s Last Secret by Martin Walker

Bruno, gourmand and beloved chief of police in idyllic St Denis in the Dordogne sets out to unravel what lies behind a mysterious death and in so doing brings some ancient mysteries to light. An enjoyable Maigret type thriller and a celebration of French rural cuisine.

 The picture is  an illustration by Arthur Rackham for The Three Bears

Purple Coo Book Group Spring 2019

Now's the time to choose the next title for our Purple Coo Book Group Spring Read. If you fancy joining in, and remember all are welcome, please note your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below. If for any reason you are unable to write in the comments box please let me know your choices via Face Book or Purple Coo.  The book with most votes becomes our Spring Read for 2019.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

A US bestselling story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91 year old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and a teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one ever thought to ask.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Described as a bit like Eleanor Oliphant only about a boy and set in Milton Keynes. It’s really a novel about difference and being an outsider who views the world in a surprising and revealing way. (Mark Haddon insists he didn't intend it to be about high-functioning autism, what do you think?)

The End of the Affair by Grahame Green

Obsession and jealously within an adulterous triangular relationship. Set in WW2 this is fourth and probably the best of Green’s so-called “Catholic Novels,” and a hundred times better than the two films.

The Unseen by Katherine Webb

Occult happenings, romantic passion and murder disrupt the peace of a Berkshire village in 1911.

Wish You Were Here by Graham Swift

 A testing and powerful story about a family and their farm: history, loss and disaster, love and relationships in a rural setting ... oh yes, and a dash of politics too.

The picture is Hares by Angela Harding

Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2018

To vote for your favourite books please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below, or let me know via the Purple Coo site or on Face Book, Behind the Bike Sheds. After a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site.

Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley

First published in 1921 and Aldous Huxley’s debut novel, Chrome Yellow is a witty satire on upper-class English country life and is seen to be a parody of Garsington Manor, the home of Lady Ottoline Morrell.

Educated by Tara Westover

The memoir of a woman who, at 17 and completely uneducated, manages to escape from her fundamentalist Mormon family living a survivalist life in the Idaho mountains and become a successful academic.

Engerby by Sebastian Faulks

“My name is Mike Engerby and I’m in my second year at an ancient university,” is how Faulks introduces the character who turns out to be this gifted novelist's most difficult to fathom, odd and not particularly likeable, unreliable narrator.

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

Set in 1988, The Music Shop follows record shop owner Frank who has the rare gift of finding the perfect piece of music to remedy any emotional or psychological woes his customers may be suffering from. However his cosy world is under threat, not only from record companies plugging CDs rather than his beloved vinyl, but also the developers who would like to knock his shop down. And yes, there is a love story as well.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

A surprisingly joyous book based around a young woman’s tragically profound loneliness. A disturbing and unusual novel seen through the eyes of an extremely unreliable narrator, that somehow manages to be both eye wateringly hilarious and heartrendingly moving, often both on the same page.

The picture is by Grandma Moses. I couldn't find out it's name but it does make me think autumn is on the way.

Purple Coo Book Group Summer 2018

To vote for your favourite books please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below, or let me know via the Purple Coo site or on Behind the Bike Sheds, Face Book. After a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site. 

Bring Me Back by B. A. Paris

A young couple on a driving holiday through France stop to get petrol. He goes to pay, she disappears. Sounds like an all too familiar trope, but this really is a well written, gripping thriller with a killer twist.

Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss

A subtle and complicated book written from two points of view. A retired successful New York lawyer and a well-known novelist with writers block, are irresistibly dawn to visit Israel to rethink their existence. Only once they are there, they find their lives being altered in a way they could never have imagined.

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

The Kites by Romain Gary

A novel of love and human dilemmas in France set in the period of the Occupation. A bittersweet masterpiece about enduring love, courage and resistance.

Scenes from a Vanished Life by Rose Tremain

An evocation of an era, Rose Tremain’s account of her unhappy upper-class childhood from post-war London to a Swiss finishing school.

The picture is Black Cat with Lily by Elizabeth Blackadder

Purple Coo Book Group Spring Read 2018

To vote for your favourite books please type your 1st and 2nd choices either in the comments box below, or let me  know via the Purple Coo site or on Behind the Bike Sheds, Facebook. After a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site.

Old Filth by Jane Gardam

The story of Old Filth. (Failed in London Try Hong Kong!) An unwanted child of the Raj is packed off home to be fostered and educated in Britain before World War 2 and later becomes a renowned international lawyer and high court judge … sounds dry and boring? No, Sir Edward Feathers, aka Eddie, Teddy, The Judge, Fevvers, Filth and Master of the Inner Temple, is a complex man with something to hide. A wonderful telling of a complex and characterful old man’s life story.

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

This really is Shaun Bythell’s wry and hilarious diary of the coming and goings in and around his book shop in the rural seaside town of Wigtown, Scotland. A charming emporium, warmed by roaring fires, with nigh on 100,000 books arranged along twisting corridors of shelves, this sounds like it must be a veritable paradise to both work in and peruse books, but you’ll have to read it to find out the truth. This is a truly gorgeous and sometimes laugh out loud book for anyone who loves the whole panoply of book owning and browsing.

The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan

Gwenni Morgan is not like any other 12 year old girl in a small Welsh town. Inquisitive, bookish and full of spirit, she can fly in her sleep and loves playing detective. So when a neighbour mysteriously vanishes, and no one seems to be asking the right questions, Gwenni decides to conduct her own investigation.

An unforgettable novel full of dark secrets, acclaimed as one of the most successful debuts of 2009. Heart breaking yet hugely enjoyable.

Village Christmas by Laurie Lee

A short, nostalgic collection of Laurie Lee’s jottings and writings, mostly set around the village of Slad, his home in Gloucestershire and many of them previously unpublished. Broadcast on Radio 4 over Christmas you may have heard some already, but they are far, far better in the book. (I know, I had it for Christmas too, Fennie.)

The picture is The Journey of the Three Kings by Tissot

Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2017

To vote for your favourite books please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, following a count up, I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo  main site and in Behind the Bike Sheds on Facebook. If you are unable to vote below, please let me know your choice via the Purple Coo main site or via Facebook

A Life of My Own by Claire Tomalin

The autobiography of a talented writer better known for her works on the lives of other authors such as Austen, Hardy and Dickens.

Mount by Jilly Cooper

An effortless easy to read book about bonking and horses – need I say more?

Pekin to Paris by Dina Bennett

A true story of how Mr and Mrs Bennett buy a vintage 1940 GM La Salle and, despite having the day dreaming, carsick Dina as navigator, actually set off on a 7,800 mile race from China, across Mongolia, Russia, taking in the Baltic States, Poland and Germany along the way, with the intention of ending up in the Place de Vendome Paris 35 days later.

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Two girls, both mixed race and from similar backgrounds, have an overwhelming love of dance and musical theatre. Friends since childhood, they grow up to follow very different destinies, one is a super-talented dancer, the other merely as dogsbody PA to an international rock star. (Man Booker short list 2017)

Skin Deep by Laura Wilkinson

When struggling art student and former exploited child model, Diana sets out to liberate the disfigured child, Cal from his world of enforced isolation among the low life of Manchester’s Hulme Estate, she maintains she’s acting in the child’s best interests. But Diana, ambitious for success in the avant-garde art world also recognises the vulnerable Cal as her muse.  But triumph and fame means Diana must follow an increasingly bizarre path, one that brings her into conflict with the needs of the now teenage Cal.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

It’s 1893 and newly widowed Cora Seaborne and her troubled son move away from London for the promise of fresh air and refuge in Colchester. Once there Cora, a keen and rational amateur naturalist, becomes embroiled in the Essex Serpent myth, a legendary beast said to be back roaming the Aldwinter coast. Suspecting an undiscovered species, she sets out to find out the truth, only to find herself entangled in a local legend, and the life of Aldwinter’s charismatic vicar as well

The painting is Pines and Tracks by the very talented Cheryl Culver

Purple Coo Book Group Summer Read 2017

To vote for your favourite books please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, following a count up, I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo  main site and in Behind the Bike Sheds on Facebook. If you are unable to vote below, please let me know your choice via the Purple Coo main site or via Facebook

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

One of the great novels of its time, this is James Joyce’s first book and it traces the religious and intellectual awaking of Stephen Dedalus, Joyce’s fictional alter ego. The ‘hero’ questions and rebels against Irish conventional life, in particular the repressive strictures of the Catholic Church, 

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

An amusing high comedy. It’s the 1950s and a clergyman’s daughter/mild mannered spinster – an excellent woman – manages to get totally embroiled in the lives of her new neighbours. This book opens up and lays bare a whole world of vanished manners and repressed desires.

Sarum by Edward Rutherford

A masterpiece epic novel over 1000 pages long, Sarum traces the turbulent course of British History via five families. In so doing it covers a rich tapestry of civilization through the ages, from the creation of Stonehenge to the present day.

The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

At only 140 pages, this book is a jewel. A young workaholic couple rent a cottage on a large estate near Tokyo and a cat invites itself to stay. Life suddenly has more promise, more colour and the couple start to feel much more joy and meaning in their life together. Then something happens and all is changed.

The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne

A creepy thriller. It’s hard enough coping with the death in an accident of one identical twin daughter, but when the remaining twin, Kirstie, claims to her parents that they have mistaken her identity for that of her sister, Lydia, the couple’s world comes crashing down.


The picture is Regatta at Argenteuil by Claude Monet

Purple Coo Book Group Spring Read 2017

Don't forget, my Purple Friends, that to vote for your books you need to list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below. If for any reason you can't let me know there, try leaving me a message on the Purple Coo site itself or via Facebook, I'll be Behind the Bike Sheds. After a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes the Purple Coo Book Group Spring Read 2017 - so  let's get on with some more Happy reading.

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

When a handsome young stranger arrives in 1746 New York wishing to cash an order for £1000, can he be trusted or is he a smooth talking swindler? Racy and pacy, with wonderful twists and turns, I’m half way through this book already and it reminds me of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. I love it. This has to be the best read I’ve come across this year.

Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

It’s 1922 and the war’s been over for four years. When a genteel grieving widow and her spinster daughter take in a married couple of the ‘clerk class’ to make ends meet, snobbery abounds. The spinster daughter is trapped by her home circumstances and the flighty young wife is bored and although it’s an unlikely companionship they're soon very close friends, and as a result of their relationship, dire troubles emerge.

Travels With My Aunt by Graham Green

A humorous novel about a retired, conventional bank manager who meets his eccentric and amoral aunt at his mother’s funeral. Before long they are setting off on journeys together, with momentous and life changing results.

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

On the face of it, this is a novella relating a four day affair between a lonely farmer’s wife and a visiting National Geographic reporter. But somehow it transcends the mundane to be about what it is to love and be loved, in such an intense way life is never the same again.

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

20 years after Bill Bryson was let loose to travel around Britain (remember Notes from a Small Island?) he’s been at it again to see what’s changed. Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath gets the predictably enjoyable Bryson treatment as he seeks out the ridiculous, the disreputable and the downright appealing.

(The illustration is a Hogarth Cartoon, The Rakes Progress)

Purple Coo Book Group Winter Read 2016

To vote for your books, please make you 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, after a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Autumn Read 2016

A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor DSO OBE

Aged 18, in 1933, the author set out to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. This is the first volume of a trilogy taking the reader as far as Hungary. Wonderful descriptions of countryside, culture and the people he meets of course, but with a fascinating undercurrent hinting of the political turmoil about to upset the whole of Europe.

Keeping On, Keeping On by Alan Bennet

Alan Bennet’s superb and playful memoir that shows him to be much more of a Tigger than an Eeyore. You may have heard some of this on radio 4 recently. I did while driving to the supermarket and had to stop my car I was laughing so much.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

It’s 1893 and on leaving London for Colchester, a widow and her boy hear rumours of a strange mythical beast that’s said to roam the marshes claiming human lives. A keen and rational naturalist, she sets out to seek the real truth.  Essex Gothic? This is the book everyone is raving about. Waterstones Book of The Year no less. In hardback it would make a lovely Christmas present.

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Ostensibly a day in the life of a society lady sorting out the last minute details of a grand party, but as the day unfolds the reader discovers not only the woman’s troubled past but that of her friends as well that drives one of them to ... I won’t say more and spoil the plot but this is a landmark novel and the a mark of true genius.

The picture is by one of my favourite artists, Cheryl Culver

 

Purple Coo Book Group Autumn Read 2016

To vote for your books, please make you 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, after a count up I'll post the most popular title on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Autumn Read 2016

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Acclaimed as a tragic and brilliant book that exposes the unimaginable gulf between the traumas of what happened in WW1 and the present day. A story of love and heartbreak spanning three generations, dark, romantic and surreal. Described as a cross between Farewell to Arms and The English Patient, a rewarding but not easy read.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Not to be confused with the rather sanitised version made into a film starring Audrey Hepburn. Set in 1943, the real Holly Golightly is a fragilely glamorous teenage New York café society girl who makes her way in the world by socializing with wealthy men. Although she survives by accepting their money and presents, she’s not quite a prostitute, more an American geisha with  quirky view of life.

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

A tricksy, yet gripping crime novel giving an evocative insight into the tough, brutal existence of Highland crofters. It tells of the trial of a 17year old boy living in 1896 Ross-shire, who beat the local constable and two other people to death.  Yes, that’s right, a crime novel good enough to be shortlisted for the recent Booker Prize.

The Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachael, the slightly overweight, divorced alcoholic heroine, is sacked from her job and staying with a long suffering friend. Obsessive and bitter, she fantasises about other people’s lives, while keeping up the pretence she is still working and coping well. In reality she is in total pieces. This book is flavour of the month, but be warned, its masterful deployment of unwitting unreliable narration evokes the aftershocks of abuse and trauma, making it neither an easy nor comfortable read.

Slaughterhouse 5 by Curt Vonnegut

An absurdist classic and satirical anti-war novel about the world experiences and journeys through time of Billy Pilgrim, American WW2 soldier/ alien abductee.

The Painted Lady by Maeve Haran

A well written romp through 17^th century England. A vulnerable young lady arrives at the restoration court to find her innocence and beauty highly attractive to King Charles II, who will stop at nothing to make her his mistress. But she’s not a girl who gives in easily, if at all… Topical in that it covers not only the Great Plague, but also the Fire of London.

The painting is a cottage on Iona, by Cadell

Purple Coo Summer Read 2016

To vote for your favourite, please make your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below then, after a count up, I'll post the title of our most popular book on the Purple Coo main site. It then becomes our Purple Coo Book Club Summer Read 2016

A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor

In the faded coastal village of Newby, everyone looks out for - and in on - each other, and beneath the deceptively sleepy exterior, passions run high. Beautiful divorcee Tory is painfully involved with her neighbour, Robert, while his wife Beth, Tory's best friend, is consumed by the worlds she creates in her novels, oblivious to the relationship developing next door. Their daughter Prudence is aware, however, and is appalled by the treachery she observes. Mrs Bracey, an invalid whose grasp on life is slipping, forever peers from her window, constantly prodding her daughters for news of the outside world. And Lily Wilson, a lonely young widow, is frightened of her own home. Into their lives steps Bertram, a retired naval officer with the unfortunate capacity to inflict lasting damage while trying to do good. ( A Virago Modern Classic)

How to Measure a Cow by Margaret Forster

Tara Fraser leaves London to start a new life in a Cumbrian town selected at random. She plans to obliterate her past, which contains a shocking event that had serious consequences, by becoming a completely different personality from her previous volatile self. She is going to be quiet, even dull, and very private. 

But one of her new neighbours, Nancy, is intrigued by her. She wants to become her friend. Equally determined not to be discarded are three old friends who Tara feels let her down when she most needed them. 

Tara fights to keep herself to herself, but can she do it? And does she really want to? Slowly, reluctantly, she discovers the dangers of trying to suppress the past and reject other people.

My Brilliant Friend by Elana Ferrante  

Much acclaimed when it came out and likely to be a real antidote to our miserable summer, My Brilliant Friend is the first book of the trilogy, The Neapolitan Novels and apparently is an addictive epic about two girls in Naples and the pathways they take into life.

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

Famous for his bestselling travel book, Notes from a Small Island, The Road to Little Dribbling is Bill Bryson’s latest book about Britain and covers his journey from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, so that just about covers us all in I would think. Given the changes about about  to come because of the Brexit result, this could be a timely read.

The colourful painting is by Wassily Kandinsky

Purple Coo Book Group Spring 2016

To Vote for our Purple Coo Book Club Spring Read 2016 please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below, or let me know via the Purple Coo site or via Facebook. The most popular book will be announced on Purple Coo as soon as I've had the chance to add up your votes. Only 5 books to vote for this time, and all of them very worth reading, so it's going to be a close run thing. 

Girl on a Swing by Richard Adams

By the author of Watership Down, but a much different tale, no dear little wandering rabbits in this one. Girl on a Swing is a spooky supernatural thriller. Think, young married couple, a mysterious antique, strange influences, worrying noises in the night, faint sounds of a child crying in the garden, with the promise of more troubling things to come.

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

The novel that won the late Anita Brookner the Booker Prize.

Edith Hope, a determinedly unmarried novelist seeks exile and solace in the Hotel du Lac. Among the assorted pampered female guests is Mr Neville, and Edith is tempted by this final chance to change her life. A subtle, elegiac, charming and thoughtful novel.

Queen of Silks by Vanora Bennett

Part love story, part thriller, a masterly piece of storytelling set around the intertwining fates of two beautiful sisters during the reign of Edward IV. One woman is mistress to the king, the other the court silk weaver, both find out secrets perhaps they shouldn’t know.

Red Fortunes by Hugh Fraser

Set in Russia between the tangled years of 1914 – 1929, this is a page turning tale around love and romance, language difference, class, revolution, prostitution and vodka. Nostrovia!

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The first of the comedy science fiction series, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a real blast of original, mind bending mirth. Fabulously funny … but then I guess you’ll know that already.

The picture is of Dorothy Johnstone by Anne Finlay 1920, currently on show as part of the Modern Scottish Women Painters and Sculptors exhibition in Edinburgh

Purple Coo Book Group Winter 2015

To Vote for our Purple Coo Book Club Winter Read 2015 please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below, or let me know via the Purple Coo site or via Facebook. The most popular book will be announced on Purple Coo as soon as I've had the chance to add up your votes. Only 5 books to vote for this time, and all of them very worth reading, so it's going to be a close run thing. 

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

An unsentimental family story set in Baltimore, classic Anne Tyler country. Stolid, buttoned-up husbands and their more interesting wives, (three generations of them this time) who never lose their sense of belonging together right or wrong, with the customary mixture of grown up children, grandchildren and sibling rivalries thrown in. A nice twist is that the family home, a beautifully handcrafted house, is very much a character in its own right.

Nelly Dean by Alison Case

Lovers of Wuthering Heights may remember Nelly Dean to be a minor character, a loyal servant, well this book fills in the bits that Emily Bronte forgot to put in. Described as a ‘richly imagined’ story in its own right, it’s also a ‘gripping and heart-breaking’ homage to Emily Bronte’s wonderful novel.

Sweet Caress by William Boyd

A classic, pacy Willaim Boyd novel that charts the adventurous life of Amory Clay, a female photographer from her birth in 1908 until her later years, during which time she witnesses all the major conflicts, with profound emotional consequences. If you enjoyed Any Human Heart, and I admit I did, you’ll love this book too.

The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell

'I was hoping against hope that the penguin would survive because as of that instant he had a name, and with his name came the beginning of a bond which would last a life-time'

A true story about a single, free spirited young man who’s accepted a teaching position in a prestigious Argentine boarding school, so the very last thing he needs is a sick penguin in his life. Juan Salvador (yes, that’s the penguin’s name, honest!) has other ideas and refuses to leave Tom’s side.

Turning the Tide by (our own) Christine Stovell

A love story, between Harry Watling, a young woman with a man’s name and a failing boatyard left to her by her father. Oh! and there’s an ambitious young property developer as well who wants to get hold of the boatyard and build an upmarket housing complex. Hate at first sight … of course!

(the painting is Pink Roses by Samuel Peploe)

Purple Coo Book Group Autumn 2015

To Vote for our Purple Coo Book Club Autumn Read 2015 please list your 1st and 2nd choices in the comments box below, or let me know via the Purple Coo site or via Facebook. The most popular book will be announced on Purple Coo as soon as I've had the chance to add up your votes. 6 books to vote for this time, all of them very worth reading. It's going to be a close run thing. 

A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley

An amateur codebreaker is set the task of unravelling a mysterious journal from the 1730s. It turns out to be an account of her part in a scandalous and dangerous intrigue. This book is an exciting account of Jacobites in Paris, with an enigmatic Highlander and young woman on a dangerous and perilous mission. What’s not to like?

A Spool of blue Thread by Anne Tyler

A wonderful, minute examination of middle-class American family life. Four generations living in the suburbs. A patriarch with a murky past, his hardworking son and his four grownup children and their mother. She's a maddening, meddling woman with a determination that her four children will, against all odds, tolerate if not love one another.

Confessions by Jaume Cabre

A monumental novel about the problem of evil via the story of a priceless violin and its secret past.

The Collector of Dying Breaths by M J Rose

The fine line between potion and poison, poison and passion … past and present. 
The Past - an orphan plucked from poverty to become Catherine de Medici’s perfumer, think exotic fragrances, potent poisons and a formula for a process to reanimate the dead.

The Present – a renowned academic becomes obsessed with the gothic tale with the inevitable dangerous and obsessive consequences.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

I howled with laughter, squirmed with embarrassment and wept genuine tears – yes really! - over this wonderful novel about a genius autistic genetics professor’s evidence based quest to find himself a wife. Moving and hilarious at the same time.

The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Kate Mosse

A pacy thriller concerned with avian taxidermy! A good gothic spooker very suitable for dark Halloween evenings. Set in 1912 on the edge of a drowned marsh near a small Sussex village where old superstitions still hold sway, a young woman gets involved with lots of spooky things, including a murder.

Photograph of Benacre by Alan Murray