“Gina turned the car off the road and into the driveway of Allersmead. At this point she seemed to see her entire life flash by. As the drowning are said to do. She thought of this, and that the genuinely drowning can never have been recorded on the matter.”
‘Family Album’ by Penelope Lively
This copy was my father’s. It is from Collins’ ‘Laurel & Gold’ series, measures 16x11cm so fits easily into a pocket, and is bound in a pale green linen. 
In 1933 my father was nine. It is inscribed in pencil with his name and the date which makes it a second edition; the first was printed May 1931, the second January 1932. 
I especially like the poem ‘To the Hesitating Purchaser.’ Perhaps today’s books should feature a similar ode.
‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
If you have read the time-travelling Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, you will be familiar with the character of Lord John Grey. Lord John and the Private Matter is a historical detective story starring Lord John in his own right, without Jamie and Claire Fraser. Many Gabaldon fans will bemoan the lack of the Frasers, but Lord John is a quite capable protagonist. 
Gabaldon is an experienced storyteller and she paints a picture of London in 1757 which the reader trusts as authentic. The plot pushes on as Lord John gets involved in two separate matters which in the beginning I found a little confusing, but which inevitably became neatly entwined. Along the way he encounters an eccentric German, a sweet whore and a dodgy molly house, all of which he deals with in his distinctive charming and intelligent manner. Lord John is certainly worthy of his own standalone series, and can be read independently of the Outlander series. This book is more than just a tale for readers suffering from Fraser-withdrawal syndrome. And it is also much shorter, Gabaldon could never be accused of writing novellas.
If you like this, try:-
‘The French Lesson’ by Hallie Rubenhold
‘The Lady of the Rivers’ by Philippa Gregory
‘The Secrets of Gaslight Lane’ by MRC Kasasian #4GOWERDETECTIVE
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview LORD JOHN AND THE PRIVATE MATTER by Diana Gabaldon @Writer_DG https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-4ax via @SandraDanby
“Though I haven’t ever been on the screen I was brought up in pictures. Rudolph Valentino came to my fifth birthday party – or so I was told. I put this down only to indicate that even before the age of reason I was in a position to watch the wheels go round.”
‘The Last Tycoon’ by F Scott Fitzgerald
It’s a while since I read a book I didn’t want to put down, a book that made me continue reading in bed gone midnight. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson is that book. 
Atkinson manages the macro settings and the micro details with ease, from the petty sibling squabbles at Fox Corner to the camaraderie of the ARP wardens in the Blitz. Before I started reading Life after Life I read the phrase ‘Groundhog Day’ a few times in reviews, which belittles the intricate weaving of Ursula Todd’s lives. In the way that Logan Mountstuart’s life runs parallel to the great historical moments of the last century, Ursula’s life stories are book-ended by the approach and aftermath of the First and Second World Wars. Ursula, little bear, is an engaging character we see born and die, again and again through her own personal déjà vu. I wasn’t sure how this was going to work but once I stopped worrying about it and surrendered myself to Ursula, I was transfixed.
This is another work of art, as mesmerising as her first Behind the Scenes at the Museum. It is such an ambitious novel, that I can only guess at the intricacy of the writing process and admire her for it.
Read my reviews of these other novels by Kate Atkinson:-
A GOD IN RUINS
BIG SKY #5JACKSONBRODIE
DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK #6JACKSONBRODIE
NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY
SHRINES OF GAIETY
TRANSCRIPTION
… and try the #FirstPara of EMOTIONALLY WEIRD
If you like this, try:-
‘Homeland’ by Clare Francis
‘The Aftermath’ by Rhidian Brook
‘The Translation of Love’ by Lynne Kutsukake
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview LIFE AFTER LIFE by Kate Atkinson via @SandraDanby https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-4aw
“When she was home from her boarding-school I used to see her almost every day sometimes, because their house was right opposite the Town Hall Annexe. She and her younger sister used to go in and out a lot, often with young men, which of course I didn’t like. When I had a free moment from the files and ledgers I stood by the window and used to look down over the road over the frosting and sometimes I’d see her. In the evening I marked it in my observations diary, at first with X, and then when I knew her name with M. I saw her several times outside too. I stood right behind her once in a queue at the public library down Crossfield Street. She didn’t look once at me, but I watched the back of her head and her hair in a long pigtail. It was very pale, silky, like burnet cocoons. All in one pigtail coming down almost to her waist, sometimes in front, sometimes at the back. Sometimes she wore it up. Only once, before she came to be my guest here, did I have the privilege to see her with it loose, and it took my breath away it was so beautiful, like a mermaid.”
‘The Collector’ by John Fowles
“The news about Walter Berglund wasn’t picked up locally – he and Patty had moved away to Washington two years earlier and meant nothing to St Paul now – but the urban gentry of Ramsey Hill were not so loyal to their city as not to read the New York Times. According to a long and very unflattering story in the Times, Walter had made quite a mess of his professional life out there in the nation’s capital. His old neighbours had some difficulty reconciling the quotes about him in the Times [“arrogant,” “high-handed,” “ethically compromised”] with the generous, smiling, red-faced 3M employee they remembered pedalling his commuter bicycle up Summit Avenue in February snow; it seemed strange that Walter, who was greener than Greenpeace and whose own roots were rural, should be in trouble now for conniving with the coal industry and mistreating country people. Then again, there had always been something not quite right about the Berglunds.”
‘Freedom’ by Jonathan Franzen
“1 March 1998. The other night at dinner, Sheba talked about the first time that she and the Connolly boy kissed. I had heard most of it before, of course, there being few aspects of the Connolly business that Sheba has not described to me several times over. But this time round, something new came up. I happened to ask her if anything about the first embrace had surprised her. She laughed. Yes, the smell of the whole thing had been surprising, she said. She hadn’t anticipated his personal odour and if she had, she would probably have guessed at something teenagey: bubble gum, cola, feet.”
‘Notes on a Scandal’ by Zoe Heller
It was love at first sight.
The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.
‘Catch-22’ by Joseph Heller
“In deck-chairs all along the front the bald pink knees of Bradford businessmen nuzzled the sun.”
‘The Ghost Road’, Pat Barker
SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS 