#BookReview ‘I Found You’ by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk #thriller

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Alice Lake sees a man sitting alone on a beach in the rain and invites him into her home. He has lost his memory. When Lily’s new husband doesn’t come home from work, she goes to the police for help and discovers he has a false name. A family from Croydon take a traditional English holiday by the sea. These are the three storylines in I Found You by Lisa Jewell. The common denominator is location: a northern seaside town called Ridinghouse Bay. Lisa JewellTwo inter-connected themes run throughout I Found You. Memory – the fugue of the man on the beach, and the dementia suffered by Alice’s parents – and identity, disguised, mistaken, forgotten. Jewell is so good at writing believable characters, good at exploring human nature in a simple, accessible way. And though there is evil in this story, there is also good, kindness, humanity, heart.
The menace is subtle, building slowly from the beginning even when the connections are unclear. It’s just a feeling. Gray watches his younger sister being chatted up by Mark, an older teenager, and feels uneasy: ‘There was something just off about him. Something shadowy and cruel. There were too many angles in his face. Too much thought behind each gesture, each word, each action. Even his hair colour was too uniform, Gray felt, as though he could tug at it and mark’s whole face would come off to reveal his true identity, like a Scooby Doo villain.’
Alice is too easy to trust, it has got her into trouble before. But her least-trusting dog likes the man from the beach, who her youngest daughter names ‘Frank’. But even Frank doesn’t know if he is trustworthy. How much do you need to know about someone before you trust them? Is it dangerous to rely on instinct? Or is that the most reliable test?
Two things in the story rang untrue for me – the police today use mobile phone records and CCTV to quickly trace missing people; and the behaviour of some characters in the intervening years seems far-fetched. But that aside, this is a satisfying puzzle to solve.

And here are my review of two other thrillers by Lisa Jewell:-
THE GIRLS
THEN SHE WAS GONE

If you like this, try:-
‘The House on Cold Hill’ by Peter James
‘The Good People’ by Hannah Kent
‘Summer House with Swimming Pool’ by Herman Koch

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
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#BookReview ‘The Orange Lilies’ by Nathan Dylan Goodwin #familyhistory #crime #genealogy

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The Orange Lilies by Nathan Dylan Goodwin is a novella, a short book which I wanted to be longer. Set at Christmas 2014 it revisits Christmas 100 years earlier, the first year of the Great War, and follows the story of one man in the trenches with the Royal Sussex Regiment. Third in the series about forensic genealogist Morton Farrier, it is a little different from its predecessors in that it focusses on Morton’s own story rather than that of a client. Nathan Dylan GoodwinMorton knows he is adopted but has recently discovered a complicated family secret. So in an effort to build bridges and learn more about his ancestors, he and girlfriend Juliette travel to Cornwall to visit his Aunty Margaret and Uncle Jim. Over the festive break, Morton and Margaret trace official documents telling the story of Morton’s great-grandfather Charles Farrier, who fought with the Second Battalion, the Royal Sussex Regiment. However as records are uncovered, more questions appear. At the same time we are told Charles’s story in 1914, with its own mysteries, contradictions and secrets. Unknown to Morton, old and modern mysteries are inter-linked.
I love the formula of the Morton Farrier books, the combination of present and past, secrets and lies, the hunt for truth and puzzles solved. This book is a little different, I think for two reasons. First, I longed in the first half for more dynamic detail of Charles’s story rather than dry factual reporting. At the front of the book, the author explains that two of his own relatives fought with this regiment. At the end of the book, the author explains that the movements of the Second Battalion are recorded as faithfully and accurately as possible. It feels as if the history bound the creative hands of the author. The second difference is that Morton is researching his own family and so the emotional attachment is different. Unlike when he is searching for clients, there is no immediate danger to his life, property or loved ones.
I raced through this book, intrigued by the mystery of Charles and his young wife Nellie. If you are new to the Morton Farrier books, you will appreciate this novella better if you have already read the first two in the series.

Read my reviews of the next books in the Morton Farrier series:-
HIDING THE PAST #1MORTONFARRIER
THE LOST ANCESTOR #2MORTONFARRIER
THE AMERICA GROUND #4MORTONFARRIER

If you like this, try:-
‘Pale as the Dead’ by Fiona Mountain
‘Blood Atonement’ by Dan Waddell
‘The Quarry’ by Iain Banks

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My Porridge & Cream read: Lev D Lewis

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Today I’m delighted to welcome debut crime novelist Lev D Lewis. His ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household.

“Confession, at the risk of being branded an imposter and ritually kicked off your blog: I don’t really have a Porridge & Cream read; the last thing I feel like doing when I’m ‘tired, ill, or out-of-sorts’ is staring at words. If anything, I find those states more creative than consuming; I just want to bury myself under the duvet and let my mind take over.
Lev D LewisI do have a long list of books I want to re-read, headed by Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (I’ve studied Classical Civilization since I first read it, and it would be interesting to reread with that extra bit of knowledge) but my TBR pile tends to win out.

There’s only one book I’ve read more than once for pure pleasure, Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household, so I present that as my Porridge & Cream book.

It about an unnamed British huntsman who aims his rifle at an unnamed foreign dictator, just for laughs (apparently). He’s chased back to England, retreats into an underground lair and is trapped there by his pursuer.

I can’t remember the exact year I first read it: I was a young teenager, and I found it on my dad’s bookshelf. I don’t know what drew me to it (perhaps the striking cover: the macho title in bold, pink font) but remember being totally gripped. Rather than returning it, I kept it to be re-read (which is why I still have the same copy today). But it was some thirty years later before I finally went back to it, prompted by hearing part of a reading on, I think, the now defunct BBC Radio 7 – I wasn’t disappointed. It’s slim, only 192 pages, so I’ve really no excuse for not rereading it more often which I now vow to do!”

Lev D Lewis’s Bio
Lev was born and raised in South Norwood: the wrong side of Croydon. If you’re unfamiliar with London-speak, Croydon is shorthand for ‘the armpit of the capital’. This maybe so – but he is still living there. After various false starts, he qualified as a solicitor. His legal career was cut short, not because of any disreputable deeds à la his hero/antihero, Frank Bale, but through ill-health. That’s when he started writing, basically as occupational therapy, but it’s led (after quite a few years and creative writing courses) to his debut novel, Jellyfish.

Lev D Lewis’s links
Website
Twitter
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Goodreads

Lev D Lewis’s books

Lev D LewisWhen Frank Bale was a lawyer, he wore Savile Row suits. Now he has holes in his trousers and serves papers for other, successful, lawyers. Life is bleak but he is kept going by a Philip Marlowe obsession and a longing to prove himself. When a student winds up dead, he gets the chance to investigate a real crime, relying on advice found in an old Tradecraft Manual and the sayings of his nan. But neither the manual nor his nan nor Marlowe prepare him for handling the slimiest of London’s underbelly, jellyfish, who hit back first with fists, then with golf clubs and finally with guns. Can Frank stay alive long enough to find the killer – and get the girl?

Lev is now working on the next instalment of the Frank Bale story. Read my review of Jellyfish.
‘Jellyfish’ by Lev D Lewis [UK: Alleyway Press] 

Lev D Lewis

What is a ‘Porridge & Cream’ book? It’s the book you turn to when you need a familiar read, when you are tired, ill, or out-of-sorts, where you know the story and love it. Where reading it is like slipping on your oldest, scruffiest slippers after walking for miles. Where does the name ‘Porridge & Cream’ come from? Cat Deerborn is a character in Susan Hill’s ‘Simon Serrailler’ detective series. Cat is a hard-worked GP, a widow with two children and she struggles from day-to-day. One night, after a particularly difficult day, she needs something familiar to read. From her bookshelf she selects ‘Love in A Cold Climate’ by Nancy Mitford. Do you have a favourite read which you return to again and again? If so, please send me a message via the contact form here.

Lev D Lewis

 

‘Rogue Male’ by Geoffrey Household [UK: Orion]
Listen to Geoffrey Household on ‘Desert Island Discs’, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1980.

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Judith Field
Rachel Dove
Lisa Devaney

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Why does @levdlewis love ROGUE MALE by Geoffrey Household? http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2Cy via @SandraDanby #reading

#BookReview ‘Deerleap’ by Sarah Walsh #familyhistory #mystery

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One day Grace Chalk sees her boyfriend standing at the other side of the street. Except Alex is dead. And so starts Deerleap by Sarah Walsh, a combination of love story [Grace and Alex], detective story [is Alex really alive, if so where is he?] and the nature of blame [marriage breakdown] and grief. Sarah WalshWalsh has written an assured story, handling the emotional complexities with a gentle touch making the twists and turns even more surprising when they arrive.
When the story opens, seven years have passed since the car accident in which Grace’s father and her stepmother Polly were killed, her sister Rita seriously injured, and her boyfriend Alex disappeared. Alex’s body was never found. Rita has never talked about what happened, she is emotionally vulnerable, spiky and prone to hitting her sister. Grace’s mother still resents being deserted by her husband and Grace worries that her anger will turn into depression and suicide. At the centre of the story stands Deerleap, the remote country house where Alex grew up and where Grace visits her father as he sets up his new home with Polly. It all sounds idyllic, except seven years later, Deerleap stands empty awaiting the legal deadline when Alex can be declared legally dead and the house sold. This is the catalyst which sparks this chain of events.
The emotional vulnerability in Grace’s family made me at times question her own reporting of events, we are told the story entirely through her eyes. She is an artist, painting portraits of from her studio in Bristol. She looks into people’s faces and sees the truth. Can she find out the truth of what happened to Alex?
The Somerset countryside sounds marvellous, a stark contrast to the streets of Bristol where Grace’s troubled mother and sister live. The family ties, responsibilities and lies create a web of mystery through which you glimpse the answer. And then there is a twist at the end which I didn’t expect. This is a quiet book which really grew on me. A psychological mystery, rather than a psychological thriller, it explores the nature of grief, depression, guilt and love.

If you like this:-
‘A Sudden Light’ by Garth Stein
‘The Distant Hours’ by Kate Morton
‘Foxlowe’ by Eleanor Wasserberg

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#BookReview DEERLEAP by Sarah Walsh via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2cm

First Edition: A Passage to India

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EM Forster was born in 1879 and was the author of a number of hugely successful novels. Many were turned into films including Where Angels Fear to Tread [1991], Room with a View [1985] and Howards End [1992]. A Passage to India was his last, and most successful novel, but he was to live on. He died in 1970 at the age of 91. This portrait [below] of Forster by Dora Carrington is dated 1924.

This hardback first edition [above] is one of the rare examples which still has its dust jacket. Published in 1924 by London Edward Arnold & Co, it is now worth £9,750 at rare bookseller Peter Harrington.

The story
Set in the context of India during the British Raj of the 1920s, with the growing Indian independence movement, A Passage to India tells the story of four key characters: Dr Aziz, Cyril Fielding, Mrs Moore and Miss Adela Quested. Aziz is garrulous and naive, Adela something of a prig. During a trip to the Malabar Caves, Adela finds herself alone in a cave with Mr Aziz. She panics and flees. The assumption is made that Aziz assaulted her. The story of his subsequent trial examines the racial tensions and prejudices between the Indians and the British rulers.

The film EM ForsterThe 1984 film, directed by David Lean, featured Alec Guinness, Dame Peggy Ashcroft and Victor Banerjee. It won two Oscars: Dame Peggy Ashcroft [Mrs Moore], Best Actress in a Supporting Role; and Maurice Jarre for Best Music, Original Score.

Watch the official film trailer here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The current UK edition EM ForsterThe current Penguin edition features a detail from ‘English Women visiting caves near Bangalore’ [c. 1880s]. Photograph courtesy of The British Library.

Other editions
My own copy [below] is a Penguin Modern Classics edition, which I have dated 1979. The cover shows Indore in Central India, where a stone bridge spans the river Soor. It is a detail from a drawing by William Simpson in India, Ancient and Modern. EM ForsterAs a classic, A Passage to India has been published in many editions and languages. Here is a selection of some of the covers. The Italian cover is particularly dashing.

‘A Passage to India’ by EM Forster [UK: Penguin] Buy at Amazon

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘The Moonstone’ by Wilkie Collins
‘An Ice Cream War’ by William Boyd
‘The Sea The Sea’ by Iris Murdoch

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First Edition: A PASSAGE TO INDIA by EM Forster #oldbooks via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2vK

Great Opening Paragraph 100… ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly – Tom’s Aunt Polly , she is – and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before.”
Mark TwainFrom ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Diary of an Ordinary Woman’ by Margaret Forster
‘A Passage to India’ by EM Forster
‘Astonishing Splashes of Colour’ by Clare Morrall

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2qJ via @SandraDanby

My Porridge & Cream read: Carol Cooper

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Today I’m delighted to welcome romance novelist Carol Cooper. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Please Don’t Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr.

“My ‘Porridge and Cream’ book is Please Don’t Eat the Daisies by American writer Jean Kerr. First published in 1957, it is now out of print but a few copies are still available. I first read it in the 1960s, when I was perhaps about twelve. While I don’t remember the exact circumstances, it was my mother’s paperback copy, costing a princely 35 cents.
Carol CooperI do recall that my mother and I had recently arrived in the United States and were living in a studio apartment in Washington, DC, while she struggled to make ends meet. The book is a series of articles on Jean Kerr’s life as a playwright and parent, and each of the pieces made me roar with laughter at a time when real life wasn’t that funny. When I first read the book, I found it hugely entertaining on such subjects as diets, doctors, family, fashion, moving house, and the rest of everyday suburban life. It was only decades later that I could identify with Kerr’s situation as a writer working from home, and as the harassed mother of irrepressible boys.

It’s the humour that draws me back to the book again and again. It’s still witty, and it’s amazing how little it has dated in the sixty years since it first appeared. A word of warning, though: the film and the TV series weren’t nearly as good.

I tend to pick up Please Don’t Eat the Daisies when I’m tired and want to shut out the world, but don’t feel up to a challenging read. As it’s a loose collection of essays, I can dip in anywhere in the book. Many passages I don’t even need to read. I can recite them verbatim.”

Carol Cooper’s Bio
Carol Cooper is a doctor, journalist, and author. She contributes to The Sun newspaper, broadcasts on TV and radio, and has a dozen non-fiction books to her name. Her debut novel One Night at the Jacaranda got her hooked on writing contemporary fiction. This year, Hampstead Fever was picked for a prestigious promotion in WH Smith travel bookshops around the UK. More fiction is on the way.

Carol Cooper’s books
Carol CooperIt’s the sweltering summer of 2013 and the lives of six Londoners get complicated. As the temperature soars, they’re grappling with money worries, whining children, ailing parents, panic attacks, relationship woes, and temptations along the way. Emotions rise to boiling point, forcing decisions they could regret.
Hampstead Fever is a slice of multicultural London life to make you laugh, cry, and nod in recognition.
‘Hampstead Fever’ by Carol Cooper [UK: Hardwick Press]

Carol Cooper’s links
Website
‘Pills & Pillow-Talk’ blog
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram Carol Cooper

What is a ‘Porridge & Cream’ book? It’s the book you turn to when you need a familiar read, when you are tired, ill, or out-of-sorts, where you know the story and love it. Where reading it is like slipping on your oldest, scruffiest slippers after walking for miles. Where does the name ‘Porridge & Cream’ come from? Cat Deerborn is a character in Susan Hill’s ‘Simon Serrailler’ detective series. Cat is a hard-worked GP, a widow with two children and she struggles from day-to-day. One night, after a particularly difficult day, she needs something familiar to read. From her bookshelf she selects ‘Love in A Cold Climate’ by Nancy Mitford. Do you have a favourite read which you return to again and again? If so, please send me a message via the contact form here.

Carol Cooper

 

‘Please Don’t Eat the Daisies’ by Jean Kerr [UK: Fawcett]

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Shelley Weiner
Catherine Hokin
Judith Field

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does @DrCarolCooper love PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES by Jean Kerr? http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2Oc via @SandraDanby #reading

#BookReview ‘Only the Brave’ by @writermels #crime

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A dead body, a bag of money, and a group of people all lying to the police and each other. Only the Brave by Mel Sherratt is third in the DS Allie Shenton books set in the Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent. Mel SherrattThe sub-plot is a strong storyline here and it weaves in and out of the murder investigation throughout the book: Allie’s beloved sister Karen is expected to die within days. With a head full of grief, guilt, regrets and love for her sister, Allie confronts the underworld of Stoke to find the killer. Is the city’s crime lord Terry Ryder behind it all, even from his prison cell?
Mel Sherratt’s books are good value easy-read novels which get you hooked from page one and don’t let you go. As Karen lies in hospital, Allie must work out which petty criminal is lying to who and why, who has the most to gain and whose fingers are covertly dictating the action. And all the while she dreads having to question Terry Ryder in prison, the man she found herself attracted to despite all her instincts and her much-loved husband Mark. And to top it all, Allie senses someone is following her. Is her imagination running riot? Is it lack of sleep, or stress? Or is she being trailed by the attacker who put Karen into her coma seventeen years earlier?
If I have one criticism, it is that at times it moves too fast. I felt a little like a rabbit in the headlights and would have liked a few pages to catch my breath, to let the clues sink in and try to work out for myself whodunit.

Read my reviews of more books in the Allie Shenton series:-
TAUNTING THE DEAD #1ALLIE SHENTON
FOLLOW THE LEADER #2ALLIE SHENTON

If you like this, try:-
‘Beginnings’ by Helen J Christmas
‘Found’ by Harlan Coben
‘Lord John and the Private Matter’ by Diana Gabaldon

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#BookReview ‘Visions’ by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings #thriller #romance

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Crammed with Eighties references from Margaret Thatcher, Echo & the Bunnymen and Jane Fonda aerobics to Laura Ashley décor, Visions quickly immerses you in the world of Eleanor Chapman. Visions is part two of Eleanor’s story which started in the 1970s in Beginnings and will ultimately end far into the future. Helen J Christmas‘Same Face Different Place’ by Helen J Christmas is an ambitious thriller series focussing on a single gangland incident which has reverberations across the decades. It is a study of how to react to threats and violence, the nature of victimhood, and the power of fighting back.
There are times in Visions when it covers old ground from book one, but nevertheless the story slowly reeled me in. After the events of Beginnings, Eleanor and her son Elijah live in a caravan in a Kent village, safe from the London criminals who threatened them. Their neighbours, James Barton-Wells and his children Avalon and William become close friends. However Westbourne House, the ancestral home of the Barton-Wells family, is crumbling. When the house is declared a ruin and the repairs too expensive for James to pay, a sinister property developer offers to help. All too soon, his nasty son and equally nasty sidekick bring terror to the quiet village as the tentacles of threat from the past find Eleanor’s hiding place.
There are scenes of nasty violence which remind the reader this is not simply a story of petty crime. Eleanor, her family and new friends must face intimidation, assault, sinister stalking and abduction. At the heart of their survival is a defiance born of knowing they are right.

Click the title to read my reviews of the next books in this series:-
BEGINNINGS #1SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE
PLEASURES #3SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Truth Will Out’ by Jane Isaac
‘No Other Darkness’ by Sarah Hilary
‘Himself’ by Jess Kidd

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#BookReview VISIONS by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2q6 via @Sandra Danby

#BookReview ‘The Doll Funeral’ by Kate Hamer #mystery #suspense

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The Doll Funeral by Kate Hamer is a dark, despairing and at times confusing tale of identity and the creeping links of family and genetics across the generations. It is about the difficult adoptive families, about ‘not fitting in’, and how blood families sometimes don’t work either. Ultimately, family is where you can find it and make it. Kate HamerRuby’s mother Barbara is a cleaning lady who nicks small things she thinks won’t be missed. Father Mick knocks Ruby around, forcing her to miss school until the bruises fade. Then on her thirteenth birthday, they tell her she is adopted. Ruby’s response is to run into the garden and sing for joy. Of course nothing is as simple as it appears.
Ruby, determined to find her birth parents, runs away and makes her way to the creepy home of a strange schoolfriend Tom. I found the thread of Tom, Crispin and Elizabeth rather unrealistic and at times gruesome. It does however act as an alternative take on dysfunctional families, wild children and parental neglect. The budding relationship of Tom and Ruby, two outsiders, is touching.
Ruby’s tale is alternated with that of her mother Anna who falls pregnant as a teenager, first abandoned and then reclaimed by her boyfriend. Although I empathised with Ruby, I found her viewpoint rather mature at times for 13. For me, the story of her search for family was complicated by her ability to see ghosts. She doesn’t know their names or identities, so she gives them names such as Wasp Lady and Shadow. Shadow is the most present, speaking with Ruby and passing her information. At times, Shadow seems threatening, at others like a brother/sister. When the identity of Shadow is finally revealed, it was underwhelming and an aside from the key storyline. Almost as if the author had too many good ideas and didn’t want to drop anything. That said, the cover is beautiful.
The portrayal of the forest, both Ruby and Anna grew up in the Forest of Dean, is vivid, at times both reassuring and threatening. The significance of the title, though, passed me by, and I would have liked more of Nana’s folk magic.
This is not a novel I can honestly say I enjoyed. It considers difficult, slippery topics and so, thankfully, there is no neat ending.

If you like this, try:-
‘Mobile Library’ by David Whitehouse
‘The Last of Us’ by Rob Ewing
‘Beginnings’ by Helen J Christmas

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#BookReview THE DOLL FUNERAL by Kate Hamer via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2q1