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My Porridge & Cream read… @SueJohnson9 #books #duMaurier

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Today I’m delighted to welcome novelist, poet and short story writer Sue Johnson. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier.

“My Porridge & Cream read is Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier (first published in 1936). I can remember finding it in the school library one wet Friday afternoon when I was thirteen. (We’d made ginger cake in our cookery class that morning and I still associate the book with the smell and taste of ginger and spices.) Our English teacher liked us to read at least two books a month of our choice that were nothing to do with our school work. We also had to write book reviews saying what we liked – or didn’t like – about the books we’d read.

Sue Johnson

Sue’s copy of Jamaica Inn

From the first page of Jamaica Inn I was hooked. My friends had to prise it out of my hands when the bell went for the end of school. I then went on to devour everything else that Daphne du Maurier had written. My other favourites are Rebecca and Frenchman’s Creek.  We used to spend family holidays in Cornwall and I still love the county. I never tire of Jamaica Inn no matter how many times I re-read it. I’ve returned to it countless times – particularly when I was ill as a teenager, when I went through a traumatic divorce and when my Dad died. I’ve also enjoyed seeing the film versions – but none of them have been as good as the book.”
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SUE’S BIO
Sue Johnson is published as a poet, short story writer and novelist. She also creates books aimed at helping and encouraging other writers. Her work is inspired by fairytales, the natural world and eavesdropping in cafes. Sue runs her own brand of writing workshops and critique service. She is also a creative writing tutor on five of the courses offered by Writing Magazine.

SUE’S LINKS
Website
Twitter
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SUE’S LATEST BOOK
Sue JohnsonWhen Gemma Lawrence inherits a share of her Great Aunt’s restaurant she is dismayed to find she has to share it with Stefano Andrea, a moody Italian chef. Gemma and Stefano have broken relationships behind them and dislike each other on sight as much as Stefano hates the cold English weather. Under the terms of the will, they have to work together for six months to turn the dilapidated building into a successful restaurant. If either of them leaves or a profit has not been made, then they will lose their inheritance. The challenge is on and neither of them are prepared to give up. As they work together they begin to unravel the story behind the inheritance and find out what links the English apple orchard to the Italian lemon grove. Apple Orchard, Lemon Grove is a fast-paced novel with intriguing characters, atmospheric locations and mouth-watering food.
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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.

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Julia Thum’s choice is ‘The Little White Horse’ by Elizabeth Goudge
Amanda Huggins chooses ‘The Little Prince’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
‘The Talisman Ring’ by Georgette Heyer is chosen by Clare Rhoden

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does novelist, poet and short story writer @SueJohnson9 re-read JAMAICA INN by Daphne du Maurier? #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4IU via @SandraDanby

My Porridge & Cream read Rosemary J Kind @therealalfiedog #books

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Today I’m delighted to welcome historical novelist Rosemary J Kind. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Under Milk Wood  by Dylan Thomas.

“I was brought up on books. Both my mother and grandfather were great readers of literature and our house was full of books. I don’t know if I first fell in love with Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, reading it myself or on one of our family holidays, boating on the River Thames, when we’d all curl up in the evening and Mum would read to us all. Many of the passages we knew by heart and would quote them to each other, adding lines where the other finished. To this day my favourite scene is the one in Butcher Beynon’s kitchen. The humour is so dry and so cleverly done that it never fails to make me laugh.”

Rosemary J Kind

Rosemary with her copy of Under Milk Wood

“I must have read it for myself at about the age of ten, and when stuck at home a couple of years later with glandular fever, listened to the Richard Burton recording of the book over and over. It is a book in which poetry and prose intertwine like lovers. Where the musicality of the language coupled with the keen observations of humanity deliver humour, narrative and dialogue to the reader in a way that can always satisfy me. My mother’s copy was a beautiful hardback with a light blue dust jacket. Many many years later I was lucky enough to be given a present by my husband of my very own first edition of the book, signed by the author’s niece. It is one of my most treasured possessions.”
Rosemary J Kind BUY THE BOOK

Rosemary’s Bio
Rosemary J Kind writes because she has to. You could take almost anything away from her except her pen and paper. Failing to stop after the book that everyone has in them, she has gone on to publish books in both non-fiction and fiction, the latter including novels, humour, short stories and poetry. She also regularly produces magazine articles in a number of areas and writes regularly for the dog press.
As a child she was desolate when at the age of 10 her then teacher would not believe that her poem based on Stig of the Dump was her own work and she stopped writing poetry for several years as a result. She was persuaded to continue by the invitation to earn a little extra pocket money by ‘assisting’ others to produce the required poems for English homework!
Always one to spot an opportunity, she started school newspapers and went on to begin providing paid copy to her local newspaper at the age of sixteen. For twenty years she followed a traditional business career, before seeing the error of her ways and leaving it all behind to pursue her writing full-time.
She spends her life discussing her plots with the characters in her head and her faithful dogs, who always put the opposing arguments when there are choices to be made. Always willing to take on challenges that sensible people regard as impossible, she established and ran the short story download site Alfie Dog Fiction for six years building it to become one of the largest in the world, representing over 300 authors and carrying over 1600 short stories. She closed it in order to focus on her own writing.
Her hobby is developing the Entlebucher Mountain Dog in the UK and when she brought her beloved Alfie back from Belgium he was only the tenth in the country. She started writing ‘Alfie’s Diary’ as an Internet blog the day Alfie arrived to live with her, intending to continue for a year or two. Thirteen years later it goes from strength to strength and has been repeatedly named as one of the top ten pet blogs in the UK.

Rosemary’s links
Twitter
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Website 
Blog 

Rosemary’s latest book
Rosemary J Kind 1866. Daniel Flynn and Molly Reilly’s lives have been dogged by hardship since their orphan days on the streets of New York. Finally, the future is looking bright and Indiana is the place they call home. Now they can focus on making Cochrane’s Farm a success.
The Civil War might have ended but the battle for Cochrane’s Farm has only just begun. The Reese brothers are incensed that land, once part of their family farm, has been transferred to the ownership of young Molly. No matter that their Daddy had sold it years previously, jealousy and revenge have no regard for right. Women should know their place and this one clearly doesn’t.
Times are changing and a woman’s place is changing with it. How far will Daniel and Molly go to fight injustice and is it a price worth paying?
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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.

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Julia Thum’s choice is ‘The Little White Horse’ by Elizabeth Goudge
Ivy Logan chooses ‘Reckless’ by Cornelia Funke
‘It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet’ by James Herriot is chosen by Mary Grand

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does Rosemary J Kind @therealalfiedog re-read UNDER MILK WOOD  by Dylan Thomas? #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4a3 via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Howards End is on the Landing’ by Susan Hill #amreading

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I selected this book off my to-read shelf where it has sat for at least two years and, on reading the first paragraph, knew I must read on. Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill is a gem of a memoir, a year in the life of a crime novelist who decides to read only the books on her bookshelves. But this is more than a review of books – it can be dipped in and out of, the chapters are conveniently short which makes you want to read ‘just another’ – because Hill attaches a personal story to each book, each author. Susan Hill

I have always felt an affinity with Susan Hill; she was born eight miles from my own Yorkshire birthplace, and I was intrigued to learn about why she writes. I learned so much more; how her first novel was published when she was only eighteen, how she lives an ordinary life but mixes with some breath-stopping names. She met and/or knew TS Eliot, EM Forster, Cecil Day Lewis, Penelope Fitzgerald, Ian Fleming, Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Bowen; it is a mirror image of my reading list at university, except for the Bond. Above everything though, the book reveals Hill as a reader who devours everything from Dickens to WG Sebald, Anthony Trollope to Anita Brookner, John le Carre to Olivia Manning. Her bookshelves contain signed copies, first editions, expensive sets, anthologies and poetry, plus shabby cheap paperbacks bought at airports and train stations, or second hand in charity shops. She writes in her books, turns down the corners of pages, discovers things used years ago as bookmarks – bills, paid and unpaid; receipts; picture postcards; shopping lists. She is, like you and I, someone who loves reading books. I recognised her description of reading library books as a child.

“Although when I was a child and growing up I could borrow books every week from the library, there was a limit on the number to be taken at any one time and so, as there was not the money to buy many books either, I found myself reading, re-reading and re-reading again. If I liked a library book I simply got to the end, turned it round and began again. It was a bit like sweets. Until I was ten, sweets were rationed. I had a quarter of a pound a week and there were various ways in which they could be made to last. A sweet a day. Buy only boiled sweets which could be sucked for a long time. Suck half and re-wrap the rest until tomorrow. Occasionally I would have such a sugar-craving that I bought something that was gobbled up in a great burst of sweetness that exploded in the mouth like a firework and then was gone. Sherbet lemons were like that. Marshmallows did not last long.” I turned my library books round and began again, too. I also read my mother’s books. That’s how, as a young teenager, I discovered Mary Stewart.

This is a delightful slim paperback which made me want to re-read many novels first read forty years ago, and to try authors I have always meant to read such as Sebald and PG Wodehouse.
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If you like this, try:-
‘The Various Haunts of Men’, Simon Serrailler #1, by Susan Hill
‘The Pure in Heart’, Simon Serrailler #2, by Susan Hill
‘The Risk of Darkness’, Simon Serrailler #3, by Susan Hill

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
HOWARDS END IS ON THE LANDING by @susanhillwriter #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3t5 via @SandraDanby

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My Porridge & Cream read: LM Milford @lmmilford #books #crimefiction

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Today I’m delighted to welcome crime writer LM Milford. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is 4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie.

“My Porridge and Cream novel is 4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie. I think it may even be the first Agatha Christie book I read and began my love affair with her writing. It’s the book I pick when I’m feeling tired and want something easy to read. I almost wrote ‘simple to read’ but of course Christie’s plots are never simple. The copy I have is old and battered and I think bought from a second-hand bookshop while browsing. I couldn’t tell you exactly when I read it, but it’s probably back in my early teens and it helped me to find the writing genre where I belong. LM Milford“Miss Marple is one of my favourite characters. She looks like a fluffy old lady but underneath that outward appearance is a core of steel and a very quick brain. I love the way she solves the crime by using just her wits and her experiences of living in a quiet country village. Her knowledge of the psychology of human behaviour is what makes her so formidable. I also love Lucy Eyelesbarrow, quietly competent and determined and more than a match for the Crackenthorpe brothers (and father!).
LM Milford

“Elevator pitch for4.50 From Paddington: When Elspeth McGillicuddy sees a woman murdered on a train, she turns to her friend Miss Jane Marple for comfort. Miss Marple decides that she must find out who the woman was and what happened to her because the body was not found on the train. She works out that the body must have been dumped near Rutherford Hall and employs Lucy Eyelesbarrow to find it. Once the body has been found the race is on to find out who she was before the killer can strike again.”
Amazon

Lynne’s Bio
By day, Lynne works in PR and communications; by night (and at weekends) she writes crime fiction (as well as baking pies and chocolate brownies). In a previous life she worked as a local newspaper reporter which gave her inspiration for the story that became her first novel, A Deadly Rejection. She lives in Kent and spends far too much time on trains commuting into London for work, which does however give her time to work on plotting and writing her books.

Lynne’s links
Website
Twitter @lmmilford
Facebook 

Lynne’s latest book
LM MilfordLocal news reporter Dan Sullivan scents a story in the local council planning department and he begins to ask questions. But when his source dies in mysterious circumstances, Dan is implicated. He is quickly drawn into a world of lies, ambition and avarice as he fights to clear his name. The more he digs, the more someone tries to stop the story from ever seeing the light of day. Dan must decide what’s more important to him…the story, or his life.
Amazon

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.

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Mary Grand’s choice is ‘It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet’ by James Herriot
Simon Fairfax chooses ‘Heller with a Gun’ by Louis L’Amour
‘Dead Until Dark’ by Charlaine Harris is chosen by Rachel Dove

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does LM Milford @lmmilford re-read 4.50 FROM PADDINGTON by Agatha Christie #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3QI via @SandraDanby

#Bookreview ‘A Ladder to the Sky’ by @john_boyne #Ambition #Plagiarism

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John Boyne Maurice Swift is one of life’s takers. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne is the story of his life, told mostly by a series of people he meets, spends time with, has relationships with. Note that I don’t say ‘and who he loves’, because Maurice Swift loves only himself. He is single-minded and does what he needs to do to get on and get what he wants; he wants to be a major novelist and, oddly for such a self-obsessed person, a father. I read the book in a strange state of tension wondering to what lows he would next sink, waiting for him to get his just desserts.

Boyne’s novels are always thought-provoking and this is no different. But I found it a difficult novel to read in that Maurice is not the sort of person you want to know. He lies, dissembles, steals, discriminates, copies, exploits and basically sucks dry a person until, when he has got all he needs, he moves on. We first encounter Maurice in West Berlin in 1988. The sixth novel of sixty six year old Erich Ackermann has won a prize and, on the subsequent publicity tour, he notices a young waiter in the hotel bar. Maurice introduces himself as a fan and mentions he wants to be a writer too. He becomes Ackermann’s assistant for six months as they travel Europe on Ackermann’s book tour. Maurice allows Erich to look longingly at him but does not allow him to touch, instead he encourages Erich to tell a story from his youth. As Erich says, “This was a part of my life that I’d locked away for many decades, never confiding the story in a single person.”

A short Interlude follows Part One, told by Gore (later revealed as American author Gore Vidal) from his Italian villa La Rondinaia. By now Maurice’s debut novel has been published and well received. But Gore is wiser than Erich and sends Maurice on his way. Part Two moves forward a few years and Maurice is married. This is Edith’s story. She has published her first novel to much acclaim, is writing a second and is a creative writing tutor department in Norwich. In contrast, her husband is struggling to complete a new novel and reacts badly to pointed questioning by Edith’s students. Maurice does not handle failure well and Edith fears his mood swings and cold reactions to her. She does not share her novel, her ideas or her drafts but is sensitive to his mood swings. Until one day his mood changes. Given Maurice’s history, I knew what was going to happen but how it happened was unexpected. Boyne has created a nasty villain, arrogant, with a sense of entitlement; but believable. Haven’t we all known a bully who sees what he wants and takes it as of right?

We don’t see directly inside Maurice’s head until well into the second half of the novel. Now living in New York with his son Daniel, he is editor and owner of Stori, an exclusive literary magazine dedicated to short stories. Given the publicity with his latest novel, The Tribesman, Maurice and Stori are fashionable and many unproven writers submit their stories to him. When he is called to his son’s school because seven-year-old Daniel has hit a girl who kissed him, for the first time we hear a story from Maurice’s schooldays and the beginnings of his plagiarism. The ending is brilliant, and most unexpected.

This is a novel about plagiarism, theft, honour or rather the lack of it, and writing, wrapped up in a plot that will make you gasp out loud as the psychological twists tighten.
Amazon UK

Read my reviews of these other novels by John Boyne:-
Stay Where You Are and Then Leave
A History of Loneliness
The Heart’s Invisible Furies

If you like this, try:-
‘Amnesia’ by Peter Carey
‘Purity’ by Jonathan Franzen
‘Autumn’ by Ali Smith

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A LADDER TO THE SKY by @john_boyne #bookreview https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3wm via @SandraDanby

My Porridge & Cream read: Jackie Baldwin

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Today I’m delighted to welcome Scottish crime writer Jackie Baldwin. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

“The book that has never failed to delight and soothe me over the years is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I must have been in my early teens when I first read it and so embarking on a turbulent adolescence of my own alongside those of the March girls. At a girls school and with no brothers, the world of boys was something of a mystery to me too so I loved the character of Laurie and the subtle shifts and turns in his relationships with all the girls over the scope of the novels. Jackie Baldwin“I have had many copies of the book over the years but this one [above] is my favourite as it contains all three books in the series. Part of its enduring appeal for me is the characters who are all just flawed enough to make them endearingly frail and human. My favourite character is Jo who is unruly and tempestuous and rails against the confines of poverty and the expectation that women should conform to the domestic role expected of them rather than pursue any ambitions of their own. There is also a small broken piece of my heart that will forever be in thrall to Beth who shows just how much a small life can matter and influence those around it.

“I have read it a few times over the years and the types of things that might encourage me to pick it up are if life feels a bit too overheated and I want to escape for a while into another gentler time where courage and strength of character always triumph over adversity.

“If I had to sell Little Women in an elevator pitch it would run something along these lines. ‘The story of a family who are in poverty but not impoverished and rise to meet adversity with an outstretched hand and a warm smile.’

“Thanks for reminding me how much I love this book, Sandra! In fact, now that it’s off the shelf, I think it might be time to meet up with some old friends again…”

Jackie Baldwin’s Bio
Jackie Baldwin is a Scottish crime writer. Her debut crime novel Dead Man’s Prayer was published by Killer Reads, Harper Collins on 2ndSeptember 2016. The second in the series, Perfect Dead was published on 15thJune 2018. For most of her working life, she has been a solicitor specialising in Family and Criminal Law. However, she now practices in Dumfries as a hypnotherapist which is where her novels are set. Married, with two grown up children, she has filled her empty nest with Golden Retrievers. She can often be found in a forest walking the dogs, covered in mud and with twigs in her hair.

Jackie Baldwin’s links
Facebook
Twitter

Jackie Baldwin’s latest book
Each murder brings him one step closer to the perfect death. Ex-priest, DI Farrell is called on to investigate a gruesome death in rural Scotland. All evidence points to suicide, except for one loose end: every light in the cottage was switched off. Why would he kill himself in the dark?

The question sparks a murder investigation that leads to the mysterious Ivy House, home of ‘The Collective,’ a sinister commune of artists who will do anything to keep their twisted secrets hidden.

And when the remains of a young girl are uncovered on a barren stretch of coastline, Farrell realises that there is something rotten in this tight-knit community. Now he must track down a ruthless killer before another person dies, this time much closer to home…

‘Perfect Dead’ by Jackie Baldwin, #2 DI Frank Farrell [UK: Killer Reads]

 

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.
Jackie Baldwin

‘Little Women’ by Louisa May Alcott [UK: Penguin English Library]

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Lisa Devaney chooses Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick

Tracey Sinclair chooses Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos 

Helen J Christmas chooses Camellia by Lesley Pearse

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does Scottish crime writer @JackieMBaldwin1 re-read LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott? #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3v1 via @SandraDanby

My Porridge & Cream read: RV Biggs

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Today I’m delighted to welcome mystery writer RV Biggs. His ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

“I first read the book as a child, which is a very long time ago, so would be in the 1960s. I’d hazard a guess at 1966 when I was nine or ten years old and probably as a book we were given to read at school. I recall having my own hardbound copy a little later, given to me as a present, but one of my uncles borrowed it to read to my cousin. After a while I never saw it again. Many, many years later my sister-in-law brought me a new hardbound copy as a birthday present and this is the copy I still have. RV Biggs

“I’ve read Wind in the Willows many times over the years and mostly when nothing else seems to appeal. It draws me in because of the childhood magic of it… animals having adventures… the Wild Wood… but also because of the setting and style. Kenneth Grahame describes the landscapes with exquisite perfection, setting the scenes of the seasons so that I’m there… inside his world. I believe that the description of Mole’s utter grief in chapter 5, Dulce Domum, when he rediscovers his home, and the ethereal magic within chapter 7, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, when Mole and Ratty go in search of the baby Otter, may well be partly responsible for my own need to build description into my own writing when setting a scene.

“All in all Wind if the Willows is a magic childhood world into which I think I’ll lose myself once more very soon.”

Rob’s Elevator Pitch for Wind if the Willows: Along the margins of the river, and deep within the trackless woods, a hidden world of magic unfolds.

RV Biggs’ Bio
RV Biggs lives in the West Midlands, England. His heart however lies north of the border, where the world becomes wide and wild and less turbulent. Robert’s imagination was shaped in childhood by such stories as The Wind in the Willows and Lord of the Rings, but only turned to creativity decades later when in the quiet moments before sleep, song lyrics triggered an idea which turned into an obsession. The result was his first novel Song of the Robin, a tale of destiny and family. A sequel is scheduled to be released during 2018. Working within the telecommunications industry for thirty five years, Robert now works for a children’s hospital helping to provide Mental Health services.

RV Biggs’ links
Facebook
Twitter

RV Biggs’ latest book
RV BiggsSong of the Robin is a tale of destiny and love, tragedy and joy. The story of a young woman’s weeklong struggle for survival amidst whispered voices, unsettling dreams and disturbing visions.
‘Song of the Robin’ by RV Biggs [UK: RV Biggs]

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 here.

RV Biggs

 

‘Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame [UK: Oxford Children’s Classics]

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Laura Wilkinson
JG Harlond
Shelley Weiner

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does mystery writer @RVBiggs lose himself in WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame? #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3j8 via @SandraDanby

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My Porridge & Cream read: Julie Christine Johnson

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Today I’m delighted to welcome novelist Julie Christine Johnson. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

“Several years ago I created an annual tradition for myself: in December, as the light fades earlier each day and I retreat from the expectations and demands of modern commercial holidays, longing only for the renewal of Solstice, I soothe my tired and cold spirit with a reread of a work by one of my most treasured authors, Jane Austen. Her six completed novels — Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion — form a canon of comfort and delight on my bookshelves.

Julie Christine Johnson

Julie’s copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’

Among all these timeless treasures, it is that charming and soulful comedy of manners, Pride and Prejudice, I most anticipate. Truthfully, I rotate it in every couple of years. Each time I read the opening line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” my entire being relaxes into a smile of familiarity and joy.

Pride and Prejudice is the story of intelligent, independent Elizabeth Bennet, the eldest daughter of five in a family of modest means, and the inscrutable and cranky Fitzwilliam Darcy, an aristocrat newly arrived in their Hertfordshire neighbourhood. In Regency England, class and manners rule the day, but between these two remarkable young people, love could overcome pride and prejudice if they could just get out of their own ways.

It is these characters, their vivacity, strong wills, and fabulous repartee, which enthral me anew each time. Austen’s crisp and vivid writing charms on the surface, but also reveals a darker side of Georgian society: the devastating effects of class consciousness, the subjugation of women, the travesty of the slave trade. I remain ever in awe of Jane Austen’s ability to craft a flawless narrative, and ever in love with Elizabeth and Mr Darcy.”

Julie Christine Johnson’s Bio
Julie is the award-winning author of the novels In Another Life (Sourcebooks, 2016) and The Crows of Beara (Ashland Creek Press, 2017). Her short stories and essays have appeared in several journals, including Emerge Literary Journal; Mud Season Review; Cirque: A Literary Journal of the North Pacific Rim; Cobalt; River Poets Journal, in the print anthologies Stories for Sendai; Up, Do: Flash Fiction by Women Writers; and Three Minus One: Stories of Love and Loss; and featured on the flash fiction podcast No Extra Words. She holds undergraduate degrees in French and Psychology and a Master’s in International Affairs. Julie leads writing workshops and seminars and offers story/developmental editing and writer coaching services. A hiker, yogi, and wine geek, Julie makes her home on the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington state.

Julie Christine Johnson’s links
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
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Julie Christine Johnson’s latest book
Julie Christine JohnsonWhen Annie Crowe travels from Seattle to a small Irish village to promote a new copper mine, her public relations career is hanging in the balance. Struggling to overcome her troubled past and a failing marriage, Annie is eager for a chance to rebuild her life. Yet when she arrives on the remote Beara Peninsula, Annie learns that the mine would encroach on the nesting ground of an endangered bird, the Red-billed Chough, and many in the community are fiercely protective of this wild place. Guided by ancient mythology and challenged by modern problems, Annie must confront the half-truths she has been sent to spread and the lies she has been telling herself. Most of all, she must open her heart to the healing power of this rugged land and its people. Beautifully crafted with environmental themes, a lyrical Irish setting, and a touch of magical realism, The Crows of Beara is a breathtaking novel of how the nature of place encompasses everything that we are.
‘The Crows of Beara’ by Julie Christine Johnson [UK: Ashland Creek Press]

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 here.

Julie Christine Johnson

 

‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen [UK: Penguin Classics]

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Rosie Dean
Laura Wilkinson
Graeme Cumming

Read about some valued first editions of Pride and Prejudice here.

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does author @JulieChristineJ re-read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen? #books https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3id via @SandraDanby

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My Porridge & Cream read: Linda Huber

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Today I’m delighted to welcome thriller novelist Linda Huber. Her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read is A Cry in the Night by Mary Higgins Clark.

“I have a few ‘Porridge & Cream’ books, but I think the creamiest has to be A Cry in the Night by Mary Higgins Clark. It came out in the early 80s, so I must have bought it then – I devoured all the Mary Higgins Clark books as soon as they were published. At that time, I was young physiotherapist, living in Switzerland, far away from ‘home’ in Glasgow. The main character in this book really struck a chord in my heart – Jenny, a devoted mum to her girls, trying to do her best for them under impossible circumstances.
Linda HuberI suppose I re-read this book when I feel the need for a little mother-love in my life! My own mum is gone now and I’m mum myself to two boys – and still in Switzerland, which is now ‘home’. The thing about having two home countries is, you have neither 100%. I have dual nationality, I speak two languages, my life is here in the middle of Europe – but Scotland still has a corner of my heart. Yet the Scotland I left in the 80s exists no longer; times change and so do places.
In A Cry in the Night, Jenny is searching for home too. Maybe that’s what resonates. She has an aura of love around her, a fierce longing to protect her little family and keep them all together. When she meets Erich, it seems as if her problems are over, but soon Jenny is fighting for the lives of her children. I’ve no idea how many times I’ve read this book, but I know I’ll pick it up again. And again…”

Linda Huber’s Bio
Linda Huber grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, but went to work in Switzerland for a year aged twenty-two, and has lived there ever since. Her day jobs have included working as a physiotherapist in hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and teaching English in a medieval castle, but she now writes full-time. Her books are psychological suspense novels, and she had also published a charity collection of feel-good short stories.

Linda Huber’s links
Linda’s Amazon Author page
Buy Baby Dear
Facebook
Twitter
Website

Linda Huber’s books
Linda HuberBaby Dear is Linda’s latest novel, published in May 2017 by Bloodhound Books. Set in Scotland, it follows three women through a turbulent summer. Caro longs for a child to love, but her husband is infertile. Sharon is eight months pregnant and unsure if she really wants to be a mother. Julie, a single mum with a baby and a small boy, is struggling to make ends meet. Then there’s Jeff, Caro’s husband. All he wants is a happy wife with a baby – but how far is he prepared to go to achieve this?
Linda has written six psychological thrillers, read my review of Chosen Child.
‘Baby Dear’ by Linda Huber [UK: Bloodhound Books]

Linda HuberWhat 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.

Linda Huber

 

‘A Cry in the Night’ by Mary Higgins Clark [UK: Simon & Schuster]

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Helen J Christmas
Shelley Weiner
Renita d’Silva

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does @LindaHuber19 love A CRY IN THE DARK by Mary Higgins Clark? http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2Cm via @SandraDanby #reading

First Edition: The Sea The Sea

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The Sea The Sea by Iris Murdoch [below] won the Booker Prize in 1978.

Iris Murdoch

[photo: getty]

Iris MurdochThis hardback first edition, signed by the author, also features an inscription. Published by Chatto & Windus in 1978, the inscription is to Martyn Goff, administrator of the Booker Prize from the early 1970-2005. The distinctive cover features ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ by Hokusai.

The story
Charles Arrowby withdraws from society to the seaside to write his memoir. There, he meets again his first love Mary Hartley Fitch. Again, he idolizes her and tries to persuade her to elope with him. When she won’t, he tries to kidnap her. This is a tale of obsession and arrogance

To read the opening paragraph of The Sea The Sea, click here.

The film Iris MurdochThe film Iris was released in 2001. Murdoch was played in youth and old age by Kate Winslet and Judi Dench, her husband John Bayley was played by Hugh Bonneville and Jim Broadbent. About their lifelong romance and then the sad descent of Iris into dementia. Watch the official trailer here.

The current UK edition Iris MurdochStill in print as a Vintage Classic edition, this is the current cover. Buy at Amazon

Other editions Iris MurdochMy Triad Granada edition [above] features on its cover a detail of a painting, ‘The Sea-Birds Domain’ by Peter Graham, which can be seen in Manchester Art Gallery. It is dated inside in my handwriting as being bought in 1984.

Editions around the world of this book feature beautiful cover designs from Korea, Spain and China.

‘The Sea The Sea’ by Iris Murdoch [UK: Vintage] Buy at Amazon

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘The Hobbit’ by JRR Tolkein
‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ by John Fowles
‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: THE SEA THE SEA by Iris Murdoch #oldbooks via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2rc