Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Claire Wingfield to Chat About Books 🙂

For those who don’t know already, could you tell us about yourself and your book(s) please?

I live in Scotland and write novels and non-fiction as well as working as an editor and literary consultant, so my life is filled with books! My novel Saving Francesca Maier is contemporary women’s fiction. Set in Berlin when a couple take their teenage daughter to her father’s home country for the first time, it explores the secrets every family hides and the choices we make in a volatile world.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Saving Francesca Maier was inspired by own trip to Berlin as a new graduate, to take up a traineeship at a publishing house there. Arriving in the city, it felt as though I was truly on my own for the first time in my life. I’ve tried to capture that sense of immense possibility – but also danger and vulnerability – in Francesca’s experience of the city.

Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?

This is the question authors dread – or at least, I do! There are certainly traits of people I’ve met in some of the characters I’ve written. These will invariably be changed in some way – heightened, mixed up – during the writing process so the final character is always at a remove from real life. Friends and family always scan a new book for traces of themselves, and I’ve come to realise that sometimes it’s almost impossible to separate fact from fiction.

How do you pick your characters’ names?

Some characters have names I felt very strongly about; others were changed fairly late in the draft. Writing an international set of characters was interesting as although we tend to borrow names from different cultures it seemed important to use names that easily linked the character to their nationality.

Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?

I work as an editor so I’m a comparatively slow writer as I edit as I write rather than getting one long draft down and then revising in the next draft. I made use of workshops to help me get back into writing after breaks. I did several wonderful yoga and writing day retreats organised by my friend the author Noelle Harrison. So there is at least one scene in the novel inspired by a yoga pose! I also enjoyed workshops with the author Regi Claire, who is a wonderful short-story writer and novelist and quite inspiring in her precision.

Were you a big reader as a child?

Yes. I was quite shy as a child and always had a book nearby to retreat into. Then somehow all that reading has given me a level of confidence, so I’m glad I found books when I did.

What are you working on right now?

I’m writing a follow-up to Saving Francesca Maier, which sees one of the German characters come to Edinburgh as an au pair, becoming embroiled in the secrets of the family she works for and caught up in their outrageous demands of her. The family is connected to Francesca’s mother Imogen, so we’ll also see how the rest of Francesca’s story unravels.

What did you do to celebrate on publication day?

I was on holiday in Aviemore and we visited Loch Morlich to toast the book and take some publicity shots. One of the scenes in the novel takes place on the lake at Berlin’s Wannsee, so Loch Morlich was a pleasing mirror to the book – and to the past.

How can readers keep in touch with you?

Readers can sign up to my author newsletter at www.clairewingfieldauthor.com,

connect on

Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/clairewingfieldauthor/

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/clairewingfieldauthor/

Twitter at https://twitter.com/ClaireWingfield

See my books at my Amazon author page here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Claire-Wingfield/e/B00DLC6J04 or ask in a favourite bookshop.

Information on my editorial and literary services can be found at www.clairewingfield.co.uk

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Claire 🙂

‘Just gorgeous. Captures fraught relationships with subtlety and wisdom.’ Julia Gray

Can you leave the past in another country?

Francesca Maier knows little of her father’s home country or her parents’ life together before she was born. A summer in Berlin brings the past – and its secrets – alive. Adrift in a foreign city, she finds an unexpected friend in east Berliner Antonio – but what will he sacrifice to save her?

‘Saving Francesca Maier’ probes the secrets every family hides and the choices we make in a volatile world.

Contains writing prompts and author interview, making this the perfect Book Club read.

happy reading 🙂

Welcome to my stop on Mark Brend’s Undercliff blog tour with Love Groups Tours! 

Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Group for arranging the following interview with Mark Brend…..

For those who don’t know already, could you tell us about yourself and your book(s) please?

I’m a writer and a musician based in Devon. I’ve written five non-fiction books and contributed to many more. As a songwriter/composer/recording artist I’ve released six albums under various artist names. I also work in charity communications and as a music journalist.

Undercliff is my first novel.

Where did/do you get your ideas from?

There’s no single place. But I’m not a great believer in sitting around waiting for inspiration. I think you get more ideas the more you work. You make your own luck.

Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?

No

How do you pick your characters’ names?

I just cast around until I find something that I think fits OK.

Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?

I’m not sure I call it a process. I plug away when I’ve got the time until I end up with something that I think is ready to publish. I don’t have any regular routines. I do a fair amount of rewriting, though I can’t say it it’s a normal amount or not.

Who are your top 5 favourite authors?

I’m not sure I can answer that. I’ve read thousands of books by hundred of authors, and enjoyed a very great proportion of them. It wouldn’t seem right to single out a top five. At the moment my favourite period is mid-20^th century British fiction.

If you could meet any author, who would it be and what would you ask them?

I’m reading a George Simenon book right now. I’ve read maybe 40 of his books, which is barely scratching the surface. I’d ask him: how did you do it? How did you write so many books, and never falter on quality control? My hunch is he wouldn’t be able to answer – or at least, he wouldn’t be able to reveal a trick that enabled him to do it.

Were you a big reader as a child?

Not especially. Average, I guess.

When did you start to write?

Professionally, as a journalist, in 1996. My first book was published in 2001.

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on another novel, which is set close to the location of Undercliff, but at a different time, so it isn’t a related book. I have a vague idea for a combined sequel/prequel to Undercliff aswell, but I think that’s a way off.

Tell us about your last release?

My most recent non-fiction book, The Sound of Tomorrow (Bloomsbury 2012), explores early commercial electronic music. I also researched and wrote an associated BBC Radio 4 documentary, A Sound British Adventure.

Do you have a new release due?

Not after Undercliff, no.

What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?

Nothing, really.

How can readers keep in touch with you?

https://twitter.com/MinuteBook

minutebook.co.uk

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Mark 🙂

Blurb

It’s the summer of 1972, and 30-something divorcee Martyn returns to London after some years away. He joins the Olive Grove, a religious community, where he forms a relationship with Amelia. Over time Martyn becomes suspicious of the Olive Grove’s leaders, a pair of apparently ordinary men who can speak in perfect unison, known as the Two. A sequence of ambiguous events might indicate that the Two have malign purposes, though Martyn cannot be sure. These suspicions come to a head when Amelia breaks off with Martyn and appears to vanish. He travels to Devon, where the Olive Grove has a retreat house, in search of Amelia and the truth about the organisation. There, events take several disturbing and unexpected turns.  

Author Bio

Mark Brend is a writer and a musician based in Devon. He has written several books about music and has released six albums under various artist names. Undercliff is Mark’s first novel.

Buy Link

https://amzn.to/2DMqgZx

happy reading 🙂

I am absolutely OVER THE MOON to be joining in with Mel Sherratt’s Tick Tock blog tour with Avon! 🙂

If you haven’t read this yet, you really should!

My review…..

OH MY GOODNESS!! Gripping would be an absolute understatement!

Having read and loved all of Mel Sherratt’s books, most recently Hush Hush, I knew I was in for a treat when starting Tick Tock.

It has been great catching up with Grace once again, although I don’t envy her circumstances. This book starts with the murder of a local teenage girl, left dead in a field whilst out cross-country running with her class at school. You don’t get much more hard hitting than that! As the mother of two teenagers I can only imagine the devastation. You trust that they are safe when at school, but it just goes to show that anything is possible when you have someone determined to cause others harm. The most terrifying things is, these things actually happen.

When another victim is discovered just a few days later, the two don’t seem to be connected in any way. Surely there aren’t two different killers on the loose in the same week, but nothing is adding up. It’s only when a third victim is targeted that things start to fall into place, but it’s going to be a race against time to catch this killer before anyone else gets hurt. Grace and her team work flat out, as always, to avoid any more heartache for anyone, but it’s no easy task as I’m sure you can imagine.

Tick Tock is such a brilliantly written fast-paced police procedural and one which is extremely difficult to put down. It kept me up late in to the night as each chapter makes it impossible to not read the next!

I love that it’s set in Stoke-on-Trent. I was born and raised here (well, Newcastle-under-Lyme, just outside of Stoke) and I love that I recognise all the places mentioned. My Dad & Step-Mum live not far from the Cafe Nero on the three roundabouts in Smallthorne and I have enjoyed more than one visit to The Quarter Cafe. I will be going again next week with my friend, Gayle 🙂

I also love that we get to learn a little bit more about Grace from a personal perspective too. I enjoyed the relationship she is building with Simon and the difficulties she faces with his teenage daughter not wanting to accept her as his partner. For me, these aspects really make these books stand out from some other crime thrillers which might have excellent plots, but not as much focus on the characters. Mel Sherratt knows how to write characters! Most are instantly likeable but, of course, some not so much, but equally fascinating and all entirely believable.

Overall though this is a chilling story and it made my blood run cold on more than one occasion.

I highly recommend!

Many thanks to the author & publisher for my review copy.

Get clicking…..

About the author…..

Follow, like and share the book love with these awesome book bloggers…..

happy reading 🙂

Welcome to my stop, for today, on Douglas Board’s three book blog blitz with Rachel’s Random Resources!

I have an extract from Time Of Lies to share with you today, as well as info for all three books.

Time of Lies

In 2020 the United Kingdom elects its own Donald Trump.

Bob Grant, former football hooligan, now the charismatic leader of the Britain’s Great party, has swept to power on a populist tide. With his itchy finger hovering over the nuclear trigger, Bob presides over a brave new Britain where armed drones fill the skies, ex-bankers and foreigners are vilified, and the Millwall football chant ‘No one likes us, we don’t care’ has become an unofficial national anthem.

Meanwhile, Bob’s under-achieving, Guardian-reading brother Zack gets a tap on the shoulder from a shady Whitehall mandarin. A daring plot is afoot to defy the will of the people and unseat the increasingly unstable PM. Can Zack stop his brother before he launches a nuclear strike on Belgium? And just what is ACERBIC, Britain’s most closely-guarded military secret?

A darkly comic political thriller, Time of Lies is also a terrifyingly believable portrait of an alternative Britain. It couldn’t happen here… could it?

Extract…..

“TIME OF LIES” by Douglas Board

In 2020 the UK elects its own Donald Trump as Prime Minister – Bob Grant, uneducated Bermondsey geezer and self-made millionaire. The election slogan of Bob’s BG party is ‘Britain’s Great! End of!’.

Zack, a Guardian-reading out-of-work actor, can’t believe that his brother Bob has his finger on Britain’s nuclear trigger. Meanwhile Patrick Smath, the Eton-educated permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, is wetting himself and having to tell Bob Britain’s most closely-guarded secret for the last 25 years.

‘Time of Lies’ is about an upside down world where truth is in retreat from lies, deception and bullshit. Zack and his wife Kathy, a Royal Navy officer, are in Helensburgh having tea with Cairstine, Kathy’s mum. Kathy is Cairstine’s only child but Cairstine has dementia and speaks of a non-existent extra daughter. The night before Zack and Kathy went to a Glasgow comedy club and heard an extended riff: what if elderly people realised that pretending to have dementia could give them more power? Here Zack is telling the story.

‘Both of my girls were angels,’ explains Cairstine, ‘in their own way. But Kathy was very focussed on her career. I had to find my place in her order of things.’ She beams a smile like a cracked dinner plate. ‘She left me.’

‘Ma, I’m here.’

‘And where else would you be? It comes down to that man. I blame him.’

I assume she means me. The giggles will be unstoppable if I don’t say something. Besides, I’ve flown four hundred miles to help Kathy play verbal tennis against a wonky ball-throwing machine: it’s time to join my partner at the net. ‘Usually it depends on the woman too,’ I offer.

Cairstine turns to me. ‘Oh, look at yourself giggling away, and thinking I don’t know. No, you’re not the man,’ she explains dismissively. ‘You’re not Kathy’s boss. He had designs on her. Trust a mother’s instinct.’ She looks back at Kathy, tilting her head to one side. ‘Now Meghan was different. She was absolutely devoted to her ma. And she had a career as well. Of course she did.’

Is Kathy tired, or tired of being put down? Is she following dementia care advice? Whatever the reason, she puts a foot into the fantasy world of ‘Meghan’. ‘What career was that, ma?’ she asks. ‘Meghan’s, I mean.’

Punishment is guaranteed, and it comes. ‘Oh you’re heartless! She had that terrible accident, didn’t she? So she couldn’t have a career.’

I laugh out loud ‒ I can’t help it.

Kathy throws me a look like a grenade. ‘No, I don’t know, ma. There never was any Meghan.’

‘That’s wicked! Because Meghan would have ‒’

Cairstine’s voice tails off. That’s rare in this habitat.

‘Because Meghan would have ‒ ?’ Kathy persists.

‘Oh, she would have outshone Kathy,’ Cairstine replied. ‘I never said a word to Kathy, of course, but I knew. The way a mother does. Outshone her into a cinder.’

Hydrogen bomb test subjects standing miles away, with gloved hands clamped over their goggles and facing away from ground zero, have reported seeing everything turn blinding white. Kathy and I can confirm the accuracy of these reports. We finish our visit early, badly needing some recovery time.

Purchase Links:

30% off with discount code BLOGTOURLIES http://eye-books.com/books/time-of-lies

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Lies-Douglas-Board-ebook/dp/B07199TZQ5

US – https://www.amazon.com/Time-Lies-Douglas-Board-ebook/dp/B07199TZQ5

Promotional Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvExzv39qs8&t=37s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqBwnl4rtk8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_clB5pM7Gbw&t=48s

The Rats: A White House Satire

Ros March, disabled lesbian mum and former Royal Marine, has just moved to Turnberry on Scotland’s west coast. Her cottage overlooks one of the world’s most famous golf courses – Trump Turnberry – as well as the scenic bird sanctuary Ailsa Craig. But idylls deceive. In truth Ailsa was once overrun by rats, who were exterminated at the end of the twentieth century, and Ros’s landlord turns out to be a delusional Islamophobic misogynist who calls himself ‘Potus Two’. When Potus Two announces that both he and Ros will have the chance to meet the President on Turnberry’s hallowed grounds, Ros hatches a plan. Even a slim chance to do something about one of the biggest rats in the world is not something she will pass by.

ICYMI – See yesterday’s post for an extract!

Purchase Link:

https://douglasboard.com/novels/the-rats-a-white-house-satire.html

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0789PC6LG

US – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0789PC6LG

Promotional Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq07R072IhU

MBA

Why is so much of the world managed by arseholes? When workaholic business school hot shot Ben Stillman is fired, he has the chance to find out. Not a guy to sit still, Ben jumps head first into turning his former business school into a world-class madrassa of capitalism.

Ben has ten days to rescue the launch of its spectacular glass tower, and his own career – ten days during which he will have to confront terrorist plots, undercover police, the extravagant demands of the super-rich, and the only woman who can save him from this madness.

A satirical thriller, a love story, and a wry look at modern management ideology all rolled into one – MBA is a piercing yet hopeful enquiry into the meaning of success.

Purchase Links:

30% off with discount code BLOGTOURMBA http://eye-books.com/books/mba

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/MBA-Douglas-Board-ebook/dp/B00YS91B02

US – https://www.amazon.com/MBA-Douglas-Board-ebook/dp/B00YS91B02

Promotional Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=hUOs5YqqkBg

Author Bio –

Douglas Board is the author of the campus satire MBA (Lightning Books, 2015), which asked why so much of the business world is Managed By Arseholes. Time of Lies, his second novel, is a timely exploration of the collapse of democracy.

Born in Hong Kong, he has degrees from Cambridge and Harvard and worked for the UK Treasury and then as a headhunter. He has also had a distinguished career in public life, serving as treasurer of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and chairing the British Refugee Council.

As well as writing fiction, he is the author of two applied research books on leadership, which was the subject of his doctorate. He is currently a senior visiting fellow at the Cass Business School in London. He and his wife Tricia Sibbons live in London and Johannesburg.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: @BoardWryter

https://douglasboard.com/home/

Follow, like and share the book love with these awesome book bloggers…..

happy reading 🙂

Welcome to my stop, for today, on Douglas Board’s three book blog blitz with Rachel’s Random Resources!

I have an extract from The Rats to share with you today as well as info for all three books. 

Watch this space for an extract from Time Of Lies tomorrow!

The Rats: A White House Satire

Ros March, disabled lesbian mum and former Royal Marine, has just moved to Turnberry on Scotland’s west coast. Her cottage overlooks one of the world’s most famous golf courses – Trump Turnberry – as well as the scenic bird sanctuary Ailsa Craig. But idylls deceive. In truth Ailsa was once overrun by rats, who were exterminated at the end of the twentieth century, and Ros’s landlord turns out to be a delusional Islamophobic misogynist who calls himself ‘Potus Two’. When Potus Two announces that both he and Ros will have the chance to meet the President on Turnberry’s hallowed grounds, Ros hatches a plan. Even a slim chance to do something about one of the biggest rats in the world is not something she will pass by.

Extract…..

“THE RATS: A WHITE HOUSE SATIRE” by Douglas Board

Ros March, a disabled veteran, moves to Scotland for the summer, leaving behind her adopted daughter Mbali. She’s chosen Turnberry, which hasn’t much to offer except for Donald Trump’s golf course. Like Jack Reacher, Ros has no time for golf – but she does have time for justice.

Ros’s landlord is a local weirdo who calls himself ‘POTUS Two’. ‘POTUS’ stands for President of the United States, while all this character is president of is a local club called the Turnberry Society. He’s deluded, abuses women and staff, and seems to imagine that he’s living in the White House – but then you could say all of that about Donald Trump.

A few minutes south of Turnberry on the A77 or thirty minutes’ hike along the coast, POTUS Two awakens in the Lincoln bedroom, protected from the sun by thick drapes. The Victorian canopied bed is one of the house’s few authentic pieces. Most of the rest of the furniture is French junk put together with the chronological consistency of Dr Who. This will take time to fix, but POTUS Two has time. Everyone assumes he’ll be gone in eight years max, maybe two years or less, but since when has ‘everyone’ been right about anything?

The self-appointed President of the Turnberry Society (POTUS Two for short) clicks the remote and streams Fox News. It was from this exact bed that he had leapt up to flick the switch during Fox and Friends, that time when Steve Doocy had said to flick the lights ‘if you’re watching.’ The lights on screen had moved in pretty good synch, allowing for the satellite delay.

The breakfast show streams story after story: lines a mile long for radiation protection suits in Seoul, trouble over a march in the Midwest and (yawn) the fake banking crisis. POTUS Two will tweet something over a bacon sandwich.

Thoughts about previous occupants of the bed do not detain him, because experts ensured a thorough fumigation. POTUS Two doesn’t know what a black man, barely American, got up to in the White House ‒ he doesn’t need to, there are websites for that ‒ but a bloodstain confronts him as he swings out from beneath the sheets. He opens the bedroom door with a jerk and bellows, ‘Kellyann!’ before padding downstairs in POTUS-logoed pyjamas. Of Kellyann there is no sign, so he slips out onto the north patio to soak up the view.

It’s eighteen minutes past eleven in Turnberry; eighteen minutes past six in the morning in Washington DC. The north patio will become a portico as soon as the President of the Turnberry Society crowns it with columns and something portentous for them to hold. The day is cloudless, the fresh morning air served just as POTUS Two likes it, with the uplifting tang of White Whisper paint. The house had to be coated from top to bottom three times before he could name it ‘the White House.’ POTUS Two liked the chemical tang so much ‒ he thinks of it as the smell of power ‒ that the giant pole bearing the ‘Make America Great Again’ flag is repainted every six weeks. Directly in front of the flagpole is the twelve-foot totem of Trump ‒ POTUS One ‒ with his jaw jutting and teeth gleaming, an icon surveying his iconic resort across the bay.

POTUS Two is touching seventy and barrel-chested with small hands. He resembles an early-retired head of accounts more than a president. Big ears and black butterfly-wing glasses emphasize the definition that his forehead and eyes lack. However, for everything POTUS Two misses in presence, his imagination more than compensates. Another difference from the man on the totem is POTUS Two needs his coffee. POTUS One’s regime of no coffee, no alcohol and no cigarettes has been done before. POTUS Two recalls that it didn’t Make Germany Great that time either.

Turning to survey the West Wing ‒ the West Cottage to be exact, fifty yards away ‒ POTUS Two spots Ros moving around the bay-fronted living room. The room has just been redecorated in creamy gray damask and boasts a bust of Churchill. ‘The Oval Office,’ POTUS Two had explained when showing Ros around. ‘Uh-huh,’ she had said. He grins, because Ros won’t be ‘uh-huh-ing’ when she hears the news he’s got for her today.

Kellyann arrives with his two-cup Pyrex pot. POTUS Two will send her back if the coffee’s not scalding. She attempts a discreet cough but fails. The nineteen-year-old has worked at the White House for two months. In that time her thickly made-up face has sagged, like a washing-line under wet carpets.

‘Kellyann,’ roars POTUS Two, and the housekeeper tenses. He waves a podgy finger and points upstairs. ‘On the sheets. In the bedroom. A bloodstain. A new one.’

Purchase Links:

https://douglasboard.com/novels/the-rats-a-white-house-satire.html

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0789PC6LG

US – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0789PC6LG

Promotional Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq07R072IhU

MBA

Why is so much of the world managed by arseholes? When workaholic business school hot shot Ben Stillman is fired, he has the chance to find out. Not a guy to sit still, Ben jumps head first into turning his former business school into a world-class madrassa of capitalism.

Ben has ten days to rescue the launch of its spectacular glass tower, and his own career – ten days during which he will have to confront terrorist plots, undercover police, the extravagant demands of the super-rich, and the only woman who can save him from this madness.

A satirical thriller, a love story, and a wry look at modern management ideology all rolled into one – MBA is a piercing yet hopeful enquiry into the meaning of success.

Purchase Links:

30% off with discount code BLOGTOURMBA http://eye-books.com/books/mba

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/MBA-Douglas-Board-ebook/dp/B00YS91B02

US – https://www.amazon.com/MBA-Douglas-Board-ebook/dp/B00YS91B02

Promotional Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=hUOs5YqqkBg

Time of Lies

In 2020 the United Kingdom elects its own Donald Trump.

Bob Grant, former football hooligan, now the charismatic leader of the Britain’s Great party, has swept to power on a populist tide. With his itchy finger hovering over the nuclear trigger, Bob presides over a brave new Britain where armed drones fill the skies, ex-bankers and foreigners are vilified, and the Millwall football chant ‘No one likes us, we don’t care’ has become an unofficial national anthem.

Meanwhile, Bob’s under-achieving, Guardian-reading brother Zack gets a tap on the shoulder from a shady Whitehall mandarin. A daring plot is afoot to defy the will of the people and unseat the increasingly unstable PM. Can Zack stop his brother before he launches a nuclear strike on Belgium? And just what is ACERBIC, Britain’s most closely-guarded military secret?

A darkly comic political thriller, Time of Lies is also a terrifyingly believable portrait of an alternative Britain. It couldn’t happen here… could it?

Purchase Links:

30% off with discount code BLOGTOURLIES http://eye-books.com/books/time-of-lies

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Lies-Douglas-Board-ebook/dp/B07199TZQ5

US – https://www.amazon.com/Time-Lies-Douglas-Board-ebook/dp/B07199TZQ5

Promotional Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvExzv39qs8&t=37s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqBwnl4rtk8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_clB5pM7Gbw&t=48s

Author Bio –

Douglas Board is the author of the campus satire MBA (Lightning Books, 2015), which asked why so much of the business world is Managed By Arseholes. Time of Lies, his second novel, is a timely exploration of the collapse of democracy.

Born in Hong Kong, he has degrees from Cambridge and Harvard and worked for the UK Treasury and then as a headhunter. He has also had a distinguished career in public life, serving as treasurer of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and chairing the British Refugee Council.

As well as writing fiction, he is the author of two applied research books on leadership, which was the subject of his doctorate. He is currently a senior visiting fellow at the Cass Business School in London. He and his wife Tricia Sibbons live in London and Johannesburg.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: @BoardWryter

https://douglasboard.com/home/

Follow, like and share the book love with these awesome book bloggers…..

happy reading 🙂

Yesterday Steph and I met up with other lovely book bloggers and authors at the North Stafford Hotel in Stoke-on-Trent. It was such a lovely event, as always, and I thought I would share the photo’s with you.

Steph Lawrence & Sharon Sant (AKA Tilly Tennant)

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Me, Steph & Sharon

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Steph & Mary Mae Lewis

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Me & John Pye

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Cheryl Warrillow (AKA Sherrie Lowe) & Sue Eaton

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Misha Herwin, Graeme Cumming & Jo Furniss

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Alison Lingwood, Mel Sherratt & John Pye

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Jill Doyle, Esther Chilton & Jan Edwards

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Me & Rachel Gilbey

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Here’s the link to the Facebook Event invite for our next meet up in October –

https://www.facebook.com/events/1022024784855482/

Hope you can join us!

Please RSVP & share with bloggers & authors on your friends list.

Welcome to my stop on K.C. Maher’s The Best Of Crimes blog tour with RedDoor Publishing!

(Review written 26/04/19)

I have just finished The Best Of Crimes this afternoon and I’m sure I’ll struggle to find the right words to do this book the justice it deserves. It’s a difficult one to review, but certainly one I recommend.

This story is quite beautifully written. I was completely captivated, but it will undoubtedly be controversial given the nature of the storyline.

Walter quite simply becomes besotted with his daughter’s friend, Amanda, and they share a very close relationship when she is only thirteen years old. Amanda is left alone for long periods of time by her neglectful mother which leads to Walter’s need to take care of her. His wife and daughter have moved away, so it’s just the two of them in their quiet little street. Amanda wholeheartedly shares Walter’s affections, but he is careful not to cross lines. There are many rules as Walter is aware that his love for Amanda will not be tolerated by the world. He knows it’s wrong and he’s petrified of the strength of his feelings. He doesn’t come across as one who is naturally attracted to minors and is actually quite a likeable character in many ways, considering. As a mother though, alarm bells would be ringing if a man was paying my daughter that much attention, especially one who actually tried to explain to me how he was feeling about her, so Amanda’s mother is a complete mystery to me! How a mother can be so uninterested in their own child is beyond me.

I also found Sterling to be an odd character. Swanning off with another bloke for months then coming home and expecting them to carry on as if she’d never been away. I’m sure Walter would be unlikely to welcome her home with open arms under normal circumstances. She also seems to be aware of Walter’s relationship with Amanda and does nothing to intervene, too immersed in her own selfish needs. I find it quite odd how both of these women turn a blind eye to the situation. They could have nipped the whole thing in the bud quite early on, but that wouldn’t make for such an intriguing story would it.

Although naturally unsettling this book is truly compelling.

Many thanks to Anna & Julia at RedDoor Publishing for my review copy.

Via AmazonUK…..

Amanda laughs and stands. Hair sweeps across her forehead and she extends her arms toward me. If she hasn’t been acting beyond her years, she certainly is now.

‘Shall we pretend our front yards are an ocean, Walter? Shall we reach for each other across half the world?’

Walter, a child prodigy who now works on Wall Street, considers himself a father figure to Amanda, his daughter’s best friend and only child of a neglectful single mother. But when he loses his job after the 2008 financial crisis and his materialistic wife leaves him, taking their daughter, his relationship with Amanda enters a precarious new stage.

Walter struggles to give her the affection and guidance she needs, without succumbing to her budding sexuality. In the year before she enters high school, these two lonely souls will transform each other as Walter breaks out of his emotional shell, and Amanda blossoms into adolescence.

In a world that has always failed to protect its most vulnerable, The Best of Crimes is a new narrative and an unconventional love story that will challenge your perception of right and wrong.

About the author…..

K.C. Maher grew up outside of Chicago and has been writing fiction all her adult life. Her writing has appeared in little magazines online and off. Mostly, though, her career has been a series of near misses. Now that her children are grown, she writes more than she sleeps. Only recently has she noticed that her imagination runs to, and cultivates, the exception to the rule. Her husband, however, has always known this, as have lawyers considering her for jury duty.

K.C. Maher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kcmaher3
K.C. Maher’s website: http://www.kcmaherfiction.com

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Welcome to my stop on Colette McCormick’s Not My Brother’s Keeper blog tour!

My review…..

Not My Brother’s Keeper is an extremely compelling family saga. It’s told from the different perspectives of two brothers, Robert and Tom, who are a little over two years apart in age and quite alike in looks, but looks only.

Robert does a runner after finding out his girlfriend, Michelle, is pregnant.

Tom is there to support Michelle as she is naturally distraught and over time they become close.

Each chapter alternates between Robert and Tom and we share sixteen years of their very different lives as they move on in very different directions.

Robert is a very selfish character. Robert’s priority is Robert and he always manages to fall on his feet. He does think of home occasionally, but doesn’t miss them enough to actually call. Then for some reason, sixteen years after leaving everyone behind with only a brief note and no indication of where he has gone to, he decides to make contact. He is totally not prepared for what has happened since he left and wonders if there is any chance they could be a family again?

Tom is a lovely character and I’m not at all surprised Michelle eventually falls for him. He might look like his brother, but he couldn’t be any more different. His animosity towards Robert is totally justified and his insecurities make him even more endearing. The anger and fear he feels when Robert returns suddenly is very believable and in the end he still proves himself to be the bigger man.

Their mother is as you would imagine a mother to be. She naturally defends Robert and his disappearance devastates her. I could totally empathise with her, but I could also totally understand his father’s reaction. In his eyes Robert should be completely ashamed and he was no longer any son of his.

I was hooked from the very beginning and I found myself rather compelled by the brother’s stories. When I had to do real life stuff, rather than read, I found my mind wandering, wondering which way the story might go. I couldn’t wait to read the next chapter. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read and one I will happily recommend.

Many thanks to the author & publisher for my review copy.

My brother. Not my responsibility.

Robert and Tom are practically identical – same height, same hair, equally good looking – but Tom never had the same confidence as his older brother, and for that reason, he is in awe of him.

When Robert’s girlfriend, Michelle, tells him that she’s pregnant, Robert disappears leaving Tom to clean up his mess. As Tom spends time with Michelle, reassuring her that she is not alone in this, the both begin to fall in love.

Sixteen years later, without warning, Robert comes home and Tom has to find the courage to stand against the brother he idolized.

About the author…..

Colette was born and raised in Sheffield and remains a ‘Yorkshire lass’ at heart despite living in County Durham since the 1980’s. In 2013 Wergener’s Granulamatosis caused her kidneys to fail which meant she needed regular dialysis sessions. However, after 18 months on dialysis, and totally unexpectedly, her kidneys ‘woke up.’ She is now living life to the full and when she is not writing she is working as a charity retail manager. Colette loves cooking and has been threatening to write a cookery book for years. She also loves gardening and walking the dog but has no plans to write about either of those things. She has been married for almost forty years and has two grown up sons.
She would like to publicly thank the NHS in general and the marvellous staff of ICCU, Ward B28 and the Renal Unit at Sunderland Royal Hospital in particular. Without their skill, care and attention none of this would be possible.

SILENT NIGHT

by Geraldine Hogan 

A baby is snatched from her pram in the garden. She’s never found. Thirty years later her sister, now a mother herself, is brutally killed.

When Anna Crowe is killed in her sleep alongside her children, the quiet local community of Corbally is shocked. It’s also a chilling reminder of  when her sister, Janey, disappeared as a baby, twenty nine years ago, never to be seen again.

Detective Iris Locke is assigned to the case and, after a year undercover which ended in failure when her cover got blown, she’s desperate to make her mark – and to live up to the reputation of her ex-cop father, the former head of the Limerick Murder Squad.

Jack Locke ran the investigation into the disappearance of baby Janey. But by reopening the old case, Iris is also reopening old wounds for the team. Can she untangle the dark secrets that lead to one sister vanishing and the other’s death – even if it means digging into the past of someone very close to her?

Fans of Patricia Gibney, Angela Marsons and L.J. Ross won’t want to miss this – the first book in a gripping and unputdownable new crime series.

Check this out…..

Pre-order now…..

🙂

Welcome to my stop on Liz Treacher’s The Wrong Direction blog tour with Love Books Tours!

The Wrong Direction

Autumn 1920. When Bernard Cavalier, a flamboyant London artist, marries Evie Brunton, a beautiful Devon post lady, everyone expects a happy ending. But Evie misses cycling down country lanes, delivering the mail, and is finding it hard to adapt to her new life among Mayfair’s high society. Meanwhile Bernard, now a well-known artist, is struggling to give up his bachelor ways.
The Wrong Direction is as light and witty as The Wrong Envelope, with racy characters and a fast-paced plot. Wild parties, flirtatious models, jealous friends – Bernard and Evie must negotiate many twists and turns if they are to hold on to each other…

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ICYMI…..

The Wrong Envelope by Liz Treacher @liztreacher #BlogTour with #LoveBooksTours #AuthorInterview

happy reading 🙂