Book Review: Christmas with the Bomb Girls

It's December, so I feel I can start talking about the C word (although I've been feeling festive for a few weeks now and have already indulged in stollen, mince pies, Christmas markets, Christmas shopping, Christmas bedding and Channel 5 seasonal films...).

Talking of which, I was sent a book for review, Christmas with the Bomb Girls.  In a nutshell, it's the book equivalent of a Channel 5 Christmas film.  Read on for a full review.

They say you can't judge a book by it's cover; yes, you really can.

Book Review: How to Read a Dress

Unlike many vintage lovers, I have never studied fashion or costume, and hardly any history before 1900 (despite a brief Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt period in school).  Everything I know about 20th century clothing (which isn't a lot!) has been self-taught over many years of reading books, making random vintage purchases, watching the Antiques Roadshow and reading excellent historical fashion blogs.  This does mean that my fashion knowledge starts to peter out the further back in time we go.  I really would love to learn more about fashions in the 19th century and earlier, and so I was very keen to be asked to review How to Read A Dress by Lydia Edwards.

Wild Pub Walks: Crickhowell Circular

A long walk and a good pub lunch are staple weekend activities for us Brits.  I grew up on the edge of the Brecon Beacons here in South Wales, so there was never any shortage of hills to climb, nor pubs to rest in afterwards.   I was recently contacted about the book Wild Pub Walks for review.  This is no ordinary walking book, because like all of those published in association with CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale), every walk is chosen partly for its proximity to decent pubs.  What a good idea!

The book contains 22 walks across the UK's prettiest mountain regions, covering the Peak District, Lake District, Highlands/Islands, Scottish Borders, Snowdonia, Pembrokeshire/South Wales, North York Moors National Park and Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The walk I'm giving you a snapshot of today is one of the South Wales walks, the Crickhowell Circular, taking in the Black Mountains.  Crickhowell is a pretty little town in Powys, close to where I grew up.  The walk takes you up firstly to the peak of Table Mountain, followed by a long circuit around the peaks of Pen Cerrig-calch, Pen Allt-Mawr and Waun Fach.  You can see the peaks from Crickhowell itself.

Book Review: The Wedding Girls

Last year I reviewed Secrets of the Singer Girls by Kate Thompson, which was a tale of female friendship set against the backdrop of a sewing factory in WWII.  This time Thompson is back with a new book set in the 1930s in Bethnal Green, London, The Wedding Girls.  The three female friends at the centre of the story all work in the wedding trade in various guises, either for a seamstress or a photography studio.  The time period is one of unrest in London's East End - the pro-facist Black Shirts are on the march, and war is brewing on the horizon...

Hollywood Beauty, 1920s Style

I like to try something new in my make-up every now and again.  But this week I tried something old - Hollywood beauty tips!  I was recently send the book Hollywood Beauty to review, and was challenged to try out some of the how-to guides it features.  With beauty tips covering decades from the 1920s to the 1960s, and featuring stars from Sophia Loren to Elizabeth Taylor, there were plenty of looks to choose from.  In the end I went for something a bit out of comfort zone and followed the steps in creating Clara Bow's iconic 1920s' look.  But how practical was it?  And what are the best modern products to help pull it off?  Read on!

Book Review: Fashion Victims

As Halloween is fast approaching, I'm wondering if you are in the mood for something a little more macabre today?  If so, I have a book that may be right up your street.  It comes with a warning though: reading this book may result in you never again wearing lipstick, corsets, and vintage clothing.  Who knew that such horrors lie beneath items of glamour and beauty?

Book Review: Model for Murder

I love a good crime book, particularly one set in a charming English setting - a much beloved genre all of its own these days - so I was keen to review the third book by author D S Nelson in her Blake Hetherington crime series.  I ran through my checklist.  Small village?  Check.  Retirement-age investigator?  Check.  Dropping like flies?  Check.  Milliner?  Ooh, that's a new one!  As a lover of vintage fashion I do like hats, so I was very excited to read about a detective-milliner.  Here's the blurb about the book:

When a serial killer strikes at the heart of Tuesbury, Blake is soon on the case.  Aided by enthusiastic archaeologist Delilah Delibes, and her Jack Russell Bertie, Blake is one more on the path of a murderer.  In this tale of voodoo, paganism and deep-rooted traditions, fact and myth merge to blur the line between what is real and what is fiction.  Can Blake solve the case or will he become the next victim?

Book Review: Poldark

Now that series one of the latest BBC television adaptation of Poldark has left our screens here in the UK, you may wish to ease those withdrawal symptoms while you wait for season two by reading the books.  They'll keep you going, there are twelve of them!

Book Review: Secrets of The Singer Girls

I've read some super historical novels in the last year, and was looking forward to reading another book set in the 1940s.  'Secrets of the Singer Girls' is Kate Thompson's first novel and is a tale from the homefront.  Set in London's East End during WWII, the story follows a group of women working in a factory, sewing bandages and uniforms for the war effort.  Friendships are formed and tested, and war claims casualities in inumerable ways in this most enjoyable tale of female caramaderie.

Book Review: Elizabeth Is Missing

'Elizabeth Is Missing' was a book I was dying to read because it appeals to so many of my interests at once: psychology, bygone eras and mysteries!



Maude is in her 80s and has dementia, and as well as the story arc about her illness, there are also threads following two unsolved mysteries, one in the present day concerning the whereabouts of her friend Elizabeth, and one in the 1940s when her sister disappeared.  We are told the story from Maude's perspective, which is a really insightful way of conveying what the experience of dementia is like to the reader.  It's a running narrative of what Maude is thinking and doing, which means that the story jumps around a lot, with hops back in time to the 1940s, and some gaps in the timeline.  I found some scenes incredibly poignant, especially where Maude is unable to articulate how she is feeling.  The period details are excellent, and have obviously been well researched, so that the flashbacks really do have the 'feel' of the 1940s.

How To Read More Books

Have you resolved to 'read more' this year?  Are you struggling to achieve that goal?  Read on for some tips about to how to achieve reading more books this year!

Book Review: The Paying Guests

I was very eager to read Sarah Waters' latest book, The Paying Guests.  I adored 'The Little Stranger', the only other Waters book I've read, and had high hopes for this new tale set in the early 1920s.

"It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants,  life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

For with the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the ‘clerk class’, the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. And as passions mount and frustration gathers, no one can foresee just how far, and how devastatingly, the disturbances will reach…"

About 180 pages in I realised that I was gripped and turning the pages at a rate of knots, even though the plot wasn't advancing as quickly and nothing had really happened.  I think that shows the quality of the writing, that I was happy just to absorb the words and enjoy a study of the characters and their relationships, without any major plot developments.  The story steadily moved from moment to moment, and I found a lot to savour in each scene.  There are sections of writing that are delicious, there's no other word for it!

Book Review: Fifties House

Fifties House by Catriona Gray is a wonderful glimpse into mid-century home design, with three main sections, focusing on rooms, houses, and decoration.  The book is a narrated collection of articles taken from 1950's issues of House & Garden magazine,with pages of full colour photographs and illustrations.

Book Review: Men I Have Known, by Eileen Younghusband

I’ve mentioned previously on this blog that a wonderful author, Eileen Younghusband, is someone to look out for if you’re interested in WWII history, or are generally interested in feisty women who won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.  Eileen’s third book is ‘Men I Have Known’, and is a series of recollections of the men who have crossed paths with Eileen in her adventurous lifetime.

The cameo appearances of various menfolk happen across three main stages of Eileen’s life, from her war work, through being a hotelier, to the present day – where Eileen had her first book published at the age of 89!

Book Review: Sex Lives of the Hollywood Goddesses

Today's review is of a bit of a trashy book - Sex Lives of the Hollywood Goddesses by Nigel Cawthorne.  This is an old book, published back in 2004 but I was given a copy as a gift for Christmas and finally got around to reading it on holiday.  There's a whole series, with sex lives of politicians, dictators and...popes...apparently.  This book includes sections on stars such as Joan Crawford, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Jean Harlow and Rita Hayworth.

Book Review: Before The Fall by Juliet West

Welcome to September!  I hope you're not mourning the loss of summer too much?  In case the weather has turned colder and wetter where you are, I have another book review for you today so that you can curl up with a cuppa.  I also have to confess that as you're reading this, I personally will be thinking 'cocktails' rather than cuppas, and will be on a plane to Spain!  I'll be offline for a week and will catch up with the blogosphere on my return.

Set at the time of the first world war, Before the Fall is the debut novel by Juilet West that centres around London's East End and a cast of characters who can't escape tragedy even though they're on the peripherary of war - being at home wasn't necessarily safer than being in the trenches.

I think the war is everywhere: in the rain, in the river, in the grey air that we breathe. It is a current that runs through all of us. You can’t escape the current; either you swim with it, or you go under…

Book Review: Popular

In 1959, Betty Cornell published 'The Teenage Popularity Guide'.  Fast forward to the modern day, and American teenager Maya Van Wagenen decided as part of a school project to follow the advice in it for a year, chapter by chapter, and her book 'Popular' is the result of her challenge.  Her family were in on it, but Maya kept it secret from her friends and peers in order to guage their genuine reactions to her increasingly extrovert - and sometimes plain weird - behaviour.


 

Book Review: Peggy Angus - Designer, Teacher, Painter

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing a wonderful coffee-table book by James Russell on the hugely gifted artist Peggy Angus.  A skilled painter, having studied at the Royal College of Art in the 1920s, Angus also created designs for wallpapers and ceramics.  I know her best for her tiles, as I am a secret tile-obsessive, and spent hours wandering the Victorian streets when I lived in Cardiff, marvelling at the individuality of each tiled porch and crossly muttering whenever I saw that the tiles had been ripped out and replaced with plain Farrow and Ball paint.

Book Review: Sugar Hall by Tiffany Murphy

Sugar Hall by Tiffany Murphy is 'a ghost story' set in the 1950s in a classic rambling old mansion near the estuary of the Severn river, that divides South Wales from England.

Lilia has arrived at Sugar Hall, widowed and penniless, with her two children, teenage Saskia and young Dieter.  They've left behind a bustling life in London and are readjusting to this strange new life where cows roam outside the windows.  The story is a bit of a slow burner, but the descriptions are deftly enough crafted and the characters feasibly drawn to keep up interest as we wait patiently for something spooky to happen - as it soon does.

Book Review: The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

The latest offering from Fannie Flagg is 'The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion'.  Renowned for her humorous and heartwarming stories, including 'Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe', Flagg serves up another sweet tale that I ultimately found satisfying and joyful.

The book alternates between two story lines, one modern day, and one that starts back in the 1930s.  In the present day, Sookie is a middle-aged lady with an identity crisis, ever since she accidentally discovered some adoption papers that throw into question her esteemed Southern lineage.  The other storyline starts as America becomes involved in WWII, and shows Fritzi and her sisters doing their bit for the war effort by signing up to become 'WASPS' (the equivalent of the UK's ATA, Air Transport Auxiliary), ferrying planes around the US to free-up male service personnel for combat.