30th October

Guests this week are Brian Lowen & Barbara Simpson. Brian is reviewing Val McDermid and Lee child. Barbara is discussing another of her books 'The Handyman'.

Would you believe it, I saw a book out today (everybody gets a book out in readiness for xmas) but in light of recent events at the BBC with this author & Russell Brand he couldn't’t have known how this book would be so relevant (or maybe he did…how long ago did the phone calls happen???)called: Why Do I Say These Things by Jonathan Ross
Featuring stories that range from 'discovering B-movies to fashion, from diets to childhood sweetshops, favourite presents and from sex to pets (and back to sex), this book explores everyday life'. You couldn't make it up could ya?.....

Anyway next week and next few weeks we will be looking at books that are around for that Christmas stockingfiller but today (as it is the night of mischief tomorrow) I have been looking at the books which have to do with Halloween /horror & ghosties, ooooohh.
So join us in a few minutes if you dare…ooooooooooh!

Babs you are going to review a book which you wrote called the Handyman. I was amazed when I heard that you had written other books as we only ever talked about your ‘Blue Cloak’ book. I heard about it when we all went on a ghost walk a few Sunday nights ago. So how, why, when, did you write/get the idea for this book? Oh by the way, Babs, you thought this book was unobtainable but I could have bought a copy of this online for £1, so if anyone is interested just get on the web, google & buy a copy.
Barbara, lived and worked in London in the 60's which gave her the idea for the book, after she had written The Blue Cloak. The book is set in London during the exceptionally cold winter of 1963/63. The main characters are a group of friends who travel on the train everyday to get to work. There is one person who links them all, the handyman, who knows all their secrets and is a continual lurking presence. Then something terrible happens which alters all their lives.
Halloween emerged from the Celtic festival of Samhain (summers end), elements of the Christian Hallowtide (All Saints Day and All Souls Day).
Some horror bestsellers:
More Horowitz Horror by Anthony Horowitz
It's a world where everything might seem pretty normal. But the weird, the surprising and the truly terrifying are lurking just out of sight. Like a hitchhiker who isn't quite all he seems, a spooky cottage with a grisly secret and a mobile phone that lets you contact the dead! Each story has a shocking sting in the tale...

Piper by Helen McCabe
Legend has it that in medieval times the children of Hamelin were led East into Transylvania...In bleak post Ceausescu Rumania, Dr Sacha Maritsa a psychiatric researcher absorbed with the high incidence of mental illness among the women of Alva, a remote mountain village near the border with Russia, gradually uncovers a horrific history of ritual child murder.

Or what about an audio book to listen to in the dark on halloween
Nation by Terry Pratchett (narrated by Tony Robinson)
Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He's also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes and wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird.

The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in horror writing. The awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA. They are named after influential horror writer Bram Stoker, author of the novel Dracula, among others. There are 8 different awards but 2007 winners were:
Superior Achievement in a NOVEL: "The Missing" by Sarah Langan
Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL: "Heart-shaped Box" by Joe Hill (writer)
Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION: “Afterward, There Will be a Hallway” by Gary A. Braunbeck
Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION: “The Gentle Brush of Wings” by David Niall Wilson
Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY: "Five Strokes to Midnight" by Gary A. Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble
Superior Achievement in a COLLECTION (tie): "Proverbs for Monsters" by Michael A. Arnzen and 5 Stories by Peter Straub
Superior Achievement in NONFICTION: "The Cryptopedia" by Jonathan Maberry and David F. Kramer
Superior Achievement in POETRY (tie): ""Being Full of Light, Insubstantial" by Linda Addison and ""Vectors: A Week in the Death of a Planet" by Charlee Jacob and Marge Simon

show 26th August 2010

Special show today as we have author Ellen Renner being interviewed and two young readers (Pippa Grosset, 13yrs young, and Jonno Grossett 10yrs) reviewing Ellens books which are:
Castle of Shadows and City of Theives.
The covers of these books are really beautiful.

I asked Ellen about her favourite authors:
Diana Wynne Jones,Margaret Mayhew, Joan Aitken.

Favourite Present authors who write for children:
Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching
Philip Reeve's Larklight (but mentioned her dislike of Here Lies Arthur as a childrens book)
Garth Nix's Abhorsen
Celia Rees for older children
Sally Gardner Silver Blade & The Red Necklace liked by Pippa as well.

Ellen said how she is fascinated by science and mentioned Einstein and Horishima which was made reference to in her 'city of Thieves' book.
Also, her passion for fencing came in very handy when she wrote the fight scene in 'Castle of Shadows'
but to find out more about this lovely author visit her website:
ellenrenner.com

New Years Eve show 2009

What was your favourite book of 2009 and least favourite? That was the question I put to my guests (Maggie Perkovic, Ro Bennett & Babs Simpson) and the listeners. Also visitors & possibly a local or two, logged their favourites throughout the year. So here's what my guests had to say:
Ro's favourite: Janet Evanovitch - Finger Lickin 15. Ro loves the humour of her books and looks forward to the next year when the follow on comes along.
Ro's least favourite: Susan Hill - The Beacon. The story was boring, the characters easily forgetable and the plot? It left Ro wondering what was that about?

Masggie's favourite: The Great Lover by Jill Dawson: Maggie loves this era early 1900's, and really enjoyed reading about Rupert Brooke, who was held up as a glamorous romantic poet,(see her review on this blog).
Maggie's least favourite: Jacky Trevane - Invisible women: Maggie enjoyed the first book 'Fatwa' but didn't enjoy this one as she felt it was just cashing in on other peoples tales.

Bab's favourite: Markus Zusak - The Book Thief: Death is a brilliant character in this very unusual book. It is beautifully written and set in the WW2 era which Babs loves. But on a par was 'Guernsey Potato Peel Pie and Literary Society' written by Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer. Again set in 1940's during WW2 it told of the German Occupation of Guernsey through letters.
Bab's least favourite: Victoria Hislop - The Return: Babs loved the Island (based on a Cretan leper colony) but this book set during the Spanish civil war was a disappointment. I felt that I was reading an article from an encyclopaedia and the story around it was dull and predictable. I had to agree with Babs on this one!
Some listeners comments:
Steve Watt: Best Book - undoubtedly 'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel A brilliant historical novel but I have to put a word in for Cormac McArthy's 'Border Trilogy' (see reviews in this blog). As for the worst I only managed the first three pages of 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown - admirably and accurately described by the Guardian as 'a steaming pile of clunk.'

Ellie: best & worst both by same author Stephanie Meyer. Best, 'Eclipse', because it had a lot of action and bit of gore. Worst, 'New Moon',because nothing much happened in it.
Win Grant: Best book Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall
Toby (St Martins Bakery): Jose Saramago - Blindness

Here's what the visitors said:
BOOK, AUTHOR & COMMENTS

Paul Torday - Salmon fishing in the Yemen: excellent read, unusual, reminds me of tv series 'yes misister'

Dodie Smith - I capture the Castle: My favourite book ever! Especially the bit with the escaped bear on the train

Jo Verity - Sweets From Morocco:I wrote it!

Edwar Cummings - Ghosts of Rosevear: Very interesting - and a good read too based on an island off St Agnes

Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime: About autisitic boy sometimes amusing & shocking, a real insight

Thomas Bloor - Worm in the Blood: Wonderful love story that shouldn't work but really does make me cry

Tom Rob-Smith - child 44: Gripping crime novel set in Stalinist Russia. Realistic and ultimately haunting

Ian Sansom - The Case of the Missing Books: Quicrky & humourus novel about a Jewish librarian who takes up a job in Ireland only to find all the books missing

John Connelly - Bad Men: Spooky crime thriller set on an island off the coast of Maine USA

Sue Monk Kidd - The Secret Life of Bees A wonderful story out of nowhere which sends you on a roller coaster of emotions but end up feel good. Set at the start of the 1960's civil rights movement.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 100 years of Solitude a complex & involving story of one family in South America. It slowly tells a potted history of the continent as seen through eccentric eyes.

Terry Pratchett - Unseen Academicals: Brilliant!

Stephanie Meyer - Twilight Saga: NEVER a fan of romance, but enjoyed Twilight! Currently curbing my obsession!

My favourite? Chris Cleave 'The Other Hand', it really made me stop and think differently about some of the plights of immigrants held in detention centres.
Worst: Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst: boring & dull and I didn't care what happened to the characters (who were they anyway?).
Happy New Year to all! (definition of a hangover: Wrath of Grapes!)