The opening chapter of McLain’s fictionalised version of the unconventional life and loves of the pioneering aviator and racehorse trainer, Beryl Markham, epitomises the sense of impending doom that dogged Markham all her life.  In 1936, attempting to be the first woman to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic from East to West, she struggles[…]

  Amidst the plethora of Holocaust literature, it would be easy to dismiss Shepard’s novel as just another tale woven around one of the darkest periods in history.  But, ‘The Book of Aron’ is different.  In unassuming and unquestioning language, the tale of survival in the Warsaw ghetto is told in the sometimes understated voice[…]

For anyone who has dealt with the loss of parents and resultant sifting through the ‘stuff’ they left behind, while coping with grief, guilt, and anger, Johnson’s memoir will put a humorous and touching spin on a toxic situation.   Imagine tackling the task in a 23-room home bulging with possessions accumulated in the fifty-something[…]

In this her standalone novel, set in the early months of World War I, Jacqueline Winspear, the author of the Maisie Dobbs series, steps away from the classic mould of war novels.  However, the passive writing style diminishes what is, in essence, a good storyline.  Opportunities to make scenes come alive are lost.  Even amid[…]

Rooney’s thought-provoking third novel is loosely based on the true story of Melita Norwood, the 87-year-old (nicknamed ‘The Spy who came in from the Co-op’!), arrested in England in 1999 after spying for the Russians for four decades.   Unlike Norwood, protagonist Joan Stanley, was never a committed communist, and the story provides a credible[…]