You don't have to be a gardener to appreciate gardens. Besides the beauty of the colours, scents and shapes of plants, gardens reflect the landscape and history of the country. In this National Trust book, the best British gardens are explored under the theme of 'inspiration and escapism', but they are much more than this. The book is organised by six chapters with the focus being on walled gardens, history, features such as hills, woods and water that 'fuse' with gardens and contemporary creations. It shows how formal gardens have been inspired European styles and how the planting represent ..read more

This is a short story about three ('older' not 'old') women who meet up every week to enjoy a bit of of cheese and crackers and to reminisce about the old days. When one of their group becomes ill, the women decide to avenge the men who belittled their friend when she started her writing career many years before. The women plan murder as they share their new selection of cheeses. Yes, the characters - 'Three respectable elderly women really sitting in a pastel garden planning the murders of nine has-been writers' - do border on some kind of upmarket farce in their ideas. They think of all th ..read more

The book introduces three women one at a time, who share similar traits in that they are single and live alone: a nurse, a police officer and a forensic psychologist. They are all victims of serial killers too. There is a fair bit of the 'police procedural' aspect but driven by the psychologist, which puts a more interesting slant on the story. This also includes the focus of the gruesome killings being on the thought process of the killers and his victims rather than the physical violence. Much better. The book is paced well once the introductions are out of the way, and there are enough q ..read more

I am much more of a reader than a film or television fan, but if any of my favourite books are filmed I nearly always watch them. Never as good as the book, of course, but there have been some really good adaptations with stunning settings. Many of these belong to the National Trust so the sites can be visited. I was excited to read about the wonderful locations of some of my favourite books, such as the Wolf Hall trilogy, the Harry Potter series, Game of Thrones, Never Let Me Go, Poldark, Far from the Madding Crowd and The History Boys. What I liked about this guide the most (besides the ph ..read more

There are plenty of books focusing on the Romans, both factual and fictional, because it was a colourful and rich period in history. I have read many over the years and the struggle nowadays is to find something a bit different to the usual glamour of battles, extravagance and tourist guides. I was drawn to this particular work because it takes an unusual perspective with regard to emperors. The purpose is what it it meant to be a Roman Emperor, where Beard sets out to explore how these men ruled the huge territory, how their subjects interacted  with them and whether 'we can ever r ..read more

Old houses with troubled histories, priest holes, mysteries, missing people and murder. Great for readers, not so much for home makers. This is the setting for The Intruders. A couple temporarily move in as caretakers aware that the last occupants were nearly all murdered by intruders who were not interested in robbery. Then weird things start to happen such as the clock always stopping at a certain time, objects moving somewhere else and a window continually being found open. It doesn't help that the woman caretaker has mental health issues and anxiety. The story of the house is told from ..read more

It is ironic (or perhaps I should say 'typical') that during the few days it took me to read this book, it rained persistently. But it made the reading experience that much more relevant. This is a handbook about the British obsession: the weather. The book is laid out in an appealing way, with diagrams and colourful headers, and unusual weather features such as Rare Rainbows and Blood Rain. There are fourteen chapters that start with 'Discussing the Weather' - the way almost all conversations begin in Britain. Also included are Forecasting, Snow and Ice, Fog and Mist and other types of weat ..read more

Every couple of years the subject of school texts comes up and the overarching question is whether they are still relevant. In this book, Carol Atherton explains that they are and goes into great detail to say how and why that is the case. In the introduction there are quotes that I recognise from the books I read at school. Not only that, but I remember the context and how I felt about them at the time and how I feel about them now. There are many that I re-read as an adult as I thought that perhaps I didn't fully appreciate them at the time. But they have stayed with me all of my life. At ..read more

A few years ago I saw the play version of this novel, as a guest of a forensic psychology student. My view then was that it was an intense and powerful story about a young woman barrister as she faced prejudice within a legal system dominated by white wealthy men. The novelised version has only lost a little of its power in that there is more of a story surrounding her upbringing and a few more characters, the play only having one character. Nevertheless, this is undoubtedly about power - on an individual and social level, and how power falls to those who feel they are entitled to it. It als ..read more

⭐Publisher Featured Review ​ This book is all about nostalgia. Didn't we all, as children, collect shells from the beach? I haven't stopped and my collection is on display in my seaside themed bathroom and I'm very proud of it. There aren't many shells I don't have after about fifty years of collecting. For Dr. Helen Scales it was the start of a career in marine biology and I'm grateful that she has created this guide with the National Trust. Although I have a superb collection, I don't know most of the names of the shells besides the obvious cockles (and even then, there are several va ..read more