My December #TBR so far 📚💙 Blackbirds of St Giles by Lila Cain (Black Georgian London) @kateagriffin.bsky.social @mhut25.bsky.social Pelican Girls by Julia Mayle (Frenchwomen shipped to New Orleans) Dance of the Earth by @annamholmes.bsky.social (Ballets Russes to WW1) Reviews in the New Year ⏳📚

2025 #bookreview 25/n 💙📚 ⏳📚 Crooked Cross by Sally Carson Munich, 1933. Lexa is engaged to Moritz but her brothers are unemployed. The Nazi party offers them work & purpose, but encourages hatred of Jews, so Moritz loses his job. Lexa is torn between her true love & her family with tragic results.

2025 #bookreview 24/n 💙📚 ⏳📚 The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller A doctor, a farmer plus their expectant wives are isolated in 1962's wintry countryside, where help is elusive & emotions spiral. Tension mounts in an authentic, constrained world where all struggle to escape the trauma of wartime.

2025 #bookreview 23/n 💙📚 The Cassatt Sisters by Lisa Groen Mary Cassatt joins the bohemian world of the Impressionists in Belle Epoque Paris. Driven to improve her art, she endures criticism and heartbreak to achieve critical success. Illustrated with paintings & the story behind their creation.

2025 #bookreview 22/n 💙📚 Snegurochka by @judithheneghan.bsky.social Ukraine 1991. Anxious expat wife & new mother Rachel, surrounded by unfamiliar language, culture & dark history fears for her baby's safety. Her husband's colleagues & neighbours all harbour deep secrets in a troubled, corrupt city

2025 #bookreview 21/n 💙📚⏳📚 A Theory in Vienna by Heidi Gallacher Vienna 1847: motherhood is a deadly minefield. Earnest medic Ignaz is desperate to know why. But his colleagues block his discoveries, driving him to despair. Vividly depicts a medical establishment opposed to change & tragic results.

2025 #bookreview 20/n 💙📚 Long Island by Colm Toibin Outmanoeuvred by her Italian American in-laws, Eilish visits her native Ireland, disrupts the fragile balance of a close-knit community & presents her first love Jim with a fateful choice. Gentle prose deepens the anguish of all three characters.

2025 #bookreview 19/n 💙📚 ⏳📚 James by Percival Everett Runaway slave James dodges danger along Mississippi & protects Huck Finn, encountering shocking racism & unexpected friendship. Amid darkness & despair, James remains resilient, but angry. Breathless action & a subtle dive into language as code

2025 #bookreview 18/n 💙📚 ⏳📚 The Painters Daughters by @emilyhowes.bsky.social Peggy Gainsborough fears losing her sister if her strange behaviour is discovered. Quirks of Bath society seen vividly through eyes of young girl, till marriage separates the sisters and a family secret brings catastrophe

2025 #bookreview 17/n 💙📚 ⏳📚 Sea of Poppies by @amitav.bsky.social Calcutta 1837. A French orphan, accidental sailor, deposed Raja, opium widow & boatman collide on former slave ship to Mauritius. Rollicking saga spiced with lascar lingo & colonial hubris amid the amoral collusion of opium trade

2025 #bookreview 16/n 💙📚 Slanting towards the sea by Lidija HIlje Tragic news for unfulfilled Ivona prompts her to divorce. Crisis for family estate brings chance of happiness but creates a painful emotional dilemma. Evokes tension as achingly beautiful Croatia emerges from war to uncertain future

2025 #bookreview 15/n 💙📚 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden Holland 1961. Solitary Isabel seeks safety in her family home. Unwanted houseguest Eva unsettles her, stirs up buried emotions and traumatic memories. Closeted desire & suspense builds until a revelation upends everything Isabel believed.

2025 #bookreview 14/n 💙📚 There are rivers in the sky by @elifshafak.bsky.social Sweeping epic connects ancient Nineveh, Victorian Gilgamesh scholar, Yazidi girl & melancholy scientist through Rivers Thames & Tigris. Questions antiquities trade, water pollution & genocide amid intricate, lush prose

Inspiring talk by Elif Shafak 💙📚 Her roots in middle eastern oral storytelling with connection to nature & flowing time. Believes fiction brings us closer to reality & writers are the 'memory-keepers' of communities. Be curious readers, good listeners & turn emotions into writing #writingcommunity

2025 #bookreview 13/n 💙📚 Costanza by @rachelblackmore.bsky.social Time travel to sultry, oppressive 1630s Rome where egotistical Bernini entices naive yet spirited Costanza into a fateful affair. Sumptuous detail on clothes, customs & constraints on women. Satisfyingly, fiery Costanza rises again.

Feeling proud of myself for writing two new scenes in the last couple of days to tighten up my plot. Nice change from endless edits #writingcommunity 📚💙

Pacing, peril, plot twists and red herrings: how to deliver a thriller without misleading readers. Smart insights from @holly.bsky.social and Becca Day at @jerichowriters.bsky.social #lfow25 #booksky #writingcommunity

Inspiring session on alternative routes to publication: digital, self publishing or hybrid at London Festival of writing #lfow25 @jerichowriters.bsky.social #writingcommunity #booksky

Here at #LFOW25 with 300 other writers @jerichowriters.bsky.social #booksky

Looking forward to meeting other writers at the @jerichowriters.bsky.social London Festival of Writing this weekend. Let me know if you are going and I will look out for you. 💙📚 #writingcommunity jerichowriters.com/events/festi...

2025 #bookreview 12/n 💙📚 Cecily by @anniegarthwaite.bsky.social Wars of the Roses as a lethal game of chess, played by fierce Cecily, wife/advisor to Duke of York, who builds alliances, wrong-foots enemies, uses daughters as pawns, trains sons as knights & future kings amid 15thC cold, mud & gore.

Deep in the editing trenches reflecting on the wise advice from @judithheneghan.bsky.social who has read my first novel. In what passes for a heatwave in the UK, I'm enjoying the wintry and stormy scenes most. #writingcommunity 💙📚 #historicalfiction

2025 #bookreview 11/n 💙📚 Enlightenment by Sarah Perry Celestial comets & grumpy ghosts mix with strict religion in deepest Essex in a dreamy tale of rebellious Grace & melancholy, cerebral Thomas orbiting each other. Celebrates the sad beauty of unrequited love, in rich, observant, wry prose

Just submitted my query package for my agent 1-1s at @jerichowriters.bsky.social Festival of Writing later this month. Jangling with nerves, but also strangely looking forward to the feedback. #writingcommunity 💙📚 jerichowriters.com/events/festi...

Concise post about plotting a novel. Worth reading 📚💙 #writingcommunity

My next read has just arrived. Costanza by my friend @rachelblackmore.bsky.social who I met at an @arvonfoundation.bsky.social historical fiction course. Looking forward to being immersed in scorching scandal in the art world of c17th Rome 💙📚

Whilst reading about writing is the ultimate procrastination, I can highly recommend this book from @jerichowriters.bsky.social Comprehensive, with examples and summaries after every chapter, a practical handbook for planning and editing #writingcommunity 💙📚

Surprised (and delighted) to learn that my opening chapter was long listed in a Fiction Factory competition. Nice bit of motivation while deep in the editing gulag. 💙📚 #writingcommunity fiction-factory.biz/first-chapte...

Novel submission guidelines for @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social #writingcommunity

2025 #bookreview 10/n 💙📚 Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad Troubled British Palestinian Sonia plays Gertrude in West Bank production of Hamlet. Probes theatre as a political act, explores emotional trauma of diaspora Palestinians & those under Israeli occupation. Disturbing yet delicate & poignant.

In the editing trenches & inspired by Into the Woods by John Yorke. Rather than another painting by numbers template on which page to put your inciting incident, it explains why & how all narratives work #writingcommunity 📚💙 www.johnyorkestory.com/team/john-yo...

Can recommend Birdeye by @judithheneghan.bsky.social #booksky

Put this in your diary #writingcommunity (Loved their London event)

2025 #bookreview 9/n 💙📚 Disobedient Women by Sangeeta Mulay @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social Disturbing tale of how religious fervour can damage free speech & prompt violence. Feminist Aparna & Hindutva Hari lock virtual horns while respective daughters rebel. Uses press clips & social posts well.

💙📚 Delightful author talk by Sarah Perry @owlbookshop.bsky.social - she is engaging, funny, quirky, honest & self-deprecating, plus a passionate advocate for Essex. Latest book Enlightenment builds on her scientific curiosity about comets & her Baptist upbringing. www.sarahperry.net/enlightenment

Fabulous evening by @saloneurope.bsky.social and @deborahzafer.bsky.social at @allgoodbookshop.co.uk with readings from so many talented writers inc @abigailseltzer.bsky.social @norami.bsky.social @minxmarple.bsky.social @slamfitzsimons.bsky.social @timcraig.bsky.social @markabowles.bsky.social 💙📚

2025 #bookreview 8/n 💙📚 Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan Don't be daunted by 640pp & 60 characters. Wheels drone-like over London: politicos, literati, oligarchs, hackers, drill artists, migrants. All connected & morally compromised. Leaves sour taste of corruption & complicity in our capital.

This is such an interesting approach to writing a novel, starting with dialogue and then layering in movement, setting, clothing, emotions step by step like rehearsing and tuning a play in the theatre. Inspiring while I am fathom deep in editing... #writingcommunity 💙📚

Such a gorgeous cover. Adding to my TBR #booksky

News of an online European book club #booksky

Inspiring day with writing friends from @citylit.bsky.social Cambridge Botanic garden an awesome venue for al fresco writing workshops. #writingcommunity

2025 #bookreview 7/n 💙📚 Dark Like Under by Alice Chadwick 80s kids will relish dopamine hits of fashion, music, objects. All will love its cast of spiky, emotional teens & discouraged teachers, rooted in rural landscape, haunted by a teacher's death, and magnetic, troubled Tin. Poetic & disturbing.

Good tips and plenty of examples here. Ideal as I sit down to edit my WIP #writingcommunity

Useful tips on submitting to indie publishers in this newsletter. It is a bit fiddly to work out how to read it but worth persevering through all the app downloads, email confirmations, codes to input and other Substack detritus. #writingcommunity #submissions

Whilst novel 2 is with a professional editor from @jerichowriters.bsky.social for feedback, I have returned to novel 1 and am reminded that the old school technique of index cards is a good way to fix plot problems. #writingcommunity 💙📚

My book club discussed The Promise last night. We agreed it demonstrates the generational trauma of both white and black South Africans over recent decades. Not wholly dark: it also evokes the beauty of the land, and pokes fun at the comic quirks of its inhabitants. Recommended. 💙📚

2025 #bookreview 6/n 💙📚 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers Contained tale of unhappy yet dutiful journalist Jean pursuing unlikely mystery of a virgin birth in staid 1950s SE London. Slow pace but evokes stifling suburbia, domestic detail & romantic anguish in an era where happiness is elusive.

Excellent talk @owlbookshop.bsky.social by Andrew O'Hagan on Caledonian Road. In awe of his decade of research: inveigling worlds of drill music, ethical hackers, Russian oligarchs, bougie liberals in search of authentic character & dialogue. Author as investigative journalist? #writingcommunity 💙📚

My haul from the indie stalls at Alternative Book Fair: Dark Like Under by Alice Chadwick @dauntbookspub.bsky.social Disobedient Women by Sangeeta Malay @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social The Alchemy by Anna Vaught @bookwormvaught.bsky.social @renardpress.bsky.social #booksky

Made it into the Debut authors panel at Alternative Book Fair. Great insights into the writing and editing process. Thanks for hosting @indienovella.bsky.social #writingcommunity www.alternativebookfairlondon.co.uk