Micro Review 16 (2024)

 

The Secret Christmas Bookshop by Cressida McLaughlin (Harper Collins)

A small disclaimer here as I do know the author and have worked with her on several events in my past role.

I don't read an awful lot of books in this cosy romance genre, and every time I do read one I ask myself why as they are great fun. Perfect for just curling up on the sofa, with a mug of tea, and losing yourself in the story.

To be fair once the characters are all introduced you have a fair idea of just how the book is going to end but the fun is in discovering how they get there and in this one the journey was very nice - and involved two of my favourite things - books and beautiful notebooks.

As well as the festive setting and romance this book also has a couple of more serious messages, including about the care system and also the decision to move away from what looks like an ideal childhood. The other very poignant one was about the decision surrounding putting a relative in a care home rather than looking after them yourself and how no one outside the family knows the whole story and so shouldn't judge and make comments.

These serious points didn't detract from the romance element at all, and also weren't crowbarred in to the story - they just added to the setting and made the people seem more real and less fairy tale.

An added plus to this book is that it is set in North Norfolk and I had great fun spotting which real locations Cressida and melded into her fictional town!

I can't say that I felt any more festive after reading the book, but I did feel all warm inside and it helped block out the frightful weather for the couple of afternoons I spent reading it!

 Thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the copy of the book.

Micro Review 1 (2023)

 

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy Upon My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie (Bloomsbury Books)

2023 has got off to a strong start and I've had a run of good books which is cheering. I did read this one at the end of 2022 but as it is officially published this week now seems the time to talk about it.

This is a shortish book that I was always going to fall in love with as it is set in Norwich/Norfolk and about strong, literary, women,

The book tells the stories of Margery Kempe, a Norfolk woman who is considered to have written (dictated) the first autobiography in the English language, and Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress whose book the Revelations of Devine Love is the first book in English by a woman.

In this book we learn about both of their lives, and their growing and changing faiths as well as Mackenzie imagining how a meeting between them would have played out.

From past jobs, projects and reading I knew a little about each woman but through this books I know feel I know much more about both them, and Norfolk during the late 1300s/ early 1400s.  I also want to find out more so this has to be a sign of just how good I found the book!

Making an exhibition of myself

Although I don't blog about them as much as I do other things I do go to museum exhibitions reasonably regularly but in the past few weeks I've been to two exhibition launches here in Norwich and can't wait to go back and explore them again.

Cecil Aldin: The Art of Black Beauty at the Museum of Norwich.

It is 140 years since Black Beauty was published and to celebrate this Jarrolds have loaned the museum their original watercolours which were used as the plates for the 1912 illustrated edition.
The art work was amazing and as I love the novel so much I just had to glance at them to know exactly which scene was being illustrated - for once the pictures on the wall matched the pictures in my mind.
Black Beauty has long been a favourite book of mine, I have my dad's childhood copy on my shelves and it is a book I've read time and time again so to see the original pictures, and many different editions of the book, was a treat and in this setting it was a perfect exhibition.

Nelson and Norfolk at Norwich Castle

Norfolk's most famous son and I have a history - my paternal grandfather was in the navy and as a child he told me that he was actually Nelson's cabin boy and I believed him. In my defence I was under 10 at the time and didn't have the best grasp on history!
However his gentle teasing has given me a lifelong interest in Nelson so a chance to see a lot of new items about his life and career was wonderful.
This exhibition starts with a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge flag - a tricolour that flew on a French ship at the Battle of the Nile. When I say huge I mean it - this flag is as big as a tennis court.  After this there is a labyrinth of other Nelson items to pore over - including his uniform from the said battle and also the shot that killed him.
There are also lots of handwritten documents to study, and items showcasing the Nelson-mania that swept the county during and after his lifetime. At first you think this is a small exhibition but there is so much in the space that you can easily spend hours in there.

I was lucky to get an invite to both of these launches and to get a sneak peak at them but I will be going back to both of them and exploring them and the museums more before they end.

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The Cecil Alden exhibition runs until November 25th and Nelson until 1st October - full details here