Diva is a novel about Maria Callas with a focus on the period when Maria met Aristotle Onassis and the time of that relationship until it ended. Daisy Goodwin has based this book on a solid research background but she has chosen to write it as a novel to explore how it must have felt... Continue Reading →
In this new novel, The Hidden Storyteller, Mandy Robotham places the story in Hamburg in 1946. I realised after reading this book that the main character, Georgie Young, was the central character of a previous book by Mandy Robotham, The Berlin Girl. And because I have only recently discovered Mandy's books, I have not yet... Continue Reading →
I always enjoy historical fiction where I find a good foundation in reality with interesting fictional characters and events around it. This novel brings both nicely together.The events take place in France, in the run up to the German occupation and in the early stages of it. Elodie, an American journalist finds herself drawn into... Continue Reading →
I found this novel captivating. It covers a part of history which I did not know, the post-war situation in Berlin. The Russian blockade of Berlin forced the allied into implementing the drop of supplies by air in an amazing operation, Operation Vittles, in 1948/49. The success of this operation played a major role in... Continue Reading →
I love family sagas and this is what attracted me to this book, my first encounter with this author. I decided to read the previous two (Master of His fate and In the Lion’s Den) and follow with this one. I enjoyed the overall story of the Falconers, a real rags to riches story. It... Continue Reading →
The Dictionary People is a fascinating book. It started when Sarah Ogilvie discovered the address books kept by James Murray during the original Oxford Dictionary project. The Oxford Dictionary was a crowdsourced project. The dictionary’s methods were borrowed, half a century later, from those used in Germany and France. Continental philology had already produced considerable... Continue Reading →
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