An Evening With Raynor Winn

An Evening with Raynor Winn

On the cold autumnal evening of September 26th I found myself sitting in my local Waterstones awaiting the arrival of Raynor Winn, author of the new book Landlines.  What a magical evening it was too!  Raynor Winn speaks with so much love and passion about nature, and her desire to keep walking that it is ‘magical’, it literally makes the hairs on the back of your neck stick up on end. The way she connects herself to the environment and wholeheartedly trusts nature, and being out among it walking to help her husband and his medical condition.

Raynor Winn has written three books,

The Salt Path

The Wild Silence 

Landlines.

 I was very lucky to be given a copy of The Salt Path for Christmas last year, which I recently read, and definitely should have read sooner!! The book introduces us to the lives of Raynor and her husband Moth.  Early on in the book we discover that due to many circumstances they become homeless, and begin to walk the South-West Coastal Path, which stretches 630 miles from Minehead to Somerset.  This book describes their adventures, and the effect it has on them both.  The book had me in tears by page 15, I won’t lie, but I was invested and I needed to find out what happened to this pair, would life be ok for them in the end?  The book isn’t just about walking, it’s about never ending love, devotion, nature, homelessness, and many other important topics.  I was completely entranced, and felt as if I was walking along with them, and pitching my own tent, at the end of a long day walking, on the side of the coastal path with them.  This is a book I will never forget.

This book is a five star read…and probably going to be one of my best reads for 2022.

I am hoping to read The Wild Silence in November, as I need to know what happens next!!  This book explores life after homelessness, and it’s the next part of Raynor and Moth’s journey in life..so to speak!

If you’re looking for that special bookish gift this coming holiday season, I can definitely recommend The Salt Path, and I’m sure the next two books are equally remarkable.  

The cover of Landlines is so beautiful!

It was a delight to meet Raynor Winn, she signed my books, and we talked about dogs, and the first 15 pages of The Salt Path!  If you ever get the chance to visit one of her events, run and don’t stop before the tickets sell out, you will have a real magical evening, who said magic isn’t real, you just have to look around to see it.

Until I blog again…keep reading!

October Just Isn’t Long Enough!

Planning an October TBR can be a lot of fun, what with Halloween at the end of that month, many of the bookworms I know plan to read spooky books! Some take part in Halloween challenges, such as Vampathon! I discovered last year I didn’t have enough time to read all the spooky books I had on my list, which was really disappointing. Now, I know I could read spooky books all year round if I wanted, but there is something extra special about just going all out spooky for one month. With that in mind I decided to start extra early with my spooky reading, and begin in September. Apart from one book, I have so far picked up books that are classed as horror, or have an eerie vibe to them. To accompany my spooky reading I decided to design a spread in my journal, and although I can’t draw all that well, I do enjoy the process of doodling, and adding a few stickers! I haven’t been very good at recording my reading journal lately, and I have missed a couple of months, but I decided if I keep it basic and fun, I might enjoy and complete it…here’s hoping!

Preparing my journal ready for a lot of spooky reading!

So far I’ve read Salem’s Lot, Mina and the Undead, and a couple of the Spiderwick books-trust me these are really eerie! I have lots of spooky books on my shelves, here are some of the books I could pick up over the next six weeks…

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

The Final Girl Support Groups, Horrorstor and My Best Friends Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Not Good For Maidens by Tori Bovalino

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and My Hyde by R S Stevenson

Greta and the Monster Hunters by Sam Copeland

The Shadows of Rookhaven by Padraig Kenny

Galliant by V E Schwab

Tokyo Ghoul by Sui Ishida

Monster Hunting for Beginners by Ian Mark

And finally my point horror books.

I would love to hear if anyone has read these, and to help me choose my October TBR. The choice seems to be endless! Anyway I best close now, I hope you are all having fun deciding what to read for Halloween, I hope to share with you all my Halloween recommendations soon, but for now I need to go sort out some more pumpkins for the shelves, and perhaps do a little Halloween crochet!

Until I blog again…..keep reading!

How I Got The Reading Bug!

How I Got The Reading Bug!

One thing I really love about being a bookworm is talking to others about their current read, their favourite book, and how they became so attached to books!

My current bookcase set up!

My Mum use read to me growing up, like many parents do with their own children.  We would often choose books together, at the bookshop, and my Mum still owned books she had as a child, these were my favourite.  They weren’t pretty, but I loved the way they looked so old, and the pages were soft, and beginning to fall out.  So books have always been in my life, from a young age, and when I became a little older I would sometimes read before falling asleep, or listen to an audio book with my personal cassette player.  My favourite’s were ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole’..(I listened to this so much I can still quote lines from the book!), and Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Three Investigators’-they were amazing audio books!

I think my major turning part in the world of books was discovering Agatha Christie.  It was 1992 and I was 13, unfortunately I became very poorly, and ended up having to go to hospital for ten days.  It was very stressful for my Mum and Dad, and after I was released from hospital, although we couldn’t really afford it, my Dad booked us a long weekend in a wonderful hotel in Torquay.  It was a magical weekend away, and I remember it like it was yesterday.  The hotel was so old fashioned, and I loved it.  It overlooked the sea, and the water would shoot over the edge, onto the pavement, on a blowy evening!  Whilst we were there we visited the Agatha Christie museum, which we stumbled upon by accident, it’s completely different from what’s there now, and I believe at the time it was in an old house.  I adored looking around the museum, my favourite part was the massive amount of bookcases displaying many different editions of her books, from over the years.

After our walk around the Agatha Christie museum, I decided to pick up a book, had to be done didn’t it!  So thirteen year old me chose ‘At Bertram’s Hotel’, a Miss Marple book, as I had watched a little Miss Marple in the past.  I loved this one so much, and it is still one of my favourites to date-I think it is so attached to my holiday, that it will always be one of the best in my eyes.  From that day on I have been an Agatha Christie fan, I own all the Margaret Rutherford films on DVD-her portrayal of Miss Marple gives me a giggle, and I love Mr Stringer!  Even the first of these black and white films I watched, bring back memories of Christmas, sitting in front of the telly with a bowl of homemade Turkey soup, and a massive wedge of bloomer bread, made by my Mum.  There I stayed for an hour and a half transported to the world of murder, mayhem and mystery.  Agatha Christie had me growing into my teenage years, scavenging second hand bookshops for new titles, though the covers that were available at the time of my first purchase will always be my favourite!

My favourite style covers!

And now many years on my daughter is also a massive fan, her favourite being the Belgian detective with a wonderful moustache- Poirot.  Back in 2018 we visited Greenaway House, Agatha Christie’s summer home, and it was magical, I definitely plan to return one day soon.  Only a few weeks ago, whilst searching through the books at a charity shop, I found Agatha Christie’s Autobiography-with a CD included, with readings by the lady herself!  Inside it also has the National Trust Greenaway stamp, where it was originally purchased, naturally it went in the basket!

A great find!

Books have always been a large part of my life, a part that I enjoy very much, but it hasn’t been until the last 18 months that I have read more than ever before, I love discovering new authors, and new genres that I have never given a chance before.  Although I am big Agatha Christie fan, I don’t read a lot of crime literature, Agatha Christie has my heart there.  

 My daughter is also a big reader, and currently studying English Literature, I love the conversations we have about books, especially when we both read the same book!  I definitely bought Agatha Christie into her life, but equally she has opened me up to Manga, and classics, something I probably wouldn’t have dreamed of picking up and giving a try.

Books are wonderful, giving us new adventures, but not only that, new bonds in our current relationships with people, and new friends along the way.

If anyone would like to share their book story I would love to hear it!

Until I blog again…keep reading!

Harper the Confidence Fairy-Blog Tour

Rainbow Magic-Harper the Confidence Fairy

By Daisy Meadows

Published: 1st Sept 2022

Pages: 160

Publisher: Hachettes Children’s Group

Available from:  Waterstones, WHSmiths, Amazon..

The Rainbow Magic Fairy books have always had a very soft spot in my heart, and when Hachette’s Children’s Group reached out to me to read the new book, Harper the Confidence Fairy I was excited.  It’s been several years since I read a Rainbow Magic Fairy book, as I used to read them with my daughter, and now she is seventeen, she has moved on to other things, and no longer wants, or needs, to read with her Mum!  

Beautiful artwork, as always, for the Rainbow Magic books.

Harper the Confidence Fairy consists of three separate stories, each involves trying to rescue Harper’s magic items, which once they are all returned will restore confidence to the world.  Harper explains to Rachel and Kirsty that she has Down’s syndrome, and how it has given her the gift of trusting everyone.  I really love the way that Down’s syndrome is explained within the book.  The book is written well, as they all are, and along the way Rachel and Kirsty meet other children, who are fundamental to the story, though to explain this would give away a lot of spoilers!  

The Rainbow magic books have been on bookshelves for several years now, Ruby the Red Fairy was the first Rainbow Magic Fairy book-published in July 2009, and first introduced readers to Kirsty and Rachel.  The books are often in groups-gemstones, colours, animals etc, which is lovely, and then often there might be books released for special occasions, such as Christmas, the Jubilee, Halloween etc.  The books are aimed at children five years and above, the print is a good size, and in my opinion I thought they were a great level for my daughter at the time she was reading them, there were also plenty of titles to keep her interested.   I would definitely recommend these books to young fantasy fans.  The stories are designed to encourage young readers, and add to their vocabulary etc. 

Ruby the Red Fairy, the first Rainbow Magic book published in 2009

Five years and up is a wonderful age to get children into the world of reading. I know that reading has helped my daughter vastly in her years of school and education, and reading has to be one of the best gifts we can give our children.  The ability to escape to another world, meet new people, and learn about new things, is a wonderful thing to find just inside the pages of a book, and as I have always said, you can never be bored when you have a book at hand! 

The Rainbow magic books have definitely done so well, and captured a lot of children’s hearts over the years, and certainly the magic is still very much apparent, Harper the Confidence Fairy is a wonderful addition, for any fairy fan. This book, and my experience with the franchise, gets a very highly recommended thumbs up from me..5 magical stars all the way!