The Poet and His Valentine, by Ananya Chatterjee, Reviewed.

Poetry, in any tongue, is a demanding art form for both creator and reader. The best poetry combines an exquisite appreciation for the subtlety of language with an ability to convey mood, emotion and content, and a gift for evocation.

In Ananya Chatterjee’s The Poet and His Valentine we have an Indian software professional and translator conveying all that the poet should. This is largely a collection of what might loosely be termed ‘love poetry’, but that’s by no means the whole tale. Ananya includes some darker, more disturbing subjects in this anthology. I found myself moved, amused, outraged and transported to other times and places as I read her work.

The prevailing mood is one of optimism, often against the tide of events. This is a brave and questing spirit, a voice many will empathise with easily. But the poems of love found, love lost, love sought are interspersed with pieces of observation on life, art, social injustice, and environment.

There’s inspiration to be found in these verses. Indeed, in her introduction, Ananya says, ‘If it succeeds in touching a few chords, and in inspiring more people to read and write poetry, I would know my purpose was served.’ I can say that, for this reader, that success is complete. I’ve long considered setting down my thoughts in verse, and have trodden that road with faltering steps. Ananya’s example has made it much more likely that I’ll continue on that journey.

This is an enjoyable, amusing and thought-provoking read. I recommend it to all who love, or wish to, and to all who have a taste for comprehensible language used to great effect.

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• Poetess Ananya Chatterjee Speaks Her Mind

Court of Conspiracy, by April Taylor, Reviewed.

April Taylor’s Court of Conspiracy is the first in her series, The Tudor Enigma. This fascinating alternative history fantasy is crime novel set in a Tudor England where Henry VIII’s son by Ann Boleyn, Henry IX, is on the throne. Much of the action takes place in and around Hampton Court Palace. It’s clear that the location is very well known by the author, who makes the place live with her subtle descriptive passages intertwined in the action.

Her hero, Luke Ballard, is an apothecary; a combination of doctor and chemist in times when such separate professions didn’t exist. He’s also an elemancer; a person able to harness elemental powers for good. The opposite number of such a magic practitioner is the sunderer, who uses the same powers for evil. So, we have all the intrigue, prejudice, ignorance and jealous fear of an age when religious allegiance ruled, mingled with magical powers for good and evil. It makes for a powerful and intriguing mix.

April Taylor has a facility for selecting just the right tone and syntax to reflect the times she’s depicting, using unusual language in context so that it’s easily understood. The dialogue is of its time, but no barrier to comprehension, so the story flows easily and without pause. The reader is submerged in this imagined world, which feels historically authentic.

It’s a story that examines good and evil, but in the context of the underlying threat of religious conflict between established Catholicism and the newly founded protestant dogma. This is a world where torture is routine and justice is a concept based more on power than right. The King’s word is God’s word and you’d better make sure you don’t get on the wrong side of those with in authority.

In this atmosphere of fear and mistrust, where political intrigue is a daily reality, Luke is engaged by the Queen to discover who is plotting to kill the King. This is a task steeped in danger, fraught with difficulty, and hindered by the need to keep on the right side of authority: a wrong move can easily get a person into the Tower and put to the test of iron and flame.

All of April Taylor’s characters are real people who come alive on the page. These are players with flaws to counterbalance their gifts, heroes and heroines who make mistakes. Proper human beings the reader can so easily empathise with. And the villains are deliciously evil, their motivations fully developed.

The mystery of the threat to the throne is revealed slowly through the actions, skills, mistakes and deductions of Luke and his various helpers. The author skilfully displays the underlying mistaken prejudices against women of the times, showing her heroines through the eyes of the distrusting young Ballard with his preconceptions borne of religious, political and personal bias.

The denouement is a real page-turner, as the action gains pace with the discoveries piling up evidence and increasing the danger to all concerned. The resultant ending is at once both satisfying and enigmatic, leaving the reader wanting more from this series, hungry to know what is in store for the reluctant hero and his helpers of both genders.

This is a book that will be enjoyed by readers who appreciate fantasy, historical mystery, romance and crime novels. You’ll find all of these elements in this tale that manages to successfully blend the genres. I thoroughly recommend it and look forward to the next in the series.

The Trespasser, by D.H. Lawrence, Reviewed

D.H.Lawrence’s The Trespasser, published, after The White Peacock, in 1912 is very much of its time. Unlike the more famous Lady Chatterley’s Lover, this is a book that might excite the interest of a modern publisher but wouldn’t be actually published. The language, full of deeply poetic angst, is identifiably old fashioned, and the plot is so thin, and no longer in any form unique, that no current editor could consider publication.

We live in a different age and few these days would have the patience to read this piece of literature in the way necessary to absorb fully the subtlety of the nuanced language. As a step back into an earlier time, when readers were prepared to mull over the words and ideas presented by an author, it did an excellent job for me. But, I admit, there were descriptive passages I skipped, wanting to get back to the emotional conflicts and leave the landscape to my imagination.

Lawrence has a way of employing language in ways that most writers wouldn’t dare, and he not only gets away with it, but produces evocative and moving prose. If the story is thin, the characters most certainly are not. This is a book all about character in its literal and metaphorical senses. Modern readers, by which I mean those young enough to remain unaware of the furore over Lady C (which I read in my late teens, when it was finally released in UK), are unlikely to understand the moral dilemma at the heart of the novel. When the idea of faithfulness in marriage has been as widely disparaged as it has in modern literature, it must be hard to comprehend why anyone would put themselves through the torture here described simply in order to satisfy the whim of then current social and religious mores.

I’d like to report that I enjoyed the book, but it is a work more to be endured, whilst the empathetic reader is compelled to discover an outcome that is, in reality, inevitable. Those interested in Lawrence, studying literature, or fascinated by portrayals of English life at the beginning of the last century will find a great deal here. For the rest, I suspect the archaic language and the lack of a modern plot will prevent any real enjoyment.

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Passions in Australia: Faye Hall Guests

Today, I’m hosting another writer; an author of Historical Erotic Romance.

Faye Hall's passion driven, mystery filled books are set in small townships of North Queensland, Australia during the late 1800's.
Each of her novels bring something symbolically Australian to her readers, from Aboriginal herbal remedies, to certain gemstones naturally only found in this part of the world.
Each of her books tell of a passionate connection between the hero and heroine, surrounded and threatened by deceit, scandal, theft and sometimes even murder.
These romances swerve from the traditional romances as Faye aims to give her readers so much more intrigue, whilst also revealing the hidden histories of rural townships of North Queensland.
Faye finds her inspiration from the histories of not only the township she grew up in, but the many surrounding it. She also bases most of her characters on people she has met in her life.
Faye was able to live her own passion driven romance, marrying the love of her life after a whirlwind romance in 2013. Together they are raising their 9 children in a remote country town in northern Queensland, Australia.

Passions in Australia

She giggled knowingly. “I knew your name, Re, both your first and your last.  How could I not.”

“Then why pretend you didn’t know me?”

She shrugged casually. “Would you rather me have told those ladies that we slept together?”

-       From Faye Hall's 'She's a Lot Like You', released April 2014

Faye Hall, an Australian author, will have her second eBook, ‘She’s A lot Like You’ released with Red Sage Publishing April this year.

Like her other passion driven, mystery filled books, her new release is set in a small township of North Queensland, Australia during the late 1800's.

Ravenswood, the setting for ‘She’s A lot Like You’, is a township in Queensland most commonly known for its history in gold mining.  However, for her story, Faye has chosen to show a more glamorous and risqué side of this once very prosperous town.  There are beautiful gowns, gala dances and the hidden beauty of a country estate, all things Ravenswood had and more before the gradual decline of the town.  As with all her stories, Faye has included something singularly Australian to entice her readers into the hypnotic allure of the Australian culture in the late Victorian period. 

Faye has chosen this period to set her stories in precisely because she feels it has not been explored enough, nor has the beauty of Northern Australia during that period been represented to its fullest extent.  Other townships Faye explores through her writings include the Burdekin Shire, Sarina, Proserpine and Bowen (the township made famous by Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Australia’).

With every book, Faye has strived to give her readers not only the passionate connection between the hero and heroine, but also the ever present threat of deceit, scandal, theft and sometimes even murder.

A third book has recently been contracted with Red Sage, but as yet a release date is unavailable.

Faye’s books can be purchased direct from Red Sage at:-

http://eredsage.com/store/MyGiftToYou.html

http://eredsage.com/store/ShesALotLikeYou.html

From Amazon:-

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00DPIMSMW

Also you can visit Faye’s blog and website for any updates:-

http://www.faye-hall.com

Or find her on social networks:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Faye-Hall/174774709247649

https://twitter.com/FayeHall79