Family Sharing & Home Cooking (September) Degustabox

Welcome to the Family Sharing & Home Cooking Degustabox!
September is over, the cold weather is here, and we're entering the season of hearty soups and stews.
Latest Degustabox feels seasonal, with its selection of comfort foods and sweet treats.

Degustabox is a monthly food and drink subscription box. It's an excellent way of discovering new products which have only just appeared in the shops, or those which have been around for a while, but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Thanks to Degustabox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise.
Each time the monthly box arrives, its contents are a total surprise. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.

If you haven't tried Degustabox subscription box yet, and would like to have a go, I have a £3 off discount from your first box (and you can unsubscribe any time), just use code DKRLN when placing an order.

What did we receive in September Degustabox?

Amy's Kitchen Organic Vegetable Barley Soup (£1.89) is a tasty blend of organic garden vegetables and barley cooked in a delicate, flavourful broth.

It is vegan, low-fat, dairy-free.

Ingredients include onions, barley, carrots, diced tomatoes, celery, leeks, courgettes, peas, garlic, spices and herbs.
It's a lovely vegetable soup, great for the cold days. It did need a bit of extra salt, I thought, but otherwise, pretty good.

Available in all major supermarket chains.

Naked Five Minute Noodles - Chicken Yakisoba (£1) is actually a vegetarian meal in a packet. It's dried egg noodles in a chicken Yakisoba flavour sauce, with red pepper and spring onion.
You can add meat or a meat alternative and a handful of vegetables of your choice, while making a hot meal. I added just a handful of the vegetable mix from the freezer (French beans, carrots, sweetcorn), and some chopped fresh parsley to it.
Nutritional information: less than 170kcal and 1% fat, no artificial colours or preservatives, it's a source of protein (soya beans) and vegetarian.

Available at Tesco.

EMILY Veg Thins (£0.79) are made with real veg and pulses - corn, pea, black bean and red lentil. These are low-cal savoury snacks (at 90-92kcal), gluten free, vegan, a source of protein and fibre. They are crunchy vegetable tortilla chips with sea salt or BBQ seasoning.
You should receive 2 items in the box.
Available at Waitrose, Ocado and Amazon.

FULFIL Chocolate Hazelnut Whip bar (£2) is a vitamin and protein bar. It contains 15g of protein and 2g of sugar, as well as 9 vitamins to support you through everyday life. Contains 30% of your RDA of Vitamin E, C, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, folic acid and pantothenic acid.
Available in the major supermarket chains, Amazon, petrol forecourts and many other stores.

RHYTHM108 Sweet'n'salty Almond bar (£1.49) is made with smooth almond butter, oat flour, and covered in a silky "mylk" chocolate. Each bar takes 3 days to make from start to finish to get the perfect coating, plus it has 45% less sugar and all organic ingredients.
High in fibre, gluten free, vegan, it includes 188kcal and 8g of sugar per bar.
Available at Sainsbury's, Boots, Ocado, WHSmith, Wholefoods, Planet Organic and Booths.

McVities's V.I.B.s (£1.79) - you might have spotted them recently. All three flavours - Classic Caramel Bliss, Luscious Blood Orange Flavour or Heavenly Chocolate Hazelnut Flavour - sound tempting. We received a pack of Classic Caramel Bliss, and it disappeared pretty fast.
My guys love McVities biscuits, and the new range didn't disappoint. They are a lovely combination of a golden baked biscuit, topped with delicious chewy caramel and coated with a silky-smooth milk chocolate.
We're yet to try the other two flavours, but I've seen them in the supermarket, and I'm sure we'll soon buy them.
Available in all major supermarkets.

More of chocolate treats this month - Nakd Drizzled Chocolish Bars Multipack (£3). That's definitely a healthier alternative for any chocolate fan. Chocolish bars are made with fruit and nut centre and drizzled with the rich Chocolish - Nakd's answer to chocolate. I like the flavour, but not that keen on the name.
We got a multipack of Peanut Chocolish, but other flavours are also available at all major supermarkets.

Whitworths Chocolate Biscuit & Hazelnut Treat Mix (£2) is a brand new delicious snack. It's a combination of chocolate biscuits, crunchy hazelnuts and juicy raisins. The biscuits are tiny, smaller than hazelnuts.
Nutritional information: 122kcal and 9.1g of sugar per 25g serving. It's a lovely little treat to share.
Suitable for vegetarians.

We love maple syrup drizzled over pancakes, and I was pleased to find two small bottles of St Lawrence Gold Pure Canadian Maple Syrup (£1). It's a perfect topping for porridge or plain granola, ice cream, waffles and pancakes. It has a wonderful flavour and aroma.
Available at Ocado, Booths, independent natural food and organic stores.

I used one of the bottles while baking a Belgian-style apple tart, with a grated and sliced apple and ground apples.

It was also one of the ingredients for the roasted tomatoes, a dish which I'm happy to eat either hot or cold. It's delicious with cheese.

Hartley's Jelly Pots (£0.55 for a single pot or £1.65 for 3). These 125g pots of raspberry flavoured jelly are bursting with fruity flavour, and could be a lovely lunchbox treat. Under 100kcal, they contain no artificial colours or flavours and are suitable for vegetarians.

Available in all major supermarkets.

Peter's Yard Original Sourdough Crispbread was one of the gifts, which some of the subscribers received. Peter's Yard is one of my favourite brands. Their crispbreads and cheese are a marriage made in heaven.


We also got The Protein Ball Co Goji and Coconut vegan protein ball. It is gluten free, high fibre, has no added sugar, and contains all natural ingredients.

Though lovely enough, personally I'm not a fan of protein balls.

There were two drinks enclosed this month, one of them - Lucozade Revive (£1.49), which is a new product from Lucozade. Naturally inspired uplift, this sparkling orange and passion fruit multivitamin juice drink with sugar and sweetener, contains vitamins B3, B5, B6 & B12 to help reduce tiredness.

Available in all major supermarkets.

Thatchers Cloudy Lemon Cider (£5.50 per 4-pack) is a zingy and refreshing drink, made with real lemons. The sharp acidity of lemons complements the sweetness of dessert apples such as Braeburn, Gala and Red Spur.

Available at all major supermarkets and online at www.thatcherscider.co.uk

Apple and marzipan loaf cake

Are you getting ready for the 2nd episode of GBBO tonight? Have you been baking, or bought something sweet to munch on, while chuckling at the terrible baking puns?
Last week's episode included a Battenberg- baking challenge. I've never baked a Battenberg in my life. It's Mr Kipling's Battenberg for me all the way, it looks pretty, and gives just the right amount of sugar rush.

Before I tell you what I've baked for tonight, let me share some interesting data. There were 7.9 million viewers glued to the screen last week, tutting at the bad jokes and gasping at the pineapple-upside-down-cakes-gate. The Showstopper was as silly as they tend to be. Why would you want to cut someone's head to eat it, even if it's a cake?!

I'm not a fan of Matt Lucas, and don't find him amusing. But I suppose, it's a GBBO tradition to have  cringeworthy presenters, whose jokes make you roll your eyes.

The restaurant discount supplier Enjoy Stevie decided to look at Google Search trend data on the bakery show, at the rise of different recipes, which have been discussed on the show, to see how searches increased or decreased. And the results are very curious.

The Key Stats revealed that:
- rise of the Marzipan searches increased by 4200%
- Bake-Off and Battenberg/Battenburg searches increased by 12000%
- The Upside Down Pineapple Revolution searches increased by 600%

The list shows just how influential the show has become.

And while I wanted to bake something with marzipan, I don't have time to make my own, and I'm also not feeling great (the seasonal colds have caught up with me). I popped into Waitrose today, grabbed a bar of Niederegger milk chocolate marzipan and this afternoon I baked an apple and marzipan loaf cake.
It's a quick and easy recipe. Don't think the GBBO judges would give me the Baker of the week badge, but my family would.

Apple and marzipan loaf cake
Ingredients:

2 medium eggs
80g demerara sugar
70g ground almonds
100g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
90g butter, melted
1 big apple, peeled and chopped into small cubes
half a bar of Niederegger milk chocolate marzipan
1tsp cinnamon

Beat the eggs with the sugar, mix in the ground almonds and sift in the flour with baking powder. Melt the butter, cool it a bit, then add to the cake batter.
Peel one big apple, core, and chop into small cubes. Add to the cake batter with the chopped chocolate marzipan bar and cinnamon. The cake batter is quite thick. Spoon it into an oiled loaf tin, place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C and bake for 35+ minutes. Check the readiness with a wooden toothpick.

Let it cool on the cooling rack before you start cutting it, it's rather crumbly.
Serve warm or cold, with single cream or ice cream.

If I'm not wrong, it's a biscuit week tonight on GBBO. Who are you rooting for?

Disclosure: The data above has been shared, courtesy of Enjoy Stevie. This is not a sponsored post.

Eternal Forever by Syl Waters #BlogTour

Jessie wanted to stay and fight and she'd hesitated. She could see herself now replaying the scene; she'd faltered, she'd looked around, she'd dithered before fleeing. And then once her legs had started, she'd run. Run and run. And she hadn't stopped. 

Eternal Forever by Syl Waters is a perfect example of a cozy mystery, where the murder is investigated by an amateur sleuth (or in this case, two amateurs).

This is very much a moral story of modern times which would appeal to the tech-savvy younger generation, who live their lives on social media and get too attached to the reality TV. 

Jessie, a former shop worker, is "hotter than hot hotcakes of the moment". She has a recording contract, hitting the number one slot in several countries around Europe with her single. "She had YouTube to thank for that - from nowhere to somewhere. Jessie's was the digital-era's Spinderella success story".

Her manager Tito believes that image is everything. He convinces her "to become a new Jessie, bury her past, change her image and switch up for the big time". As her manager, he is the one who makes her decisions and advises on what is best. "He was the gatekeeper, the go-between, the man who made things happen". 

Being Jessie's manager is just the start. He thinks the girl is set for super stardom.

"What they wanted her to be was the all-new Jessie Adams - the pop star. She was the dream girl, living the dream life, inspiring and aspirational".

Only Jessie feels a total fake. "She was the fakest fake there ever was and knowing what she'd become made Jessie feel afraid and a fraud. Inside she was empty, cold and disconnected. She hated herself. She'd sold out. And she knew it".

Now the awards ceremony is approaching, and the pressure is on both Jessie and her manager. The future looks promising, until the moment Tito is murdered, when they are staying in Spain.

In a moment of panic, Jessie flees the scene of murder, and doesn't inform the police what she has witnessed.  She is scared of the possible negative publicity, and turns for help to Mack Majors, who is a director and her account manager at Eternal Forever, the UK's first digital legacy management agency.

But Mack has his own problems: the company is one dysfunctional family, and there's an internal coup d'etat brewing at Eternal Forever. Duncan, one of the co-founders of the company and the genius behind the coding, is the main conspirator of the merging factionalism. It was Duncan's idea in the first place to create an agency, managing people's digital after-life.

"The idea of digital life after death had caught the market's imagination and flung them into the wave of speculative start-up fodder".

Fran, the second co-founder, is looking for potential investors.

"The business was running out of cash, and held a precarious position somewhere on the precipice of a very delicate fast melting speck of ice."

On top of that, one of their clients, a beauty vlogger with a big following, is found dead. Maggie is a victim of online abuse, who's too vulnerable to fight against the trolls and who believes the whole world is turned against her.

Rather than deal with Jessie's conundrum himself, Mack sends his assistant J-Pop to Spain to try to discover who killed Tito and why.

J-Pop is a wannabe reality TV star. He has no previous experience and knows nothing about detective work, but he understands the importance of the PR scene and is tempted by the opportunity to spend time with Jessie. Thus a detective team is born -  Jessie and J-Pop begin digging deep to find out who did it.

Eternal Forever is an entertaining read, with the chilly undertones of the power of social media tech support providers and the hostility of the anonymous mob, howling for your blood. The waves of hatred towards anyone who's got a celeb status online is sadly all too true to life. The vicious type of intolerance on social media is staggeringly frightening. Any views which these keyboard warriors don't agree with are condemned, the people are threatened with rape and murder. 

The wannabe-Influencers like Katherine Williams (one of the secondary characters in the book), are dreaming of a superstar success, and envy her vlogger peers who've managed to become famous. Her own attempts to gain traction on social media had failed miserably. All she is capable of is venomous hate.

The toxic world of Influencers and online abuse are portrayed with an illuminating insight. This is not just the problem of the younger generation, it is pretty universal and could affect any of us. The cyberbullies should be prosecuted for the crime of hatred, but in real world they are left unaccountable.

I found it hard to relate or even like any of the characters, all their dreams of success at any cost and making it big are too vacuous and self-centred.

Take the poor deluded Maggie, the beauty vlogger of some talent, who killed herself as she couldn't cope with the toxic hate. What a tragic waste of young life, and what for? Was the fame of her beauty channel and the fickle love of her fans who quickly turned against her, worth it?! 

Acutely observed, this cozy mystery explores many topics and realities of modern day.

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08D6RNR18

Author Bio –
Most people know crazy cat ladies are a ‘thing’, but I’m a proud crazy guinea pig lady! I love fun in the sun and plenty of cocktails. My happy place is flip flops. I write stories to keep me company - my characters ensure I’m never lonely and always smiling (when I’m not tearing my hair out!)
Social Media Links – 
www.sylwaters.com
Twitter: @waters_syl 
Insta: @mrbob.guineapig  
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/syl.waters.54 

This post is part of the blog tour for Eternal Forever.

Many thanks to Syl Waters, Eleftheria and Rachels' Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Photo diary: week 38, project 366

True love lasts forever, claims Cressida Cowell. Eddie and I are reading the final volume of Wizards of Once now. But this line full of pathos could be argued.
Depending on the stage of your life, you might reconsider what your "true love" is. In high school and early Uni years, I was infatuated with a boy who had no interest in me whatsoever. I "suffered" silently, and at that time in life I believed it was my true love. Later I was deeply-madly love-struck again, and thought I found my true love, but I didn't. I can only smile, looking at that young me.
When I met my future husband, it was my true love, or so I hoped. But you know what, my boys are my true love. And that's enough of the word "love" for now, let's move onto more mundane things.

Tomatoes keep ripening, and I need to find the ways of preserving them. I won't be bothering with the tomato sauce, as skinning all those cherry tomatoes will be one hell of a job. I've read you can freeze them raw, and then add to cooking, though they won't be good in salads, as defrosted, they go mushy.
I might do a big jar of pickles too, with mild chillies and black currant leaves.

On Monday morning we had a surprise phone call from Sasha's school, saying that his class is temporarily closed until further notice. One of the members of the staff needed to take a covid test, and depending on the results, they would let us know whether the class would be re-opened.

That was quite a bummer. Being autistic, Sasha's way of thinking is rather rigid, he hates any deviations from the routine. He was all set for school. He needs messages re-enforced constantly, so all the weekend he kept pointing to the symbols of school to me, and the school transport, and I kept telling him he was going to school etc.

And then it didn't happen, and we didn't know when he would be able to go back to school. It's not the school's fault obviously, many are now in the same position, but when you don't understand the cause and correlation, the anxiety increases double-fold.

The start of the week was challenging for Sasha, and I hope we'll have a smoother week to come.

It was a PE day for Eddie, so he was wearing his PE kit on the way to school.

Having spotted a box of apricots with a reduced label at the Co-Op, I got it for the apricot tart with jam and flaked almonds. I used the remains of the Romanian peach jam, which I bought last week, to spread over the shortcrust pastry, pre-baked for 10 minutes. 

It was a lovely easy tart to bake, and my guys gobbled it up fast.

Passing by my favourite "ghost house" in the neighbourhood. Would so love to have a peek inside. It's completely overgrown from outside, and in the attic one of the little glass panels is missing. I can see a white dove going and out. I bet it's a total shithouse mess in that attic.
There is also an off-white lacy curtain billowing by the window, and I often imagine a thin white hand waving.
Thanks goodness, Sasha's school called that his class has re-opened.

I had a lot of things planned for Thursday morning, and to set me going, had a quick coffee at The Blue Boar with my husband, before he left for his office, and I trotted off to the Romanian shop again, as well as visiting a couple of charity shops in that street.

I bought a big jar of Romanian honey, some lovely cream and strawberry waffles, sharp-tasting sheep's milk cheese and a jar of zacusca (aubergine spread). 

Last week I wrote three book reviews. The Girl from the Hermitage by Molly Gartland will stay with me for a long time. I loved this book, it struck a chord with me, and the main character is my namesake. The publisher, Lightning Books have kindly promoted my post, in a thread of several tweets. 

It was our 24th wedding anniversary on Saturday. It was a simple ceremony at the registry office, with a few friends present (and our families informed post-facto). I didn't have a wedding dress, and put on my favourite blouse, with shoulder pads, well, it was the 1990s. Of four dearest friends present at the ceremony, three are gone now. 

When I look at our old photos, I think I look so stupidly happy. Who would have predicted how my future would unfold?! And here I am, so young, beaming from ear to ear, full of hope, and very much in love.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Girl from the Hermitage by Molly Gartland #BlogTour

Galina focuses on the study and returns to the day by the lake. The geese are paddling and squawking. Sveta's cheeks glow in the warm sunlight. The oil paints glisten. Boris is nearby, settled on the blanket. The air is tinged with the scent of feathers and mucky soil. Taking a brush loosely between her thumb and index finger, she gently touches the bristles to the palette and lifts it to the canvas.

The Girl from the Hermitage by Molly Gartland (Lightning Books, out 14 September 2020) is a remarkable debut novel set in Leningrad (St Petersburg).
Its plotline spans from 1941 to the late 1970s and to the 21st C. The novel follows a life story of Galina, an artist and teacher at the Leningrad Art Institute.

We first meet 8-year-old Galya, amidst the siege of Leningrad, barely surviving with her father Mikhail, their nearest neighbour Anna and her daughter Vera in cold, unheated apartments.
Citizens of Leningrad are doomed to death from starvation, with a ration of a 125g of sawdust bread a day, and even that is not always available. Food supplies are so scarce, people are eating rats and make soup from the wallpaper.
Galya's Mum Roza stopped eating so that her child would have more. When she dies, her body is left in a stack of corpses outside the block of flats along the other victims of the siege. These are horrifying scenes of the everyday life in the siege.

Galya's father has worked to save the treasures of the Hermitage, pack and ship them away. Anna persuades him to move to live in the cellars of the Hermitage, where the girls could have school lessons, and where they will have some food.

The director of the Hermitage Orbelli tells Mikhail that one of Stalin's officials, Colonel Shishkin, asked him to send him a portrait artist.
Mikhail tries to refuse, saying he's not a portrait artist, but the director Orbelli insists, "You must do this. He's an important man. If he is happy with the portrait, it will be very good for the museum and everyone here".
It's not a request, but more of summons.
Shishkin is an important official, "part of the establishment and could turn Mikhail's life upside down with a single phone call. He is a man who could unexpectedly issue an invitation to the theatre or to prison and neither would be surprising". It is a sensitive task, which Mikhail cannot refuse. So much depends on it.

Mikhail reluctantly agrees to draw the portrait of the colonel's sons as a birthday gift for their mother. While the rest of the city is starving, the officials like Shishkin have plenty of food. Mikhail resents working for the colonel, but he needs this job to survive. He brings little bits of food for little Galya and her friend Vera - priyaniki (spiced biscuits), apples, leftovers of his lunch. This food is stolen from the colonel's house, with the tacit agreement of the lady who works for the family.

Mikhail is a true artist, "as he paints, he forgets about everything he cannot control. He loses himself, the Hermitage, war and hunger in the viscous paint. He creates a rhythm: palette, canvas, palette, canvas. The brushes keep time, dancing between the two. His mind clears, focusing completely on the portrait. As the figures emerge, a warm sensation radiates from his core... he recognises the feeling, so long lost. It is joy, satisfaction, purpose, endeavour all rolled in one".

And as many Russian artists, he has problems with alcohol (when he has access to it). He drinks to forget the horrors around him, both in the present and the past (his brother disappears in the Stalinist purges, and his name is never mentioned again).

People "disappearing" during the Great Terror is one of the sub-plots, which runs through the book. Mikhail's brother, their neighbours from downstairs and their tragic child, Vera's father who's sent to the camps... Relatives never mention their loved ones who were renounced as the enemies of the people.
This fear and paranoia have been a big part of many lives, including my own family (my great grandfather was shot in 1937 as the enemy of the people - to find out more, read a short post on my old blog - Constant heart).

The finished portrait becomes a catalyst for the events which change Galina's life.

Forty years later, Galina is a successful teacher at the Leningrad Art Institute. She is married and has a son. Her husband spends half of the year at their dacha, which has miraculously survived the war. This old dacha becomes a symbol of the remaining link with her dead parents and the unbroken spirit.

During one weekend, where Galina and Vera gather with the family and friends to celebrate the anniversary of their adoptive parent, she makes an unwelcome discovery. That day she begins painting a portrait of their neighbours daughter Sveta. "Sveta, peaceful and innocent, sits with her hands folded on her lap. Galina wants to capture the freshness of childhood, the simplicity of the moment, the promise of the future".

That portrait would represent the big changes to come in Galina's life, as well as the history of the country.

There is a wonderful backstory of the painting which Molly Gartland bought in Moscow in 1999, and which became an inspiration for the book. Read all about The Bird Girl on Molly's website.

This novel has being an emotional roller-coaster for me, bringing back memories of my own childhood in the Soviet Russia in the 1970s, later transition to the market economy of the 1990s and the birth of the new Russians, who have acquired their wealth by criminal ways.

Like my namesake, I grew up, surrounded by people who created art. I remember how prestigious it was to have your own studio, the long midnight talks in the kitchen where the world problems were discussed and "solved", the long queues for food.
My parents didn't have a formal art education, both were self-taught artists. My Mum, who's in her mid-70s, still paints almost every day, because she cannot live without painting. My late Dad was the most talented jewellery artist.
On the other hand,  I have studied art in the art school, took part in exhibitions and sold my artwork, but I haven't done anything art-related for many years.

This novel is also a bitter-sweet account of how Russia has changed. When old Galina says, "I miss being young, moving without aches and pains, having a decent figure. And yes, I suppose there are some things that I miss from Soviet times... Now, everything is about money. I find it... I don't know - shallow? Before, we didn't have much but we were working for something bigger than ourselves", I tend to agree with her.

The book is well-researched. Even minor details (descriptions of interiors, food, books mentioned etc) are true to life. Garland's talent for observation is exceptional.

In school we learnt of the horrors of the siege. We also listened to the stories of survivors, like a husband of my Mum's best friend's from school. He was a little child during the siege, and spent so many days in bed, wrapped in the blankets against the cold, hardly moving to save energy, and barely alive, that when he was rescued, the tights have ingrown into the skin of his legs.

Molly Gartland creates an authentic setting - the bleak Leningrad of the siege, in its desolation, and severe beauty of its architecture, but also the unconquerable spirit of its people. The novel shines a light into the XX (and  early XXI) C history of Russia, its politics, society and culture.

The Girl from the Hermitage is a moving tribute to the courage and sacrifice of the people of Leningrad, a sincere and deep commentary on the Russian way of life.

Historical note: The siege of Leningrad lasted from September 8th, 1941, until January 27th, 1944. At the beginning of the blockade there were around 2.5 million inhabitants, including 400,000 children. During 871 days of the siege about 1.1 million people died, mostly of starvation and cold.

Purchase Link

http://eye-books.com/books/the-girl-from-the-hermitage 20% off with discount code HERMITAGETOUR. Free UK p&p

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Hermitage-Molly-Gartland-ebook/dp/B087BZSXN5

https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Hermitage-Molly-Gartland-ebook/dp/B087BZSXN5



Author Bio –

Originally from Michigan, Molly Gartland worked in Moscow from 1994 to 2000 and has been fascinated by Russian culture ever since.

She has an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University, Twickenham and lives in London.

The manuscript for her debut novel The Girl from the Hermitage was shortlisted for the Impress Prize and longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition, the Bath Novel Award and Grindstone Novel Award.



Social Media Links – @molbobolly on Twitter

Many thanks to Molly Gartland, Lightning Books and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Anyone for Edmund? by Simon Edge

I have been reflecting more on memory and its limits. I am relieved to find that there are many events in my own deepest history that I can bring to mind, so my recall is not quite as rotten and decayed as I had feared. Almost all of them, though, happened after my death.

Anyone for Edmund? by Simon Edge is a magnificent blend of political satire, magic realism and historical fiction.

The above mentioned genre attribution might not be technically correct, though as Wikipedia helpfully states that magic (or magical) realism presents a realistic view of modern world with added magical elements, I'll go with this definition. It's precisely the case when supernatural phenomena is presented in otherwise real-world or mundane setting.

The book opens with an archaeological dig nearby the ruins of Bury St Edmund's Abbey, where the monks have hidden the sacred remains of St Edmund during the Dissolution of monasteries.
Hannah is one of the community volunteers, who happens to be there, when the skull is found.

Hannah's cousin Mark is a special adviser to the "sainted" Marina Spencer. After a career at the BBC, producing programmes for the World Service, he is supposed to have his dream job with Marina.
Power-hungry Marina is a pushy bully of a boss, who has a great talent for looking approachable and friendly on TV.
Her charisma doesn't extent to her aides whom she treats as minions of no significance. "Marina Spencer was the most neurotic person he had ever met. Her anxiety focused primarily on her media appearances, which was unfortunate, since she was the government's star media performer".

All her staff are hostages to her moods.
"She would demand them at all hours of the day and most hours of the night, since she was also an insomniac and expected her staff to be the same".
Mark dreads going to the office, where he's subjected to Marina's relentless criticism and his colleagues' competitiveness.
She never gives thanks for all the hard work her staff are doing. "Expecting gratitude from Marina was like expecting not to be squeezed to death by a boa constrictor: it was an unreasonable hope that went against nature".

It so happens that Hannah shares the news of the big discovery at the dig with Mark's mother, who in her turn can't wait to spill the news to her son, "It's a very exciting development. It'll be all over the news, when they announce it. They haven't done it yet, and I thought you'd like a … what's that horrible expression?" "A heads-up?" She thinks it to be the news of great importance, since St Edmund was England's patron saint until we got St George.

Marina needs new eye-catching ideas for her talk in the cabinet. Cornered, Mark comes up with a suggestion of a new patron saint for the whole of the UK, "Bringing all four nations together, after the trauma of the past few years"
"As ideas went, it was not so much half-baked as still in the mixing bowl before he had turned the oven on".
Once he suggests it, he has to build the case as to why St Edmund could be seen as a unifying figure, "He added a silent prayer to St Wikipedia that he could find some adequate connection".
The following spin is a matter of creative genius of Mark, his imagination and resourcefulness.

Without giving any spoilers, the credentials Mark builds for Marina's ambitious campaign - manipulating history data - are brilliant.
Simon Edge is one of the best wits in the British political satire.

Every scene with Marina is pure political farce. She is a ruthless tyrant with an over-inflated ego. I loved the episode at St Edmund's Chapel, where she arrives wearing colours matching St Edmund's flags. She nearly causes a scene, when she realises that she is supposed to sit "in the blasted gods".
But when another, less prominent MP, makes a dig at Marina for sitting in the gallery, she responds, "I'm simply here to witness St Edmund's return to his proper place, Wendy. That's all that matters," said Marina, but the look that went with her words could have refrozen the polar ice cap."

As Mark's lies spin out of control, we are wondering if they are going to be exposed. He's not a contemptible, cynical political hack, in fact you'll most likely feel sympathy for him, and hope the whole brouhaha would end in his favour.

The narrative flits back and forth from Mark to Hannah to St Edmund, and that's where the narrative becomes supernatural. The Royal Saint is reliving his own life, before and after death, his miracles and legacy. Having seen Marina kneeling in front of his shrine, he takes her under his wing and wants to reward her for the seeming devotion, with the most drastic consequences for her opponents.

All Edge's books are an outstanding character study. The author is sympathetic to his hapless protagonist.
Marina is the perfect villainess whom you'll love to hate.

Edge is a skilful storyteller who reimagines the past and the present. The plot is intelligent, intricate and will keep you gripped.

After I finished reading the book, I visited the library to see if I can find anything on the British saints. There is a small extract on St Edmund in Richard James' England's Forgotten Past (2010 edition).

I also spotted Warriors of the Viking World by Ben Hubbard in The Works (at £3 at the moment), where I found this illustration.

Many thanks to Simon Edge and Lightning Books for my copy of the book!

The Unquiet Spirit by Penny Hampson #BlogBlitz

A spike of fear went down her spine. Her stomach churned. Stay calm. Deep breaths. Goosebumps rose on her bare arms. She shivered.
The temperature had dropped several degrees, in fact, it now felt positively Arctic. She sniffed. Was that rosemary she could smell?

The Unquiet Spirit by Penny Hampson is an atmospheric and elegantly told ghost story.

Kate Wilson is Cornish by birth, but her family had moved to Oxfordshire when she was still a baby.
Mother's best friend, known as Auntie Win, is Kate's godmother. "Win wasn't really her aunt, but Kate had always called her that. She'd always felt close to the diminutive, intelligent woman who'd spoilt her rotten whenever she'd stayed with her".

When Win suddenly dies, Kate inherits her house in Cornwall and decides to move there.
"The move on Monday would be the start of a new life.
Win's bequest had been a massive surprise. Not only the house but also a sizeable amount of money".
Kate often imagined living there, but had never dreamt that her godmother would leave it to her.
Could this beautiful old house be an answer to her prayers? Will it be a safe haven and a new beginning for her?
Kate loves history and books.
"Books were her passion, the older the better."

When she moves into the old cottage, the atmosphere inside is far from welcoming. If anything, it's positively eerie and disquieting. The smell of rosemary appears from nowhere, which makes Kate think of the last conversation she had with her Auntie Win.

Win confessed to her goddaughter, "I'm not going gaga, but I'm sure... well, I'm almost sure that The Beeches is haunted".
Win has found a small package wrapped in oilcloth under the floor boards, "Kate, as soon as I touched the package, the room went cold. And I do mean absolutely freezing. It was so weird."
The package happened to be a diary, "Pretty sure it was written by a woman, going by the handwriting, and when I opened it I found a dessicated sprig of rosemary in between the front leaves".

Four months after this conversation, Win dies "in circumstances that had both shocked and saddened Kate and her family Win's body had been found in woodland near The Beeches. What she'd been doing outside on that freezing March night was a mystery".

Looks like Kate has inherited not just the house, but the resident spectre. A dream is slowly turning into a nightmare. Is she going mad? With a stalker, attempted break-ins and menacing atmosphere in the house, Kate is anxious and alarmed.

Her next cottage neighbour Tom Carbis is another puzzle. He appears to be rude and unwelcoming, and hiding secrets of his own. He offers help, but can Kate trust him?
Their friendship develops slowly. Tom is abrupt and mistrustful, his behaviour borders on slightly hysterical when they meet at his mother's house, where Kate is invited to do a freelance job with the old family files. Just why is he so secretive and guarded?

"Despite his abrupt manner, there was something about him that attracted her. He was handsome in a rugged way, with his dark hair and strong sculpted features, when he smiled..."

The journal which Win has found, will resurface, compelling Kate to dig into its history:
"It was gripping reading. Written by a young lady in 1804, it covered a period of about twelve months… the author wrote of running away with her gentleman. The final journal entry spoke of a midnight assignation on the following evening "at our usual meeting place in the woods".

Past and present become entwined, and the story flows from Kate and Tom to the star-crossed lovers in the early 19C. The tension mounts, "...and with all the strange goings-on, she too believed a restless spirit haunted the house and grounds. The question was why?"

There's nothing like a good old chilling ghost story, and if it's set in Cornwall, then it's a double pleasure.

I enjoyed the portrayal of Oxford and Falmouth. The descriptions Oxford in the night time brought back memories of returning home after the babysitting evenings from over twenty years ago. It feels like only yesterday.

Penny Hampson is a masterful narrator who creates atmospheric setting with ease. The scenes of haunting are delightfully creepy - the old house with its strange sounds, unexplained smell of rosemary, temperatures dropping to freezing, paintings moving on their own accord and doors which lock you in.

Strong on the moody undertones, it's a gripping tale of love lost and regained.
Lose yourself in an enjoyable ghostly mystery!

Purchase Links - getbook.at/theunquietspirit

Author Bio – Some time ago Penny Hampson decided to follow her passion for history by studying with the Open University. She graduated with honours and went on to complete a post-graduate degree.

Penny then landed her dream role, working in an environment where she was surrounded by rare books and historical manuscripts. Flash forward nineteen years, and the opportunity came along to indulge her other main passion – writing. Penny joined the New Writers’ Scheme of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and  three years later published her debut novel, A Gentleman’s Promise, a  historical mystery/romance. Other books in the same genre soon followed.

But never happy in a rut, Penny also writes contemporary suspense with paranormal and romantic elements. Her first book in this genre is The Unquiet Spirit, published by Darkstroke.

Penny lives with her family in Oxfordshire, and when she is not writing, she enjoys reading, walking, swimming, and the odd gin and tonic (not all at the same time).

For more on Penny’s writing, visit her blog: https://pennyhampson.co.uk/blog/

Twitter: @penny_hampson

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pennyhampsonauthor

This post is part of the blog blitz. 

Many thanks to Penny Hampson and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!

A Summer to Remember in Herring Bay by Angela Britnell

Last summer might be over, but it will always be remembered for all wrong reasons (lockdown, home-schooling, cancelled holidays, bubbles and face masks). Many of us wanted to escape the uncertainty and anxiety of difficult days by diving into books where covid and social distancing were non-existent.
We didn't know until the very last moment whether our holiday in Cornwall would happen, but books and photos kept me happy and daydreaming about the rocky coastlines, fresh breeze and sea salt spray, sand under my feet, ice cream cones on the beach and Cornish pasties.

Latest novel by Angela Britnell vividly conveys all that and much more.

A Summer to Remember in Herring Bay is not just a perfect summer read. It's a book for all of us, mad about Cornwall and all things Cornish. It's a feel-good romance, with a main protagonist who speaks her mind.

We meet Essy Havers as she arrives to Cornwall to visit the village where her Mum grew up and left many years ago under mysterious circumstances.

"Herring Bay was a dull, has-been sort of place. Her aunt Molly was the sweet and kind-hearted older sister her mother had described."

The village itself could be used as a photo scene to feature on a box of Cornish fudge:"Most of the tiny houses she'd seen so far were jammed together like peas in a pod and the soft ice-cream colours of the paint they all flaunted and hanging baskets of scented colourful flowers outside most of the homes gave an air of faded prettiness that appealed to Essy."

Essy prides herself on being good at finding things.
"Her business back in Tennessee was blossoming because Eureka! promised to find anything a client desired." Her company specialises in helping clients track down anything from missing china pieces to rare vintage clothing.

For years Essy was keen to find out her Cornish roots, and discover the truth about her mother's past.
"She had been toying with the pros and cons of visiting Cornwall for ages but when a request came in that required visiting this remote part of England, the decision was a no-brainer." Essy's been asked to pull together a surprise for Mr Snells's ninetieth birthday. He is a dyed-in-the--wool ex-pat Cornishman whose health prevents him from travelling any longer...
Essy's task is to collect a vial of sand and take pictures at each of his six favourite beaches.
Thus Essy hops on a plane in Tennessee and finds herself in Herring Bay.

While staying with her aunt, Essy meets Ruan Pascow, who's re-decorating the kitchen in the cottage. Ruan is another mystery Essy would love to solve. "She would bet her bottom dollar that he was no ordinary painter and decorator".

Ruan is an interesting protagonist, with a vulnerable side that he tries to hide behind his flamboyant façade. His style is creative and artistic.
"Essy loved this outward expression of his creativity but since he had admitted to using his fashionable clothes as a form of armour, she wishes he didn't need to do that around her".

Ruan had a good job in London, but leaves it to return to Cornwall in mysterious circumstances.
"With the same instinct as a homing pigeon, he'd fled to Cornwall to lick his wounds but nothing was working out as expected."
Being at home brings its own challenges and sad memories of the father leaving his family when he was a child. "His deep-rooted dislike of his father's behaviour had shaped his life and led him landing back in Cornwall, jobless and frustrated".

Essy and Ruan are attracted to each other, but there is so much backstory between their families, which seems beyond mending.
It's not just Ruan's mother, the other villagers also question Essy's arrival on the scene. Not many people are happy for her to dig things up.
"She'd come to Cornwall to find answers and ended up discovering a whole lot more questions along the way".
Was her decision to come to Cornwall a big mistake? Or will it be a summer to remember?

A Summer to Remember in Herring Bay is the literary equivalent of a Cornish ice cream in a cone, enjoyed on a sunny day.

I was also thrilled to spot the familiar landmarks, mentioned in the book.
For example, Essy and Ruan walk around Marazion, and then walk over to the island over the cobblestone causeway and hike up to see the ancient castle before heading back.

The village where we usually stay in Cornwall is not far from St Michael's Mount, and we see it in its full splendour almost every evening on our walks there. We haven't visited the castle recently or walked the cobbled causeway, but one day I hope to be back and see the beautiful views from the top floors of the castle.
Here is St Michael's Mount in the mist (photo taken last August).

Author Bio:
Angela grew up in Cornwall, England, and returns frequently from her new home in Nashville, Tennessee, to visit family and friends, drink tea and eat far too many Cornish pasties!

A lifelong love of reading turned into a passion for writing contemporary romance and her novels are usually set in the many places she's visited or lived on her extensive travels. Thanks to over three decades of marriage to her wonderful American husband she's a hug fan of transatlantic romance and always makes sure her characters get their own happy-ever-after.

She is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, the Romance Writers of America and the Music City Romance Writers. Her first novel "Truth and Consequence" was published in 2006 and she's now had over 30 novels published internationally and several short stories in women's magazines.

If you'd like to find out more of what Angela gets up to (Advance warning: this may include references to wine, dark chocolate, Poldark and the hunky Aidan Turner) check out
www.angelabritnellromance.com
or follow her on Facebook www.facebook.com/angelabritnell
Twitter  - @angelabritnell
and on Instagram as @angelagolleybritnell

This post is part of the blog tour for A Summer to Remember in Herring Bay.

Many thanks to Angela Britnell and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!