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Holidays provide the only opportunity for many of us to lose ourselves in a book. I must admit to cheating ever so slightly.  Having selected my holiday reading, usually about three books for a fortnight, I like to read the first 30 or so pages to pick up the story before setting off. Having checked in at the airport, I can turn my back on any departure lounge shopping temptation and lose myself in my book straight away.          

Much better too if it's a good book so here are Brian's suggestions to help with your choice for 2006:

Robert Goddard: Sight Unseen (ISBN 0-552-15210-2) Corgi Books 2005. I always wonder how Robert Goddard manages to concoct such amazing plots. His mystery novels are superbly crafted and while the plots twist and turn, the thread remains continuous drawing in the reader ever deeper until the book becomes hard to put down. Sight Unseen is no exception and tells how an innocent bystander enjoying a drink outside the pub on a summers evening witnesses an event which returns to haunt him and turn his life upside down. A book for all sexes.

Bryce Courtney: Jessica (ISBN 0-14-027960-1) Penguin Books 2000. Bryce Courtney is much better known in his homeland Australia than over here in the UK. I have been a great fan of his ever since I picked up 'The Power of One' second hand some years ago. His books can be bought new here in the UK but second hand copies are hard to find. When we tripped off to Australia a year or so back, we dived into every second-hand bookstore encountered and picked up several titles.  'The Potato Factory' series kept me enthralled for quite some time. Jessica is based on the remarkable life of a young woman in the dusty plains of the Australian outback in the early 1900's. Riding and working the land alongside her father, she could not be more different to her ladylike sister Meg. Ambitious mother has plans to marry Meg off to wealthy Jack Thomas. Jack almost inevitably falls in love with Jessica. What follows is so unbelievably cruel and heartbreaking that it is hard to credit, even more so when you remind yourself it is based on a true story. 587 pages of small print will keep you engaged for some time. A book for anyone with a heart.

Sebastian Faulks: The Girl at the Lion d' Or (ISBN 0-09-977490-9) Vintage 1990. If you've not read 'Birdsong' by this author then you really should. The Girl at the Lion d' Or is totally different. It is a powerful story of love, desire and conscience which begins when a young girl arrives at the seedy Hotel du Lion d' Or in a small French town in the 1930's. It is delicately written, beautifully constructed and a joy to read. You may have to seek a second hand copy but there are still plenty around. A book for romantics of any sex.

Harry Thompson: This Thing of Darkness (ISBN 0-7553-0281-8) Headline Book Publishing 2006

This is a brilliant historical novel throwing our mindsets back to 1828. A brilliant young naval officer, Robert Fitzroy, is given charge of HMS Beagle and the task of surveying the wilds of of Tierra del Fuego. Charles Darwin, a young trainee cleric and amateur geologist, accompanied this incredible voyage which was destined to introduce fundamentally new ideas of evolution. The pair developed a strong friendship with a shared belief in religion and the 6 days of creation. Darwin's observations led him to question the six days of creation which led to fierce arguments with Fitzroy which are brilliantly portrayed in the book. Robert Fitzroy had a mind that matched Darwin's and his surveying of Patagonia and the myriad of islands and passages was so meticulous it was never bettered until aerial photography became available. Fitzroy never found favour with the Admiralty even later in his career when he started to collate sea captain's weather reports to produce weather forecasts, the first in the world, he was dismissed from his post leaving the Americans to further develop weather forecasts. There was always a dark side to his character and still largely unknown he eventually committed suicide. Darwin, on the other hand, was to achieve great fame and become a household name. It is a stunning read on looks like being my book on 2008

Louise's choice:

Kate Atkinson: Behind the Scenes at the Museum (ISBN 9780552996181) Transworld Publishers Ltd  1995- Fabulous piece of fiction - bestseller a few years ago, follows the life (from conception) in York in the 1950's of Ruby, her two sisters, their reluctant mother and wayward father and intermittently steps back in time over two generations of the family, although it's not a historical novel. It's real, funny, sad and addictive

Eileen's selection

Louis de Berniéres: Birds Without Wings.  ISBN 0-099-47898-6 Paper back edition 2005. Those who read and enjoyed Captain Corelli’s Mandolin will find this title equally captivating. Inspired by the once thriving then abandoned village of Kaya Köyü, near Fethiye (ancient Telmessos) in south-west Anatolia in Turkey where Christians and Muslims shared a thriving and peaceful existence for centuries. The story is based on the lives of its inhabitants at the time of the crumbling Ottoman Empire and the rise of Mustafa Kemel. How all their lives were affected by changes leading up to the population exchange of 1923 and the emergence of the secular state of Turkey. A truly soul searching read which leaves readers wondering if any lessons are ever learned from history. A book everyone should read! Engrossing!

Asne Seierstad: The Bookseller of Kabul. ISBN 1-84408-047-1 First published in 2002. Once underway I found this a compelling read. A fascinating insight into the ordinary life of the citizens of Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. The author spent four months living with the bookseller and his family so experienced at first hand the pressures and problems of returning to a more democratic lifestyle.

Ken Follett: The Pillars of the Earth.  ISBN 0-330-31273-1 First published in 1989.  An absolutely unputdownable saga for lovers of good meaty historical novels. What more recommendation could this book have than still being on the bookshelves! Ken Follett is better known as a writer of thrillers but the inspiration for this story line developed from a fascination with the architecture of our great cathedrals. The story develops around the life of a master stonemason and his family who were involved in the building of one of these huge edifices. It depicts the dramas encountered and overcome in an age when life was a constant battle for survival. A riveting insight into Medieval life and religious influences. One I have kept to read again sometime in the future.

Madge Swindells: The Corsican Woman. . ISBN 0-7088-4211-9 First published in 1988. Another oldie which I have kept to read again. The story is set in Corsica at a time when local vendettas were an ugly side of life. Sybilia is beautiful, gentle and intelligent but is a Corsican with the intense passion of her race. Here is a gripping tale of one woman’s passionate vendetta and its eventual outcome. A deeply moving novel which captures the flavour of Corsica and its turbulent inhabitants.

Elizabeth Buchan: The Good Wife. ISBN: 0-14-100979-9

After almost twenty years of supporting politician husband Will on the hustings, Fanny takes stock of her own life. During that time, she has submerged her needs for those of Will’s political career and the constant presence and demands of his live-in alcoholic sister Meg. Rebellion stirs within Fanny when daughter Cloë leaves the nest and she takes stock of her own life. Resentment at the constant demands on her own freedoms and time are coupled with an urge to return to her Italian roots. A yearning to pick up the earlier threads of her life as an expert in wine, alongside the father she adores, grows in momentum. An excellently crafted book which exposes the conflicting inner feelings with which many women will empathise. Will Meg’s interference be the final spoke in the wheel and will Fanny let herself be tempted by an old flame? The story rises to a dramatic climax as the reader is left wondering whether or not Fanny and Will can reconcile the differences between them.

Joanna Trollope: Second Honeymoon.  ISBN: 978-0-552-77311- 9

Another sensitive observance of family life from a writer who’s become synonymous with the inner conflicts which make families tick. This book is yet another page-turner to which every woman who has experienced the poignancy of the empty nest syndrome will relate. When Ben, the youngest child, flees the nest, Edie suffers a quandary of emotions as she agonises over how to fill the caring void. As much as he loves his children, husband Russell looks forward to having his wife back and them sharing time together again. A master storyteller, Joanna Trollope brilliantly portrays the maelstrom of feelings involved when a mother loses the last of her children to the outside world and feels bereft. Even though the author has written other books focused around family conflict, there is always a freshness within the pages which prevents them from being too repetitive. This book is no exception and the intricacies of the plot keep the reader guessing as to its outcome to the end.

Kate Atkinson: Behind the Scenes at the Museum. (The Whitbread Book of the Year 1995)  ISBN: 978-0552996181

Not just another story about families but one with a quirky beginning, which draws the reader into its web before a few pages have been turned. The story of Ruby Lennox’s progress through life from conception is fluently told with enough wit and pathos to glue the reader to the pages until the end. Woven into the present day family story are brooding presences from the past, whose actions still colour family thoughts and feelings. Great grandmother Alice who, sick of life as a drudge, left her drunken husband for an itinerant photographer. Alice’s daughter Nell, Ruby’s grandmother, left with little choice for a husband after the first world war. Even Ruby’s mother Bunty can’t escape the historic thread of female discontent as she barely tolerates life with her husband, George. An excellent read, brilliantly written for such a seemingly ordinary tale of everyday family life, which I must confess didn’t hold much appeal at first sight.

All the above books are available through Amazon

Now for something entirely different by Judy Almond

It’s no Life for the Wife Published 2001 and I’m Here To Help Now, Dear. ISBN 0-9549463-1-6 Published 2005.           Both written by Judy Almond.

Judy is an amazing person, an unsung heroine and great raconteur. Her first book (no ISBN ) was published to raise money for Romanian orphans abandoned and suffering from AIDS after the fall of the Ceaucescu regime. They had been injected with blood, which turned out to be contaminated, in the mistaken belief that blood transfusions somehow helped towards a cure for whatever ills they suffered. Since the fall of the regime she has visited Romania many times and spent long periods giving hands-on assistance, These books are her contribution to raise funds to provide a better life and care for these unfortunate children. ALL profits from these books go to aid the surviving Romanian children to give them a chance for the future.

It’s no Life for the Wife is a very humorous account of Judy’s life from when she first met David, her doctor husband. .....although I was ill in bed with glandular fever he still hauled me out of bed and marched me up to the top of a local beauty spot to propose. Very romantic but it was all rather lost on me as I was feeling so poorly, so I asked him to give me time to think. 'Don't be long' said David, 'I've just accepted a job with a practice that wants a married doctor.'   Judy's wry sense of humour keeps the chuckles coming steadily.  It also introduces her ‘famous friend’ who it turns out was Barbara Cartland, a person for whom she has a great respect but with whom she was always her normal ebullient self. I giggled all the way through this book and was even banned from reading it in bed. It all ends in tears when Judy talks more movingly about her involvement with the children of Romania

I’m Here To Help Now, Dear carries on from when her doctor husband David retires.  This volume has more serious overtones but is still interspersed with Judy’s natural wit and humour.  She touches on the lives of some remarkable young women who spend their working lives all over the world helping women and children suffering from mans inhumanity to man in some of the world's most dangerous countries. These, along with Judy, are the people who should be receiving national recognition for their selfless service to mankind!

Buying direct ensures that all money received goes directly to helping children. To obtain copies contact Judy Almond at:- 1 The Forge, Coopers Lane, Northaw, Potters Bar, Herts EN6 4NF Each copy costs £7.99 + £1.50 p&p Payment with order please.

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