AFRICA JUNCTION by Ginny Baily

Ginny Baily is very familiar with Africa. You get a sense of this when you meet her: she can name all the countries of this vast continent – in alphabetical order – and can tell you who served as Finance Minister in a particular state back in the 1970s without looking it up. Reading Africa Junction, you realise that Ginny knows, feels and breathes Africa. Her descriptions of the crowds, the smells, the back-street hotels are so realistic, they took me straight back to my own visits. A child stroking an arm, exploring white skin for the first time; mosquito nets that trap the enemy inside with you, rather than outside; the crush of people used to living close together with no understanding of the concept of personal space.

The structure of Africa Junction is complex.  Ginny describes it as a string of beads, with Adele Healey as the string that holds them together. The story covers a period of nearly thirty years, although not in chronological order.  The story starts and finishes in Exeter, with an occasional excusion to Cardiff as well. However, it is set primarily in Liberia, Senegal and Mali – countries that are little more than names on a map to many people. Ginny brings them alive and sets her characters against the turbulent background of their political histories. Yet, she does this with such a light touch that you hardly realise you are getting a history lesson at the same time. This is a gentle, humorous book in the main, which makes the occasional violent episodes all the more powerful.

Adele’s quest to find her childhood friend Ellena is the main theme; the stories of Ellena, her family and other people whose lives are touched by Adele are woven into it. Together they make a wonderful patchwork. This is Ginny’s first novel – I loved it and am looking forward to reading the next one.

Published by Harvil Secker. ISBN 978-1-846-55460-5

COLD REVENGE by E M Sinclair

I really must stop taking review books away on holiday with me!  Once again, I’ve spent every travelling and resting moment ignoring my poor husband, with my nose in a book – this book. I started it as we pulled out of the station on the way to an anniversary weekend in London – and finished it just before the train arrived back in the station two days later. It’s fair to say that I couldn’t put it down.

Governess Grace Harper finds her family of young charges frustrating and quite a handful. Yet she clearly loves all of them and wants to keep them safe. When the family of orphans moves from Hampshire to London and meets up for the first time with their guardian, Lord David Shalham, they find themselves in an unexpected and dangerous situation. Despite Grace’s attempts to protect them, supported by a growing number of friends, including Shalham’s grandmother, things spiral out of control and the consequences are extremely serious for at least one member of the family.

The book is set in 1816, and has a certain Austenesque feel to it.  The languge used by the characters is authentic for the early nineteenth century and this spills over into the narrative as well. Grace is described as being ‘one and twenty’ when she applied to Mrs Clovis’s Select Agency for a position as a governess. Yet despite the historic setting of the story there is a relevance to it that makes it very readable. The ‘dark secret’ from Lord Shalham’s past, which unfolds slowly and fluidly throughout the book, would fit just as easily into a modern-day story.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and have no hesitation in recommending it to others.  Just don’t take it with you on a special occasion.

Published by Murrell Press; ISBN 978-09554135-6-8

(Review first published in The Women Writer by Society of Women Writers and Journalists)

THE TERRIBLE PRIVACY OF MAXWELL SIM by Jonathon Cole

(Guest Reviewer Michael McCormick)

Maxwell Sim may elicit sympathy, irritation or recognition; or maybe all three.  As a person he is a “failure”.  Currently out of work due to illness; virtually friendless, with a failed marriage and distant father.  He is a man seeking human warmth and intimacy.  The story opens with Maxwell in Australia visiting his father.  Sitting in a restaurant he sees a mother and her daughter playing and laughing.  He thinks that if only he could speak with them he might start to get the intimacy he craves.

The story shows the hopes and decline of a man who does not “fit”.  At one point he achieves a certain connection by building up a relationship with his sat nav – a relationship doomed to failure. 

Maxwell Sim’s journey is full of hope and despair, but ultimately self understanding.  It is,as the cover hints, a story for our time.  It will keep you interested until the final denouement.   It is not however the “wildly funny” novel it is described as.  The final plot shift is very original but I found it unnecessary. Having said that, this book is well worth reading.

(The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim was provided by Totnes Bookshop)