Archives by Tag 'Historical'
Review: ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ by Arthur Golden
Title: Memoirs of a Geisha Author: Arthur Golden Published: Vintage, 1998, pp. 434 Genre: Historical Fiction Blurb: This story is a rare and utterly engaging experience. It tells the extraordinary tale of a geisha – summoning up a quarter century, from 1929 to the post-war years of Japan’s dramatic history, and opening a window onto [...]
Review: ‘The Affinity Bridge’ by George Mann
Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology, dazzled each day by new inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city, whilst ground trains rumble through the streets and clockwork automatons are programmed to [...]
Review: ‘The Discovery of Chocolate’ by James Runcie
What delicious ingredients James Runcie has blended together in his first novel, The Discovery of Chocolate–a picaresque, time-travelling journey of self-discovery. Told by the Spaniard, Diego de Godoy, accompanied by his faithful greyhound Pedro, Diego wanders the world, like Don Quixote bereft of his Dulcinea, in search of his beloved Ignacia–and the perfect chocolate. (Goodreads [...]
Review: ‘Fire and Shadow’ by David Hillier
It is the time of the Third Crusade, and Isabel is about to marry when her parents are murdered. She suspects the Earl de Mortaine is involved, and learns that he is trying to eliminate the king’s supporters while the king is fighting in Jerusalem. Isabel travels there to report what is happening. (Goodreads Summary) [...]
Review: ‘The Trespass’ by Barbara Ewing
London 1849. The capital city is living in fear. Cholera is everywhere. Eminent MP Sir Charles Cooper decides it is too risky for his younger daughter, the strangely beautiful and troubled Harriet, and sends her-but not her beloved sister Mary-to the countryside. Rusholme is a world away from London, full of extraordinary relations: Harriet’s cousin [...]
Review: ‘Farewell, My Queen’ by Chantal Thomas
On 14 July 1789, Queen Marie Antoinette and her court spend a pleasant evening in the Great Hall of Versailles, completely unaware that the events of the next few hours will change their lives and their country for ever. Agathe-Sidonie Laborde is the Queen’s reader, and twenty-one years later, an exile in Vienna, she remains [...]