This is not a pity memoir by Abi Morgan

 

A memoir of when an ordinary day can flip on you, trip up your life and hurtle you down a pathway no-one could predict. Abi is a writer, for film and TV, her husband Jacob an actor with a passion for cake. He has MS which appears to be under control. She has a normal life; work, husband, kids, school run, dog.

Jacob has a headache; she picks up the steroids after the school run and returns to find him on the bathroom floor. What follows is a turmoil of emotion, self-doubt, anger and self-deprecating bravery. Anyone who has visited a loved one night after night in hospital or care home, learning about the other patients, their Families and working out a timetable so you can eat, work and (try to) sleep will recognise the balancing act.

The deluge of information, the subsequent coma that Jacob is placed in and then the complications and edge of death moments are brilliantly described in a matter of fact, direct delivery. When things get better there are complications (of course there are) and more shocks, challenges and shifts for Family life to cope with.

A tremendous capture of Family life, trauma, stoicism, strength and endurance; of how life continues through all this and worse.  Abi’s anger, despair and frustration is refreshing, honest and genuine. She counts her blessings when she can, plants her feet in the storm and watches as her children, Jacobs Family cope, adjust, support and accept. There is no pity here just an honest memoir captured by a great writer; a gem and a gift.

Sherlock Holmes and Mr Hyde by Kristian Klaver

 

 

 

This is the second book of a trilogy of the “Classified Dossier”. The first being Sherlock Holmes & Count Dracula (see previous review). 

 The monsters of horror fiction become allies and antagonists to the one of the greatest investigators that never lived. It’s set in 1903 and trophies are being taken after a number of grotesque Ripper-like  murders. A new client seeks help from Sherlock and his trusty friend after being wrongfully accused. Not the Dr Jekyll but his chemically induced alter ego. What follows is a battle of wits set in the London of the day, with a complicated turn of events which reveal a secret society and a traitor. Bold description, energetic in pace and a compelling mash up of Victorian mystery and horror it nevertheless feels like a Sherlock and Watson case with a 1940’s B-movie lens. 

If you liked the first book, as I did, then you will like the second.

Apricots on the Nile - A Memoir with Recipes by Colette Rossant

 

 

 

"Apricots on the Nile - A Memoir with Recipes" by Colette Rossant

 This is the first of three memoirs from this writer. The first is a glimpse into the life of a five year old when she moves from Paris to Cairo in 1937 to live with her father’s Egyptian Family. When her Parisian mother leaves her with her grandparents she experiences a wealthy household, with servants and a clan of aunts, uncles and cousins. She haunts the kitchen and is steeped in the spices, cooking and traditions of a now lost age. Spice filled “care packages” supplied by Ahmed the cook, the sweet toothed grandfather and stern shopper grandmother, their gatherings, family spats and marriages and rebellions are all here; they all seem to centre around food. The book is filled with tantalising recipes and descriptions which make the palette ache.

 It invokes a lost Egypt through a child’s eyes; then she leaves for Paris at fifteen, showing the contrast not only with the family and culture but also the food. She returns thirty years later to re-trace her steps. It’s funny, charming and in places moving. A small book (172 pages), it was covered by BBC radio in a recent book reading series – if you like memoirs and recipes, the early life of this cookery writer, travel writer and journalist is worth a read.