Page 9 - Ickford Informer Newsletter September 2022

Book Reviews Mission France – The true history of the

by Jo Tiddy women of SOE, by Kate Vigurs
I have been reading the most fantastic
family saga set between the World
HEW, WHAT A SCORCHER. I have spent any Wars (The Whalebone Theatre, I’ll
summer down-time either lounging in a hammock be waxing lyrical about this at a later
Por fanning myself indoors like a plump middle-aged date). Often a novel will set me off on
Scarlet O’Hara. Still, those books don’t read themselves! a meander through the history of an
Here is my selection for early autumn reading. era, and this new non-fiction title does
exactly that.
Opal Country, by Chris Hammer
Formed in 1940, Special Operations
A thrilling Aussie Noir by the author of Executive was to coordinate Resistance
Scrublands, Opal Country is set in a small Work overseas during WWII. I was
mining settlement out in the boondocks, aware of some of the women operatives of SOE - Violette
where men scrabble away at their small Szabo, Noor Inayat Khan, Virginia Hall, are well known. This
claim mines, occasionally striking it new book is a definitive account of all 39 women agents who
rich, but more often descending into were sent into France. Kate Vigurs interweaves their stories
depression, alcoholism, and violence. here for the first time, revealing their characters, abilities,
Throw in a gruesome murder, a secretive and attitudes. Parachuted into occupied France as wireless
religious sect, and unforgiven family feuds, operators, these women were constantly on the run, in hiding,
and the scene is set for a fast-paced and living with the possibility of denunciation and arrest at any
thriller with multiple twists. time. Brave, courageous, they shared a common mission. Not
all of them came home.
Events at Finnegan’s Gap have already ended one police career.
Homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate the murder, Her Dark Wings, by Melinda Salisbury
together with inexperienced investigator Nell Buchanan. As they start
to uncover some of the town’s secrets, both are set up, and attract A brilliant new young adult novel,
the attention of internal aff airs. The murky world of big business and rewriting the myth of Persephone. In
corrupt government has reached as far as this outback outpost. The a world where people still worship
only way to clear their names is to solve the crime. the Greek gods, Corey and Bree are
best friends, their bond seemingly
The landscape is a rich part of this novel, the searing heat, the unbreakable. When Bree betrays her,
bleakness of the desert. Opal Country is full of colourful detail with Corey fi nds herself alone, wracked by
a dark moody atmosphere, and makes our own heatwave feel like grief and rage. Discovering the gate
a picnic in the park.
to the Underworld, Corey fi nds herself
Learwife, by JR Thorpe enraptured by the passionate Furies,
and enters the realm of a God who is
In King Lear, the wife of the king is cold, unyielding, and arrogant. The longer she spends there,
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mentioned twice, in passing, and she the more her own power stirs.
has no role in the play. This novel takes
up her story and gives her a voice. It A story of love, hate, vengeance (and fl owers), this perfectly
begins with a messenger, sent to an sums up the tangled emotions that accompany fi rst love, all
Abbey to announce that the King and his woven through with a thread of magic.
three daughters are dead. Lear’s Wife, Perfect escapism (14+).
unnamed until the very last pages, has The Blue-footed Booby, by Rob Biddulph
been locked up there for fi fteen years,
for reasons she doesn’t comprehend. Rob Biddulph is an author and
A proud woman, unlikeable, from a long illustrator, whose “Draw with Rob”
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royal line, she rages in her grief, makes v video series got many parents through
plans to escape and to be restored to her rightful place. When lockdown. His latest picture book is a
gloriously silly rhyming story, involving
bad weather and sickness ensure she remains trapped, she g l o r i o u s l y s i l l y r h y m i n g s t o r y , i n v o l v i n g
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spends her time remembering the past, and subtlety interfering cake, a theft, and a posse of birdy
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in the day-to-day management of the Abbey. detectives.
This is a novel about women, about grief, and mostly about Everyone knows that Red-footed
power. How to get it, how to keep it, how to wield it. Eventually, Boobys are excellent bakers. When a
too late, to learn the cost of it. The political machinations of frangipane tart mysteriously disappears,
frangipane tart mysteriously disappears,
the fabulous chefs are soon on the trail, following some blue
life within the Abbey are as complex and poisonous as those the fabulous chefs are soon on the trail, following some blue
at Court, and as Queen, she had been the power behind the footprints into the forest….
throne, before her husband went mad.
A great story about the perils of jumping to conclusions,
Fittingly, as befi ts a book spawned from one of Shakespeare this hilarious book is destined to become a family favourite.
greatest tragedies, the use of language in this book is beautiful. Who could resist a cast of avian characters called Desmond,
Lyrical and poetic, I went straight back to the beginning when I’d Maureen and Barbara? Instructions on how to draw a blue-
fi nished it. footed booby can be found on the author’s website. v
ourickfordnewsletter@hotmail.com 9 September 2022