Chingle Hall

21 Dec 2021 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Book Review, Writing Tags: , , , , , ,

Chingle Hall by Zowie Swan
Published 2021 by Safety Pin Publishing, UK

I don’t want to do anything that will spoil this superb story, so this review will be relatively short!

Living in Australia, (it’s almost Christmas and midsummer here) I’m always looking for books especially that transport me to other places and times and I love horror in all its forms best of all. This story spans generations and is told from the point of view of various women who live in the titular manor house across the years. It came as no surprise to me when researching for this review, that Chingle Hall is a real place and considered one of the most haunted places in the UK. Swan has given her characters tremendous depth and a believability that transcends the tonal shifts in narration.

Chingle Hall is a very well written supernatural thriller that gripped me from start to finish. It has a bittersweet edge that has stayed with me since I finished reading and I particularly appreciated the beautifully drawn and relatable female characters.

I was offered an E-Book by Safety Pin Publishing in return for an honest review and once again, they’ve come up with the goods. Highly recommended!

The Fylde Witch

06 Dec 2021 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Book Review, Writing Tags: , , , ,

The Fylde Witch by Chris Newton.
Published 2021 by Safety Pin Publishing, UK

This is the story of Meg Shelton, something of a legendary figure in Lancastrian folklore and Newton has woven a sometimes spooky, often sad but always entertaining story of one woman’s life. It is set in a time when to be different or outspoken was hard enough as a man but almost impossible as a woman. So, while Meg’s hardships are many, her triumphs are delicious!

While I live in Australia and haven’t any first hand knowledge of Lancashire, I have spent time in Cornwall, where some of my forbears were reputedly “cunning folk” and it isn’t difficult to see the level of research Newton has engaged to create this story.

It’s a well written book (the pacing is particularly good) and while not as scary or explicitly horror-laden as it could be, it is definitely Gothic and explores horror themes. While I as an adult thoroughly enjoyed it, it would be suitable for a YA audience too.

I was offered a E-Book by Safety Pin Publishing in return for an honest review, and if The Fylde Witch is indicative of the titles in their catalogue then they should become a very successful small publisher.

All in all, it’s a cracking read – well worth seeking out!

Jacinda Ardern: A New Kind of Leader – Book Review

14 May 2020 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Biography, Book Review, Writing Tags: , , , , ,

A much shorter post today!

One of the things I did manage to get done during Neko’s recovery was read Madeleine Chapman’s new biography of New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern and I enjoyed it. Chapman writes in an engaging style and it’s a good introduction to the woman, her background and the New Zealand political system.

I’ve started doing occasional reviews for the Tasmanian Times, an independent digital news platform that draws on contributors from across the state and my full review can be found here.

I’d love to know what you think about my review, Ardern or New Zealand in general – it’s a place that fascinates me and is on my bucket list to visit once the Covid-19 shenanigans are over. I’d particularly appreciate input from anyone else who’s read the book.

Take care all, wherever you are ❤

Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows – Book Review

10 Mar 2018 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Book Review, Writing Tags: , , , , , ,

Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows (The Cthulhu Casebooks, #1)

This is an expanded version of my review on Goodreads

Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows by James Lovegrove
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To be honest, I wasn’t sure when my friendly, neighborhood bookseller Richard, from Cracked & Spineless recommended this to me about a year ago. I affectionately call Richard my “book pimp” for good reason. Like any bookseller in today’s cutthroat market, he makes it his business to know his clientele – and in my case he’s rarely wrong!

As a fan of Lovecraftian horror and Conan Doyle-style detective fiction, I had many misgivings about this particular mashup. I think the resurgence of interest in Sherlock Holmes as a media property in recent years made me more than a little suspicious of publisher intentions – it could easily be seen as a quick cash grab.

From the first pages, I knew this was something entirely unoriginal but oh so endearingly well written! Author James Lovegrove wears his heart on his sleeve, with an obvious love of both source materials and a clear professional, literary understanding of the respective narrative, style and pacing of each. It also caused me to see how many similarities there are between the two in these important areas.

Don’t misunderstand me – I don’t believe this book is in any way high art – but it is rollicking good fun, easy to read and highly entertaining, cherry-picking some of the best aspects of Lovecraft’s horror and Conan Doyle’s consulting detective. The entertainment factor for me was very high and I’m looking forward to the second book in this series that currently sits in my bookcase, waiting patiently to be read.

I also have to give a nod to the design team at Titan Books. The cover design and chapter plates are superbly in character, and even the typeface and paper used adds a good deal to the nostalgia elements of the book. It feels and smells like something that would’ve graced my late father’s library shelves – certainly not a bad thing!

Incredibly stylish and a fun, fast read.

View all my reviews

One final note, it was announced last month that Lovegrove is one of three writers chosen to pen novels set in Joss Whedon’s Firefly universe, something else to look forward to!

Hooray for Cider! – A Book Review

29 Jan 2018 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Book Review, Brewing, Fruit, Produce, Tasmania, Urban Farming, Writing Tags: , , ,

This is an extended version of a review I posted on Goodreads this morning. 

I bought my copy online and if you’ve read this book, please let me know what you think – I always like to hear your opinions!

Cider: Making, using & enjoying sweet & hard cider, 2003 (1980) 3rd Edition, by Annie Proulx and Lew Nichols, Storey Publishing, MA. 

Cider

Cider by Annie Proulx
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is possibly the most informative and inspiring book on cidermaking I’ve ever come across. Admittedly, it’s aimed at North American readers, but I still found plenty of fascinating and relevant information that I can adapt and use on the other side of the world in Tasmania AU.

I picked this up online and secondhand, but why anyone with even a passing interest in all things cider would part with it is beyond me! My intention was to use it as a reference book, something to dip into as I needed to look particular things up, but it’s incredibly well written and readable – I found myself engrossed in the text and really couldn’t put it down.

Yes, there’s probably a good deal about things I’ll likely never need to use, aimed at orchards on an acreage. At the moment on my little urban farm, I have four dwarf sweet multipurpose apples, a baby Huon Crabapple (all in tubs because of space limitations) and at most, I’ll probably expand it out to ten dwarf trees with cider varieties. So it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever have the need or inclination to learn how to set up and care for large wooden barrels. After reading this book though, I can see the benefit of a small cider press for future crops.

The bottom line is, I was fascinated with the information and how it was delivered. Annie Proulx is one of my favourite fiction writers and I think her influence and love of the subject makes the text flow. Lew Nichols is a professional cider maker and his understanding of the science shines through. And it should be noted there is a quite a lot of science in this book, but it’s written in a way that’s accessible and easily understood by anyone with even the merest grounding in high school chemistry – notably me! The diagrams and charts are relevant, practical and well connected to the text, and many of the old photographs and illustrations are really lovely to look at. Reading the acknowledgements shows they sourced information from many specialists across a wide range of disciplines.

Despite there being a number of reviews on Goodreads about how irrelevant this book is to backyard cider makers, I beg to differ. As an occasional maker of perry, cider, apple cider vinegar and fruit wine, I found a tremendous amount of information here that is very relevant to me, and it’s given me ideas of how to improve my brewing and horticultural practices.

I’m sure this is a book I’ll treasure and keep going back to year after year. Now excuse me please while I go and gather some timber – I want to make a cider press 🙂

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My secondhand copy from the UK

Ah, Spring!

09 Sep 2017 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Book Review, Writing Tags: , , , , , , ,

Yes, it’s finally spring in the southern hemisphere – according to the calendar. The weather systems across southern Australia had other ideas this past week! It’s snowed down to the suburbs of Hobart and even I’ve noticed some sleet occasionally this week, particularly when I’ve been doing the late afternoon feed of the animals and picking veggies for dinner. Not good news for the nectarine or apricot tree that are now in full flower, but that’s the way it goes. I’ll be interested to see what kind of crops I get from them in January. Also, the beautiful Bella Bunny is due to birth her kits in the next few days. She’s made a gorgeous, silky nest in the nursery hutch out of her belly fur and if this cold weather doesn’t stress her out too much, I imagine there’ll be a litter of baby bunnies very soon ❤

Meanwhile, I’m not doing any of the things I thought I would this weekend. Instead of going to the movies today, I’ve been distracted by books, most particularly ‘Carmilla’ by Sheridan Le Fanu that I’ve been reading for my current university unit about Gothic and speculative fiction. It’s a small volume that was originally published as a serial in The Dark Blue in 1871-2 and is reputed to have influenced Bram Stoker when he was writing ‘Dracula’.

I’ve found it incredibly entertaining and I’m well into my second reading now. It contains all the classic tropes of Gothic fiction, an isolated, motherless heroine living in an old castle far removed from society. She yearns for a companion, a friend of similar age to her – and then Carmilla arrives in dramatic fashion into the story! The attraction between the two girls is well written and it’s at times surprisingly terrifying.

In tandem, I’ve also been reading ‘The Blood of the Vampire’ by Florence Marryat, (which sports one of the best covers ever) and while it’s a great read, it doesn’t have the same levels of tension that Le Fanu manages. Interestingly, I found Marryat’s characters far more believable and real (for want of a better term) than La Fanu’s and I think that might be part of Carmilla’s charm. The whole story has a dreamlike quality that’s very hard to pull off, and I think it’s one of the elements that makes ‘Carmilla’ such an enduring work. Both of these titles are available through Valancourt Classics and (naturally) I bought mine from Cracked and Spineless in Hobart.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll get some gardening done (it’s been too wet and cold to do much this past week) and hopefully, the soil will start warming up and I can start planting for summer.

Meanwhile, I’ve got some more reading to do 😀 Take care everyone, particularly my US-based friends who’re having quite a wild time at the moment. Stay safe ❤

The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex by Mark Kermode – Book Review

01 Jun 2017 1 Comment

by Debra Manskey in Book Review, Writing Tags: , , ,

Hello friends,

I’ve been off with study/work commitments for the last month or so but I’ve been reading some interesting bits and pieces and watching a lot of films in between. Here’s a short review of a book I only finished last night and published on Goodreads.

Hope you’re all well on this first day of southern hemisphere winter 😀

 

The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex: What’s Wrong with Modern Movies?The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex: What’s Wrong with Modern Movies? by Mark Kermode
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m a fan of Kermode and Mayo’s podcast and currently doing a major in Screen Studies at university. While I’ve read a lot of academic papers about the topics covered here (including the death of celluloid and projectionists, the rise of automated multiplex cinemas and 3D, the roles and functions of film critics and how bad is Michael Bay) it was great to read something less formal and more passionate about the current state of cinema.

Yes, Mark Kermode is incredibly opinionated and renowned for his on air rants but he seems to be well aware of his own shortcomings, which I find refreshing. (This is particularly well noted in the final section, “American Without Tears” about the constant English language remakes of perfectly fine foreign language films). His style is conversational, a little rambling, includes some language he can’t use on air, and quite often laugh-out-loud funny (passing Dr Kermode’s own “6 laugh test” he imposes on screen comedies).

If you are interested in film give this a try – it’s really good entry level fodder to screen studies and one man’s journey in film criticism. I loved it but as Kermode often says, “other opinions are available”!

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The Tourist by Robert Dickinson – a Book Review

29 Dec 2016 2 Comments

by Debra Manskey in Book Review, Writing Tags: , , , , , , ,

 

This is an extended version of a review I posted on Goodreads this morning.

I purchased my copy (trade paperback) from Cracked and Spineless New & Used Books in Hobart a couple of months ago but only just got around to reading it. But that’s what the summer break is for isn’t it? Catching up on reading! 😀

Have you read this book? If so, I’m interested to hear what you thought too. 

 

The TouristThe Tourist by Robert Dickinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Tourist isn’t an easy book to review but it isn’t an easy book in any way, shape or form. It requires the reader to commit, pay attention and hold multiple story threads while offering a dark outlook on the future (and near future) of the human race.

And I loved it!

While this novel has sharply divided people, I really wonder what the naysayers expected with something that is clearly promoted as speculative fiction involving time travel. I can especially understand the comparisons to books like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas but I think The Tourist is actually easier in some respects and in many ways, far darker. As a fan of speculative and science fiction, I wasn’t put off by the time travel aspects but this is a really good thriller as well. I found myself swept along and quite invested in Spens’ story in particular very quickly.

Be warned however, this isn’t a cheerful reading experience and can be quite bleak, but Dickinson’s writing is really very good and that’s what carried me through. It isn’t the best book of 2016 but it is better than many. The ending is a little messy and feels rushed but I wonder if that was intentional, as the lines converge.

Linear storytelling is great, but sometimes I yearn for something that demands more of me than just my time and the suspension of my scepticism and disbelief. The Tourist offers that in large doses and I found it a very immersive and well crafted ride.

View all my reviews

Wild Island – Jennifer Livett

05 Dec 2016 1 Comment

by Debra Manskey in Biography, Book Review, Writing Tags: , , , , ,

Wild Island

Hello friends,

This is a review I wrote for Goodreads about Wild Island. If you’re interested in British/Australian colonial history, Tasmania or just like good historical fiction, I highly recommend it. I bought my copy from Cracked and Spineless New and Used Books – Richard was a former student of Jennifer Livett’s – and if you’re not in Hobart I know they will post 😀

Wild Island by Jennifer Livett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m so pleased I read this book! As a fan of good historical fiction, this had the added bonus of being mostly set where I live (kunanyi/Mt Wellington is outside my door) and some of my friends (including my local bookseller) had been taught by Livett when she was lecturing at UTAS.

The use of Booth and Harriet to act as dual narrators is a really good tool for providing depth to the story and defining boundaries of the 19th century world, but it became a little one-sided for most of the middle section. I found Booth’s narrative a good balance and really would have liked more of it, though I can understand why Harriet’s voice took precedence. The treatment of native inhabitants is touched upon but not really examined, which is also understandable given the background and narrative voices used. While I would have liked more on that topic, it would have made a very different book if Livett had taken that route.

There are certainly echoes of Emily Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea (a book I love) and I did appreciate the historically accurate depictions of Hobart, Franklin’s tenure. In general, Livett’s treatment of the Franklin’s is very sympathetic. In particular, I liked her depiction of Jane amid the prevailing attitudes to women at that time. Jane must have been a terrifying modernist presence to many of the male inhabitants of Hobarton!

Overall, this is a well-researched, finely written novel and for anyone interested in Australian (and particularly Tasmanian) colonial history, highly recommended.

View all my reviews

Book Time – Day 23 NaBloPoMo 2016

23 Nov 2016 Leave a comment

by Debra Manskey in Biography, Book Review, Writing Tags: , , , , , , , ,

After our short blast of summer, today was wet and surprisingly cool. So I went into the city and cleared my holds and lay-by at Cracked & Spineless New & Used Books. And I’ve spent the rest of the day reading and trying not to drool over my bounty!

As I’m sure many of you know, I’m a huge fan and student of cinema. I love the history and culture that surrounds and informs it, particularly the pop culture source material that cinema draws from. As a child of the 60’s, I grew up watching Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns, so when Richard showed me this secondhand treasure today I really had to get it!

 

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Sir Christopher Frayling is an academic and educator, and has written widely about pop culture. His style is scholarly but very accessible, something that’s often lacking in these kind of titles. But it’s obvious the man loves his work. I think I first came across him back in the late 90’s with a wonderful documentary and book Nightmare: The Birth of Horror. 

Speaking of which, I also picked up today the revised edition of The Hammer Vault by Marcus Hearn.

img_20161123_144513

This is a stunning collection of (often rare) artifacts from Hammer films, such as annotated script pages, unused promotional artwork, rare still shots and even private correspondence. The revised edition includes recent productions, including The Woman in Black (2012) which is a really lovely, old school Gothic horror film that is worth watching if only for a really fine post-Harry Potter performance from Daniel Radcliffe.

And finally, there was this beastie!

img_20161123_144401

This book goes right back to the very beginnings of Marvel and it’s really fascinating to see how some of the enduring characters have changed over time. Equally, it’s fascinating to note how many of the essential traits of characters such as Luke Cage, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark have made their way across to the movies.

Recently, I went to see Doctor Strange (2016) and was thrilled that the production designers took note (and really paid homage to) the psychedelic and surreal artwork of Steve Ditko.

I think this book is a gem for anyone who loves pop culture history and comic books. Also, it really underlines how much the comics have informed the production values in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Tomorrow I’ve got a busy day. A load of sheep manure is turning up for the garden and I’m meeting a friend who’s writing an article about my work at Oak Tasmania, so I’m off for an early night of more reading 😀

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