Sheryl Browne, Author: Reading

Pauline Barclay’s characterisation and descriptive location is so skilful you feel as if you’ve stepped back in history, in this book to the sixties, and could reach out and shake hands with Bertie and Kitty and the wonderful secondary characters who serve to make the story even more believable and rounded. Meeting Bertie sweating under the ‘deceptively amiable gaze’ of one of the two owners of Raffles, you’re right there, behind the oversized mahogany desk, realising alongside Bertie that your luck might have finally run out.

Bertie, despite his habit, is likeable. He’s a gambler through and through, and you want to scream at him to stop!!, knowing that he can’t, knowing that he’s surely heading for catastrophe, that he’s likely to end up losing his hard-won business as well as the woman he loves, despite people’s assumptions he could have only married Kitty – ten years his senior, for her considerable fortune. We do wonder, did he? Will his habit drive him to temptation, to use her as well as deceive her? And deceive her he does. Kitty is sharply intelligent and independently minded within the constraints of the sixties, but her love for him and her belief in him is unshakeable – at the beginning. Sadly, Bertie, we know can only learn the lesson, that gambling is a fool’s game, the hard way. So does he lose all he’s worked so hard for? Can their marriage possibly survive when Bertie is playing with such high stakes? You simply have to read the book. Even if Bertie has finally overcome his addiction, as Kitty says, ‘deceit is a hard lesson to unlearn’. And gambling is a hard habit to kick. Will he always be a chancer? Do we want him to take one final chance? As with previous books of Pauline Barclay’s, In The Cold Light of Day, is one I would highly recommend you pick up and lose yourself in. Loved it.

Pauline Barclay brings you Emotional Passionate Moving Stories.

Find out more about Pauline at:

www.paulinebarclay.co.uk

http://paulinembarclay.blogspot.com

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Twitter: @paulinembarclay

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Sometimes It Happens… B.R.A.G. Medallion Honouree

Thanks for reading.

Keep safe all!

Lots of love,

I’ve been challenged by Sue Moorcroft to join in the Lovely Blog Hop to share some of the things that have helped shape my writing and my life.

You can find links at the end of the post to other writers I find inspiring. Firstly though, I’d like to thank Sue, not only for the nomination, but for being one of those inspiring writers. Sue’s novel, Starting Over, was one of the first Choc Lit books I read. From there I devoured a fair few. Good job Choc Lit’s heroes are like chocolate – irresistible. Thanks to Sue and those other Choc Lit authors, I discovered the perfect ingredients to make up a Choc Lit book and I’m super-pleased to now be following in their footsteps. My own book, The Rest of My Life, comes soon – from Choc Lit!

First Fond Memory

Lying on my back in the garden on a warm sunny day, making castles in the sky. I think I was about five. I was obviously a dreamer, even then.

Books

Ah, books. My love of books, or rather awe of, came from my father. An avid reader, he could often be found scowling over the cover of one of his books if you dared look as if you were about to turn over a corner of a page on the book you might be reading. Aaaargh! Sacrilege! Books were to be treated with respect and woe betide anyone who did otherwise. I must admit I can empathise with that now I know the many, many hours of love poured into the writing. My dad's favoured author, though, Charles Dickens, was perhaps a bit heavy reading for a five-year old dreamer, so I tended to go more for Enid Blyton and, dare I say, the ‘Just William’ books by Richmal Crompton, which I borrowed from the library. I have no idea why, except that I was perhaps a bit of a tomboy (my football was tucked under my arm while I was lying in that garden dreaming). From there I went on to read such books as Lord of the Flies by William Golding and A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. Yup, definitely a bit of a tomboy.

Lately, a book that stays with me is The Memory Book by Rowan Coleman. When I first picked this up, I peeked under the cover, read the first few pages, and then snapped it shut and stared at it as if the contents might leap out and bite me. The subject matter is early onset Alzheimer’s Disease, a subject I have close personal experience of and one which is terribly difficult to write engagingly about. I was intrigued to see how the author handled it. I am pleased to say she did it with sensitivity, tenderness and quiet humour. It’s a beautiful, poignant story turning around the love that binds mother and daughter together, and one I would love to have written, though I doubt I could have done it quite so skilfully.

Libraries

Heaven, particularly when you come from a large family. There wasn’t a lot of money to splash about between six children, so the library was my lifeblood and my sanctuary. It was there that I seized upon a book by Marika Cobbold: Guppies for Tea (I was a bit older then!), at the forefront of which is a young woman’s relationship with her grandmother. That book stayed with me. I remember thinking, I want to write like that. I found my first Kathy Lette book soon after, which led me to buy all of her sharply witty books, and from there I went on to read such fabulous authors as Marian Keyes, whose first book, Watermelon, I simply loved. Her books tend to deal with modern ailments, but are always written with compassion and humour, which is now something I strive to do myself. Without libraries to hide away in, I doubt the writing bug would ever have bitten.

What’s Your Passion?

Apart from writing, dogs. Disabled dogs, to be precise. I foster all sorts of odd dogs. Three legs or four, one eye or two, they’re all the same to me. I simply give then what they need: love.

Learning

I was lucky enough to get chosen to attend an art and design school when I was eleven (art was my thing – good job really. I was hopeless at maths!). I was terribly shy, however, and didn’t think I particularly excelled at anything. It was there that my English teacher, possibly seeing someone who needed a little confidence boost, marked up one of my essays as excellent. It worked. I started to believe in myself and my writing then. Early motherhood meant further education was cut short but, being determined (or stubborn, I’m not sure which), I have finally now completed my MA in Creative Writing. It’s only taken me the odd bazillion years or so!

Writing

To quote Sue, I truly think writing is a compulsion. While some might not have a burning desire to put pen to paper, everyone has a story to tell. As a writer you get into the habit of people watching, wondering about their lives, loves and passions. For instance, while I was at a hospital recently, where I found myself having to wait around a lot, I encountered an elderly gentleman. Nothing spectacular about that you might say, but … Well, let me describe him. His hair was gunmetal grey, streaked silver. He wore a blue, pin-striped suit, a waistcoat, from which dangled a gold pocket-watch chain, a white shirt and tie. He used a walking cane, but didn’t have a limp. What struck me most, though, were his shoes. Highly polished and neatly laced, the sole of one of them hung loose and flapped as he walked. Now, he surely has a story to tell.

Thanks for reading!

Other awesome authors I’ve nominated are:

Nicky Wells

Keep safe all!

Lots of love,