Doctor Who: The Hounds of Artemis by James Goss (AUDIO)


It is 1929 in Smyra, Turkey.  The archaeology expedition of Lord Woolcroft are breaking the seals on the lost Tomb of Artemis, closed to the world for thousands of years, but there's someone inside.  Out step ... the Doctor and Amy Pond, only a few feet out but definately on the wrong side of the door.  The Doctor has come to discover the answer to the mystery of the expedition that made a young archaeologist's name when he was the only surviving member.

A curse is stalking the expedition, people are disappearing leaving only a few workers from the nearby village, the junior archaeologist Bradley Stapleton, the 'money' Lord Woolcroft and the expedition artist.  As the story unfolds, told by Amy in the form of a diary, it becomes clear that the Doctor is up against an ancient evil, a goddess who is not all she appears to be.

Well narrated by Clare Corbett as the descendent of Bradley and as Amy and Matt Smith as the Doctor.

Clean Break by Val McDermid, AUDIO dramatised by BBC Radio 4


Kate Brannigan, private investigator, wakes in the middle of the night to a phone call from her client stately home owner.  His Monet has been stolen and although the police are on the case she feels responsible and determines that she will get it back.  Cue a trail that takes her across Europe into the dangerous underworld of the Mafia in pursuit of the truth.

A great dramatisation with lots of sound effects that make this more than a simple retelling of McDermid's story, at only an hour long it is a nice quick treat.

Monsoon by Wilbur Smith


The book opens at the end of the 17th century with teenage Tom Courtney up to mischief, sneaking into the chapel of his father's great estate with his twin brother Guy to meet with a serving girl for sex, making his half brother Dorian look out.  Dorian sounds the alarm as their older brother, the brutal William, approaches and they all flee.  Tom and Dorian are caught by William and Dorian is only saved from being strangled by his father Hal, a powerful man who has built up his massive estate through his exploits at sea fighting the Dutch in South Africa and bringing trade goods back from India, Africa and the Far East.

Hal has been tasked by the East India Company to rid them of the pirate Jangiri who has been preying on their ships as they sail from England to India and Africa.  The strangling of Dorian makes it clear to him he cannot leave any of his three younger sons in the care of his eldest, and he takes them with him.

What follows is an epic swashbuckling adventure, Smith's plot is fast and compelling and his characters beautifully executed and convincing, but Monsoon is much more than that.  Every aspect of 17th century England, Africa and Arabia are cinematically rendered in exquisite detail, customs, dress, armaments, shipping, language and landscape.  A great read.

Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman


Before Lee Scoresby, Texan aeronaut and adventurer, swung his way into Pullman's Northern Lights Trilogy in his dirigible he landed in the Arctic oil town of Novy Odensk.  Scoresby being who he is it wasn't long before he was forced to fight his way out of the town with the help of his new friend, the mighty polar bear Iorek Byrnison.  This is that story, beautifully packaged in a little blue fabric bound hardback illustrated with enchanting engravings by John Lawrence and sprinkled with intriguing ephemera.  At the back is a board game 'Peril of the Pole' complete with spinner and game pieces.

This is the kind of book you enjoy having in your hands and is a delightful diminutive companion to the epic Northern Lights.

The Art of Wonder: A History of Seeing by Julian Spalding

Spalding has written an art history book that is totally different, exchanging chronology for a narrative about how our ancestors responded to phenomena such as the changing seasons, day and night, birth and death and sun and moon and made sense of it with the medium of art.


The first chapters after the Introduction are thematic: the stars, our vision of the world, the sun and moon, death and darkness, before moving on to modern art and the exchanging of representation of reality for expression of the internal world of the artist.

It is a difficult book to describe, Spalding writes idiosyncratically bringing together diverse strands from across the entire panapoly of human history, and I may not agree with all his jumps of the imagination but I enjoyed it throroughly because it made me think and appreciate the power of art not as a luxury but as something far more fundamental to our needs as human beings since the earliest human history.

Divergent by Veronica Roth


It is the near future, and society has divided itself into 5 factions to avoid the conflict that lead to war. 'Those who blamed agression formed Amity ... those who blamed duplicity formed Candor ... those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite ... those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation ... and those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless'.

Beatrix Prior is an Abnegation, she tries her hardest to selfless, free from anger and put others first, but she finds it hard, she is angry much of the time.  At 16 every child of the factions has to choose the faction they will live in for the rest of their lives, and those who choose a faction other than the one they were raised in face ostracism from their birth family.

Roth cleverly combines an allegory of the difficult choices any teenager has to make about where they fit and about first love with an excellent fact paced plot, a book I found difficult to put down and was disappointed to finish.

Similar to Divided Kingdom but for a teenage audience

Torchwood: Department X by James Goss (AUDIO), read by Kai Owen

Torchwood (if it's alien, it's ours) operatives Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones are working undercover (cosmetics, and gentlemen's clothing) at GR Owen, Cardiff's ageing department store in the last throes of decline with a brand new shopping mall next door nailing the lid on the coffin.

As GR Owen is threatened with takeover and being turned into flats this is Captain Jack Harkness' last opportunity to solve one of Torchwood's oldest mysteries, the disappearance of the eponymous GR Owen, original owner of the store, and the location of the Department of Curiosities.  It doesn't help that the building itself keeps trying to kill him, pitching him down a lift shaft, dropping a chandelier on him, but he keeps coming back.

Firestone bank has brought in the administrators and within the claustrophobic confines of dated bedding department, gentlemen's wear, home furnishings, and behind the scenes among a labyrinth of unsold stock the tension racks up bit by bit.  A great version of the haunted house story, narrated by Kai Owen, the actor who plays Gwen's wonderful long-suffering husband Rhys.

Good story, and great narration, a quality bit of entertainment. Not suitable for young children, probably young adult upwards, given the black and adult nature of some of the jokes in the older sibling Doctor Who spinoff series.

More Blankets and Throws by Debbie Abrahams


I bought both this and the first Blankets and Throws book and wasn't disappointed, there is some repetition but the level of presentation and inventiveness is as good as Abrahams' first book.

There are 12 blankets and throws in the book, each created from squares using a number of techniques including intarsia, beading, cable and stitch patterns that can be mixed and matched if using the same yarn.  As Abrahams is a Rowan designer the instructions for each blanket are using Rowan wools but tension is given for each making it easy to transfer to cheaper wool by creating a tension square and adjusting needle size.

At first the book can seem a bit confusing because the 'help' section is at the end  but instructions for intarsia to change colour, needle and yarn conversions and abbreviations are all there

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson (AUDIO)


A good book to keep a young reader moving, Patterson uses short punchy chapters and a fast paced plot to tell the story of Maximum Ride, known as Max, and her family, the 'flock' of mutant bird children created in a laboratory: taciturn Fang, blind ingeneous Iggy, chatterbox Nudge, the pungent Gasman and the youngest, the etheral beautiful Angel.  They are on the run from the lab that created them and trying to learn to live having never had a 'normal' upbringing.

Whilst the pace and plot are good, I found it all a little insubstantial and would have preferred more bite.