The Blurb (from Goodreads)

Just days after Raynor learns that Moth, her husband of 32 years, is terminally ill, their home and livelihood is taken away. With nothing left and little time, they make the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the sea-swept South West Coast Path, from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall.

They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only the essentials for survival on their backs as they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.

My Thoughts:

Recently I posted a shelfie of some of my favourite books about walking in nature and got a massive response, many sharing their favourites with me. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn was by far the most recommended, and so I bought it straightaway. It’s the memoir of a woman who loses her home just days after discovering her beloved husband of 32 years is terminally ill. Unable to think what to do or to live, they make the impulsive and rather incredible decision to walk the wild windswept South West Coast Path, from Somerset through Devon and Cornwall to Dorset. It’s a walk I’ve longed dreamed of making, though my plan includes luggage transfers and warm cosy B&Bs at night. Ray and her husband Moth are virtually penniless and often hungry. They camp out along the path, in an old tent and cheap sleeping-bags, and often rely on the kindness of strangers to survive. It’s a truly remarkable and moving story that celebrates love and the resilience of the human spirit.  

My novel The Puzzle Ring was partly inspired by my lifelong fascination with Mary Queen of Scots. My grandmother told me many stories about her, including the story of the bloodstain on her bedroom floor that no amount of scrubbing will wash away ... 

Mary, Queen of Scots, was one of the most intriguing and controversial monarchs of the 16th century. At one time, she claimed the crowns of four countries - Scotland, France, England and Ireland – yet it all ended for her on the executioner’s block at Fotheringay, when her head was chopped off on the orders of her own cousin, Elizabeth I of England.  

Born on 8th December 1542, she was the only child of King James V of Scotland and his French wife, Mary of Guise. Her father died when she was only six days old, and almost immediately people began fighting over who would control her.  Her great-uncle, King Henry VIII of England, wanted her to marry his frail young son, Edward, and when Mary’s mother refused, invaded Scotland in a series of attacks called ‘the rough wooing.’

Eventually, Mary’s mother sent her to France to marry the French king’s three-year old son, the Dauphin François. She was five years old. Queen Mary spent the next thirteen years at the French court, accompanied by her own court consisting of the “four Marys” - four little girls her own age, all named Mary, the daughters of the noblest families in Scotland.

On 24 April 1558, at the age of fifteen, Mary married François, and when his father the king died a year later, she became the Queen of France. 

She had already laid claim to the thrones of England and Ireland after the death of her cousin, Mary I of England, even though Henry VIII had another daughter, Elizabeth. This is because Mary, Queen of Scots, was Catholic, and in the eyes of many Catholics, Elizabeth was illegitimate, because her father had married her mother while his first wife was still alive. Claiming the throne of England was a big mistake on the part of Mary, Queen of Scots, because her Protestant cousin Elizabeth I of England never forgave her.

François died on 5 December 1560. Mary went from being the Queen of France to being a hated and ignored daughter-in-law to Catherine de Medici, the new Regent of France, who enraged her by recognising Elizabeth I as Queen of England. Aged eighteen, Mary returned, humiliated, to Scotland on 19 August 1561. 

Scotland was now devoutly Protestant, and regarded Mary with suspicion, the flames being fanned by the radical reformer John Knox. He condemned Mary for dancing, playing music, dressing too frivolously, speaking French, and for her insistence on worshipping as a Catholic. 

In July 1565, Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, her first cousin. She pleased no-one with this marriage and enraged many. Darnley was one of the hated English, he was a rake and a gamester, and he was too close to the English throne for Elizabeth’s liking.

In March 1566, Darnley and his friends murdered Mary’s Italian secretary David Rizzio right in front of her. Darnley’s motivation seem to have been jealousy, racism, and the hope that Mary and her unborn child would also be killed and he could seize the throne and rule in Mary’s place. Rizzio’s blood splattered on to the floor of her bedroom, and even now – more than 450 years later – you can still see the stain there.

Mary persuaded Darnley to let her escape, but their marriage would never recover. Their son, James (to be James VI of Scotland and James I of England) was born a scant six weeks later. 

On Sunday, 9th February 1657 – almost one year later - Holyrood Palace was filled with music and dancing and laughter, as Mary celebrated the marriage of her valet, Sebastian Pagez  to one of her maidservants. Later that evening, Mary rode out from Holyrood Palace to visit her sick young husband, who was staying at Kirk O’ Fields, a house just inside the city gates of Edinburgh. With her went her court of admirers, including her most faithful supporter, Lord Bothwell, and various musicians and singers, hired to entertain Lord Darnley. 

Not long before midnight, Queen Mary remembered she had promised to return to Holyrood for the final ceremonies of her valet’s wedding. Her husband, Lord Darnley, protested, and as a sign of her true affection, Queen Mary gave him a ring from her finger. 

As she mounted her horse for the ride back to Holyrood, Queen Mary saw her page – who had previously been in the employ of Lord Bothwell – emerge from the cellars, his face and hands blackened as if with coal. She exclaimed, ‘Jesu, Paris, how begrimed you are!’ He muttered some excuse, and she rode back to the palace.

At 2 a.m., on Monday, 10th February, a gunpowder explosion blew up the house at Kirk o’ Fields. Darnley and his manservant were found dead in the garden, dressed only in their nightshirts, apparently strangled to death. 

There are many different theories about what happened that night. Some thought that the gunpowder had been hidden in the cellars of the house at Kirk o’ Fields – probably by Lord Bothwell - with the aim of blowing up the house and the king together. They believe something – or someone - woke the young king and he had sought to escape, only to be killed by assassins in the garden. 

Others believe that Lord Bothwell had nothing to do with the crime, but that he was framed for the murder, probably by Mary’s illegitimate half-brother, Lord Moray, who wanted to rule in her place. 

Yet others believe that Darnley himself set up the trap, wanting to kill his wife, Mary, Queen of Scots, only to be foiled by her insistence in returning to Holyrood Palace. They believe Darnley died in his bungled attempts to defuse the gunpowder.

We can never know the truth. Historians argue over the event, just as scientists argue over the possibility of time travel. What we do know is that Mary seemed shocked and horrified by her husband’s murder and asserted to the end of her life that she had been the true target; and that the many sharks circling her throne seized upon the scandal and used it to discredit Mary and force her to abdicate in favour of her thirteen month old son, James. Mary’s half-brother, Lord Moray, was appointed regent and ruled for three years before he too was assassinated by one of Mary’s supporters.

Some of the mysteries around the murder of Lord Darnley include the decision of Mary to return to Holyrood Palace at such a late hour; the group of mysterious cloaked figures who called out Lord Bothwell’s name to gain entry to the city after midnight; and the discovery of Darnley’s body in the garden, some distance away from the blown-up house. 

I have used these mysteries in the tale of Hannah and her search for the lost puzzle ring; they do not, of course, really explain the unknown factors in this ancient crime. 

The rest of Mary’s history is as bloody, short and tragic. 

She was abducted, willingly or not, by Bothwell and his men in April 1567 and taken to Dunbar Castle. In those days, there was little choice for a woman forcibly abducted. She had to marry her abductor to save her reputation, which she did on 15th May.

Unfortunately, it was too late for Mary. People believed the worst of her, and she was accused of her former husband’s murder. The Scottish lords rebelled against her and raised an army, which confronted Mary and Bothwell at Carberry Hill on 15th June. Mary did not want to fight her own lords, and believed their protestations of loyalty. As long as she left Bothwell, the lords said, they would be faithful. However, after Mary gave herself up to them, the lords broke their promise and took Mary captive. She was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle, and in July 1567 – after miscarrying twins - she was forced to abdicate in favour of her baby son. 

On 2 May 1568, Mary escaped from Lochleven but the small army of supporters she managed to raise was defeated on 13 May. She fled to England, but was imprisoned by Elizabeth’s soldiers on 19 May 1568 at Carlisle

Nineteen years later she was beheaded on suspicion of treason, by her own cousin.  Her execution was shockingly mishandled, with the executioner’s sword taking three blows to sever her head from her body. As he lifted her head by its tresses, to show the crowd, her head fell to the ground and rolled away, leaving his hand gripping a wig of red hair. She was only forty-four years old. 

Want to know more about the bloodstain that never fades?

The Blurb (from Goodreads):

Pandemic lockdowns have Ruth Galloway feeling isolated from everyone but a new neighbor--until Nelson comes calling, investigating a decades-long string of murder-suicides that's looming ever closer. Three years after her late mother's death, Ruth is finally sorting through her things when she finds a curious relic: a decades-old photograph of Jean's Norfolk cottage with a peculiar inscription. Ruth returns to the cottage to uncover its meaning as Norfolk's first cases of COVID-19 make headlines, leaving her and Kate to shelter in place there. They struggle to stave off isolation by clapping for frontline workers each evening and befriending a kind neighbor, Zoe, from a distance. But when Nelson breaks quarantine to rush to Ruth's cottage and enlist her help in investigating a series of murder-suicides he has connected to an archeological discovery, he finds Zoe is hardly who she says she is. The further Nelson investigates these deaths, the closer they lead him to Ruth's friendly neighbor--until Ruth, Zoe, and Kate all go missing, and Nelson is left scrambling to find them before it's too late.

My Thoughts:

Number 14 in the fabulous Dr Ruth Galloway crime series, set in atmospheric Norfolk. Ruth is a forensic anthropologist who specialises in studying bones. She works with the local police to help them solve crimes, and has a complicated relationship with DCI Nelson who fathered her daughter. The Locked Room centres on the investigation into a series of troubling suicides that just might be murders. As always, much of the reading pleasure comes from being the simmering tensions between the characters and the wry, witty voice of Dr Ruth. If you haven’t read them yet, start with Number 1. I promise you’ll soon be addicted.

The Blurb (from Goodreads)

Howards End is a novel by E. M. Forster about social conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England. A strong-willed and intelligent woman refuses to allow the pretensions of her husband's smug English family to ruin her life. Howards End is considered by some to be Forster's masterpiece.

My Thoughts:

This year I am slowly reading my way through E.M. Forster’s classic novels about the difficulties of social conduct in Edwardian England. Published in 1910, Howard’s End was his fourth novel and is considered to be his best by many people. I love it. It tells the story of three families whose lives collide – the intelligent and idealistic Schlelgel sisters, the complacent and wealthy Wilcoxes, and the poverty-stricken Leonard Bast and his common-law wife – with tragic results. Forster’s deftness of character, and his subtlety and sensitivity is unmatched. A wonderful book.

Did you know there are more statues of animals than women in Australia?

And most of the existing statues of women are of Queen Victoria! We have an appalling lack of visible monuments to the incredible women who have contributed to our history and culture in this country. However, there is a nation-wide initiative to change that, and I’m very proud to be part of it.

The last few months my sister Belinda Murrell and I have been working with an amazing group of women to raise funds to create a statue of Charlotte Waring Atkinson (1796 – 1867), Australia’s first children’s author. 

Charlotte was a remarkable woman. Born in England, she made the perilous sea journey to Australia to work as a governess for the Macarthur family in 1826. On the voyage, she fell in love with colonial landowner James Atkinson and they later married and settled at Oldbury House in the Southern Highlands. When James Atkinson died suddenly just six years later, Charlotte was left with four small children and a vast estate to manage. She survived a brutal ambush by a local bushranger, a disastrous and abusive second marriage, and a landmark court battle to retain custody of her children, before writing Australia’s first children’s book - A Mother’s Offering to her Children – published in 1841. 

You may also know that she is my great-great-great-great-grandmother, and that Belinda and I wrote a book about her to celebrate the 180th anniversary of her book. Searching for Charlotte: The Fascinating Story of Australia’s First Children’s Author was published by the National Library of Australia and features a gorgeous cover utilising Charlotte’s own exquisite artwork. Last week it was commended in the Society of Women Writer’s award for best non-fiction and recently hit the bestsellers’ list again. 

THE CHARLOTTE PROJECT is a public fundraising appeal to erect a bronze statue of Charlotte in Berrima Park near the children’s playground.  Our fundraising target is $80,000 to cover the costs of materials, casting and erecting the statue. Local sculptor, Julie Haseler Reilly has generously donated her time and artistic skills to create the statue, and the Wingecarribee Women Writers have been working tirelessly to spread the word. 

I’d like your help to do the same, and so I’m offering a signed first edition copy of Searching for Charlotte: The Fascinating Story of Australia’s First Children’s Author, signed by both me and my sister Belinda.

All you need to do is share the following picture on your social media feed with the hashtags #thecharlotteproject #searchingforcharlotte #smashthebronzeceiling before 30 December. Of coure, it’d be wonderful if you donated too. Every dollar helps us make history!

Thank you all so much, and I hope you all have a beautiful day.

Kate

The Blurb (from Goodreads):

When librarian Patton Harcourt comes under sniper fire in her rural North Carolina home, she is thrown together with professional assassin Nemo and into a web of international deceit.

On the run from two German killers, Patton and Nemo discover a seventy-five-year-old Enigma message which leads them to Bletchley Park in England and a code breaker named Ruthie Drinkwater, an old flame of Patton's. Unable to complete the job of code breaking at Bletchley, the trio leaves and are pursued by the Germans, who support a white-supremacist agenda. The Germans work for Ingrid Weiss, whose grandfather was a prot�g� of Henrich Himmler and who is following in his footsteps.

When Patton, Nemo, and Ruthie break the code, they discover a message claiming that Himmler mastered alchemy, and Patton and Nemo are incredulous but determined to stop Ingrid Weiss from obtaining limitless wealth to promote her agenda. In need of a book owned by Weiss, they travel to Munich. When they break into her home to steal the book, they find themselves in a deadly situation.

Using the Enigma message, the group travels to Prague and then the Italian Alps. What they find when they arrive puts them in the crosshairs of Weiss and the Nazis, and leads to a high-stakes confrontation that will require allies from their pasts to ensure their survival.

My Thoughts:

I read this fast-paced, clever and cinematic contemporary thriller on the long flight from Sydney to Perth, and it was a perfect reading choice. The pages just whizzed past by themselves. Set in modern times, it tells the story of a feisty librarian and a mysterious assassin who join forces in a race against time to solve a German secret code from the last days of the war. With flashbacks to the creepy wartime activities by Heinrich Himmler and his minions, and a cast of sinister and eccentric characters, this book is crying out for a Hollywood remake. 

The Blurb (from Goodreads):

Through ancient art, evocative myth, exciting archaeological revelations and philosophical explorations Bettany Hughes shows why this immortal goddess endures through to the 21st century and what her journey through time reveals about what matters to us as humans.

Charting Venus' origins in powerful ancient deities, Bettany demonstrates that Venus is far more complex than first meets the eye. Beginning in Cyprus, the goddess' mythical birthplace, Bettany decodes Venus' relationship to the Greek goddess Aphrodite and, in turn, Aphrodite's mixed-up origins both as a Cypriot spirit of fertility and procreation - but also as a descendant of the prehistoric war goddesses of the Near and Middle East, Ishtar, Inanna and Astarte.

On a voyage of discovery to reveal the truth behind Venus, Hughes reveals how this mythological figure is so much more than nudity, romance and sex.

It is the both the remarkable story of one of antiquity's most potent forces and the story of human desire - how it transforms who we are and how we behave. 

My Thoughts:

I’m writing a reimagining of the ‘Eros and Psyche’ myth, and so am deep in research books about ancient Rome, the Etruscans, and Graeco-Roman myths. Many are quite mind-numbingly boring, but not this one. Venus & Aphrodite: History of a Goddess by Brittany Hughes is fresh, clever, funny, and full of interesting insights.I enjoyed it immensely. 

The Blurb (from Goodreads):

Alice is only nine years old in 1910 when she is sent to the feared Coast Hospital lazaret at Little Bay in Sydney, a veritable prison where more patients are admitted than will ever leave. She is told that she's visiting her mother, who disappeared one day when Alice was two. Once there, Alice learns her mother is suffering from leprosy and that she has the same disease.

As she grows up, the secluded refuge of the lazaret becomes Alice's entire world, her mother and the other patients and medical staff her only human contact. The patients have access to a private sandstone-edged beach, their own rowboat, a piano and a library of books, but Alice is tired of the smallness of her life and is thrilled by the thought of the outside world. It is only when Guy, a Yuwaalaraay man wounded in World War I, arrives at The Coast, that Alice begins to experience what she has yearned for, as they become friends and then something deeper.

Filled with vivid descriptions of the wild beauty of the sea cliffs and beaches surrounding the harsh isolation of the lazaret, and written in evocative prose, The Coast is meticulously researched historical fiction that holds a mirror to the present day. Heartbreaking and soul-lifting, it is a universal story of love, courage, sacrifice and resilience.

My Thoughts:

‘The Coast’ is a lazaret in Sydney where lepers were banished in the early 20th century to live out their lives in solitude before they died. It is a fascinating aspect of my home town’s history that I never knew, and Eleanor Limprecht brings it to life with great sensitivity. Her protagonist Alice is only nine when she is sent there, and she grows up surrounded by the knowledge that her condition causes only horror and disgust in those that learn of it. Her friendship with the gentle lazaret doctor and growing intimacy with Guy, a Yuwaalaraay man who was badly wounded in World War I, brings some comfort, but Alice knows that her happiness is all too precarious.  

The Blurb (from Goodreads):

A spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood.

Lexie Sinclair is plotting an extraordinary life for herself.

Hedged in by her parents' genteel country life, she plans her escape to London. There, she takes up with Innes Kent, a magazine editor who wears duck-egg blue ties and introduces her to the thrilling, underground world of bohemian, post-war Soho. She learns to be a reporter, to know art and artists, to embrace her life fully and with a deep love at the center of it. She creates many lives--all of them unconventional. And when she finds herself pregnant, she doesn't hesitate to have the baby on her own.

Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. She doesn't recognize herself: she finds herself walking outside with no shoes; she goes to the restaurant for lunch at nine in the morning; she can't recall the small matter of giving birth. But for her boyfriend, Ted, fatherhood is calling up lost memories, with images he cannot place.

As Ted's memories become more disconcerting and more frequent, it seems that something might connect these two stories-- these two women-- something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation.

Here Maggie O'Farrell brings us a spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood. Like her acclaimed The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, it is a "breathtaking, heart-breaking creation." (The Washington Post Book World) and it is a gorgeous inquiry into the ways we make and unmake our lives, who we know ourselves to be, and how even our most accidental legacies connect us.

My Thoughts:

Having just discovered Maggie O’Farrell last year, I am now reading my way through her backlist. This is my fourth of her work, and although I do not love it with the evangelistic passion that I hold towards Hamnet and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, ithas all the stylistic playfulness and bravura that I love about her writing. A story about love, loss, memory, and motherhood, it’s astonishingly good.

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