The Top of the Dales by Gervase Phinn Tom Dwyer – the ex-professional footballer, whom we got to know during his teacher training in The Little Village School series and is now newly qualified – turns out to be an immensely likeable, too-good-to-be-true addition to the tiny, old-fashioned school at the top of the Dales.

Gripping from beginning to end, we follow the tense developments of the Papist struggle to overpower the Huguenots in France and reclaim the English crown from Protestant sympathiser Queen Elizabeth I in the late 16th century. Lawyer Christopher Radcliff finds his life threatened when he is sent by his patron, Robert Dudley, the Earl of…

The Atlas Legacy by Colin Newton A small group of archaeologists of questionable qualification investigate Plato’s account of the advanced island state of Atlantis and its disappearance under the waves. Their research trips take them to Bolzano in Italy, Cornwall, Crete and Malta. In each location they find mysteriously linked artefacts, but soon discover that a…

Daisy’s Vintage Cornish Camper Van by Ali McNamara  Having previously owned a similar vintage VW camper to Daisy-Rose, I was intrigued by this book from the outset. It starts on a rather sombre tone – the early death of a dear friend – but I was soon drawn in to share Ana’s mixed emotions and…

I have  listened to this as an audiobook and hardly dare to say anything which might sound negative about such a distinguished author or this book in particular. It is totally biblically based, expounding many passages very literally, but reinterpreting others metaphorically (e.g. “all things” in Rom. 8:32); I have trouble with that kind of ambivalence….