About this site

I've been a voracious reader all my life - I can't remember a time when I couldn't read, didn't read.

My parents made sure I could read as early as I could - maybe it was the nineteen-sixties equivalent of CBeebies or Nick Jr, a fat book kept me quiet and occupied.
I could read by the time I got to Infants' school, and didn't really understand that the other kids were struggling with words on a page. I was probably a real pain to my teachers, as they threw book after book at me to keep me busy while they worked with the others. With my friends Karen, Anne and Janet I quickly demolished the school library and waited eagerly for the latest book club newsletter to arrive each term.

Wind forward a few years and a chance comment on Twitter led me to the sadly now-departed Bookstackreviews.com - I jumped at the opportunity to be give Free Books (!!!!) whatever format they were in, in return for spouting my opinion about it. It was a marvellous if confusing experience, bringing joy and heartache in equal measure, and it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be - the speciality was independently published ("Indie") fiction, usually epublished with little help from editors and proofreaders. There were fabulous gems from budding authors that I never could have found otherwise, and I watch for many of those authors now, willing them on to great things; some were challenging to read and more challenging to write about. The site had a policy of always trying to find something good to say and that wasn't always easy, so it was a great training in how to find the positive in everything, and that's valuable in every part of life.

Now I review Indie books for the Historical Novel Society, which enables me to see the work of up-and-coming authors and to explore areas of history I have rarely thought about.

I read for pleasure, for education, for relaxation. Fact, fiction, my mother said I would read the back of the cornflake packet and if I am honest she wasn't wrong - and nothing has changed.

I'll read anything, any style and any genre, although I favour fantasy, harbour the historical and clamour for the classics.
I occasionally put a few hours in on the Distributed Proofreading project, the mass of volunteers who make up Project Gutenberg - bringing out-of-copyright books back to life and making them available and accessible to the 21st century.

I would love to write, and maybe one day I will, but for now my creative energies are limited to the odd blog entry. Some of the reviews here have previously been published elsewhere; HNS and BookstackReviews have supplied me with review copies, and I will also write about books I have borrowed from the library or even purchased to cram into my groaning bookshelves. My bank manager is not so sure about the wisdom of me having an e-reader and a one-click account....

I hope you enjoy what I write, and if my reviews encourage one person to read a book, or helps one author to sell a single copy which otherwise they might not have, then it's all been worthwhile.