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Spring is in the air

After a grey, grim old day yesterday, we have blue skies and signs of spring here in West Dorset.

There’s mud everywhere and it’s squelchy underfoot but the many puddles are reflecting the changing of the seasons.

We’re not there yet but it won’t be long.

On my morning walk, I glanced up when I heard the corvid call of rooks building nests in the tall trees in the copse.

And then a deer scuttled through the undergrowth.

‘The longer days are coming,’ said my farmer friend as he came down the hill from the community shop with his newspaper under his arm.

“But I fancy the daffodils are a bit early.”

I met a man in the lane who I thanked for his expertise in the community pub the other night when our very own Celebrity Farmer and his sidekick regaled the gathered throng with tales from their escapades on the Channel 4 show, Hunted.

(They should have done Bake Off.)

The man in the lane had provided his sound and vision expertise for the talk, which was just as well because the place was packed and none of us would have been able to hear it otherwise.

He told me he’s going to be at the village hall next weekend to help when I put on an archive film show as part of a project recording the memories of older people born and bred here in Lush Places.

It’s people like him who quietly get on with helping others who are the unsung heroes among us.

The international stage is a frightening place and there are personal situations all around where people are suffering.

But to be dragged down by all of that means the extinguishing of hope. We have to celebrate the small big things that make a difference.

I thought about all the volunteers in our pub who are keeping it going while we interview for a new manager. I thought about the volunteers in the shop who man the till.

The people who run the village hall, the people who keep our lovely church up and running, the people who lock and unlock the gate everyday on the multi-use games pitch, the people who listen to children reading at school and those who give up their time to look after our communal open spaces.

So many people, in small and big ways, doing their bit and keeping the community from coming unstuck.

To steal a well-known slogan, every little helps. And it really does.

January book reviews

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for advance review copies of these novels.

Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce ***

Publication date: 26 February 2026

Two teenage girls are on trial in Scotland for the killing of one of their friends. As the court case unfolds, primarily through the eyes of one of the burnt-out jurors – a heart surgeon – a ritualistic sisterhood is exposed, each one of the accused blaming the other, with witchcraft at the centre of it all.

This is a very difficult book to review without spoilers so I won’t ruin the unexpected twist. Suffice to say that this is a thrilling thriller, with viewpoints shifting like sand and the reader questioning what is real and what is fantasy.

An easy-to-read crime novel and highly recommended.

A Stranger in Corfu by Alex Preston ****

Publication date: 12 February 2026

Wow! What an imaginative use of one of the two small islands just opposite Corfu Town, the capital of the Ionian island. This was an intricate, exciting thriller set in a place I know so well.

Alex Preston envisages Vidos as the home – or sanctuary? – for compromised or spent MI6 agents. It’s not long before something happens and a tangled web of deceit begins to unravel as the body count stacks up.

I won’t say much more than that for fear of spoilers but this is a well-researched (both in terms of spyland and Corfu) novel which is multi-layered.

Very well written, easy to lose yourself within its pages and duplicitous characters.

Recommended.

The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley ****

Expected publication date: 2 April 2026

This is my first taste of Gwendoline Rlley and, despite the lack of a hard plot or storyline to the novel, I loved it.

Two forty-something Londoners, Laura and Putnam, have been friends for years. The contemporary story begins when Putnam loses his writer job at Sequence magazine. This is the springboard for a tale of friendship, with respective pasts and presents and ponderings about the future intertwining, like a commentary on midlife and how they got there.

It’s not a novel that goes anywhere much but the wit, matter-0f-fact descriptions and use of language make this a joy to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance review copy of this novel.

January reflections

January has already been a mixed month here in West Dorset, with cold, cold weather and blue skies at the start of it (hooray!) and then miserable rain and wind (boo!), which kind of reflects the way many of us feel in the weeks after Christmas.

The festive season passed me by without major incident and now the forward-face of the dual-headed Janus dominates our lives as The Good Ship 2025 slips its mooring and floats off into the past.

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings (Wikipedia).

Whilst some of us are celebrating the arrival of new little people, it’s been a rough old twelve months for some, with Christmas and New Year anything but merry.

Life is hard, and even more so when you lose something or someone dear to you.

It doesn’t help when the outside world is going through tumultuous times which appear to be never-ending.

I’ve stopped listening to news bulletins. They’re full of multi-daily doses of negativity which make us all feel so angry and/or helpless. The chatter and backbiting on social media is even worse, with entrenched views constantly in a bitter battle with the voices of sanity and rational reason.

I heard on the news this morning that people tend to book their holidays in January because it gives them something to look forward to during these dark and dreary months.

I can well believe it.

The best thing so far this month has been the remains of the Wolf Moon shining over the village green in a three-way chorus with the lights of the community Christmas tree and the phone box library.

And on another positive note, we came third in the pub quiz, the morning cuppa tastes even better in the mugs my brother bought us for Christmas and I’ve lost four pounds since Christmas.

Roll on blue skies and warmth.

That’s about it.

Love, Maddie x

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be

We’ve just shelled out £6.50 on a Christmas Radio Times.

Mr Grigg wasn’t too happy, but, with my work background, I appreciate the many hours it takes to put something like this together. And, let’s be honest, the heyday of printed magazines and newspapers is long gone, so it’s good to support an industry on its knees.

I didn’t begrudge the money, partly because a shed-load of features awaited and the specially-crafted front cover with Gromit and Shaun the Sheep promoting Fleece Navidad looked very inviting.

I plunged into one of the articles with relish, as I don’t usually sit down long enough to read a magazine. But I gave up after the first few columns – the writer obviously had their own agenda and referred to themselves far more than to their famous subject, who seemed, not surprisingly, irritated at the tone of questioning.

Ah well, at least the magazine gives us a heads-up on what delights to watch over the Christmas period.

But apart from the aforementioned Fleece Navidad and a Christmas special of Gone Fishing with Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer, nothing really sprang out when Mr Grigg read aloud some of the programmes lined up for the festive season.

Bullseye, Morecambe and Wise and Jaws being some of them.

“Are we living in 1975 or what? Where’s the new stuff?” I asked.

Glancing over his shoulder, I saw that Mrs Brown’s Effing Boys (as I call it) also puts in an appearance, which is a good reason not to tune in to the telly and, instead, stick to singing songs around the piano, although we don’t have one.

If this regression into the past continues on our television screen, with repeats, remakes and nostalgic series at the fore, then I have a suggestion.

If we’re going to be borne back ceaselessly into the past, please can we see a return of the jaunty theme tune that was used for the ITV news back in the 60s and 70s? It made what was coming up in the bulletin so much more palatable.

At a time when the world seems a more dangerous place than ever, it might be nice to be lulled into a false sense of security with the comforting, nostalgic tones of this classic.

Here it is in all its full-length glory:

That’s it for now.

Love, Maddie x

December book reviews

I’ve had some cracking books this month from NetGalley.

Here are three to look out for in early 2026:

How To Get Away With Murder by Rebecca Philipson ****

(Expected publication date 24 February 2026)

Detective Sam Hansen comes back to work after a period of extended leave when she stumbles across a murder scene. A teenager has been killed in a London park and a copy of a book, How To Get Away With Murder, has been left next to the body.

This is a tense and witty crime thriller, with alternating chapters from Sam’s point of view and then chapters of the book written by a person called Denver Brady, who describes himself as a serial killer.

It’s a really clever premise, tautly written, well-plotted and with a self-deprecating lead character, who is easy to like. I was very suprised this is a debut novel. I hope it will be the start of a series.

An easy, page-turning and satisfying read. Recommended.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke ****

(Expected publication date 9 April 2026)

Natalie is a God-fearing, clever woman who is married into a patriarchal political family in the USA.

She’s an egotistical bitch who devises a plan to become an ‘influencer’ when the money runs dry. She sets up home with her handsome but stupid husband as a ‘trad wife’ on a ranch out in the middle of nowhere, raising her many children and working the farm in a wholesome, simple way remiscent of the pioneer men and women who ‘made America great’.

But it’s all a sham – no-one sees the nannies, the pesticides and the immigrant workers whose labour keeps the facade from falling down.

And then Natalie finds herself in the actual past, where the reality of her life on Yesteryear Farm is far, far different from the picture she has painted her adoring public.

Will she be able to get back into her present? And what’s behind her terrifying time travelling journey?

I romped through this book, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Razor sharp, a very unlikeable heroine and dystopian in the mould of Margaret Atwood.

Big Nobody by Alex Kadis *****

(Expected publication date 5 March 2026)

Constantina Costa is an angry teenager living with her Greek Cypriot father in 1970s UK. She plots to kill him, referring to him as The Fat Murderer because she holds him responsible for the death of her British mother and two younger brothers.

Connie finds solace in her love for Marc Bolan and David Bowie, whose posters she frequently consults in her bedroom about her miserable life, which has been so touched by tragedy and darkness. She develops a loving relationship with Vas, a Greek Cypriot boy who ‘gets’ her and is a ray of sunshine in a world where Greekness threatens to suffocate her.

I absolutely adored this sweary and nostalgic coming-of-age novel (which is totally from my era) and was cheering Connie on from the sidelines.

The scenes in which Connie is enveloped by her Greek heritage and ‘aunties’ were incredibly warm and funny, and I loved the music, food and pop culture references.

This would make such a great television series. The sassy Connie deserves her moment on the small screen.

Highly recommended.