My Amazon Reviews


Amazon Reviews  for Wendy Robertson’s Novels

JOURNEY TO MOSCOW: The Adventures Of Olivia Ozanne (Kindle Edition)
5.0 out of 5 stars 
A double negative?, 19 Mar 2014
There's nothing to not love in this book. A double negative but who cares? I'm doing an Olivia Ozanne and re-writing the rules. For me this thought encapsulates the essence of this fascinating book, which dispenses with the prejudices, the political and stereotypical misconceptions surrounding the teenaged Moscow as it emerged from its long sleep, post - Glasnost. The writer gives such insight into this period which, ironically, is so relevant to what is happening in Putin's Russia today.
Olivia Ozanne is my hero- totally honest about who she is, warts and all, knowing she has failed as a mother and wife but always remaining true to herself and keeping the faith with her writing.
As always, this writer has woven an intricate tale with many memorable characters, the love of her life Volodya, the grey and brown Aunties, her daughter and son, even the odious Kendrick. They will all remain in my head for a long time and when I say you must read this book, I really mean it!

JOURNEY TO MOSCOW The Adventures of Olivia Ozanne (Kindle Edition)
5.0 out of 5 stars A Love Story to a City and its People, 12 Feb 2014
By 
A M Joy -
 Olivia Ozanne is the writer abroad, the stranger alone, a woman who can see the surface of things and beyond. Well rid of her ex Kendrick and his leather sofa fetish, she comes to stay with her daughter Caitlin. This is post-glasnost Moscow with its fallen statues, burgeoning mafia, newly restored churches, its phones tapped but no longer listened in to, a city that demands hard currency. Through Olivia’s eyes we see into the heart of this city and its people. We peer inside their tiny flats into their constricted interior lives, where we meet the mysterious Aunties whose surprising histories, stretching back to the revolution, are slowly uncovered by Olivia.
This is a richly painted canvas of an iconic city, in many ways relevant to our understanding of the Russia of today. It is a story about a woman in search of a new self and it’s hard not to fall in love with Olivia with her enormous appetite for life or for that matter her lover Volodya who she meets at the flower stall. I fell in love with them both. But Wendy Robertson’s greatest gift is in making us fall in love with the place and its people. Gorgeous
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JOURNEY TO MOSCOW The Adventures of Olivia Ozanne (Kindle Edition)
5.0 out of 5 stars 
A wonderful novel. I loved it., 26 Jun 2014
 Olivia - what a fascinating character who ‘goes her own way’ regardless of others. This is an excellent story and I couldn’t put it down. The depiction of post Glasnost Russia is realistic. There is more freedom. Calls are recorded but no one listens to them. However, there is still much suspicion and the drivers want ‘dollars’ in payment for taxi rides. Olivia takes no notice of her successful daughter who worries that she is in a city that can be fraught with danger. However, Olivia is determined to be her own person and thank goodness, because she meets Volodya who becomes the love of her life and she becomes special to him. The setting and atmosphere of Moscow are cleverly created, with old cars, run-down buildings, people suspicious of their neighbours in case they report them to the Authorities, the flower stalls and also the beauty of the Churches and the priceless icon that the Aunties take to their Church. We are sad that Volodya seems to have a new love and Olivia returns home bereft. However, it turns out well in the end. Relationships are very important in this novel. We have the mother/daughter relationship that can be fraught at times, the love of the two Aunties which has lasted for decades, Kendrick who is an unpleasant character and hasn’t treated Olivia well and the relationship between Olivia and her son, who goes through a hard time with the police. The relationship of Olivia with her own mother has been very difficult and when her mother dies, she is in a quandary. Once again, she makes her own decisions and takes no account of the views of others. She does what she feels is right. This is a fascinating and very readable novel and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
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JOURNEY TO MOSCOW: The Adventures Of Olivia Ozanne (Kindle Edition)
5.0 out of 5 stars
 In Search of Fairy Tales, 19 May 2014
By 
Once again Wendy Robertson has produced a novel with a difference.
Its diverse and fascinating characters are dealt with in her own inimitable way,producing a story that is not be missed.
Told in the voice of Olivia Ozanne, who writes stories for children; these characters cover a vast variety of life-styles as well as a wide age-range, but are all equally convincing.
The novel is set against the stark background of post Glasnost Moscow, but also offers a glimpse of a north of England, peaceful on the surface but with a drugs problem beginning to raise its ugly head.
I recommend this novel to you. Read it. You will enjoy it.


JOURNEY TO MOSCOW: The Adventures Of Olivia Ozanne (Kindle Edition)
5 out of 5 stars Kicking heels up at the past, 27 April 2014
 Ashley (London, England) -
Moscow is going through upheavals as it emerges uncertainly into a post-Glasnost era. Writer Olivia Ozanne, visiting her very correct and successful daughter, is going through a few upheavals herself as she burrows under the skin of the city, discovering secrets - and her own true self. Joyous.

JOURNEY TO MOSCOW: The Adventures Of Olivia Ozanne (Kindle Edition)
5.0 out of 5 stars Colourful story set in post-Glasnost moscow, 7 April 2014

Post Glasnost Moscow, dreary, edgy, but along comes Olivia Ozanne, edgy herself but with a sparkle that transcends the drabness. She bursts into the confined world of the intriguing Volodya and his 'two aunts' sombre in their grey and brown and soon discovers their colourful story. On the way embarassing, successful journalist daughter, Caitlin in a recognisable volatile mother/daughter relationship.
Olivia in mid-life uncertainty is looking for more than a holiday interlude and within the fortnight her artistic fingers, with the precision of a compass draw all the strands together. The author is here at her very best showing the basic humanity of her main characters whether English or Russian, especially the 'brown aunt.'
I have always wanted to stand in Red Square, step inside a Dacha. I have now and in the memorable company of Olivia Ozanne.
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 Journey to Moscow: The Adventures of Olivia Ozanne (Kindle Edition)

JOURNEY TO MOSCOW: The Adventures Of Olivia Ozanne (Kindle Edition)5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read., 21 Mar 2014
By 
Katherine M. Fitzgerald (Tyneside UK) -  (REAL NAME)   
 Wendy Robertson's latest book is a real gem. Set in Russia post Glasnost and in the UK, it is a novel about relationships of all kinds: with children, husbands, lovers, friends and strangers. The reader is quickly charmed into this world where it seems anything can happen, if your mind is as open as Olivia's. This main character's narrative voice is enticing and cajoling as it guides the reader into both Olivia's internal and external landscapes and asks you to share her joys and dilemmas but try not to judge. The internal situation in Russia is exposed layer by layer through the people Olivia meets, the things she observes and also what she has read. Her Russian lover, Volodya adds further dimensions to the Russian story but also to the character of Olivia and her joy in living.
The 'Aunties' are enchanting and would have made a novel on their own. The whole idea of them meeting in a world hostile to their love for each other and also the actuality of their joint experiences through such a tempestuous era is exciting
And threaded through all this marvellous storytelling and characterization is Olivia's experience of being a writer; having to make uncomfortable choices, to find the nub of magic at the core of any good story and discover how to execute the narrative. It is the honesty and self-knowledge of Olivia Ozanne that gives this novel its momentum and keeps the reader entranced to the end.
JOURNEY TO MOSCOW: The Adventures Of Olivia Ozanne (Kindle Edition)
5.0 out of 5 stars 
pat kidd - 
 A totally compelling read! I could not put it down until I reached the end.
Olivia is a larger than life character and we follow her relationships with her daughter -difficult- and her meeting with the love of her life. W e also become involved with the unconventional life of her son back home.

Wendy's descriptions of present day Moscow and events going back as far as The Great War are fascinating! I recommend this book to everyone!

Wendy is my favourite author.

GABRIEL MARCHANT [Kindle Edition]
Wendy Robertson (Author)
 Brack's Hill is a N.E.mining community in 1936 with 'no work, little food-less dignity.' into this sterile world comes Archie Todhunter ready to see the 'awesome significance of a person as an individual', and there ready to gain from his humanity are young miners, Gabriel Marchant and his friend Tegger.
We see Gabriel develop as an artist from the early use of charred larch wood given to him by his grandmother and his blind copying of Rembrandt drawings to become an accomplished painter; Tegger learns to fashion his love of words into fine poetry.
'Gabriel Marchant' is a rites of passage story sympathetically revealing life in the raw. Gabriel matures not only as an artist but discovers at Archie's Settlement 'the complication of women' through Rosel, art teacher and older woman, Marguerite model and Greta the gauche, clever schoolgirl who makes a pact with Gabriel to do 'the thing that men and women do.'
And always in the background is Archie working to release the butterflies in chrysilis state, a gifted group of young people desperate to escape the web of ignorance that could condemn them to life in the dark as black as any mine.
A very good read. Highly Recommended.
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GABRIEL MARCHANT [Kindle Edition 5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read 28 Aug 2014
By A M Joy
Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
An exceptional evocation of the pit: it's darkness, its amazing colour (here is the big surprise), the earth and its ghosts and the men who worked there, especially Gabriel the man who would be painter - wonderful.

PAULIE'S WEB PAPERBACK – 20 AUG 2013
 ‘A Must Read
 A M Joy on 24 Sep 2011
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Paulie, Queenie, Christine, Martiza and Lilah are five women who are caught in the web of prison, five good women who meet in a white van - a paddy wagon -and whose lives are transformed by their experience of imprisonment. In this exceptional and insightful novel, Wendy Robertson introduces us to the hidden world of invisible women that is prison. Her characters and their stories leap off the page at us, there are no stereotypes here, this is not Prisoner Cell Block H or Bad Girls but it is every bit as compelling. She is a consummate story-teller, who weaves a fascinating web around these disparate lives and if you want to know what prison is really like and who the women we lock away every day are then READ THIS. I know of no other novel which will give you such unique insight into this closed world. With the liberation of fiction Wendy Robertson takes us closer to the truth than any reductive documentary could and on the journey she treats us to the poetry of Paulie, to laughter and tears and to a celebration of the friendship between women.
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 PAULIE'S WEB PAPERBACK – 20 AUG 2013
Paulie's Web by Wendy Robertson is an uplifting read of a subject that could be nothing but depressing. That it is not. The humanity of the author comes through loud and clear as we learn of the very different women doing time for crimes they have committed. We are left with the very obvious fact that for some people life is loaded against them. Christine is particularly vulnerable and totally believable. The common decency that all these women share is beautifully released through the course of the story by the author who has worked and supported the inmates of a female prison. She shares her inside knowledge and the reader is left to question their own stance on those less fortunate than themselves.
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PAULIE'S WEB PAPERBACK 
Mrs Hilary Smith on 13 April 2014
I loved the characters in Paulie's Web: their strengths, their weaknesses, their backstories and in spite of everything - their humour.
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PAULIE'S WEB PAPERBACK – 20 AUG 2013
By Katherine M. Fitzgerald on 1 Dec 2013
Format: Paperback
Paulie's Web draws on Wendy Roberston's time as a Writer in Residence in Low Newton Prison, Durham. A group of women are taken to the same prison on the same day; a mixed bunch of females who grow to care about each other. One of them, Paulie sets out - at later date - to try and find all of the women and show them what she has written. With the sharpness of a journalist and the skill of a novelist, Robertson cleverly brings all of these characters to life, making the reader care about them. She has a deft style, almost a magician's touch, in that the characters quickly take root and you feel yourself urging Paulie forward and hoping she and the others find some resolution and peace.
It would have been easy to sentimentalize these characters, all of whom have, in one way or another, drawn short straws in the living stakes, but Robertson neatly avoids this by making them characters many of us can relate to and consequently 


THE ROMANCER  edition 1
By A M Joy on 23 April 2012
For fans of Wendy Roberton's work, The Romancer - a unique and unusual memoir - offers great insight into the writer behind the books. But you don't need to be a fan to enjoy this exploration of what it is to be a writer and in particular the relationship for the writer between fact and fiction.

For those thinking of writing memoir this is a great non-linear example of the form. As well as being a book about a writer's life - often poignant and tender - it is a book about writing - full of great tips and a Forty day plan for writing your novel.

CRUELTY GAMES (KINDLE EDITION)
Cruelty Games is a remarkable book and I found it impossible to put down. What I think it does so well is to show us the ordinary beginnings of what becomes an extraordinary situation. Anyone who has taught in schools or worked with children will recognise the situation and the characters all too well.It seems amazing that the first edition came out before the Jamie Bulger case and it makes the book sadly prophetic, exploring as it does the tradegy of children murder.The characters of Rachel, the young teacher and Ian the boy who lives daily with neglect and abuse lived on, long after I finished reading.Highly recommended


A WOMAN SCORNED
By pat kidd on 12 Aug 2012
Format: Paperback
A shy sickly child is cured by an enigmatic yet secretive woman who lives by her own moral code.
However, this strange woman becomes the victim of evil rumours after the deaths of some of the villagers where she lives.
The young woman she cured does her best to defend her from impending doom.
Based on a true story in Victorian times.
Thrilling!


5.0 out of 5 stars Hello? Are we reading the same book?, 1 Aug 1999
By A Customer
It's easy to deride sagas for being 'merely soap', but the gift of a true writer is in the telling of stories and characters who stay with you long after you close the book - and Wendy Robertson is one of those writers. All her stories are based in the North East of England, and the harsh beauty of the countryside comes through in her writing as strongly as the people who live in it. Like many of her novels, A DARK LIGHT SHINING is rooted in real experiences, and has a heightened vitality and truthfulness missing from so many run-of-the-cotton-mill clog'n'shawlers. If her characters are unusual, it is because people themselves are as unusual as their society permits them to be, and far from resorting to the stereotypes found in less thoughtful books, she creates vivid, complicated human beings. A skilful, imaginative novelist who delivers far more than this genre traditionally promises.
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By 
5.0 out of 5 stars
 family saga before the 1st world war, 22 July 2012
This is a completely rounded story with a lovely flavour of Co.Durham there.The characters are delightful -e.g.the mother figure and the strong-minded lady gardener.
It encompasses so many different fields -e.g.the Romany element. Avery warm read.
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 LIZZA (Kindle Edition)
I read "Lizza" when it was first published in 1987. I loved it then and still love it now.

Lizza is the misfit in a very typical Mining family. She's too clever and too studious to thrive in that environment, but her widowed mother knows instinctively that Lizza needs a different world in which to blossom and flourish and so she sends her away to what, at first, is a cruel existence. Eventually Lizza realises that there will be a life for her away from the mining community and that her mother really did love her and have her interests at heart all the time.

The book is full of colourful characters and down-to-earth situations during the poverty-stricken days of the General Strike.

I definitely recommend this to adults and teenagers alike.
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LIZZA (KINDLE EDITION)
5.0 out of 5 stars Mother Love, 17 May 2012
By 
I absolutely loved this book. I was hooked from the first moment when lizza is forced to thank a well-meaning neighbour for giving her a hideous hat to wear on the train. The train will take Lizza away from everything she knows and she doesn't want to go but her mother has decided and no-one argues with her mother, except for Lizza, of course.

Lizza and her mother are two of a kind but one has the hope and ambition of the very young while the other is ground down by the day to day grim reality of survival. My heart bled for the woman - so unbending, so strong and yet so sad. Her incredible stoicism and determination doesn't mask her vulnerability. It was as if she ever gave way to her true emotions then she would break. Lizza and her mother share a truely moving relationshop.

I can't wait to read the next part of Lizza'a life.

It would be a shame to miss this book. It tells us so much about the bonds of family.
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A WOMAN SCORNED - Serial Killer or Scandal Victim? (Kindle Edition)5.0 out of 5 stars Exploding The Myth, 10 Nov 2011
By 
This review is from: 
A Woman Scorned, like Wendy Robertson's recent novel, Paulie's Web deals insightfully and sensitively with issues of justice and injustice in the lives of women. In this case, the life of a women who became part of a northern myth - the North's very own serial killer - Mary Ann Cotton. In a beautiful re-working of the Mary Ann Cotton story Wendy Robertson explodes the myth and asks searching questions about the nature of the outsider in the community and about our propensity for demonising the feminine and the vulnerable. Her skill is in making it flow effortlessly and capturing us in her story-telling web. A great piece of fiction that will make you think again.
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A WOMAN SCORNED - Serial Killer or Scandal Victim? (Kindle Edition)
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, 20 Jan 2013
By 
Lesley - 
I got the book to take on holiday, it was supposed to last me the week, i couldnt Put it down. I had it read in 24hrs
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5.0 out of 5 stars everyone is entitled happiness at some time, 23 july 2012
pat kidd - S

This is Wendy's first adult novel and it gives a foretaste of all the superb novels to follow.

The story begins in 1895 when a family moves to Co. Durham for the fatherto work in the coal mines. The father is a force to be reckoned with and his daughter Susannah inherits his strength of character but not his bitterness.

Tragedy in the family means that Susannah feels she must give up all possibility of happiness and devote herself to looking after her father and brothers..Further, her compassionate nature compels her to adopt a baby. However, as she grows older, she begins to realise that she herself has rights to whatever life has to offer.

Superb characterization adds to the wonderful unfolding story.
5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone is entitled happiness at some time, 23 July 2012
 .
  
THE LONG JOURNEY HOME (KINDLE EDITION)
Anna  )
This review is from: The Long Journey Home (Kindle Edition)
This is the first book I've read in ages that made me want to go to bed early so I could read it in peace and going to sleep late as I didn't want to put it down.




THE LONG JOURNEY HOME (KINDLE EDITION)
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read, 14 April 2013
By 
Verified Purchase(What is this?)
This review is from: The Long Journey Home (Kindle Edition)
This is a superbly written book. It is about the experiences of a young girl, Sylvie, caught up in the maelstrom of the fall of Singapore to the Japanese invaders. It is a deep book dealing with the traumas suffered by those taken into captivity, and also the issue of racial sensitivities as the age of Colonial domination in Asia is abruptly brought to a halt, and the seeds of the current democracies start to sprout.

The author does a fantastic job of covering both these themes, weaving them into the complex story of a young girl whose pre-war family world falls apart, to be replaced by something deeper, and with a lovely twist at the end.

5.0 out of 5 stars friendship under japanese occupation, 21 July 2012
By 
THE LONG JOURNEY HOME (KINDLE EDITION)
Singapore is occupied by the Japanese during the 2nd World War. Sylvie tries to escape but gets lost in all the confusion. She is rescued by the family of her governess Virginia Chen. The story tells of their enduring friendship during this time.
Wendy's meticulous research into the background of Singapore itself and the effects of occupation evoke a wonderful feeling of having been there.

Highly recommended.


5.0 out of 5 stars A second world war story with a difference., 9 Aug 2001
 A THIRSTING LAND, the third in the Kitty Rainbow Trilogy opens in 1939 when she is an old woman and her elder daughter Leonora is living in Alexandria with Sam Scorton and their twins Thomas and Kay. Kay meets and marries a pilot but when he returns to England to join the RAF he is killed in a bombing raid on London and she is left with a baby. After the end of the war when Sam has died, Leonora, Kay and Thomas return to England. The family will all be together to celebrate Kitty's 85th birthday. Kay, a young widow with a child, hates the cold of the north after the warmth of the Mediterranean and the dreariness of post-war Britain after bright Egypt. She has nothing to look forward to in her young life until Kitty gradually rouses Kay's interest in her various businesses and the history of her family. Meantime Laurenz and Patrizia Gold, Jewish refugees who have endured horrendous experiences escaping from Nazi occupied Europe, are trying to start a new life in a resettlement camp not far from Kitty's house. Patrizia is cowed, terrified of her husband but Laurenz is ruthless and determined. He has allowed nothing to get in his way during their escape and no one is going to stop him now. He will be a success no matter what it takes. Kitty hands over the running of her factory to Kay despite objections and opposition of her staff. It is a challenge that Kay enjoys and she forgets her intention to return to Egypt. When Laurenz presents himself for a job, Kay takes him on and little by little, be makes himself indispensable. He also makes Kay feel young and desirable again, that there is more to life than work and that it should be enjoyed. She falls for his charm, until she learns he has another side.
Wendy Robertson has a wonderful way of interweaving all her very different characters, bringing them together from far and near and blending their stories. All the emotions leap off the pages - joy, sadness, terror, sympathy, love, hate - making an absorbing read.


5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Read, 26 Jan 2014
By 
Karen (Bristol England) - 
Purchased this for my Mum who gets through a book a week - this has been her favourite story in ages - she would give the book 5 stars.
5.0 out of 5 stars Nineteenth Century character in a page-turning novel, 5 Aug 2001

In this, the first book in THE KITTY RAINBOW TRILOGY, Kitty certainly makes an unconventional appearance. Ishmael Slaughter, a bare-knuckle fighter in the mid nineteenth century, sees a baby fall from a viaduct and rescues her from the River Wear. He has no idea who her parents are and he names her Kitty Rainbow. His landlady has just killed the kittens he was caring for so he dare not take the baby home with him. Instead he persuades a Scottish draper with a tendency to hit the bottle to look after her along with Thomas, her 'strange' young son. Kitty continues her unorthodox life, learning to cope with her foster mother's drinking bouts and Thomas's silence. She grows up wild, fending for herself, battling against those who would drag her down, fiercely loving to her friends, Ishmael most of all, but tough with her enemies. She works hard, finds love and becomes pregnant, but now most of all she feels the need to know something about her parentage. Ishmael, now ageing is the only link she has, but he knows nothing and she travels from Priorton in the north of England to London. She had known danger in her hometown but this is the London of Jack the Ripper when every young woman on the streets walks in fear. After learning the story of her parentage she returns north to her loved ones to build a life for herself and her baby. Wendy Robertson draws such a realistic picture of a town in the northeast of England in the nineteenth century, peopled with strong characters, good and bad, rich and poor, that the reader endures Kitty's hardships and fights her battles with her, cheers when she wins and worries with Ishmael about what is to become of her.
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SANDIE SHAW AND THE MILLIONTH MARVELL COOKER
5.0 out of 5 stars  13 Jun 2012

bookworm - 
Very few stories are written with a factory setting. But this one is and its characters
come alive - from the Manager down to the schoolgirl temp,they're all very realistic and very different.
Read it and you'll love it!


SANDIE SHAW AND THE MILLIONTH MARVELL COOKER
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read!!!, 3 Aug 2009
By 
Mr. G. C. Cook (WOLVERHAMPTON,WEST MIDLANDS,UNITED KINGDOM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Well written hilarious story set in the 1960's for those who were around then well worth a read just for the memories alone.


When the families of McNaughton and Farrell are brought together, the meeting is not an amicable one. Biddy Farrell creates friction between the families, and when Margaret McNaughton is found wandering the streets one night and a prostitute is murdered, the finger of blame points to Tommo Farrell.

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing extended family full of mystery, 9 Sep 2012
By 
pat kidd - 
This is a compelling read from beginning to end. It tells the story of four generations of women who have lived together - not always in complete harmony - nevertheless devoted to each other.
There is a mystery which threads throughout the book and keeps the reader fully absorbed. Each character is very different from the others and has her own tale to tell.
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jc@jean-currie.demon.co.uk (Yorkshire UK)
Susan is working in a mental hospital in the north of England when she hears about the horrendous suffering in the Spanish civil war and sets out to see what she can do to help. In a dressing station that had been set up in a small church, she nurses men and women of all nationalities, among them ChiChu who has lost all her family. She becomes very fond of the young girl and determines to take her back to England but their troubles are not over. They do not fit into London life and they set off on their travels again, this time to the north of England to a lonely farm where Susan grew up. The start of World War II brings more problems, especially for ChiChu, who is imprisoned in the mental hospital where Susan first worked, deemed insane because she does not speak English and cannot be understood.
This is a page-turning book moving from the horrors of a mental hospital in the 1930's, through war in Spain to a different war in Britain, where no one is sure who can be trusted but there is also love and laughter and great characters.
By 


CHILDREN OF THE STORM, the second book in the Kitty Rainbow Trilogy opens in 1914 when Kitty Rainbow's children have grown up and are away from home. Her second daughter, Mara, loves her teaching job in Hartlepool despite Mr Clonmel, the headmaster but she loses all the familiar things she has grown to appreciate when the school is demolished by bombardment from a German warship. The school is no more, Mr Clonmel dies in her arms and her bereaved landlady, Pansy is hysterical. A dying Frenchman gives Mara a package and asks her to give it to his children who are living in Priorton, her home town. There is nothing left for her in Hartlepool and she goes back to Kitty, taking her landlady with her, when Pansy moans that she cannot live alone. Mara finds the Frenchman's children, and is surprised when they are not children at all, but adults. Jean-Paul is working and at the same time is trying to look after his deranged sister Helene and Mara takes it upon herself to help. Meantime Pansy turns out to be not as helpless as she claimed and loses no time in building a nest for herself causing havoc in Kitty's household. Leonora, Kitty's elder daughter has been nursing in Russia in terrible conditions and returns home exhausted and devastated by what she has seen. Wendy Robertson tells an absorbing story with strong women battling against the odds - Kitty providing a home for her extended family; Mara picking herself up after losing her job, helping those around her and fighting prejudice; and Leonora trying to get on with life again after all she has suffered and endured. The setting moves from the northeast of England to the trenches in France and the makeshift hospitals in Russia and all are vividly depicted.

pat kidd - 
A young French girl is a member of a travelling group of players which arrives in a small Co. Durham town.
She feels safe in this group - a sanctuary from a turbulent past. However, tragedy soon strikes and forces Pippa to relive events which she struggled through to get to this seeming peace.
Through budding friendships with a young Italian miner and a young playwright she is eventually enabled to find peace and to look forward to a brighter future in this quiet old fashioned place
 
THE LAVENDER HOUSE Paperback – 6 Mar 2008
pat kidd on 5 Sep 2012
As is usual in Wendy's tales, fact and fiction combine perfectly to make a compelling story. The drama is interspersed with deep friendship and some very interesting characters.



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