Check your Christmas foods to ensure they will be within date for Christmas

That's Christmas is reminding all of our readers to check the use by dates on all of their Christmas foods.

This is because some poor souls have been caught out by ridiculously short dates on their Christmas foods.

For example we have seen examples of mince pies and Christmas cakes and some other special festive foodstuffs with use by or best before dates up to two weeks before Christmas!

This is quite obviously ridiculous as it could mean that a family will find out that over Christmas that the foods they wanted to eat were either not as fresh as they should be, totally stale or even no longer fit to eat.

So they could end up with a very limited spread over Christmas, with all the shops closed, meaning that they would be unable to obtain replacement supplies.

What That's Christmas is suggesting is that if you have any shop bought Chirstmas foods, treats or confectionaries that you check the use by date or the best before date on them all as soon as you can.

If there are any that have a best before or a use by date that is earlier that the Christmas period, then you should eat them before the date/s concerned and look to go to the shops this week to replace what you need to replace.

Please do forward this item to your friends and family members to make sure that everyone you know can check their Christmas food supplies well before Christmas.

Death in Winter

Death in Winter is a new crime novel from veteran crime writer Ian McFayden who is certainly going to please his fans and new readers alike with his sixth Inspector Carmichael novel!

It's just four days until Christmas Day and there's a good covering of snow on the ground, and the villages and small towns of rural Lancashire are abundant in Christmastime good cheer and bonhomie.

Inspector Steve Carmichael is really looking forward to a rarity for a detective of his standing and experience in the force, a long and very indulgent break over the Christmas period in his own home, surrounded by his own family.

But there's the little -or not so little- incident which involved a woman who mysteriously disappeared after boarding a train home.

This has the unfortunate effect of totally ruining his plans for a traditional Christmas.

But this still leaves Inspector Carmichael and his equally dedicated team of police officers with a real conundrum to solve. What on earth has happened to Hayley Bell?

Interviews with her husband  -is he really as eccentric as he appears?- and with her friends (or her "so-called" friends)  seem to be less than helpful, as they start to dig through the facts and sift through what evidence they can find.

So... what really happened to Hayley Bell? Inspector Carmichael begins to form the impression that all is not quite what it seems in this case. And he is never wrong and never misses his mark.

Though readers will be kept guessing right through to the end of this intricately plotted crime novel.

If you have a crime novel fan you need to buy a Christmas present for, then you seriously do need to buy them this novel!

It's published by The Book Guild at £8.99.

You can purchase it via our very own online bookshop (it's powered by Amazon) and you will find the bookshop here >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.

James and the Amazing Gift

James and the Amazing gift is a wonderful book that will make a stupendously great Christmas gift for young boys and girls.

It is debut children's picture book by author and polymath Nicola J. Rowley.

It tells  the story of a little boy called James. And James has an amazing gift. He doesn't just like ot smile, he absolutely loves to smile!

From the moment he was born, people realised that James was a very special little boy. For he loved to smile all the time. And he was happy all of the time.

And he had an even more special gift. He could make other people smile, too!

And as he grew older, he used his amazing gift to help other people to feel happier and to smile, too.

Actually as I am writing this book review, I am smiling, too, so James' amazing gift does work!

Please do buy this beautifully illustrated children's book.

It is published by Matador and costs £7.99.

You can buy it here at our very own gift and bookshop >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.

You can also purchase it here http://amzn.to/2gW9olM.

Please do note that every copy of this book that is bought and put into a Christmas stocking this Christmas will result in money being donated to a very important charity, called Contact The Elderly, it is a UK-based charity that aims to stop loneliness amongst older people.

Beyond All Doubt

Beyond All Doubt is a new crime thriller novel from the pen of Evesham author Paige Elizabeth Turner.

Intrigued by the recent advances in the uses of DNA in the solving of crimes and several cases where a previous conviction has been overturned by the re-analysis of DNA samples with the use of new and advanced techniques, Paige Elizabeth Turner has been inspired to write her debut crime thriller set within this very arena.

The body of Juanita Morale's is discovered in the River avon in the small English market town of Evesham. This was after she took a late afternoon river cruise on the boat of river cruise operator Barry Simmons who is suspected of having murdered her.

There's a lot of gossip about her death and Trevor, her fiance, decides to launch his own investigation to try to get to the bottom of what actually happened to Juanita.

But is Trevor really all that he seems?  Is he as pure as he wants the other residents of Evesham to think? Perhaps he isn't.

Other bodies start to appear and when a journalist working on the local paper the Evesham Record who was investigating Juanita's murder is, herself, found murdered in her car, people began to question if there is a link between the killings.

DI Marchant and DS Olivia Watts are investigating the murders and despite the extreme misgivings of DS Watt, DI Marchant arrests Barry Simmons and charges him with murder.

During the subsequent trial CPS lawyer Godfrey Postlewaite presents a compelling case, yet defence barrister Belinda Pace gives as good as she gets.

But which one of them is right? Who is the murderer of Juanita Morales? And is her murder really related to the other deaths?

This is a remarkable debut novel published by Mastador and it will make a super Christmas present for the crime thriller fan in your clan. And at £8.99, it's a real snip.

You can purchase it here at our very own book and gift shop >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.

  

The Great Wizard Wars

The Great Wizard Wars is a fantastic new novel for children of 7 to 11 years of age and their mums, dads, grandparents and older siblings who might like to read them with their children.

It's an exciting story about the battle between good and not so good (well, bad, really!) wizards.

Many, many years previously, there had been a terrible wizarding war, which had caused untold misery until eventually, common sense had prevailed and a binding truce had been signed.

Now, modern witches and wizards are going about their professional, yet extraordinary,  lives in a peaceful and peaceable manner, keeping themselves hidden from the rest of humanity.  

However, the ancient truce has been smashed in two and a Dark Army of witches and wizards with evil and mayhem on their minds has arisen and it is their avowed aim to destroy the descendants of their foes, the good witches and wizards of long, long ago.

Well, that was the plan. The reality is a good deal more comical than you might presume. For the evil witches and wizards are backward and despicable and they launch their attacks on the modern, peaceable witches and wizards with magical weapons that or just so out of date, it's unbelievable!

They also have control over some remarkable scary mystical creatures who they can employ to do their evil bidding! But not really! For the mystical creatures all have mystical minds of their own and which are completely out of the control of the bad witches and wizards!

The bad witches and wizards also cannot decide who should be their leaders, so they begin fighting amongst themselves in a truly mind-blowing way!

Four heroic young witches and wizards find themselves in dangerous situations as they fight off the evil hoards, yet a curious twist of fate forces them to participate in a very unforeseen showdown.

It's a wild and very interesting read -I think you'll like Gnashers the giant talking snake- and it will be a welcome addition to the Christmas stockings of many a young boy and girl this Chirstmas.

It's published by Matador at £6.99 and is available for purchase at our very own gift and bookshop which you will find here >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.

Georgina A song of youth

Georgina A song of youth is a new novel by Cedric Paul Foster.

It relates the story of Georgina, who is an extraordinary woman.

She is somewhat stifled at home. Her mother is overprotective and her father is demanding and very ambitious.

So, what is Georgina (Gina, or Georgy as she is more usually known to all save for her poor mother) supposed to do?

Simple! She runs away from home and finds herself living in France.

But as with much in life, that might, actually, mean leaving one set of problems and finding them replaced with an entirely different set of problems.

For Gina's story is set in the late 195os, when times were somewhat different and the life of a very young woman living by herself in a very foreign foreign country might prove, to put it diplomatically, a little problematic?

However, Gina does have one advantage over many of her contemporaries, in that she is exceptionally beautiful and is able to take up a career as a model. So long as she can evade the clutches of predatory males who mean her no good whatsoever!

But Gina manages not only to evade the lotharios, she even prospers and becomes a hugely successful woman in her own right becoming very rich in the process and carving out a life for herself which also included long lasting happiness.

It's an interesting novel, which allows you to share the life of an very remarkable woman and the friends which she shares her life with.

And yes, it will make a very good Christmas gift and you can purchase it here at our very own book and gift shop >>>   https://goo.gl/apr0hq.

It is published by The Book Guild at £8.99.

The Will

The Will is a new novel by prize winning poet and author Jane Mann.
It tells the story of what happens to Hannah Delany.

At age 27 Hannah has to return to the UK from Hong Kong to attempt to disentangle the mystery that surrounds the death of her father and also of his will. And of the letters that he may, or may not, have written.

As she undertakes her investigations she finds herself having to burrow her way, with great tenacity, through lies, deliberate deceits and falsehoods, obfuscations and obstructions.

Some people seem to be trying to manipulate her, to thwart her efforts to learn the truth.

But despite their best, or worst, efforts, they seem unable to stop Hannah in her quest for the truth.

But she learns information that she might not have wanted to learn, really. Such as the disturbing and malevolent motives behind the actions of some people. Motives that might even mean that Hannah's own life is now at risk.

And what, exactly was Hugo's role in all this? And what of the family's home, Yadrahna, built in the 1840s of Cotswold stone?

And the skeleton? Who was it the remains of? And what had happened to them?

And who was Olga Slade? And what was shee doing at Yadrahna?

This is a compelling mystery novel which is very much wirtten in the style of a modern Gothic Novel.

It is published by Matador at a very reasonable £8.99 and will make a most excellent gift for the person who likes the mystery novels with more than a hint of the gothic about them.

You can purchase it online at our very own book and gift shop, here >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy