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Hidden by the Leaves

Hidden by the Leaves is a new novel by S D L Curry, which draws upon his extensive knowledge of the history of Medieval Japanese society.

It is part of S D L Curry's 'Hidden' trilogy of novels (it is the first book) and is inspired by events that actually took place in Japan.

It tells the story of a Jesuit Priest in Japan, Father Joaquim Martinez.

He is residing in a tiny peasant village which is within the Hizen Province. Unfortunately the Provincial ruler is a man who is not only self-serving but also capable of acts of immense cruelty, Daimyo Matsukura.

He issues Father Jaquim and his two young catechists, Miguel and Tanya, with banishment orders.

However, the trio take the dangerous decision to defy the order of banishment, as they prefer to remain in the village to assist and help the villagers who they now consider to be their family.

The novel relates how they, and the peasant villagers, strive to remain free and safe from the clutches of a variety of enemies including shogun known for their legendary viciousness, the implacable Daimyo Matsukura and the ranks of all-powerful Samurai who are at their disposal.

But what they had not counted on was the absolute faith and tenacity of Father Jaquim and a range of miraculous events including assistance from some very unlikely quarters.

This is an amazingly well-written and well-researched novel and will make a most excellent Chirstmas present for lovers of adventure, history or who just revel in a finely executed novel.

It's published by The Book Guild at £8.99 and is available for purchase here >>> https://goo.gl/m5aVoo.

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The First English Explorer

Ask most people who the first English explorer was and they would probably come up with a whole range of different names. But they would almost all probably be very wrong indeed.

Because most people will not have heard of the true first documented English explorer. Anthony Jenkinson.

Author Kit Mayers has dedicated a great deal of time and effort into investigating the travels and explorations of Jenkinson.

It is the year of 1557 and the merchants of the capital city of London are eager to discover a profitable overland route that would take trade right through Asia and to the legendary Cathay and all of the rich pickings of the Orient.

They selected Anthony Jenkinson to be their emissary and explorer and he set off on his travels one year before Queen Elizabeth I came to her rightful position on the throne.

Incidentally, he set off on his expedition eastward nearly 30 years before the first English expedition to the west.  

It was a hard and arduous series of journeys for Jenkinson. He survived severe storms, poor health, thefts and even attacks by gangs of roaming bandits.

But with sheer determination and a plucky attitude, he eventually arrived at the city of Bokhara, which is now within modern day Uzbekistan.

Thus he had completed the vast bulk of his journey, two thirds of it, to reach the fabled and semi-legendary Silk Road that would have ultimately taken him to Cambaluc (Beijing) but, alas, he found that the final portion of the route was closed to him because of continuous fighting and wars.

Author Kit Mayers is a retired Doctor of Medicine and has travelled extensively, sailing and visiting a bewildering amount of countries all over the world.    

For his research he undertook the arduous task of, as far as possible, recreating and following the same route of Jenkinson nearly 460 years ago.

The book draws on the reports of Jenkinson but Kit Mayer has also made his own observations based on his travels along Jenkinson's route, which makes for a compelling and exciting read.

It is well illustrated and is the perfect Christmas gift for people who like travel books, love history or are just curious to learn.

It is published by Matador at £14.99 and is available to purchase at our very own online book and Chirstmas gift emporium  which you can find here >>> https://goo.gl/m5aVoo.

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Greenwich Meantime Brewery. A must have for Christmas

The beers of the Greenwich Meantime Brewery are simply "must haves" for your Christmas and New Year festivities.

There is something for every type of beer drinker and even the person who tells you: "Well, I don't normally drink beer, but I am more than willing to try some, now. What would you suggest?"

Myself, as a beer drinker of several years standing, would advise that you let them sample tastes of the entire range of the very different yet equally well brewed beers from the Greenwich Meantime Brewery range.

Though they may well prefer the Greenwich Meantime Pale Ale, often a good starting point with its lighter yet full bodied flavour with the distinct hoppy hit that one gets with this ale.

However, having said that, they may well take a shine to the London Porter (this is a very good re-creation of the type of London Porter beer that the hardworking Porters of old London Town would drink, as they needed something with taste, body and a goodly level of alcohol after a long day's hard graft) plus the Chocolate Porter.

Many so-called chocolate porter style beers do not, actually, have any chocolate in them at all.

But the Greenwich Meantime Brewery is very different. For during the maturation process they add real chocolate to the beer. Can you tell the difference? Yes, you can. So if your ideal drink would be beer with some chocolate, put the chocolate bar down and just give all of your concentration to drinking your Greenwich Meantime Chocolate Porter!

Beers in the range include: London Lager, Pale Ale, India Pale Ale, London Porter, Chocolate Porter, Yakima Red and Wheat Beer.

There are also some special limited edition beers that are available on draught only through selected outlets and there are a series of special pilot brews, details of which you can find at their website https://www.meantimebrewing.com.

You can buy direct or through a variety of supermarkets and specialist retailers throughout the country and through a number of better bars, clubs and pubs.

By the way, here's a word to the wise. Always buy more than you think you should, because once that person who doesn't normally drink beer finds out how much they love the beers from the Greenwich Meantime Brewery, you could find yourself running out of beer! And you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?"

Have Duerr's Marmalade for Christmas

There's nothing like freshly brewed coffee or tea and hot buttered toast with liberal amounts of Duerr's Marmalade for breakfast over the Christmas holidays.

But there's so much more to Duerr's than that!

When you make your mince pies, why not try replacing a third of the mincemeat mixture with whichever type of Duerr's Marmalade tickles your fancy?

Or why not make several batches of homemade mince pies with the different types of Duerr's Marmalade in each different batch?

They are certain to be a sure-fire winner with your family and guests over the Christmas season!

Or why not be even more experimental? Why not try making a batch of mince pies without any of the traditional mincemeat mixture at all? Why not make some Duerr's Marmalade pies, too?

How's that for a different festive treat for everyone? Because not everyone likes mince pies, surprising though this might be!

You will find that Duerr's Marmalades are so versatile that you can add some to home baked Christmas cakes, or, and this will really make for a different, yet utterly delicious Christmas pudding, as well as putting in a good few glugs of Scotch Whisky into your Christmas pudding mixture, why not add a good few dollops of Duerr's Marmalade?

Talk about a winning combination! The best of Scotland and the best of Manchester in a Christmas pudding recipe that would be hard to beat for moisture, texture and taste!

For a whole host of recipes -some festive, some not- please visit https://duerrs.co.uk/recipes/.

And to learn more about this fantastic family business, please visit https://duerrs.co.uk/.

You can also buy Duerr's at your local Tesco branch or as part of your online order.

The Inventing Tubes

The Inventing Tubes is a new book by Bryony Supper who, after surviving a career as a children's TV star, has reinvented herself as a skilled author of books for young children.

She has created an amazing collection of  characters aimed at children aged 4 to 7 years of age, the Pasta Kidz and Petz Adventures.

The Kid -all pasta themed!- are all drawn by talent illustrator Julien Bray.

Children will meet Sarah Spaghetti, Rikki Ravioli and Camilla Cannelloni.

They'll also be introduced to their amazing petz, there's Mumbo the Macaroni Dog, Spud the Spaghetti Horse and Val, the Vermicelli Snake!

The characters get themselves into all kinds of weird adventures and often have to rely on unusual magical objects to help them. But! These magical objects often seem to have a life of their own!

Although the books will be aimed at being great fun for their readers, there are also some serious messages that underlie them. They show how kidz have their own unique, different personalities and how they help each other.

The first book, The Inventing Tubes, is to be the first of 40 books in the series and it tells the story of how Sarah and Marc Macaroni try their hand at inventing some fun objects. However, all they succeed at doing is creating a very grumpy PastaBall?

This is a wonderful story which is an ideal present for all boys and girls of ages 4 to 7 and their parents and grandparents, too!

It is published by Matador at £4.99 and it should be on your list of "must have "stocking fillers, which you'll be able to buy from our own gift and book shop, here >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.

Dead End

Dead End is a new crime thriller by novelist Daniel Pascoe.

(You may well have read his previous novel The London Sniper, published last year. It's still available.)

Dead End deals with the life and troubles of Matthew Crawford.

At 17 years of age, Matthew Crawford fathered a child, a daughter, and he never saw her even once.

Later  in his life he marries and it is when he is doing the dutiful father of the bride shtick (the much rehearsed speech, which includes the highs and lows of his life, including the tragic and all too early death of his beloved wife, Rachel, plus a number of other anecdotes of family life, some serious, some amusing.

But it is this event,this in which he had to start thinking of his past in order to write his traditionally expected father of the bride speech, which sets him thinking more deeply about the rest of his life.

So it is that after 30 years Matthew decides to make a serious effort to trace his long lost other daughter, Sophie.

But when he does locate her the situation in which he finds her are far from auspicious, for she is in desperate trouble in southern Spain. Naturally he steps in to rescue her.

But it is then that their troubles really start, as someone decides to take out a retribution on Sophie.

An intriguing, yet unsettling novel, it will make an excellent Christmas present for lovers of hard, gritty crime novels and fans of his first novel.

It is published by The Book Guild at £8.99 and is available for sale from our own book and gift shop along with thousands of other books and Christmas gifts, over here >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.

Hoping for the Best

Hoping for the Best is an amazing debut book from Sarah Berryman -non-fiction, bless her!- about what it is really like to become the mother of twins, plus one.

The subtitle is "Three months in the life of a twin plus one mummy."

Sarah Berryman is my kind of writer. Anyone who quotes Maya Angelou as a major influence on her life really does deserve to have their voice heard!

Early on in her book Sarah uses a quote from Maya Angelou that, pretty much, sets the tone for the rest of the book: Ms Angelou wrote that she was: "hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between." This quote is taken from "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", read by Sarah when she was 16 years of age.

Sarah reveals that she has “real children”. On page 1 we learn "They did not sleep through from day one. They did not master baby-led weaning. They have all had the norovirus, chicken pox and two of the three have had nits. They have bitten and been bitten. One has a hearing aid, one wears splints at night to stop him walking on tip toes and one has a speech delay. They play a little, bicker a lot, and are friends and enemies in equal measure."

Partly written in diary format the book is an amazing combination of diary, guidebook, prayer book (of a sort) and a ready antidote to all of the books written by super mummies who have perfect babies and live in Hampstead or some other such leafy location!

In a way one might describe it as if someone had written a modern day version of Sun Tzu's  The Art of War, but called it The Art of Parenting, instead. When you read the sections that deal with the continuing battles with what one might describe as "authority figures" you will, I feel, understand why I formed the opinion that the book is, at least in part, a cunningly disguised guerilla warfare for parents handbook!

In part it's a serious book that deals with some very serious issues, but the 1 million candlepower humour and wit of Sarah Berryman keeps on shining through. As part 1 starts with: "Hoping for the Best" "Try to be a rainbow to someone's cloud" I think you will see what I mean.

The book is a substantial read at 412 pages and is published by Matador at £11.99 and you can order it at our vewry own gift and book shop which you'll find over here >>> https://goo.gl/qPctIy.

It is the perfect Christmas gift for any mother, father or grandparent.

I certainly hope this is not the only book that Sarah Berryman will be writing. I feel that she could have a glittering career as an author.

Specsavers for Christmas?

I noticed recently that Specsavers have started selling gift vouchers.

This set me thinking. Wouldn't this be an ideal gift for the person who was shortsighted, farsighted or who had some other vision problem that could be corrected by spectacles or contact lenses?

All you have to do to learn more is to go to https://www.specsavers.co.uk/stores/full-store-list to find out where your nearest local branch is located.

Or you can order them now -any amount from £1 to £250- at
https://giftvouchers.specsavers.co.uk/giftvouchers.co.uk/index.html.

The gift vouchers are valid for 2 year.

And if you have a housebound relation or friend who needs to see an optician, they might be able to use the gift voucher you give them this Christmas to pay toward the cost of the Specsavers' Home Visit Scheme, where Specsavers' qualified opticians actually make home visits. Specsavers are one of the few -if only- High Street opticians that offers a home visit service.

You can learn more about this scheme by visiting https://www.specsavers.co.uk/home-eye-tests/eligibility.

To learn more about the Specsaver branches in other parts of the world visit www.specsavers.com.

Gift voucher offers will vary from country-to-country, so please check for availability and validity where you live.