The Boy In The Cupboard - Shane Dunphy

This book is written by a social worker and incorporates some of the children he worked with. It is distressing to read how some parents think there children can be brought up - a six year old left alone for two weeks with not enough food whilst mum goes on holiday, her excuse was that it was done to her and she thought he'd enjoy the freedom. What world do they live in. This child is one who Shane deals with and tries to befriend. It is no wonder his behaviour is everywhere and he trusts no one. Then there is another little lad whose dad is involved with gangsters and hides food all around his nursery as if he doesn't know when his next meal will be and then the only son of a top gangster who is openly homosexual but whose father refuses to acknowledge him as he wants a son who will take over his criminal business empire!

Cut - Cathy Glass

Cut: The True Story Of An Abandoned, Abused Little Girl Who Was Desperate To Be Part Of A Family -
I wouldn't say I like reading these books, but rather they're a compelling read and as I work in a hospital it might give me an insight into how some of the children who come in are feeling and why they behave as they do.
This book is about when Cathy & John Glass first started fostering. I can't believe how little the foster careers were told in those days. They should never have been put in a situation where the child was a danger to the family. This is the story of Dawn, a tearaway  13 year old, though most of the time she just craved family life. She liked to push boundaries, as do most teenagers, but when she did push them they were pushed further than others. Her behaviour all was a cry for help. When she was five her parents split up and when an aunt and uncle said they'd care for her, while the parents sorted their lives out, they accepted the offer. So for 4 or 5 years she was raised in Ireland and the only contact she had was through occasional phone calls, often the aunt and uncle would say she was outside and couldn't come to the phone.  When they'd had enough of her they put her on a plane and shipped her back to the UK. When no-one collected the girl at the airport social services were called in and she was returned to her mum. But the girl who returned was unruly and hit and spat at anyone. Her mum tried to help her and then she spent time with her dad but neither could cope. She often cut herself to release her feelings of anger. Then she went into care and Cathy and her husband John fostered her. At the end of the book she makes another attempt on her life and this is  the turning point because she is then taken into a teenage residential home which deals with psychiatric problems. There she was finally able to get the help she deserved and it came out that whilst in Ireland she was repeatedly raped by her cousins. Right at the end Cathy gets a phone call from the then 19year old Dawn who has her life on track and is going to teacher training college.

Yesterdays Girl - Anna Jacobs

As with many of her books this one can be read as part of  a series and this one is number 2 of the series dealing with Lady Bingram's aides. 
Another easy read. All about how people coped after the war - the women being forced out of jobs, men being demobbed, the awful welfare system, corruption and new people out to make things better. This book had all of these plus a good story-line.
During the war Vi Gill was a woman's Aide - helping out doing whatever was necessary at the time. Afterwards her role was disbanded and she had to return to her home town but was determined not to tie herself down working in her dad's shop for peanuts. On the way home she meets a demobbed soldier who is returning to his home town too but to a baby his wife gave birth to but who he knows his not his own and no home to offer to his other two children. Both make acquaintances with a pair of genteel sisters who are living very thrifty as their brother spent all the family money. They end up living in the sisters' house paying rent and doing odd jobs as well as others the sisters deem to help. Both characters face problems which they work to overcome. Vi sees a health visitors job advertised and applies for it, against the wishes of some in the town and Joss struggles to get his children away from their maternal grandmother who is making their life a misery.

Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat

Another Lloyd Webber musical which I have never seen before but so glad I did because it was so so good - another WOW award from me. To be honest the first five minutes, where the musicians played the tunes was too long for me and I was thinking that this was not all the show was going to be but then the story teller (Laura Ingram) came on -what an amazing voice - and the story of Joseph (Keith Jack) and his brothers began. At the end they sang so many songs again, our hands were sore from all the applauding we did. 

Greg Davies

Nearly missed this show. Had spent the day out and after getting back and having tea we were settling down for the evening, when I happened to check the diary to see when we were out the following week and lo and behold we were supposed to be out tonight ... in fact the show started about 2 minutes previously. As we'd already got tickets we thought we'd make the second half. You have never seen us move so fast and 15 minutes later we were pulling up outside the Playhouse. Yet was surprised to see people coming out of the auditorium. He had just missed the support act and Greg was due on in about 15 mins. 
He was funny. He talked about discrediting children, his favourite noises (soundscapes), a moral story and a song (about how life would be better as a bonsai tree). Glad we managed to get there in time to watch his session. 

Jesus Christ Superstar

I thought it was excellent & there is no doubt that I would give it a WOW award. I see a lot of shows but this is one I would go to again. Lord Webber is an amazing man to have come up with this when he was only 21. What visions he has. Laurence Connor brought the production right up to date with Jesus (Ben Forster) being with a group of protesters at St Paul's and the 'gospel' being spread by social network sites. Tim Minchin played the role of Judas superbly. He is a brilliant singer. Mel C was also in it as Mary Magdalene and Chris Moyles had a small role - that of King Herod, and he reminded me of Dale Winton. It was amusing how he asked the audience to vote to whether Jesus lived or died. The songs were amazing and at times so much was going on on the stage that you just had to concentrate on one set of performers.

Homefront - ITV

I don't watch too much TV but as an ex-soldiers wife and as many of friends are still married to serving soldiers I thought I would watch this new drama. I thought it would be 'soldier' based but it is good to see life from the side of the wives. They are the main support of the soldier serving abroad in a war-torn country. They have to continue doing the mundane things and keeping life normal for the children, whilst missing sharing the events of the day with their partner, and not knowing whether he is safe or not. What a lot of them are missing are a listening ear and a hug.  Since I was a soldiers wife things have got easier as the internet, Skype, Facebook etc has made contact so much more accessible and you are not waiting weeks for the letters to start arriving or the odd 10 minute phone call.  

What struck me though was the house the young widow lived in - my other half did 20+ years and we never had a quarter that size and the colour of the walls, unless you want to spend ages repainting them, the walls are magnolia. The first thing we did when we moved into our own home was decorate the whole place in our colours! 

The reminder to the woman not to knock on the front door brought back some emotions as the knock to the door is something you never want. Even though you knew it would only be the postman bringing a parcel, there was always that 'fear'. 

It also showed how rankings rarely interfere with friendships (very few officer's wives wear their husbands rank) and how support is always there. Women understand how the others are feeling and are there to listen, wipe away tears, watch the kids and cheer them up when they are down as the next day it might be them who is feeling low. 

The Woman in Black - Nottingham

Read the book a long time ago, (if I remember rightly I think I did an exam on it) then re-read it earlier this year after I'd watched the film version. This was more scary than the film. Being in the theatre you felt part of the story especially as you didn't know where the actors (and the Woman in Black) was going to turn up.  Stephen Mallatratt's stage version of Hill's book is extremely good and told in a novel way. I hadn't realised until I was chatting to someone at work about it, that it is a long running play - I thought it was quite recent!!!! 

I loved the way the whole play is performed by just 2 actors (if you don't include the Woman in Black) and just a few  props and sounds from the sound-man  Their performances are excellent you really do believe they are riding on a pony and trap and Spider the little dog is real. When Spider runs off you follow the actors eyes to see where it is running to!!  The thriller-horror is all down to suggestion, not the blood and gore as seen in most novels and films designed to scare the living daylights out of you. A locked door suddenly opening becomes sinister, a creaking, rocking chair threatening , a trashed room ominous , a music box spine-chilling and swirling mist creepy. Your mind really does go into overtime. It might not seem to appeal to the teen population but when I saw it half the audience were teens (probably due to it being on their syllabus) and despite the shows teens tend to watch on TV and the console games they play this seemed to scare them so much more. They were screaming and shrieking and muttering throughout and at the interval all I heard was talk about the show (and from where I was sat no sign of them texting on their mobiles)- excellent! It seemed to have got under their skins and I reckon many will have nightmares for a few nights to come. I actually walked to the car after the show and was carefully looking into dark corners half expecting the Woman in Black to appear.

The play is set in a theatre where an aging man (Julian Forsyth) comes to tell his tale to an actor (Anthony Eden). He wants to be able to tell his family and friends about what happened to him thirty years ago when he was starting out. At first it is comical as he cannot do anything but tell his tale in a monotone way but the actor manages to bring him out of himself. The actor plays the young Arthur Kipps whilst Arthur (himself) plays every other character he meets. 

Arthur, a very junior solicitor is sent to Eel Marsh House,  in the back of beyond on the salt marshes, when an old lady dies there alone, to go through all her paperwork. But secrets are bound up in the house and marshes and the longer he spends there, the more he discovers. He finally discovers that a woman who had a child out of wedlock and gave the child up to relatives is distraught when he is killed in an accident and seeks revenge by taking children of local people. 

The final twist where the woman in black is not a surprise extra provided by the old man but an actual ghost is brilliant.

Spinner's Lake - Anna Jacobs

This continues on from a book I read very recently (Hallam Square) and is the final book (so far!) based on the Gibson family in Lancashire.  Frederick has now died and his wife is left to cope with running the businesses in a time when people don't want to deal with women (they have no brains and can't understand such matters) including two of her step-children. But Frederick knew she could deal with it and didn't want his other children to benefit from his demise. Thankfully the Gibson clan rally round and support her until she starts to cope with her grief. The artist Tian, who fell in love with her at first sight, gets a letter from the late Frederick saying he would still like him to paint Annie's portrait and if there is still a spark of attraction between them to follow up on it, as he doesn't want Annie to grow into old age alone. So Tian takes a year out and spend sit in America but just as he is about to return he gets tricked into joining the army and it is a while until he returns to English soil, and when he does, after a bang to the head, can remember hardly anything, the only thing he can recall is his love for Annie. She nurses him back to health and they fall in love and together manage to help the rest of the Gibson family and the mill operatives keep their head above water whilst the war lasts, whilst providing them with work - building a lake for the area. 
A lovely romantic book, very easy to read, which shows romance does not always run smoothly. 

An Empty Jar & 2 Beers Inspirational Tale

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into

 the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.. The sand is everything else---the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

Sweetie - Jenny Tomlin

Set in the hot summer of 1976, it is all about a community which finds itself looking over its shoulder at everyone when children start being savagely abused and murdered and how they take justice into their own hands when the authorities can't find the evidence they need to proceed. Very graphic & very shocking - definitely not for the faint-hearted. It made me cringe and want to stop reading at times but I had to carry on so I knew the outcome. 

Not Alone - Jenny Tomlin

This is very topical due to all the people coming forward at the moment to tell their stories. 


After Jenny's book was published lots of friends told of their experiences of abuse. Here is a collection of these tales told compassionately from someone who has been there and experienced it. As well as highlighting the range of abuse around, it also highlights how the systems at the time let them down very badly. The people who did the abusing were someone seeking a vulnerable single mum, someone seeking a young gay guy to con into group activities, woman v woman, a brother, a grandfather, a priest, a wife abusing her husband, a teenage daughter abusing her mother, a family friend, a person giving AIDS to another, being forced into an arranged marriage, rape in marriage, and a case of serious assault but not rape. Amazingly these people survived and went on to have successful lives but the memories will always haunt them.

The Playdate - Louise Millar

I was given this to read and review for a forum and am so glad as I thought the book was excellent. 

At first I thought it was going to be a typical chick-lit book (just general escapism) but I was surprised to find early on that I was beginning to doubt the front these women were putting on and behind each of them I thought there was a terrible secret. It is based on the lives of 3 neighbours (& their partners and children) and their relationships with each other. 

One is a single mum with a child who has recovered from a couple of heart operations, another has only just moved in but appears to have odd behaviour (brought on by something which happened in the past) and the third is a married American women with 3 children. I can acknowledge, having moved around a lot, the feeling of being alone yet being surrounded by people. 

I also really like the way it is written from the viewpoint of the three main characters.

I have just found out that this is her first novel so am going to be on the look out for more in the future.