Conan Doyle trained as a doctor, was a medical officer on Arctic and African voyages, brought downhill skiing to Switzerland, and investigated spiritualism and fairies. He also cleared the names of two wrongfully convicted men.
REVIEW: MR MAC AND ME by Esther Freud
Freud has imagined the summer of 1914 for Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife through the eyes of Thomas Maggs, a thirteen-year old boy who lives on the Suffolk Coast. The artist couple takes a cottage in the small town, far from their busy, stressful lives in Glasgow. The novel is told a first person…
REVIEW: GILLESPIE & I by Jane Harris
I am still reeling from this book. Surprising at every turn — and I’m not easily surprised. Nor am I easily impressed, particularly when it comes to books. The writing is fabulous – both in style and in storytelling. The first-person narrator, Harriet Baxter, is an older women now, in 1933. She has decided to…