** BLOG TOUR ** Martini Henry by Sara Crowe

Published in Hardback by Doubleday on 16th June 2016, priced £14.99. My thanks to the publisher for my review copy and inviting me on the blog tour.

Life isn’t an exact science. Things can be troublesome. Like pregnant step-mothers, the ins-and-outs of French existentialism . . . having an unexceptional name. 

In 1988, seventeen-year-old Sue Bowl has a diary, big dreams and £4.73. What she wants most of all is to make it as a writer, as well as stop her decadent aunt Coral spending money she doesn't have. 

Living in their crumbling ancestral home should provide plenty of inspiration, but between falling in love, hunting for missing heirlooms and internship applications, things keep getting in the way.

So when a young literary professor moves in and catches Sue's eye, life begins to take an unexpected turn . . .

My Thoughts:

This book is the story of Sue Bowl who wants to be a writer, it is mostly all she thinks of. She tells us her story via her journal entries and letters to her Aunt Coral who she lives with at Green Place. Green Place is a big house and has very quirky and original residents. Sue's side of the story is set in the late 1980's.

Interspersed with the journal entries Sue is reading a book called 'For the Concern of the Rich and Poor'. This book tells us the story from the 1800's of a man called London Taylor who has links to Green Place. 

I found the two separate but linked stories worked very well together and bought a richness to the story that Sue wouldn't have carried on her own. I think it is the parts about London Taylor that I liked the best. 

If I am honest I found Sue to be a little bit naive for eighteen but this is her coming of age story in her words. Words are what she does best. Her character was very charming and endearing. I felt that she very much admired her friends and looked up to them and wanted to be like them.

This book is chock a block with eccentric and individual characters so that you didn't know what you would expect them to do or say next. They added a depth to the story and are what made it comical for me.

I found this book to be entertaining, absorbing and fun without being overstrenuous to read. An enjoyable and quirky read with a touch of humour and lightheartedness but a little bit of serious too. 

About the Author:

Sara Crowe is best known as an actress. She has appeared on television, stage and film, including the iconic Four Weddings and a Funeral. She has won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Variety Club Best Actress Award and the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Sara’s West End appearances includePrivate Lives, Calendar Girls and Hay Fever. She has also toured with Acorn Antiques: the Musical, and appeared in The City Madam for the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

This is the authors second novel, the first being Campari for Breakfast.





If you want to find out more please have a look at the other stops on the blog tour.