All you need to know about books at www.booksmonthly.co.uk                                                     Issue 4 July 2008

SEAN DIXON: THE LAST DAYS OF THE LACUNA CABAL ~ The Lacuna Cabal Montreal Young Women's Book Club is THE premier book club in the world. What they won't admit is that a) some of them are not as young as they like to say they are b) they are not all women and c) lately they haven't spent that much time reading. But one monumental book leads them to break all their rules, shed members who end up missing out on EVERYTHING, and travel across the open seas in search of a wise man who'll hopefully have all the answers. Voted one of the books of the year in Canada, 'The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal' is set in a time of upheaval: the Iraq war is exploding and people across the world are marching in protest. It's a funny, quixotic and ultimately very moving story of a group of friends who find a family of sorts within their book group, who learn to cope with love, and the lack of it, loss, and the lack of that, and with growing up in a world that is falling apart.

JOHN DRAKE: FLINT AND SILVER ~ Pirates of the Carribean meets Flashman in this rip-roaring, hugely entertaining prequel to Treasure Island John Silver had never killed a man. Until now, charisma, sheer size and, when all else failed, a powerful pair of fists, had been enough to see off his enemies. But on a smouldering deck off the coast of Madagascar, his shipmates dead or dying all around him, his cutlass has just claimed the lives of six pirates. With their comrades intent on revenge, Silver's promising career in the merchant navy looks set to come to an end! until the pirate captain makes him an offer he can't refuse. On the other side of the world Joseph Flint, a naval officer wronged by his superiors, plots a bloody mutiny. Strikingly handsome, brilliant, but prey to sadistic tendencies, the path Flint has chosen will ultimately lead him to Silver. Together these gentlemen of fortune forge a deadly and unstoppable partnership, steering a course through treachery and betrayal and amassing a vast fortune. But the arrival of Selina, a beautiful runaway slave with a murderous past, triggers sexual jealousy that will turn the best of friends into sworn enemies ! and so the legend of Treasure Island begins.You'll be hooked

BARBARA ERSKINE: WARRIOR'S PRINCESS ~ The powerful new timeslip novel from the worldwide bestselling author of Lady in Hay, in which the fate of a young woman becomes entwined with the extraordinary history of a Celtic princess. Jess, a young teacher in London, is attacked by someone she fears knows her well. Fleeing to her sister's house in the Welsh borders to recuperate, she is disturbed by the cries of a mysterious child. Two thousand years before, the same valley is the site of a great battle between Caratacus, king of the mighty Catuvellauni tribe, and the invading Romans. The proud king is captured and taken as a prisoner to Rome with his wife and daughter, the princess Eigon. Jess is inexorably drawn to investigate Eigon's story, and as the Welsh cottage is no longer a peaceful sanctuary she determines to visit Rome. There lie the connections that will reveal Eigon's astonishing life - and which threaten to reawaken Jess's own tormentor. Barbara Erskine's ability to weave together the past and the present, shedding light on a real but little-known figure, makes this a tremendous novel of Roman and Celtic history, passion and intrigue.

OLEN STEINHAUER: VICTORY SQUARE ~ The stunning conclusion to Olen Steinhauer's crictically acclaimed Cold War cycle. Berlin, 1989 The collapse of the Wall. For many, a new beginning. But for some, the beginning of the end. In the dying days of the Eastern bloc, it's business as usual for detective Emil Brod. With three days to go until Brod's retirement, the death of spymaster Lieutenant General Kolev from a heart attack is a routine matter. Until a lethal cocktail of drugs is found in the autopsy and rumours spread that a revolutionary group may be responsible. Soon Brod uncovers a widespread plot, with roots in one of his earliest cases: old enemies have come out of hiding while old friends are choosing sides. Across Europe, Communism starts to crumble, and Brod wonders how many innocents it will take with it!

SARA YOUNG: MY ENEMY'S CRADLE ~ A powerful story of love and deception set against the true events of one of the most secret and terrifying of Heinrich Himmler's wartime projects - the Lebensborn Nazi breeding programme Cyrla's neighbours have begun to whisper. Her cousin, Annika, is pregnant and has passed the rigorous exams for admission to the Lebensborn, a maternity home for Aryan girls carrying German babies. Annika's soldier has disappeared; the Nazis confiscate fatherless children. Cyrla, sent from Poland to hide with her Dutch relatives, has been warned that her neighbours know she is half Jewish. She won't be safe for long. A cruel twist of fate places Cyrla with the terrible choice between certain discovery in her cousin's home and taking Annika's place in the Lebensborn. If she takes refuge in teh enemy's lair, can Cyrla fool teh doctors, nurses, guards and other mothers-to-be? How will she escape before they discover she is not who she claims?

BARBARA DELINSKY: THE SECRET BETWEEN US ~ One lie sends a family into turmoil in a heart-rending new novel from a worldwide bestselling author, perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult When Deborah Monroe's car hits and kills a man on a deserted road on a dark and rainy night, questions of who is to blame muddy the already complicated life of a woman who is newly divorced and struggling with emotions that are rampant in a house with two vulnerable children. Deborah's daughter, 16-year old, Grace, was behind the wheel but, desperate to protect her daughter, Deborah covers for her and takes responsibility for the death of the man. But, when it seems that the victim may or may not have been suicidal, issues of guilt and responsibility, truth and honesty, are all brought into sharp focus.

J A KERLEY: BLOOD BROTHER ~ The spine-chilling serial killer thriller featuring Carson Ryder - the homicide detective with a hidden secret that could destroy his career These brothers have murder in their veins. Detective Carson Ryder's sworn duty is to track killers down. He's never revealed the fact that his brother, Jeremy, is one of America's most notorious killers -- now imprisoned. Secretly, Ryder has used Jeremy's homicidal insight to solve cases. He's made a career out of it. Now his brother's escaped and is at large in New York. With Jeremy the chief suspect in a series of horrifying mutilation-murders, a mysterious video demands Ryder be brought into help. It looks like a straightforward manhunt. It couldn't be more different -- or more terrifying. A dangerous cat-and-mouse game develops between Jeremy, and the NYPD with Ryder in the middle, trying to keep his brother alive and the cops in the dark. But it's a game of life, death and deceit, a game with an unknown number of players and no clear way of winning!

A contemporary retelling of Hamlet of stark and striking brilliance set on a farm in remote northern Wisconsin. On a farm in remote northern Wisconsin the mute and brilliant Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents Gar and Trudy. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomised by Almodine, Edgar's lifelong companion. But when his beloved father mysteriously dies, Edgar blames himself, if only because his muteness left him unable to summon help. Grief-stricken and bewildered by his mother's desperate affair with her dead husband's brother, Edgar's world unravels one spring night when, in the falling rain, he sees his father's ghost. After a botched attempt to prove that his uncle orchestrated Gar's death, Edgar flees into the Chequamegon wilderness leading three yearling dogs. Yet his need to face his father's murderer, and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs, turn Edgar ever homeward. When he returns, nothing is as he expects, and Edgar must choose between revenge or preserving his family legacy!

NATHALIE ABI-EZZI: A GIRL MADE OF DUST ~ A rich and beautiful novel set during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the early 1980s, and based on the author's personal experiences of the conflict. Ten-year-old Ruba lives in a village outside Beirut. From her family home, she can see the buildings shimmering on the horizon and the sea stretched out beside them. She can also hear the rumble of the shelling -- this is Lebanon in the 1980s and civil war is tearing the country apart. Ruba however has her own worries. Her father hardly ever speaks and spends most of his days sitting in his armchair, avoiding work and family. Her mother looks so sad that Ruba thinks her heart might have withered in the heat like a fig. Her elder brother, Naji, has started to spend his time with older boys -- and some of them have guns. When Ruba decides she has to save her father, and when she uncovers his secret, she begins a journey which takes her from childhood to the beginnings of adulthood. As Israeli troops invade and danger comes ever closer, she realises that she may not be able to keep her family safe. This is a first novel with tremendous heart, which captures both a country and a childhood in turmoil.

JOHN GUY: A DAUGHTER'S LOVE ~ This book will break open a secret. It is a gripping tale of love, loyalty and domestic happiness that came to be overwhelmed by the forces of ambition, deceit and treachery, from the award-winning author of 'My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots'. The life of Sir Thomas More is familiar to many. His opposition to Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn, his arrest for treason in 1534, his virtuoso defence at his trial, and his execution in 1535 (and subsequent martyrdom) make up one of the most famous stories in British history. While More's place in history is secure, Margaret, his daughter, has been almost forgotten. She was airbrushed out of the story, even though she played a leading role in this very public drama. During More's imprisonment in the Tower of London, Margaret became his sole intermediary with the outside world. She visited frequently, and the pair wrote long and loving letters to one another. Margaret also smuggled more inflammatory letters in and out of the Tower during these visits, and it is through these that we see a dramatic new portrait of Sir Thomas More emerge.In this enlightening new book, John Guy returns to original sources that have been ignored by generations of historians, and re-writes a story that we think we already know.

JEREMY LEWIS: GRUB STREET IRREGULAR ~ An engaging, wickedly funny and splendidly anecdotal memoir of a career spent among writers, agents, publishers and bookmen and women of every stripe. Jeremy Lewis's first memoir, 'Playing for Time', was hailed by James Lees-Milne as 'the funniest and best written book I've read for years.' His second, 'Kindred Spirits', was described by John Carey as 'sheer pleasure from start to finish'. Now he has written a third autobiographical account of his encounters with literary figures over the last two decades which fittingly caps the previous two. A rich sense of the absurd and a profound understanding of the extreme comicality of life, together with a delight in the oddities of human behaviour, are the hallmarks of Jeremy Lewis's world. Bumbling figures of the book trade and eccentric luminaries of Grub Street alike are grist to his mill; his characterisations of Andre Deutsch, James Lees-Milne, Alan Ross, Richard Cobb, Barbara Skelton and dozens of others -- are written with huge warmth and affection. Seldom has modern literary life been described with such a sense of relish and enjoyment; and seldom has the reader been so richly entertained by a gallery of eccentric portraits.

PENNY SMITH: COMING UP NEXT ~ A darkly comic novel about the fall and rise of a TV presenter. Written by an insider, it's a page-turning account of life on the sofa and in front of the cameras. When Katie Fisher, morning TV presenter, returns from holiday it's to discover that she's literally yesterday's news. Publicly sacked from her job as anchor of Hello Britain! and replaced by a pert young thing, she does what any self-respecting thirty something would in these circumstances -- she makes a dash for her parents and hits the bottle. But Katie, sooner or later, has to face the world, the photographers, and the backstage intrigue of morning television: the cut-throat, lecherous producers, the ambitious but vacant Keera, and Mike, her co-host, a trustworthy friend or just another one of the many back-stabbers? Humour is Katie's only weapon and, as things hit rock-bottom, it could provide a perfect solution to life after the sofa. Knowing, insightful and darkly comic, Penny Smith's novel is the insider's view of TV.

AMANDA EYRE WARD: FORGIVE ME ~ A stunning and compelling novel of love and ambition. Nadine is a 35-year-old journalist at a crossroads in her life. She longs for Pulitzer-prize winning success but her career seems to be going nowhere until the story of a lifetime comes up. Faced with the choice of following the story and leaving behind her boyfriend, who has just proposed, she leaves America for Capetown. There she meets war photographer George, whose rage at the death of his lover during apartheid seems bottomless. As events unfold, Nadine discovers she is pregnant and is forced to choose whether to return home to a secure married life with her boyfriend or pursue a life of independence and adventure -- a life like George's! Set partly in Mandela's South Africa, where individuals must weigh the cost of following their dreams against the high price of truth, 'Forgive Me' is the unputdownable story of a woman who has to decide between security and adventure in life and love.

DANIEL STASHOWER, JON LELLENBERG & CHARLES FOLEY: ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE - A LIFE IN LETTERS ~ A collection of letters between Arthur Conan Doyle (author and creator of Sherlock Holmes) and his mother, covering most of his life, written between 1867 and the year of her death in 1921. Doyle was raised almost solely by his mother in Dickensian circumstances, (his father latterly suffered from dipsomania and epilepsy and so spent much of his later life in asylums). Since Sherlock Holmes's inception in 1887, he has been one of the best-known and widely read literary characters, and the subject of more radio and television shows and motion pictures than any other fictional character in history. Although Doyle and his Holmes continue to be much written about, talked about and adapted, this is the first time that this material, along with other personal papers, has ever been made available. Conan Doyle although most famously remembered for Holmes, was also a physician, sportsman, public figure, war correspondent, pioneer of science fiction, psychic investigator, and prominent spiritual missionary.These letters reveal fascinating portraits of Doyle: his trip to the Arctic aged 21 where he served as a ship's surgeon on a whaling ship; his unprofitable stint as a Harley Street doctor and his decision to abandon this in favour of writing, more money and the opportunity to help his mother to look after his many younger brothers and sisters; his friendships with J.

CHE GUEVARA: THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES ~ The film tie-in edition of the established modern classic. In January 1952, two young men from Buenos Aires set out to explore South America on 'La Poderosa', the Powerful One: a 500cc Norton. One of them was the twenty-three-year-old Che Guevara. Written eight years before the Cuban Revolution, these are Che's diaries -- full of disasters and discoveries, high drama, low comedy and laddish improvisations. During his travels through Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela, Che's main concerns are where the next drink is coming from, where the next bed is to be found and who might be around to share it. Che becomes a stowaway, a fireman and a football coach; he sometimes falls in love and frequently falls off the motorbike. Within a decade the whole world would know his name. His trip might have been an adventure of a lifetime -- had his lifetime not turned into a much greater adventure.

DEAN KOONTZ: ODD HOURS ~ The latest Odd Thomas thriller from the master storyteller. A mystery in Magic Beach, California has lured Odd to the small town by the ocean -- but is it the call of the deep or the cry of the desperate? Odd Thomas knows more about the mysteries of the universe than the rest of us. He can see the lingering dead. He has learned that there are no coincidences. Even in chaos, there is order, purpose, and strange meaning. Intuition has brought Odd Thomas to the quaint town of Magic Beach on the California coast. In his desert home, Odd once found an ocean filled with love, and lost it. Now, scarred and alone, the only magic he finds by the vast, indifferent Pacific is in the name of the town where he has come to rest. As he waits to learn why he has been drawn to Magic Beach, he has found work as cook and assistant to a once-famous film actor who, at eighty, has become an eccentric with as long a list of fears as he has stories about Hollywood's golden days. Odd is having dreams of a red tide, vague but worrisome. But nothing prepares him for the hard truth of what he will discover.For in Magic Beach, he will come face to face with a form of evil that will test him as never before. Odd Hours is a brilliantly observed chronicle of good and evil in our time, of illusion and everlasting truth. Pick up a Dean Koontz thriller and you can't put it down: try one

LOLA JAYE: BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS ~ The smash hit debut novel for this summer This is my (Kevin Bates) manual for my daughter Lois. The love of my life. Rules of the manual: 1.You must only read each new entry on your birthday 2.This is a private manual between you and me. 3.No peeping at the next entry unless it's your birthday! When Lois Bates is handed the manual, she can barely bring herself to read it as the pain of her dad's death is still so raw.Yet soon Kevin's advice is guiding her through every stage of her life -- from jobs to first loves and relationships. The manual can never be a substitute for having her dad back, but through his words Lois learns to start living again, and finds that happiness is waiting round the corner !

 ROBIN HOBB: RENEGADE'S MAGIC ~ The final book in the Soldier Son from the author of the Tawny Man and Farseer trilogies, following on from the bestselling Shaman's Crossing and Forest Mage. The people of Getty's town remember the death of their cemetery soldier vividly. They remember believing him guilty of unspeakable crimes, condemning him, and then watching as other men of his unit beat him until he no longer drew breath. But Nevare Burvelle didn't die that day, though everyone believes they saw it happen. He was cornered by a power far more intractable than an angry mob. When he was a boy, the magic of the Specks -- the dapple-skinned tribes of the frontier forests -- claimed Nevare as a saviour; severing his soul in two, naming his stolen half Soldier's Boy and shaping him into a weapon to halt the Gernian expansion into their lands and save their beloved ancestor trees. Until now Nevare has defied the magic, unable to accept his traitorous fate. But the magic has won: it has extinguished his once golden future, devastated his family and has now turned his own people against him. Faced with endangering the only loved-ones he has left, Nevare has no choice but to surrender to its will and enter the forest.But surrendering to his Speck destiny is only the beginning of his trials. Before he submits completely, Nevare makes one desperate last attempt to deter the Gernians from the Barrier Mountains without causing them harm. But the magic accepts no compromise. Exhausted, Nevare can no longer suppress his traitorous Speck self, Soldiers Boy. Losing control, he becomes a prisoner in his own body; able only to watch helplessly as his other half takes Soldier's Boy is determined to stop the Gernian expansion at all cost, and unlike Nevare, he has no love, nor sympathy for his spirit-twin's world.

GORDON KENT: THE FALCONER'S TALE ~ An exhilarating new tale of modern espionage and international intrigue -- sure to appeal to the many fans of Tom Clancy, Dale Brown and Patrick Robinson. Jerry Piat has been on the run from the FBI for two years, but he's about to be made an offer he cannot refuse. Clyde Partlow an upper CIA executive needs him for a mission that involves a member of the Saudi ruling clique, a fearsome man who's been cheating his own associates out of their funding for terrorism against the West ,and using the money for his own personal profit. Piat's job is to entice former agent Digger Hackbutt into working for the CIA again. Hackbutt will use his exemplary skills as a falconer as bait for the Saudi aristocrat, which in turn will hatch a daring plan for blackmail. Meanwhile behind the scenes Alan Craik is highly suspicious of Clyde Partlow's intentions and sets about trying to find out exactly what is going on. With the bait set and Jerry Pitat about to be a free man for the frist time in years, everything is set for success. But the best laid plans seldom run smoothly and the ultimate disaster is just moments away.

HUGO HAMILTON: DISGUISE ~ Hugo Hamilton, the internationally acclaimed author of 'The Speckled People' and 'Sailor in the Wardrobe', turns his hand back to fiction with a compelling drama tracing Berlin's central historical importance throughout the twentieth century. Boris Opp is a young Berliner, born into the chaos and commotion of the Second World War. But when his absent father returns from the Eastern front and remarks upon the absence of a birthmark above Boris' right eye, the child is suddenly thrown into an identity crisis that has him questioning the story of his birth. He begins to wonder, in part because of his Semitic features, whether he is in fact an orphaned Ukrainian Jew, stolen away by the occupying SS to be given up for adoption to a childless family back in Germany. It is this suspicion, so damaging and dangerous under the Nazi government, that proves to be the breakdown of his relationship with his violent and unforgiving father. As his paternal relationship disintegrates, Boris turns to his kindly uncle, a once dutiful World War 1 veteran whose terrifying ordeals on the Russian front made him swear an oath against Hitler.But his uncle is loose with the truth, and his careless whispers fan the flames of Boris' now frenzied suspicions.These unanswered questions about his heritage and the obscured truth of his childhood continue to stalk him throughout his life -- through his later career as a professor of linguistics at the University of Berlin -- and onward to his death. It is only then, at the very end of his life, when the truth of his lineage can finally emerge. Part literary investigation, part historical novel, Disguise is an intelligent, poignant and brilliantly crafted story about a man's lifelong search for the truth of himself, and an allegory about the many disguises that the city of Berlin wore -- from the decadence of the Weimar Republic, through the oppression of fascism and communism -- throughout the most turbulent period in its fascinating history.

SUZANNAH DUNN: THE QUEEN'S SORROW ~ A queen brought low by love compromised and power abused -- the tragedy of Mary Tudor. Plain, dutiful and a passionate Catholic, Mary Tudor was overjoyed by joy when she became England's queen. After the misery of her childhood, when her father had rejected her mother, and effectively disowned his daughter, Mary felt at last that she was achieving her destiny. And when she marries Philip of Spain, her happiness is complete. But Mary's delight quickly turns sour as she realises that her husband does not love her. In fact he finds her devotion irritating. Desperate for a baby, she begins to believe that God is punishing her. Her people are horrified at the severity of the measures she takes and begin to turn against their queen who is lonely, frightened -- and desperate for love. Rafael, a member of Philip of Spain's entourage, is a reluctant witness to the unfolding tragedy and as the once-feted queen tightens her cruel hold on the nation, Rafael becomes closer to Mary and his life -- and new-found love -- are caught up in the terrible chaos that follows.

KIRSTEN ELLIS: STAR OF THE MORNING ~ The dramatic story of Lady Hester Stanhope -- a wilful beauty turned bohemian adventurer -- who left England as a young woman, unashamedly enjoyed a string of lovers and established her own exotic fiefdom in the Lebanese mountains where she died in 1839. Ambitious, daring and uncompromising, Lady Hester Stanhope was never cut out for a conventional life. Born into an illustrious political dynasty, she played society hostess for her uncle, William Pitt the Younger. After his death, she struck out for unchartered territory, setting sail with her lover for the Mediterranean and Constantinople -- turning her back on England, as events would transpire, forever. It was in the Middle East, however, that she found her destiny. As the greatest female traveller of her age, she was the first western woman to cross the Syrian desert, where she was hailed by the Bedouin as their 'Star of the Morning'. From her labyrinthine fortress in the mountains of Lebanon, where she established what amounted to her own fiefdom, she exerted a canny influence over the region's devious politics.Hers was a life of adventure and intrigue -- yet in the years following her death her remarkable story has been largely dismissed, reworked by the Victorians into a cautionary tale for young women with wayward tendencies.

OPHELIA FIELD: THE KIT-CAT CLUB ~ The fascinating history of the male-only members of the Kit-Cat Club, the unofficial centre of Whig power in 17th century Britain, and home to the greatest political and artistic thinkers of a generation. The Kit-Cat Club was founded in the late 1690s when London bookseller Jacob Tonson forged a partnership with pie-maker Christopher (Kit) Cat. What began as an eccentric publishing rights deal -- Tonson paying to feed talented young writers and receiving first option on their works -- developed into a unique gathering of intellects and interests, then into an unofficial centre of Whig power during the reigns of William & Mary, Anne and George I. With consummate skill, Ophelia Field portrays this formative period in British history through the club's intimate lens. She describes the vicious Tory-Whig 'paper wars' and the mechanics of aristocratic patronage, the London theatre world and its battles over sexual morality, England's Union with Scotland and the hurly-burly of Westminster politics.Among the club's most prominent members were William Congreve, one of Britain's greatest playwrights; Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, authors of the Tatler and Spectator, who raised English prose to new heights; and John Vanbrugh, a versatile genius whose architecture remains some of the most ambitious in Britain.

CARLOS ACOSTA: NO WAY HOME ~ The rags-to-riches story of one of the world's greatest dancers, from his difficult beginnings living in poverty in the backstreets of Cuba to his astronomical rise to international stardom. In 1980, Carlos Acosta was just another Cuban kid of humble origins, the youngest son in a poor family named after the planter who had owned his great-great-grandfather. With few options and an independent spirit, Carlos spent his days on the streets, dreaming of a career in football. But even at a young age, Carlos had extraordinary talent. At nine, he was skipping school to win break-dancing competitions as the youngest member of a street-gang for whom dance contests were only a step away from violence. When Carlos's father enrolled him in ballet school, he hoped not only to nuture his son's talent, but also to curb his wildness. Years of loneliness, conflict and crippling physical effort followed, but today the Havana street-kid is an international star. This magical memoir is about more than Carlos's rise to stardom, however. It is the story of a childhood where food is scarce but love is abundant, where the soul of Cuba comes alive to influence a dancer's art.It is also about a man forced to leave behind his homeland and loved ones for a life of self-discipline, displacement and brutal physical hardship.

MARIANNE FAITHFULL: MEMORIES, DREAMS AND REFLECTIONS ~ This book is a more personal history than has ever before been written by or about Marianne Faithfull. Anecdotal, conversational, intimate and revealing, this is her no-holds-barred account of her life, her friends, her triumphs and mistakes. A decade after the publication of 'Faithfull', one of the most acclaimed rock autobiographies of all time, Marianne Faithfull is back, vowing periodically leave her wicked ways behind and grow up, but finding that somehow strange things keep happening. A wry observer of her slightly off-kilter world, Marianne muses nostalgically about afternoons languishing on Moroccan cushions at George and Pattie's, getting high and listening to new songs. She fondly recalls the outlandish antics of her Beat friends Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs; is frequently baffled at her image in the press (opening the paper to read of her own demise: 'Sixties Star in Death Plunge'); terrified by the curse sent by Kenneth Anger; mortified by her history of reckless behaviour; not to mention her near-death experience in Singapore while looking for an opium den.Marianne peoples her anecdotal memoir with legendary characters one can imagine only Marianne assembling around her, both the eccentric and the beautiful, from Henrietta Moraes and Donatella Versace to Sofia Coppola, Juliette Greco, and Yves St.

Books Monthly (formerly Gateway Monthly) is published by Paul Edmund Norman on the first day of each month. You can contact me via e-mail at: editor@booksmonthly.co.uk. If you'd like to get a story published in Books Monthly just e-mail it to me and I'll consider it - no payment though, I'm afraid!