The Best Things – Mel Giedroyc

When famous people for something other than writing then write a book, there is always an element of doubt and trepidation. Looking back at reviews now I have read it, seemed to be very much of the love it or loathe it variety but shows you that not all books are for everyone, despite who wrote it.

I could hear the author’s voice as if she was telling me the story as we got to know Sally and Frank Parker. They had it all literally and then one day they didn’t.

Sally is living a half life, she has everything, she doesn’t even have to think. She has people to do that for her, whether it be ferrying the children a few yards to school, to the cooking and the laundry. She just needs to get up and be there, be part of those groups in the suburbs who are simply trying to out do each other. Whether it be home décor, shopping, holidays or clothes. Think Margot Leadbetter but in the 21st century!

However Sally is in for a rude awakening and thankfully so were some of the more unpleasant characters in the book.

Sally has to think. She has to save herself from her husband Frank as well as save him from himself. Then there are the children, Stephen, overweight and addicted to online games, Cleo who has no sense common or otherwise and her interactions were aspiring and so astute they were laugh out loud funny. Mikey, the wheeling dealing eleven year old girl who is going places if only they would listen to her. Then niece Emily, the academic exceeder who feels she has no place in the family anymore.

Add to the mix, a Welsh great granny, a couple of strange uncles and a few dogs and tractors and you have a real mix of a book about what you really need to survive. The trappings of life do not always fulfil what you most want and need.

I was pleasantly surprised at this book, it made me laugh about some of the ridiculousness of the situations but also there was some rather empathic moments especially with the children, which gave it added pathos. What I liked the most, that for added impact perhaps, the author really laid on thick about how much ‘stuff’ they had, whether it be electronic devices, decorations and ornaments from around the world, thirty two named lawnmowers, a pool house, a rack of BBQs and the envy of every other resident in the suburb who were all trying to emulate or be better.

Pure escapism but with an undercurrent that this is a world that does exist and that actually being in that world seems quite frightening. Some great characters to love, loathe and hate!

Making It – Jay Blades

I think it is always a privilege when “someone off the telly” decides to share their story with the viewers, it gives you a better insight and understadning of what makes that person tick.

And in the case of Jay Blades, probably best known for The Repair Shop we are treated to what life was like growing up with an absent father, racism, police brutality, dyslexia, making it and then losing it all and hitting rock bottom.

In a very honest account, written with the help of a writer, Jay takes us from his very beginnings on a council estate in Hackney through to The Repair Shop. The honesty of the injustices that Jay has witnessed and also been personally involved in made for some uncomfortable reading. My heart really went out to all those who suffered racism and yet whilst it could have taken Jay on one path (and perhaps it nearly did), it took him on another more compassionate path.

That path though was littered with obstacles and we see how his strength of character, his immense depth of love repairs not just those around him and of course the furniture we now know him for. He repairs himself through the kindness of strangers and those that would give him a chance and I felt once I had finished this book that you realise how far Jay has come but on that journey he has become the genuine chap that radiates from our television screens.

This is a book which could be used as an example of social history of growing up in the seventies and eighties in Britain, it is not a book that will tell you the secrets of The Repair Shop because there are some things which need to remain an institution. And I can think of no better foreman for it than Jay Blades.

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Making It is published on 13 May

Jeeves and the Leap of Faith – Ben Schott

Without a doubt I am a fan of Jeeves and Wooster, first brought to my attention from the television series with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in respective roles. I think it is the only time I have actually gone and read a book (in fact more than one J & W story) after watching the programme.

But to this, a ‘homage’ to the great Wodehouse with all what you would expect in a tale of Wooster ups and downs, aunts and Gussie Fink-Nottle’s, Madeline Bassett’s and the Drones Club. If you had a tick list of everything to be included in the book then this ticked all of them.

Having caught up with Schott’s first tale I find myself back with Bertie and him being K.C he is called upon a gain to help His Majesty’s Government. There are some rather unsavoury sorts in black shorts infiltrating the academic world and we are taken to Cambridge via a swift snifter to catch up with the goings on with at the Drones club.

We encounter the fairy like Madeline Bassett who is uncertain of her current beaus commitment to her and eyes up Bertie from a distance.

Aunt Agatha one of the more feared of Bertie’s aunts has a few choice words about his matrimonial status and seeks to rectify it. But when a scheme to perhaps put Aunt Agatha off reveals more than it should it seems Bertie might be able to escape with his status in tact.

Some dodgy turf accountants, taxmen and newt lovers, Bertie finds himself caught up where he doesn’t want to be. Though where ever he seems to be so does the delightful Iona who has caught his eye and also that of Jeeves.

Might things be about to change for them all?

This book is spiffing good fun and just the tonic for any dark, down day when you need some spark of light, some chink of normality, because this is as close as we are going to get to new Jeeves and Wooster stories from Wodehouse. I hope there are many more to come.

 

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. 

Jeeves and the Leap of Faith is out now.  

The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman

In a retirement village where the facilities are seemingly far superior than your average holiday resort, there is plenty to keep you occupied with various clubs, fitness activities, visits and committee meetings. Just a word of warning, do not park where you shouldn’t!

One of the clubs is the aforementioned title The Thursday Murder Club – four members, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim. All of these four bring something different to the club as they investigate unsolved cases from the past.

Elizabeth has connections with pretty much everyone or anyone, she clearly worked in mysterious ways in her past life. Joyce is a former nurse, useful for some of the medical elements. Ron or ‘Red Ron’ as known to many is a former union leader and can antagonise with the best. And quiet Ibrahim, former psychiatrist, who works without and question and methodically to find all the answers.

Of course little do they know, that a murder is going to happen in their little world – but so it does.

Now it is time for The Thursday Murder Club to use all their wit and wiles to solve the murder or at least direct the police in the right direction.

Much will be made of this book simply because of who it is written by. Richard Osman has a very acerbic wit which is evident in this book and for me it resembled a Wodehouse novel in parts, very character rich. There are plenty of references to typical British places, products and behaviours and it very much centres the setting as well as the plot in that of a British cosy crime novel.

The book is clearly dominated by the murder story line but it also focuses on the thoughts and feelings of those in the retirement village as well. The Murder Club all have personal histories of their own and how they come to be gathered all together in this village. Osman deals with it gracefully and it adds a richness to the story.

A great fun light-hearted read which everyone will be talking about. I do hope there is more from Osman.

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. 

The Thursday Murder Club is published on 3rd September.

December Roundup

So another month, another year and another decade and another roundup post!

I think I did a lot of my Christmas reading in the months leading up to December and by the time I got here, I was a bit all Christmased out – if that is even a thing. However you cannot go far wrong with Heidi Swain – The Christmas Wish List, her latest novel and full of all the great things about Christmas and Wynbridge. In my dreams I want to go and live there!

Another place I would like to have lived is Bletchley Park or at least been part of something that changed the world. Rachael Lucas – The Telephone Box Library is a delightful book, full of warmth and touching on historical fiction cleverly which is one of my most favourite things. Add into that a library in a telephone box and what more could you want from a story.

Talking of libraries I was intrigued by Helen Rolfe – The Little Village Library, but was left sadly disappointed, I wanted to know what happened but I wanted to give up on the book. A previous novel I had read by her was good but now I am somewhat put off. Never mind, plenty more books on the shelves.

Including Vanessa Lafaye – Miss Marley: The untold story of Jacob Marley’s sister. This has been on my shelf for twelve months as it was one of last years Christmas presents and seemed wrong to be reading it at any other time than Christmas. So I did, just before I indulged in the new BBC version of A Christmas Carol. I think having read this, I was somewhat more embracing of this rather dark and dirty version.

Also embracing on television was the clearly big budget adaptation of His Dark Materials. These books passed me by when they first came out and I have never read anything by the author. However enjoying the programme I picked up the first in the trilogy. Philip Pullman – The Northern Lights, I started it after two weeks into the series, and soon found I was either reading then watching or watching then reading. The series clearly played about a bit with some of the plot, but I hurried through to the end and found myself not wanting to watch when I knew what was going to happen. I am rather fascinated by the whole concept of Dust, that I now need to keep reading.

Now what I understand will be developed into something for the television at some point, well the rights have been sold at least is Adam Kay’s hilarious memoirs published last year. It was with delight (although I did ask for it) to receive at Christmas Adam Kay – Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas, which can only be described as more tales from life as a junior doctor and the business of working over Christmas.

Hospitals are 24 hour places which leads me nicely onto the new novel from the author of The Lido. I was a bit late to the party with that one but I jumped at the opportunity to read Libby Page – The 24 Hour Cafe. Not sure how to even begin to describe was is a window on people watching, about why people are where they are and how they got there and where they might be going next. Watch out for it, I am sure it will be well spoken about as the ‘second’ novel of Libby Page.

In the past I have been partial to the odd saga, think Sunday night television and so chose this quite at random from netgalley Cathy Mansell- A Place to Belong. A new author to me, but someone who wove a story and kept me hooked as I followed Eva from orphanage, to farm, to city. Delightful.

So there you go December 2019. Though I am reading two books at the moment who may well sneak into this month, and therefore perhaps pop back and see if any others have made it to the list.

Edited to add Robin Stevens – First Class Murder, which is the third in the wonderful young adult series of books which are a cross between, Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie and this one especially is a homage to Murder on the Orient Express. I got the next few in the series to read in 2020.

Ruthless – Cath Staincliffe

Back in 2013, I reviewed Bleed Like Me the second novel to feature Scott and Bailey (yes the ITV Series) and was interested in reading a third. Cath Staincliffe, a lovely lady who I have met and has had written some cracking books delivered a third in 2014.

Shamefully it has taken my another five years to read it. I feel like I should go and stand in a corner somewhere and think about the error of my ways.

So I am back with Gill Murray, life with her son is balanced but her ex husband is just one step away from falling apart in front of everyone and losing everything.

Janet Scott, recovering from the fall out of events in the previous book. Trying to hold together a family.

Rachel Bailey married to Sean, although both I and her are not sure why. She seems suffocated by it and spends a lot of time running.

Rachel was running the night when a blaze erupted at a abandoned chapel, she witnessed the scene but what and who else did she?

The next day, it turns out the blaze was arson and there was a fatality.

Cath Staincliffe takes us straight into the police work, the station, the briefings, the allocation of roles and the cameraride and banter between colleagues. How do you keep all that going when it seems you private life is becoming so difficult.

Then there is another fire and this time there are two bodies.

Are they connected?

Is this the start of something frightening in the area?

With gunshots, confessions, drugs and domestics this book has it all. Well plotted and I hate to say a great example of a ‘police procedural’ novel that I sometimes hear bandied about. Except somehow we manage to get under the skin of the three main detectives and that gives that fragility to humans dealing with some horrific events.

A great read and well worth the wait.

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book albeit five years after publication. 

Ruthless is the third in the series with Scott and Bailey. If you want to read them all then start with Dead to Me and then Bleed Like Me.

Scott and Bailey can be found repeated on ITV3 (in the UK) if you want to see everything brought to life. I only watched a few episodes of the first series, but they are very true to the characters and bring them to life, great casting. 

 

 

August Roundup

And there goes August in a blink of an eye and eighteen, yes eighteen books later! I think that must be a record for me and I am not really sure what I can put it down to.

Well three weeks off work probably helps as does it being too hot to do much else that read. Added to that being away and not having to worry about cooking the dinner and washing the dishes meant even more time to read. But enough of how and why – what have I read!

Where to start as this month has also been the month that I have picked up the most physical books in a long time, as opposed to reading them on my kindle. This started with Agatha Christie – The Secret Adversary which had been languishing on my shelf for a while and it was one of the books chosen for Read Christie 2019 for the month of July so I thought I would get along and read it and tick another one off my Christie List.

Another book on my shelf that has been there a while was Tom Winter – Lost & Found. I had not lost it but found it again and decided it was time I got round to reading it. It still captured my interest from the first moment I picked it up and the gentleness and tragic story that unfolded was wonderfully written. I will look out for this author again.

Clearing the bookshelves again with a chunky one this time – Robert Galbraith – Lethal White. I got the hardback copy for a Christmas present last year and thought I better get round to reading it. Oh how I wished for the paperback version – still a chunky book but perhaps not as dangerous as a hardback. That said I was hooked and dragged it away with me and for the first day I was engrossed enough to keep reading it as I wanted to get up to date with Cormoran Strike and Robin. Now I am and I am ready for the adaptation – starting to be filmed according to Holliday Grainger (interviewed on Radio 2 with Zoe Ball in August). Not sure how long we will have to wait for another book though.

There are some definite gaps on my bookshelves now especially when I picked up Katie Fforde – Recipe for Love. You are always guaranteed a good story with Katie Ffforde and this was no different as whilst I had read a short story featuring these characters I had not understood how we got to the point. It was great to back to the beginning and see how it all started. I am slowly catching up on her oeuvre and spotted an unread one in a charity shop so snaffled it up for when I want something to lose myself in.

Maeve Haran – In A Country Garden was an author I had not read before and I was intrigued by the cover and the premise of the book so picked it up to make another dent in my bookshelf. A laugh out loud book about growing old and coming together to help each other. Not an author I might pick up again but it was a pleasant diversion.

Despite the gaps on my bookshelves there is still plenty to choose from but that doesn’t stop me buying more – well I have to fill those gaps with something! I am not a big fan of my local Waterstones, the books seem to be getting less and less and the other stuff more and more. However, I came away with enough to keep me occupied. Some before I even got out of the shop. Amanda Brown – The Prison Doctor had me hooked when I nipped to have a coffee and a cookie as a treat (well I was on holiday) and finished within twenty four hours, passed to my mum who ploughed through half the book in one afternoon in the garden. Its brutally honest tale was rather like watching “car crash television” and I forever grateful that there are people who do these jobs. These types of books are either a hit or a miss. This was a hit.

From Prisons to Schools with two books I picked up from the children’s section – Robin Stevens – Murder Most Unladylike and Robin Stevens – Arsenic for Tea. School girl tales which I spotted when scrolling through some website and I was intrigued. Think Enid Blyton meets Agatha Christie and you are already halfway there. I picked up book three at the same time but have yet to allow myself to read it. A bit of a risk but still and I am delighted to discover that there are another five plus short stories to catch up on. The covers are great and colourful, the illustrations are top notch and in fact they are totally spiffing stories!

Talking of murder and being ladylike leads me to the next Mitford sister in Jessica Fellowes – The Mitford Scandal. This is the third novel and therefore third sister, Diana is the main character. These are really engrossing stories and you forget how much society overlapped in the early part of the twentieth century and that some these names are still known today.

Now if you mention Ann Cleeves to me, I might say wife of Henry VIII but also Vera the great character she created and brought to life by the sublime Brenda Blethyn. You also might think about Shetland as well. However now we are going to have someone else to talk about in – Ann Cleeves – The Long Call. DI Matthew Venn is the new detective on the block and we are all the way down in North Devon. A man’s body is discovered not far from Venn’s home and a vulnerable adult goes missing. Can they be connected in any way? Even more excitingly this has been optioned for television and we will have another detective series to enjoy over and over again.

Still with me – just over halfway now!

A holiday would not be a holiday without some treats and this book is definitely one of them – Cressida McLaughlin – The Cornish Cream Tea Bus. Normally released in parts I find Cressida’s books make much better reading as a whole and this is no exception. Who would not want to traverse Cornwall in a bus eating scones and clotted cream?

Talking of Cornwall took me to Laura Purcell – Bone China. Well written and with some fascinating elements however, the plot was too fanciful for me and my rational, logical mind always fights such things. The second of this authors books I have read and have felt the same.

Perhaps it is too fanciful for a woman to run off and join the Navy. They can nowadays although they are still very much in a man’s world. But what if it was over 200 years ago and the Navy were off to fight a war. Beryl Kingston – Hearts of Oak, is a reissue of an earlier novel and tells such a story of a women looking for husband as he is surreptitiously press ganged into Nelson’s Navy. Yes that Nelson and yes that battle. As a Portsmouth girl, the places and the local stories resonated with me. A great piece of historical fiction which has some fact woven into the story.

As well as making in dent in bookshelves in shops and home, there are some older requests on netgalley for which I have yet to get to. One of them was Rachel Burton – The Many Colours of Us, now having read it I do not know why it took me so long and why I have not perhaps caught up with her more recent work. An emotive story which you made you see all sides of events and the characters within the plot and you can see how many colours make us all up.

We all have different stories to tell and versions of ourselves but when Anna Darton runs away from home  she needs to reinvent herself and so she does in Joanna Rees – The Runaway Daughter. It is 1920s London and you can be anything that you want to be but your past is always in the shadows and sometimes cannot be outrun.

The past is a funny place to research even more so when it gives you clues to your own future. Katherine Slee – For Emily is a debut novel which I think is going to make quite a noise. The imagery used is carefully thought out and the quietness of the book suggests a time of grief and rediscovery for all.

New beginnings are common themes for many books and in Rachel Dove – The Fire House on Honeysuckle Street this is no different apart from the fact that both Lucy and Sam are starting again and they have to move forward no matter what. The latest from Rachel Dove’s books set in the fictional Yorkshire place Westfield.

And finally……what better place to start reading about Christmas in August than with Phillipa Ashley – A Perfect Cornish Christmas. This book was not overtly Christmassy and had just enough festive cheer and tragedy that was needed to make a very interesting story come to life. No more about it though – you will have to wait a few months to read my review!

Thank you for making it thus far and popping into my little reading world.

I hope you enjoyed your August, I certainly did mine and now as I look to going back to work tomorrow I also look forward to seeing where my reading might take me next.

The Postcard – Fern Britton

Fern takes us back to Cornwall and to a place we have visited before – Pendruggan. If you have read any of Fern’s previous books then you will immediately recognise the characters and the setting. However it can quite easily be read as a standalone novel and will no doubt tempt you to go back and read more about Pendruggan and its residents!

Penny seems to be settled as the vicars’ wife and mother to the gorgeous Jenna, she is also still very much involved in her job as a television producer. She has all she needs in the village, her family and her close friend Helen.

But when her sister turns up to share the news that her mother has died at the same as her popular television programme is cancelled Penny struggles to cope. Her cry for help is noticed but not properly heard and it takes an outsider to realise what is going on as Penny’s past is laid bare for all to see.

Ella is that outsider, she becomes involved in Penny’s life through looking after Jenna as well as working for Penny’s new next door neighbour Kit. Ella though is in Pendruggan for another reason, she has come to speak to her grandmother’s solicitor about her legacy – trouble is Ella is not the recipient that is Ella’s mother who walked out and left Ella and her brother a very long time ago.

This novel for me was really honest as it deals with some rather sensitive issues and I became immersed in the storyline. Penny’s decline of mental health was distressing to read and I wanted to step inside of the book and somehow do something to help. In equal measure I also wanted to step inside and have it out with Penny’s sister about her behaviour. That is how good I think the writing is – when you want to throttle a particular character on one page and sweep up another into a hug on the next.

Along with the main characters there is of course all the secondary ones and the lovely quirikness of village life that jumps off the page along with the setting and the scenery – what more could you want in a book?

A worthy read.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. It has taken me rather a while to get round to reading it. 

The Postcard is out now. The new novel Coming Home takes us back to Pendruggan and we learn more about Ella. 

 

 

 

 

 

Ordeal by Innocence – Agatha Christie or TV

I read Ordeal by Innocence back in 2009 when it was first adapted for television by ITV and they stuck Miss Marple into it. I wanted to know the true story as created by Christie herself.

In light of the recent adaptation this time on the BBC I dug back out the review (posted on Amazon preblog) and have reposted below:

I picked up this as I have done with recent Agatha Christie novels in comparison to the TV adaptations.

Ordeal by Innocence, a recent Marple adaptation is a wide variation on the book. The murderer and motive are still the same and the first initial murder (which has already been committed in the book) is the same, other than that the book has more character depth and obviously no Miss Marple.

The detection of the real killer comes down to more than one person. Huish the original detective on the case when it is reopened by Dr Calgary’s evidence. Dr Calgary also feels responsible in bringing his evidence too late for the one originally arrested for the crime and seeks to rectify matters. Phillip Durrant, Son in Law to the eldest member of the Argyle family also piques an interest in the case, to take his mind off his disability. All members of the family then begin to doubt each other as reality sets in that if their brother (and son) did not commit the murder of their mother then one of them within Sunny Point (previously known as Vipers Point) and within the family did.

Christie uses her wonderful skills as a crime writer to let the reader see each character become unpicked and analysed, as each is dealt with in turn. Even those who have already died when the book begins. Rachel Argyle’s death at the hands originally thought to be one of her adopted sons, the ‘monkey -face’ Jacko is the key to unravelling the rest of the adopted children’s backgrounds. Their hopes and fears are dealt with when the death of their adoptive mother as well as what happened to their birth parents and Rachel Argyles apparent strict hold over them all comes up again as the case is re-examined.

Christie weaves the tale effectively and to the conclusion that the TV adaptation also reaches. The introduction of Miss Marple held more interest for me and I found that one investigator may have made the book more structured for me.

Nonetheless this is a story in the complexity of families, the murder a mere diversion to bring them altogether, no matter how dysfunctional they seem on the surface; do we really know what any of them are truly like when under pressure in being innocent……. it really can be an ordeal.

The latest adaptation was an ordeal. I watched it, because I like to be challenged and I like to have a view on what we expect something to be. And it is great to do mindless knitting to as well.

At times when I was watching it I was unsure as to what I was watching. It was very dark and tried to perhaps be too slick in its delivery. Christie did not need such fakery to set a tone, plot and pace. However I did think it brought out how horrible Rachel Argyle was and the hold she had over her ‘children’. As for the change of killer…….

Read this article – ironically on the BBC website and let me know your thoughts.

I have read somewhere that the executive producer has The ABC Murders as her next project – but that is Poirot and I am somewhat fearful of how that might turn out.

Nonetheless despite these differing reworkings. It creates debate and divides opinion and more than likely means people go back to read Agatha Christie. Surely that remains the main point?

What Happened – Hillary Rodham Clinton

Reading biographies is not a normal choice of reading for me. The ones I do read are mainly due to the person featured as I have enjoyed their work or been fascinated by them at some point. Politically biographies even less of a choice.

So why on earth would I pick up a book about politics, politics of another country?

Curiosity and fascination.

Towards the end of 2017 I saw the said former first lady, Hillary Clinton being interviewed by Graham Norton. Now he is not your normal highbrow political interviewer but that is what made it accessible and the main reason I went to pick up the book.

And I am so glad I did.

First of all I must admit to being rather lost on some of the US politics and I had to go and have a look at how the basic system of American government works. Then I felt a bit more familiar with what I was reading.

But what Hillary Clinton gets to is the heart of the matter – what happened in that US election which has changed world politics and continues to do so. What happens when you cannot distinguish between what is real and what is fake? What happens when you put every last ounce of strength and belief into something and you still come second? And what it is like to be a woman, trying to breakthrough a highly male dominated world.

Approach this book with an open mind especially if you perhaps do not necessarily agree with her politics. I admire the lady who had to go the inauguration despite having lost. She goes in her role as a former First Lady not because she lost. I remember a small video clip of her taking a deep breath, holding Bill Clinton’s hand and walking out head held high.

I admire her for that action – she knows that America needs to come together again whoever is in power.

Her policies are explained in the book and the whole process of how a campaign works – it is quite unbelievable when in this country, an election can be called on a whim and have a whole country voting within six weeks. A lot of questions are asked and this book tries to answer some of them. I got to the part that the National Rifle Association play in American politics/life at the time of another mass shooting in a school in America. I was reading something which was being played out in real life. That is quite unnerving.

I thought she would win in – and I probably wasn’t the only one. But outside influences seem to have infiltrated into the mass media and everyone in America and beyond seemed to be making different decisions all based on mistakes, lies and what this one man said.

What is strong throughout this book is the role of women. Of course Hillary didn’t break the ultimate glass ceiling in America, but I would like to think she has made enough cracks in it for others not just in America but everywhere to see what is achievable for women everywhere.

What struck me was how it seems she must have been in my office at some point – let me explain.

Hillary states in her book about the role women play, especially when they are in a male dominated world. It is the women who makes sure everyone has a drink, asks after families, children, weekends, holiday plans. Remembers birthdays, worries about everyone else before they even get to their self. And when they do perhaps behave away from what others think a women’s behaviour should be – they are called to question on it. They are given labels, because they are emotive about something. They are easily portrayed as weak. The stronger they become the less they are liked.

I work in a male dominated environment, I think less than 15% of the people I deal with are women. I am a woman, I have an opinion, I know how to do my job effectively and efficiently. I will move with the changes, I can come up with solutions and not ones that will appease everyone, but ones that some people will not like. I know the answers to questions that my boss does not. BUT I have to put up with, everyone talking to my boss first to get the answer, to have my answers questioned as being right or not because I am a woman (and in part a civilian). Being ignored when someone walks into my office, as there is a man in there at the time. YET I am the woman that makes the coffee for my boss every morning. I can count on one hand how many times he has made me coffee in the last 16 years. I am the one that remembers birthdays, asks about family and holiday and how weekends have been. I bake the cakes for sharing with colleagues. I am the one that when there is some sort emotional/medical problem with any of the female staff members I have to deal with it. I fight pretty much every day in some way in my working environment.

There is still a long way to go and if reading this book empowers some women a little bit more as it has me, then all that hard work Hillary put in was not in vain. The glass ceiling may well one day be broken – but I have a funny feeling that it is us women who will have to clear up the mess.

A real interesting read, difficult in parts probably because I am not an American and don’t truly understand its political workings. However, read the book from an outsiders point of view and you get whole different experience.

Thank you Hillary.

I have picked a couple of excerpts from the interview in this piece, but if you have the time google/YouTube more clips.