Review by Amirah Mohiddin of Joanna Nadin’s "Birdy Arbuthnot’s Year of 'Yes'"

Joanna Nadin’s Birdy Arbuthnot’s Year of 'Yes' is an evocation of coming-of-age in the 1960, following Margaret (later known as Birdy) Arbuthnot on her journey to the secret of living with a capital L. It is a novel filled with vividly rendered, eccentric and true-to-life characters.  

Birdy has always rued her fate of living in Surbiton, a suburb in the Southwest of London, far from the excitement of Soho. She knows there must be so much more to life than retaking the Cambridge entrance exams and being an unpaid receptionist to her father’s dental surgery. Determined to make her life more novel-like, Birdy vows to say 'Yes' to every opportunity and chance that comes her way in the new year. So, when given the chance to move to the heart of London, Birdy ventures forth on a new adventure meeting fantastic and fascinating characters each more vibrant than the last. 

Some of my favourite sentences include: '… I’ll never see Charlie again. And oh! I do so want to see her, to be in her orbit. What a girl— no, a woman, she is! A walking, talking exclamation mark! I am not sure what that makes me. Something innocuous, like a comma, perhaps. At best, a semicolon or rogue apostrophe.' 'And I know, too, that I am an exclamation mark. And that this, all of it, is Life with that capital L.'

The pages of Birdy Arbuthnot’s Year of 'Yes' are filled with Birdy’s distinct narrative voice. Nadin captures the voice of a young woman in search of her place in the world in the first few sentences. This voice leaps off the page, almost as if coming to life. Across the novel, we see Birdy going from perceiving herself as 'something innocuous, like a comma' to realising that she, too, is capable of being an exclamation mark. Her journey of striving for independence, growing in confidence and recognising her own worth is beautifully poignant. Birdy’s arc across the novel follows her interactions with the new people she meets: Charlie (later known as Charity), Cal, Rollo, Ted, Val, Aster. Together, they form a found family of sorts, each going through their own transformations thanks to Birdy’s actions as 'Little Miss Fixer.' 

Overall, I really loved the wit, humour and heart packed in the pages of Joanna Nadin’s Birdy Arbuthnot’s Year of 'Yes'. It’s a true masterclass in writing a strong, distinctive narrative voice. 

About the reviewer
Amirah Mohiddin is a published short story writer and an educator of Creative Writing. She has recently passed her practice-based PhD reconstructing female storytellers from Arabic Literature in a young adult fantasy novel. Her short stories have been published in magazines, ebooks and physical books, including Dancing Bear Books, Litro Magazine, Post-mortem Press, The New Luciad and Sanroo Publishing. Her novel, Devoured by Stories, is currently represented by agent Leah Pierre of Ladderbird Agency. 

You can read more about Joanna Nadin's Birdy Arbuthnot's Year of 'Yes' on Creative Writing at Leicester here. 

Review by Penny Walsh of "Moments of Grace: Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry by Scriptorium Writers and Guests," ed. Fiona Linday

This anthology is nicely written and set out, along with the intermittent photographs and art to accompany the works. It is an ideal book if you have only a few minutes to spare a day and want to read something, for each contribution is short. 

I am sure that those who have faith will find something in it for them and enjoy the messages being put forward. 

About the reviewer
Penny Walsh lives in Lincolnshire and is a debut author with her middle-grade children's story Prince Percival's Pesky P.A.N.T.S! of which she has a second instalment manifesting. Penny is also writing a memoir about her journey and battle with severe Endometriosis and IVF, the prologue of which was published in two anthologies Venus Rising and Good Girl, Bad Period.  She has had articles published on Medium.com, was commissioned to write a poem for a local event, and has had a short story published in the anthologies Family Matters and Making Our World Better (both of which were part of the University of Leicester's Attenborough Arts). 

Review by Harry Whitehead of "Syllables of the Briny World" by Georgina Key

Georgina Key’s Syllables of the Briny World offers a poignant and vivid magical realist evocation of Hurricane Ike’s devastating rout of the Texas coastline in 2008. But the book is about more than simply the catastrophe that claimed nearly two hundred lives. It is a novel about relationships. 

Pete is an alcoholic, washed-up fisherman incapable of straightening out for long enough even to spend time with his children, his divorced wife having given up on him long ago. Izzie is eighteen, struggling to come to terms with her queer identity, an unsympathetic mother making her life miserable as she traverses the complexities of her first relationships. Agnes and Earle are retired, upright pillars of religious and moral fortitude. Clementine and her friend Dorie both lost children and are struggling to emerge from grief alongside fallible, if well-meaning, men. And Clementine can see the dead. After her boy, Finn, drowned, she wandered the shoreline trying to reclaim him from the Sea-Mother, hearing his lost voice in the wind and the waves. Now, just as the storm approaches, she sees a ‘Lost Boy’ on the beach, who leads her to her son. No one, least of all her husband, believes her. The Lost Boys, meanwhile, have their own agenda.

The novel gently charts the resilience of the people who inhabit the thin strips of land along the Gulf of (yes!) Mexico, land destined ultimately to be reclaimed by the sea. An environmental novel, then, certainly. But its green credentials are ever-so-delicately woven through the gripping interplay of the various characters' lives. We witness both tragedy and hope unfold amid the ferocious drama of the real events of Hurricane Ike. Highly recommended.

About the reviewer
Harry Whitehead is a novelist and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Leicester where he directs the annual free literature festival, Literary Leicester. His new environmental thriller, White Road, is out in September from Claret Press.