Elizabeth Jenkins: The Tortoise And The Hare

Alba de Cespedes: Forbidden Notebook

Catherine Chidgey : The Axeman’s Carnival

The story begins with a little  magpie chick falling from its nest.

…not even a chick but a pink and naked thing, a scar, a scrap a scrape fallen in roots and wriggling, when I was catching my death and all I knew of the sky was the feel of feathers above me, the belly of black as warm as a cloud above me….

The Eye of Love : Margery Sharp

The Eye of Love is the first book in Margery Sharp’s Martha series. It is followed by Martha in Paris and Martha, Eric, and George. Martha is only nine years old in this first of the trilogy, so while we do not get a great deal of insight into her thoughts (if she has them) her presence is of vital importance to the story even at this early stage of her life.

Basil – Wilkie Collins

Here in my rural fastness the weather is uncertain; one minute the storm lashes the eucalypts, the next the magpies are chortling and the sun sparkles on the leaves. Inside the fire is blazing and we are churning through the wood. Perfect weather to read a good meaty Victorian novel.