I have quite eclectic tastes in books, but my true love is crime, mysteries & thrillers. From the classics (Conan Doyle, Collins, Christie), to present day authors (Elly Griffiths, P.D.James, Ian Rankin, Jacqueline Winspear). Nothing beats curling up with a mug of Assam tea, a bar of chocolate & a crime novel!

I also love the Classics (Gaskell, Austen, Brontes), contemporary fiction, women's literature, historical fiction (M.M.Kaye, C.J.Sansom, Hilary Mantel), World War I & II fiction, biographies/memoirs (actors,musicians, sports, World War 1 & 2, politics, Interior Home Design/Style aka property porn!).

Dislike Sci-Fi, Horror, Romance & Fantasy (Harry Potter is the exception to this rule!).

I love living on the south coast of England, & am a keen walker. This gives me the opportunity to release books on coastal paths & even in the sea! One sea release was caught after 4 years at sea, by a student who was looking to practice sea-knots, & was amazed to find a book about how to tie sea knots! Don't know what the book had been up to at sea for 4 years, but think a mermaid might have been involved somewhere! ;-)

I also love ballet, theatre, opera, musicals, comedy, music, art galleries, museums & art-house/foreign films. Love watching sport - particularly football (Southampton FC! 😙) tennis (Murray & Nadal!), athletics, boxing, sailing & rowing.

I was beyond thrilled to discover Bookcrossing, and whenever I visit this site I feel that I'm among 'my people'!

My bookshelf does not entirely reflect my tastes, as I often collect books from other genres solely for the purpose of releasing.


Books read in 2016:
The Little Paris Bookshop - Nina George
Keep you Close - Lucie Whitehouse
The Kashmir Shawl - Rosie Thomas
The Neighbour - Lisa Gardner
Mercy - Jussi Adler-Olsen
Even Dogs in the Wild - Ian Rankin
Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith
The Woman in Blue, Elly Griffiths
Carol - Patricia Highsmith
Falling - Emma Kavanagh
Nectar - Lucy Prior
I am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes
Coming Home - Annabel Kantaria
The Year of Taking Chances - Lucy Diamond


Books read in 2015:
Silent Nights (Christmas Mysteries ) - British Library Crime Classics
The Longest Way Home - Andrew McCarthy
The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd
The Borrower - Rebecca Makkai
The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion
The Last Anniversary - Liane Moriarty
The Rose Garden - Susanna Kearsley
Lamentation - C.J. Sansom
The Ghost Fields - Elly Griffiths
The Problem of Evil - James Runcie
The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
Sleep Tight - Rachel Abbott
The Back Road - Rachel Abbott
Only the Innocent - Rachel Abbott
There was a little Girl - Brooke Shields
The Living Years - Mike Rutherford


Books Read in 2014:
Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story - J. Jefferson Farjeon
Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night - James Runcie
Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death - James Runcie
The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith
The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
Wolf - Mo Hayder
Poppet - Mo Hayder
Five Days - Douglas Kennedy
Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn
The Outcast Dead - Elly Griffiths
The Black Isle - Sandi Tan
Dominion C.J Sansom
The Hand that First Held Mine - Maggie O'Farrell
The Man Who Forgot his Wife - John O'Farrell
The Last Runaway - Tracy Chevalier
The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford
Saints of the Shadow Bible - Ian Rankin


Books Read in 2013:
Absolute Beginner - Patsy Kensit
Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
The Silent Wife - A.S.A. Harrison
The Light Behind the Window - Lucinda Riley
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty
Human Remains - Elizabeth Haynes
The Vintage Teacup Club - Vanessa Greene
Dying Fall - Elly Griffiths
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
Villa Triste - Lucretia Grindle
Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
The Missing - Tim Gautreaux
August Heat - Andrea Camilleri
Unseen - Karin Slaughter
Fairy Tale Interrupted - Rose Marie Terenzio
The Sealed Letter - Emma Donoghue
Welcome to Rosie Hopkin's Sweet Shop of Dreams - Jenny Colgan
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier
Margot's Secrets - Don Boyd
Believing the Lie - Elizabeth George
The Queen Mother (the untold story) - Lady Colin Campbell
Dear Lupin: Letters to a Wayward Son - Roger & Charlie Mortimer
My Time - Bradley Wiggins
Standing in another Man's Grave - Ian Rankin
The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin
The Complaints - Ian Rankin

Books read in 2012:
Extreme Rambling - Mark Thomas
The People's Manifesto - Mark Thomas
Pegasus Descending - James Lee Burke
Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky - Simon Mawer
The Behaviour of Moths - Poppy Adams
Instruments of Darkness - Imogen Robertson
Heartstone - C.J.Sansom
One Summer - Rachel Billington
Revelation - C.J.Sansom
Sovereign - C.J.Sansom
Dark Fire - C.J.Sansom
Room - Emma Donaghue
Dissolution - C.J. Sansom
Blue Monday - Nicci French
The Housekeeper's Diary - Wendy Berry
Criminal - Karin Slaughter
Their Finest Hour and a Half - Lissa Evans
Cats - Sarah Kennedy
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
Medicine River - Thomas King
Mischief - Amanda Quick
Hanging Hill - Mo Hayder
The Unseen - Katherine Webb
Summer of Love - Katie Fforde
The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths
The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths
A Room Full of Bones - Elly Griffiths
This Body of Death - Elizabeth George
Belle - Lesley Pearse
How to be a Woman - Caitlin Moran
The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton - Elizabeth Speller
Small Spaces (maximising limited spaces for living) - Elizabeth Wilhide
Before I go to Sleep - S.J.Watson
Absolutely - Joanna Lumley
Beauty Disrupted - Carre Otis