The Dartmoor Bookworm

Watching you by Lisa Jewell really didn’t disappoint. As I’ve said before I’m a big fan of Lisa Jewell books, they are usually gripping stories and easy to read. This one was both. The story starts with a murder scene but the author doesn’t tell you who it is and this makes you start questioning every character in the story. The story follows the main characters Joey, a newly married women, who with her husband, are living with her brother and sister in law in their house on the terrace which is the main setting of the story. The next main character is Tom Fitzwilliam who lives two doors away with his wife and son. Tom is a superhead who has been brought in to turn around the local academy school. His son, Freddie, is portrayed as a bit odd, constantly watching and photographing people who live in the village and recording their day to day goings on. Hence the “Watching You.” The other main characters are Jenna and Bess who go to the academy. Bess is infatuated by Mr F and Jenna

This month’s stationery theme is “A little ray of sunshine.” It’s very yellow but lovely as always.  In the box this month we have a notebook, a pencil, a set of 5 notecards, stickers, magnets, two art prints, a yellow notebook and some sunflower seeds. The little lemon notebook is going to be really useful. Only this morning at the gym I was thinking I needed something to record what I’m doing. This will be perfect. I love the sticker on the front of these, they really are Happy post, a quiet five minutes sat down discovering what Claire has put into them this month. They never disappoint. If you'd like your own stationery subscription box pop over to the Sherbet Lane website and have a look.

I love Swallows and Amazons, like properly love it. It takes me right back to being a child and the carefree summers we had. I use to run wild at the beach house, up and down the cliff, on the beach, late nights swims, beach bonfires, my child hood was idyllic and I was very lucky to have the beach house. I still am. Summers also c onsisted of watching Huckleberry Finn on telly whilst eating breakfast. It’s funny what you remember, isn’t it. Swallows and Amazons was part of my child hood. I loved the film (1974 version) and the fact it was so close to the book. If only we’d had a little sailing dingy and an island my summers would have been perfect.  I decided to read Peter Duck having not read any other of the series of book. I borrowed it from the library and I have to admit I’ve really struggled with it. It’s just not the same. The characters are all there, including Captain Flint, but the Peter Duck character with his pirate talk just really annoyed me. It kind of lost the  magic f