The Lesson

Today Elizabeth St John reviews The Lesson, a book of poetry by Bobbie Coelho. And there's a giveaway! The author has kindly offered 2 copies as a prize. To be in with a chance of winning, simply leave a comment below or on our Facebook page. 

Good luck!

I have always been interested in poetry, so when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2002 I turned to poetry to make sense of what was happening.

Following on from Finding the Light and Reflecting the Light, I feel I still have something to say. In this collection I've touched on a mixture of themes, some shocking, others light-hearted, and all personal to me. For example, one poem is based on the tragic events of Aberfan in 1966, while another was inspired by my sister’s wedding anniversary.

I hope you find something within The Lesson that resonates with you too.

Bobby Coehlo’s Anthology, The Lesson, is an exquisite collection of prose and poetry that speaks of the passage of time and all the ways we measure and capture memories and moments. Within each beautifully wrought piece of writing runs a common theme; time is insubstantial, life is fleeting, and that to be conscious of the precious moments – a wedding day, a granddaughter’s daisy chain – is to capture the essence of life itself.

Although no one likes to be reminded of inevitability of death, Ms Coehlo does so in a simple, direct and sometimes funny way, and her captivating choice of subjects evokes memories of love and loss shared by all. At the same, she is not afraid to confront death full on, and some of her more wrenching poems – a tribute to the Aberfan disaster, a musing on the battlefields of Ypres, cut to the quick.

Poetry is an opportunity to share memories, feelings and philosophies across multiple points of view, and in my opinion, Ms Coehlo’s work is an important reminder that all of us are on the same road to a common ending. She just expresses it better than most. Aptly named “The Lesson”, this anthology is one to be kept close at hand to read over and over. A memorable collection.

About the author: Bobbie Coelho was born near Norwich and now lives in Hampshire with her husband   She has two stepsons and two granddaughters. She has always enjoyed poetry, but after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2002, she was particularly compelled to write as a way of putting things into perspective. Bobbie ahs written two other anthologies: Finding the Light and Reflecting the Light: she is a is a great fan of Forces Poetry (flowforall.org), and has had work published in two of their anthologies, Voices of the Poppies and Poems of the Poppies.

“My wish is that when people read this book, it will make them think a little more and reflect on their journey and realise how luck we are to have the sun on our backs.

Links: Website; Amazon.

About the reviewer: Elizabeth St.John was brought up in England and lives in California. To inform her writing, she has tracked down family papers and residences from Nottingham Castle, Lydiard Park, and Castle Fonmon to the Tower of London. Although the family sold a few castles and country homes along the way (it's hard to keep a good castle going these days), Elizabeth's family still occupy them - in the form of portraits, memoirs, and gardens that carry their imprint. And the occasional ghost. But that's a different story...

Elizabeth's Historical Fiction series "The Lydiard Chronicles" follows the fortunes of the 17th Century St.John family through royal favor and civil war. Her latest novel, By Love Divided, continues the story of Lucy St.John, The Lady of the Tower. This powerfully emotional novel tells of England's great divide, and the heart-wrenching choices one family faces.

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Sunday Wrap Up: Week ending June 22, 2014

Sunday Wrap Up: Week ending June 22, 2014

Please be sure to see below for the giveaway!

Louise E. Rule interviews Bobbie Coelho for The Review's Author Interview

Bobbie Coelho has written a beautiful poetry book called Finding the Light. When you open the book the first thing that you read is her short biography:

Bobbie Coehlo

[B]obbie Coelho was  born near Norwich and now lives in Hampshire with her husband and two stepsons. She has always enjoyed poetry, but after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2002, she was particularly compelled to write as a way of putting things into perspective. Bobbie is a great fan of Forces Poetry (flowforall.org), and has had work published in two of their anthologies, Voices of the Poppies and Poems of the Poppie[s.]

"My wish is that when people read this book, it will make them think a little more and reflect on their journey."


Welcome to The Review's Author Interview Bobbie.

You say on your Amazon Author's Page that writing poetry has saved you from negative thoughts and that you feel that, in these difficult times it could be a route for others too. Would you like to tell the readers why writing poetry has saved you from negative thoughts?

I found that poetry helped me to put words to my feelings; not only that, but I could use the poems to hopefully give people a way of empathising with me. Parkinson's Disease is very misunderstood, poetry has also helped me explain what it is like.

On your Goodreads Page you say that your favourite poem from Finding the Light is The Essence of Me. It is an extremely profound poem Bobbie, If I may quote a small portion:

[M]y spirit could last evermore

But my body is not playing - you know the score

Many a person has written me off

But no one can make me sto[p]

All your poems seem to have a statement or message regarding determination of some kind. Would you agree with this?

I think a lot of them strike a chord with some people; it makes them think. Most of my poems have a story behind them, but the main message is; it is always later than you think. Don't put off doing things - do them now. Enjoy life, every day is a blessing.

Check out what else Bobbie has to say right here.

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Please welcome Carol McGrath and Rebecca Hazell to the Review! Take it away ladies!

Today I am interviewing Rebecca Hazell, who lives and works in Canada, and who is the author of a superb trilogy set in the 13th century, a story of adventure and a superb heroine as Russia is invaded by the Mongol hoards. If you enjoy big novels such as The Game of Thrones you will love her books. They are my great discovery this year. We both read Russian literature and history at university, Rebecca in the US and myself at Queens University, Belfast, so it is no surprise that I love these novels. In fact, I enjoyed the first two so much I asked Rebecca for an interview, and here it is.

What inspired your trilogy The Tiger and the Dove?

I wasn't so much inspired as gripped by the scruff of the neck by its plot when I was about 20. That was 40 plus years ago, and I finally had to give in, do the extensive research, and then write the three novels. When I began, I thought only of one book, but it would have weighed more than A Suitable Boy.

Tell us a little about it.

The three novels are three sections of a memoir written by the heroine, Sofia, a former princess of Kyiv (Kiev) in 13th century Russia. They are more or less intended for her daughter, but they are also a form of catharsis for Sofia, who has led a most unusual life that mirrors the many significant events of her era. The first novel, The Grip of God, begins with her capture and enslavement during the Mongol invasions. The second novel, Solomon's Bride, covers both the final years of the so-called Assassins, who were devoted to overthrowing both the Mongols and the Sunni Islamic establishment, and King Louis IX's first disastrous crusade. And the final novel, Consolamentum, carries her from Antioch to a ruined Constantinople, and then west into France where the Inquisition is burning Cathar heretics at the stake. All this is merely the background for a dramatic plot with many fully fleshed characters; in fact, the plot is driven as much by character as by event. 
 

Can you give us a quick snapshot of your writing day?

My writing day has been a mix of researching in libraries, and online once the Internet became available, contemplating how to say things in a manner reflecting those times, and writing, setting said writing aside, revising, and then revising some more!

You know you want to read more about these fascinating books! Go for it!

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Here's an excerpt from Carol's review of The Grip of God…

Set in the 13th century as the Mongols sweep across the Russian steppe and beyond, The Grip of God, the first novel in a brilliant epic trilogy, is one of the most interesting historical novels I have read in 2014.

Princess Sophia is placed in danger when the invaders threaten Kiev, the greatest Rus stronghold and cultural Mecca as The Rus Golden Age fades. The reason for this is internal division amongst Rus princes and the Mongol threat as this very united disciplined warrior people sweep across Asia into 13th century Europe.

Once Kiev is threatened Sophia’s merchant prince father sends her to safety in Constantinople. When her party is attacked by Mongol raiders she is spared because of a strange prophecy. She becomes a slave and concubine to Argamon, the teenage warrior son of a great leader. She will bring good fortune according to legend. This is the fabled princess with golden red hair. But hers is no fairy tale. Only twelve years old, she is thrust into a violent world always on the move and as a consequence she and the reader are hurtled breathlessly through events and episodes of exceptional physical and emotional danger.

…and one from Solomon's Bride…


The second novel in Rebecca Hazell's trilogy, The Tiger and the Dove, set in the thirteenth century, fulfils its promise of great characterisation and a wonderful historical adventure. Helped by Arab merchant trader, Selim, Sophia has escaped her Mongol captors along with her handmaiden Anna. This time there is a third important female character, Maryam, significant too symbolically since she is a Jewess living in a Muslim world. All three women are beautifully developed rounded characters with their own narratives.

The story opens evocatively with the words, 'One morning I woke to the muezzin's call and began to steel myself for another long day of questioning.' Instantly the reader is drawn to the excitement of a distant world and an exciting journey. 

To read the rest, and get your name in the hat for a free copy of The Grip of God, follow this link to comment.

Tales of Olde Somerset by Rob Bayliss

Think of Somerset and you probably think of Cheddar cheese, strong cider (scrumpy), straw munching yokels with broad unintelligible dialects, oh, and the Wurzels (for readers beyond these shores they can delightfully be described as a "scrumpy and western" band)… Now I’m not knocking any of these things; I love cheese (I  actually used to be a cheesemaker), I’m more than partial to a glass or three of cider, I even talk like a yokel if I’ve drunk enough of them and, if you ever happen to see them, you will have a good evening's entertainment watching the Wurzels. But there’s so much more to my home county….

Somerset is a rural county framed by rolling hills; the Brendons leading to the wilds of Exmoor to the West, the Blackdowns to the South, the Quantocks and Mendips to the North, while to the east, the land gradually climbs towards the high plateau of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. In between are the fertile  lowlands, known as the Levels, where a constant battle has been waged over the centuries to claim the land from its natural state of lazy waterways and swamp. In neolithic times lakeland villages were built on stilts to cope with the rising waters. The remains of  "roads" across the marshes have been found; one such example is called the Sweet Track. It is a 2km causeway made of planks of oak, ash and lime and is some 6,000 years old.

At the time of the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD, Somerset was split between three Celtic tribes; the Domnonii, Duroriges and Dubunni. After pacifying the southeast corner of Britain, Vespasian and the 2^nd Augusta invaded the future county from the south east in 47AD, taking the great hillforts of Ham Hill and Cadbury Castle. Mass graves at Cadbury show the tell-tale injuries caused by ballista bolts and pila.

The Romans moved north ensuring that the Mendips were secured, due to the lead and silver mines that

were already being worked there. Indeed the promise of Britannia's metal resources may have been one of the reasons for the invasion of Britain in the first place. Rome had an appetite for lead,  which it was used for aqueducts and plumbing. It wouldn't be until the 18th century that lead extraction matched the levels  of production achieved in the Roman Empire. By 70AD the new province of Britannia was the biggest producer of this metal in the Roman world. Production reached such a high level that the province of Hispania (also a lead supplier) appealed directly to the Emperor Claudius, complaining that they were losing business to the newly aquired province.

The mines at Charterhouse, on the Mendips, were kept under Roman military control in order to stave off corruption. During the Iceni revolt of 61AD, there is evidence that there may have been a slave rebellion at the mines, one of the many wild fires that broke out in the province as word of Boudicca's initial success spread. With Boudicca's eventual defeat rebellions such as those at Charterhouse were brutally crushed by the legions. Such events don't carry the fame and romance of Boudicca, yet they were equally desperate. Who were these slaves who dared to defy Rome? Unlike Boudicca their deeds and names are lost forever in the mists of time; perhaps on purpose, as Rome set about imposing its order on a rebellious province.

To read more of Rob's spectacular recounting of history in his homeland, click here.

Go here for last week's wrap up!

Finding the Light by Bobbie Coelho

Please see below for giveaway details!

Well this made a change.  The first volume of poetry to come to The Review Group.  And a fairly polished production it is.

I was told that each of the poems in Bobbie Coelho's Finding the Light has a story attached.  Reading the poems, that quickly becomes apparent.  Most of them are quite short and each one captures a fleeting thought or impression, a memory, a moment.  The result is a sort of poetic scrapbook - scenes from a life, reflected upon and rendered in a neat verse.

Perhaps the best way to describe the collection is to acknowledge - as Bobbie does in the poems - that the poet has Parkinson's Disease.  Some of the poems reveal themselves as thoughtful, and sometimes anguished, responses to the condition.  A recurring theme is the need - realised as a result of being diagnosed with and living with infirmity - to seize the moment and to make the most of life. 

But too many poems on that theme would seem trite.  Bobbie never harps on the illness, never wallows in self-pity.  The awareness of her own frailty appears to have caused her to see things in a new light - both the things that are around her (flowers in a summer garden, a Remembrance Day parade) and those which rise up out of the memory.  And so what emerges is a sort of collage: one image, one idea after another, in no particular order, shards of a lifetime's experience.

Some of those experiences are painful.  "Lost" and "My Premature Baby" deal with a difficult subject, and yet they do so lightly - nothing too mawkish, the emotion welling up through the clear and simple words.  Other poems speak of the anxiety occasioned by having a loved one away on military service, the gnawing worry brilliantly conveyed by "The Knock", the simple pride in our Armed Services, and the traditions relating to our military history, which finds a counterpoint in "A Soldier of the Queen", with its realisation that when a soldier signs up, he or she signs up their whole family.

Friends and friendships are honoured, holidays recalled, snapshots in the family album.  The themes of the volume emerge gradually and impressionistically.  There is the occasional note of what's wrong with the world today? which will strike a chord with many a reader, and sometimes an explicitly Christian message, but otherwise the poems speak for themselves, and they do so with an immediacy that has to be admired.  There is fun to be had in reading through the volume: parents everywhere will agree with the pithy "Teenager" (pleasantly paired with "For Kitty on Her Birthday", which re-establishes the balance), and "Signing Off" is a brilliantly encapsulated statement on married life.  The arrangement of the poems in this neat and carefully copy edited volume means that every page contains a different mood, another emotion recollected in tranquillity.

These are personal poems with broad appeal.  My guess would be that what started as a need - occasioned by the onset of illness - to store memories and record thoughts soon became a therapeutic exercise, finally yielding a collection of impressions and reflections to be passed on.  Bobbie Coelho discovered that she had a facility for capturing that fleeting thing, a moment from a life.  Each poem, then, is like a butterfly caught on the wing and delicately preserved in a glass case.  The simplicity of the language is deceptive.  There's a radiance to each of these short poems.  Each one can be read, savoured, dwelt upon.

It is a rare and precious thing that Bobbie has shared with us here.

Bobbie Coelho was born near Norwich and now lives in Hampshire with her husband and two stepsons.  She has always enjoyed poetry, but after being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2002, she was particularly compelled to write as a way of putting things into perspective.  "My wish is that when people read this book," writes Bobbie, "it will make them think a little more and reflect on their journey."  

Bobbie has very kindly offered a signed paperback copy of Finding the Light for a lucky winner.  To enter the giveaway draw, please comment on this blog or on our Facebook  page.  Finding the Light can also be ordered in paperback or Kindle edition from Amazon.co.uk.




Simon Andrew Stirling is an award-winning scriptwriter and historian currently lecturing in Film Studies at the University of Worcester.  He is the author of The King Arthur Conspiracy: How a Scottish Prince Became a Mythical Hero (2012) and Who Killed William Shakespeare? The Murderer, The Motive, The Means (2013), both published by The History Press.  Simon has just completed his latest historical investigation, The Grail: Relic of an Ancient Religion, for Moon Books and is about to start work on Shakespeare's Son: A Life of Sir William Davenant.  

If you would like Simon to review your book please click on the submissions link at the top of the page.