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2025

  • Daphne du Maurier: The King's General
  • Deborah Lawrenson: The Secretary
  • Richard Cohen: How to Write like Tolstoy
  • Adrian Tinniswood: Noble Ambitions
  • Adrian Tinniswood: The Power and the Glory
  • Martin Williams: The King is Dead, Long Live the King
  • Gavin Plumley: A Home for all Seasons
  • Robert Harris: Precipice
  • Nigel Slater: A Thousand Feasts
  • Joan Aiken: Tales of London Town
  • Alan Connor: 188 Words for Rain
  • Ben Robinson: English Villages: An Extraordinary Journey through Time

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Cornflower book group

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LizF

I read this a couple of months ago and wondered what you would make of it.

It wasn't quite what I had expected - I was under the impression that it would be about the Italian lifestyle which is something that really appealed to me as a long-term Italophile - and the relationship stuff was not what I wanted to read so I ended up missing out sections of the book.

Cornflower

Exactly, Liz. I too was expecting much more 'Italian philosophy for good living', and I almost abandoned the book when the relationship stuff took centre stage. Title-wise, I think it's been hung on a misleading peg: a basic story presented as more than it actually is.

Annie D

Absolutely agree with your review. I jumped ship half-way through.

Cornflower

Interesting, Annie, that that was the point at which we all stumbled.

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