A moose can be dangerous ...wolves just look at you
Philippa Forrester’s life in Wyoming has been eventful, and not just
because of close encounters with the
local wolves, inset
worried now. And because it’s a slow grower, we’d find it early.”
She admits she used to worry, though, when any of her children complained of a headache.
“My other son was getting headaches and I just whipped him into the same optician’s. The first thing he checked was his optic nerves and came straight back out and said, ‘You don’t need to worry’.” It was an extremely traumatic experience, but she says she feels fortunate now.
“You feel really blessed, which is an odd thing to say when your son’s had a brain tumour. But we saw what other people were going through with their children and we got to walk out of the hospital with our boy. There’s something really humbling about that.
“Family is so important and I know it doesn’t last very long and they need their mum. It reinforced that for me. I was so grateful for all the time I’d had with them.”
She’s now working on a novel centred on wolves and hopes to teach presenting skills on a variety of platforms. Would she ever be tempted to return to the UK?
“I’m always open to it, but it’s not something I’ve really thought about,” Philippa reflects. “It would be tough and we often talk about it as a family, and I think we all suspect we’ll end up back in the UK, but when I don’t know.”
On The Trail Of Wolves by Philippa Forrester is published by Bloomsbury, priced £16.99.
MISSING 15-year-old,
Lily, is not at the heart of Hazel Barkworth’s fascinating if sometimes flawed first novel.
It is more the journey into the frustrated and obsessive mind of teacher Rachel whose daughter
Mia is one of Lily’s friends.
Rachel’s relationship with her daughter is becoming increasingly strained during a heatwave, as Mia develops into a young woman with a mind of her own.
Mia’s father Tim is working away and Rachel misses her husband, envies her daughter, and longs for something lost.
The characters aren’t always developed enough for us to fully care about them – but they’re never two-dimensional – and the location is unusually, but perhaps deliberately, vague.
It’s an interesting character study though and seems like a novel that would be worth another read.
HEX uses a series of notebook entries to detail the life of listless New York biological science PhD student Nell who is lovesick over university mentor Joan Kallas. When she’s suddenly expelled, her life comes undone.
Instead of an unravelling plot thread, Hex offers a
snapshot into the tangled lives of Nell, her friends, and Joan; characters fully realised and emphatically flawed.
Despite its toxic undertones, the promise of poisonous drama is absent and the poetic style is at odds with Nell’s bluntness. Hex is ultimately a study on human relationships and the many manifestations of love, obsessive, unrequited lust and in marriage.
INSPIRING people to think, ‘I want to be strong, like her’, is Hayley Shapley’s ultimate aim in this compilation of female strength success stories. From the original Olympic Games in 776 BCE, to modern-day CrossFit Games, this is a journey through history, illuminating the women and events that paved the way for female freedoms today.
A collection of 24 contemporary female athletes, across a range of disciplines, are also showcased as “a new kind of female beauty” – one rooted in capability and accomplishments.
In exploring the ‘femininity is frailty’ and ‘masculinity is muscularity’ dichotomy, this book proves the boundless ability of who, and what, a woman can be.