MRS ENGLAND Stacey Halls (Manilla Press £8.99, 400 pp)
MRS ENGLAND
by Stacey Halls (Manilla Press £8.99, 400 pp)
Ruby May is awarded a scholarship by the Norland Institute to become a nanny. This allows her to leave behind her turbulent upbringing.
A placement with a delightful London family, the Radletts, seems to confirm Ruby’s improved fortunes. But when Mr Radlett’s job takes the family to Chicago, Ruby is unable, for reasons she cannot bring herself to explain, to go with them.
She accepts instead a position caring for the children of Mrs England and Mr England, who are members of a Yorkshire textile dynasty.
The atmosphere in Hardcastle House, the Englands’ isolated home, is unsettling. While Mr England can be friendly and open, Mrs England appears distant from her children and is hostile to the servants.
Stacey Halls is a bestselling author. She conjures a chilling sense foreboding in the Edwardian Yorkshire Saatanic Mills. There, family secrets can emerge from the darkness.
RABBIT HOLLE Mark Billingham (Sphere £8.99, 464 pp)
RABBIT HOLE
by Mark Billingham (Sphere £8.99, 464 pp)
One murder can result in many victims. From an individual’s killing, waves of pain spread out to their family, friends and colleagues. In Alice’s case, witnessing the fatal stabbing of her fellow police officer, Johnno, has led to post-traumatic stress disorder and sectioning on an acute psychiatric ward.
However, old habits can be hard to break. Alice is keenly aware of the flaws of her patients as well as the medical staff. Little does she know that when someone finds a corpse on her ward, her professional abilities will come in handy.
Alice is soon able to solve the case. But her colleagues at the Met seem slow to acknowledge her conclusion, and her medical team actively hinders her investigations. Another person then dies.
Mark Billingham’s tough, compassionate and fiercely funny novel combines a shockingly twisty plot with a scathing critique of our mental health services.
THE HAPPIEST MASTER ON EARTH by Eddie Jaku (Pan Books £8.99, 208 pp)
THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH
by Eddie Jaku (Pan Books £8.99, 208 pp)
Eddie Jaku, who died last year aged 101, described himself as ‘the happiest man on Earth’, a description that he used as the title of his memoir, published when he was 100 years old.
This is a remarkable statement from a man who was subject to Nazi persecution as a young child and then spent many years in concentration camps where his family and parents were killed.
‘I lost my dignity, my freedom and my faith in humanity,’ he writes. He managed to survive thanks to his engineer training, his ability for friendship, and his unfailing spirit.
He was reluctant at first to talk about the horrible events that occurred in the past but he decided that it was important for the future.
This remarkable memoir demonstrates resilience, generosity, and belief in the inherent goodness of humanity.