Madeleine

Beautiful Stranger - Madonna

Long Tall Sally - Little Richard

Puss 'n' Boots - Adam Ant

Walking back to happiness - Connie Francis

Oh what a lovely website, I'm going to follow her on FB, I'm desperately trying to learn how to crochet and made a stripey blanket in double crochet but that's my limit! Her colours are lovely and she's made me want to read Brambly Hedge even more,especially the winter one! Maybe it's a nostalgia thing, as she says there's something very comforting about them, I like to think of Jill Barklem as the Essex equivalent of Beatrix Potter, and it's a shame the books aren't as widely known. Good luck with the blanket, keep us informed of your progress!

Sugar baby love - The Rubettes

A lovely book, one of my favourites. Hope she likes it.

Pour some sugar on me - Def Leppard

House of Silence by Linda Gillard - this was one of my Christmas reads and my final read of 2025, though it did just tip over into the New Year as I finished it on Jan 1st but as it was only about 20 odd pages I'm putting it under 2025 reads, which means I read 25 books in 2025. Gwen works as a wardrobe mistress in film and TV, and starts dating a young actor in her current production, Alfie Donovan. The relationship seems to be going well and then he invites her to spend Christmas with his family - his mother is a famous children's author with a best-selling series of books about a young boy, apparently based on him. Alfie warns Gwen that he's a different person when he's with his mother and 4 sisters who are all very different, but as Gwen has no family of her own and was facing the prospect of Christmas alone as her housemates are both away, is delighted to be asked, and so she finds herself at Creake Hall. Alfie's mother, Rae, has suffered from mental illness for much of her life and rarely ventures out of her room, though when she meets Gwen she seems to like her. Alfie's eldest and youngest sisters still live at the house, and Gwen finds herself drawn to both of them, stoic and sensible Viv, and young Hattie, who loves sewing and working with fabric, which appeals to Gwen who works with fabrics all day long, and this led to some interesting facts about quilts, I never knew there were so many different types! The middle two sisters, Deb and Frances, arrive for Christmas and also liven things up. Throw in an attractive gardener/handyman and Gwen finds herself surrounded by an assortment of characters, but it soon becomes apparent that this isn't exactly a happy family, and Gwen finds herself wondering what exactly the family set-up is. To say anymore would give too much away, but lots of themes are tackled here, such as family, belonging, grief and dealing with the past. An interesting read, with some believable characters, most of whom I liked, although my one quibble is the way in which the book veers between Gwen narrating and then becoming the 3rd person, which I felt jarred slightly and I'm not sure if this worked, for me anyway. Overall a good read. 7.5/10

Breakfast in America - Supertramp

One more, he's presumably over indulged a bit...actually this was when they were first putting up the sculptures so I guess he wasn't properly installed at that point.

I guess this is the female equivalent of a man buying a train set for his son/grandson/nephew etc so that he can "help" the child play with it, though he ends up using the set himself!

Am I the only one who still doesn't know what day of the week it is? It's Friday at the moment!🙃

Good luck, enjoy your reading!

They are lovely aren't they, I might invest as well. Would love to see the blanket's progress, good luck!

Happy New Year everyone 🎇

Funnily enough I did a walk today in Epping Forest and there's a brambly hedge trail on at the moment, as the author was local, sadly she's no longer with us. I agree the illustrations are lovely, I'd never heard of it until we first did the trail in the early summer, they're very cute! I'll post some pics.

Hold me now - The Thompson Twins

Me neither, but then I've got so many.....

Don't you want me - The Human League

I want your love - Chic

I like this one, I've always thought that this was the best of the Perez books, I don't think they ever filmed this one. Enjoy!

Breaking up is hard to do - Neil Sedaka/others

I Heard it through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye