"oh God, I thought. Please , no, no more, please." Sue Martin

Advantages: A terrifying good read
Disadvantages: Would have liked the book to have carried on longer

... NO WAY HOME SUE MARTIN ?I have always said if you like Maths, get a job in a bank. If you like English???become a teacher or a journalist. If you like abusing kids?..get a job in a children?s Home.? Sue Martin ?No Way Home? I have just finished a wonderful little book, ?No Way Home? by Sue Martin. I don?t know if it is right for me to say that I ?enjoyed? it because of the subject matter, but the 272 pages flew past as I read it eagerly to see how Sue?s life progressed. This is an astonishing biography documenting the life of a young girl from when she was almost three in a children?s home up to the age of seventeen as she struggled to make a normal life for herself. I was absolutely appalled at times of some of the descriptions of her wretched life that I was gasping out loud. Sue was one of six...

oldchem 21.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of No Way Home - Sue Martin

Super Sue serves up a satisfying story

Advantages: Witty, strong plot
Disadvantages: None really

...Violet O'Sullivan, a woman in her twenties, went missing one night in 1953, never to be seen again. Thirty-five years later, her daughter, Daisy, who was seven at the time her mother went missing, decides that she wants some answers. She has struggled to come to terms with her mother's disappearance and needs to know if she left of her own account or if she was murdered. Her father has long been believed to be responsible for his wife's death, but a number of other men also seemed to have had relationships with Violet. Daisy calls in Kinsey Millhone, private investigator extraordinaire, to re-open the case. But someone wants Kinsey out of the picture. Will Kinsey manage to find out what happened to Violet all those years before? This is now the nineteenth book by Sue Grafton that I have read in this series and I have enjoyed...

sunmeilan 19.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of S is for Silence - Sue Grafton

Rita, Sue and a great film too

Advantages: Entertaining film, an interesting look back at life in the 80s!
Disadvantages: Low budget, depressing surroundings, a lot of swearing (if that offends you!)

...Everything about this film, when taken at face value, means it shouldn't work. It shouldn't be funny, it shouldn't be entertaining - but it is! Rita, Sue and Bob too is a low budget British movie, which is set in 1987, so features a lot of awfully dodgy fashions which bring back cringe-making memories: tight white skirts with bows on the back, worn with court shoes, is a particular favourite of mine, especially when teamed with big earrings and what is threatening to be a mullet hair cut! Anywam the film begins when teenager Rita (Siobhan Finneran, currently on our screens as Julie in BBC1's Clocking Off), her slightly mouthier friend Sue (Michelle Holmes, who has been in all sorts of things including Coronation Street and Goodnight Sweetheart) start babysitting for Bob (George Costigan, who most recently showed up in City Central...

Pumpkin 07.05.2001 · Read review
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Review of Rita, Sue And Bob Too (DVD)

O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton

Advantages: We learn more about Kinsey's past
Disadvantages: Confusing, repetitive

......

starjen 19.10.2008 (20.10.2008) · Read review
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Review of O Is for Outlaw - Sue Grafton

Ozzy Unauthorised a biography by Sue Crawford.

Advantages: A very good and informative read
Disadvantages: a little costly as only available in hardback

...Sue Crawford has captured the life and works of Ozzy Osbourne in this very interesting and encapsulating biography. If you would like to know more about Ozzy then this is book should be on you wish list if not your bookshelf. The Author = Sue Crawford is a professional author and journalist. She has written several other books. Search amazon.co.uk to see other titles by her. Sue has captured the true Ozzy in writing. Ozzy is a very loving father and husband and this book brings this to light, especially when his first daughter (Aimee) with wife Sharon was born. The Book Currently only published In hardback by Michael O?Mara books. (www.mombooks.com) ISBN : 1854799991. It is priced at £14.99, but www.amazon.co.uk is selling it for £11.99 so shop around before you buy. Released for sale in August 2002...

PhillWorboys 18.09.2002 · Read review
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Review of Ozzy Osbourne - Sue Crawford

By Royal Appointment

Advantages: SUE TOWNSEND
Disadvantages: Too many Adrian Moleisms!

...If there is one author guaranteed to make me laugh out loud then it has to be Sue Townsend. She has an uncanny knack of writing books that I enjoy reading so much, that the minute I have finished, I want to start reading it over again! Adrian Mole was my first introduction to Sue Townsend and her style of writing appealed greatly to me, it was informal, light and reflective or indeed, indicative of 'society' at the time. Reading the Queen and I was a pleasure from start to finish. it charts the fall and fall of the Royal Family, who are moved to a council estate after a Republican Government takes over. The story is about how the family cope with their new situation (the Queen manages well, Margaret on the other hand fights tooth and nail) and what it does brilliantly is reflect the inner feelings of the Royal family and the notions...

excelsior81 31.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Queen and I - Sue Townsend

Queen of the exclusion zone soap watchers

Advantages: Witty and satirical
Disadvantages: Might offend some

...thanks to the right kind of propaganda. All sorts of ridiculous laws such as banning stepladders are described. I think that Sue Townsend is a republican herself, and I am sure her caricatures will offend ardent royalists but I find them very amusing, as she uses the book to underline her disdain for the royals. The story is set several years after exile. The royals have had to adapt to life as commoners, and it's hilarious to read about the Queen's fondness for Emmerdale, Charles being as barmy as ever and Princes William and Harry acting like ASBO hoodies. Poor Prince Phillip is all but senile and is cooped up in the Frank Bruno nursing home; you can almost feel sorry for him (but not quite). In addition we are given commentaries from a dogs point of view, which renders the whole thing slightly surreal. We are party to conversation...

larsbaby 26.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of Queen Camilla - Sue Townsend

When the Government is totally Barking....

Advantages: Hilarious, witty, a rollicking good read
Disadvantages: Offensive to union jack waving royalists - or is that an advantage??

...I was drawn to this book in our local library by three things; I have read and enjoyed Sue Townsend's work previously, notably the Adrian Mole series, the title "Queen Camilla" intrigued me and the comical caricature on the cover of Camilla Windsor (or whatever she is called these days!) wearing a crown, with a fag hanging out the side of her mouth. So not the cover pictured on Ciao! So what is it all about? It is an irreverent and hilarious look into the (near) future, when the UK has been declared a republic. The Royal family have been de-throned and exiled to an exclusion zone where they live in Hell Close with petty criminals and the obese. Also banished to the exclusion zone are neds (Asbo Alley), single mothers (Slapper Alley), the obese and anyone else the Government considers "undesirable" or subversive?.anyone pretty...

carcraig 05.03.2008 (09.10.2008) · Read review
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Review of Queen Camilla - Sue Townsend

Vice Versa

Advantages: Easy style to read, great characters, some very funny moments
Disadvantages: Way over the top

...Hubby has been a fan of Sue Townsend's many books for just as many years now, but I only began reading them a while ago. Having thoroughly enjoyed reading Hubby's 'Queen Camilla' last year the thoughtful guy bought me 'The Queen and I' this Christmas. Either that or he thought he would stop me from reading all his books. Looking at the cover it had plenty of good reviews on it and claims of 'Laugh out loud funny' and No.1 Bestseller, so what did I make of it? The Queen and I actually precedes 'Queen Camilla'. It begins in England one April, not so long ago, in fact 1992, when the Queen is laid in bed watching the General Election results. Falling asleep, before the final results are aired, she awakes to a republican England. Jack Barker is now the country's leader and the Royal family are to be banished to an enclosed Council Estate...

grafter123 26.01.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Queen and I - Sue Townsend

Sniffing for Clues

Advantages: Images of sunny California
Disadvantages: Reminds you that you live in England

...I had a sneaking admiration for Kinsey Millhone right from the off; the off being A is for Alibi, the first in Sue Grafton?s series of novels featuring the 32 year-old, twice-divorced female private eye from Santa Teresa, California. She?s something of a wit, I?ve discovered, and by page two of C is for Corpse, my initial instincts were confirmed. Describing the down-market gym where she works out whilst recovering from a work-related injury as ?twenty-eight hundred square feet of space smelling like men?s jockstraps?, she wins my further approval; on the one hand for having the temerity to go to the trouble of finding out what men?s jockstraps smell like, and on the other, for being brave enough to admit to it in print. In return for planting that image in my brain, not only can I forgive her for having the cheesiest name in...

silverstreak 14.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of C is for Corpse - Sue Grafton