If this book isn't an unputdownable page turner, then I'm the Queen of Sheba.

Have a strong heart! Both Your Houses moves at a rather rapid pace and is based on the lives of two close-knit English families: the Armitages and the Blakes. The Armnitages are the older couple with three sons while the younger Blakes are blessed with two daughters and one son. Both couples offspring never socialise due to the vast age differences,but they are forever spoken of, and asked after when the adults meet regularly at their intimate little dinners at each others homes. Apart from their dinners, the men sometimes meet at Lords for cricket and lunch while the women engage in a little libation after work in London.

In this novel you'll meet Hester Blake, a newspaper columnist; Jonty Blake, a Public Director with an Environmental company; Ann Armitage, a Womens councellor; Bryon Armitage, retired; Rose Black, a university student; Giselle Blake the middle child who is antisocial, bad mannered and low on self esteem; Daniel a student; Sebastian Armitage, who works with a Youth group, Gavin Armitage who runs one of the most impressive and popular restaurants in London; and his younger brother Julian a Public School teacher.

At the head of the story is Giselle better know as Grizzle or Zelda and Gavin Armitage.

When the two meet under strange circumstances in Paris, the electricity is ripping between them so, it's only inevitable on returning to England that the relationship will continue. Gisele leaves her family home to go to London to live with him and their parents are so delighted as they think that this could be the beginning of good things to come. Perhaps a marriage between the two families? Gisele lightens up a lot and becaomes slightly sweeter causing Gavin to fall more heavily for her. But, but his high pressured job does not allow him the quality time he would like to spend with Giselle whose job at the Health store affords her evenings off.

Everything works for awhile until a bombshell is dropped on a family gathering, when Giselle annouces her pregancy. Both families are concerned wondering if she will keep the baby; whether they will tie the knot or what amongst other things. In the meantime Giselle loses her temper and her job, and finds herself with plenty of time on her hands and plenty of time to think.

This pregancy changes this couple as well as the relationship between the senior Armitages and the Blakes. But not wanting to give too much of the story away, may I encourage readers who,like family novels with great depth and have read some of Sarah Harrison's other work, make no hesitation on ordering this book soon. It'a a page turner and you'll be happy that you've read that right here at Amazon.com

Heather Marshall August 13th 2001

When the Director of the University of Eastern Lancashire is discovered dead with a bullet in his head, the relentless and intimidating figure of Detective Inspector Percy Peach jumps into action. His interviewing technique is pure genius as he gleans every possible scintilla of information from his subject.

This is a classic police procedural as DI Peach visits suspect after suspect and slowly puts together the puzzle of who murdered Claptrap Clark. The entertainment lies in Peach's interviewing style, an elaborate act which is designed to keep his adversary unbalanced and in a constant state of nervousness.

Hilarious scenes are provided intermittently throughout the book when Peach reports to his superior, Superintendent Thomas Tucker. Showing as little respect as possible, putting forward outrageous theories and baiting his boss at every opportunity, I found myself looking forward to every meeting with ever greater enthusiasm.

This is a terrific book that provides a very well constructed mystery, investigated by a character who provides consistent entertainment. It's part of a series of books featuring Inspector Peach, which is good news because one book of Peach is definitely not enough.

This is a book written by fans of the phenomena that is Star trek who also happen to be academics - or is it the other way round? Either way, what is offered here is a critical but affectionate study of some of the issues that many viewers and fans believe Star Trek to address most successfully - racism, sexism, colonialism and so on. What becomes apparent, however, on reading this book, is that basing one's critical approval of the series on an assumption that Gene Roddenbery's creation has got it right on each and every occasion is a position that is far from safe. The authors show that in more than one instance the Federation behaves in a manner as questionable as that of its purported enemies. This is especially the case with Star Trek's most powerful villains to date, the Borg (featured in the latest of the Star Trek movies "First Contact") whose aim to "raise the quality of life" is really no different from the Federation's aims, even if the methods employed are quite unalike. In other words, the Borg want everyone to be Borg and Federation Starfleet wants everyone to be (at least in attitude and outlook) human. To take another example, the Klingon Worf is praised by Captain Picard on a number of occasions, but only when his behaviour imitates that of this human crewmates; when Worf behaves like a Klingon (for example when he kills someone in a Klingon "rite of vengeance", an acceptable act in Klingon culture), he is reprimanded. These are valid observations, but sometimes the essays make connections which are more tenuous, such as the one which identifies the android Data with African-Americans in the present century. As a fan and an academic, I can appreciate what the authors of this collection are attempting to do. Whether the essays as a whole would be appreciated (in both senses of the word!) by those fans who are not accustomed to the language of the lecture theatre or text book is another matter, but I have no hesitation in saying that I found it rewarding, often fun and, despite the reservations I have already stated, it is a book to which I find myself turning again and again as I watch - perhaps too frequently - reruns of my favourite show.

If you love stories set in a historical background with fictional characters - you'll love this. It's the story of three very different women from different backgrounds during the First World War. The writing is so eloquent and descriptive that I was living the book as I read it. I could sense the horror of the trenches, smell the awful trench smells, feel sadness, happiness, desolation, all sorts of emotions that the characters were expressing. The flow of narration kept me hooked until the very last page. Sarah Harrison has created unforgettable characters, so much so that at the end of the book I wanted to know what happened to them next. Fortunately, Sarah wrote a sequel "A Flower That's Free" (just as good). I first read "The Flowers of the Field" after graduating High school in 1980 and have read it numerous times over the years. The story still makes me cry in the same places and gasp at the graphic depictions of what WW1 was like for those fighting it. I have to say it is one of the best books I have ever had the pleasure to read!

Overlooking the English village of Church Norton is a leaping horse carved into the hillside many centuries ago. That ancient steed has been the silent observer of the human condition.

In the 1850s, Harry Latimer falls in love with his brother's wife Rachel. A cavalry officer, he sets off for some forsaken place in the Crimea to insure the sun never sets on the English Empire.

In the 1960s, Wyoming resident Spencer returns to England where he fought during World War II. Spencer needs closure to the greatest moments of his life when he gave his heart and soul to Janet.

Singer Stella Carlyle reflects on her life that is marked in her mind by a series of failures. She wonders about her failing music career and even worse her relationship with a married man that is going nowhere.

The Horse and other steeds link these three novellas, but outside of that and locale they have little in common. Though well written, the book is an apparent parable of life using birth, death and rebirth of horses to symbolize mortality. However, the plots seem disjointed and over blown so that except for horse lovers and Sarah Harrison's faithful fans, most readers will find the tales too difficult to connect with on any level.

Harriet Klausner

So little is written about the Nagas - Tangkhuls, Maos, Kabius etc living in the Manipur State, or elsewhere in the north-eastern states of India. So this book doesn't represent 'all of the Nagas'. The modern-day Nagas are warm, friendly, very hospitable and peaceful folks. Music runs in their soul and they've got the voice to match! Yes, they are indeed, beautiful people.

The photographs were amazing . I wondered how they got all that stuff together. I sat for hours going over each one of them,trying to imagine how eachone of them must have been taken by the various individuals in their own time and space. Ok Ok so I got carried away a little, they are just pictures taken by people who had come to the Naga area either as tourist or as administrators but since there are such few photographs depicting the life of the naga people in the begining of the 20th century it was an amazing experience going through the photographs. So much has changed since then, both good and bad and like all tribal society that came into contact with the outside world only in the later half of the 19th century the Nagas also had to go through the usual problems symptomatic ofsocieties going through changes that came too fast at times. And in that process of getting educated and westernized and christianized somewhere along the way we lost touch with certain aspects of our tradition and culture. Lets just say the Nagas were victims of a histirical process demanding too much change. This loss was not just spiritual or intelectual but also material.In fact, to give a small example there was a shawl in one of the photograph worn by the Tangkhul tribe which is now no longer weaved because nobody knows how to anymore.I think it is important to know our roots because only then can we define ourselves and move ahead as a` people' in the ever changing dot com world we live in. This book is about how the world saw the nagasand also an attempt to undestand our way of life(the chapter on Fertility is interesting ) Of course only the Nagas can really know who they really are as people and as a nation but it is enlightening to be defined and analyzed by others especially if it has lots of pictures taken by them and all the good ones are brought together in one such book.(oh! so this is how my great granpa dressedup for the big hunt....) I think now that i have written about it I should buy a copy for my mom. She loves old photographs.