Review: The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey

This was a brilliant read! The Secret Rooms - A True Gothic Mystery by Catherine Bailey is the result of a tonne of research delivered in a gripping narrative non fiction style that had me telling multiple people about it before I'd even finished.

If you'd asked me if I cared about the life of the 9th Duke of Rutland and his family, I'd have said no. What about the history of Belvoir Castle? I'd probably have given it a Google, marvelled at the impressive architecture, looked at any available images of the interiors and then moved on. So why did I pick this book up? In one word? The blurb! (Or is that two words?) The blurb contained a really good mystery I wanted to know more about and I love when rooms are locked for decades and then re-entered.

In 1940, John the 9th Duke of Rutland was one of Britain's wealthiest men, yet he died holed up in the servant's quarters of Belvoir Castle. Living out his last days secluded in an area comprising five damp rooms, doctors firmly encouraged him to move to luxurious accommodations elsewhere in the castle but John refused.

After his death, John's son closed up the rooms and they remained locked and untouched for sixty years. Author and researcher Catherine Bailey was one of the first to be granted access to these rooms and there she discovered what John had been feverishly working on right up until his death. Of course I wanted to know, don't you?

The Secret Rooms was published in 2012 and it's mentioned in the blurb so it's not a spoiler to say that John was an obsessive collector and had been organising and cataloguing his family's correspondence. The family archive contained hundreds of files spanning nine hundred years of history and contained tens of thousands of documents. On closer inspection, the author discovered that letters for three distinct periods in John's life - in 1894, 1909 and 1915 - had been removed from the collection. Why? Was he trying to hide something? And what was it?

Bailey draws on the contents of the available letters and diary entries in addition to military records and other sources in order to piece together what happened in John's life during these periods that he was trying to conceal.

Belvoir castle is in Leicestershire and built in the Gothic style with 356 rooms and I loved learning about it. It's an impressive looking structure and thankfully the book includes a comprehensive floor plan which was incredibly useful.

"The servants - maids of all descriptions, odd-job men, footmen, the flag man, the hall porter, the telephone boy, the boiler stoker and the stewards' room boy - were seated on the two benches that ran either side of a long table beneath a photograph of King George VI." Page 14

Of course, this wasn't all of the servants, you also have the housekeeper, butler, valet, chaplain, coal carriers, watermen, watchmen, lamp men and more. It's like Downton Abbey on steroids.

"In 1899, the castle had a groom of chambers, a house steward, an usher of the hall, a chef, a pastry chef, a confectioner, a plate butler, a clockman, a steward's room boy - and housemaids, kitchen maids, scullery maids, footmen, odd-job men, and porters galore." Page 169

"In the castle's grounds, there were hundreds more: grooms, stable lads, dairy maids, studmen, brewers, rat catchers, mole catchers, millers, mechanics, gardeners, groundsmen, gamekeepers, river keepers, huntsmen, kennelmen, slaughtermen, stockmen, horsemen, farm hands and woodsmen." Page 169

Bailey explains that in 1914, there were thirty Dukes - the highest honour the Crown could bestow - and they enjoyed privileges that seem scarcely credible to today's reader. This family had ruled over the neighbourhood for eight hundred years and some of the scenes described of family funerals held on the estate were extraordinary.

The astute among you will have noticed that one of the gaps in John's family correspondence occurred during the First World War and it's fair to say that a good deal of the research Bailey relates takes place during the war. This may deter some readers, however the author strings the narrative together so well by including telegrams (damnation!) and letters that keep the pace trucking along and on topic.

Bailey takes the reader along for the ride and has distilled John's life to a ripping tale and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to the bottom of the three 'secrets'.

In the Acknowledgements section of the book, the author thanks her mother Carol for deciphering and typing out the many thousands of letters she found. I have so many questions about this and the book that I'm currently trying to track down the author in order to invite her to conduct an interview with me for Carpe Librum. Catherine, if you're reading this, I'd love to know more about your research for this book so please get in touch.

The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey contains family secrets and cover ups, overzealous matchmaking, military movements and misdeeds, cryptology, pathological behaviour, aristocratic abuse of power and a privileged way of life many of us cannot begin to comprehend.

Highly recommended and an unexpected contender for My Top 5 Books of 2026.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Pulling by Adele Dumont

* Copy courtesy of Scribe Publications *

Opening with a disclosure about her fingernails, readers picking up The Pulling quickly discover that Australian author Adele Dumont is extending an invitation to join her in exploring her deepest darkest thoughts, warts, fingernails and all. Dumont even tries to warn sensitive readers:

"Before I go on, let me say that the chapters that follow this one may be hard for you to bear; unless you are of my kind, doing what I do would hurt you." Page 49

In a deeply personal memoir that can also be read as a collection of essays and vice versa, author Adele Dumont shares that she has trichotillomania (from the Greek word for hair + pull + mania), however she never uses the word. Instead, she prefers to call it pulling in order to highlight the physical nature of the act and the mental pull of the urge; hence the title of this book.

"The whole process was mysteriously painless: the hairs on my head, I learned quickly, sit as shallowly as birthday candles in a cake, can be removed as effortlessly as a grape can from its stem." Page 49

As you can see, the writing is evocative, yet the private thoughts regarding her upbringing and relationship with her mother and sister often gave me pause on the page as I marvelled at her self awareness and deep level of disclosure. Many reminiscences were tough, but this one made me smile in recognition:

"She scorned the kind of parents who fed their kids anything too processed or frozen or coloured. When my sister wanted devon for her lunches like all the other kids, my mum would screw up her face and tell her: 'They make that stuff out of embryos.' She didn't seem to trust the kind of people who bought play-dough or birthday cakes from the shops instead of making them from scratch..." Page 24-25

The Pulling is an intimate self examination of habit, ritual, compulsion and obsession without slipping into pointless navel gazing or devolving into a pity party. In an intensely personal narrative, Dumont attempts to explain her detailed thought process before, during and after a session of pulling, the affects it has on her physical body, her confidence levels and self esteem.

When describing the feeling of being in the pulling state, Dumont shares:

"So captive is this state that from within it I have watched my phone ring on the carpet beside me, but been incapable of reaching across to pick it up. In my laundry, which adjoins the lounge room, once I accidentally forgot to unplug the sink that the machine drains into, and listened to the sink fill then flood, knowing - at some level - that it must be seeping into the carpet, but helpless to interrupt it. When I've been overtaken, I have stood and watched water in my porridge simmer away into the air, and then the oats turn black and crackle with dryness, and my ears fill with the smoke alarm's shriek." Page 72

I can't even begin to imagine how paralysing this must be and just how debilitating the condition is. Exploring a topic that brings us shame and examining the matter from all sides within the relatively safe confines of our own minds is admirable, but to put pen to paper and share them with the world takes immense courage and I was in awe.

At times reading like a diary or confessional, I did find myself wondering why the aspect of alopecia wasn't explored. If I noticed a friend or colleague with a patch of missing hair or an ill fitting hair piece, I would - incorrectly in this case of course - assume it was alopecia and move on. I wouldn't ask questions to clarify my assumption, judge the person negatively or bring attention to their condition in the same way I wouldn't comment if a person has visible vitiligo or male pattern baldness. I wish the author had considered this as a reason she was never 'confronted' or 'outed' by those close to her; although I'm prepared to accept that perhaps she has and it just didn't make the final edit.

The Pulling was hard going at times, strictly due to the intensely personal nature of the disclosures and the feelings they stirred up. In reading the author's accounts, I found myself better understanding the mental gymnastics underlying other compulsions like gambling which was insightful. Dumont is optimistic about the future, trying to reduce her triggers and pull less:

"Here is the basic truth: I wanted to stop pulling, but I also wanted to pull. And one of these desires was always stronger than the other." Page 183

I can certainly relate to the contradictory nature of our thoughts and how some desires are in direct conflict with others; the desire to be healthy and the desire to eat foods that don't aid in the achievement of that goal. The pleasing introduction of a life partner and their close relationship with the author gives the reader hope M will be able to provide the strength and support she needs:

"I had long thought of the hypervigilance and deception my condition required as being a barrier to intimacy. But now I saw another dimension to my secret: its disclosure could be a means of offering intimacy." Page 239

Dumont shares many personal epiphanies and self discoveries and I applaud her courage in making them public. I also found myself wondering how it will be received by those who know the author well while hoping it aids in her healing. This collection won't be for all readers, but there's much to be gained within the pages of The Pulling by Adele Dumont and I won't be forgetting it in a hurry.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

P.S. The book also touched on a few of my favourite topics: Rapunzel Syndrome, bezoars, hair as identity, the religious and historical significance of hair and more. Those interested in hair might like to check out my review on Hair by Scott Lowe.

Review: The Lady Di Look Book by Eloise Moran

* Copy courtesy of Hachette Australia *

Princess Diana is one of the most famous women in my living memory and her legacy continues today, more than a quarter of a century after her death. There is a revival in Lady Diana inspired fashion choices and I find it interesting that many of the women following the trend were born after she died in 1997. Perhaps Princess Diana is to this generation what Marilyn Monroe is to me, a captivating icon of a not too distant era. Princess Diana's public and private life were scrutinised in life and continue to be analysed after death and yet a fresh perspective via her wardrobe choices and fashion statements was too appealing to resist.

Eloise Moran is a fashion journalist and her Instagram account @ladydirevengelooks is so successful, we are now lucky enough to view her work in this collection, The Lady Di Look Book - What Diana Was Trying to Tell Us Through Her Clothes.

Beautifully presented in a wonderful hardcover, this collection showcases many styles and fashion choices as Moran documents Diana's life with her accompanying essays. As the author admits, Moran was only 5 years old when Princess Diana died in 1997 and came to look up to her as a fashion icon much later, after experiencing her own breakup. I think there's a lot of theorising and projecting going on by the author - and the rest of the world - when it comes to imagining what Lady Diana was thinking or feeling in these photographs but aren't we all guilty of that? I know I am.

This book has been described as a 'smart visual psychobiography' and I'm not embarrassed to admit I didn't know what this was. Apparently a psychobiography is a biography that aims to understand an historically significant individual through the use of psychological theory and research. I wonder if The Lady Di Look Book is my first psychobiography. I think it'd be fun to find out so I'll need to go back through my reading list. In the meantime, if you know any you think I might like, please recommend them in the comments section.

If you enjoyed this review, you might also enjoy my review of Our Rainbow Queen - A Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and Her Colourful Wardrobe by Sali Hughes. It seems I have developed an interest in the fashion of the Royal family and I'd love Eloise Moran - or Sali Hughes for that matter - to produce a book about the Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine Middleton.

If you're an anglophile, photographer, fashion guru, influencer or history lover (wow, this book appeals to many different audiences) then I highly recommend this.

Thanks to the publisher, you can also Look Inside before deciding to read this for yourself.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Spotlight: Survivor - Life in the SAS by Mark Wales

Intro

Long before I became a book reviewer, I served in the Royal Australian Navy. I've reviewed several military memoirs at Carpe Librum over the years, but today I wanted to shine a spotlight on a powerful memoir coming out this week.

Survivor: Life in the SAS by Mark Wales is published by Pan Macmillan tomorrow and you might remember the veteran - and now published author - from the TV show Australian Survivor in 2017. I enjoyed the season immensely and was happy for Wales when he married his on-screen sweetheart Samantha Gash later in 2019.

In 2013, I had the honour of interviewing Major General John Cantwell AO, DSC and in his words, Survivor: Life in the SAS is 'searing, humbling and uplifting... Mark Wales is a true inspiration.'

If you're looking for a moving and inspiring memoir about courage, redemption, transformation and purpose by an honest Australian, look no further.

Blurb

How do you rebuild your life when you've hit rock bottom?

Mark Wales thought his life would end in a cornfield in Afghanistan.

Mark and his SAS troops emerged from that scorched battlefield twelve hours later, his mentor gunned down, his dream career now a nightmare. Over four deployments of intense warfighting, Mark watched the line between right and wrong become blurred. When he left the SAS he was adrift, crippled by guilt.

On a mission to rebuild himself, Mark turned his life around. He fought his way into the gates of a US Ivy League business school and into the boardrooms of top-tier international corporations. He spent years navigating failure in a quest to find new meaning in life. With every setback Mark counterattacked, discovering the tactics and tools needed to become more resilient, and to find happiness, belonging and purpose.

Told with gripping suspense, humour and touching warmth, Survivor is Mark's extraordinary life in and out of the SAS, a story of resilience and a testament to the power of transformation.

Author Mark Wales

Bio

As a teenager growing up in the mining towns of Western Australia, Mark Wales had a zealous ambition; to join Australia's most revered military unit, the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS). He achieved his goal, embarking on a professional career that would eventually lead him to Afghanistan. There, as a troop commander in charge of 30 elite soldiers, Mark led combat missions deep behind enemy lines.

 

Today, he is an accomplished corporate speaker, an apparel business founder and owner, and proud family man. Mark lives with his wife Samantha, and young son in the Dandenong Ranges, Victoria. Visit Mark's website for more info www.markwales.com.au 

Interview with Sandy Macken, author of Paramedic - One Woman's 20 Years on the Front Line

Author, Sandy Macken

Sandy Macken is the author of Paramedic - One Woman's 20 Years on the Front Line and she joins me today to chat about her memoir, her career as a paramedic and her reading habits.

Thanks for joining us Sandy. What was the most challenging part of writing your memoir Paramedic? I wanted to give the reader the opportunity of walking with me step by step through some of the toughest jobs I have faced. I had to completely immerse myself in the thoughts and feelings of every single moment in order to achieve this. 

One particular chapter was so stressful in the writing and editing that my hands would become sweaty and my nervous system become quite activated. (Can you guess which one? lol) So I had to pick and choose the right times to do the writing, because I knew that it would be a bit of a ride for me. Along with the challenge would come the gratitude, for the peace and good health I was enjoying, so it was both "bitter sweet" and that is the point of the book; to inspire that balance of heart and mind of both our challenges and the blessings that often hide among them.

What advice would you give to those aspiring to become a paramedic? Know that the job will grow your soul and that can be hard work but well worth it. Strive to keep an open heart.

What training do you need to undertake in order to become a paramedic? What are the different levels/titles/ranks you progress through?
Nowadays most people come in after a three year degree in paramedicine. The levels progress from trainee to qualified paramedic. There is then a competitive application process for those wishing to further specialise. There are various specialisations including "Intensive Care" which the stories in the book reflect. Other areas of specialisation include Extended Care and aeromedical as well as Special Operations which is similar to a rescue role.

What do you wish the public knew when it comes to receiving treatment from a paramedic or calling an ambulance? 

A calm environment and honest answers is helpful. There is really good medical advice given through the triple zero number.

What are the most common mistakes good samaritans make when giving first aid before an ambulance arrives on the scene? 

I probably don't see most of them. Simple helpful measures and timely calling for an ambulance is best.

Have you ever delivered a baby?
Been there a few times! A job that always raises the heart rate. I helped a woman give birth on a bench seat outside hospital at 5.00am on a cold winter morning. That was the day I learned that it is possible to give birth sitting upright on a chair. And that birthing women are completely awesome.

Do you ever need to go to court as part of your job?
Yes, I have taken the stand a few times. It isn't a regular occurrence, but I have been called as a professional witness, mostly for violent crimes.

Do patients you’ve assisted ever ask to meet and thank you down the track? How do you feel about meeting patients you saved?
Yes. It is AMAZING to meet the patients. I have had a couple of experiences that were quite beautiful. What really struck me is how different a person looks when they are close to clinically dead. That experience is something that I take with me forever too, so to meet that person, whom I had the privilege of helping in such a dramatic way for me has been incredibly moving and sometimes part of a healing journey too. It is often a great success, to preserve life for someone. The gift for me is that incredible sense, that life is so precious.

What’s your favourite way to unwind after a difficult shift?
Swim in the ocean. It has a cleansing effect second to none. It lifts my spirit.

What kind of books do you enjoy reading?
Books that educate and inspire me.

What are you reading at the moment?
Our baby is five months old, so reading time since her birth has been a shared delight. We are reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett.

What was the last truly great book you read?
I have to say The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. A classic tale that teaches me something new every time I read it. Another one I read to my daughter.

Thanks for joining us Sandy and for all the good work you do in the community. Paramedic is published by Rockpool Publishing.

Review: The Name of Death by Klester Cavalcanti

RRP $29.99 AUD
Published 24 April 2018

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *

Klester Cavalcanti is a top investigative journalist in Brazil and The Name of Death is the result of more than seven years spent interviewing the Brazilian hitman guilty of killing 492 people.

Told in a narrative non-fiction style, Julio Santana is 17 years old when his story opens with his first 'kill' in 1971.

What unfolds from there is a true crime account of Santana's life which is informative, eye-opening and sad. What I found immensely frustrating though was a jump in the timeframe of 20 years or so, which means we missed an important part of his life which included meeting and marrying his wife and having children.

Julio Santana's story then finishes in 2006 with no update to tell the reader what he's been up to these past 12 years.

These major gaps in Julio Santana's life made his story feel disjointed, and having been so invested in his teenage years, I wanted to know how he was living his life now.

The Name of Death by Klester Cavalcanti is recommended for fans of the true crime genre.

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Review: Pentridge - Voices from the Other Side by Rupert Mann

* Copy courtesy of Scribe Publications *

Pentridge Prison was a hulking and menacing structure of bluestone walls and guard towers and operated as a prison in Melbourne for 150 years. In 1997 it was closed and since then parts of the prison have been demolished and the developers have moved in to revitalise the area.

In an effort to preserve the history of Pentridge as much as possible before it was made unrecognisable by developers, Rupert Mann undertook a 5 year project to capture the testimonies of former staff and inmates. Pentridge - Voices from the Other Side is the result and contains personal stories from a variety of people alongside many photographs of the now deserted and run down prison.

I enjoyed reading the 14 interviews with former prisoners and staff, however some of them were understandably heavy going and required a good interval of time before I was ready to move on to the next one.

Given Rupert Mann is a photographer, I was expecting the photographs to be of better quality and composition. However when I learned he didn't have permission to photograph Pentridge, it became clear he was probably trespassing, short of time and therefore unable to take the equipment he might have liked.

Included in the back of the book was a breakdown of each of the divisions at Pentridge - including purpose, capacity and floor plan - which would have been better served at the front of the book.

Ultimately I'm thankful to Rupert Mann for preserving the history of Pentridge in these interviews and wish Pentridge had been preserved as a museum. Pentridge - Voices from the Other Side by Rupert Mann is an important book and recommended for readers of history and true crime and fans of abandoned places photography. Yes, it's a thing.

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Commando - The Life And Death Of Cameron Baird, VC, MG by Ben Mckelvey

* Copy courtesy of Hachette Australia *

Australian writer Ben Mckelvey has done a great job telling the reader about the life of Cameron Baird, VC, MG in The Commando - The Life and Death of Cameron Baird, VC, MG. With the help and blessing of Cameron's parents Kaye and Doug Baird, Mckelvey gives us an insight into the life of Cameron Baird, killed in action in Afghanistan in 2013.

Posthumously awarded the 100th Victoria Cross, Cameron Baird, VC, MG is one of Australia's most decorated modern soldiers. Mckelvey takes the reader back to Cam's childhood as a talented young football player, joining the Australian Army and his career as a soldier.

Here's a quote from Page 46:
"When building a modern soldier, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) prefers to start from a somewhat razed foundation, so in their early days at Kapooka the recruits can do no right. No matter how they make their beds, clean their bathrooms or fold their uniforms, they will have done it incorrectly. There will be punishments, and very loud vocal objections at their ineptitude. They are not permitted to contact their family or friends for the first week, though they are encouraged to write letters to loved ones back home."

And on Page 47:
"This is all part of ADF strategy. After an initial burst of harsh discipline, recruits are allowed to progress their skills, and to take pride in their development. This is when Cam began to feel a love of soldiering that rarely dampened ever after."

I easily related to this, having joined the ADF earlier than Cam and survived the rigorous Officer training at ADFA to go on and serve in the Royal Australian Navy. Prior to reading this biography, the name of Cameron Baird lived in my mind alongside those other greats of the Australian Army, Ben Roberts-Smith and Mark Donaldson, but now I have a sense of the man, the son and the soldier and what made him a hero. 

According to the CO of 2 Commando Regiment, Cam "will never be forgotten by his regiment, his Army or his nation." In writing this biography, Ben Mckelvey is helping to make sure of it.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Trauma Cleaner - One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein

* Copy courtesy of Text Publishing *

I watch a tonne of cleaning and hoarding shows; you name it, I've probably watched at least one episode. (See below). So, when I learned there was a biography about Victorian based trauma cleaner Sandra Pankhurst, I was immediately onboard. And that was even before I learned just how fascinating a life she has led. In her life, Sandra has had several names, been a husband, father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman and trophy wife. 

Sandra is now a trauma cleaner with a business in Frankston, Victoria (Specialised Trauma Cleaning STC) and deals with cases of hoarding, deceased estates, flood, fire, crime scene clean up and more.

Author Sarah Krasnostein has known Sandra for several years and has done a great job documenting Sandra's upbringing and complex life, given her subject's unreliable - and sometimes, complete lack of - memory. (I shared the author's anger and frustration at the end when she learned her subject still wanted to donate her estate and remains to a University instead of her newly re-discovered son. Argh!). Sarah's persistence and determination to tell her subject's story, warts and all, definitely shines through.

Early in the book on Page 16, Sarah writes of Sandra:

"She has been intuitively righting her environment - cleaning it, organising it, coordinating it, filling in gaps where she can, hiding them where she can't - since she was a child. It is her way of imposing order on her world and it brings her profound satisfaction."

The biography unfolds in chronological order, with client stories interspersed between the chapters and it flows well. I wanted more of the client stories - and the way in which Sandra changes their lives - and a little less of her own backstory, but I think that's just personal taste. 

There's no doubt Sandra has led an amazing and unusual life, but it's her work as a trauma cleaner and business owner that interested me the most and I was left wanting more.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

P.S. Here are just some of the cleaning and hoarding shows I've enjoyed watching over the years: How Clean is Your Crime Scene (watching on Netflix at the moment), Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners, How Clean Is Your House, Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife, Call the Cleaners, Clean House, Hoarders and Hoarding: Buried Alive.

Review: Beyoncégraphica - A Graphic Biography of Beyoncé by Chris Roberts

* Copy courtesy of Murdoch Books *

For an unauthorised and unofficial biography, Chris Roberts has managed to assemble an informative and satisfactory biography of Beyonce here. Bound in a very attractive hardback edition, Beyonce's epic rise to fame unfolds in a combination of stunning photographs, intricate infographics and chronological chapters.

Her time with Destiny's Child is covered well, and I was keen to learn more about her hard work ethic and the success of her early days.

Beyonce's romance and subsequent private marriage to Jay-Z is included as is the release and success of all of her albums. Beyonce's world tours are covered and her extensive philanthropic work is also mentioned.

Many of the infographics were unexpectedly detailed and a few were a little difficult to work out at first. My favourite infographic of the book showed how much it costs to maintain Beyonce's body per year and the amount of money she spends on her hair was out of this world. (Particularly given I had just received a haircut that cost me $27).

The photographs are impressive and definitely capture Beyonce's beauty and allure as an icon for feminism and girl power around the world.

In summary, I recommend Beyoncégraphica - A Graphic Biography of Beyoncé by Chris Roberts to fans of Beyonce and her back catalogue of music; those interested in the music industry; readers with an interest in feminism and music, and those curious about the rise and influence of celebrity in our society.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Review: Never Alone by Debbie Malone

* Copy courtesy of Rockpool Publishing *

Having read and enjoyed Clues From Beyond by Debbie Malone last month, I picked up Never Alone this month hoping to learn more about Debbie and her psychic gift and certainly wasn't disappointed.

In case you don't know, Debbie Malone is a psychic, clairvoyant and medium and was the 2013 Australian Psychic of the Year. She started to see spirits after experiencing six near-death experiences (NDEs) and Never Alone takes the reader through her life from the time she experienced her NDEs and started seeing dead people, to when she began using her gift to help victims of crime.

Debbie's experiences working with Australian law enforcement are equally frustrating and rewarding and reading Never Alone is a great introduction to understanding Debbie's psychic talents.

Debbie says:
"Being a medium can be a very rewarding vocation but at times it can be hard to cope with the responsibility of having knowledge but not being able to do anything about it. I have come to realise that I am only the messenger and it is not my place to save every person that I get a vision about. I think some outcomes are predestined - however, that doesn't take away my frustration and pain when I feel that I haven't done enough to help someone in need". Page 193.

Debbie's gift seems like both a gift and a curse, and I admire her strength for continuing to put herself out there; never charging for working with Australian police departments. The cases she works on seem to haunt her (see what I did there?) but jokes aside, I'm not so sure I'd be able to handle myself with the same strength and equanimity she does.

I have a personal reading with Debbie Malone in September and I'm really looking forward to that, but in the meantime, stay tuned for my upcoming interview with Debbie very soon. If you have any questions you'd like to ask, feel free to leave them in the comments below or email me if you want to submit them privately.

I highly recommend reading Never Alone, and while Clues From Beyond can be read as a stand-alone, I'd begin with this one.

My rating = *****

Carpe Librum!

Winner Announced: Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell Jr

Thanks to everyone who entered my Empty Mansions giveaway, entries closed at midnight on Friday 21 November and it's time to draw the winner (drum roll):

Hols24

Hols24 chose Melbourne as the best location for a luxury mansion. Here's her entry: 

Melbourne. Probably in Brighton near the beach. Then I could have huge luxury parties with French champagne and oyster stations and we could dance the night away in my grand ballroom. The views over the water would be breath taking and I would hire my mansion out for functions like weddings and other grand parties.

Congratulations Hols24, please email me with your postal address by midnight Friday 28th November and I'll send your prize to you right away; a brand new copy of Empty Mansions - The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark by Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell Jr.

Thanks again to all those who entered and to Allen & Unwin for supplying the prize. 

I'll be running another book giveaway soon, so stay tuned and Carpe Librum!

Review & Giveaway of Empty Mansions - The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark by Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell Jr

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin for review *

Until I came across Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr, I had never heard of Huguette Clark and her story intrigued me right away.

With a fortune of almost $300 million dollars, this shy and reclusive American heiress spent the last twenty years of her life cooped up in a hospital room, despite being perfectly healthy.

An eccentric woman who gave $30 million dollars in gifts to her nurse and wrote cheques to others almost every day, Huguette had a love of cartoons and often watched The Smurfs and The Flintstones.

Huguette was a musician and painter at heart and owned many priceless artworks including paintings by Degas and Renoir. She also collected hundreds upon hundreds of dolls and dollhouses. Huguette owned several magnificent homes, although hadn't stayed in some of them for decades.

When Huguette Clark died at the age of 104, 19 family members tried to get their hands on her money. Paul Clark Newell Jr is a relative of Huguette and together with Bill Dedman bring us the details of this amazing woman and her life in Empty Mansions - The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.

A fascinating read which had me diving for Wikipedia to see what her dolls or mansions looked like, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Empty Mansions. If my snippets above piqued your interest at all, you'll love this one too. See below for details on how to WIN your own copy.

My rating = *****

Carpe Librum!

Giveaway Details
To enter: to WIN your very own print copy of Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell, valued at RRP $32.99, answer this question: if you could own a luxury mansion in any city in the world, where would it be? Leave your answer in a comment below to earn one entry.

Additional entries:
- Follow Carpe Librum on Google Friend Connect or subscribe by email for 3 additional entries (each)
- Follow @carpe_librum1 on Twitter for 2 additional entries
- Tweet this for 2 additional entries: I just entered to WIN a copy of #EmptyMansions by @BillDedman thanks to @carpe_librum1
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Closing date: entries close at midnight on Friday 21st November and the winner will be drawn using random.org and announced here. The winner will have 5 days to claim their prize or another winner will be drawn.

Good luck everyone!

Review: Working Stiff - Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek & T.J. Mitchell

* Copy courtesy of NetGalley*

Judy Melinek, M.D spent two years working and training as a Forensic Pathologist at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and Working Stiff is her memoir of this period in her career.

Melinek takes us through many real cases, including: accidents, murders, suicides, death from natural causes and more.  She worked the sorting tables throughout the September 11 recovery and gives a touching yet harrowing account of the process of finding human remains, cataloguing them and returning them to family; anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.

Working Stiff reads like an intimate conversation with Melinek.  Every time I had a question, she answered it, and it felt like she was telling me about her work as we passed the time on a long car trip.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Judy's husband T.J. Mitchell has an English degree from Harvard and is a stay-at-home Dad.  Why he's listed as a co-author on Working Stiff is beyond me.  Presumably Mitchell read and edited many drafts of Working Stiff for his wife while it was being written, but don't many partners and spouses do this?  He even had his own acknowledgements, argh!!

This was a minor sticking point though, and I thoroughly recommend Working Stiff - Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner to those who enjoy forensics and are genuinely interested in the work of Medical Examiners.

Best memoir of the year for me!

My rating = *****

Carpe Librum!

Please note: since writing the above review, author Judy Melinek has contacted me to let me know that she gave her husband a journal and he wrote the book, making it a 50/50 effort.  I'm grateful for this clarification.

Review: Get Well Soon! My (Un) Brilliant Career as a Nurse by Kristy Chambers

I just finished a brilliant memoir from Australian nurse and first-time writer Kristy Chambers, entitled: Get Well Soon - My (Un) Brilliant Career as a Nurse.
Kristy has a typically down to earth personality and an Aussie sense of humour that shines through in the pages of her memoir.  In Get Well Soon!, Kristy primarily discusses her nursing career, and includes some moving accounts of looking after patients suffering from terminal illnesses or patients from the various departments she has worked in over the years.

However, sprinkled in with these sobering accounts are the funnier moments of nursing which had me snorting and laughing out loud with relish. Her chapter called 'Shit' was quite memorable and the story called 'The Tampon' is also worth a mention.

At a mere 248 pages, I breezed through Get Well Soon! and was incredibly moved by many of the patient stories Kristy shared.  I'm so glad she achieved a healthy balance between humanity and humour and her natural down to earth writing style made her memoir so accessible.

I've been recommending Get Well Soon! widely since I turned the last page, and everyone I've talked to about it seems to want to get their hands on a copy.

My Rating = *****

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Maid's Tale - Life Below Stairs As It Really Was by Rose Plummer with Tom Quinn

Rose Plummer was born in 1910, had a very poor upbringing and entered service as a maid at the age of fifteen. The Maid's Tale - Life Below Stairs As It Really Was is her own story of this time as told to Tom Quinn.

Rose isn't shy about including everything, the full extent of the poverty experienced in childhood, sharing a bed with her siblings, an outdoor toilet with her neighbours and petty theft to get by.

In adulthood she doesn't hold back from telling us about her flirting with soldiers in the park (which made me giggle) and the butler spit polishing the silver which the 'family' then used to eat their dinner with.

These are personal highlights, however the majority of the book enlightens the reader about domestic service during this period; how the hierarchy of servants was structured, the delegation of tasks, what food each level of servant generally ate and the perks for each.

Rose shares her personal story of entering service, her first house, then moving on to a bigger house and how it differed in terms of work. She also provides commentary on the impact of the second World War on domestic service and the changing opinions in society with regard to women in service and indeed her own feelings on this.

What is achingly clear is that the work of a maid was backbreaking and tough, and the expectations of the families of the time or Mistress of the House do seem to us to be harsh and cruel now.

I've always had a fascination for the 'life below stairs', but since the highly successful TV series Downton Abbey, there seems to be an abundance of books on the topic of servants, their duties and life experiences, enabling me to explore this further. If you're a fan of the series like me, then The Maid's Tale - Life Below Stairs As It Really Was is a great book to satisfy your own desire for more information on this part of English history.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Review: Back From The Dead: Peter Hughes' Story of Survival and Hope After Bali by Patrick Lindsay

October this year - 2012 - marked the 10 year anniversary of the Bali bombings. A total of 202 people were killed, 88 of which were Australian.  

With this 10 year milestone in mind, I wanted to read some material related to the event and turned to Patrick Lindsay's biography of Peter Hughes, in Back From The Dead - Peter Hughes' Story of Survival and Hope After Bali.

Peter Hughes was interviewed (you can watch the interview on YouTube) in hospital immediately after the bombing and despite his obvious burns and poor physical condition he diverted attention away from himself with his: 'I'm alright, there's plenty of people worse off than me' attitude. It was this attitude that made an impression on the memory of many Australians and ensured Peter was to become irrevocably linked to the Bali bombings.

In fact Peter was so badly burned and his face was so swollen that he was mistaken for a Maori rugby player and his own son watching the interview footage didn't recognise him.

Patrick Lindsay introduces us to Peter, his son Leigh, a few of Pete's friends and takes us back to Bali before the bombings to step us through the planning of the devastating terrorist act. Leigh kept a diary during his Dad's hospitalisation and excerpts are incorporated throughout the book which make for very real and confronting reading. Lindsay has also interviewed Pete's mates and fellow survivors of the bombings and included their survival stories as well.

Back From The Dead is inspirational and deeply moving. Reading it makes you feel proud to be Australian as you read about medical staff pulling together and volunteering during the crisis, the incredible journalism and of course Pete's fight for life, dying and coming back to life three times.

There was one particular segment that really stuck with me though, when Pete is talking about being bathed twice a day by the nurses, and how they had to be cruel to be kind on page 219:

"...But I knew that they had to do it and a lot of time they were crying because they were doing it, you know, you could see it in their faces.  They weren't happy doing it but they had to block it out. The nurses were just incredible people."

Amazing and inspirational for anyone suffering from chronic pain or a setback. Surprisingly Peter Hughes doesn't harbour bitterness, anger or a desire for revenge over the Bali bombings and makes a brilliant role model for many Australians. Thoroughly recommended.

My rating = *****

Carpe Librum!

Click here to read the interview Patrick did with Carpe Librum.

Review: A Lifetime in the Building - The Extraordinary Story of May Savidge and the House She Moved by Christine Adams

This is the true story of Miss May Savidge and her determination to prevent her historic house in Hertfordshire from being bulldozed in the name of progress. She attended numerous council meetings, wrote thousands of letters and when the council would not budge, she decided to save it by painstakingly dismantling it piece by piece and slowly reassembling it in a new location in Norfolk.

Being an engineer and brought up in hard times, May did most of the construction work herself, but it meant that progress was slow, and months ran into years. Conducting business by written correspondence as well as dealing with unreliable tradesmen didn't help the matter.

Sadly May didn't live to see the finish of her house, although author and daughter-in-law Christine Adams made a promise to May in her final moments and saw to it that the house was finished. (May bequeathed the house to Christine and she now runs it as a Bed & Breakfast).

May Savidge was a hoarder and Christine was amazed, astonished and overwhelmed at the stuff May accumulated over the years. Not a single bus ticket or newspaper had been thrown away, but even more than that, the belongings had been carefully and accurately filed away. May had made copies of her letters and kept notes regarding the progress of the construction of her house.

Christine remembers these years with a pang of guilt, and wishes she had offered to help but May was stubborn and wouldn't accept any help. May's story received attention in several newspapers which generated a lot of mail and it seems she made an effort to answer each and every letter.

After her passing, her house generated interest when a member from the Antiques Roadshow came to look at an antique desk. The staff member became more interested in the history of the house and May Savidge than the desk. The interest in May and her house snowballed and Christine agreed to write a book, and now we have: A Lifetime in the Building - The Extraordinary Story of May Savidge and the House She Moved.

I thoroughly enjoyed this biography, and found Miss May Savidge to be a courageous, persistent and patient woman. I could not have willingly chosen the living conditions and hardships she put up with year in and year out; although from time to time I also found the whole situation a little frustrating. I wish she'd had some help and had time to enjoy it when she was alive, but it wasn't to be. A great read.

My rating = ***1/2

Carpe Librum!

Review: 365 Thank Yous, The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life by John Kralik

As the title suggests, 365 Thank Yous is a book about the year a simple act of daily gratitude changed author John Kralik's life for the better. John is a lawyer and the memoir commences in 2007 with his life in tatters; he's divorcing his second wife, his law firm is financially struggling, his children are distant, his health is deteriorating, he's living in a shoe box and doesn't know how to dig himself out of the mess he's in.

After a walk in the mountains on New Year's Day in 2008, he is inspired to be thankful for what he does have and decides to write 365 thank you notes in the coming year. Slowly but surely his life begins to change for the better.

This is an easy and inspiring book to read and anyone needing a pick-me-up will enjoy it. Some of the notes are included, making it easy to flip to any page and begin reading. Thankfully Kralik doesn't claim that thank you notes will save the world, but he did discover that he became a happier and healthier person when he focussed on what he did have rather than what he didn't. He also noticed a change in family members, friends, colleagues, clients, neighbours and others around him when he began to send his thank you notes.

Reading 365 Thank Yous - The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life inspired me to write more thank you notes in the future, and was a gentle reminder to be grateful for what I have.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Review: Walking in Light by Kelvin Cruickshank

For those that don't know, Kelvin Cruickshank is a psychic medium from the TV show Sensing Murder hosted by Rebecca Gibney. Born and raised in New Zealand, Walking In Light is his first book and it was a quick and easy read.

In the beginning, Kelvin takes us back to his childhood and I was surprised to read about the Maori influences in his upbringing. His gift frightened him as a child and it was interesting to find out he is a chef by trade and did this for many years, changing jobs quite often.

I was shocked to read about the negative influence of a particular person in Kelvin's life, although I'm glad he included this in his autobiography. It was clearly an important turning point in his life, contributing to his family breakdown and I admire his decision to include it.

I love watching Sensing Murder and I enjoyed learning more about Kelvin and his past, although this book isn't for everyone. His second book, Bridging the Gap was published in April 2011, and I'd definitely like to read it in the future.

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!