Ooft, what a book! A tale of prejudice, love and the might nature.

Kya, the 'Marsh girl', is a girl abandoned by all. Choosing to stay shut away from all in her families shack in the marsh, Kya avoids all from truant officers to the police.

She finds love and suffers loss. Wonders if her mother will return. Feeds the gulls and tells poetry to the marshland that is her home.

That is until Chase Andrews is found dead with Kya blamed. The evidence? Questionable. The truth? Not what you might think.

The story winds between past, her two loves, and present, a murder trial at which she is at the centre. You feel as if you're really in the marsh, boating through the reeds and watching the glistening water as the birds swoop by. It's clear that the author is a nature writer as these sections describing the marsh were the best.

On the other hand, there were parts of the book which felt disjointed. It's a tale of prejudice, and not just aimed at Kya. For the most part, it feels as though the characters could walk through your door at any moment. Yet, there's a clear discrepancy between the two sides of the story. Whenever the chapters changed to the present day murder mystery, I found myself longing to return to Kya's marsh. It felt as though the dialogue between the cops was forced. A little too 'this must be said here to further this side of the plot' robotic. Even then, it didn't feel like it moved forward until the trial actually began. Nevertheless, this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. Indeed, I found myself as tense as anything reading the trial. Even the idea of Kya being jailed awaiting it, seperated from the marsh so lovingly described-it hurt.

Usually when a book comes highly recommended I feel it lacks something. Maybe it's the hype. Maybe it's just not the right time for me to be reading it. But this book? Goodness this book was good! Twists and turns down to the last chapter. Ooft what a book!

This book feels like a story of two halves. Yes, that's what the book is but I mean that it feels as though it should be two.

We begin with Evelyn. An art historian living with a past girlfriend, who showed up unannounced, through the Second World War. With the war drawing to a close, she hitches a lift with a young soldier to one of the many properties priceless art has been hidden at, all to offer her services. Then that's it. As soon as her fabulous, full of life character enters, she's gone. We don't hear from her again for the majority of the book.

The main portion is decicated to Ulysses, the young soldier, and his life following his chance meeting with Evelyn. He returns to a wife he has no connection with and a child born during his time away that he knew nothing about. It's a story of family, the term oil within brought about by war, the beauty of Italy and a memory of an art historian. Soon, he gains an unexpected inheritance, suggesting a life back in Italy may be his ture goal. And so begins his adventure, setting off to Italy with his mismatched family of friends and a very chatty parrot.

I loved it. But I loved each part individually. I do wish we'd seen more from Evelyn, rather than it being a book about chasing the ideas she brought with her. Ulysses' relationship with Evelyn is not romantic though which made a lovely change. Both stories were fab but a parrot who knows more than the characters do feels like a very different story to an art historian's tale of her European love affairs.

I listened part on audiobook and the rest I read. I found the punctuation and layout of the text confusing at times when reading, often having to backtrack to work out who was speaking, especially when chunks of time seemed to pass with no reference within the text. It felt confusing without reason.

All in all, it's a gorgeous book. It wasn't what I thought it would be having not read the blurb fully and reading on several recommendations but never has a description of a place made me want to up and move their immediately so greatly. Perhaps an unexpected Italian inheritance is just what I need too!

As an ex-nurse who worked largely in emergency services, I can't applaud Adam Kay enough for this book. Written from his diary entries during his time as a junior doctor, Adam provides a valuable insight into the realities of working in the NHS. The nights you leave crying, the deaths you wish you could have prevented, the mistakes made when you're too tired from working to breathe. The free multitude of free hours you work when there's just not the staff to take you off and the guilt and pressure from those around you when you dare say you have to leave for your own and your patients sakes. It's endemic of a problem much larger than any one doctor or ward. Following the pandemic, many are looking to join the medical or nursing professions and whilst I appauld that, I hope those choosing to persue it read something like this first so that they can venture forth armed with the beginning of an understanding into what work within the NHS is actually like.

How exciting can a book about the pandemic really be? This is a diary with a few notes of a year in Louis' life in the COVID-19 lockdown.

At the start, it was interesting to see how somebody else lived through it.

Then, maybe a third in, the middle class aspect got a little much for me. I spent the pandemic worrying about my health, as something with multiple chronic illnesses, and money, following job loss and furlough. With the undertones of not taking the pandemic fully seriously, it felt like a kick in the gut at points. Especially with the updates on the number of deaths. Openly admitting that nobody close to him had died might be making him feel distant from the virus, the family seems to blunder through a half hearted attempt to stay within the rules, like many in similar situations, sick of their children and not worried for the health of sick loved ones I'm sure. I very almost gave up, severely disappointed in something I thought I'd love when the moment they were able they went off on holiday as a family. Though there's frequent mention to their worries about their new filming company, they clearly had the means to get through okay.

Louis spends the majority of the book describing his growing alcoholism. Blackouts, snapping at his children when hungover, a growing distance with his wife. This is never fully resolved for all his speak about knowing it can't go on. It is life after all but something like this should never become an anecdote for a book, it should be looked at throughly.

The end of the book leans into the Tiger King follow up documentary and the behind the scenes of making this. This I enjoyed more but again, how interesting can zoom calls really be?

Overall, it's a very honest account of a man going insane in lockdown, working from home and failing at homeschooling his children. It's not for those who are still reeling with the loss of effects of the virus.

At the very least, it's honest.