Barbara Kastelin takes us on a passionate exploration, spanning time and space – suburban Wiltshire in the 80s, the sewers below Bratislava, the Amazon rainforest, the post-war Lower East Side, an Austrian Schloss – as we watch Vivien walk in wonder ... and fulfil her potential.
Barbara Kastelin is a story-teller – assured narratives in vivid locations with compelling characters, and a surprise at the end. From the refuse dump sweet music rises, a hungry mountain cavern roars, secrets hide in furniture in a hotel corridor, and a monk lets himself go.
Barbara Kastelin is a story-teller – assured narratives in vivid locations with compelling characters, and a surprise at the end. A dove falls from the Sicilian sky, the green pullover is a problem, a big-nosed statue is abused, while rats pile up in the bedside table.
Hotel Belvedere is a Belle Epoque hotel in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was built by the Krugers and, in the last months of the 20th Century, it is still owned and run by the family
On the centenary of the Russian Revolution, When Snow Fell introduces us with passion, touching charm and a dose of humour to three generations of a family who fled from the horrors in Russia to Oxfordshire, England. When Snow Fell is an intimate story of an eccentric family failing to cope with the UK in the 60s, having been accustomed to the glamour and extravagance of Imperial Russia. Woven with vivid flashbacks to the turmoil in Russia, this is an emotional, character-led account of a cultural clash. This book will appeal to fans of heartfelt family sagas with a strong historical twist. In their Oxfordshire mansion, twins Anna and Antonina try to survive their tempestuous family: their mother Valentina, extravagant financially and sexually; their grandmother Countess Olga, faded in beauty, but shrewd and strong-willed. Money is running out and Olga reluctantly decides to sell the Brodsky family treasure, the Ikon of the Virgin of Kazan. This awakes an old Party leader’s deep-seated grudge, and Vasily Voronov is sent from Moscow to cultivate the Brodskys and to avenge past injustice. The ideologies of Vasily and the family collide, but their shared Russian blood is stronger, and we return to the glittering ballrooms of St. Petersburg and the snowy steppes to discover the long-buried secrets which continue to poison their lives.
Twenty-four engrossing tales of human life, each with a twist in the tail. A collection of bite-sized novellas to enjoy in a busy life of commitments. Entertaining short fiction with an after-taste of surprise and disquiet. “During the hour of perusal, the soul of the reader is at the writer’s control” Edgar Allan Poe . A Bad Lot is a collection of twenty-four short stories. Twenty-four stories each in a different style, set in different times and in different places showing the frailty that humans are capable of. The Neapolitan thief can almost be forgiven, and the lone woman in the Manor house might have been more perceptive about her suitor. The Cambridge lawyer had no guts; lies have short legs in a Caribbean resort. A crush on a police inspector is a poor excuse for some behaviour, and buying a holiday home in the sunny Algarve may have its downfalls but, for her love of dogs, the woman from Norfolk will have to be rewarded in heaven. Whether giraffes have mythical powers is questionable, while being slave to a Nordic god could confuse any young man. Yes, the world around us is full of surprises. We have all come across the feelings these characters in A Bad Lot experience. Our senses record the world around us but, in our brains, it is our frail humanity that overlays the information with illusion – our vanity, jealousy, sexuality, insecurity, love, ambition and guilt warp our perception. This anthology of short stories takes us on an entertaining tour of our capacity for self-deception. Lyrical and clever, they tackle the challenges of our demons.
Twenty-four engrossing tales of human life, each with a twist in the tail. A collection of bite-sized novellas to enjoy in a busy life of commitments. Entertaining short fiction with an after-taste of surprise and disquiet. “During the hour of perusal, the soul of the reader is at the writer’s control” Edgar Allan Poe . A Bad Lot is a collection of twenty-four short stories. Twenty-four stories each in a different style, set in different times and in different places showing the frailty that humans are capable of. The Neapolitan thief can almost be forgiven, and the lone woman in the Manor house might have been more perceptive about her suitor. The Cambridge lawyer had no guts; lies have short legs in a Caribbean resort. A crush on a police inspector is a poor excuse for some behaviour, and buying a holiday home in the sunny Algarve may have its downfalls but, for her love of dogs, the woman from Norfolk will have to be rewarded in heaven. Whether giraffes have mythical powers is questionable, while being slave to a Nordic god could confuse any young man. Yes, the world around us is full of surprises. We have all come across the feelings these characters in A Bad Lot experience. Our senses record the world around us but, in our brains, it is our frail humanity that overlays the information with illusion – our vanity, jealousy, sexuality, insecurity, love, ambition and guilt warp our perception. This anthology of short stories takes us on an entertaining tour of our capacity for self-deception. Lyrical and clever, they tackle the challenges of our demons.
Hotel Belvedere is a Belle Epoque hotel in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was built by the Krugers and, in the last months of the 20th Century, it is still owned and run by the family
Barbara Kastelin takes us on a passionate exploration, spanning time and space – suburban Wiltshire in the 80s, the sewers below Bratislava, the Amazon rainforest, the post-war Lower East Side, an Austrian Schloss – as we watch Vivien walk in wonder ... and fulfil her potential.
On the centenary of the Russian Revolution, When Snow Fell introduces us with passion, touching charm and a dose of humour to three generations of a family who fled from the horror to alien Oxfordshire, but whose Russian souls stayed behind in St Petersburg.
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