Book Review - Heartstone - C J Sansom (2025 #14)

Heartstone by C.J. Sansom
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summer, 1545. England is at war. Henry VIII's invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel. As the English fleet gathers at Portsmouth, the country raises the largest militia army it has ever seen. The King has debased the currency to pay for the war, and England is in the grip of soaring inflation and economic crisis. Meanwhile Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr. Asked to investigate claims of 'monstrous wrongs' committed against a young ward of the court, which have already involved one mysterious death, Shardlake and his assistant Barak journey to Portsmouth. Once arrived, Shardlake and Barak find themselves in a city preparing to become a war zone; and Shardlake takes the opportunity to also investigate the mysterious past of Ellen Fettipace, a young woman incarcerated in the Bedlam. The emerging mysteries around the young ward, and the events that destroyed Ellen's family nineteen years before, involve Shardlake in reunions both with an old friend and an old enemy close to the throne. Events will converge on board one of the King's great warships, primed for battle in Portsmouth the Mary Rose...

Phew. This series of books is not short. 715 pages in this instalment. But another great read. This one takes place during the summer of 1545 with England at war with France and facing an invasion. Once again lawyer Matthew Shardlake gets himself caught up in legal cases that prove to be complicated and dangerous.

Despite being long it's a real page turner with lots of historical information included. I really enjoyed it.

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#SoCS - 8/3/25 - Englishmen

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “open book, close eyes, point, write.” When you’re ready to sit down and write your SoCS post, open the closest printed matter, close your eyes, point to a word, and use it as your prompt. Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Well I used the book that I was currently reading (Heartstone by C J Sansom) and the word I landed on was Englishmen.

It's set during the reign of Henry VIII when England is preparing to ward off a French invasion. 

I think it's hard to define what makes an English man - there were so many invasions previously - Romans, Vikings etc that are any of us truly English?  I have Welsh blood in me from my Dad and Hubby has a mixture of Irish and German in his ancestry so our children are definitely not pure blooded Englishmen.  Being born here no longer automatically makes you English either.  I think we're all just a lot of mongrels really.  

Oops that's probably not politically correct - Crossbreeds.  We're crossbreeds!

Thanks to Linda for the prompt.  Find out what others had to say here.

Friday's Fave Five - 7/3/25

Susanne encourages every week to look back and find the blessings we've had and share them here.  Thanks Susanne.

Here are mine:

1) A hectic but good weekend with my eldest son and his family down from Nottingham and of course that meant we also had my daughter and her family here for a meal each day.  Thankfully we had good weather so the kids were able to get out in the garden - a lot of football was played.

Miles, Nathan, Ella and Noah

Getting them all to pose for a picture takes a lot of cajoling. Noah is holding a picture of Rory and Vinny. They miss them.

2)  

The end is in sight!  I've started to sew the border to my blanket.  Of course I found that I hadn't made enough so I've been knitting that this week.  Nearly there.

3)  A knit and natter session this week helped with getting more border knitted.  We do have a good chat and it's not always about knitting.  This week we did talk about tubular cast-ons but we also covered dying on the toilet, decomposing bodies, Australian Traitors, haunted houses, Agatha Christie and Richard Osman.  And a lovely blanket that one member has made to protect her sofa from her dog!  We always have a laugh.

4)  Hubby has moved all his records and CDs into our new units so the bedrooms are looking less cluttered.  We had to ask for an additional shelf for one of the display units as he has so many CDs.  The guy dropped that off the same day I asked about it and didn't charge us any extra so we were really pleased by that.

5)  I thought I was coming down with a cold yesterday.  I woke up with a scratchy throat and definitely felt below par.  I had a very easy day and, thankfully, today, I woke up feeling fine.  I managed to get out for a walk in the sunshine and I picked up some daffodils in the supermarket.  I do love to have daffodils in the house to show that Spring is definitely coming.

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 5/3/25

Joyce hosts the Hodgepodge here.  Each week she gives us a set of questions to consider and then we can link up and see what other bloggers have said.

1. What do you love most about March? 

The arrival of Spring and the lengthening days.

2. Hey! Did you know March is National Celery Month? Do you like celery? What's something you make (or like to order out) that calls for celery? 

I don't dislike celery but I don't love it.  I'm more likely to eat it in a stew or pasta sauce for example than I am to eat it raw.

3. _______________ is the soundtrack to my life right now. 

Well that would be Hubby either playing some of his records now they are back in place or him playing his guitar.  I'm not one for making a lot of noise but he makes enough for the two of us.

4. Share a favourite motivational quote for overcoming challenges. 

I'm not great at remembering quotes but the philosophy I usually adopt when faced with a challenge is either "just do it" or "just make a start" because I often find the anticipation of something is worse than the actual thing itself.

5. The Hodgepodge lands on Ash Wednesday this year. Do you participate in Lent in some way? If so tell us more. 

Not as much as I used to when the children were younger and we were better at attending Church.  This year though I am determined to be more mindful so yesterday I deleted games from my phone that were really stealing a lot of my time.  I also made a list of things that we need to get done both in the short term and long term.  I do love a list.    

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Definitely feeling more Spring like here - the sun is shining and flowers are blooming.  Makes such a difference.  Even when I'm feeling old - got an invitation letter to apply for my state pension yesterday!