To see what others have said about The Hidden Fires, follow the links below. If you’ve read it, please do add your own review on Amazon, Goodreads or other retailer sites. If you would like to feature the book in your publication, site or broadcast, please contact Polygon Books for a review copy.
REVIEWS
7 Dec 2023 ‘Glover’s own voice – thoughtful, honest, funny, and utterly full of feeling – shines.’ Francesca Donovan The Great Outdoors Magazine
26 May 2023 ‘… vividly perceived and powerfully expressed…’ John Dempster Inverness Courier
April edition of Scottish Field – 5 star review: ‘…a pilgrimage that is touching, elemental, brave and deeply affecting.’
10 March 2023 “This book will sit comfortably and deservedly on the same shelf as Nan Shepherd’s masterpiece.” Alan Massie The Scotsman
March 2023 “An evocative and immersive slice of travel writing about how the beauty and grandeur of the Cairngorms spoke to her soul.” Waterstones
27 Feb 2023 “A truly inspiring and beautiful book about the Cairngorm mountains, our natural world, and beyond.” Star Book, Review by Liz Robinson, Love Reading
9 Jan 2023 “Glover writes so well about mountains.” David Robinson, Scotsman Ones to Watch in 2023
INTERVIEWS, FEATURES & BROADCASTS
16 April 2023 Conversation with Breege Smyth on Sunday Morning Breakfast with Breege for Oban FM. Search here under that title and date. We are at 21 minutes in.
14 April 2023 Conversation with Nicola Meighan on The Afternoon Show for BBC Radio Scotland. We’re at 1:43.
10 April 2023 Conversation with Joanna Penn on The Creative Penn podcast about Writing Nature Memoir (The full transcript is also available there to read)
13 March 2023 Talking about Nan Shepherd with Paul Murton on Grand Tours of Scotland’s Rivers Series 2, Episode 1 (My segment is right at the beginning)
12 March 2023 “As I follow her in recounting the ‘grace accorded from the mountain’, I sense her blessing.” My article in the Courage issue of Books from Scotland
11 March 2023 “On my first ascent of the great mountain, I could barely believe how benign she was.” Extract from The Hidden Fires about Braeriach WalkHighlands
8 March 2023 “Like Shepherd, my love of mountains is as old as my memory, but the ground of my childhood was the Himalayas.” Remembering Nan Shepherd on International Women’s Day – Cairngorms Voices – Cairngorms National Park
02 March 2023 Hidden Fires Book Launch Strathspey & Badenoch Herald
26 Feb 2023 Interview with Tony Kearney and Lise Wortley on Radio Scotland Sunday Morning at 1:40
26 Feb 2023 “Setting out on the journey not knowing the destination.” Interview with Alice Hinds Sunday Post
18 Feb 2023 “These peaks were her friends and she loved them.” Profile by Neil Drysdale Press & Journal
Feb 2023 “Nan Shepherd: Exhibition to mark 130th birthday of environmentalist” The National
To see what others have said about A House Called Askival, follow the links below. If you’ve read it, please do add your own review on Amazon, Goodreads or other retailer sites. If you would like to feature the book in your publication, site or broadcast, please contact me for a review copy.
REVIEWS & ENDORSEMENTS
“In light of what is happening on the world stage today, A House Called Askival is a book which demands our engagement.” Dr Carol Leon in Wasafiri Magazine A journal of international contemporary writing – Read the full review here
“The central themes — about love, parental influence, hidden secrets, loyalty, and the importance of faith — produce a gripping storyline. And Askival, the backdrop for Ruth’s heartbreak and redemption, is where all deception is stripped aside, and the true cost of sectarianism is exposed.” Church Times – Read the full review here
‘There are authors like Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitava Ghosh, Salman Rushdie, Neel Mukherjee, Kiran Desai, etc, who have brought alive this country… I would gladly put Merryn Glover’s name on the same list of authors who could represent India so vividly with it’s colors, scent and culture along with the history.’ Aditi Saha on Bookstop Corner – Read the full review here
“Askival is just what the best historical fiction should be: the individual story from the heart of great events. She does it with humour, compassion, and an acute sense of moral drama. Excellent.” Jonathan Falla author of The Craft of Fiction
“It wrestles with battles for independence both personal and national, and with the shocking fallout, in families and in countries, that ensue wherever power struggles take place. I was transported to the monsoons of Mussoorie, a hill station in the Northern State of Uttarakhand… Glover gives us an epic and raging sweep of history through many eyes, for there are no victors. The road to independence and its aftermath is indeed a bloody and complex process.” Northwords Now – Read the full review on Page 20
“Glover understands houses are never just houses. Askival will break your heart.” Cynthia Rogerson, author of I Love You, Goodbye
“It is so very good – the writing, the characterisation, the thematic concerns and the impressively subtle management of a complex structure. I also found it very moving.” Sara Maitland author of The Book of Silence and Gossip from the Forest
“a wonderfully involving, moving and enlightening novel… a moving tribute to India with its struggle for peace and independence” Joanna Baird on Portobello Book Blog – Read the full review here
‘History is blended into the narrative to add to the overall understanding – what Partition meant for millions of people and how the conflict between religions flared up and caused so much strife between peoples. And it is a story about family, about rejection and loyalty and so much more.’ Trip Fiction – Read the full review here
‘Merryn Glover is quite simply a wonderful writer; honest, perceptive, with humour, a zest for life and a love for people and nature. She knows how to keep her readers turning the pages. At times she writes like an angel.’ Dr John Dempster in The Complicated Evangelical – Read the full review here
‘If India interests you in anyway I recommend this book. The imagery created by Glover is exquisite and the book has a lot to offer.’ The Literary Snob – Read the full review here
‘The star of it really is India – its sights, sounds and smells, and turbulent history from Partition to the death of Indira Gandhi.’ Book Reviews Online – Read the full review here
“addresses the political and personal turmoil of religious conflict. Spanning the partition to the present day, it looks at historical events through the lens of three generations of one expat family and tells the story of a father and daughter seeking peace with each other and with their past.” Daily Telegraph
FEATURES
“Writing Partition: Merryn Glover on History, Home and the Hill Stations of India” – Interview with Joanna Penn on the Books & Travel podcast. Read the post and listen to audio here. Watch on YouTube here.
“It’s an inviting doorway into the world of the book.” Article for Spine Magazine about the four covers of Askival. Read it here
“It was beside an outdoor fire in Mussoorie, in the presence of stars and giant pines, that Kavi recited the verses from the Sufi poet, Bulleh Shah, that became the opening of my novel.” Article for The National newspaper about my interviews with eye witnesses of India’s Partition in 1947. Read the full article here
‘The World in My Kitchen’ Article about the cookbook in the novel on My Reading Corner
“Anyone who has made a home in another country and culture will relate to the novel’s exploration of being a stranger in a strange land and yet falling in love with it and being forever marked by it.” Asian Books Blog – Read the full interview here
“But what has never changed about Mussoorie is its beauty.” Article on the book’s setting for Linda’s Book Bag
‘One of the big themes of Askival is relationships across religious (and cultural) boundaries and the need for a deep understanding of one another in order to find peace.’ Asian Image – Read the full piece here
‘Telling a truthful story of Partition.’ Article on Books for Scotland
“Writing it was a way of returning to a place and an experience that profoundly shaped me. The book is all made up, but it is also my story.” Interview for Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s Writing Centre – Read the full interview here