The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

I've just finished reading this book and had to write a review about it straight away because it was just so good - everyone should go straight out and buy it! I read quite a lot, but it's not often that I find a book that I can devour within twenty four hours of starting it - this book is an exception. I'm not sure why I bought this book - I think it must have been on offer on Amazon or something as the cover says that it costs £12.99, but I know for a fact I would never have spent that much on a book, however good it is! Based on the fact that I read the book in under twenty four hours you've probably guessed already that this book isn't a weighty ...  Read the complete review

Now and again a book comes along that takes your breath away and leaves you gasping with surprise at just how good it is. Diane Setterfield's debut novel, THE THIRTEENTH TALE, is as fine an example of this as you are ever going to get and so far I have yet to hear a single bad review or opinion of this novel. Some of you may know, I am a member of the book swap site, READITSWAPIT, and on the forums there I run a regular thread where people can nominate their best reads each month until, at the end of the year, members vote for their favourite from a short-list of contenders. This book won the best RISI read of 2007!! This may not mean a lot but when you consider how many ...  Read the complete review

Book Summary... Biographer Margaret Lea receives a letter from the famous author, Vida Winter, asking her if she would write her biography. Margaret is reluctant to do so as she prefers to write biographies of those no longer living. However, Margaret has sorrow of her own, and Vida draws her in with a promise of a story involving twins. Margaret's own sorrow over losing her twin coupled with the fact that Vida has never told any journalist her life story, sways Margaret into agreeing to do the biography. But what has Vida Winter have to do with the forgotten Angelfield House and its strange occupants? Many years ago, a strange family lived ...  Read the complete review

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is probably the only book I have read in quite a while that not only grabbed my attention but held it throughout as well as living up to and probably surpassing all my expectations of it. I must therefore admit before I go any further that I utterly adored this book and from the opening words to the closing sentence founds myself completely wrapped up in the tale I was being told. As a title 'The Thirteenth Tale' is in many ways important to the basis of the story but in other ways merely a side-line but an intriguing one at that, whichever line of the story grabs your attention the most however is not particularly ...  Read the complete review

The Thirteenth Tale -A mystifying classic tale This book was in my To -Read list for quite a few months until last weekend when I got this from my friend. This is an excellent and unique novel with interwoven mysteries which prompts you to read it in a fast pace so as to reach to the end in a jiffy.The book is written within the Gothic tradition with overly rich writing carefully chosen words. The book opens with a female writer Margaret being called to the home of a famously cloistered author Vida Winter to give her a lifetime interview. Winter was ailing and wanted Margaret to write her life story before the inevitable approaches. The ...  Read the complete review