My latest book; ready for me to start. Many people have read this book and have said it’s amazing. I hope it lives up to my expectations now.

Leningrad 1941: the white nights of summer when the sun hardly sets on the beautiful palaces and stately avenues that still speak of a different age, when the city was known as St Petersburg. The Metanov family live in a crowded apartment, the two sisters Daria and Tatiana sharing a bed, their parents and brother crowded in another room, their grandparents nearby. It’s a hard life, but one with room enough for love and romance.

However, when Tatiana first sets eyes on Daria’s boyfriend, Alexander, she knows immediately that for her, the path of love will never be easy, but rather, one of sacrifice and denial. Hitler’s invasion of Russia spells war and, for Leningrad, siege, and their earlier existence seems luxurious in comparison with the terrible deprivations that the family suffers. As the grip of winter closes as relentlessly as the advancing German army, so Tatiana is forced into ever more desperate measures in order to survive – both physically and emotionally.

It’s a trilogy, which is even better. I always get really into a book and then get annoyed when I finish it. But this story will keep going for a bit longer.

You know those inappropriate conversations you have with friends? The ones that once the ball is rolling any topic can come up for conversation. I had one a couple of days ago with a mixed group of friends while we were supposed to be working on assignments. We were in the library, luckily in a separate room so the sound of our laughter and conversation topics was muffled. But, God was it a laugh. I certainly learnt some things about some friends, things that you normally discuss when drunk.

A certain topic about one of my guy friends, well, that took the cake. I would love to spill, but he’d kill me. Hah.
A girlfriend of mine recently broke it off with her man. They’d been dating a few months and near the end she was finding him a bit strange. We were in fits of giggles for aaages after we heard of his reaction to the moon and how he’d only ravage her if there was enough moonlight on the bed. Oh the drama. He was definitely not boyfriend material. There’s more to him, but we won’t go there.

Everyone seems to be stressed at the moment. I don’t know if it’s the cost of living rising, the weather, work, school - a bit of everything really. I feel the stress every so often. But I think that’s why we have friends; to relax, laugh and spill all our juicy secrets.