All new ULTIMATE STRICTLY website

For anyone who’s arrived at this site while searching for Strictly Come Dancing information, I’m pleased to announce that the dedicated ULTIMATE STRICTLY website is now up and running, in time for the start of the new series on BBC ONE in September 2009.

I’ve set up ULTIMATE STRICTLY as a dedicated resource with all the facts and figures of Strictly Come Dancing, with all the scores, dances and results from all series of the programme, and I also write my reviews of the programmes there, with review archives going back to the start of series 5, and including a daily roundup of the happenings on It Takes Two, BBC TWO sister show.

Book review: “The Other Hand” by Chris Cleave

I would normally say a little bit about the book in the review, but I don’t want to give anything away, so here is the blurb on the back cover:

“This is the story of two women.

Their lives collide on fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice.

Two years later, they meet again – the story starts here…”

This book was sorrowful, funny, affecting, horrific, truthful, shocking and heartfelt. The author takes an important issue in society today, and by writing from the perspective of the two women affected, opens the readers eyes to the reality behind some of the stories and headlines we see in the media.

There are some heart-stopping shocks in the story but mingled with the triviality of everyday life, it gives the novel a very authentic feel. Despite the gravity of the subject matter, the book is never hard work, and keeps drawing you in to the lives of the two protagonists.

This will definitely be among my best books of the year.