Review: 'The Princess and the Foal' by Stacy Gregg

Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, there lived a beautiful queen, adored by her King and children and much loved by the people of the land. The King and Queen, famous for their compassion and love for their people, were bound by a deep sense of duty to support the betterment of each and every individual in the land. They would often travel about the Kingdom to wherever they felt their presence most needed earning the altruistic Queen the title of 'Mother of the poor'.

Until sadly, on one ill-fated day, the helicopter transporting the Queen crashes and the Kingdom is plunged into mourning. The King, not only a monarch who has to address his people on the loss of their beloved Queen but as a father he is saddled with the daunting task of informing his two young children, a boy and a girl, that their mother will never return to them again; they will now have to face the ultimate challenge of resuming life without her. 

Although the above tale seems as if it were the stuff of fiction, it is a rather brief, but true, account of the life of HRH Queen Alia al-Hussein, the late Queen Consort of Jordan and the third wife to the late King Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan. The children she leaves behind are Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein and Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein, the 'real-life princess' who is the inspiration for Stacy Gregg's children's novel 'The Princess and the Foal'.

Buy the Arabic Translation

The novel highlights a series of events in the life of Princess Haya that occur between the ages of five and twelve. As a young 'titch' she is heartbroken and inconsolable in spite of her father's continuous efforts to help her get over the tragic death of her mother. Adding to her sense of loss is the departure of her old nanny, Grace, who has been replaced by the two-faced governess Frances Ramsmead. With one 'personality' reserved for the King and another for the children and staff, matters don't go smoothly simply because 'Frances is a stupid meany' a young Prince Ali confirms.

Haya's source of solace is her love of horses and it is only at the Royal Stables in Al Hummar that she feels strongest and happiest. Unfortunately, Frances continuously tries to discourage her from being with her beloved animals believing it is the Princess's duty to be a lady, not to associate with the stable staff.

So, when she is entrusted with the care of a young foal on her sixth birthday, who she names 'Bint al Reeh' aka 'Bree', her life takes a different turn and the sadness slowly starts to dissipate. Drawing on the memory of her mother as an athlete, she dreams that she will one day be the first female horse rider to win the King's Cup and make her Father proud. Her dream isn't without obstacles leaving her, in the darkest hour, with a sense that its realisation may be hopeless and unattainable.  Many lessons are learnt along the way.

Stacy Gregg tells a beautiful, refreshing, engaging tale about a princess with a dream. A princess who is not only proud of her ancestry (she wants to be a proper Arabian Princess) but is also endowed with her parents' sense of duty and responsibility. Haya is also a sister and the mischief she gets up to with her brother, Prince Ali, are the best parts of the book and will make you laugh out loud. They are like two peas in a pod and Gregg captures a genuinely affectionate sibling relationship that is heartfelt and heartwarming.

Although the novel draws inspiration from events in the life of Princess Haya of Jordan, mainly the training of her foal for the King's Cup, it is not an exact account of how the training actually took place. It is worth noting that Stacy Gregg's research for the book involved her travelling to Jordan, being granted unprecedented access to the Royal Stables and conducting lengthy interviews with HRH Princess Haya and Her family and friends; this has allowed the imagined and the true to blend harmoniously in the book to create a very believable and enjoyable read.

For more on Stacy Gregg, click HERE.

Quick Facts about HRH Princess Haya of Jordan:

* HRH is a former Olympic athlete (competed at The Sydney Olympic Games 2000 in Show Jumping) and is currently President of the International Equestrian Federation.

* HRH is the first Jordanian woman to obtain a license to drive heavy trucks in Jordan, which she obtained to drive her horses.

*At age 13, HRH was the first female to represent Jordan internationally in equestrian sport in show jumping. She won an Individual Bronze Medal in the Pan-Arab Equestrian Games in 1992, and is the only female ever to have won a Pan-Arab medal in equestrian sport. Additionally, She was also the first Jordanian athlete to turn professional, signing a commercial contract with the Italian designer Loro Piana in May 2000.

*HRH is five-time winner of Jordanian National Show Jumping Championships (1986, 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1992).

*HRH received an award from the Spanish Equestrian Federation for ‘Equestrian Personality of the Year’ (1996)

*HRH is married to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai. They have one daughter and one son.

'The Long Weekend' by Savita Kalhan

'The Long Weekend' opens with seventh grader Sam who has 'moved schools four times and moved countries three times - and he was only eleven' but is quite happy to have made friends with Lloyd, the coolest kid in the class. According to Sam, his new friend Lloyd was the luckiest kid ever. Born to rich parents he seemed to own all the latest gadgets (Sam's parents had made it clear that he would never get an Xbox or PlayStation ever) yet Lloyd's parents had promised him what seems like an iphone for his next birthday (Sam was still working on his mum to buy him one). Understandably, Sam could barely contain his excitement till the end of school that day as the plan was for the two boys to hang out together at Lloyd's house. Following a slight confusion on whose house they're supposed to be going to, Lloyd announces that they will find out 'when one or both sets of parents pick them up". Problem solved.

The parents are late to arrive and the boys get caught in a very heavy downpour but all is well when finally 'one of those big flash Mercs you see ferrying celebrities and rock stars around' arrives. Gleaming white, it seemed to Sam like a beacon calling 'come inside where it's warm and dry'. Very impressed by it all (he knew Lloyd's dad was rich but hadn't imagined how rich but again he does admit to himself that there isn't much he does know about Lloyd yet) Sam follows Lloyd who has already jumped into the car. This is the first disquieting moment of many more to come that you the reader find yourself continuously shouting NO! at the unresponsive pages particularly at the point when the boys are abducted later in the story.

Once the boys reach their destination, a grand mansion in the countryside, they are allowed to play in a room that is 'every kid's dream', fed and then sent off to bed each to his room. To avoid revealing too much it is suffice to say that bad things happen that night. An abductor is revealed showing his true colours and from that point forward the novel seems to take on a life of is own as the quick paced rhythm leaves the reader breathless and unable to put the book down not knowing whether those two boys are going to live to tell their tale.

This is a brutal but not gruesome book in the sense that it is not graphic in its brutality but do not be deceived: 'The Long Weekend' is a terrifying horrific read nonetheless. You are constantly worried about the boys, praying for them to make it knowing full well that they are in the hands of a sadistic capable killer. This is a concise well put together novel with the author weaving a very chilling, highly believable plot. But this is also a book about loyalty, bravery, lessons learnt the hard way and new beginnings. A very gripping read that would do well for every eleven year-old to read!

Coming Soon: BookFabulous Interviews Savita Kalhan about 'The Last Weekend' and writing!

Review: Scorpion Soup by Tahir Shah

Anyone who grew up in the Middle East in the mid-1980s or spent time there particularly during the month of Ramadan will remember the TV series "Alf Layla Wa Layla - A Thousand and One Nights" starring Egyptian actress Sherihan and directed by Famhy Abdel Hameed. Watched by millions in the Arab World, it owed its main success to the affinity people felt for the tales of Sheherazad and Shehrayar of 'The One Thousand and One Nights'. Not only was the older generation thrilled to have the tales of their childhood played out vividly on their screens but the show also succeeded in sparking an  interest in the younger generation who had assigned these tales to the archives of the past only to find them dusted down and repackaged relevant to their own modern times.

This brings me to storyteller and author Tahir Shah's latest release 'Scorpion Soup'; a work heavily influenced by 'A Thousand and One Nights' as attested by the author in his introduction whereby he writes that this book is 'a small hymn' to the tales that he 'feasted' on since early childhood and have shaped the man he is today. The work is a celebration of stories and storytellers in which ultimately he, Shah himself, emerges supreme.

Shah in 'Scorpion Soup' introduces a network of tales that can only be compared to a set of Russian Dolls, you know the ones where you open up one doll to find another smaller one contained inside it and then that holds a smaller one too and so on until  you get to the last and smallest doll in the set. And that is what Shah does in this book. He starts with one story and then this story is the beginning of another and that contains the beginnings of another all the way until the end when we are back at the first story we started with. All the while commanding the reader's full attention engaging the imagination, entertaining, instructing and questioning. Idle readers beware!

The book begins in the hellish prison of Oran where a once-upon-a-time fisherman is now a shackled worn down slave slowly losing all hope of survival. However, we know he is going to survive because he is going to tell us how a tale recounted in a barely audible whisper by another inmate was key to his salvation. And so the reader's journey with Shah begins. From North Africa to Spain, Ethiopia and Egypt, China, Persia and Iceland. Lands of frogs, lands of cats and others ruled by dogs. We have wizened witches and a jinn in an urn at the bottom of the Red Sea. An old man in a cave and the story of a deity or two.  The reader meets wise men, foolish men, knights, kings, queens, princes and princesses. A box with a rusty nail and a pendant with tears of a unicorn and still more and more and more.

The stories are meant to entertain but Shah has an ulterior motive. He believes that stories are 'part of the default programming of Man' and as such carry an important role in the shaping of minds and souls. His work is not only a nod to a revival of storytelling, he seems to want a complete resurrection and by the looks of it he might just get his wish.

'Scorpion Soup' is currently available as an e-book but hardback copies will be dispatched starting March 2013. The hardback cover is only available to purchase from Taher Shah's personal website. Click HERE to go there.

Review: 'Dodger' by Terry Pratchett

By gosh, it really was freezing last night with temperatures dipping to -3 (that's what my phone seemed to show anyway)! So with the heater barely able to keep up, it really was the best opportunity to ditch all fashion sense and layer up with woollies mostly 'borrowed' from hubby. Two jumpers and two layers of socks later, I am as happy as a bunny all snuggled up in bed with Terry Pratchett's fantastic book 'Dodger'. I'd got into bed so early that I actually managed the entire book in one go and what do I think? Fun with a very capital F.

Now that's a word I haven't used to describe a book for a quite a while now. So, I shall say it again: it was was pure fun and joy interspersed with wit, philosophy and good old fashioned charm. As you may all well know, Dodger is the character in Charles Dickens' novel 'Oliver Twist'. He's the cheeky lad with the tophat who finds Oliver and teaches him (unsuccesfully) the art of the pickpocket. The novel is written true to the Victorian setting and is complete with an appearance from Charles Dickens himself who appears as Mr. Charlie, the journalist with an eye for a good story and the heart of a philanthropist.

In essence this book is about Dodger but it is also about Dickens and the characters he bumps shoulders with in Victorian London and who he was to base several of his novels' characters on.   We have Todd Sweeney (aka the Demon Barber) and a conspicuous Jewish jeweller by the name of Solomon who isn't what he seems and is somehow Dodger's guardian offering him a place to live and cooking his meals. He is the closest to the character of Fagin in the novel 'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens.

We are first introduced to Dodger doing what he does best: Scouring the filthy sewers of London in search of money and anything that the London streets spit out. And on the night we meet Dodger, "the drains and sewers were overflowing, throwing up- regurgitating, as it were - the debris of muck, slime and filth". At this moment, a woman hurtles herself out of a moving carriage screaming. Dodger who has just appeared literally out of the gutter comes to the rescue and upon doing so meets Mr. Charlie and Mayhew who also come to the assistance of Dodger and the girl Simplicity. The assailants 'take to their heels' and manage to get away.

This is a deceptively easy book to read. On the face of it, the book has a very easy plot to follow that is quite straight forward with a mystery to boot. But on a more serious note, the book also sheds light on the machinations that were taking place in London during that period that were to instigate the beginnings of social reform and the awareness of the British government as to the miserable conditions of the poor thanks to the work of people such as Dickens and Henry Mayhew, among others.

A really good read that you must have a go at yourself. Why? because everyone knows the Dodger and you don't want to be the one left out. Do you now?