Draw the curtains, throw a log on the fire and cosy up with one of the most bewitching books likely to come your way this year.

So what it’s all about, the debut novel that has been causing a buzz in publishing circles long before it hit the shelves this week?

Is it a romance, a historical novel, a fairytale pastiche, an atmospheric journey into the wintry wonderland that is Alaska or a deeply moving story about a couple’s longing for a child?

Amazingly, The Snow Child is all of these and more ... a tale of pure magic which touches the parts that many other books fail to reach; a timeless and exquisitely crafted tale of love and loss, of harsh climates, harsh truths and the spirit of human endurance.

Less of a surprise is that it comes from the pen of an author who lives amidst Alaska’s snowy wilderness and who was rather romantically named after a character from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

In the pages of her book you’ll find hope, heartbreak, compromise, mystery, ethereal beauty, raw power and enough snow-covered mountains, frozen rivers, swirling snowflakes and icy tracks to make you reach for a survival suit.

And survival is one of the resonant themes in a story inspired by a Russian fairytale, The Snow Maiden, but which Ivey uses here as the springboard to introduce new themes like the power of nature, childlessness, parenthood and loneliness.

Set in Alaska in the 1920s, we meet Jack and Mabel who are approaching their 50s and have staked all on making a new home ‘at the world’s edge’ in the raw Alaskan wilderness.

The move was motivated more by Mabel’s desolation at the birth of a stillborn baby some years ago and her subsequent inability to have a child rather than a real desire to test out Jack’s old dream of carving out a living in such a wild and grand place.

She had imagined them far away from the sound of children ‘playfully hollering’ and ‘all those sounds of her failure’ and instead working happily together in clean, cold air under vast blue skies.

But the reality has proved very different for Mabel... the isolation has increased her sense of bleak loneliness, the cold is relentless and she and Jack are virtually starving and speaking to each other less and less.

Everything changes one snowy night when, in a rare moment of carefree fun and laughter, Jack and Mabel build a snow child outside their cabin and dress it in a scarf and mittens.

The following morning, the snow child has become a shapeless heap, the scarf and mittens have disappeared and a small set of boot prints leads across the snow and out into the trees beyond.

When both Jack and Mabel start glimpsing the figure of a small girl flitting through the nearby forest, the spell of this amazing story is cast. Is the child real, is she a figment of their wishful imaginations or are they suffering the hallucinatory ‘cabin fever’ that afflicts those cut off by the harsh Alaskan weather?

Mabel is convinced that the girl is magical, sent to fill their bleak and empty lives; Jack is determined to follow the tracks wherever they may lead, and to whatever the real truth may be...

The Snow Child is a remarkable achievement, a debut novel of awesome beauty, soaring imagination and descriptive power.

Let’s hope there’s more to come from this very talented author.

(Headline Review, hardback, £14.99)

James MacDonald is a son of the British Empire, a rich tea planter in India with a distinguished family history ... the lives of his two beautiful daughters should be mapped out for comfort and wealth.

There’s just one giant stumbling block for Serafina and Mary – their mother is James’s Indian concubine and that means the girls were born illegitimately from two different worlds but belong to neither.

In the claustrophobic colonial climate of the 1920s, their very existence is a social and cultural disaster for both parents, and one which will affect the fate and fortunes of both girls.

In a novel spanning over 80 years of history, Alison McQueen carves out the gripping and heartbreaking story of two young women who must endure prejudice and risk everything if they are to find a place for themselves in a cruel world.

Their journey to belong will take them through cataclysmic events like the Second World War and the turmoil of Indian independence and into a new and uncertain dawn...

In Assam in 1925, James MacDonald has taken India to his heart and made it his own, his life inextricably entwined with the jewel in his king’s crown.

The remote tea plantation suits his introverted temperament and he feels perfectly in tune with the harmonious flow of the seasons.

He has no interest in the wide-eyed English girls sent out to India in search of a suitable husband and instead decides to satisfy his occasional loneliness with a ‘clean and pure’ Indian girl who should feel it an honour to be chosen as his concubine.

Enter Chinthimani, fresh from a family ‘cursed’ with four daughters and a father only too happy to hand over what he regards as ‘a dishonourable burden.’

James falls for her instantly but the locals, unsure of where she comes from, believe she might not be a human at all but the daughter of one of the gods, sent to do their bidding.

Others whisper that Chinthimani will be his downfall...

It’s a heady time for the teenager who revels in her new status, resplendent and beautiful in her happiness and good fortune despite having to live in secret quarters away from the main house.

What wasn’t in the script was Chinthimani falling pregnant – twice – and producing two daughters who, however beguiling they are, threaten to bring shame on James’s family because they have mixed the heritage of his bloodline.

The two girls grow up strong and well fed, but always hidden away. Their strange names, paler skin and hair that waves mark them out in the nearby village where they are forbidden to play with local children.

Serafina, the older sister, is proud, handsome and demanding while Mary is trusting, compliant and good-natured. Both will be tested when events mean that they must move away from all they have ever known and make choices that will last a lifetime.

McQueen was inspired by her own family history and this gives added impetus, realism and resonance to a tale which is rich in emotion, cultural complexity and India’s vibrant landscape.

Her characters are beautifully imagined ... the relationship between the two sisters is lovingly developed as their contrasting lives intertwine through war, partition, hardship and happiness.

She portrays the cultural chasm between Indian native and British colonialist with care and compassion to create a sweeping and moving saga that will live long in the memory.

(Orion, hardback, £9.99)

PLANS by a recession beating firm to expand their storage facilities at a Brandesburton Industrial Estate look set to be given the go ahead today.

This is despite objections from several local businesses and residents who fear it would lead to the loss of prime farm land and further impact on a site which has been described as “a blemish on the landscape.”

Concerns have also been raised about localised flooding and the safety of staff and animals at a neighbouring cattery and kennels.

Waco UK, who have been manufacturing modular buildings at the site for over 25 years, have applied to the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to use a neighbouring 2.13 hectares of land for the additional storage of portable buildings at Catfoss Industrial Estate, Catfoss Lane.

The company has said that since the recession their fleet has increased to 4,500 units but their current storage site is “not fit for purpose”.

They claim that ground conditions, water logging, access and its distance from their factory which requires the use of a public road makes it unsuitable and moving to another site in Hull or the East Riding would push up unit costs.

“The recession has had an adverse impact on the manufacturing side of the business but has caused the hire side to grow.

“There are 132 employees on site and 10 sub-contractors, of which more than 60% live within 10 miles of the factory,” states the latest report to the Planning Committee.

The plans were first submitted to the East Riding Council in April 2010 but were refused because it was a Greenfield site in open countryside, there was no evidence that other sites had been considered, and it could set a precedent for the expansion of the industrial estate.

But the report states that there is now further supporting information about the company’s need for extra storage space next to their current site and evidence to suggest they had looked at alternative sites.

The revised plans have been recommended for approval by Brandesburton Parish Council, provided that planting is extended to the north east of the site to screen it from the A165 Bridlington Road.

The East Riding Council has received five letters of objection from local businesses and residents who are concerned that the development would lead to the loss of “high grade agricultural land”.

They have also stated that “the existing storage site is oppressive and a blemish on the landscape and this proposal would have further detrimental effects on the local landscape.”

There are also fears that increased surface water would lead to localised flooding, while concerns have been raised over the safety of staff and animals from the Brandebsurton Cattery and Kennels who use adjoining land.

There are also concerns that existing problems of large vehicles parking and turning on the access roads within the estate will be made worse.

The application, which has been recommended for approval subject to several conditions, is due to be considered by the Planning Committee at County Hall, Beverley today (February 2.)

UNINSURED and unlicensed drivers are the focus of a forcewide roads policing campaign being run by Humberside Police throughout February.

Officers will be carrying out targeted stop checks of vehicles to try and find out if the driver is licensed and insured.

Roads Policing Inspector Paul Sergeant said: “The aim of this campaign is to provide high visibility patrols in an attempt to remove illegal vehicles off the roads, thus making the roads in Humberside a safer place for people who live and travel here.”

And with an estimated six out of 10 crimes assisted by the use of a motor vehicle officers will be working to disrupt and detect criminal activity.

Insp Sergeant said: “During the campaign the police will also be detecting and dealing with untaxed vehicles, and drivers who do not have a current MOT for their vehicle. We shall also be collating intelligence with a view to targeting motorists who have been disqualified but who continue to drive illegally.”

To report drivers or riders who are using their vehicles illegally call Humberside Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 1111.

DRIVING his son to hospital whilst disqualified has landed a motorist with a suspended prison sentence.

George Brankin appeared at Bridlington Magistrates Court last week charged with driving whilst disqualified and without insurance near Driffield.

Brankin, 58, had pleaded guilty to the charges at an earlier hearing and attended court for sentencing, after the probation service had completed a pre-sentence report.

Prosecuting, Victoria Mills said that police had stopped Brankin on the A164 near Driffield on December 16 last year, as part of a random road safety check.

When the car was pulled over, Brankin originally gave a false name and could not produce a licence, but later admitted to police that he had been disqualified in April last year.

Mitigating, Luke Yarrow told magistrates that Brankin, of Worthington Court, Bradford, had been given help in getting around by a friend, who had passed away not long before the incident.

He said the defendant was concerned about his son, who has a long term illness and was living in Bridlington and had recently lost 30kg in weight in a short period of time.

“Although his son wanted to remain independent, Mr Brankin was obviously very concerned about him and got the train to Bridlington to check on him,” said Mr Yarrow.

“He made the decision to bring his son home to the Bradford area and decided to drive back to Bradford to take him to hospital and look after him,” Mr Yarrow added.

Presiding magistrate Mike Bowman told Brankin that he appreciated the difficult situation, but driving while disqualified was a serious offence.

“We feel it is so serious, it must be punished with four months in prison, but it will be suspended for 12 months,” said Mr Bowman.

“You could have killed someone, or caused a serious accident and there would be no recourse against you to claim money back.”

Magistrates also endorsed Brankin’s license with six penalty points, and a further six for the charge of driving without insurance, and ordered him to pay £85 in court costs.

Yorkshire Building Society has announced that they will be raising funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in 2012.

The Society’s Charitable Foundation will also make a significant contribution to the total raised.

In the teeming market of romantic fiction, a clever, classy page-turner always acts like a breath of fresh air.

And they don’t come with more pizazz than Rival Passions, the second glitzy novel from Irish author Zoë Miller who finds rich inspiration in the breathtaking Wicklow countryside for this delicious concoction of realism and romance, home life and high life, ambition and compromise.

There’s all the stock ingredients here – glamorous settings, handsome heroes, beautiful heroines, oodles of passion and a sprinkling of mystery – but Miller works a kind of magic in the mixing process.

The result is a super family saga full of domestic drama, human emotion and just enough intrigue to keep you hooked from page one, all set against the alluring backdrops of lush and lovely Wicklow and the glittering Côte d’Azur.

Stars of the show are 35-year-old twins Serena and Jack Devlin who are joint owners of the luxury Tamarisk Hotel in Wicklow, the ultimate retreat for socialites and celebrities, and currently aiming to win Ireland’s Exceptional Haven of the Year award.

It’s two years since they took over the running of the hotel from their widowed mother Charlotte and it is famed as the kind of chic establishment where pampered guests enjoy sound-proofed suites and can even specify the thread count in their cotton sheets.

Attention to detail and making sure that her clients have the ultimate experience is as natural as breathing to Serena, but success has come at a cost.

Behind her carefully cultivated public image as a top hostess, her private life is far from flourishing.

Husband Paul, a research scientist, is kind, considerate and protective and their four-year-old daughter Harriet is a delight to them both, but Harriet sees little of her busy mother and Paul is desperate for Serena to cut down her workload and have another baby.

Serena knows she lives two lives, both at terrible odds with each other, and she has no idea how they can be reconciled. Will she have to sacrifice her marriage for her career?

Jack, meanwhile, is struggling to recover from the death of his wife Amy a year ago and has been finding solace for the last six weeks at their sister hotel, La Mimosa, in the south of France.

He has reached the stage where despair, guilt and anger have finally been replaced by resigned acceptance ... but he’s still reluctant to return to Tamarisk.

When he misses his flight to Ireland, he visits a cafe in Nice and in a heartbeat his life changes. English waitress Jenni catches his eye and for Jack, it’s like someone has ‘lobbed a tiny gemstone into the still, flat pool of his consciousness.’

He knows he should be returning home rather than allowing himself to be caught up in a fizz of instant attraction, but is his birthright more important than following his heart?

Back in Ireland, their mother Charlotte is reflecting on her own life, only too aware that neither of her children is happy and that she is partly to blame.

Life for the privileged Devlins is growing more and more complicated...

Miller’s novel is a classic modern tale about the dilemmas facing working families... it’s also an entertaining curl-up-and-enjoy book for those long winter nights.

(Piatkus, paperback, £7.99)

PLANS to create a series of “advisory car share spaces” in several of Driffield’s car parks have been branded as an unworkable waste of time by the town council.

The East Riding of Yorkshire Council is proposing to install two car share spaces in each of Driffield’s three main car parks.

Car sharing is when two or more people share a car and travel together.

Its aim is to help motorists save money on petrol and parking, while reducing traffic congestion and pollution and letting drivers help to improve the East Riding environment.

ERYC has teamed up with another organisation to launch EastRidingCarShare.com which allows people to find car share drivers and passengers online instantly and securely.

ERYC wrote to the town council to explain that six car share spaces were proposed for Driffield - two each at Beckside, Cross Hill and Eastgate.

Dean Edwards, of ERYC’s traffic and parking section, said: “Where the new spaces are installed in pay and display car parks, parking fees will continue to apply to vehicles which are using the care share spaces.

“The spaces will be located in convenient areas and their aim is to help reduce congestion and cut pollution by encouraging the practice of car sharing.”

After a period of consultation ERYC said it was now in a position to begin installing the car share bays.

But the town council hit out at the scheme, branding it an unworkable waste of money.

Coun Mark Blakeston questioned how the use of car sharing spaces would be monitored and how anyone would know whether the driver parking in such a space had been sharing a vehicle.

“How would you police it? It’s beyond me,” he said.

Coun Neal Pearson questioned whether a badge scheme would operate and whether people who parked in the car sharing spaces without a badge would face a fine.

“I suspect that it is a money making scheme,” he said.

Town Councillors said they were against the scheme and ventured to suggest that it would be better if the ERYC spent the money earmarked for the project on mending potholes in the area’s roads and pavements.

l Readers – What do you think? Write to Your Views, Driffield Times and Post, Times House, Mill Street, Driffield. YO25 6TN or email editorial@driffieldtoday.co.uk

A MAN has denied stealing a number of items from a new year’s eve party in Hutton Cranswick.

Sam Thomas Enwright, 20, of Silverdale Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, in Surrey, appeared at Bridlington Magistrates Court.

Mr Enwright pleaded not guilty to two charges of theft; a Metropolitan Police warrant card, £40 cash and iPhone and a digital camera to the value of £980 belonging to Rhona Hunt and a wallet and its contents, a tuxedo jacket and Nokia mobile phone to the value of £80 belonging to Robert Cuthbertson.

Both incidents occurred at a private party held in Hutton Cranswick on December 31 last year.

Mr Enwright was given unconditional bail to return to Bridlington Magistrates Court for trial on May 29 this year - a date pushed back to allow him to complete university final exams.

A MAN who committed a spate of break-ins at allotments across East Yorkshire last summer has been ordered to complete unpaid work.

Mark Richard Ferriby, of Colescliffe Road, Scarborough said he was “keen to give something back” after being given a 12 month community order with 120 hours unpaid work at a hearing at Bridlington Magistrates Court.

Ferriby, 48, had broken into six sheds at allotments in Bridlington, Driffield, and Pocklington between June and August last year.

At an earlier hearing Ferriby had pleaded guilty to five charges of burglary, which included the theft of gardening tools and equipment. He admitted burgling sheds on allotments in Bridlington; one at Bessingby Road between June 5 and 7 and one at Mill Lane between June 23 and 26, as well as one shed at Driffield’s allotments at Spellowgate, between May 31 and June 3 2011.

Ferriby also admitted to stealing from sheds at allotments on the Mile, Pocklington, the first between July 15 and 18 and then two more between August 3 and 6 last year.

Prosecutor Victoria Mills told magistrates that police had spoken to Ferriby in connection with the thefts, with gardening equipment found at his home identified as stolen and returned.

Mitigating, John Evans told the court that Ferriby had shown considerable remorse and was keen to go along with a probation service pre-sentence report recommending unpaid work.

“He has recently been contacted by his former employer, who can offer him work again in the spring. He is fit to work, and he could be seen doing people’s allotments for them as part of his unpaid work.”

Presiding magistrate Mike Bowman told Ferriby: “This is not a soft option. Make sure you cooperate fully with this order otherwise you’ll end up back in court.”

Ferriby was also ordered to pay £85 court costs.

For some of England’s most historic estates, the current imperative to preserve our past has come far too late.

A case in point is Lancashire’s old estate of Lathom, near Ormskirk, which had at its centre one of the finest classical houses in the county, built on the site of the 15th century neo-castle home of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, the family which helped establish the Tudor dynasty.

The medieval house, which boasted nine towers and a moat, was demolished by Parliamentarians at the end of the Civil War and the 7th Earl of Derby, ironically from a family noted for always choosing the right side, was executed at Bolton for supporting the Royalist cause.

When the estate was bought by Sir Thomas Bootle, chancellor to Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1724, he commissioned the Anglo-Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni to create an imposing Palladian house.

It had ‘a sumptuous and lofty’ frontage with a pair of flanking pavilions and a beautifully landscaped park with one of the largest and widest avenues in England – over two and a half miles long and 200 yards wide.

The park was embellished by the succeeding Earls of Lathom with further planting, water features and new buildings including a temple and an icehouse.

All that stands now is the west pavilion which has recently been restored and converted for residential use. The carefully and lovingly planted 300-year-old trees have long since been felled and the site is dominated by Pilkington’s Technical Centre, a huge, dull 1950s office block.

Lathom and its former glories provide some of the most compelling pictures in a magnificent new book from architectural historian John Martin Robinson.

Felling the Ancient Oaks offers a stunning and heartbreaking visual record of our most spectacular and scenic country estates which have been broken up for sale and lost forever, often to be replaced with an endless sprawl of light industry and soulless suburbia.

The collapse of Lathom in the early 20th century was swift and destructive, and entirely due to the shenanigans of Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, the 3rd and last Earl of Lathom (1895-1930), a ‘theatrically obsessed chum of Noël Coward’ who failed to produce an heir and sold up in 1925 to pay off his debts.

Before inheriting Lathom, he lived at Blythe Hall, an outlying property on the estate, and transformed it into an American-style Elizabethan house with bowling alley, Hollywood inspired swimming pool and crystal stair spindles. These extravagances, and a theatre built especially for Noël Coward, finally finished off Lathom estate.

And the end was definitive with all family archives being fed into the furnaces of the estate’s colliery at Skelmersdale. Three years before his death, the earl unexpectedly married an exotic divorcee originally from Singapore but such was the notoriety of his finances that the Ritz requested his wedding reception was paid for in advance.

The purchaser of Lathom demolished the main block of the house and felled every tree in the park. The flanking pavilions were left standing but allowed to fall into dereliction, with the east service wing disappearing in the 1950s. A sad end to over 600 years of local history...

Robinson pulls no punches in his illuminating book which surveys 20 lost gems from Haggerston Castle in Northumberland to Hinton St George in Somerset using over 150 stunning photographs.

A modest municipal park is all that survives of the impressive Cassiobury estate near Watford, the once splendid Normanton estate now lies underneath the expanse of Rutland Water and Deepdene in Surrey is memorialised only by an ugly office block.

Felling the Ancient Oaks reminds us of how our landscape looked before death duties, mining subsidence and sometimes the recklessness and incompetence of the black sheep in the family took their toll and forced the break-up of so many historic landed estates.

It’s a book to return to time and time again, a treasure trove of history and a reminder of a part of our heritage that now exists only in long-forgotten photographs...

(Aurum, hardback, £30)

The Liberal Democrats have confirmed the new MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber will be Rebecca Taylor following the resignation of Diana Wallis.

Ms Taylor said: “It is a great privilege and honour to serve the people of Yorkshire and the Humber in Europe as a Liberal Democrat MEP.

“It is why I stood for selection in 2007 and my commitment to the region has not changed.”

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is to replace a plaque marking the site of the City’s worst ever railway accident which occurred in 1927.

Chief Executive Phil Morley will attend the unveiling of the new plaque at 1pm on Friday 10th February, 2012 just prior to the 85th anniversary of the disaster. A previous plaque was stolen several years ago.

The worst railway accident within the City of Hull happened immediately behind the site of the current Hull Royal Infirmary on 14th February 1927 at 9.10. There were 12 fatalities in the crash with 24 passengers suffering serious injuries and a further 22 receiving treatment for minor injuries.

First on the scene were staff from what was then the Hull Institution Hospital (today’s Hull Royal Infirmary). The boundary wall was breached to enable access to the scene and the swift rescue of the casualties. Shortly after having heard the loud noise of the impact, Sisters and Doctors arrived from the Victoria Hospital for Sick Children (Park Street), also close to the railway line. They were later joined by members of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade and staff from the Hull Royal Infirmary then situated in the city centre.

Mike Pearson, the Trust’s Archivist, said:

“We are really pleased to be able to mark this tragic event with a new plaque, after the previous one was stolen, and we are grateful to Phil Morley for his support in this.

“This was a terrible incident in Hull’s history and it deserves to be remembered. The driver of the Scarborough train, realising he was on the wrong line, had brought his own train almost to a standstill. However the Withernsea train driver, with his view obscured by the Argyle Street Bridge and still travelling at about 15 mph, could not avoid the catastrophe that ensued. This train had been carrying most of the casualties including several school children.”

Phil Morley, said:

“It is really important that we remember events such as this where people lost their lives in avoidable circumstances. I would like to pay tribute to Mike Pearson, our archivist for his tireless efforts in ensuring our Trust continues to stay in touch with its roots and in helping the community to remember those we lost in the past.”

A subsequent inquiry set up to investigate the disaster concluded that human error had caused the two trains to be on the same stretch of the railway line.

The tenderness of a teenage girl’s sexual awakening played out against a city stalked by savage mutants ... it’s a love affair to die for!

Susanne Winnacker’s perfectly pitched young adult novel takes two age-old themes – romance and horror – and turns them into a dazzling dystopian blockbuster.

A naïve 15-year-old girl, trapped for one fifth of her life in an underground bunker, falls for a good-looking 19-year-old boy who rescues her from certain death only hours after she resurfaces into what will now be her real world.

It’s the stuff that fairytales are made of but for Sherry and Joshua, it’s the start of a nightmare with no certainty of a happy-ever-after ending.

The Other Life – set amidst the ruins of Los Angeles after a rabies virus has caused most of the population to mutate into terrifying killers known as Weepers – is a gripping and gritty page-turner with an achingly beautiful teen romance at its fast-beating heart.

The contrast between the remaining humans’ desperate battle for survival and the slow awakening of the love between Sherry and Joshua is subtly counterpointed by Winnacker’s narrative device of providing snatches of Sherry’s ‘Other Life,’ those halcyon days before catastrophe struck.

Sherry enjoyed a normal life until three years, one month, one week and six days ago when she and her family – mum, dad, grandma, granddad, brother Bobby and sister Mia – took to their home-made bunker on the advice of the US military.

A rabies virus was getting out of control and spreading to humans. The only means of escape was to stay underground for four years and hope that the virus had run its course.

During that time granddad has died, his body is in the now empty freezer, and the family is down to its last tin of corned beef. There’s only one thing for it – dad and Sherry will have to step out of their relative safety zone and go looking for food.

Above ground they find a vision of hell. The city has been bombed to try to halt the spread of the virus, their neighbours’ bodies lie mangled and half eaten on the lawn, and there’s not a soul in sight.

But worse is to come when they drive to a deserted supermarket and are ambushed by a deadly mutant, a hunched beast with yellow, weeping eyes that flicker with madness ... and raw hunger.

To the rescue comes drop-dead gorgeous Joshua who carries a screaming Sherry to safety, but dad has been injured and captured by the Weepers and this is no time to try to find him.

Sherry and her family take shelter with a small group of other people at an old winery, Joshua’s Safe Haven, but he is a troubled young man who has become obsessed with killing the Weepers, and his desire for vengeance threatens to put all their lives at risk...

The superbly understated love affair between Sherry and Joshua is exquisitely developed and the dominant use of time – the past, the present and its constant measurement in terms of days, hours, minutes and seconds – adds both poignancy and depth to the dilemma of the two young survivors.

The Other Life is a clever and compelling debut full of character and contrasts, and its intriguing denouement promises more to come...

(Usborne, paperback, £6.99)

EAST Riding councillors are today set to approve accepting a Government grant allowing them to freeze council tax this year.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council will vote today (Thursday) whether to accept the offer, which will mean the authority’s portion of the overall 2012/13 tax bill can be frozen at current level.

The council’s ruling executive has recommended accepting the grant.

However, this could mean a larger council tax increase in 2013/14 or deeper cuts having to be made, as the grant is unlikely to be available again and its removal will leave a hole in council budgets.

If approved as expected, Band D householders will continue to pay £1,212.20 a year.

The final council tax levels will not be voted on until February 22, at which point precepts from the fire and police authorities, due to be set on February 13 and 14 respectively, will have been added.

Also taken into account at this vote will be precepts from town and parish councils.

Provisional precept amounts from December showed that Bridlington Town Council had effectively frozen its demand for the forthcoming year ater balancing its budget from the last year to within £90.

At December’s full Town Council meeting councillors agreed to send the 2012/2013 budget – which stands at £184,322.54 – to East Riding of Yorkshire Council for approval.

The precept amount for a Band D property in Bridlington for 2012/2013 will be £15.

Flamborough Parish Council voted to increase its precept by £2,000 a year to ensure it had a high enough level of reserves for future costs.

At its meeting at the end of November the eight councillors present of the full complement of thirteen, voted in favour of the increase for the 2012/13 period which will mean households in the benchmark Band D housing sector would pay an extra £2.11 a year making the total £39.63.

The council said in December that it has not increased the precept since 2007/08 and whilst reluctant to bring any increase in it was necessary in order to maintain enough reserves to meet potentially expensive costs in relation to the 122 street lights it is responsible for in the village.

Full details will appear on the website tomorrow

Will Silver is the archetypal inspirational teacher, a classic combination of Mr Chips, Muriel Sparks’ Jean Brodie and John Keating of the Dead Poets’ Society.

He’s a hero to his impressionable and wealthy, mainly American, teenage students at an international high school in Paris where he brings lessons alive, sets imaginations on fire and offers youngsters their first heady taste of freedom.

Silver’s heroes are Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway and the French existentialist writers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, but the 33-year-old English teacher falls short of his own ideals when he launches into an illicit affair with a student at the school, a beautiful and vulnerable 17-year-old girl called Marie de Cléry...

Alexander Maksik’s impressive debut novel is as intellectually and emotionally stimulating as it is wry, entertaining and utterly gripping.

The constant wrestling with ideas, the tensions between ambition and reality, our dreams and our limits, our public faces and our private thoughts are standard existential territory.

But You Deserve Nothing is also an intimate examination of the nature of sexual temptation and the emotional battle between desire and action, all set against the simmering political tensions in Paris during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The novel plays out through three voices – Will, Marie and quiet, introverted Jewish student Gilad Fisher who regards Silver as a mentor and father figure as replacement for an unhappy home life.

This narrative device adds depth, dimension and diversity to the plot by allowing back stories to emerge and ambiguities and cracks to appear in the testaments of the three major protagonists voiced four years after the disastrous affair.

In the exciting atmosphere of Paris, Silver’s lessons provide added glamour to the lives of his pupils so when he is invited to a student’s party at an upmarket apartment where the wine flows freely, it seems almost inevitable that he might be ‘seduced’ by one of his adoring fans.

Marie’s version of what happened is somewhat different; she wasn’t one of his students and claims she ‘barely knew who the guy was.’ Ominously, she also cannot resist telling her school friend Ariel what has happened...

Maksik’s spare and unpretentious prose lends a subtle simplicity to this challenging tale about the relationship between teachers and pupils, the unravelling of moral certainties and the advent of adulthood.

He allows us no objective view of the teacher/pupil affair ... each character has a different and totally subjective take on relationships and events, thus opening up a typical Modernist ideological dilemma.

Sad, haunting and piquantly perceptive, You Deserve Nothing is a brilliant first novel.

(John Murray, paperback, £7.99)

The East Riding of Yorkshire Council tax charge will be frozen for the third consecutive year (1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013) following decisions taken by elected members at a meeting of Full Council on 9 February.

Councillor Stephen Parnaby OBE, leader of the council, said: “I am very pleased that we have again been able to freeze our charge. This is the right thing to do and a recognition that council tax is a significant outlay, especially for pensioners and others on fixed incomes.

“I believe it is fairer for people to pay for any cost increases in services they use, which we have generally kept in line with inflation, rather than hitting everyone with a higher council tax bill.”

Full story in next weeks Driffield Times & Post / Pocklington Post/ Bridlington Free Press / Beverley Guardian

For the second year running Nafferton Primary School’s Boy’s Under 11 hockey team have made it through to the regional finals of the ‘In2Hockey’ tournament, run by England Hockey.

Taking on a number of other schools recently at Hymer’s College in Hull the team came second in the group thanks to goals from captain Gregor Napier and Tom Lee saw Nafferton through their first two matches, only to be beaten by local rivals Martongate of Bridlington in the final game.

The boys now qualify for the next round in York against other schools from around Yorkshire in March.

What makes the achievement even more remarkable is that the pupils have only been receiving coaching for little over a year but are taking on much bigger schools with a lot more pupils to choose from!

On behalf of the school, Mr Saltonstall, would like to thank Andy Duke at Driffield School for very kindly allowing the school to use their astro-turf every week, Primepak Foods for donating the school’s playing kit and Driffield Hockey Club for the use of their goalkeeper kit.

Driffield Swimming Club got the swim season off to a great start by competing in the first leg of the East Coast League.

The club won the league last year so this season were coming out fighting. This ‘friendly’ league consists of four teams: Driffield, Kingfishers, Bridlington and Filey. This year’s first gala was held at Filey.

The first races were the Medley relays. Each team of four has to swim a length of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly then finally freestyle. The races produced some really great examples of each of the strokes and also some first places.

Winning the first medley relay were the 11 and Under Girls team. Georgia Haynes, Hollie Edeson, Taylor Cartwright and Sarah Wade held off the competition in style. Next the 15 and Under Boys team had a great win. Aaron Rose, Max Gilbart, Aaron Moorfoot and Jack Martindale showed super technique and took first place.

Next to win were the 13 and Under Boys team: Adam Alcock backstroked to make the first touch, Junior Captain George Sheader increased the lead with his great breaststroke, Elliot Moorfoot and his strong butterfly gave the team an even bigger lead and then Jack Martindale rocketed home with his fabulous freestyle.

Then came the individual races.

First to victory was Sarah Wade in the 11 and Under Girls Freestyle.

12 year old Vice Captain Emma Palmer won her 15 and Under Girls Butterfly race.

Jack Martindale led from the start to win the 13 and Under Boys Backstroke.

Captain Will Atkinson swam with strength to win the Open Butterfly race.

Max Gilbart showcased his terrific breaststroke to win the 15 and Under Boys race.

Adam Alcock’s strong freestyle took first in the Boys 13 event.

Sam Clark won the boys Open Backstroke with his powerful stroke.

Hollie Edeson took first in the 11 and Under breaststroke demonstrating her great technique.

Martha Kelly speeded along to win the 15 and Under Freestyle.

Along the way were some personal bests for the swimmers: The team’s only Under 11 boy was 9 year old Harvey Roberts. He gained three personal bests for his Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle having swum in all four of the 11 and Under Boys Races. Well done Harvey!

More personal bests were swum by Captain Will Atkinson, Jack Martindale, Georgia Haynes, Max Gilbart, Emily Crabtree and Hollie Edeson.

The final set of races was the freestyle relays. These are always great to watch but with Driffield neck and neck with Bridlington on points at this stage, these races would decide who got the win for the league table.

The first relay was the Open Girls. They sped to victory with Tia Heaney, Vice Captain Emma Palmer, Captain Leonie Heaney and Martha Kelly all putting in top performances.

Sarah, Taylor, Georgia and Hollie made it a double to win the Girls 11 and Under free relay as did the 13 and Under boys with Elliot, George, Jack and Adam swimming to victory.

With the number of swimmers still being short in some areas, having to swim up at least one age group were: Adam Alcock, Taylor Cartwright, Junior Captain Alice Clark, Jessica Humble, Martha Kelly, Jack Martindale and Vice Captain Emma Palmer. At the end of the evening Driffield came in second place trailing Bridlington by just one point! Three more galas will take place throughout the season so stay tuned to see how Driffield perform.

Team Manager Josie Clark was pleased with her team, saying: “A great start to the new season. I look forward to seeing how the swimmers progress throughout the year.”

DESPITE the terrible weather on Saturday – and nearly all football and rugby games being postponed – Driffield Rangers made a worthwhile trip to Easington in the quarter-finals of the Senior Country Cup.

Going by bus they returned with an emphatic 5-1 win to put them into the last four, much to the delight of manager Shaun Walker, who was full of praise for his squad. He said: “The lads were brilliant, and in difficult conditions not one of them shied away from their responsibilities.

“These guys just never give up and the work rate they show is top drawer.

“You get out of games what you put into it and they are reaping the rewards at this moment in time.

“The team spirit is strong as always and the competition for places is healthy which bodes well for the rest of the season.”

Rangers went in front early on through Kev Woodcock, and doubled their lead just before the break through Dave Brent.

Brent made it 3-0 after half time before the home side pulled one back, but further goals from Dave Woodcock and Rich Thompson put them in the hat for the semi-finals.

Driffield FC are still in the competition but their quarter-final at Withernsea was called off. The game between Dunnington and Filey also fell foul of the weather, while AFC Rovers beat Greyhound 4-2 to join Rangers in the last four.

Match report on page 70