Margaret Mills returned today for her monthly book review and chose to look at a book by Lesley Kara, called “THE RUMOUR”.

The story concerns a single mum who hears a rumour at the school gates, which although she never intends to pass on, one casual comment leads to another from which there’s no going back . . .

Rumour has it that a notorious child killer is living under a new identity, in their sleepy little town of Flinstead-on-Sea.

Sally McGowan was just ten years old when she stabbed little Robbie Harris to death forty-eight years ago – no photos of her exist since her release as a young woman.

So who is the supposedly reformed killer who now lives among them?

How dangerous can one rumour become?

And how far will the school gate mother go to protect her loved ones from harm, when she realises what she’s unleashed?

The plot of this book asks a number of questions. 

For example, we all arrive at conclusions about people and events, and like to believe we usually do this based on facts and reasoned judgment. 

But is this true, or is it always the case that anybody can be manipulated to believe exactly what they’re told? 

And what happens if those conclusions are terribly wrong? 

The book also asks whether it is ever possible to completely distance ourselves from events that happened many years ago, however much we try.

Listen here to Margaret’s review and decide for yourself whether this is a book you’d like to include in your holiday reading: –

And talking of school gates, we also heard today why 15 sheep have been enrolled as pupils at a primary school in France.

And this is not as rumour, but solid fact and occurred following threats to close a class in the school due to falling numbers of pupils.

Apparently French national education rules only take account of numbers so the addition of the sheep means that the threat to close one class should now be removed.

Incredible but true.

See you again tomorrow,
Scott