Time travel has long been mooted as a possibility and quantum physics suggests that the present and our concept of time is a convenient construct that mankind uses. Audrey Niffenegger seamlessly blends a meaningful, poignant, love story with a time travelling central character to create a novel that feels completely rooted in real life. Judy Hall uses past life regression to weave a multi-layered plot and takes us back to Ancient Egypt.

Based on the premise that Henry, the protagonist, has a faulty gene that causes him to travel backwards and forwards in time with no conscious control over where he goes ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ explores what this means to his relationship with his love Clare. Clare has been seeing adult Henry appear naked in front of her all through her childhood (clothes don’t make the journey, causing real difficulties and embarrassment for Henry). For years she has known they are living together as man & wife in her future. When she meets a younger Henry at last in her present he doesn’t know her yet. Very clever stuff!

The relationship between adult Clare & Henry is sensually written and beautiful; it has a real sense of soulmate closeness. It is also funny & heartrending by turn. This couple feel so very real as they face their unique marital challenges. For Henry travelling to wherever, whenever and arriving there without any clothes isn’t safe, and popping out of existence in the present isn’t always convenient!

This is a book that makes you sit back & think ‘What if?’ If someone could time travel as Henry does what would it mean for them and those who love them? I loved reading this novel & would suggest you have a good quantity of tissues handy for the end.


‘Torn Clouds’ by Judy Hall is written from her deep understanding of past life therapy and through fiction gives you a glimpse into the ways in which this therapy can heal. As I’m a therapist who works with past lives I felt recognition of some of the issues Judy unveils in the novel and was pleased to read a past life fiction that didn’t feel like a sci-fi confection.

I was intrigued as Megan, the main character, guided by her intuition, dreams and visions, delves into her past lives in Ancient Egypt looking for healing, having been diagnosed with terminal leukaemia. We follow her through her physical and spiritual healing journey, experience travel in modern Egypt, and her regressions to her past. Slowly she builds the jigsaw puzzle revealing the roots of her illness. Along the way we meet a couple of truly bombastic characters who vie for the right to be recognised as the one & only re-incarnation of a legendary Egyptian queen, sweeping along in full fancy dress and other, quieter people undergoing their own voyages of self-discovery and transformation.

Judy Hall is the well known and respected author of best-seller ‘The Crystal Bible’ and many other books on healing. ‘Torn Clouds’ proves she can write intelligent and engrossing fiction too.