Five in June

 

I read five books in June.

 

Mrs Porter Calling by A J Pearce

‘A feel-good novel about the spirit of friendship in wartime Britain.’ The third in The Wartime Chronicles series – the fourth Dear Miss Lake has just been published. I love books set in the Home Front, books set in wartime London and books set in magazine publishing houses, so this ticked three boxes.

Obviously, in this time and place, the characters face very serious situations, but it’s all done with a light and delightful touch.

From her uncle, the eponymous Mrs Porter has inherited Woman’s Friend magazine – a cosy weekly which specialises in answering readers’ problems. But the glamorous and entitled Mrs P finds their problems ‘mis’ and dreary and makes the staff run Vogue-type articles on eg perfume that would cost the ordinary woman half a week’s wages.

 

The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier

Tracy’s books are always so interesting and informative because she researches such different subjects each time – Vermeer, trees, fossils, church kneelers and Victorian mourning to name but a few. This time it is glass making on the Venetian island of Murano: she visited there several times and tried her hand at this difficult skill (sadly, a skill and an industry that has been mostly overtaken by modern production methods).

The main character, Orsolo, and some of her family barely age over the five-hundred-year span of the story. This feat is explained by the ‘timelessness’ of Venice and is pulled off brilliantly. Told this way, you can see the history of glass making since the 1500s without having to meet a new set of characters every generation.

 

False Colours by Georgette Heyer

‘Gossip, scandal and an unforgettable Regency romance.’ The main character here is the dashing Kit, on leave from the diplomatic service – and he needs all his diplomacy skills to sort out the tangled lives of his extravagant mother and wayward twin brother, and his own feelings for that brother’s betrothed.

An enjoyable read if not one of my favourite GHs.

 

A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer

My first GH crime novel – and, sadly, my last. Set in the 1930s in a snowbound country house, the book has none of the sparkling writing and gorgeous characterisation I like so much in her Regency novels. (I was warned of this by diehard Regency fans ... ) 

The solution to the murder of the house’s owner was satisfying but, jings, it was a bit of a plod to get there.

 

Broken Threads by Michal Hussein

This memoir from the host of Radio 4’s Today programme details her ancestry, which includes an Irish grandmother and a grandfather who played a part in the bloody transition ‘from Empire to Independence’.

It’s fascinating – I wish, though, that I’d read it in print and not on Kindle because eg there are many names beginning with A and I would like to have been able to refer back easily to get a grip on them, plus the e-form is hopeless when a book has lots of reference notes.