Six in August

I read six books in August.

 

Long Island by Colm Toibin

The sequel to Brooklyn. It’s now 1976. Eilis and her husband Tony and their two children live in Long Island, in the same cul-de-sac as Tony’s parents and two brothers. A marriage crisis sees Eilis going back to Ireland and her mother’s house in Enniscorthy for her first visit in twenty years.

No further spoilers. It was such a pleasure to revisit these characters and Colm Toibin’s writing about them. I had the privilege of hearing him talk about the book at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year (frankly, I could listen to him read the telephone directory). He said he’d loved the film of Brooklyn to the extent that he took some characteristics that Domhnall Gleeson gave to Jim, and brought them out in Long Island.

And that gorgeous lyrical writing? The minute he’s written anything flowery or introspective he deletes it … and pares down and pares down … 

 

A Coronet for Cathie by Gwendoline Courtney

I love to reread my favourite girls’ books. One I know almost off by heart is Elizabeth of the Garrett Theatre by GW and several others of hers are a nostalgic read too. I’d never read this one; it seemed unavailable but has just been reissued by the wonderful Girls Gone By Publishers.

Teenage orphan Cathie learns that, following the death of a previously unknown relative, she is now a duchess and has a castle to live in … The book then turns into more of a school story. Cathie manages to avoid having her lineage known when she attends a day school some distance away – that certainly sorts out the snobs from the nice girls!

And continuing on the comfort reads, a couple of L M Montgomerys – The Story Girl and The Golden Road with their bewitching story-spinning heroine Sara Stanley.

 

 

Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer

Unmarried at thirty, wealthy Annis Wychwood defies convention and sets up her own household in Bath. She unexpectedly finds herself in loco parentis to seventeen-year-old Lucilla whose guardian is the much-gossiped about rake Oliver Carleton.

 

Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield

I’m not that keen on ghost/slightly supernatural stories except if they’re written by Diane Setterfield … Her Once Upon a River is wonderful, even better than this one..

Here, William Bellman kills a rook with a catapult when he’s ten and thereby alters the course of his life. Rising from poverty to become a very rich businessman entirely through his own astonishing acumen, when his child is dying he enters into a kind of pact with the mysterious Mr Black.

Apart enjoying the story, I learnt many things from this book especially about rooks and the over-the-top mourning clothes and accoutrements the Victorians went in for. Highly recommended.

 

 

Ten in February (2)

 I read ten books in February. Five of them are here, five in the previous post.

 

 

Life and Death in the Woods by Cecilia Peartree

A proposal to build a museum of trees on the outskirts of a town in central Scotland brings together a disparate assortment of people – and a dead body. Max, curator of a small university museum, gets involved against his better judgment. Janice, the owner of a local sandwich shop, finds herself becoming an eco-warrior, against her better judgment. A good cosy crime with some light-hearted fun-poking at academic institutions and the machinations of local government.

 

Dead Stock by Rachel Ward

I much enjoyed the first outing for amateur sleuths Ant and Bea, The Cost of Living. Twenty-one-year-old Bea is on the checkout of a supermarket and Ant, with whom she was at school, does shelf-stacking, floor-wiping and other odd jobs. I love that the titles of the books reflect their environment so aptly.

Here, cats are going missing and a body is found on the bypass. Ant and Bea investigate but juggling that, work, and their difficult home lives takes its toll. The dialogue between them, and the other characters, crackles with life.

 

Expiry Date by Rachel Ward

Bea is worried for the safety of one of her regular customers and the discovery of a body on a building site causes an upheaval in her own family. Meanwhile, Ant finds himself homeless. Another corker; more please.

 

House of the Glimmering Light by Jane Shaw

First published in 1943 and reissued by Girls Gone By Publishers. Jane Shaw, best known to girls’ story aficionados for her Susan series, has two engaging heroines here, Angela and Noel. They meet when they are both staying in the House of the Glimmering Light built on a rocky promontory in the wilds of Argyllshire.

Yes, of course the plot, of two young teenagers outwitting a dastardly enemy in their midst to save Great Britain from devastation, is to be taken with a cellar-full of salt but it is gripping and told with the author’s good sense of humour and great sense of place – plus the fact that it was actually written when the outcome of the war was unknown gives it an urgency.

 

Motherwell, A Girlhood by Deborah Orr

Read on Kindle for book group. DO was brought up in Motherwell in the west of Scotland in the 60s/70s, a turbulent time of industrial unrest for that area where most of the men, including her father, were employed at the steelworks, Ravenscraig, later closed by the Thatcher government.

A clever and artistic child, Deborah was encouraged at school by her parents – but only up to a point. What they really wanted for her was to stay virgo intacta until a suitable husband presented himself, then she should live round the corner and give them grandchildren.

There’s a pun in the name of the book and the name of the town – because since she grew up and defied them by moving away (becoming a respected journalist in London and marrying and divorcing Will Self) she has pondered at length on the personalities of her parents, particularly her mother, and come to less-than-flattering conclusions about them. That they were controlling of her and had baggage of their own is undeniable but she appears to blame them totally for subsequent toxic relationships she had.

I thought her writing was terrific and the snapshot of 1970s industrial Scotland she shows the reader is an important one, rarely seen. I was totally on her side for more than half the book but then I began to think of it as a misery memoir which isn’t really my cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girls Gone By

 

 

Readers of this blog will know that my reading tastes are wide but when the chips are down – and, boy, have they been down this year – it’s to children’s books I return for comfort reading, those I read first as a child and some terrific ones published more recently of which this is my favourite.

 

I know I’m not the only one – the BBC adaptation of the Malory Towers series brightened many an early lockdown experience according to social media posts from girls’ school story fans of all ages, lots of whom declared their intention of rereading the originals. And there are Facebook pages dedicated to the Chalet School series and, more generally, Girls’ Own books.

 

I’m lucky in that, despite many house moves in my childhood and into my twenties, I have held on to all my books. If that’s not the case for you and you feel the urge for a nostalgic reading binge can I point you in the direction of  Girls Gone By Publishing? They republish such stalwarts of mid-20th-century bookshelves as:

 

Mabel Esther Allan

Elinor Brent-Dyer

Gwendoline Courtney

Monica Edwards

Josephine Elder

Antonia Forest

Elizabeth Goudge

Lorna Hill

Malcolm Saville

Jane Shaw

 

Their most recent non-fiction publication is a three-volume Encyclopaedia of Girls’ School Stories. Having signed up to get the GGBP newsletter I was aware the project was forthcoming. The publisher asked if anyone had copies of various girls’ annuals (which had school stories in them) as cover images of them were wanted to illustrate a particular section. 

 

I told in this post of my large collection of annuals so I was delighted to be able to help with several of the wanted titles and to subsequently see them in Volume Two eg:

 

 

I had NO idea there were so many girls’ school stories – an absolutely staggering amount were published from the late 1800s with their heyday probably being in the 20s and 30s. There’s no way I could ever acquire or read even a fraction of them so it’s great to be able to read about them in the almost 700 pages of the Encyclopaedia which is a huge slice of social history and highly recommended.