Seven in March

 I read seven books in March.

Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

This is a trilogy. I read the first one Old Baggage a few years ago for my book group – about wonderful Mattie. Earlier in her life she was a militant Suffragette who was imprisoned five times. Now it’s 1928 and she needs a new cause. Into her life came young lad Noel. Now, in Crooked Heart, we gather that Noel and Mattie have lived together very happily but WW2 is approaching – and Noel finds Mattie dead and himself on his own.

Evacuated to St Albans, he ends up with Vera who lives with her unsatisfactory grown-up son. She supplements her meagre income in various dodgy ways (bogus collecting boxes for example). Precocious Noel, with his Mattie-taught literary skills and mathematical brain, proves to be an excellent accomplice. The development of the relationship between the two of them is brilliantly done and I’m looking forward to V for Victory which is the third book.

 

Yellow Face by Rebecca F. Kuang

Read this million-selling title for my book group. There has been much in the literary press in recent years over who has ‘the right’ to tell a particular story and who has not. In this case June, the author protagonist, definitely does not have the right to publish the story of exploited Chinese workers – because she didn’t write it; she stole the manuscript from her dead friend Athena, an incredibly successful young author of whom June has always been wildly jealous.

Ironically, this very 21st-century scenario hinges on one 19th-century invention; Athena always wrote her first draft on a manual typewriter with no copies so there was no digital evidence. Told through June’s voice – an increasingly desperate voice as she gets found out – this is an easy read, and of extra interest if you’ve ever worked in the publishing business.

 

 

The 1960s-1980s Magazine Girls: the Inside Story

Another publishing story but one which could not be more different to the one above. Seven women who worked on women's magazines spill the beans about everything from fashion shoots to hanging out with pop stars. Bright young school leavers could walk into jobs then – no university degrees required, no unpaid internships. Happy days!

 

Game On by Janet Evanovich

The 28th book in the Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, series and the first I’ve read in years – the last one was probably the 15th or 16th. Nothing has changed – not her madcap family or ex-hooker colleague Lulu, not her relationship with handsome cop Joe Morrelli (nor her occasional hankerings after the mysterious Ranger) and not, sadly, the casual acceptance of gun culture. I think I’m done here.

 

 

Goldberg Variations by Susan Isaacs

I’m keen on Susan Isaacs (especially Shining Through). This book has two grown-up siblings and their cousin being invited to stay with their estranged grandmother who intends to decide who will inherit her very successful business. But do any of them want it?

The story is told from each of the four viewpoints and each rounded character walked off the page. Enjoyable though it was, however, I didn’t think it was any more than the sum of its parts.

 

 

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

One of two rereads this month. If I’ve finished a book and it’s getting late I tend to look for a book I’ve read before rather than embarking on a new one. I had it in my mind that I would read this one again and then donate it to a charity shop.

Nope. Couldn’t do it. Get rid of it, I mean.

High-flying lawyer and financial wizard Samantha walked out of her City job and has (very improbably – the clue is in the title) been employed as a housekeeper.

Sophie Kinsella is so brilliant at set-pieces and I will pop back in just to read these bits again – too many to mention, and there would be spoilers, but the scene in the greenhouse … and the moment when an entitled girl gets her comeuppance … are particularly satisfying.

 

Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart

In the case of this book, it’s a re-re-read (or maybe more) of my favourite Mary Stewart book. I picked it up again this month because it’s set in Vienna and other parts of Austria, and I just came back from three nights in Vienna and one in Salzburg.

Having now been lucky enough to have sat in the Blue Bar in the famous Hotel Sacher in Vienna for drinks (be sure to book a table … ) it was brilliant to read about Vanessa’s visit there.

Sadly we weren’t able to see a performance of the Lipizzaner horses, which play a vital part in the plot, but I was thrilled when we came across the stables (I hadn’t expected that they would be right in the middle of the city) and we could see some of the beautiful white animals looking over their half doors.

My visit did not include being chased by a circus performer over a castle roof … but Mary Stewart’s superb writing made me feel that it had.

 

Seven in July

I read seven books in July.

 

 

The Shell House Detectives by Emylia Hall 

Ally Bright, retired and recently widowed, and a young ex-cop, Jayden Weston, satisfactorily solve the mystery of a young man found dead at the foot of a cliff near their village on the Cornish coast. An unlikely but excellent duo of (semi-) amateur sleuths plus some lovely writing. Book 1 in a new series; would definitely read more.

 

 

Doors Open by Ian Rankin

A standalone IR title, a crime caper really – a heist of Scotland’s National Gallery pictures from its overflow store which is open once a year on Doors Open Day. Good fun, especially for Edinburghers I think.

 

 

 Fool for Love by Eloisa James

A Regency novel: ‘Lady Henrietta Maclellan longs for the romantic swirl of a London season. But as a rusticating country maiden, she has always kept her sensuous nature firmly under wraps – until she meets Simon Darby.’ Interestingly, Eloisa James is a Professor of English Literature in New York.

 

Touch not the Cat by Mary Stewart

I thought I had read all Mary Stewart’s books but this one caught my attention at the Christian Aid Book Sale this year. Not my favourite (which is Airs Above the Ground) because I wasn’t that keen on the rather supernatural element here – the family whose members can speak to each without words. But otherwise it’s vintage Mary Stewart. (I couldn't find a picture of mine – the cover isn't nearly as nice as this one.)

‘Touch not the cat bot [without] a glove’, by the way, is the motto of the Scottish Clan Chattan, to which, courtesy of my maiden name, I belong.

 

The Boy Who Loved Books by John Sutherland

A biography/memoir by the Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College. His distinguished title and career belie his beginnings which were poor both financially and emotionally. His mother, widowed when he was a small boy, was a wonderful character but not a wonderful mother, and time spent farmed out to an unpleasant aunt in Edinburgh left him with a bad impression of the city although he did return to teach in the University.

Luckily, he discovered books. Unfortunately, he also discovered that he had a great capacity for alcohol. In the second half of the book I’d have like more about the former and less of the latter.

 

Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

I adored Lost for Words which came out in 2017 and featured Loveday Cardew, a troubled young woman whose refuge is the second-hand bookshop she works in. In Found in a Bookshop we meet her again – and now she’s inherited the shop. But, a big but – it’s 2020. No one can come in. She hits on the idea of a ‘book pharmacy’ – people can tell her, and her assistant, Kelly, what ails them emotionally and they will give a list of recommendations. Chosen titles can be posted or (cautiously) delivered.

Some customers are given more space than others such as the elderly devoted couple George and Rosemary.

For many years to come, I’ve no doubt, there will be novels set in the pandemic years. One written so close to the event has an authenticity and was a raw, perhaps understandably rather overwrought, reminder of that time. I liked it well enough (especially the books lists) but I didn’t adore it.

 

 

The Pear Affair by Judith Eagle

A delightful story aimed at the 9+ age group which, I’ll let you know, includes me ….

'When Penelope Magnificent's awful parents tell her they're taking a trip to Paris, she surprises them by begging to go along.’ 

Her ulterior motive is to look for her much-loved former au pair Perrine (‘Pear’) and there follows adventures both above and below ground in the French capital.

The day I (almost) went to Bangalore

I had my mobile phone for seven years, one of those pebble ones in a pretty green colour. Of late, I could see friends trying not to chortle when I used it. That should be on the Antiques Road Show I heard them thinking.

But it wasn’t to save myself from being chortled at that I decided it was time to say goodbye to the green pebble. There were various reasons why it made more sense to have what I thought of as a ‘flicky flicky’ phone. Plus I thought I’d like a phone with a keyboard. On the pebble I was the slowest texter in the world. Predictive texting was more hindrance than help although it did have its amusing moments.

Once, I went with friends to Northern Ireland. I texted my family to say I was on a train to Bang … Predictive texting decided I was en route to Bangalore. I was tempted to send it. Back home they would be very surprised to hear that I was in India when they’d waved me off thinking I was going to a party in Bangor.

In writing contemporary fiction, modern communications can get in the way of a good story. Your characters, as they would be in real life, will always be contactable unless you explain – lost/stolen phone, forgot to pack/top up/charge – why they’re not. The red phone box is even more antique than my green pebble.

Enid Blyton never had this problem. The Famous Five could not have had adventures if they’d had to report their whereabouts to Aunt Fanny every five minutes. Or if, using a tracker app, Aunt F could see that they’d gone to Kirrin Island again when she’d told them not to. (On the other hand, in a real emergency, they could have texted her: Frgt gngr br pls brng + 10 jm trts.)

The heroines in the books by one of my favourite authors, Mary Stewart (writing in the middle of the last century), would not be in such thrilling danger if they were able to phone/text/sat nav their way out of sticky situations.

In my People’s Friend serial The Family at Farrshore I got round the issue by having signal problems. It’s set in the far north-west of Scotland so this seemed plausible, but not a solution for every story.

Modern communication methods cannot be ignored but I can write stories set before everyone had a mobile or I can try to avoid situations where they need to be mentioned. Or, of course, I can make use of them in a story just I do in real life.

I’m now the owner of a flicky flicky, smart new/new smart phone and I’m trying to fathom all its many functions. And I hope that very soon I’ll be much faster at texting than I was the day I (almost) went to Bangalore.