Five in March

 I read five books in March.

 

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

Read for book group. Fascinating, learned but accessible. The ‘Square’ in question is Mecklenburg Square in London which was blitzed almost to extinction in September 1940. Before that, at different times, it had been home to five women; the Square is what connects them.

I knew of Virginia Woolf and Dorothy L Sayers already, but I learned a lot more about them here. The others – the writer H.D.; classics don Jane Ellen Harrison; and medieval historian and lecturer Eileen Power – were new to me. The last two were at university at a time when women could study but not graduate.

Eileen sounds absolutely delightful. She was the first woman to receive the Albert Kahn Travelling Fellowship which funded a year’s travel designed to widen the ‘narrow academic mind’, and she made the most of it.

Unlike other ‘blue-stockings’ she took a great interest in clothes and wore very colourful outfits, some bought on her travels, and she was famous for her ‘dancing in the kitchen’ parties at which guests were required to wear morning dress. The book doesn’t say how big her kitchen was … but who could refuse such an invitation?

I dared not more than glance at the eleven-page bibliography at the back of the book – I know there will be dozens of titles there that I would like to to read but will never have the time.

 

A Wartime Secret by Helen Yendall

This has one of the most enticing openings I've read - 'Maggie Corbett lay face down on the open platform of the number 56 bus ... ' which was a great introduction to the believable and feisty Maggie.

I've read a lot of books set in WW2 but I learned two new things from this one: 

1) some companies relocated from London to the country, in this case (as you can see in the lovely cover image) to very grand houses. What a gift for the writer, to have different classes cheek-by-jowl in a way they would not be in normal circumstances. 

2) there are villages which became known as Thankful Villages after WW1 because all those who were in the armed forces in that conflict came home.

There are several enjoyable story strands in the book – I particularly liked the one with his Lordship and his childhood sweetheart. The era was well conjured up and the characters were memorable – I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Maggie et al.

 

The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves

A Vera book. Ann Cleeves must have had fun writing this as it’s set in a writers’ retreat and no one seems to have a good word to say about that strange breed of people … A cruel, Svengali type is found murdered and there’s no shortage of suspects.

 

Everyday Kindness edited by LJ Ross

A charity anthology of commissioned short stories with the theme of kindness, all proceeds going to Shelter. It seems churlish to have any criticism of such a kind book but the lack of editing was distracting – in one story a child was mostly called Mable but sometimes Mabel, for example. And a cable-knit cream jumper is an Aran not an arran.

The stories are from well- and less-known writers and include Sophie Hannah, Louise Jensen, CL Taylor and LJ Ross herself.

 

A Maid and a Man by Anne Stenhouse

It’s 1819. Tabby has come north to Edinburgh when her employer, the enlightened Lady Warrende, needs a new lady’s maid to accompany her. Tabby is no ordinary girl though, having previously worked as assistant to her apothecary father. She desires to know more about medicine and about anatomy at a time when girls were debarred from these studies. As Edinburgh University is currently at the forefront of anatomical studies (despite the opposition of the church) she’s come to the right place …. and it seems that in another servant, the handsome Cal Morrison, she may have a kindred spirit.

As the blurb says, ‘Drama and danger abound in old Edinburgh town’ – I read this in a oner and highly recommend.

 

Six in April

I read six books in April.

The Physic Garden by Catherine Czerkawska, published by Saraband. Set in Glasgow in the 19th century. Young gardener William Lang forms an unlikely friendship with botanist Dr Thomas Brown while working in the university physic garden. Around them, City life is never short of drama: poverty and pollution preys on all but the lucky few and resurrection men prowl the streets to procure corpses for anatomists to experiment on. Atmospheric, full of fascinating historical detail, but above all a great story.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. I first heard of Geraldine Brooks (Australian-born and now living in the States) when she won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006 with March, the story of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy’s father while he is away as a chaplain on the front line in the American Civil War, which also tells us something of his early life and how he met and married Marmee. March is faithful to the spirit of Little Women while being very much its own self and is one of my very favourite books.

So I was keen to read something else by this author and her first novel (2001) Year of Wonders did not disappoint. It is set in a different century and country from March and is based on a true story, as it is set in 1666, in Derbyshire, when the Great Plague reached Eyam and the decision was taken by the villagers to isolate themselves to prevent its further spread. Events are seen through the eyes of an eighteen-year-old widow, Anna. No less a person than Hilary Mantel said of it ‘It has a vivid imaginative truth, and is beautifully written.’ With which I can only agree and urge you to seek out Geraldine Brooks right now.

Take My Breath Away by Sally Quilford. My Weekly Pocket Novel: a murder mystery on the set of a remake of the film Cleopatra.

Treasures: What do we treasure most? published by Scottish Book Trust to celebrate Scottish Book Week 2013. Contributions from some famous folk eg Richard Holloway, Mairi Hedderwick, Denise Mina and John Barrowman, plus a host of others, ‘these items tell the stories of the people of Scotland’.

Truly, Madly, Deeply, an anthology of stories by members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, some huge best sellers such as Katie Fforde and Adele Parks, others at various stages of their writing career. Many different settings and eras – I particularly liked the Indian setting of the stories by Jenny Harper (The Eighth Promise) and Louise Allen (Head over Heart). Other favourites were a contemporary story that harked back to ‘Summer '43’ by India Grey, and a contemporary story set in London, The Fundamental Things by Heidi Rice – lots of good reading here. I got the e-version which has eleven more stories than the paperback.

The Hundred-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson – a good yarn and, along the way, a look at the history of the 20th century as our unlikely hero inadvertently meets President Roosvelt, Mao Tse-tung, Stalin and de Gaulle amongst others. A note on the front of the book says it is soon to be a ‘major motion picture’ – whether this refers to the one made in Sweden which came out at the end of last year I don’t know; it sounds as if a Hollywood one is in the offing too maybe. Very cinematically written so I feel as if I have seen the film already.