Six in February

I read six books in February.

On the Up by Alice O’Keefe

The first but probably not the last book I’ll read on how difficult it is for young (and not so young) people to afford to buy, or even rent, somewhere decent to live in the UK in the 21st century.

Sylvia rents a flat on a council estate in London with her laid-back, minimum-waged, ‘not-quite-husband’, Ove, their toddler and baby. She’s the main breadwinner but while she is on maternity leave she finds out the quango she’s worked for is to be wound up. Sylvia yearns for a house like the one she was brought up in but all she and Ove could possibly afford (if she finds another job) is one that is virtually uninhabitable and only a minute’s walk from a motorway junction.

However, shockingly, compared to others on the estate, Sylvia is lucky in that she has choices, although they may not involve house ownership. When her block is scheduled for ‘redevelopment’ (ie into properties none of the current occupants could aspire to buying) the council tenants are told they will ‘probably’ be re-housed in the Greater London area, or failing that, Birmingham.

The estate occupants come together to protest the development, aided by a lawyer friend of Alice’s, knowing though that the eventual outcome is inevitable and they will all go their separate ways.

Number 1 Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li

Read on Kindle for book group.

‘The popular Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland has been serving devoted regulars for decades, but behind the staff's professional smiles simmer tensions, heartaches and grudges from decades of bustling restaurant life.’

Family businesses are a great subject for novels (and TV dramas). This is the first one I’ve read set in the world of Chinese restaurants and it was a fascinating glimpse into the fiercely hot and noisy kitchens and the people who own them and the people who work in them. Well-written, touching, funny and sad.

Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce

Inspired by agony-aunt columns in women’s wartime magazines. Mrs Henrietta Bird is agony aunt for a failing magazine called Woman’s Friend – but she’s not much help to anyone in these troubled times. For one thing she’d rather be out of the office lording it on various war-effort committees and for another she refuses to answer any questions that involve what she calls Unpleasantness; this includes: marital relations, pre-marital relations, extra-marital relations … you get the drift.

Her new assistant, sparky Emmeline, seeing the genuine dilemmas and unhappiness of some of the letter-writers, decides to write back herself. Alongside this, there is Emmeline’s life outside the office with her friend Marigold, known as Bunty, and her other job in the evenings on the fire-brigade switchboard.

I thought the ending took a bit of swallowing but I loved the idea and the characters, and the tone which was rather reminiscent of girls’ school stories.

PS don’t look at Amazon reviews before you read this; some of them have a big spoiler.

PPS here’s a blog post of mine which has snippets of bracing advice from yesteryear.

The Holiday by T M Logan

From a charity shop to whence it was speedily returned.

Four women go on holiday to an Italian villa to celebrate their fortieth birthdays; one is on her own and the other three are with their husbands and children. Kate suspects that her husband is having affair with one of her friends. We learn from the tagline that one of the party is a murderer.

I thought I was going to read a tense psychological thriller with lots of build-up, but absolutely nothing happened until three-quarters of the way through this 496-page book. Until then you have to plough through banal interactions between characters who were all, whether grown-ups or offspring, unpleasant/obnoxious/spoilt/terminally boring*. A pity, because the reason for Kate’s husband’s suspicious behaviour turned out to be unexpected and original.

*other opinions are available – the book was a Richard and Judy best-seller.

The Hiding Places by Katherine Webb

I am a fan of KW, especially of her first book The Legacy.

I got totally into this one. She beautifully conjures up rural Wiltshire in the early 1920s and the heartbreak of Pudding whose beloved elder brother Donald has come back badly damaged by the war. When Donald is accused of the murder of a very popular member of the community, Pudding and a newcomer to the village try to prove his innocence.

And then – then I began a new chapter and was totally baffled, could not work out what was going on, even wondered momentarily if the binder had got pages mixed in from another book. I read on but nary a glimmer of light did I see. Only after I looked at reviews from others who had a similar reaction did I understand that this wasn’t the promised twisty ending but that there had been a sleight of hand all the way through. Was it very clever or was it cheating? The jury is out.

Midnight Fugue by Reginald Hill

The last, sadly, in the Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural series and it’s a corker.

It was a relief after the disappointments of the two books above to read one that did exactly what it said on the tin.