I read six books in July.
From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides by Margaret Fay
Shaw
Margaret Fay Shaw was an American-born
musicologist, photographer and writer. She and her husband John Lorne Campbell
were fascinated by the folklore, culture and language of the Scottish islands,
especially South Uist, and set out to record it as much as possible. In 1938
the couple bought the island of Canna where they lived until they died – MFS in
2004 aged 101. What a wonderful woman.
TheSecret of Orchard Cottage by Alex Brown
‘April Wilson is wondering what to do next – her life has
been turned upside down after the loss of her husband so she’s hoping to piece
herself together again with a visit to her elderly great aunt, Edith. Arriving
in the rural idyll of Tindledale, she’s dismayed to find Edith’s cottage and
the orchards surrounding it in a sorry state of disrepair. Edith seems to have
lost interest completely, instead she’s become desperate to find out what
happened to her sister, Winnie, who disappeared during WWII.’
I heard this author speak at the recent Romantic Novelists’
Association Conference. Her first (unpublished) book was set in a bank because
she worked in one – but now her books are set in picturesque English villages
as you can tell from the cover.
Read on Kindle. ‘The first in a series of anthologies of
crime stories written by attendees of Crime & Publishment, a yearly
crime-writing workshops based in Gretna Green, Scotland, the home of British
marriages.’ (All proceeds to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.) My favourite (and
I’m not just saying it because I know her) is by my fellow Edinburgh Writers’
Club member Gillean Arjat; her story It
is the cause is set at the time of the Scottish referendum in 2014.
Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven by Fanny Flagg
Christian Aid Book Sale Purchase 2016. ‘Life is the
strangest thing. One minute, Mrs Elner Shimfissle is up a tree, picking figs to
make jam, and the next thing she knows, she is off on a strange adventure,
running into people she never expected to see again … ’
I have enjoyed other books by Fanny Flagg (such as Finding the Rainbow, Welcome to the World
Baby Girl, and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop
Café, which was made into a film). I wasn’t so keen on this one which
hopped into everyone’s head, even that of the most minor characters, and where
the whole premise was too sugary even for my sweet tooth.
After You by Jojo
Moyes
I read and cried over (as did millions of others) Me Before You and enjoyed the recent
film too. Even my husband (‘I’m only going because your mother wants to see
it.’) had to be passed a tissue. So naturally I was keen to find out what Lou
did next. Perhaps inevitably I was a leeetle bit disappointed. Nothing could have the emotional impact of Me
Before You of course– what happened in that book should/could only happen to a
person once in their lifetime. And I didn’t take to Lily, the damaged teenager
who seemed to be straight from central casting. But it was good to meet lovely
Lou again and her family – and to know that there will be a third book about
them.
The Fire Maker by
Peter May
Peter May wrote five police procedurals set in Beijing in
the 1990s which I believe were published before he became so well known (with
his Lewis trilogy, and Enzo Macleod books among others) and are now being
reissued. The Fire Maker is the first.
I was intrigued to read it, as a Peter May fan and because I have been to
Beijing (as I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen; I did a post on my visit to China
here).
I think, if I may say so, that Peter May’s writing is much better now,
but The Fire Maker is, er, a cracking
good read with very evocative descriptions of the sights, sounds, smells and
tastes of the Chinese capital, and a fast-moving plot. My only complaint is
that we are told rather too often that Margaret Campbell, the visiting American
forensic pathologist, isn’t wearing a bra. Perhaps in the second book, due out next month, she'll have remembered to put one on.
