Death Walks in Eastrepps

August 27, 2012 in Challenges, Reviews | Tags: Crime, Readathon, Serial killers | 1 comment

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last sat down to update this blog, but that’s been a constant refrain this year due to a combination of not reading as much as I used to and other distractions (mostly work) leading to me only really thinking about this sort of ting at the weekend when there are competing priorities. But I am determined to catch up on my reviews before I go on holiday to Italy in the middle of September.

And where better to start than with a book I picked up purely on spec in our local branch of Waterstone’s.

I don’t know why it caught my eye – a combination of the cover and the fact that this is a new imprint designed to

showcase unjustly neglected works by great writers from the 1930s – the so-called golden age of crime writing – through to the 1970s

Francis Beeding is a pseudonym for two guys who wrote collaboratively over more than 20 years, and five of their novels have been made into films – haven’t gone looking for those yet – so clearly very successful but until now I hadn’t heard of them at all, and there works seem to have drifted into relative obscurity. Which is a real shame because this is an absolute cracker.

So we have a seaside resort in England, nothing special about it really, except that at least one of its residents has a pretty significant secret. And then the murders start.

This is a classic police procedural; we see the impact from the local angle as well as from the press (a reporter happens to be on holiday here and covers the story) and the detectives from London brought in to help solve the case. There is a real sense of unease as the community turns in on itself, wondering why this is happening to them. Perhaps unusually for this sort of story there is not only an arrest but a court case and a wonderful twist at the end which I will confess I didn’t really see coming and which has a really modern (to my mind) approach. Without giving anything away, I worked out the what but had no idea about the who.

Death Walks in Eastrepps was once apparently described as one of the ten greatest detective stories of all time, and its easy to see why. Highly recommended.

This was my fourth Readathon read.

A Card from Angela Carter [Mini Review]

July 23, 2012 in Challenges, Reviews | Tags: Bookishness, Memoirs & Diaries, Readathon | 2 comments

I am so, so far behind on my reviews that I seriously thought about skipping some (heresy) or having more than one (unrelated) book in a post (anathema). So I’ve decided to do the next best thing and crank out some mini-reviews. no disrespect intended to any of the books at all, of course.

First up is a tiny wee (in size not substance) memoir by Susannah Clapp; she was a long-time friend of Angela Carter, and A Card From…. is her attempt to capture the personality, interests, passions and life of an intelligent and versatile author by using the postcards she sent through her lifetime as a jumping off point for anecdotes and remembrances. The postcards themselves are often odd but it makes sense that Angela Carter would not have taken a traditional approach to dropping a note to her friends, and they make an interesting gateway into aspects of her life.

I really enjoyed reading this for two reasons:

(1) I hugely admire Angela’s work; I read and adored The Bloody Chamber when I was a student and every time I read something about her it makes me regret that I haven’t read more. I have thirteen of her books as far as I can tell and seem to skew towards her non-fiction. I’m mildly astonished (and a bit appalled) that I haven’t read either Wise Children or *gasps* The Magic Toyshop.

(2) I am incredibly nosey about people, I love reading diaries and letters and reminiscences so this was right up my street. She sounds like she must have been a challenging friend but they are often the best kind.

Very enjoyable, though this is the second time this week I’ve felt that the English Lit police will be after me (I may have disrespected Falstaff in a Facebook status update). and this hasn’t turned out to be such a mini after all…

This was my third Readathon read.

Sunday Salon – reading update 1 July

June 30, 2012 in Sunday Salon | 5 comments

It’s been a while since I updated everyone on my book purchases, probably because I’m hugely embarrassed that my self-imposed embargo on new books has imploded in a manner rarely seen these days. So as confession is good for the soul, these are the items bought since my last post at the end of May:

Team Cul de Sac, edited by Chris Sparks – a tribute volume to the cartoonist Richard Thompson, with proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research; i read this as soon as it arrived being a huge fan of the comic strip and it is just sublime;
The Addams Family: An Evilution by Charles Addams – um, it’s the Addams Family, why wouldn’t I buy it? Yay Morticia!;

The next three were the result of a trip to Salisbury on a wet Sunday which of course meant we had to shelter in the local Waterstones.

Oscar’s Books by Thomas Wright – tells the story of Oscar Wilde through his reading;
Hot Flushes, Cold Science by Louise Foxcroft – a history of the modern menopause (because I am a woman of a certain age and it looked fascinating);
Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo – haven’t read any DeLillo for a while, and the film version looks interesting so thought I would give it a go – nothing to do with R-Patz on the cover.

Other bits and bobs:

Blue Nights by Joan Didion – because I hugely admired The Year of Magical Thinking (as both a book and a play);
Maps & Legends by Michael Chabon – a series of linked essays in praise of reading and writing according to the blurb, part of my love affair with books about books and reading;
Vox by Nicholson Baker – about time for a re-read I thought, then realised I didn’t have a copy of my own;
Talulla Rising by Glen Duncan – so impressed by The Last Werewolf I went and bought the sequel.

From my first trip to Daunts bookshop on Cheapside, courtesy of Silvery Dude:

The Horror of Love by Lisa Hilton – the story of Nancy Mitford’s relationship with Gaston Palewski, part of my ever-growing Mitford library;

From a trip to Waterstones Piccadilly to hear Ben Aaronovitch speak (more of that in a second):

When Nights Were Cold by Susanna Jones – came in under my radar, sole survivor of an all-woman expedition to the Alps, an unsettling historical thrillery sort of book as I understand it

So you can see why I might be embarrassed.

I have managed to finish a few books in this time (though as always not as many as I would like): Team Cul de Sac as mentioned above, Kings of Eternity and The Last Werewolf – reviews of the latter two will follow, and I’m currently enjoying Whispers Underground.

Which brings me to an evening with Ben Aaronovitch at the end of June, where I was able to hear him speak about his writing and got my book signed and also one for Silvery Dude who couldn’t come along because of a family emergency. Very enjoyable, funny and engaging evening which just proves that I need to make time for this sort of event more than I do currently.

Have a good reading week!

The Baskerville Legacy: A Confession

June 11, 2012 in Challenges, Reviews | Tags: Bookishness, Conan Doyle, Creepy stuff, Crime, Readathon | Leave a comment

The Baskerville Legacy was not at all what I expected. When I saw it in the book shop I was immediately attracted by the cover and the subtitle “A Confession”. Ah ha, I thought, this is going to be a lovely Holmesian pastiche telling the true story of the Hound of the Baskervilles; not a straight retelling because Conan Doyle himself appears all the way through, so not a version of Holmes but a “how it came to be”. Which it was and wasn’t.

There isn’t actually a mystery here. It’s the story of how The Hound came to be written; the germ of an idea by a friend of Conan Doyle, a man called Bertram Fletcher Robinson, worked on jointly or so it would appear. But in many ways the tale being written is incidental, as this is a book about friendship, writing, collaboration, professional jealousy, talent or the lack of it and the impact of a dissolute lifestyle. Oh and of course there is spiritualism.

It’s a really enjoyable short book, and one of the most interesting things (apart from the portrait of Conan Doyle who isn’t always the jovial chap he was often portrayed as) is where the author has taken real events and changed or elaborated on them to produce his novel. because Robinson and Doyle were friends, holidayed together, and appeared to have collaborated though Doyle is the sole author on all published versions. there seems to have been a real controversy over this though as the author says none of the correspondence between the two men (if it still exists) has ever been made public. The author’s note at the end is a fascinating read all by itself.

I very much enjoyed this story, with its unsettling air of creepiness, of jealousy and strong feelings, and would recommend it as something a little bit different on the whole Holmesian thing. So not what I expected as I said, but a very happy accident.

This was my second Readathon read.

June 5, 2012 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I liked this very much, but especially so with added Van Gogh

Views

The Art of Living

I had slept

Without a mosquito net

On my first day in the new city

Did I say slept?

That isn’t even an exaggeration

That’s an utter lie

The room, the cot, the night, the sounds

The earth itself

May have slept

Me and the mosquitoes didn’t

We fought

And I was not deadly bruised

I was totally mauled

The next morning saw me

At the nearest mall

Searching for a mosquito net

Then on every night

I would spread the mosquito net

Over my bed stead

And by that time

All the mosquito’s in the room

Would be inside it

Happily I would close the net

Insert all the corners under the bed

And sleep on the floor

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Sunday Salon – reading update 27 May

May 27, 2012 in Sunday Salon | 6 comments

I only managed a week without buying any books; this embargo thing isn’t working terribly well I have to say. Though I do think I had a bit of an excuse – I was meeting my friend the Semi-Scandinavian for cocktails on Tuesday (yes, I know, on a school night) and I was early, and remembered that I needed to buy a card for another friend who is about to go off on maternity leave so I popped into the nearest Waterstone’s to find something suitable, which I did.

I also found these:

The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham – one of his that I haven’t read, was totally seduced into buying this by the wonderful cover
The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge – seems suitable in the year that we commemorate Captain Scott’s attempt on the South Pole (though disloyally I have been an Amundsen fan since we did a project on this in Primary 7)

And I finished a book, Bury Her Deep by Catriona McPherson, a 1930s murder mystery set in Fife.

I am now in a struggle with my friend Silvery Dude who is trying to influence my reading at the moment, by pushing me towards three books he has finished recently and recommends highly. I may succumb, but only under protest because it should be the OTHER WAY ROUND.

(But they do look good so I may let him off)

Have a good reading week!

Sunday Salon – reading update 20 May

May 20, 2012 in Sunday Salon | Tags: Horror | 4 comments

Since last week’s massive haul of new books I have been good and not been tempted to buy any more.

I have been able to secure a couple of tickets for Silvery Dude and me to see Ben Aaronovitch speak about his new novel Whispers Underground at Waterstone’s in London’s fabulous Piccadilly in June; I am very excited about that indeed as I love the series.

I have also managed to catch up on some of my reviews both here and over at Bride of the Screen God; still got quite a few to do though.

But the big news this week is that yes, I have finally finished a book; my re-read of ‘Salem’s Lot. I am so glad I picked this up as part of my Big Re-Read project as I had sort of forgotten just how awesome it actually is. I’m going to enjoy writing about it (when I get that far).

Have a good reading week!

The Abbess of Crewe

May 16, 2012 in Challenges, Reviews | Tags: Muriel Spark, Redux, Watergate | Leave a comment

About The Abbess of Crewe:

An election (?) has been held at the Abbey of Crewe. The new Lady Abbess takes up her high office with implacable serenity. She had expected to win – one way or the other

When did I first read this? sometime after 1977 (when the edition I have was published) and June 1980 (when I started keeping a record of books read)

What age was I? between 16 and 19

How many times since then? This is my fifth time of reading.

Thoughts about the book:

I have been a fan of Muriel Spark for almost thirty-five years which is an astonishing thing to realise given that inside my head I am still 17 rather than the batty old dear I sometimes consider myself these days. I can’t recall now when I was first introduced to her; my memory says The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (which I have reviewed here) but another part of me thinks that I may have read some of her stuff before then and that The Abbess was one of the first.

It fascinates me because it is a short and pointed re-telling of the Watergate saga if it had taken place in an English convent, with The Abbess the Nixonian figure and her rival, Sister Felicity, representing the Democrats. And of course it’s not the theft of the silver thimble during the election of the Abbess, it’s the ensuing cover up which causes the problems. I think this has stuck with me not just because it’s another one of Sparks’ perfect little jewels but because it’s about Watergate which has fascinated me since I read All The Presidents Men in the early seventies (I still have the film tie-in edition somewhere in the house with long-haired Redford and Hoffman on the cover) and I have quite a few books on the subject, so some of the fun in reading The Abbess is in trying to identify the equivalents of the real life protagonists such as Haldeman and Kissinger (though the latter is really easy, Sister Gertrude a wonderful character awkays at one remove from political danger).

So almost certainly not a masterpeice but one of my absolute favourites and short enough to be read in one satisfying sitting.

Favourite bits:

“Why should they trouble themselves about a salacious nun and a Jesuit? I must say a jesuit, or any priest for that matter, would be the last man I would myself elect to be laid by. A man who undresses, maybe; a man who unfrocks, no”

“And it seems to me, Gertrude, that you are going to have a problem with those cannibals on the Latter Day when the trumpet shall sound. It’s a question of which man shall rise in the Resurrection, for certainly those that are eaten have long since become the consumers from generation to generation.”

“Now if you please, Walburga, let’s consult The Art of War because time is passing and the sands are running out.”

This is the second book in my Big Re-read Project; it was also my first Readathon read and would have been part of my contribution to Muriel Spark week if I had been sufficiently organised to (1) read a couple of other Sparks and (b) get around to blogging about The Abbess.

Last Days of Glory

May 14, 2012 in Reviews | Tags: End of an Era, Victoriana | 2 comments

The Last Days of Glory by Tony Rennell gives us a detailed insight into events around the death of Queen Victoria, from Christmas 1900 until her magnificent funeral six weeks later.

It’s a book that’s been on my shelves for a long time; I spotted it in a bookshop just after it came out which is why I have this rather handsome little hardback copy. I’m slightly astonished (and also a bit ashamed) to say that means this has been in the stacks for close to twelve years. But it is one of those books which needs to be read at exactly the right time because of its level of detail. I can’t even remember why I picked it up when I did but I was soon absorbed and read it over a weekend.

I studied history at university and the past has always been of great interest to me, regardless of period, but I came late to the Victorians, probably being in my early thirties when I started to read up on the nineteenth century although the social history of her reign was very much a focus at school and so I knew enough to get by, I just wasn’t interested enough to become absorbed. I blame the Bloomsbury set a bit for that, probably unfairly, but it seems to make sense that I wasn’t interested in a period which some of my great literary heroes had written off. A number of books on social and cultural history and a bit of a passion for the Pre-Raphaelites had me wandering back, and the figure of Queen Victoria herself became increasingly fascinating to me.

So if you are at all interested in Victoria and her family and household then this is a really enjoyable book. Much of what is in it comes from the recollections of the doctor who attended her in her last weeks and months, and who assisted in preparing her body for burial. Rather than being slightly morbid as a topic, the whole issue around what she had instructed was to be placed in the coffin with her is a mini-drama in itself, and Rennell devotes a number of pages to it, giving a sense of how strong-willed and secretive the old Queen could be. There is a real insight into the complex relationships between her children and grandchildren and the figure of the Kaiser looms large. There is also a great deal about the planning of the funeral itself; she had been on the throne for so long that there was no-one alive who could remember the last time a monarch was buried and what the protocol should be, so much had to be reconstructed and quite a bit invented entirely.

It seems odd in some ways to consider the impact of her death, but for a great many of her subjects she was the only ruler they had ever known; it will be interesting to see if something similar happens when the present Queen dies (she came to the throne 10 years before I was born) although I’m not so sure in this day and age whether it will be seen in quite the same way as the end of an era.

This is a book full of rich anecdotal material and a really interesting and useful annex on the whole issue of the role of John Brown in Victoria’s life; it is well written and it gave me great pleasure to read. Recommended.

Sunday Salon – reading update 13 May

May 13, 2012 in Book buys, Sunday Salon | Tags: 16th century, Fantasy, Horror, Silvery Dude Recommends | 4 comments

Since my last post to the Sunday Salon I have singularly failed to finish anything though I have been dipping in and out of a number of books.

And despite the imposition of an alleged book buying embargo, I have obtained the following new books since my last post (some paid for by a book token left over from my birthday so not quite as damning as it looks):

Watson’s Choice by Gladys Mitchell – Sir Bohun Chantry’s party to celebrate Sherlock Holmes is thrown into disarray by the arrival of the Hound of the Baskervilles but luckily Mrs Bradley is there to put things to rights (as soon as I got this I added it to my Readathon pile and it is well and truly read)
The Kings of Eternity by Eric Brown – ” a novel of vast scope and depth, yet imbued with humanity and characters you’ll come to love” and a recommendation from Silvery Dude, as is:
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan – “You’re the last. I’m sorry. The end is coming” Justin Cronin says its glorious so how could it possibly be avoided?
Adorned in Dreams by Elizabeth Wilson – an updated version of a book on fashion and modernity which was first published in 1985. When it came out, Angela Carter said it was “the best I have read on the subject, bar none”
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan – I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel – the sequel to Wolf Hall, and a means of encouraging me to finally getting round to finishing it
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel – “Alison Hart, a medium by trade, tours the dormitory tons of London’s orbital road with her flint-hearted sidekick Colette, passing on messages from dead ancestors” Philip Pullman says this is one of he greatest ghost stories in the language
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel – I think i can see a bit of a pattern here – “a gripping epic and tour de force of historical imagination”
The Saltmarsh Murders by Gladys Mitchell – Mrs Bradley once again, proving that “some English villages can be murderously peaceful”
Foundation: The History of England Part 1 by Peter Ackroyd – just dipping into this on the way home in the cab was a joy; takes us up to the death of Henry VII

Not a bad haul; now if I could only get some of my current reads FINISHED…….

Bride of the Book God

Death Walks in Eastrepps

A Card from Angela Carter [Mini Review]

Sunday Salon – reading update 1 July

The Baskerville Legacy: A Confession

The Art of Living

Sunday Salon – reading update 27 May

Sunday Salon – reading update 20 May

The Abbess of Crewe

Last Days of Glory

Sunday Salon – reading update 13 May

Bride of the Book God

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