Random Jottings

A Heyer week

After a brief mad moment when the sun shone and I thought the summer had begun to arrive this quickly passed and I am currently sitting here in my living room with a jumper on and a hot water bottle at my back as it is bitter cold.  Getting so fed up with this weather.

After my last From my Shelves which was a Civil Contract I decided to give it a re-read and, once again, could not put it down and it confirmed my thoughts that it is her best book. I know that some do not like it because it is not as light and funny as some of her others and there is no Alpha Male hero, but I tend to think of it as Heyer's Mansfield Park, a book which is not lovable at first but which I find grows on one.

I then had a bit of a binge and read Bath Tangle, Cotillion, Frederica, A Quiet Gentleman and this morning started Venetia which I have not read for a long time.   I have also reaquainted myself with the Kloester biography of Georgette which made interesting reading. I had not read it for a while and I remember there was a very ill natured and cutting review of it in the Guardian (well it would be, I cannot any journalist working for that paper admitting they read Heyer) which roused the anger of a horde of Heyer fans, me included.

Heyer is just a damn good writer.  The flow of the narrative, the dialogue, the wit is simply amazing.  In Frederica, and now in Venetia, she is at her very best when her heroines are thinking and their thoughts, doubts and fears are placed before us.   The admirable tightness and cleanlliness of the writing is simply wonderful.  I have said before that I love clean writing, no fuss, no frills but perfectly placed and no hyperbole or extravagences.   P D James does precisely the same (incidentally I am re-reading her Dalgliesh books as well just for this).

As I have already mentioned Georgette is very very funny. In one of her letters to her publisher she says "I should be shot for writing such nonsense". Au contraire.

One of her funniest books is Cotillion. Kitty Charing, an orphan being brought up by a miserly guardian is told that she has to choose a husband from her assorted "cousins" or she will be left no money when her guardian dies.   They all arrive at the house in the country, save one, Jack, a fascinating Out and Outer for whom Kitty nurtures a secret passion.

She decides to run away but bumps into Freddy Standan another cousin who had been tricked by Jack into making this journey.   Kitty manages to persuade Freddy to offer for her and pretend to be engaged to her in order or her to have some time in London. 

There then follows a completely delightful farrago of misunderstandings, adventures and sheer fun ending up with the entire cast of characters in a vicarage in the country and involving a run away marriage.

Those of you who have read Cotillion will understand what I am saying. Those of you who have not, please do so.   If you do not fall in love with Freddy I shall be most surprised.

And the good thing is now I have embarked on this re-read I have many more to go. I might tackle Sylvester next...

From my Shelves - A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer

I first discovered Georgette Heyer when I was about 12 and stuck indoors with German measles and unable to go to school. My sister, who was a librarian, brought home a pile of books she had picked at radom for me to look at and in this heap was The Talisman Ring by GH.  Oh I loved it. Dashing Ludovic, romantic Eustacie and the more mature love story with Sir Tristram running alongside the antics of the younger couple. Witty, amusing and exciting it still remains near the top of my lis of favourite Heyers. It was a battered Fontana paperback and I loved the cover.

But the one that, in the end, tops them all is A Civil Contract.

I first read this when I was about 15 and was slightly disappointed (not now that I am older and less romantic.....).  No dashing alpha males in this one with a lively spirited dashing heroine to match.  Adam Deveril is home from the Peninsular Wars following the unexpected death of his father and finds that the family are on the verge of ruin and he may be forced to sell his beloved family home, Fontley.  When on leave earlier in the year recovering from a wound sustained in battle, he had met Julia Oversely, the Season's beauty, and they fell in love.  Lurking in the background was Julia's old school friend, Jenny Chawleigh, totally unnoticed but who we learn later had also fallen in love with Adam.

It is Julia's father, who honours Adam's withdrawal from his courtship of his daughter, who comes up with the idea of the Civil Contract.  He knows Jenny's father, Jonathan Chawleigh, a hugely wealthy man in the city who is eager to ally his daughter with a member of the ton and is willing to pay handsomely for it.  Initially revolted and repulsed by the scheme, Adam realises he has no choice in order to save Fontley and provide for his family and so they marry.

I did wonder when recently re-reading this title if Georgette Heyer had  read Sense and Sensibility and had Marianne and Elinor Dashwood in mind when it came to the portrayal of Julia and Jenny.  Julia is definitely all sensibility, fainting when she meets Adam at a party shortly after his marriage and nearly causing a scandal, she is spoiled and selfish, though totally unaware of this and, as with Marianne, she ends up marrying an older man, the Marquis of Rockhill (a Colonel Brandon figure) who surrounds her with luxury and whose two step daughters adore their new mama and dote on her. It is slowly borne in on Adam that perhaps he has been mistaken in Julia's character:

"She was telling his mother how nervous she had been when Rockhill had taken her to meet his children, making a droll story out of it.  Such an ordeal it had been! but they positively killed her with kindness, she was becoming odiously spoiled......  Listening to this Adam remembered the words she had once spoken to him 'I must be loved, I can't live if I am not loved'.  The thought flashed through his mind that she was basking in adulation..."

She is also beautifully summed up by another character, Brough, Adam's close friend: "I daresay she'll cut an excellent dash but she ain't my notion of a comfortable wife.  Never any saying where you'll find her. Might leave her up in the attics and come home to find her in the cellar"

Jenny is the Elinor Dashwood character - quiet, loyal, accepting of her position as the satellite in Julia's starry wake, and then the chance of being married to the man she has secretly loved falls into her lap.  She knows his family dislike the match, deem her an unworthy wife for Adam, she knows he does not love her but she makes her position clear to Adam's sister, Lydia: "You love him don't you? This isn't what you wished.  I only want to tell you that he'll be comfortable. I'll see to that. You don't think it signifies but it does. Men like to be comfortable. Well he will be - that's all"......Lydia embraced Adam 'I don't hate her, I don't"

I am enormously fond of Jenny Chawleigh as I was fond of Elinor Dashwood and find Julia Oversely as irritating as I did Marianne Dashwood when she was having the vapours and causing her family no end of trouble and pain and of course in the end, Adam comes to realise her worth and truly loves her. "He did love her, differently but perhaps more enduringly and he had grown to depend on her.  She thought they would have many years of quiet content; never reaching the heights, but living together in deepening friendship and comfort".

I love the simple, almost home like, ending to this book and the relationship between Adam and Jenny and her journey into the heart of his family, but there is one character in A Civil Contract who is a pure delight, a figure who would fit beautifully into Fielding's Tom Jones or Sterne's Tristram Shandy, and that is Jenny's father Jonathan Chawleigh:

"Mr Chawleigh was a middle aged man, whose powerful frame was clad in an old fashioned suit of snuff coloured broadcloth...he favored a mode that had been for many years worn by respectable tradesmen and country squires...his coat was full skirted, and he wore knee breaches with stockings and square toed shoes embellished with steel buckles.....his waistcoat relieved the general drabness of his raiment with broad, alternating stripes of grass green and gold.  The most hen hearted members of the dandy set would have died at the stake rather than have work such a garment, but it was certainly magnificent.  So was the diamond pin stuck into Mr Chawleigh's neck cloth and the emerald ring on his finger"

A larger than life, warm hearted, no nonsense figure, Mr Chawleigh is my favourite character in all Heyer.  He practically takes over this story and is, indeed, at the centre of it all.  The plot line, simple as it is, needs the embellishment of his humour, sometimes overbearing ways, his generosity of heart and his love for his only child Jenny.  Without him this book would be a worthy read, but would lack sparkle and zest.  He is a magnificent character and I, a Dickens fan of many years, would go so far as to say he is worthy to stand alongside Mr Pickwick for sheer fun and joi de vivre.

I do love this book.  Just saying that in case you have not realised that yet.   First published in 1961 with Georgette Heyer at the top of her form.  Her later books had, to use one of her Regency phrases, 'a sad falling off' and were rather careless in plot lines with an over use of cant and slang, but this is good writing and shows that the author is not just a silly romantic novelist, which is how she was viewed by her fellow authors and the public her entire life.  (I always get annoyed to find Georgette Heyer shelved next to the Mills and Boon in my local library)  She was upset at this, but became resigned to it, gently mocking her own work.  She does herself a disservice.  Here is a quote from another one of her books:

"The nuptials of her youngest born had proved to be too much for Lady Winwood's delicate constitution....she withdrew with her two remaining daughters to the fastness of Winwood and there built up her shattered nervous system on a diet of eggs and cream and paregoric draughts, and the contemplation of the Marriage Settlement"

The Divine Jane herself could not have put it any better.

Time for a re-read I think.   Post shingles it will be just right....

Coronation Day

I am just dropping in to say thank you to everyone who has asked after me while suffering with shingles. I have felt pretty poorly but after nearly three weeks it seems to be receding as does the itching. Thank heavens for Calamine Lotion!

I am currently watching the coverage of the Coronation and enjoying it though it goes without saying that the commentators are suffering from verbal diarrhoea as per.

Anyway I am loving all the pomp and pageantry and enjoying my coffee from my mug

Back soon

 

 

Shingles, jigsaws and knitting - Random Ramble

OK new approach to blogging immediately delayed by onset of the dreaded lurgy - shingles.  Apparently my case is mild for which thank heaven fasting as I loathe not being well and could not cope with a severe attack. What I have is bad enough.   I actually went to see my GP, well one of them, last week for the first time since pre-Covid and am grateful that I have not needed to. The practice operates an open surgery in the morning. If you turn up between 8-10 am you can wait to see a doc. Suits me so off I went with a book (natch) but saw a GP in about half an hour so pleased with that.

Anyway, as I said it is shingles so am slathering myself in cream and wearing cotton next to my skin. Jumpers etc really irritate. I also have some pills to take which are knocking me for six. They are also rather large and I nearly got one stuck in my throat and began to panic. I then saw that they are marked up and can be snapped in half. Doh......

A week later and the itching and burning is diminishing and things are on the mend but gosh I feel tired and exhausted.   Everyone says oh Elaine you must Rest. Well I am not good at that but needs must. There is a lot of cricket and tennis on tv at the moment so very happy to watch that though I do tend to crash out and wake up and think Blimey is the match over already??

I have also been doing jigsaws. I have always loved doing them but really rediscovered them during lockdown, as did many others, and they keep me sane. When you are sitting down looking for that elusive bit of sky or trees you tend not to worry about anything else.  Mind you, those pieces have a mind of their own.  I tend to give up after a while, adopt a careless attitude and say Well I am off to make a cup of tea so hide if you want to.   Inevitably when I return with said cuppa there is the missing piece smirking at me.

Another time I gave up looking for a piece and went and got ready for bed. The missing piece was in my bra. True. How did it get there? I have not the faintest idea....

I am a traditionalist when it comes to puzzles and love old fashioned pics but I was given a James Bond one for Christmas and this London puzzle is rather nice.  The one of the medieval castle was a stinker.

And so, knitting. Another relaxing and calming occupation. I recently taught my granddaughter Beatrice to knit and she seems to be getting on with it ok. You can research and read dozens of articles on the advantages of knitting and its theraputic qualities and while I am sure they are totally fascinating I sometimes wonder if a simple hobby and pleasure can be over analysed. I am currently reading The Mindfulness of Knitting by Rachel Matthews Meditations on Craft and Calm.  Well not reading, dipping into as I can only take a page at a time.

"the gift we knitters leave behind us is, of course, one of beautiful textiles, but alongside our material products we leave a subtle unquantifiable atmosphere"

"I have witnessed constant sparkle as knitting triggers enlightened thoughts in people"

"I realised that I needed to improve my relationship with cotton"

Ok I have no desire to be sarky and know it all, but to me this is taking what is an enjoyable and relaxing hobby and analysing it to death. I do not disagree with the author or what she is saying, but my response is Oh for heaven's sake. I have sat in knitting groups making squares for blankets and drinking coffee and chatting and it is a lovely, friendly, happy atmosphere and very enjoyable but, to be honest, I don't wish to think mindful thoughts during this time. I just like to sit back and enjoy.

I am not dissing the book at all, I am rather enjoying it but, as I said, one page at a time.

So there you have it. NOT a good week but hoping things will improve.

Once again my thanks to all of you who took the trouble and time to comment on my post re Random. Lovely and heartwarming. Bless you all.

From my Shelves: T Tembarom by Frances Hodgson Burnett

For this From My Shelves I have chosen T Tembarom by Frances Hodgson Burnett. My copy is a lovely old battered one with speckled edges and black and white line drawings. It was published by A L Burt Company whose address is given as 114120 East Twenty Third Street and this edition is dated 1913. I wonder how many people have read this copy? A nice thought to hold when reading.

Having read a biography or two about the author and knowing that her marriage and life was not totally satisfactory, I feel that she created stories with a Cinderella like quality and a happy ending to fulfil a need for happiness that she never achieved.   The Making of a Marchioness is another on these lines, poor, lonely and poverty stricken woman achieves a rich and wealthy marriage as well as love; A Little Princess where Sarah Crewe goes from wealth to poverty to wealth and happiness again; The Shuttle, an abused and unhappy wife is saved by her strong sister who also finds love in the doing; The Lost Prince in which the hero comes into his own kingdom and, of course, Little Lord Fauntleroy where a young child redeems the miserable and unhappy life of his grandfather, alone and lonely in his great house.

T Temberom is an orphan in New York. Left alone by the death of his mother who was married to a feckless Englishman, he has nobody to care for him and has to live by his wits.   This he does and gradually achieves a second hand society column in a local paper and a room in a boarding house. Here he meets Mr Hutchison, a Lancashire man who has come to the USA with an invention which will make his fortune, only it doesn't and he and his daughter Ann are on their uppers and soon to go back to England.    Ann or Little Ann as everyone calls her, is a wonder of virtue, wise advice and motherly instincts who could be a rather irritating character but she isn't, she escapes it somehow.  Burnett has the knack of knowing how far she can go with a 'good' person and stops short of making them totally insupportable and nauseating. 

T Tembarom falls in love with her and she with him but then the unexpected happens. An English solicitor calls at the boarding house to inform him that he is the last surviving relative of Temple Temple Barholm and the heir to a mighty estate in England.   He has to go there to claim his inheritance and Ann refuses to marry him until he has been there a year, seen and met with the cream of society before she will allow him to think of making her his wife.

So off he goes and with him goes a man who he rescued in New York when he discovered him homeless and ill with memory loss and not knowing who he was or where he came from.   He was an Englishman so T Tembarom thinks that being at home in his country might help him recover his health and strength and restore his memory.

Then we find out that the heir to the title and estate vanished in disgrace years before, accused of cheating at cards and fled to America and went gold prospecting and his death was reported after a mine explosion in which many perished.   He left behind the woman he loved, Joan, now bitter and unhappy and locked into a dreadful hateful relationship with her mother as they both cling to the edges of society, the only way out being a marriage for either of them. 

The scene is set:  a rough New Yorker inheriting the title, a missing heir, a man who has no recollection who he is, a bitter unhappy woman mourning her lost love, her scheming and malicious mother and the possibility that the missing heir might just be alive after all............

I love this book.   T Tembarom is an immensely likeable young man who takes everything thrown at him with cheerfulness and steadfastness, he sticks to his love Ann through thick and thin and the story of his rags to riches career is delightful.  While some of the servants despise him for an upstart, those he takes into his confidence and who help him with the everyday etiquette and dress and manners that he knows he lacks, become his devoted admirers and supporters. His easy way with the villagers and his care of their needs endear him to them as well and he is a character very easy to like and love.

This book is sentimental and warm and, of course, you know what is going to happen and what the ending will be but though I have read this many times and am familiar with the outcome, I find myself breathlessly reading the last few chapters and waiting for the denouement with great excitement.  I never tire of it and I never tire of reading and re-reading books by this author. I think Frances Hodgson Burnett is a wonderful writer and though she is known and rightly so, for her children's books, I maintain that her adult books are her best.   She was writing them long before Little Lord Fauntleroy sent her into JK Rowling territory and popularity.

As I said, sentimental and warm but at the heart of all of her books there are characters who are good and true and who are determined to do the right thing come what may.

Random thoughts on Random Jottings

I am sure many of you have noticed that I do not post as often as I used to. It troubles me somewhat as I wonder where the enthusiasm I had for Random Jottings has gone. It is still there but these days I just find life seems to get in the way.   I had a think about it all and came to the conclusion that I would give up blogging and close Random down. I havered about and fiffed and faffed and, in the end, decided I would miss it too much. It has been going now for eighteen years and would leave a huge hole in my life if it ceased to be.

I have regular visitors and followers and I cannot tell you how much this means to me. I no longer have hits in the thousands as I used to, more like hundreds now, and that is fine. Newer bloggers have multiplied, more vibrant, more interested in modern literature and the latest authors. As you all know by now modern novels have never appealed to me try though I might and I tend to wallow in Victorian literature, Golden Age crime, crime of all sorts and lovely romances and what is slightingly called 'chick-lit' a soubriquet which has always annoyed me.

So I had a think.  I have started From my Shelves this year when I revisit books I have loved and read and reviewed in the past and that will continue, but for up to date reviews of the latest Booker or whatever I am afraid you will have to look elsewhere. The book pages in the papers seem to offer very little of interest to me, my problem not theirs, and I can feel a draining of enthusiasm when receive press releases containing the words, 'searing' 'powerful' 'hardhitting' 'visceral' yadda yadda you get the drift.  I have reached the age when I am not interested in this kind of reading.

Anyway, I am wittering as per, so I have decided to continue but will change the slant of Random somewhat. I have always popped up with the Odd Rant or write about a movie, a play, Wimbledon and assorted other topics and I have decided that I am going to drop the idea that this is a book blog only and write about anything that I find interesting be it something I have seen on tv,  a walk I have taken, how I am dealing with increasing old age, my children and grandchildren, weight loss, health and, oh I don't know, anything that takes my fancy.

I read in the newspapers this week that the Duchess of Montecito has decided to resurrect her blog/website called The Tig which she gave up when she married His Royal Misery.   It seems that she will be dispensing all sorts of advice (no doubt how we can change the world) including how we can improve our mental health and wellness.   Easy to do when you are loaded and living in a posh mansion without any money worries, not so easy for most of us as I know well. So fear not, I will not be doing or saying anything like that at all. I would not be so presumptious as to feel I am an expert on how we should lead our lives. Most of us stumble along doing the very best we can,

So dear readers I do hope this sits well with you and you will continue to read, visit and comment.  It really keeps me going and makes me happy.

And I will start my new mixed bag Random by saying that the spring may have arrived, daffodils out, plants beginning to grow etc, but it is freezing here today and I am sitting here writing this with two jumpers on and wooly sox. I am going swimming later (oh and I have a wonderful rant about that coming up soon) and then will slob out for the rest of the day. I am visiting an old friend next week so we will gossip and chat and check out the charity shops which is always great fun so will not post until I get back. I will check and see if I have a From my Shelves ready to go and will then start the new regime on my return.

Please let me know what you think about it all and if you continue to visit Random, then bless you and thank you xx

Recently received

Death of an Author - E C R Lorac. Recenctly enjoyed and reviewed

The Home - Penelope Mortimer. This novel is part of the British LIbrary Women Writer's series. Originally published in 1971 this "searing novel looks at the experience of a woman escaping a faithless marriage".    I freely admit that when I see book described as "searing" my immediate reaction is not to bother. The word "inditement" is also usually attached to searing. I know this is my prejudice showing, no need to tell me....

This series is a mixed bag and has featured authors known and unknown to me and, as with the Classic Crime series, has brought back titles in the public eye that might otherwise have mouldered away in the archives. I have read some and really enjoyed them, but I shall be honest and say I think I will give this one a miss. However, ignore my prejudice if you can as Mortimer is an excellent writer and worth reading. It is just the subject matter of this that gives me pause.

The Black Spectacles - John Dickson Carr.  Another Crime Classic who I have struggled with though aficioinados of the Golden Age rave about this particular writer so I am going to give it a go. Sounds intriguing. Deadly poisoned chocolate from Sodbury Cross's high street shop haunts a group of friends and relatives assembled to discuss the case.  To prove a point about how the sweets could have been poisened under the nose of the shopkeeper, an elaborate memory game is staged. Unfortunately, during the test, the instigator one Marcus Chesney, is himself murdered.

So the game's afoot!

And the above quote leads me neatly to a lovely edition of The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle which dropped through my letter box last week.  It is from the Oxford World's Classics by OUP. I have many of these editions on my shelves and love them all, well produced with good covers. This edition is published in May 2023.

As we all know, Holmes has been presumed dead at the Reichenbach Falls, and again, as we all know he was resurrected after a public outcry at the time. This title contains 13 cases, all of which I have read before and remember well from the peerless portrayal of Holmes by Jeremy Brett who, in my opinion, has never been bettered.  I have this on my bedside table and am reading one a night before I go to bed.  Enjoying them all over again. These are stories with a style that are unbeatable and I love them.

The Windors at War - Alexander Larman.   A more apposite book at the  moment would be harder to find with the current goings on, This covers the war years and behaviour of the  Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  I read The Crown in Crisis by this author a year or so ago, review here, and regard it as one of the best books on the Abdication. This is awaiting my attention and I will review as soon as I can.

Finally feel after a pretty awful couple of months dealing with blocked drains, a flood, no hot water and electrical difficulties, happily now solved (fingers crossed) I feel I am getting my reading mojo back.   During this time I have been reading light romances and cosy crimes and I wish to mention T Williams who has written a slew of such books. They are set in Italy and France and follow an identical pattern as do most romances. I am not being sneering here, I love a romantic novel and read a lot of them and I really enjoyed these as he has a light touch and wit and they all feature a labrador, different names each book, who is a delight and adds the humour to the writing. HIghly recommended. I think I have read the lot by now.

The Close - Jane Casey

I have been writing this blog for seventeen years now which is a bit of a facer, though these days I do not blog as much as I used to.  I used to get shedloads of books sent to me and found it impossible to keep up sometimes. I don't get so many now, probably there are newer kids on the block who are more up to date with modern literature than I (not that that would be difficult) but I still love reading and reviewing.

Over the years my lovely readers have left comments thanking me for recommendations and how they trust my judgement and I have never let them down. Very gratifying though I have always remembered I am not a seasoned reviewer but somebody who just loves books. This was brought home to me way back in 2009 or thereabouts when I read the first book by Jane Casey, The Missing.   It was good and I enjoyed it but I guessed who dun it almost immediately and I felt the ending was rather rushed and a bit of a let down. To my horror after I had published this post Jane Casey got in touch with me and said that my review had mader her 'wince a bit'.   It brought home to me that the Author is also a person and that your thoughts and opinions can affect people.   She told me that she had had a mixed response to the ending and that I should carry on being honest in my opinions.  

I made the decision then to only review books I have enjoyed and loved because, honestly, what pleasure can there be in being overly critical?  I have broken this rule a few times when I have thought a book was dreadful or badly written or boring, but on those occasions the books involved have been from huge best selling authors who probably will not give a damn about my thoughts.

Well, after this long preamble for which I crave your indulgence, I am going to write about The Close by Jane Casey.

After The Missing Jane began to write a series of books featuring Maeve Kerrigan and this is what I wrote about it then:

"Maeve Kerrigan is an ambitious detective constable and is keen to make her mark.  As a woman in a male environment she has to work twice as hard to prove her worth and also learn to deal with the sexism that is part of her daily routine.  She is involved in the investigation to track down The Burning Man, a brutal  serial killer who has beaten four young women to death before burning their bodies.  A fifth body has been found but there are differences in the manner of her death which make Maeve think that this is a separate murder.  She investigates and the more she learns about the victim, Rebecca Haworth from her friends and family, the more she is sure that there are two murderers abroad.  She meets Rebecca's ex-boyfriend Gil Maddick, darkly handsome, brooding and dangerous, her best friend Louise North, cold and self possessed and very jealous of others involved with Rebecca.  It appears that the golden lifestyle enjoyed by Rebecca has been falling apart, a drug habit, broke and now out of a job and all is not as it seems on the surface.

Once started I read right through until the end.   Narrative pacy and strong and I found myself liking Maeve Kerrigan very much and hope that we meet her again in another detective novel".  

I thoroughly enjoyed this title and was pleased when more came my way. Good strong writing, great characterisation and terrific plots, they went on my list of Series to Read.  But, in my opinion, excellent though the books were they took on an extra dimension with the introduction of DI Josh Derwent into the series.   On the surface of it an unrepentant Male Chauvinist Pig, full of himself and scathing to Maeve when she was partnered with him.  Josh brings an extra dynamic to the series and from the moment he arrived I, personally, felt the books got better and better.   I was now breathless with anticipation waiting for the next one and the steady growth of the relationship between Maeve and Josh.  This is not to say that this becomes the focus, the crime and the solving are still central and rightly so, but, and I have to be honest here, the growing underlying sexual tension between them is tantalising and adds spice to the alread excellent writing.

The previous book before The Close was the Cutting Place and I was bowled over by it and, like all the others, read through in one sitting.   Far and away the best of the lot thought I until I read The Close which is even better.

Maeve has undergone a traumatic and life changing experience in The Cutting Place about which I will not discuss if you have not read it, and it has effected her deeply.   Reluctantly she is teamed with Josh and sent undercover to The Close where things are not what they seem. Vulnerable and disturbed people are vanishig and there is a link to one of the residents so Josh and Maeve go to dog sit for someone who is away and adopt the persona of a couple in order to fathom out what is going on.

We meet all the residents in the Close, some likeable, some not, some with odd foibles and others who are not all they appears on the surface. A perfect setting for a crime novel.  But it is the relationship, once again, between Maeve and Josh that keeps us on the edge of our seats, or in my case the sofa.   The air positively bristles with things unsaid and emotions unexpressed and Jane Casey keeps us all hanging on every word.

This is her best yet. I cannot wait for the next one and it is my fervent wish that if she has not started it, then can she please do NOW.

So Dear Readers and all of those who trust me and my recommendations please do the following:

1    if you have not read the Kerrigan books yet, then please do so

2    Please read them in order

3    If you have already read them, then get your mitts on this one straight away.

You know it makes sense....

Death of an Author - E C R Lorac

E C R Lorac who also writes under the name Carol Carnac is one of my favourite crime authors unearthed and brought back into the public eye by the British Library Crime Classic series. Pretty sure when they started this series off they did not expect it to be so popular or do so well, but it has and they keep on coming.   Not all are to my taste, some of the writing can be old fashioned and a couple of authors I find pretty turgid, but other reviewers have disagreed with me so it all comes down to personal taste as always.

There was only one edition of this title and if you could track one down you would be looking at a three figure price as I have ascertained when looking through websites. It has been out of print since 1935 so Death of an Author is a gem for mystery lovers.

It is Introduced as always by the incredibly knowledgeable Martin Edwards, whose love of mystery and crime permeates everything he writes. 

The author of the title is one Vivian Lestrange a recluse who avoids publicity and refuses to have his photograph taken and about whom nothing is known.  He is published by Marriott and after a debate with another author, Ashe, an invitation to meet for dinner is issued and, surprisingly, accepted.

Ashe is totally shocked when a young woman turns up who Marriott regards as "the coolest creature I ever met in my life".  She is scathing regarding his reaction "what but male conceit formulated that judgement of yours that no woman could have written a book which you admired? Is your estimate of all women the same?"

I think the reader can safely assume that this is how E R Lorac/Carol Carnac felt....

Three months after this party a woman walks into Hampstead Police station to announce that she is worried that something has happened to Vivian Lestrange, her employer.   This woman. Eleonor Clarke, is the same woman who claimed to be Lestrange at the aforementioned dinner party. It transpires that he asked her to pretend to be him.

Now before I go any further I think it might be wise for all of you who wish to read this book to have a pencil and paper to hand or yellow post its so you can jot down points or flag pages.  I had to do this as the plot is intricate and convoluted and leads you in several directions at once with several theories all of which can be probable.

Shortly after the author's disappearance a dead body is found in a small country village. A note book is to hand which gives identification of the body clear. It is Lestrange. But is it?

OK I am going to stop here. If I continue I am going to give information away and I have no desire to do that all.   Just to say it was intriguing, full of twists and turns, and totally satisfying.

But be warned, as I have already said, you need to concentrate!

From my Shelves - The Ladies Paradise by Zola

After all the trauma of last week I have now recovered my equilibrium and am glad to be back on Random.   From my Shelves today features Ladies Paradise by Zola.  I had read no Zola at all before reading this title, but somebody recommened this it and I decided to give it a go.  I was delighted that I had made the effort as I thoroughly enjoyed this story all about the rise of a department store in Paris at the turn of the century.

The sole passion of Mouret, the owner of the Ladies Paradise, was the conquest of Woman. He wanted her to be queen in his shop, 'he had built this temple for her in order to hold her at his mercy'.  To this end he develops a spectacular modern department store.

 

This is a totally gorgeous sensuous book with a deliberate overwhelming parade of the finest silks and satins,  lace, carpets from every country, "long carpets from Isaphan, Teeran and Kermanshah a strange blossoming of peonies and palms, imagination running riot in a dream garden"  trimmings "Spanish blonde lace as light as air, Brussels applique with large flowers on fine mesh", negligees, "white petticoats of every length;chemises made of plain calico, Irish linen and cambric" perfume,  pots of pomades and rouge, jewellery. 

 

The narrative is a total assault on the senses and this is the whole point.    The rhythm of the scenes in the store during the febrile atmosphere of the sales, the women rushing round in a fever to buy what they want, the gasping with excitement, the heat, the sweat - well, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see what is intended here.  Orgasmic is the only word. 

 

Mouret exploits these desires and in his private life he too is the great seducer.  But then he falls in love with an innocent shop girl, fresh from the country, Denise Baudu, and despite his wealth, luxury and the splendour of his store, it means nothing to him because she refuses him.

 

When the book is finished you feel completely wiped out, senses indulged and sated. It is all rather overwhelming and draining and I remember sitting back and thinking Blimey, phew...

 

Shortly after finishing the Ladies Paradise, by coincidence, the BBC decided to produce a dramatisation 'based' on the characters and events created by Zola.   The press release at the time had this to say:

 

Set in England’s first department store, the series tells the rags-to-riches story of Denise Lovett (Joanna Vanderham, Above Suspicion), a young girl who works in the store and gets caught up in the charms of the modern world. Denise is a 19th-century Working Girl – big-hearted, smarter than she’s taken to be and more ambitious than those pretty eyes suggest.

 

It was dire.  Died the death after one series and righly so.

 

And by the way after reading this you will realise that if you thought Loss Leaders in supermarkets and Pile 'em High and sell 'em cheap were new ideas, well you were wrong....

 

Turning the pages the other day I think I might have a re-read.

The sole passion of Mouret, the owner of the Ladies Paradise, was the conquest of Woman. He wanted her to be queen in his shop, 'he had built this temple for her in order to hold her at his mercy'.  To this end he develops a spectacular modern department store.

 

This is a totally gorgeous sensuous book with a deliberate overwhelming parade of the finest silks and satins,  lace, carpets from every country, "long carpets from Isaphan, Teeran and Kermanshah a strange blossoming of peonies and palms, imagination running riot in a dream garden"  trimmings "Spanish blonde lace as light as air, Brussels applique with large flowers on fine mesh", negligees, "white petticoats of every length;chemises made of plain calico, Irish linen and cambric" perfume,  pots of pomades and rouge, jewellery. 

 

The narrative is a total assault on the senses and this is the whole point.    The rhythm of the scenes in the store during the febrile atmosphere of the sales, the women rushing round in a fever to buy what they want, the gasping with excitement, the heat, the sweat - well, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see what is intended here.  Orgasmic is the only word. 

 

Mouret exploits these desires and in his private life he too is the great seducer.  But then he falls in love with an innocent shop girl, fresh from the country, Denise Baudu, and despite his wealth, luxury and the splendour of his store, it means nothing to him because she refuses him.

 

When the book is finished you feel completely wiped out, senses indulged and sated. It is all rather overwhelming and draining and I remember sitting back and thinking Blimey, phew...

 

Shortly after finishing the Ladies Paradise, by coincidence, the BBC decided to produce a dramatisation 'based' on the characters and events created by Zola.   The press release at the time had this to say:

 

Set in England’s first department store, the series tells the rags-to-riches story of Denise Lovett (Joanna Vanderham, Above Suspicion), a young girl who works in the store and gets caught up in the charms of the modern world. Denise is a 19th-century Working Girl – big-hearted, smarter than she’s taken to be and more ambitious than those pretty eyes suggest.

 

It was dire.  Died the death after one series and righly so.

 

And by the way after reading this you will realise that if you thought Loss Leaders in supermarkets and Pile 'em High and sell 'em cheap were new ideas, well you were wrong....

 

Turning the pages the other day I think I might have a re-read.