I sometimes feel like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland 'Oh my ears and whiskers I'm late" as I realise that I have a heap of reviews to do and so little time as I bounce backwards and forwards between London and Colchester. I find the drive no strain now and, in fact, I am beginning to get rather fond of the North Circular....
So another of my roundups and catch ups to try and readuce the heap lying on my table. Here goes.
Emma - Alexander McCall Smith. Another in the so-called Austen Project. I read Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope which I quite enjoyed, Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid I abandoned half way through but I was rather looking forward to this one as I do like AMS and his writing. This is the best of the three largely due to the warm and gentle writing though he does not let up on Emma and her interfering ways. The trouble is that characteristics and attitudes that are OK in Austen sound and look odd in the light of modern day. Mr Woodhouse and his paranoia about his health is dealt with in an amusing and subtle way but it all rings a bit Blimey how am I going to do This as does the whole book if I am really honest.
I enjoyed it in a mild sort of sit down with cup of tea and a suggestive biscuit kind of way but I have almost forgotten it already.
The Grand Duchess of Nowhere - Laurie Graham. Now this I adored. I have read quite a few of this author's books and I love her writing style, her wit and humour and this one was no exception. Her previous books have featured the Kennedy family and Mrs Simpson (this one particularly delicious) and her take on real life people is spot on. This latest title is about Ducky, Princess Victoria Melita who was in love with a Romanov cousin but not allowed to marry him. Her father is Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria's son and her mother is Grand Duchess Marie the daughter of Tsar Alexander II. It is Ducky's fate to be married off satisfactorily and she ends up marrying Ernst Hohenlohe-Langenberg who she is fond of but nothing more than that.
Her sister, the future Queen of Romania, has a pragmatic view of it all. "I rather like Romania now that I have got used to it. And things are better since Mother had a word with Nando. He has made his own arrangements and I will probably do the same in a year or two" Missy was planning to have affairs. I was shocked. "Well why not?" she said "I've done my duty".
Highly recommended.
Victoria, a Life - A N Wilson. One wonders if there is anything left to write or discover about Her Maj and, without wishing to sound big headed, there was very little in this book that I did not already know. I hasten to add that this does NOT include all the political machinations over the long years of her reign, but more about her domestic life and her family. This is touched upon by ANW but his main thrust of this biography is the political aspect of the Victorian age and the Queen's prescence and knowledge of it all. The blurb makes much of the fact that the Queen's true character and strength of mind came to its flowering after she was widowed and she no longer had to defer to her husband, though this she was happy to do while he was alive. I think this is a conclusion that most of us who have read widely about QV already realise but ANW takes it further and proves that the Queen was no fool and, though being related to half of Europe could have its disadvantages, it could also be extremely helpful.
A huge fat tome I read it over a week and, as always, when I read about QV I become more and more fascinated and more and more fond of her. I think she was a terrific woman. Yes, I am sure she was a pain and her behaviour to the Prince of Wales was awful etc etc but I like her. And it is worth noting that through all the Widow of Windsor years when she was not seen by the public, she was still involved in the political process and working very hard.
Also highly recommended.
The Canterville Ghose - Oscar Wilde. Another of these simply gorgeous books from Hesperus who are on a roll at the moment with their current catalogue and their reprints, particulary the junior list. I had never read this long/short story about a ghost haunting the stately home Canterville Chase, now owned by an American family who could not care less about the ghastly spectre. They leap out on him when he is drifting and haunting and scare him something shocking and is in despair as the recurring bloodstains on the floor and his clanking chains have no effect whatsoever. The final straw is when the twins of the house dress up as a ghost and leap out and scare him..
Witty, of course as it is Wilde, and had me laughing. Also rather sweet and sad. Loved it.
Graham Hurley was recommended to me by some of my welcome visitors to Random and have just started reading the crime series. Have enjoyed the first one I tried, not hugely, but enough to make me try some more and as there are a lot of them they will keep me going.
Also picked up an Inspector Diamond book by Peter Lovesey. I remember reading his Victorian detective stories years ago but had not read of these. Thoroughly enjoyed and have downloaded three on my Kindle and there are loads to go so I am a happy bunny.
Phew. Well I have made a start and am home this week so, hopefully, I can catch up on the other books that are looking wistfully at me as I write.
