Right more recent reads.
Two more Montalbano books by Camilleri - the Overnight Kidnapper and Death at Sea. These books are sheer delight and I adore them so no reasoned review will be made. If you love them too then you will know what I mean. I gather that one can go to Sicily and have a 'Montalbano tour' and I must say it certainly is tempting. Read them both with huge enjoyment. How I love Catarella.
Then two reprints of Golden Age mysteries published by Dean Street Press. Who Killed Dick Whittington by E & MA Radford and The Strange Case of Harriet Hall by Moray Dalton. I shall be reviewing these in full in the next edition of the online book magazine Shiny New Books, but I must mention here that they are both worth a read. Who Killed Dick Whittington features D I Harry Manson 'analytical detective par excellence'. I find him slightly pompour but the murder and how it was done was tricky and well thought out.
The Moray Dalton title was terrific and I am delighted to see that there are more titles available by this author. They are all available in paperback or e-books and I really took to Inspector Collier of Scotland Yard. Another name to add to my endless list of Golden Age writers to explore. Do check them out. Both Released in March but can be pre-ordered and at £1.19 a bargain.
I mentioned in Part One of Recent Reading that I had re-read A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter and was delighted with some of the comments re this which you kindly left. One reader recommended Keeper of the Bees to me as another good read by this author. I found it available on Kindle and downloaded and read. Victorian age fiction, English or American, can get overwrought at times and this has been taken into consideration. Females tend to 'pant' a lot with 'heaving breasts' but this is part of the style and I accept that. There is a certain amount of that in Limberlost but it does not worry me. However, in Keeper of the Bees in which the narrator and chief protagonist is male, he does go on a bit to put it mildly. Injured and ill young man home from the war takes to the road and ends up helping the Bee Master, an old man taken ill and who needs somebody to look after his bees while he is in hospital. As expected in this kind of fairy tale world, he dies and leaves his house to his Good Samaritan. I enjoyed the main premise of the book but the endless pages of description of how bees live went on for ever and really bogged everything down. There is also a character in it called Scout and I found that she/he made me feel very uncomfortable indeed. I did enjoy it but not as much as I thought I would.
From a previous post you will have seen that I have been having a D E Stevenson binge and this is continuing. Her books vary wildly in standard. I have read Listening Valley which I really enjoyed even though the premise in it of a shy young girl of 19 marrying a 60 year old was slightly unnerving. I am currently a third of the way through the Four Graces which is profoundly silly and flappy. Four sisters living in a country village with their father the Vicar and I am sure we are supposed to find them charming and sweet but so far I am finding them a pain. It is set during the second World War but the author makes it clear that she is not writing about it at all. Fair enough. It does not impinge.
Then I read The English Air. What a difference. Franz von Heiden, who has an English mother and a German father, comes to England in 1938 to visit his English relatives. As all readers will suspect he has been sent there to report back on morale etc by his father who is a member of the Nazi command. At first he finds everything odd, he feels that the British do not care or are not interested in world affairs but only fun. He despises a young man who sits around doing nothing all summer except the odd game of tennis and then has to revise his opinion when he finds out he is a decorated War hero and recovering from being badly injured.
As the book progresses and he returns to Germany he realises that all the views he held about his homeland are skewed and what he believed in is no longer true. It has a profound effect on him.
This book is out of print so you will have to hunt for it, but I was impressed with it. The view of England portrayed through his eyes and which he comes to love reminds me of Mollie Panter-Downes superb book One Fine Day, an elegiac country solid to the backbone. I really enjoyed this book and thought it was streets ahead of many of her other titles. I have a later edition but it was originally published in 1940. Worth getting hold of.
I have also read some vintage romances from Mary Burchell which reflect the times and mores of the fifties beautifully. So beautifully old fashioned and I loved them. She is an amazing woman. I am sure I have written about Mary Burchell before, but will do so again, as she is a most interesting woman. Her real name is Ida Cook and she and her sister, both opera lovers, travelled all over Europe visiting various opera houses. This was pre-war and they became very well know as they always wore fur coats and lots of jewellery and made friends in every airport and city they visited. During WW2 they continued these visits, even to Germany, where they were regarded as those Eccentric English Women and were allowed through. Sewn into their fur coats and smuggled in were more jewels and money which was passed onto those helping the Jews get out of the country. They continued doing this for years and, after the war, Mary carried on writing for Mills & Boon and all proceeds of her books went to supporting refugees from the war. She also wrote a wonderful biography of my favourite baritone, Tito Gobbi and became a great friend of his.
Her later books which feature opera and music are available as ebooks and worth a look as well. Her knowledge of music and singing is obvious.
I have reached one of those plateaus when I look at the heap awaiting my attention and feel no desire to read any of them. When that happens I do a re-read and this time I have picked up David Copperfield and am looking forward to rediscovering all those wonderful characters.
Well, perhaps not Mr Micawber....
Au reservoir
