After a couple of weeks of not being able to concentrate on anything I have finally started on my Lockdown Pile (formerly my To Be Read pile which I have renamed). Still not sure I can face anything to heavy but I am getting there. Such a strange time at the moment, I seem to be living in a state of suspended animation and my mind has gone to pot. But here goes with Wot I am Doing and Reading...
Crossed Skis - Carol Carnac. This is one of the British Library Classic Crime series which I adore. I do not like all of them, but even those that do not enchant me are fascinating to read because of the time they were written, they reflect social attitudes of the time and, in the final analysis (call me shallow) the covers are gorgeous.
Carol Carnac wrote under this name and E C R Lorac and I have read quite a few of the latter. The Carnac books that I have read (I have managed to track down titles a few on ebay and in small publishers) are mixed and some of the writing is a bit "purple" in places. They are a mixed bag but this one is really good. Inspector Brook of Scotland Yard is called in after a house fire in which is discovered an unrecognisable burnt body. One lead emerges - a lead which suggests the involvement of a skier. The story then switches to a merry group of holiday makers on a skiing holiday in the Austrian Alps. It is clear that one of them is an impostor and a murderer but who? I admit that I was leaning towards one person and then applied the Agatha Christie rule - if it is obvious then it is wrong. But then I thought but suppose that is what the author wants me to think in which case.....
So I gave up and was proved resoundingly WRONG. Great read and an exciting finish.
Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell. Garlanded by great reviews, raves and bloggers on twitter saying how wonderful it was, I overcame my misgivings as I had tried and failed with some of her earlier books. Perhaps you are wrong Elaine so I get it and, once again, gave up. It is in a style I just cannot take and it is written in the Present Tense which drives me DEMENTED. So many readers think this author is wonderful so there is a lack in me somewhere.
My Husband Simon - Molly Panter-Downes. Another book from the British Library and I am going to write separately about this as I love this author and this book was slightly out of her ordinary. More later.
Blue Remembered Hills - Rosemary Sutcliff. A memoir of her childhood and it is as beautifully written as all her books. Rosemary suffered from juvenile arthritis knows as Still's Disease leaving her disabled. But she rises above it and this book is sheer delight from start to finish. I had an old battered copy and I am most appreciative of Slightly Foxed for being so generous as to send me one of their neat, handbag sized editions which are so beautifully produced. I have loved this author since I was a child but only recently embarked on her books set in Roman Britain as it was not a period of history in which I was interested and I tended to lean towards her Tudor books (Brother Dusty Feet, The Armourer's House etc) so I was a latecomer to these. I have found them quite quite wonderful and here is a link to an earlier post.
Writer's London - A Guide to Literary People and Places by Carrie Kanie and Alan Oliver. Oh this is simply gorgeous. I know I keep using that word but it is appropriate. The introduction reads as follows:
"To step out into the streets of London is to walk in the fotssteps of Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, John Dryden and Lord Byron. Since the time of Chaucer, writers as diverse as Heman Melville and Barbara Cartland have worked, played and loved in London. Many of the greatest books ever written can trace their their origins to this wondrous city"
The book is organised by loosely defined districts so I first checked the areas that I know so I looked at Bloomsbury, then Covent Garden and Marylebone and it became clear to me very quickly that I need to re-explore with this book in hand and also go further afield. This is a fascinating book and while I cannot leave the house at the moment when the circumstances change this book is going to come into its own.
That is enough for today. I have also read reprints of another Golden Age writer of crime, Moray Dalton which I shall be posting about and have started the latest Inspector Montalbano books which I adore.
There is no cricket this year, Queen's has been cancelled and so I have no excuse for tackling all the reading which is piling up.
I daresay I shall find one though...
Stay safe and well everyone
