Random Jottings

British Library Crime - Lorac, Lorac and Bernard J Farmer

I seem to have fallen into a pattern of one post a week and I keep feeling this will not do but I have had another of "those weeks" with loads on and a few irritants. Next week is looking a bit dubious as well as I am having a boiler and hot water tank ripped out tomorrow and it is all going to be a bit chaotic.

So I am taking the chance now of sitting down with a cuppa and telling you of my latest crime reads.  I can assure you that I read quite a lot of thrillers that are NOT published by the British Library, but this week the ones I have perused have all, coincidentally, been from their Classic Crime List.

Two were by E C R Lorac, who I really enjoy and so glad that the BritLib discovered this writer. However, this particular title left me feeling really disappointed. These Names Make Clues got me totally bogged down.

Chief Inspector Macdonald was invited to a treasure hunt party at the house of a publisher.  He has misgivings but is persuaded to accept and joins in along with other guests who are all thriller writers disguised on the night under literary pseudonyms.   Naturally, there is a murder and the victim, who was there under the name of 'Samuel Pepys' is found seemingly dead of a heart attack. Well we know it was not.  

The blurb on the back of this title states 'amid the confusion of too many fake names, clues, ciphers,and convoluted alibis, Macdonald must unravel a truly tangled case'.

I can honestly say that at the end after another murder or two (and I still have no idea why they were killed) I felt totally discombobulated and, which is worse, bored.  A shame. This is the first Lorac I have not enjoyed.

It was with some relief, therefore, that I turned to another by this author, Post after Post Mortem which was so much better and so much more interesting. "The Surrays and their five children form a prolific writing machine, with scores of treatises, reviews and crime thrillers published under their family name"

Ruth Surray is found dead after an evening at the Surray's house.   A suicide note is left and it is clear that she was deeply unhappy and depressed and the coroner reaches a verdict that she took her own life.  But then a few days after her death, her brother Richard receives a letter from his deceased sister which had been delayed in the post, and this casts doubt on the verdict.

Much more concisely written and held together and, though I guessed who the murderer was, it was not obvious and the reader was led astray on the way.

Death of a Bookseller by Bernard Farmer was the third I finished this week. This is the hundredth title in this series so it is fitting that a book about rare books is published by one of the great Libraries.  I had never heard of the author, as with so many of these rediscoveries, and though some have left me cold, I rather enjoyed this one. The main reason is not the fact that it is about a bookseller and crammed with details of the internecine rivalry between booksellers and buyers, fascinating though that is, but the wonderful character of Sergeant Jack Wigan.  The sergent strikes up a friendship with a bookman, Michael Fisk, who he escorts home when he meets him having had too much to drink.   Fisk had been celebrating the acquisition of a rare book, Keat's own personally inscribed copy of Endymion.  Wigan develops a keen interest in book collecting and later, when Fisk is found stabbed to death and the Keats book missing, he aids the CID in their investigation.

Wigan is a kindly, dogged and honest policeman who is convinced that the wrong man has been arrested for the murder and enlisting the help of others in the book trade sets out trying to save the accused from the hangman.

I found the book slightly fantastical in places, there is mention of the occult and raising demons, but on the whole it is well written and intriguing.  But it is Wigan who makes this well worth reading. A character one can warm to.  I gather there are other titles awaiting republication so I do hope the British Library will let us have these as well.

I was pleased to see that Martin Edwards who writes the introduction, had likened this well crafted book to those written by George Bellairs, another discovery for me. I had had exactly the same thought...

Honest.

Miss Read - another rediscovery

I freely admit to struggling with my reading and blogging at the moment.  I know from comments I have received both off and on blog that others feel the same.  But I remind myself that I am lucky, I have my home and my family and I am not suffering as are others in the world at the moment and I remember my mum's mantra "you have just got to get on with it". She was, and is, right.

I posted about D E Stevenson a week or so ago and had a huge response here on the blog and on social media. I ended the post by saying that she had been accused of writing "nice" books and I said, we could do with "nice" right now.   And so I am delighted to bring you more "nice" though I do think the use of that word infers mediocrity and a lack of inspiration.   Well I disagree and in the last week have rediscovered Miss Read.

"Miss Read, or in real life Dora Saint, was born 17 April 1913. A teacher by profession, she started writing after the Second World War for Punch and other journals and as a scriptwriter for the BBC. She is the author of many immensely popular books, including two autobiographical works, but it is for her novels of English rural life for which she is best known. The first of these, Village School, was published in 1955 and Miss Read continued to write about the fictitious villages of Fairacre and Thrush Green until her retirement in 1996. In the 1998 New Year Honours list she was awarded an MBE for her services to literature". 

Miss Read was another of those authors, along with D E Stevenson and Dorothy Whipple, who I used to stamp in and out on a regular basis when working in the library system. I have already said that my teenage lip curled at these books but now I know better and have read many by these authors over the last twenty years. And lovely it is that so many of them are now available, and here I mention Dean Street Press (I know I go on about them but I love them) who, as I write, only have one Miss Read title on their list. MORE PLEASE.

If you glance at the side of the blog you see all the books I have recently read and you cannot fail to miss that I have read all of the Thrush Green books by Miss Read in the last few weeks. I have had them on my Kindle for quite some time.  There was an amazing offer for the entire books in this series for 99p and that could not be ignored.  And there they sat until the time was right for me to discover them.

And I have simply loved them. The village of Thrush Green is set in the Cotswolds and it is clear that the author, like DE Stevenson, loves the country and is a keen and loving observer of the changing seasons in which they both delight.

Having read them all, in order, one after the other I have been able to become totally immersed in the comings and goings, loves and deaths, of the characters and see how they have developed the more I read.   In the very first title, we meet Ella and Dimity, and from the delightful illustrations (which are included in the Kindle edition) Ella is a large, masculine, tweedy, chain smoking overbearing personality, and Dimity (perfect name for her) runs around after her friend and putting up with her rudeness and untidiness.  The new local doctor does not care for her and this is made plain.   But over the series we learn more about the relationship between this odd couple and it becomes clear that Dimity has a strength of character and determination that is easy to overlook.   My personal feeling is that Miss Read changed her mind about these two characters and took them off in a different direction. The difference in their friendship at the end of the series is most marked.

I decided that I would look out more Miss Read and the other day I was in one of my local charity shops when serendipidity reared its head. I came across this box set of the Fairacre novels and all for the mighty sum of £3 so they are now on my TBR pile and will be opened soon.

I find there is a wit and humour to the Miss Read books which is not apparent in the DE Stevenson books. This is not a criticism, far from it, but they do add a little salt to the mixture.

"There were times when Richard, despite his brilliant brain, seemed absolutely helpless. Nevertheless, thought Winnie, he had brought a pork pie with him, One must be thankful for small mercies"

Packed full of glorious characters some of whom are positively Dickensian, I urge those of you who are having a reading slump at the moment, and it seems I am not alone in this, to check out Miss Read. 

Note:  I have just checked out the Thrush Green books on Kindle. The entire set which I purchased all those years ago for 99p is now over £50................

Two biographies: Mary Seacole and Queen Alexandra

I have two main titles I wish to highlight today, both are recently published biographies of two different women, but both linked in a curious way.

First up is Mary Seacole by Helen Rappaport.  I am a great admirer of Helen's writing having read several of her titles.  Her books on the Romanovs and, in particular, the story of the Four Sisters, are fascinating and she has a way of making history come alive.  Add to that her excellent narrative style which makes reading so enjoyable, and she is always on my Wanted List, and I mean that in the nicest possible way...

Very little detail is known about the life of Mary Seacole and the full title of this book is In Search of Mary Seacole - the Making of a cultural icon and it is clear that the author has had to put her little grey cells to work in tracking down details of her life all of which seem a little hazy.

I am flagging this title up today as I am only half way through my reading, but I wanted to draw it to your attention and urge you to get hold of a copy as I think you will enjoy it. I know I am.  Helen Rappaport's book is garnering excellent reviews and, as I cannot give it a full review in this post, I am setting out two links below for your information.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-10499647/Rebel-nurse-rivalled-Florence-Nightingale.html

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19954009.search-mary-seacole-helen-rappaport---eloquent-portrait-extraordinary-woman/

My second biography which has just been published is Queen Alexandra: Loyalty and Love by Frances Dimond and there is a link to Mary Seacole in this book which intrigued me.

It is many years since we had a biography of Edward VII's consort and this recent one is to be welcomed.  Everyone knows about Bertie, his indiscretions, his scandals and, above all, his many mistresses.   A serial adulterer and unfaithful to his wife, he yet seems to have inspired a tremendous love and loyalty from his wife, hence the title, and it is clear that though I am sure there were times when she would wish him to Jericho, there is never a hint of this in her letters and thoughts.

It is easy to forget how young both Bertie and Alexandra were when they married. Barely out of her teens and Bertie not much older, it was mainly brought about by the determination of Queen Victoria to have him safely settled with a wife who would keep him out of trouble. Vain hope and my admiration for Alexandra and the way she coped with him is vast.  Five children, a stiff and painful leg which hampered her all her life and also her deafness meant she had a great deal to contend with and she seems to have adopted a philosophical and positive attitude to life to enable her to cope.

I feel she was rather a possessive and suffocating mother whose style of writing letters to her dear Georgie boy (the future George V) as if he was ten, give the impression of a rather simplistic and childish nature.  She was rather reluctant to allow her daughters to find husbands and wished to keep them close and it is difficult not to understand her desire to have her family close to her when her erring husband roamed far and wide.

Alexandra's love for her husband shines through in every word of her letters and in her references to him.  Queen Victoria approved of her right from the start and though her feelings towards her daughter in law had their highs and lows, she respected her loyalty and supported her through various crises.

This book by Frances Dimond has been long in the making and is clearly a labour of love. It is immensely detailed with daily events and duties meticulously noted and, in case you thought royalty had it easy, a look at the comings and goings, the parties, the banquets, balls, race meets and all that this entails, is quite exhausting to read.   Alexandra found it tough going but Edward loved it.   His problem was that he had nothing to do as his mother kept him locked out of all political and government matters, but when she twitted him about his frivolous existance he replied that as she did not do it and was not seen in public, it was down to him to be visible and social.   He was right and when he did become King his friendships, contacts and knowledge of the world made him an excellent monarch.

After recently reading Jane Ridley's excellent biography of George V, it was good to read these new book and receive a different portrait of his mother.

And very interesting to see that Mary Seacole mentioned:

"Between c1870 and 1872, Alexandra may have met a British-Jamaican woman, Mrs Mary Seacole, who although not officially qualified as a nurse, had greatly helped wounded officers and soldiers behind the lines during the Crimean War, with refreshments and nursing assistance, using traditional Jamaican herbal remedies. .....it seemed that Mrs Seacole was a skilled masseuse who treated Alexandra's knee problems"

Helen Rappaport also mentions this relationship in her book:

"Mary sent a request to a friend who was about to return to Jamaica on furlough to bring back a 'basket of mangoes' as she wanted them for her 'dear Princess' who wished to 'taste Jamaica's mangoes' and when they arrived Mary took them straight to Marlborough House and delivered them personally to Princess Alexandra"

There appear to be a couple of businesslike letters relating to the Seacole Fund in the royal archives but there is not a single reference to this relationship to be found. Nothing in Queen Victoria's diaries, though we must remember that Princess Beatrice did a pretty good job of filleting them out and burning ast quantities of entries. Princess Alexandra left instructions that all her personal papers and letters be burned on her death as did her husband so no chance of following this up any further.

A fascinating link between these biographies of two totally different women.