What’s in a Name Challenge: An Ending and a Beginning

Three years ago “What’s in a Name” was the very first challenge I signed up for via this blog. It was also the first challenge I completed.

Beth at Beth Fish Reads is the host, and there’s a dedicated blog for this year’s challenge here.

It’s a lovely challenge, and of course I signed up for a second year. And a third

It’s really simple. Just read one book from each of six categories. And now I’ve done it for a third time

Here are the categories and the books I’ve read:

• A book with a number in the title:

13, rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli Shapiro

• A book with jewelry or a gem in the title:

Death Wore a Diadem by Iona McGregor

• A book with a size in the title:

Great House by Nicole Krauss

• A book with travel or movement in the title:

Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd

• A book with evil in the title:

The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond

• A book with a life stage in the title:

Parents and Children by Ivy Compton-Burnett

Not the books I’d planned, but I was very happy with my final sextet.

And am I signing up for another year? Of course!

All of the details are here.

Here are the new categories, and the books that I have in mind:

• A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title:

Small Island by Andrea Levy

• A book with something you’d see in the sky in the title:

Shadow of the Sun by Lily Dunn

• A book with a creepy crawly in the title:

A History of Insects by Yvonne Roberts

• A book with a type of house in the title:

The Priory by Dorothy Whipple

• A book with something you’d carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title:

The Book of Months by E F Benson

• A book with a something you’d find on a calendar in the title:

The Fortnight in September by R C Sheriff

A couple of those categories were tricky, but I got there in the end and I had a lovely time going through my bookshelves, looking for a book I wanted to read to fit each category.

Wish me luck!

Death Wore a Diadem by Iona McGregor

On 17th November 1860 The Scotsman reported:

“Since hapless Mary Queen of Scots landed at Leith three hundred years ago, no Royal lady of France has visited the Scottish capital. The Empress Eugenie seeks the enjoyment of strictest privacy as aiding attainment of the main object of her visit – the renewal of her impaired health. The visit recalls ancient days of firm alliance between France and Scotland; and between the two peoples a hereditary liking yet continues, which might well, were occasion suitable, find especially warm expression towards the Empress Eugenie, seeing that she herself is of Scotch descent, and so adds to those of royalty the yet more potent and kindlier claims of kindred.”

James McLevy, a retired police detective, was walking his dog when he saw the royal train arrive on a dark, cold, winter evening. He feared trouble, and he was right.

Because at the Scottish institute for the Education of the Daughters of Gentlefolk the Lady Superintendent, Margaret Napier, was working out how she could use the visit to her advantage.

She managed to secure a promise of a visit from the Empress, to see her girls perform a tableau. And the loan of a copy of the Empress’s Grecian diadem to be used in the tableau. It was a paste copy, but it was completely indistinguishable from the real thing ….

It might have been a triumph, but the diadem disappeared.

And then Peggy, the school’s laundry maid, was found. Murdered. With the diadem in her bag.

Mrs Napier was swift to blame Peggy, and desperate to avoid any scandal around her school. But she had reckoned without Christabel.

Christabel was in her last year of school and she was ready to fly. She was headstrong and wilful; she was bright and charming. And, as a heroine, she was simply irresistible.

Christabel wanted to know the truth. And so did Eleanor, a junior teacher who so wanted to become a doctor. She was just a few years older than Christabel, and they loved each other dearly. They made a charming couple.

Neither believed that Peggy was a thief. And both believed that she should have justice.

They set out to identify the thief and the killer …

Iona McGregor has constructed a wonderfully entertaining mystery. There’s a wonderful cast, of schoolgirls, teachers, maids, parents, detectives. The period and the city come to life. And fun was poked at the snobbishness of genteel society.

There were moments when the author’s social and sexual politics threatened to overwhelm the plot. I nearly put the book down, but in the end curiosity about the characters and the mystery made me carry on.

My curiosity about the mystery was satisfied, but not my curiosity about the characters. They were set up so beautifully, but I was left at the end with not even a hint of what might happen next for Eleanor and Christabel.

Maybe there were plans for to a sequel, or even a series, But this book was published in 1989, and so  I have to assume that, if there were, they didn’t come to fruition.

That leaves me with a nice historical mystery, but a novel that feels a little incomplete.

Lady of the English by Elizabeth Chadwick

I knew the story well before I picked the book up.

In 1069 Henry I died without a legitimate male heir. He named his daughter, Matilda, as his heir, but when he died his nephew, Stephen, took the throne.

Had Henry named a new heir on his deathbed? Was Stephen a usurper? Could a woman rule?

The rival claimants to the throne would wage war for years …

I first read the story in Sharon Penman’s ‘Christ and his Saints Slept’, but reading it again appealed, and I was very curious to see how Elizabeth Chadwick wrote and how she would present the story.

She presents it well.

Complex history is made clear, but not over-simplified, by telling the story through a well-chosen cast of characters.

This is a very human take on the story, and it worked so well because as well as being well-chosen the characters were very well drawn.

They were of their time, but I could still understand and believe in them. Real, fallible human beings.

I could see both sides of the argument.

The story moved between two royal ladies: Adeliza, the dowager queen, and Matilda, the claimant to the throne. Step-mother and step-daughter.

They  are very different women. Adeliza’s calling is to be a consort, a wife and mother, whereas Matilda’s calling is to reign, and to reclaim the throne that she believes is rightfully hers in an age when many considered women unfit to rule.

The choice of perspective was very well done, and the two Ladies of the English contrasted wonderfully as the story moved between them.

Matilda fought for the throne. And Adeliza was married again, to  a nobleman loyal to Stephen. His anointed king.

There were so many wonderful scenes: Matilda fighting for control with her husband, the young and ambitious Geoffrey of Anjou; Matilda escaping a besieged castle in the depths of winter; Matilda struck by the man her son has become.

Matilda brings drama and intrigue, while Adeliza brings heart and soul. Though it’s not quite that simple …

Even though I knew how the story would play out, it held me from the first page to the last.

Because the storytelling, the characters, and a wonderful evocation of time and place came together perfectly.

Lady of the English is not the definitive fictional retelling of this history, but it is a fine historical entertainment.

And sometimes that’s just what I want to read.

War Through The Generations Challenge: The Great War

“In 2012, Anna and I could not pass up the opportunity to delve into WWI, often considered The Great War, which occurred roughly between 1914 to 1918 and started roughly with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary.

The WWI Reading Challenge will be held between Jan. 1, 2012, through Dec. 31, 2012.

Books must have WWI as a primary or secondary theme and occur before, during, or after the war.”

I’m not signing up for too many things next year, but I must sign up for this. I’ve been waiting for this theme ever since the WW2 challenge ended, and I have a wonderful pool of books to hand:

William: an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton

“A 1919 novel about the harrowing effect of the First World War on William, a socialist clerk, and Griselda, a suffragette. “

We That Were Young by Irene Rathbone

“First published in 1932, this semi-autobiographical novel is one of the broadest accounts of the work of women during the First World War – of the mixture of foreboding and gaiety at YMCA camps in France, the exhaustion and horror of nursing as a VAD, and the strain of automaton work in a munitions factory. Following the progress of Joan Seddon and her friends, as the patriotic fervour of 1915 gives way to the empty postwar years, We That Were Young recreates the detail of their contribution to the war effort. And, in vividly evoking the minutiae of daily life, the spirit and companionship, the optimism and despair, of those caught up in the War which destroyed their youth, it also presents a valuable social portrait of an era. “

Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith

“She is one of “England’s Splendid Daughters”,  an ambulance driver at the French front.  Working all hours of the day and night, witness to the terrible wreckage of war, her firsthand experience contrasts sharply with her altruistic expectations.  And one of her most painful realisations is that those like her parents, who preen themselves on visions of glory, have no concept of the devastation she lives with and no wish for their illusions to be shaken.  First published in 1930, this harsh and unforgettable novel provides a stinging denunciation of the futility of war.”

Journey’s End by R C Sheriff

“Set in the First World War, ‘Journey’s End’ concerns a group of British officers on the front line and opens in a dugout in the trenches in France. Raleigh, a new eighteen-year-old officer fresh out of English public school, joins the besieged company of his friend and cricketing hero Stanhope, and finds him dramatically changed …Laurence Olivier starred as Stanhope in the first performance of  ’Journey’s End’ in 1928; the play was an instant stage success and remains a remarkable anti-war classic.”

Eunice Fleet by Lily Tobias

“Drawing deeply from Lily Tobias’ own experience, this is the moving story about the treatment of conscientious objectors during the First World War, first published in 1933. The spoilt daughter of a Cardiff industrialist,Eunice is outraged when her teacher husband refuses to fight. Her refusal to visit him in jail has disastrous consequences and repercussions which are still affecting her as another war threatens.”

A Very Long Engagement by Sébastian Japrisot

“In January 1917, five wounded French soldiers, their hands bound behind them, are brought to the front at Picardy by their own troops, forced into the no-man’s land between the French and German armies, and left to die in the cross fire.  Their brutal punishment has been hushed up for more than two years when Mathilde Donnay, unable to walk since childhood, begins a relentless quest to find out whether her fiancé, officially “killed in the line of duty,” might still be alive.  Tipped off by a letter from a dying soldier, the shrewd, sardonic, and wonderfully imaginative Mathilde scours the country for information about the men.  As she carries her search to its end, an elaborate web of deception and coincidence emerges, and Mathilde comes to an understanding of the horrors, and the acts of kindness, brought about by war.”

I have some non fiction in mind. Poetry too.

I’m sure to find more books I want to read along the way.

And suggestions and recommendations would be very welcome …

Parents and Children by Ivy Compton-Burnett

I wondered about reading Ivy Compton-Burnett for a very long time. I had heard that she was very good, but I had also heard that she was very difficult. And difficult is something I tend to shy away from. But she started to turn up everywhere:

• On the Virago Modern Classics list, four books with cover art from Pablo Picasso’s cubist period. Now what did that mean?
• Being read, and very much enjoyed, by the fictional Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett’s ‘The Uncommon Reader’.
• Borrowing books from the Boots Library in Nicola Beauman’s wonderful biography of ‘The Other Elizabeth Taylor’. Including Dorothy Whipple … though she kept those books hidden behind more worthy tomes …

Curiosity began to overtake caution. And so when I was having I clear out, when I discovered two copies of ‘Parents and Children’ I took a look at one before throwing it in the charity shop box. And I began to read …

And the reading felt completely natural. The majority was dialogue, but the voices rang true, I picked up what was going on very easily, and I was soon caught up.

Parents and Children dates from 1941 but is set some years earlier, among the monied classes of Edwardian England.

Eleanor is married to Fulbert Sullivan and they live with his parents. She would like to have her own household, but with nine children that was quite impossible. And so she drifted through life, believing herself to be at the centre of her children’s life while nannies, governesses and tutors actually kept her children’s lives on course. Fulbert, amiable but distant was probably closer to the children.

There were children everywhere – off at university, in the schoolroom, in the nursery – and they gave the book a much-needed heart. I was particularly taken with three year-old Nevill, who had the habit of talking of himself in the third person. And with his brother James, who simply wanted to be left in peace with his books. And with his sister Isabel, who was maybe the most clear-sighted of them all …

For the first half of the book I watched and listened to the family’s lives, and in the second half of the book the plot began to unfurl. Fulbert departed on a business trip to South America, reports of his death filtered back, Eleanor accepted a proposal of marriage from very close to home, and secrets emerged.

But this isn’t about the plot. It’s about family dynamics revealed with utter clarity. It’s about characters, so many characters, perfectly and distinctively drawn.

All of this is achieved by dialogue, with so much wit, so much intelligence. So many words, sometimes saying little and sometimes saying so much about the emotions, the weaknesses, that are suppressed as family members fight their verbal battles.

It wasn’t quite real, it was slightly skewed, and that made it so much more striking. A very subtle satire.

The Sullivan household was fascinating to watch, though I really wouldn’t want to visit.

But I will be visiting Ivy Compton-Burnett’s other novels, because I haven’t quite worked out exactly what it is that she does so well, and I really would like to.

The Picture Book by Jo Baker

It feels terribly clichéd to talk about words painting pictures but, although I have tried to find other words, I can really think of no better way to express my feelings about this book.

The author allows her reader to observe lives, visiting and watching. And it works beautifully, because she understands the maxim show don’t tell.

She writes in the first person present tense, something I don’t usually like. But after the first page I didn’t think about it. I was caught up.

The story opens in The Electric Theatre on York Road in Battersea. The date is 14th August 1914.

William and Amelia have come to see a film. Of course in 1914 that was a grand adventure, and a wonderful treat.

It  was also a farewell. William was to go to war and Amelia was to be left behind. That was why William gave Amelia the picture book.  An album that she could fill with the picture postcards he promised to send from wherever he might be sent.

William sees and wonders at the world. And he must face the war at Galipolli.

Amelia raises their son, Billy, and they must both face battles of their own.

Billy marries Ruby, who is Jewish, before he is caught up in another war.

Billy and Ruby’s son, Will,  grows up in a very different, post-war world and becomes an academic.

His first child is a daughter, Billie, and she moves the story into the present day and brings it full circle.

That broad story is perfectly captured. The world changes, and yet so much remains the same. Patterns repeat, and patterns change.

But there is so much more. So many crucial, small details. Actions. Events. Emotions. They show exactly what you need in order to understand. No more and no less. And they show how choices, both conscious and unconscious, can have repercussions long into the future.

The Picture Book shows real people, real lives, real emotions. Painted perfectly. Pictures of childhood, adulthood and old age. Pictures of a century of history and social change. So many pictures.

I knew nothing before I picked up The Picture Book and I gained so much from reading with no foreknowledge. That is why I shall share no more details. And that is why I shall write no more.

A Dog Blogs: A News Bulletin

Hello!

This is Briar The Dog, reporting from the Virago Bookcase.

Here are the headlines:

Jane is on a course for two days. She hopes that it will help her to secure a new job. I like having her home, but the money she earns going out to work would come in useful.

Preparations for the Virago Secret Santa are progressing well. We have books and our next step is to find wrappings, cards and other accountrements. Then we can send it off in the post. Isn’t it exciting?

Mother will be having a 78th birthday next Tuesday. Her birthday cardigan is knitted and ready to wear, though I havent had a chance to sit on it yet. And Jane will be making an old fashioned high tea, as Mother likes that. I’m hoping someone will think of the dog and save her a sausage on a stick.

WordPress is playing up! Is it just us or is anybody else having problems?The spell-checker has vanished!  And it refused to upload my photograph, so today’s picture is brought to you courtest of Photobucket.

Finally, I must apologise for my rather unkempt appearance. My hairbrush broke! Jane is going to buy me a new one, but she says it isn’t easy to find something sturdy enough to deal with a border terrier coat. We need good coats because we are outdoor action dogs!

Otherwise it’s business as usual around here.

Jane will be back soon.

And I am going to have a little snooze …

Q by Evan Mandery

I love the concept:

A man is visited by his future self, who has travelled through time to warn him that he absolutely must not marry the love of his life.

That’s Quentina Elizabeth Dervil, known to everyone as Q.

I loved watching them fall in love. Because it felt so real. Two people meeting, talking about this that and everything, their lives so naturally coming together …

That pulled me right into the story.

And that’s why I was infuriated when the unnamed narrator’s future self and insisted that the pair could not marry. His argument was good, but oh how I wanted to find away around it.

And the trouble is, once you have taken the advice of a future self once, any number of future selves will arrive from different periods and different paths taken to offer advice on every life choice you could think of.

It was a joy to watch the dialogues between one man and his future selves, packed full of facts, intelligence and wit. And a tour de force by the author, making one rather neurotic writer recognisable at so many different stages of life.

It was wonderful and infuriating at the same time.

I wanted to intervene. To point out what was really important in life. But I couldn’t!

Many of the details of time travel were glossed over, but there were enough details there to sell the concept. Very clever!

The writing is lovely, allowing the story to move forward on a cushion of clever ideas and cultural references.

It gets a little lost sometimes when the story’s unnamed hero paises to ponder life, love, his novel … but it soon finds itself again whenever he has someone to talk with.

Those dialogues, full of warmth and wit, are a delight.

And, just as I was wondering how on earth all of this could be brought together, it was. Perfectly.

This really is a novel for both head and heart.

And I might not have written about it too coherently, but I can only think of one more thing to say – I loved Q!

Not necessarily rational, but that’s love for you!

Unwanted by Kristina Ohlsson

Unwanted is a debut novel, and the first of a series of Swedish crime novels to be translated into English.

I wasn’t sure that I wanted to start on another series, but when the book appeared on the library it caught my eye. The cover was striking, the plot looked promising, and the comparison to ‘The Killing’ made a change from the usual Steig Larsson mention on the cover of pretty much anything Scandinavian.

And I knew that if I didn’t grab it while it was there I might not see it again for months, and wish that I had picked it up when I had the chance.

I found much that I could praise.

The plot was nicely set up. A sleeping child disappeared from a train when the mother was distracted. Maybe intentionally. There were few witnesses and who could offer any help and there was virtually no physical evidence.

Of course a team was called in to investigate: Alex Recht, an experienced and respective detective; Peder Rydh, a young, ambitious detective; and Fredrika Bergman, a civilian investigative analyst.

The parents of the missing child were separated, and not on good terms. The two men immediately identified him as their prime suspect, dismissing other possibilites.

That worried me. Because I was sure they were wrong. And surely when  a child was missing all possibilities should be investigated?

Fortunately Fredrika had the same concerns, and started to look into other angles …

That’s as much as I want to say about the plot.

But I will say that it is well constructed, on classic lines. That the style is simple and clear. That the pace is very well judged, so that I was drawn in and asking questions. That themes are cleverly echoed across the investigating team and the crime that they are investigating.

I’m afraid though that as the story moved forward I began to see a few problems.

I saw fairly early on what the motive would be and how the story would play out. It felt right psychologically, and I have no real argument with the plotting or the storytelling, but I really would have liked to have had some questions left hanging for a little longer.

I saw that the characterisation was simplistic and lacked any real depth. And that some of the most interesting characters and possibilies went unexplored. Now I could  forgive that in a short and snappy mystery, but I’m a little less forgiving when a story is spread over 470 pages.

That’s not to say that Unwanted isn’t a promising debut. It is, and I can see potential for an interesting and successful series.

But the first half of the book raised my expectations, so that I thought I might be reading a great crime novel and was disappointed when I got rather less than that.

Good, but not as good as I had hoped.

Translated by Sarah Death

A Classics Challenge

It’s called a challenge, but it doesn’t feel like a challenge.

It feels like a very natural, and sociable, way to read some of the books I really want to read but never quite get to.

Let me explain.

A Classics Challenge is hosted by Katherine at November’s Autumn - you may also know her as Katherine of Gaskell Blog.

The basic premise is simple:

“Read seven works of Classic Literature in 2012. Only three of the seven may be re-reads.”

But what makes this interesting is what comes next:

“I’ve organized this challenge to work a little like a blog hop. I hope this will make it more interactive and enjoyable for everyone.

Instead of writing a review as you finish each book (of course, you can do that too), visit November’s Autumn on the 4th of each month from January 2012 – December 2012.

You will find a prompt, it will be general enough that no matter which Classic you’re reading or how far into it, you will be able to answer. There will be a form for everyone to link to their post. I encourage everyone to read what other participants have posted.”

So I’ve been through shelves and lists, and now I’ve narrowed down a long list of titles that I want to read or re-read to just seven books:

The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham (1925)

I must confess that I love the film, but I have never read this, or indeed any Maugham. Time to put that right.

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (1866)

My mother loves Mrs Gaskell, but she lacks the short-term memory needed for keeping track of novels these days. But she loves watching television adaptations of classic novels, so my plan is to read the book and watch the mini-series with my mother. We did the same thing with North and South earlier this year, and it worked beautifully.

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (1841)

I began reading The Old Curiosity Shop last year, but though I was enjoying it life and other books distracted me. It’s time to go back to the beginning and see it through to the end.

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (1922)

I remember seeing the film at school when I was about fourteen. It was an end-of-term post-exam treat! I loved it, and I went straight to the library to find the book. I loved that too, and now it’s time for a re-read.

A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe (1790)

I picked this up a little while ago and the mixture of gotic plot and rich description looked wonderful. But I had commited to reading another gothic novel for the Classics Circuit, so I had to put this one aside.

The Warden by Anthony Trollope (1855)

The first time I tried Trollope we didn’t get on, but I knew that it was just the wrong book at the wrong time. several people have suggested that The Warden is the best book to start with, and so that’s where I am going to start again.

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery (1848)

My mother has been telling me that I should read Vanity Fair, that it was a wonderful book, for years. And she’s generally right about these things.

And now I just have to work out what to read first …