Monthly Archives: November 2021

#BookReview ‘Jane Austen A Life’ by Claire Tomalin #books #writerslife

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As a lifelong Jane Austen fan, how I wish I had read this biography years ago. So many details from Jane’s life, her observations in letters to sister Cassandra and comments about Jane by her own relatives shed a spotlight on characterisations and situations portrayed in her novels. Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin was first published in 1997. Claire TomalinLimited by the destruction of so many of Jane’s own letters, Tomalin builds a picture of Jane’s life from the accounts of her family and acquaintances, and of life at that time in Georgian England. The amount of research done must be formidable but Tomalin sets her story of Jane Austen’s daily life against her literary progress, including the times when she was unable to write. She is revealed as having a sparkling and at times dry wit, perhaps more Lizzie Bennet than Emma Woodhouse.  Also interesting is the account of first her father then her brother Henry at getting her books published. On Jane’s death, Cassandra was sole proprietor of Jane’s copyright though Henry continued to negotiate with publishers.
Any writer will be familiar with the reactions of one’s closest relatives to the publication of a new book. The excitement from some quarters, the bemusement from others, and Jane Austen experienced exactly the same. Mrs Austen described Fanny in Mansfield Park as ‘inspid’. It also made me pause to realise that by the age of twenty five, Austen had already written Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. But this was followed by a ten year pause in which she wrote nothing. Only in 1809 did she return to her former pattern of working. What happened to cause this creative halt? Jane’s father retired and so the family were forced to leave the rectory at Steventon; Jane and Cassandra moved with their parents to Bath. Many letters from this difficult time are missing. Tomalin suggests Jane became depressed. She also lacked the physical space and time to write; their lodgings in Bath, frequent outings to the Devon and Dorset coast, and attendance expected at social events, all prevented Jane from writing.
Such is the detail in this wonderful biography that it is difficult to choose highlights. It has made me determined to re-read Austen’s novels now, in the order in which they were written.

Try the #FirstPara of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE here and learn about the first edition of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, first published in 1813.

If you’re a Jane Austen fan, try these two ‘extension’ novels by Molly Greeley:-
THE CLERGYMAN’S WIFE
THE HEIRESS

If you like this, try:-
‘Charlotte Bronte: A Life’ by Claire Harman
‘Howard’s End is on the Landing’ by Susan Hill
‘An Education’ by Lynn Barber

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview JANE AUSTEN A LIFE by Claire Tomalin https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4k9 via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society’ #romance #WW2

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I prefer to come to a book without reading reviews so I can make up my own mind. But sometimes there is a book that I missed in its early days but which goes onto be hugely popular. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows is such a book. Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie BarrowsThe story is told in letter form, a structure I admit to having doubts about before I started reading. But the manner in which the letters flow and the information is dripped in means there are no information gaps, no repetitions. It is 1946 and writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a man in Guernsey who by chance owns a book that once belonged to her. And so begins Juliet’s correspondence with Dawsey Adams and his fellow members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Dawsey encourages other members to write to Juliet with their own experiences of the German occupation of the island. And so we hear from the nice, and not-so-nice characters.
What could be a superficial account of the islanders’ lives becomes a cleverly managed tale of a community that survives by mutual support, generosity, toughness, bravery and above all kindness. As letter after letter arrives from different people, we build up full pictures of the incidents that happened. Although there is a romantic thread to this tale – the rather full-of-himself Mark Reynolds – this is really a story about the survival of an island community throughout a time of unimagined difficulty.
At first Juliet is entranced by the islanders’ stories but as they write more letters she wants to meet them in person, both to put faces to her correspondents and to scout the possibility of writing a book about their experiences. The book is split into two parts; in part one, Juliet is in London; in part two she travels to Guernsey. The story takes places during nine months of 1946; this feels a tight time span for some of the emotional relationships to develop and at times the familiarity and trust seemed to progress in leaps rather than steps, but perhaps this is understandable post-war when people grasped at chances of normality and happiness.
The title suggests this is a nice, quirky read – and it places it did make me chuckle – but it also tells of brutality, torture and death and the lasting after-effects of war.
I was left wishing I hadn’t read it yet and that I had it to look forward to. Just the book to re-read when your spirit needs a lift.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Read why novelist and poet Claire Dyer chooses THE GUERNSEY LITERARY & POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY as her ‘Porridge & Cream’ comfort read.

If you like this, try:-
‘Pattern of Shadows’ by Judith Barrow
‘After the Party’ by Cressida Connolly
‘The Book of Lies’ by Mary Horlock

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE GUERNSEY LITERARY & POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows https://wp.me/p5gEM4-47C via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Cornish Village Murder’ by Fiona Leitch #crime #cosycrime

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The Cornish Village Murder by Fiona Leitch is the second Nosey Parker cosy mystery and the first I’ve read, in fact I read it when it was originally called A Brush with Death. Jodie Parker, ex-Metropolitan police officer, and newly single mum has returned home to Cornwall. It’s the week of Penstowan’s inaugural arts festival and Jodie, no longer working for the police, is doing the catering. The festival’s main attraction is painter Duncan Stovall, famous for his Penstowan series of sea paintings. Fiona Leitch This is a story with instant fizz. Written in the first person, Jodie’s, I loved the sly sometimes saucy asides that pull you straight into the jokes, the personalities and the action. If it were an item of food on a menu catered by Jodie, this book would be a mash-up of a Cornish saffron bun slathered with butter and clotted cream, a mug of steaming tea and a glass of scrumpy. Cornwall is a part of the book’s DNA, not just the dialect of the Penstowan residents or the food but the wonderful descriptions of coastal scenery that make you want to get into the car and head south on the M5.
When a visiting author is found dead at the bottom of the cliffs Jodie can’t resist sticking her nose in and asking questions, much to the annoyance of DCI Nathan Withers and the irritation of Jodie’s daughter Daisy and mum Shirley.
This is a silky read, one of the best of its genre I’ve read. A brilliant community of family, friends and townspeople, a beautiful seaside setting, with a witty detective, plotted on two levels. The foundation is Jodie’s life settling into the town of her childhood, a triangular-shaped romantic entanglement, and her burgeoning new catering business. Overlaying this is the case in which she becomes entangled; the art world, not just the creation of art but the finance, promotion, sales and investment.
I particularly enjoyed the joshing with childhood friends Debbie and Tony, including lots of cultural references from the Eighties that are lightly handled without huge signposts saying ‘laugh here’.
Read it and chuckle.

Here are my reviews of other books in the Nosey Parker series:-
THE CORNISH WEDDING MURDER #1NOSEYPARKER
THE PERFECT CORNISH MURDER #3NOSEYPARKER
A CORNISH CHRISTMAS MURDER #4NOSEYPARKER
A CORNISH RECIPE FOR MURDER #5NOSEYPARKER
A CORNISH SEASIDE MURDER #6NOSEYPARKER
THE CORNISH CAMPSITE MURDER #7NOSEYPARKER

If you like this, try:-
‘Magpie Murders’ by Anthony Horowitz #1SUSANRYELAND
‘A Deadly Discovery’ by JC Kenney #4ALLIE COBB
‘Tea for Two at the Little Cornish Kitchen’ by Jane Linfoot #2LITTLECORNISHKITCHEN

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE CORNISH VILLAGE MURDER by Fiona Leitch https://wp.me/p5gEM4-5lq via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Beneath the Keep’ by Erika Johansen #fantasy #Tearling

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Beneath the Keep by Erika Johansen is the standalone prequel novel to her Tearling trilogy, the first of which was excellent, the second good, the third disappointing. Beneath the Keep is every bit as good as the first novel, if not better. If you haven’t read the trilogy, read this first. It’s a rollercoaster ride, a dystopian story of a country at war, the rich denying the poor, drought, famine, rebellion, cruelty and the hope of a True Queen who may exist at some time in the future. Many names are familiar from the trilogy, many are completely new. Erika JohansenChristian is twenty. An orphan, he was born in the Creche, the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the Tear’s capital city New London. The Creche is only one layer of the underground and it is not the worst, in some dark places unimaginable horrors take place. Since he was a small child, Christian has been a fighter. Now he is a legend, unbeaten, still alive unlike the many he defeated. It is a deadly game of kill or be killed. He cares only for one person. As small children he and fellow orphan, now prostitute, Maura were sold together into slavery, together they learned how to survive. Christian is pragmatic, Maura dreams of going ‘topside’, to see the sky and the stars.
Princess Elyssa is heir to the Tear throne but she has a problem. She dislikes her mother Queen Arla and her politics, struggles to perform her royal duties and pay homage to the Church which she believes to be corrupt. Elyssa becomes sympathetic to the secret resistance group, Blue Horizon. As they give food and tools to the poor, Blue Horizon spreads the word about the coming of a True Queen. But as Elyssa becomes outspoken she becomes dangerous, not just to her mother but to a group of criminals including a white witch who can read and control minds.
Meanwhile in the rural Almont, harvests are failing and landowners try to recoup their losses by demanding more money from their tenant farmers. One young woman fights back, and so a rebellion is born.
The climax is a fantastic set piece bringing together all the story strands. I sat up late at night to finish the book. Yes some of it is back story for the trilogy but there are so many twists and turns and new character insights that I surrendered to the ride. If you’re reading it knowing nothing of the Crossing, the Tearling and the mythology of the series, I envy you the discovery of this absorbing chronicle.
In Beneath the Keep, Johansen shows us the underworld of the trilogy. Underground, it is dark, terrifying, dehumanising. She gives us hope while also showing the horror.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

Click the title to read my reviews of Johansen’s Tearling Trilogy:-
THE QUEEN OF THE TEARLING [#1 TEARLING]
THE INVASION OF THE TEARLING [#2 TEARLING]
THE FATE OF THE TEARLING [#3 TEARLING]

If you like this, try:-
‘The Bear and the Nightingale’ by Katherine Arden [#1 Winternight trilogy]
‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi [#1 Legacy of Orisha]
‘La Belle Sauvage’ by Philip Pullman [#1TheBookofDust]

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BENEATH THE KEEP by Erika Johansen https://wp.me/p5gEM4-5lm via @SandraDanby