Tag Archives: historical fiction

#BookReview ‘The Warlow Experiment’ by Alix Nathan #historical

This is a story of two men. One plays at being a god. The other grabs a chance to escape poverty. The Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan is about power, ambition, control, the disintegration of respect and vanishing of common sense. What a breath of fresh air this book is; it is so unusual. The country gentleman who conducts the experiment, Powyss, is an isolated character. He has no family and, when he has the idea of experimenting with the life of another man, thinks he is doing good by supporting the man’s family. In truth he seeks the approbation of the Royal Society. Warlow is a farm labourer who scrapes a living at the edge of starvation, struggling to feed this family. When he sees an advertisement asking for a man to take part in Powyss’s experiment, he sees it as an escape. So what is the experiment? Powyss is a man who experiments with exotic seedlings and plants. He sources them from abroad and studies them, experimenting with conditions – soil, temperature, water – to see which flourish in the climate of the Marches climate. It is a short step for him to wonder how a man would fare without seeing a human face for seven years. A cellar is converted in Powyss mansion, furnished with carpets, bedstead and comfortable mattress, an organ, books, writing equipment and a dumb waiter lift which is the only means of communication with above. He is forbidden to talk to anyone; his needs are communicated by notes sent up in the lift. But Powyss forgets to vary Warlow’s conditions, whose surroundings remain the same. He is below ground with no natural light; the only sign of changing daylight and season is from the frogs that find their way into his cellar via a grating. At the beginning both men are happy with the scheme; both think they benefit. Powyss makes his observations; Warlow escapes his grinding life of work and poverty. He was knocked around by his father, and now knocks around his own kids. He longs for something better and decides that when he gets out, he will have earned enough money not to work and so will drink all day instead. Neither man realise what they have undertaken.
The story is told by three people; Powyss, Warlow and Catherine, a servant in the Powyss household. I would also like to have heard the first hand story of Mrs Warlow, who has quite a part to play. The beginning of Warlow’s viewpoint reminds me of Emma Donoghue’s Room; the repetition of simple detail as he studies his surroundings, he focuses on the functional. He is barely literate but, as Powyss impresses on him that it is part of his job to write a journal, Warlow begins to write. Nathan’s portrayal of the early attempts of this uneducated man to write, the bad spelling, the stumbling expression, are convincing; later I wanted his stream of consciousness ramblings to be more concise. The imprisonment represents only the first part of the story; there is more to tell than the experiment itself. The servants in Powyss household become uncomfortable with their part in the proceedings, they also observe Mrs Warlow as she visits the house to receive the payment from Powyss promised as part of Warlow’s contract. Unknown to her, Mrs Warlow becomes the subject of a secondary report into the ‘lateral effects’ on the man’s family.
A sub-plot sets this story in its time. Revolution rumbles on in France and there are demonstrations in London against the King and prime minister Pitt. Head gardener Abraham Price is a rebel who seduces housemaid Catherine with talk of improvement, of rights, of freedom without masters. This country mansion in the Marches reflects the class tensions in the country – rich/poor, vote/no vote. Powyss receives the latest information about politics and uprisings in letters from his London correspondent. In exchange for boxes of fruit, Fox is the only voice Powyss hears from outside his insular world. He questions the morality of the experiment but Powyss refuses to listen; he also fails to see how the servants observe the experiment with dislike. He is a naïve man who fails to understand he is destined to be part of the experiment too.
This is such an unusual subject and in an Author’s Note, Nathan explains where she got the idea. She read a report of a man in 1797 who conducted such an experiment as that of Powyss. She was intrigued and wrote two short stories, one from the viewpoint of each man. After that, she realised there was a bigger story to tell. I’m glad she did. It is an unusual, absorbing read. It deserves time to be read, so please don’t rush it.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Quick’ by Lauren Owen
‘The Night Child’ by Anna Quinn
‘Master of Shadows’ by Neil Oliver

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#BookReview ‘Pattern of Shadows’ by Judith Barrow #historical #WW2

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The first instalment of Judith Barrow’s Mary Howarth series is Pattern of Shadows, a historical romance set in World War Two Lancashire that explores the challenges and new opportunities for women in wartime. Set against a male-dominated background where the aspirations of working class women have traditionally been put second, war brings change and some people adapt better than others. Mary is a nursing sister in the hospital attached to a prisoner of war camp, nursing German soldiers captured and injured in action. Some people find that challenging but for Mary it is a satisfying and fulfilling job. Things get complicated when she attracts the attention of two men who could not be more different. One night Mary meets Frank Shuttleworth, a guard at the POW camp and, thanks to a combination of unforeseen circumstances, runs to a shelter with him during a bombing raid. This evening has far-reaching consequences for Mary and her flighty younger sister Ellen. There are tensions at home too with her argumentative irascible father and defeated mother, as Tom her older brother is in prison as a conscientious objector and her younger brother, injured fighting, must now work as a coal miner. Meanwhile a new German doctor arrives at the hospital. With two choices in front of her, Mary must decide whether to do what is expected or defy convention, to be loyal to her family who are not always loyal to her, or to be selfish and do something for herself.
A well-paced story combining stalking, prejudice, domestic violence, homophobia, poverty and family strife, Mary is the only unselfish, balanced person in her family. Will she finally put herself first? This is at times a grim story set at a difficult time and at first I worried this was misery fiction and longed for an occasional bright light. But the setting and time period are so well researched I soon relaxed into the story as the character of Mary and her predicament drew me in. I admire her stubbornness, her selflessness and loyalty, above all her bravery. Sometimes she is misguided, always well-intentioned, I look forward to reading more about Mary in Changing Patterns, the sequel.

If you like this, try:-
‘After the Bombing’ by Clare Morrall
‘Homeland’ by Clare Francis
‘The Aftermath’ by Rhidian Brook

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#BookReview ‘The Invitation’ by Lucy Foley #romance #historical

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A romance, almost an anti-romance, The Invitation by Lucy Foley is a poignant novel with two parallel stories of dangerous obsession and fantasy. Hal, who has drifted to Rome after serving in the Royal Navy in World War Two, leads a cheap life, surviving on writing assignments, living in a cheap area, Trastevere. One day he accepts from a friend an invitation to a party, an invitation the friend is unable to use. Arriving in his dusty suit, Hal feels apart from the glamour and wealth on show, the jewels, the gowns, the dinner suits. There he sees an enchanting, puzzling young woman who appears icy, untouchable, out of reach.
They meet again when Hal is invited by the hostess of the Rome party, the Contessa, to be attached as journalist to the forthcoming promotional tour for her film, The Sea Captain. They are to sail along the coast to Cannes where the film will be premiered at the film festival. Invitations, accepted and refused, feature frequently throughout the novel, forcing decisions to be made, plans changed, opportunities grasped. The close proximity of the group of disparate passengers begins to unveil secrets, cracks in carefully-controlled behaviour, shameful secrets and lies. As well as Hal and the Contessa, on board are the ageing, artistic film producer; the ageing, drunk leading man; the glamorous siren-like leading lady; the pale beaten-down photographer; the husband and wife investors; and Roberto, the Contessa’s skipper.
Within this story of a coastal journey is a story-within-a-story, the love story on which The Sea Captain is based. A sea captain returning home from a victorious naval battle rescues a drowning figure. Once on board, it is realised it is a naked woman. The captain is captivated by her, his crew fear she is a witch and will bring bad luck. On land, the captain keeps the woman as his mistress, given everything she might wish, in a lavishly-decorated house. It is a morality tale of the perils of attempting to mould another person into something you want but which they are not. This tale of the gilded cage echoes throughout the novel. So will true life mirror the film version of the story, or the true story? Of course a film is fictional, the truth being manipulated for dramatic effect, something which cannot be done with true secrets which have a way of making themselves known.
A sad, subtle tale of warning about obsessive love, fantasy and longing.

Read my reviews of these other Lucy Foley novels:-
MURDER AT THE GRAND ALPINE HOTEL #1MARPLE
THE GUEST LIST
THE HUNTING PARTY
THE MIDNIGHT FEAST
THE PARIS APARTMENT

If you like this, try:-
‘The Believers’ by Zoe Heller
‘The Tea Planter’s Wife’ by Dinah Jeffries
‘A Mother’s Secret’ by Renita d’Silva

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#BookReview ‘The Convenient Marriage’ by Georgette Heyer #Regency #Romance

#BookReview ‘After the Party’ by Cressida Connolly #historical #Thirties

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After the Party by Cressida Connolly is set in a difficult period of British history. It starts gently, lulling you into a sense that it is about three sisters, which it is, but it is also an uncomfortable story of pre-World War Two politics. From the first page, we know that Phyllis Forrester was in prison. In 1979, Phyllis looks back cryptically at what happened to her and her sisters, Patricia and Nina, in the Thirties. Why she was imprisoned is the question that made me keep reading. All we know is that someone died. In 1938, Phyllis and her husband Hugh return to live in England after years working abroad. They settle in West Sussex near Nina and Patricia. At a loose end, Phyllis is drawn into the peace camps organised by Nina; it is something to do over the summer, there are educational talks to attend and activities for the children. Nina is an organiser with a clipboard. Phyllis revels in their rented house at Bosham beside the sea, until Hugh buys a patch of land on which to build a house. At a dinner party thrown by Patricia, Phyllis meets a new friend, Sarita Templeton. “She said her ‘esses’ softly, so that ‘crazy’ sounded like ‘craissy’ and ‘is like ‘iss’.” Phyllis and Hugh are drawn into the circle of The Party, which the author has still not named. It is only the appearance of ‘The Leader’ or the ‘Old Man’ that tells us what we suspect, this is Oswald Mosley and The Party is the British Union of Fascists. Sarita does not appear much, but she is a key influence on Phyllis.
All is not well with the sisters, demonstrated by Connolly with concise words and a slight of hand. The three women have driven from Sussex to Buckinghamshire to visit their father who is in hospital after a fall, his future is uncertain as is that of their weak dependant mother. “Before they arrived at the hospital Patricia brought out her lipstick and compact and dabbed her nose with powder. Even from the back of her head Phyllis could tell that this small display of vanity was annoying to Nina. ‘Will I do?’ she asked Phyllis, turning her head. ‘No smudges?’ In actual fact she had applied the powder more thickly on one side of her nose, but Phyllis did not say so.”
The titular party is held by Sarita and Fergus Templeton. Sarita loves parties, Phyllis hasn’t been to one for years and Hugh, her husband, hates them. So a scene of conflict approaches, set amongst a background of Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists. Why is Phyllis in prison? Did she murder someone? One of her sisters? Her husband? Mosley?
This is not a thriller but there are obfuscations which are misleading, especially at the beginning, which affect the pace of the story and left the second half slower to read. Is the delay in mentioning Oswald Mosley intended to add tension, or because the author feared it may deter people from reading the novel? The light hand with which the British Union of Fascists is portrayed was difficult to read, partly because I never understood Phyllis’ motivation for joining The Party. She seems to drift into it, but could she really be that naïve? Much better I think to address it head-on rather than have Phyllis refer to ugly incidents in passing.
I expected to enjoy After the Party more than I did. Perhaps the time was so vile that writing about it in an entertaining way is impossible. The novel is awkward but perhaps that reflects the character of Phyllis, as she is our narrator. It does make you think ‘what would I have done if I was her?’ The ending, though is an anti-climax, given the stakes were raised so high on the second page. “Had it not been for my weakness, someone who is now dead could still be alive. This is what I believed and consequently lived with every day in prison.”
A thought-provoking novel.

If you like this, try:-
‘Wigs on the Green’ by Nancy Mitford
‘Corpus’ by Rory Clements
‘Our Friends in Berlin’ by Anthony Quinn

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#BookReview ‘The House Across the Street’ by Lesley Pearse @LesleyPearse #historical #mystery

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This is the first book I have read by Lesley Pearse. The House Across the Street is a slow build as Pearse takes time to build the characters and the Sixties setting. This is a difficult book to describe: part-mystery, part-romance, part-thriller. The house of the title is in Bexhill-on-Sea. Twenty-three year old Katy Speed is fascinated by Gloria, her fashionable neighbour, who owns a dress shop in town. Katy is also fascinated by some odd comings and goings; a black car arrives, bringing women and sometimes children to the house. Katy’s mother Hilda disapproves of Gloria, thinking there may be something illegal going on. Then one night Gloria’s house burns down and Katy’s father Albert is arrested for murder. It is at this point that the story really takes off.
The 1965 setting is well portrayed. It is a time of social change. Katy and her friend Jilly dream of escaping boring Bexhill to live and work in London. Hilda is something of a mystery; moody, cold, traditional. Mother and daughter mirror the changing times and sexual freedoms of the time. The backbone of the story is domestic violence and the lack of help available for victims in the Sixties. The House Across the Street is a novel sympathetic to the Sixties, showing the transition after World War Two as the older generation shaped by their war experiences clash with their children who want to grab their new freedoms. Pearse contrasts the awkward marriage of Hilda and Albert, and Katy’s new friendship with a barrister at her new job, to demonstrate the changing lives of women. Katy has more opportunities than her mother, but the laws protecting women remain inadequate. At the heart of the novel lays brutality but also kindness and a sense of justice.
The second half of the book flew by as Pearse expertly handles the increasing intrigue.

Here’s my review of YOU’LL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN, also by Lesley Pearse.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Beekeeper’s Daughter’ by Santa Montefiore
‘Beside Myself’ by Ann Morgan
‘Good Me Bad Me’ by Ali Land

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#BookReview ‘Amy Snow’ by Tracy Rees @AuthorTracyRees #historical

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When eight-year old Aurelia Vennaway runs outside to play in the snow on a January day in 1831, she finds a baby, blue, abandoned and barely alive. She takes the baby home and, despite opposition from her parents, demands they keep the baby. Aurelia really is that precocious. She names the baby Amy. Amy Snow by Tracy Rees is about two lost girls, each lost in different ways who through their friendship find strength to face the lot given to them by life at a time when women had few individual rights. This is the story of a secret, well-hidden and unveiled by a series of letters. The two girls grow up together. Aurelia lives a privileged life and Amy stays on in the large house, first as a servant and then companion to her friend. She is treated harshly by Aurelia’s parents, but is looked after by Cook and under-gardener Robin. The two girls support each other as they grow up. Amy gains an education and learns how to be a lady, but when Aurelia faints, a weak heart is diagnosed. When Aurelia dies in her early twenties, Amy is thrown out of the house where she was discovered in the snow. ‘Staying here where you were not welcome. Schemer! Vagabond! Baseborn!’ shouts Lord Vennaway.
But Aurelia has not abandoned Amy. In a package entrusted to the keeping of the local schoolteacher and given to her after the funeral, Any finds money, a green silk stole and a letter. It is the first of many. In a recreation of the treasure trails she invented for her young friend when they were children, Amy must now follow Aurelia’s trail of clues. The subterfuge is necessary, Aurelia insists in her first letter, but does not explain why. So Amy travels to London and looks for a mysterious bookshop, trying to second-guess Aurelia’s clues, unsure where the path will lead, knowing only she must find the next letter. What is the secret Aurelia is protecting and why can’t she confide in Amy while she is alive? Each letter apologises for giving no answers. The trail takes Amy from London to Twickenham, Bath and York. The nature of the secret becomes obvious well before Amy realizes it, but this doesn’t stop the urge to read to the end.
There is some lovely description of the houses and the fashions of the time, and I particularly liked Ariadne Riverthorpe who was much more than she seemed. In contrast the family in Twickenham, the Wisters, are idealised. As the story progressed, the letter device came to see rather false. Also, given the title of the book, I expected the main narrative to be about Amy’s origins so when these are briefly explained at the end, it seems like a bit of an afterthought.

Click the title below to read my reviews of other novels by Tracy Rees:-
DARLING BLUE
THE ELOPEMENT
THE HOUSE AT SILVERMOOR
THE ROSE GARDEN

If you like this, try:-
‘After Leaving Mr Mackenzie’ by Jean Rhys
‘Angel’ by Elizabeth Taylor
‘The Distant Hours’ by Kate Morton

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#BookReview ‘Dark Fire’ by CJ Sansom #Tudor #detective

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Dark Fire by CJ Sansom is a story of political intrigue, whodunit and a Tudor weapon of mass destruction. Second in the series about Tudor lawyer Matthew Shardlake, Dark Fire combines two criminal mysteries; the appearance and subsequent disappearance of the alchemical formula to make an ancient terrifying weapon, and the impending trial and expected sentencing of a young woman to death by pressing. Despite a tenuous connection between the two cases, and a somewhat meandering pace at times, I enjoyed this book for its further development of Shardlake, first seen in Dissolution. It is 1540, King Henry VIII wishes to anul his marriage to Anne of Cleves, recommended to him by Thomas Cromwell, and marry instead the teenager Catherine Howard. At the beginning of the book Cromwell’s relationship with Henry is weakening and this imposes time pressure on both the novel and on Shardlake. As the novel opens, the lawyer is defending Elizabeth Wentworth, a teenage girl accused by her family of killing her cousin by pushing him down a well. She languishes in the Hole in the cellars of Newgate Prison and refuses to speak. Shardlake, though convinced of her innocence, despairs of being able to help her.
The alchemical formula for Greek Fire, the legendary substance with which the Byzantines destroyed the Arab navies, has been lost for centuries but is discovered in the library of a closed monastery in London by a government official. Cromwell decides to present it to the king as a demonstration of his fealty. He charges Shardlake with finding the Greek Fire within two weeks; to ease this he instructs the postponement of Elizabeth’s case for two weeks. As in Dissolution, Shardlake is once again living every minute under threat of Cromwell’s demands and bad temper. When Shardlake tracks down the official and his alchemist brother, he is too late; both men are dead and the formula is missing. So starts a chase across London.
As always with Sansom, the historical setting is convincingly written with vivid descriptions of the lives of rich and poor, the divisions between them and the melting pot that is the City and its surroundings in Tudor London. As this is the second book of the series, the community around Shardlake is becoming clearer and we see a small group of people who are different. Shardlake with his hunched back; Brother Guy, Moor and apothecary, who is stared at on the streets because of the colour of his skin; Jack Barak, Cromwell’s assistant who is sent to work with Shardlake, is threatened because of his Jewish heritage. Shardlake seems a modern interpretation of a sixteenth century lawyer; he has enlightened views of both race and the role of women, and is becoming disillusioned with religion. These loyalties and views potentially cause trouble for him, adding to the vulnerability that makes him appealing.
A pleasure to read, I am hooked on this series.

And here are my reviews of other novels by CJ Sansom:-
DOMINION
DISSOLUTION #1SHARDLAKE
SOVEREIGN #3SHARDLAKE
REVELATION #4SHARDLAKE
HEARTSTONE #5SHARDLAKE
LAMENTATION #6SHARDLAKE
TOMBLAND #7SHARDLAKE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Western Wind’ by Samantha Harvey
‘The Wicked Cometh’ by Laura Carlin
‘The French Lesson’ by Hallie Rubenhold

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#BookReview ‘The Rich Pay Late’ by Simon Raven #historical

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It is the eve of the Suez crisis in the Fifties. Written in the Sixties with the benefit of hindsight of this political crisis, The Rich Pay Late by Simon Raven has a modern tone applicable to today’s culture. Greed, disloyalty, snobbishness are common. First of the ten novels in Raven’s ‘Alms for Oblivion’ series, in which a Dickensian cast of characters overlap with each other’s lives, each book is a self-contained story from the end of the Second World War to 1973.The Rich Pay Late opens as Donald Salinger and Jude Holbrook, co-owners of an advertising agency, discuss the purchase of a financial magazine, Strix. Jude is ambitious but without money, Donald has the cash but is cautious. And so starts the combined theme of gambling/business/love in which everyone is for himself and taking calculated risks is a way of life. Structurally, it is an ensemble story rather than concentrating on one central character; Raven introduces characters with short glimpses, some of one paragraph, of people who start off separate from Donald and Jude until their entwined lives are revealed. Not one character is superfluous.
This is a short novel of 250 pages, but intense. Slow, rich, satirical, it portrays a depressing and bleak take on human nature. The blurred story builds and builds as the appalling characters become real; at times a little dry, I persevered and am pleased I did as the pace of the final third was quicker.
The narrative centres around the sale of Strix and subsequently on a political scandal about Strix’s new board member, Peter Morrison MP. When the magazine’s owner receives the offer to buy his company, Morrison’s vote takes on additional importance. But is he a benefit or a liability?
A tale of politics, media, love affairs and betrayal between a network of upper and upper-middle class men and women with names like Vanessa, Somerset and Jude. In places, the dark humour reminds me of Nancy Mitford’s later novels. There is some discussion amongst reviewers about the correct order in which to read the series, I’m sticking with Raven’s order. Written fourth, he placed this first in his series.

And here’s my review of the next book in the same series:-
FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES #2ALMSFOROBLIVION

If you like this, try:-
‘Freya’ by Anthony Quinn
‘Wigs on the Green’ by Nancy Mitford
‘Hangover Square’ by Patrick Hamilton

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#BookReview ‘A Wreath of Roses’ by Elizabeth Taylor #historical

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There are some novels that you want to start read again as soon as you’ve finished it. To appreciate the finer details, unravel sub-text, and simply to admire. A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor had that effect on me.

It is described in reviews as ‘her darkest novel’. What fascinated me was the inter-play between the three key female characters, how they see each other, and themselves, how they behave individually and together. Multiple contradictions complicated by self-delusions and self-awareness. I don’t mean to seem cryptic. The story is simple, as is often the way with Taylor.
In that period after the Second World war when life begins to look normal, the undercurrents of the war experience are everywhere. Camilla and Liz are staying with Frances, Liz’s former governess, for their annual summer holiday. It is a habit forged by years with happy memories of podding peas and sharing stories. Except this year is different. Liz is now married and has brought her baby, Harry. Frances, an artist, is now painting dark tortured pictures rather than feminine florals and portraits. And Camilla has a shocking experience on her journey to stay with Frances; she witnesses a suicide at a train station that makes her melancholy, lonely and inadequate. She looks at herself in the dressing table mirror, ‘Her flesh was golden as an apricot; her hair, in contrast, looked tarnished and harshly bright.’
Taylor inserts three male characters as wedges into the cosiness of the three women. Camilla resents Arthur, Liz’s husband, for taking her friend away. Richard Elton, who with Camilla is there when the suicide happens, is staying at a pub in the village. Camilla feels sorry for him and at the same time attracted to him and will not listen to Liz’s instinctive uneasiness about him. Morland Beddoes is a collector of Frances’ work, he arrives in the village and stays at the same pub as Elton; he too feels uneasy about the man’s motivations. A friendly sort who finds himself the recipient of peoples’ woes, ‘Morland Beddoes was not in the last self-infatuated. He loved himself only as much as self-respect required, and the reason why he saw himself so clearly was that he looked not often, but suddenly, so catching himself unawares.’
This is a dark novel, but not in today’s meaning of psychological thriller. It is a study of ageing, friendship, the power of sexual tension, and it is sublimely written.

Read my reviews of other books by Elizabeth Taylor:-
A VIEW OF THE HARBOUR
ANGEL
AT MRS LIPPINCOTE’S
IN A SUMMER SEASON
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

If you like this, try:-
‘All My Puny Sorrows’ by Miriam Toews
‘We Are Water’ by Wally Lamb
‘All the Birds, Singing’ by Evie Wyld

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SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS

Sharing thoughts on the books I read, new authors, favourite authors, classics re-visisted

Tag Archives: historical fiction

#BookReview ‘The Warlow Experiment’ by Alix Nathan #historical

#BookReview ‘Pattern of Shadows’ by Judith Barrow #historical #WW2

#BookReview ‘The Invitation’ by Lucy Foley #romance #historical

#BookReview ‘The Convenient Marriage’ by Georgette Heyer #Regency #Romance

#BookReview ‘After the Party’ by Cressida Connolly #historical #Thirties

#BookReview ‘The House Across the Street’ by Lesley Pearse @LesleyPearse #historical #mystery

#BookReview ‘Amy Snow’ by Tracy Rees @AuthorTracyRees #historical

#BookReview ‘Dark Fire’ by CJ Sansom #Tudor #detective

#BookReview ‘The Rich Pay Late’ by Simon Raven #historical

#BookReview ‘A Wreath of Roses’ by Elizabeth Taylor #historical

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