The Masqueraders

I love Georgette Heyer's light historical novels. I try to limit myself to re-reading one per month, then they last a few years and when I've finished I can start over. I hadn't read this one for a long time and although I recalled the key plot points, there was a lot I had forgotten.

This wasn't one of my favourites when I first read it; I even noted in the front of the book that it was slow to get started. I suppose it was, but I very much enjoyed it when reading it this week. The slow start didn't matter too much as I knew roughly what was coming.

Oh, the plot... a bit difficult to say much without spoilers. But basically a brother and sister are involved in an incredible masquerade. They take London by storm, confusing many people. This book isn't in Heyer's usual Regency period, but in the time just following the Jacobite rebellion, so there are mentions of the tragedy of Culloden, albeit brief, and the horrors of executions. Perhaps that makes it slightly more thought-provoking than some of this author's books.

On the other hand, there are some delightful caricatured people, most of all the amazingly vain - but utterly charming - father of the two main characters. He's lived an adventurer's life, and likes events to be convulted and as complex as possible. His talk is so outrageous I found it very amusing.

There's romance too - as ever - and very likeable main characters who are quite distinct and very believable.

All in all, a good book. Some of the slang and other language used may seem archaic, but it's not necessary to understand every word to enjoy a great story. Recommended.

Persuasion

When I want to read something gentle, that's not too gripping and will last me at least a few days, I occasionally turn to Jane Austen. Not that I can do so very often as only six of her novels were published, but I enjoy them when I do. Most of them, anyway... my least favourite is 'Emma'. And the one I usually forget about is the one I read in the last week, whose main character is the persuadable Anne Elliot. Anne is the middle daughter of three: the oldest, like their father, is rather snobbish and cares about society. The youngest, Mary, is married but is consumed with alternate envy for everyone else, and extreme hypochondria.

As with all this author's novels, it's a social satire with a lot of ironical conversations that build character brilliantly. Naturally there are caricatures, but Anne seems a believable person whom I can empathise with quite well. She wants to make everyone happy and avoid conflict wherever possible, but inevitably this isn't possible. By shallower people she's seen as rather meek and timid without much personality, but she has depths of character which show when she is needed. She understands the way other people think, even when she does not agree with them, and she's always there in a crisis.

Anne turned down a marriage proposal some years ago, we learn, after being persuaded by her relatives to do so, but she still has regrets for Captain Wentworth. Inevitably he returns to the scene along with several newcomers, and the book has some low-key romances, although it's not obvious until near the end what Anne's future will be.

I didn't find it as amusing as 'Northanger Abbey', or as clever as 'Pride and Prejudice', but I still enjoyed it a great deal more than 'Emma'. Recommended to anyone who likes the historical background, the slow pace and copes with the sometimes archaic language of Austen's works.

Village Secrets

Having been both entertained and annoyed by one of Rebecca Shaw's village novels (see previous review) I discovered another on my shelves which I bought at a charity shop a while ago, but had not read. So I thought I'd try it while the characters were still fairly fresh in my mind.

This one - fifth in the Turnham Malpas series - is rather more dramatic than the previous ones. Much of the plot concerns Kate (Ms Pascoe), the new tree-hugging vegan New Age headmistress of the village school. Clearly she's up to no good and tragedy strikes with shocking effect in places. Meanwhile village life goes on amongst the increasingly large cast.

The conversations and character development were no better than in previous novels, and I was a bit disappointed with the caricature and melodrama that surrounds Kate and her new friends. A lot of assumptions are made about New Age people, and when Peter - the Rector - stands up for Christianity, his faith is very watered down. Not that I like fiction with evangelistic fervour and verbatim repentance prayers, but this goes rather in the opposite direction with too little said.

Moreover, people seem to change without much warming. While that might reflect real life, it doesn't really work in a novel.

Still, I found this quite gripping in places and could hardly put it down.

Village Matters

I have mixed reactions to Rebecca Shaw's novels. I read some reviews on Amazon UK recently: some rated her books very highly, saying they were exciting and believable; others rated her low, saying the books were badly-written without much character development.

I agree with both points of view! When I'm reading one of her books I find them both annoying and interesting at the same time. I determine never to buy any of them new, yet when I see another one at a second-hand or charity shop, I snap it up.

This particular book is third in the 'village' series about a fictional place in England called Turnham Malpas. It features the daily lives and problems of a fairly large cast, who are listed in the front of the book, and there's even a map showing where they all live. This particular novel focuses quite a bit on Craddock Fitch, the 'nouveau riche' (but rather brash) owner of the Big House. But we also catch up on the lives of Peter (the Rector) and his wife Caroline, and many others.

It's annoying because it's written informally, so that not just the speech but some of the writing doesn't flow well. There are frequently repeated slang or cliché phrases which I've never come across before (such as ending sentences with, '.. and not half!') and strange dialect spellings such as mi for my, which didn't read easily. There are also lengthy and boring conversations which might be realistic, but don't need to be written.

Moreover the characters are fairly flat: distinguishable by their jobs and families, but requiring frequent reference to the list in the front. They're not necessarily consistent, either. And while there are many subplots, it's hard to keep track of what the book is really about.

It occurs to me that it's like a TV soap, in a way. Or at least, the whole series is. I've read a few others, so I do have a sense of familiarity with the characters, and a slightly surprising interest in their lives. I will probably continue to find second-hand copies of the rest of the series (I believe there are eight or ten altogether) and yet will be irritated by the lack of style in the writing.

Not really recommended, other than for those who enjoyed the earlier books in the series. If you're intrigued, start with 'The New Rector' which is the first.

The Apple of His Eye (by Bridget Plass)

This is a devotional book by Bridget Plass, wife of the well-known humorous Christian author Adrian. (A problem with being the wife of a more famous writer is that there don't seem to be any sites which focus purely on Bridget - the above link is to one about this book, the best I could manage).

It's a six-week focus on how much God loves us. It's designed as a Lenten devotional, beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter Sunday; however I read it for the past six weeks, ending today. It was a good book to take on our recent trip to the UK, and I was glad I did. I actually bought this a few years ago but never really got into it: probably because it's not designed to be read in one sitting, but one section at a time over a month and a half.

The Bible passages are short, the commentary not much longer but full of wisdom and insight. There are a few anecdotes, some of them quite moving, and lots of the author's thoughts and ideas. Through it all comes the over-riding awareness that God really does love us, culminating of course in the ultimate act of love on Good Friday around 2000 years ago.

Highly recommended.

(I've written a longer review of The Apple of His Eye here on re-reading it during Lent of 2008)

Ballet Shoes for Anna

I like dipping into children's books from time to time, to contrast with longer or deeper adult fiction, or just for a couple of hours of light relaxation. One of my favourite children's authors is Noel Streatfeild. She's probably best known for her book 'Ballet Shoes', but wrote a large number of other books revolving around children, many of them gifted in some way artistically.

This particular book is about three children - Francesco, Gussie and Anna - who lived a travelling life in Eastern countries with their artist father and Polish mother. Their grandfather was a renowned ballet master in Russia, living in Turkey at the start of the story, and convinced that Anna (aged eight) had the talent to be a professional ballet danccer.

Disaster strikes within a couple of chapters, and the three children are taken to England to live with The Uncle, who disapproves of dancing. The book revolves around their gradual adaptation to British life, to their culture clashes and new friends, and also Anna's persistence in needing to find ballet classes and a teacher who will take her seriously.

As ever with this author's work, the children are delightful - a mixture of good and bad, responsible and irresponsible - and the adults rather caricatured. But that's not a bad thing in a book intended for this agegroup. The story moves along rapidly and I enjoyed it very much. I first read it in January 1988 apparently, not when I was a child, so I had forgotten most of it when I re-read it yesterday and today.

I had noted in the front of the book that it had an abrupt ending, and I found this to be true... it's really my only criticism of the book. There are some dramatic events in the last couple of chapters, then suddenly all problems are solved in a 'deus ex machina' way in about two pages. It didn't feel as if it fit with the rest of the book.

But other than that, it's excellent - and a little more thought-provoking than others by this author.

The Shrouded Walls

Susan Howatch is one of my favourite modern authors - in quite a different vein from the family saga novels, which I also enjoy. She has a fairly terse style without too many adjectives, and yet builds up realistic and sympathetic characters.

In this, one of her early 'gothic' novels, she uses - as she often does - a first person narrative to get inside the mind of the main character. This is a 17-year-old girl, who has been orphaned at the start of the book. She has a twin (Alexander) but is clearly the stronger of the two. The book is set in the 18th century, when an impoverished orphaned young lady would almost certainly have to be either a governess or possibly a housekeeper/companion. However fortune smiles on this young lady (her name, according to the blurb on the back, is Marianne - but it's barely mentioned in the book) when a gentleman she has never previously met proposes a marriage of convenience, for the benefit of them both. She accepts, and is then drawn into mysterious surroundings and a worrying puzzle: her new husband's father was murdered some years previously, but it seems that any of the household, including her husband, could have been responsible.

So it's something of a thriller, almost in Mary Stewart's genre although without fast chases or exotic settings. It's also a kind of whodunnit, as Marianne gradually pieces together the clues, talking to various people in the household and putting her thoughts and discoveries on paper as she writes to her brother. Naturally the puzzle is eventually solved, and everything tidied up, but not without a few shocks of the gothic style.

It's quite a good book; towards the end it became gripping as I felt more and more drawn into the story. On the other hand, it doesn't feel really authentically 18th century. The research is fine; I can't fault the daily routine or the way people dressed or travelled. On the other hand, the conversation and general descriptions sound like those of 20th century people: they don't have the older style inflexions or styles of speech that the better historical authors use so readily.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it as a bit of escapism. It's not a long book (under 200 pages) and the gothic horror bits aren't unpleasantly gory. If I weren't a huge fan of the author's Church of England series I doubt if I'd keep this for future reading, but since I have all her other work, it'll stay as part of my collection.

Chocolat

It's taken me a few years to get around to reading this novel by Joanne Harris. I had read quite a few reviews, all of them enthusiastic, calling the book a modern fairy-tale, or a delightful romp, or even suggesting it was one of the best books ever written. But somehow, despite the alluring title, I wasn't keen enough to buy it new, so had to wait until I found it in a charity shop.

It's not a long novel (just over 300 pages in paperback) but it's taken me about a week to read it. That's a good thing, in that I haven't found it gripping or un-put-down-able, but it means I don't class it as one of the best books ever. It was pleasant, well-written, and a bit different to most modern books - but having finished it, I'm not sure entirely why the world raved over it.

The story is about Vianne Rocher, a single mother with a six-year-old daughter. They've been travelling, but decide to settle down in a small town in France. Vianne opens a chocolate shop, and gradually makes friends - and also enemies. She particularly arouses the ire of the local priest, a parsimonious and rather unpleasant man. In many ways she's the catalyst for changes in this ultra-traditional town: she asks questions, challenges people's ideas, and generally tries to make life pleasant for them.

There's a strange sort of mystical element running through the book; initially I wondered if there was going to be some unexpected secret (was Vianne a witch? An angel? An extra-terrestrial?) but as the book continued, I realised that it was just that her personality and life experience were in contrast to those of the people around her. Still, she perceives more than is there - spotting people's deep problems, seeing their thoughts - and although this is explained partly in terms of reading tarot cards and scrying in chocolate, I wanted there to be something more, yet that thread almost faded away.

So, all in all, an interesting book; worth reading, yet not gripping. The ending was dramatic in various ways, and mostly satisfactory, although it left the future somewhat open. I'll probably try reading more by this author, and may even re-read this book again one day.

Mr Galliano's Circus (by Enid Blyton0

Another Enid Blyton book was lying on the sofa in the study, so I picked it up in an idle moment... it only took about an hour and a half to read it, and I enjoyed it almost as much as I did as a child.

Mr Galliano's Circus has a slightly unlikely plot scenario at the beginning. Jimmy's Brown's father, a carpenter, is out of work. Jimmy - who, I suppose, is about ten - loves animals, and spends most of his after-school hours hanging out in a circus ground, helping where he can. When the odd-job man disappears, Jimmy's father is offered a week's work, and then invited with his family to join the circus full-time. It takes them a day to sort out their house and furniture, and set off.... leaving me (as an adult) wondering about house leases and neighbours and de-registering from school and utility bills... however, as a child these concerns didn't bother me.

Then most of the book is about life in the circus as the Browns settle in and make friends. I found myself sympathising rather more with Mrs Brown than I did as a child, having to struggle to cook and clean in a tiny caravan and deal with a life quite different from anything she had ever experienced before. Of course she copes magnificently, as the best of parents do in children's stories, and there's only a little hint of snobbery in her insistence on cleanliness and education!

Naturally Jimmy hits problems, has to solve dilemmas, and is always vindicated in the end. There are some positive moral lessons interwoven in the book - about being kind, and not letting obstacles get in the way, and so on.

All good stuff, and in my view one of the better-written of Enid Blyton's books. There are two sequels in the same vein. Not currently in print in either the UK or USA, but they've been re-printed frequently and are often available second-hand.