Miss Garnet's angel (by Salley Vickers)

(Amazon UK link)

I had not heard of Salley Vickers until her book ‘Grandmothers’ was assigned for our local reading group nearly four years ago. I liked it very much, and put one of the author’s other books on my wishlist. I was given ‘Miss Garnet’s angel’ by a relative… for Christmas 2021. It’s taken me this long to decide to read it.

We meet Miss Julia Garnet shortly after her friend and flatmate Harriet died. Miss Garnet is an organised, staid kind of person who doesn’t really have any other friends. She is, we learn, a left-wing humanist. She must be in her sixties, as she has recently retired. And then, soon after Harriet’s death, her cat Stella disappears. 

Miss Garnet - and she’s referred to by this rather formal name for several chapters - decides she’s going to travel. She is able to rent out her flat quite easily, and, somewhat at random, picks on Venice as a place to visit. The author evidently knows the city well, or has done scrupulous research as the arrival in Venice is described in minute detail, with the scents, sounds and sights that greet Miss Garnet.

She is befriended by two outgoing (and evidently wealthy) Americans, and eventually reaches the small apartment which she has leased for six months. 

Interspersed with Miss Garnet’s story is the account from the biblical ‘apocryphal’ book Tobit. It tells of the young man Tobias (son of Tobit) who travels to a distant region accompanied by an unusual man and a dog. We’re told early on that the guardian is in fact an angel, but Tobias doesn’t learn this until the end of his journey. 

I quite liked the way that the story of Tobias was told, rather more readably than in the original, in short sections at the end of some of the chapters. Miss Garnet does read the story, after seeing paintings featuring Tobias and his companions on an old panel. She is also very taken by a statue of the angel Raphael. 

The book is essentially character-based. Miss Garnet becomes more adventurous, and tells people that her name is Julia. She even falls a little in love, and befriends some young people, too. It’s not entirely clear who she can trust, and there are some revelations that I really wasn’t expecting. I liked the way that she expands her somewhat limited belief system, deciding that perhaps there is something more than what she can sense. She’s in the midst of devout Catholics, and becomes friendly with a priest. 

There’s also a fair bit of story related to restoration of ancient churches and the discovery of long-hidden artwork. But I didn’t find those sections all that interesting and found my mind wandering somewhat in those sections. It’s not a short book - nearly 350 pages in paperback - and I didn’t find myself eager to sit down and read at every moment, as happens with some books.

I very much liked the way that this is about a retired single lady, rather than someone much younger. Having said that, Miss Garnet must have been around my age, but her 'feel' is considerably older. I did like the way that she enlarges her horizons and tries out new things after so many years of being somewhat stuck in a rut.  The ending, however, is bittersweet; I didn’t particularly like it, but it made the book come to a tidy end. Perhaps it’s the only way it could have finished. 

I’m glad I read it; the author has an excellent style, and brings people and places to life. But it’s not a story that’s likely to stay with me, and I doubt if I’ll read it again. It might well inspire some people to travel or be adventurous in other ways, and I think it’s worth reading if you like gentle women’s fiction with not a great deal of plot. But it's unlikely to appeal to anyone under the age of about fifty. 

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