Love your life (by Sophie Kinsella)

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I’ve been reading novels by the late Sophie Kinsella for over a decade now.  For too long I ignored her writing as ‘chick-lit’, but when I was eventually persuaded to try one, I was very pleasantly surprised. She was an excellent writer, with ironic humour and interesting people. Exaggerated, perhaps, but not caricatured, or not overly so.  And her stories are quite moving, too. 

I picked up ‘Love your life’ at a church book stall towards the end of 2024, and have only just read it. It didn’t take me very long - these books are always easy to read, and I had more time available than usual. 

The main character, who narrates in the first person, is a young woman called Ava. And when we first meet her, she’s musing about a recent date she had with someone she didn’t much like. Then we see her handing her dog Harold over to her friend Nell, as she’s about to embark on a holiday in Italy. Clearly Ava is very attached to Harold. 

Beyond ourselves (by Catherine Marshall)

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It’s over ten years since I last read Catherine Marshall’s thoughtful, semi-biographical book ‘Beyond ourselves’. She is the author of the better-known ‘A man called Peter’, describing her marriage to the outgoing, driven preacher to whom she was married until his early death.  She also wrote some Christian novels. 

‘Beyond ourselves’ was written some years later, in 1961. By this time the author had remarried, to a widower called Len who had three children of his own. Peter and Catherine only had one son, so although she was a bit overwhelmed by having three extra offspring, it evidently worked well for them all. But for a while her writing had to take second place.

This book recounts Catherine’s experiences as she learns to grow closer to God, and to listen for his voice. It doesn’t sound like something that would take up a whole book - and it’s not a short volume. But for her it was a lifelong adventure. 

A leader in the Chalet School (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

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It’s nearly ten years since I last read ‘A leader in the Chalet School’, one of the later books in Elinor M Brent-Dyer’s lengthy series. I had vaguely remembered that Len Maynard emerges as a leader, but nothing else. 

Jack Lambert is a new girl in this, aged eleven. Her sister Anne is also new, but Anne is quiet and conforms with others, so we don’t see much of her. Jack (whose real name is Jacynth, but she loathes it) is much more interesting. She’s outspoken, she’s mischievous, and she’s something of a tomboy. She is thrilled to be at the Chalet School, and - to start with, at any rate - works hard and makes some friends. 

But Jack is easily bored. When the girls are stuck inside due to bad weather, or when others are reading or playing quiet games, she decides to be independent. And more than once she plays a practical joke which doesn’t turn out too well. But Jack is truthful, and always owns up to her sins.

Brief shining (by Kathleen Rowntree)

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When I started rereading my collection of novels by Kathleen Rowntree, I was certain that each one stood alone, without any overlap of characters. Nevertheless, I thought I might as well read them in order of publication, rather than the order in which I previously read them as I acquired each one.

It’s nearly eighteen years since I first read ‘Brief shining’, so I wasn’t surprised that I had entirely forgotten the story and the people involved. But what surprised me even more is that the author used names which she had used in ‘The quiet war of Rebecca Sheldon’, which I reread in January. Then it struck me: ‘Brief shining’ is a sequel. It does stand alone - I had no idea of this when I first read it - but it continues the lives of several of the characters from that book. I had felt when I finished ‘The quiet war…’ that some of the threads felt unfinished. So it’s good to know that they did continue, even though it’s set some years later.

Sally is the main character in this book, however. She’s eight years old at the beginning, and adores her family’s summer holidays at her grandparents’  home. Her grandfather, George, is approaching seventy but is active and mostly very kind. Her grandmother Rebecca has somewhat retreated from life due to a heart condition, and mostly stays in her room. Their unmarried daughter Bunny looks after them, and rather rules the roost. 

Appleby Farm (by Cathy Bramley)

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I’ve been reading books by Cathy Bramley for a few years now, and have liked them all. So I added a couple more to my wishlist last year, and was given ‘Appleby Farm’ for Christmas. I picked it up to read a few days ago, and was quickly engrossed.

Freya is the main protagonist. The story is told from her perspective, in the first person. We first meet her working in a café, training a new employee. We quickly learn that she’s been helping out a friend who had been injured, and that this is temporary. But she isn’t really sure what she wants from life. She’s in her late twenties, but hasn’t yet settled into anything long-term. 

Out of the blue, Freya gets a phone call from her aunt, saying that her uncle has fallen from his tractor and they wonder if she could come to help out for a few days. She drops everything to travel to the Lake District, to Appleby Farm. She loves the place. She spent more time with her aunt and uncle there when she was growing up than she did with her parents.