Anne of Windy Willows (by Lucy Maud Montgomery)

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Although I have dipped into many of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s ‘Anne’ books fairly regularly over the past few decades, it must be close to thirty years since I read ‘Anne of Windy Willows’. My only memory of it was that it involved rather a lot of letters, and in general I’m not a fan of epistolary novels.

However, I’m reading the series in order at present, about one per month. Since I finished the third book, ‘Anne of the Island’, at the end of July I decided to read the fourth one - which is also sometimes known as ‘Anne of Windy Poplars’ - in the past few days.

This book covers Anne’s three years as head of a school, working and saving money as she waits for her fiancé Gilbert to finish his medical training. And while there are several letters to Gilbert expressing Anne’s personal opinions and impressions, there’s also plenty of direct narrative.

To kill a mockingbird (by Harper Lee)

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I had to read Harper Lee’s classic novel ‘To kill a mockingbird’ when I was a teenager - I guess about fourteen. I don’t think I enjoyed it all that much. But I’m not sure I really understood it. The issues of segregation were completely new to me, in the UK in the 1970s, and I didn’t get why there was so much dialect even amongst the supposedly educated white people. 

I’ve had a copy of this book sitting on our shelves for the past thirty or so years, and kept thinking that maybe I should reread. But I only got around to doing so this week, and the reason is that the recently discovered sequel, ‘Go set a watchman’ is next month’s local reading club choice. I’m not quite sure how a sequel can have been written before the main book which shot the author to fame, but perhaps I’ll find out more when I read it.

In the meantime, I’ve been reading ‘To kill a mockingbird’ over the past few days. I knew, vaguely the story - that a white lawyer in a town in the deep south of the United States was defending a black man, accused of a crime. But I hadn’t remembered any of the details, nor the outcome. And I found it quite a gripping storyline.

Shopaholic and sister (by Sophie Kinsella)

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I’m thoroughly enjoying rereading the ‘Shopaholic’ series by the late Sophie Kinsella. Undoubtedly ‘chick-lit’, with a heroine who has almost nothing in common with me, lifestyle-wise. And yet the author managed to create, in Becky Brandon, a thoroughly likeable young woman despite her addiction to shopping and general self-centredness. She can also be extremely generous, and she cares deeply about her family and friends.

I finished ‘Shopaholic ties the knot’ last month, in which Sophie and Luke finally get married, after a lot of indecision and confusion, and potential disasters. I love the way that no matter how deep a hole Becky manages to dig for herself, there’s always some way out. Often something related to her personality or her previous professional skills.

Shopaholic and sister’ is the next in the series. I first read it in 2007, and as far as I recall it was the first novel by Sophie Kinsella that I had read. I didn’t expect much, but thought the writing style excellent and the story well-crafted. It didn’t matter that I started part-way through the series and collected the other books somewhat at random. 

Upper fourth at Malory Towers (by Enid Blyton)

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In the past few decades I’ve dipped somewhat randomly into Enid Blyton books from time to time, particularly the school stories. But this year I’ve been reading the Malory Towers books in order, at around one per month. I was surprised how much I enjoyed ‘Third year at Malory Towers’ in July; I’ve just finished (almost in one sitting) the fourth book, ‘Upper fourth at Malory Towers’, which I last read in 2015.

I’m familiar with most of the storylines, of course; I read these books almost every year when I was a teenager; but with more than ten years since my last read, I had forgotten a lot of the details.

This is the year when Darrell’s sister Felicity finally gets to go to Malory Towers. She’s been ill - we don’t know what the problem was - so her first term is the summer term, Darrell’s last in the upper fourth form. Darrell is very excited about showing her sister around, so feels a bit annoyed when Alicia’s young cousin June decides to take Felicity under her wing. 

Outside, looking in (by Kathleen Rowntree)

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I’m enjoying my gradual re-reading of Kathleen Rowntree’s novels. She only wrote nine, but each of them is quite distinct, with different settings and styles. I hadn’t read ‘Outside, looking in’ for twenty-five years, so it’s not surprising that I had entirely forgotten the people and the story.

This is a ‘village’ style novel, featuring some believable people and some caricatures. There is quite a large cast, and I never fully remembered who was whom amongst the more minor ones. But I did like Kate, who is one of the main characters. She’s only in her forties, but was widowed a year earlier after nursing her husband through a terminal illness. She works part-time as a teacher, and is mostly coping - at least on the surface. But she has a lot of fears, and is somewhat obsessive about checking the house for intruders every night. 

Just down the road from Kate lives Will, who was a close friend of Kate’s husband. Will’s wife Sylvie is suffering from early Alzheimer’s, and seems to be regressing. Will works from home, and has taken time off to look after his wife; but one day a week he has to travel or go to the office, and Kate takes over for that day. There are daily visits from nurses, too, but - so far - Kate has looked after Sylvie without problem.