Greek wedding (by Jane Aiken Hodge)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly twenty years since I read Jane Aiken Hodge’s historical novel ‘Greek wedding’. Unsurprisingly, I had entirely forgotten what it was about, and all the characters involved. It’s set in the 1820s, during the Greek war of independence, something I knew very little about.

Phyllida is the heroine of this novel, and we first meet her when she and her aunt Cressida are making a desperate escape from a Sultan’s harem in Constantinople. They plead to be taken about the ship Helena, which is owned by the grumpy Brett Renshaw. Indeed, Brett is not just irritable, but very depressed, and considering ending everything. 

The two women are rescued, though Brett is not happy about it, and they soon learn that Helena was supposed to have been his honeymoon ship. But when he learned that he was not to be a Duke, due to a baby being born to his uncle, she jilted him - or, rather, made him appear to jilt her. It’s not surprising that he’s unhappy.

Phyllida (who is American) explains that she was sailing with her father’s ship, hoping to find her brother Peter who had run away from home and joined the Greek army. They had not heard from him in a long time, and feared the worst. Then their ship was attacked by Turks, and their father killed, while she and her aunt were taken to the harem. 

Brett and Phyllida are befriended by a young Greek man called Alexandros who is charming on the surface, and says he knows Peter well. He taught Peter Greek, and Peter taught him English, and they are like brothers. 

Alex is eager to find out where Peter is, too, and is able to get messages to and from him sometimes. Alex is also helpful in turning away pirates - a huge problem in the district - and helping them to find safe mooring spots. And he’s clearly quite enamoured of Phyllida, who, in turn, is flattered at his attention.

Brett’s sister Jenny appears part-way through the book; she’s very young, but has also run away from home, and is travelling on a ‘packet’ ship. She’s kind and caring, and quite canny too; she quickly adopts Cassandra as an aunt, and even permits her to continue her education, which is - so far - very sparse.

Much of the story involves skirmishes - and worse - between Turks and Greeks, and sometimes internal ones. Both sides can be brutal, and nobody quite knows who can be trusted. I didn’t follow all the politics, or the places, or the battles. I recognised the names of some historical characters (such as Lord Byron, who was leading a Greek army and was killed shortly before the story begins). But the writing is clever enough that, at least to me, I couldn’t tell where the boundaries were between fact and fiction.

I skimmed some of the war scenes, and the political discussions; it didn’t seem to matter for the plot, other than that the ships were sometimes forced to move harbour, and the women sometimes had to take houses in safe places. I liked the three women very much; they’re all independent and sometimes outspoken, but Cassandra - who never married - is diplomatic too, and generous. Phyllida is more of a risk-taker, and sometimes speaks when she should be silent, and Jenny is kind, and wise for her years.

I can’t say I liked any of the men very much, although I could see the outcome of the story almost from the beginning. It’s nicely done, though, with plenty of detours from the inevitable romance. There’s quite an exciting journey over land towards the end of the book, which I found difficult to put down once I was around half way through. 

Not my favourite of this author’s books, but a good read which feels authentic. Recommended particularly for those who like more history and less romance in this kind of novel. 

As with this author's other books, it's long out of print, but can sometimes be found second-hand. However, it is available in Kindle format.  

Review copyright 2026 Sue's Book Reviews

Anatomy of a scandal (by Sarah Vaughan)

(Amazon UK link)

I hadn’t previously read anything by Sarah Vaughan. And I very much doubt if I would have picked up her novel ‘Anatomy of a scandal’ if I had seen it on a stall; the cover is mainly black and it looks like a thriller. Really not my favourite genre. However, it was allocated for this month’s local reading group, and I was able to find it from ‘World of Books’ last year. I didn’t start reading it until a few days ago, but it wasn’t difficult to finish it in just three days despite it being nearly 400 pages.

The chapters are mostly short, each one head by the name of the viewpoint character and the date in which the chapter is set. This is helpful, as the timeline switches to the past fairly often, as the story unfolds. It opens in the ‘present’ of the novel, 2nd December 2016. Kate is the viewpoint character here; she’s a barrister who has just lost a case. 

We see her surroundings, feel her frustration. And she makes it clear that her wig and gown help her into the role that she plays in court. She tries only to prosecute when she’s pretty sure the defendant is guilty, but she knows that the system isn’t perfect: that what matters more than truth is the way it’s painted by the lawyers.

The Chalet School triplets (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

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It’s only nine years since I last read ‘The Chalet School triplets’, one of the later volumes in the lengthy series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. It's book 49 in the original list. But it’s not one I reread regularly when I was younger, and I found that I hadn’t recalled any of the story-lines.  

The last time I read this, I only had the Armada paperback edition. It was supposedly only shortened in minor ways, but ‘frequently’.  So I was very pleased when I was able to acquire a Girls Gone By edition in the intervening years, containing the full original text, with the bonus of a relevant short story at the end.

This book focuses on Joey Maynard’s oldest offspring, her triplets, who are now approaching sixteen. They are some of my favourite characters in the book, and I find them all three-dimensional and believable. They look quite different: Len is tall, slim and auburn, Con is shorter, with very dark hair, and even more slim. Margot has curly red hair, and is slightly more stocky, though there’s a discrepancy in the book making it uncertain whether she’s a little shorter than Len, or a little taller. It doesn’t matter: minor mistakes like these are common in these books. Somehow, they add to the charm. 

The Barnabas factor (by Derek Wood)

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It’s over twenty years since I read ‘The Barnabas factor’ by Derek Wood. It’s not a long book - not much more than 150 pages in my paperback edition - and I recalled finding it interesting and somewhat inspiring. The subtitle is ‘the power of encouragement’. 

I hadn’t remembered anything about the style or focus of the book, and was pleased to find that it’s quite a light-weight read, although the relaxed style doesn’t mean that the content itself is trivial. Far from it. The main principle is that people need to be encouraged. The focus is on the church, with specific mention of clergy and other leaders, but the suggestions would apply to anyone.

Each chapter is fairly short, looking at different aspects of encouragement. The word itself basically means to give someone courage - not necessarily to do something dangerous or scary, but to motivate them, or help them feel more positive about themselves. And, as the author suggests in several places, many people are more inclined to offer criticism or discouragement than to be positive about others. This may be out of a mistaken understanding of pride and humility, or just general embarrassment or awkwardness.

On the edge (by Sarah Turner)

(Amazon UK link)

I liked ‘Stepping up’ by Sarah Turner so much when we read it for the local book group a couple of years ago that I put another of her novels on my wishlist. I was given ‘On the edge’ for Christmas and have just read it in the past couple of days.

It took me a few chapters to get into it, but once I was about a quarter of the way through it became difficult to put down. The narrator is called Joni. She’s nearly forty, and has been living with Lewis for the past ten years. Joni hates surprises, and likes to be prepared for any eventuality. She’s really eager to have a baby, and has planned every detail, including the most likely times for conception. 

But before we meet her, there’s an online group discussion, presumably something like Whatsapp although it’s not specified. Someone called Sue, who is not entirely au fait with groups or emojis, sets it up and invites Joni along with four other people. And she tells them that she’s been given the task of organising a week in Joni’s late grandmother’s house, where they have to follow some instructions before hearing her will.