Listening to God (by Joyce Huggett)

(Amazon UK link)

I very much liked the three books I had read by Joyce Huggett. She was a thoughtful Christian writer, and I knew something of her because she lived, for a while, in Cyprus, though I never met her. I didn’t expect any of her books to be currently in print, but put second-hand editions of one on my wishlist. I was very pleasantly surprised to be given a new edition of ‘Listening to God’ for Christmas. 

The byline on this book says that it’s the 30th anniversary edition of the ‘bestselling spiritual classic’. It’s been recommended by many writers on prayer and contemplation. The first edition was published in 1986, and it was something of a landmark at the time. In the notes at the end, on the anniversary edition, the author expresses great happiness that the boundaries between different strands of Christianity were much less obvious than they were in the 1980s. 

The purpose of the book is to encourage all Christians to spend more time in prayer, in particular in contemplative prayer. The idea of this sounds very positive to me; as an introvert, I need a lot of time on my own. Despite many decades of being a believer, and many prayers, I’m not good at sitting, and meditating, or contemplating. Partly this is because I don’t ‘see’ things with my eyes closed, partly, I suppose, because my mind is constantly active, wandering around all kinds of topics, ideas and thoughts.

Watch the wall, my darling (by Jane Aiken Hodge)

(Amazon UK link)

I discovered some of Jane Aiken Hodge’s novels when I was a teenager, and on the whole liked them very much. One of my favourites was ‘Watch the wall, my darling’, quoting the famous line which ends… ‘while the smugglers go by’. I last read it in 2008, so had forgotten all the people and the storyline, although I realised that smuggling must somehow play a part.

This novel is set in Sussex, by the coast, during the Napoleonic war period. The heroine is a strong-minded, feisty American girl called Christina, who is in her early twenties. We meet her travelling across the marshes in a hired coach, with a very nervous driver and groom who have been paid well to take her to her destination. She’s been warned by a landlord that she should not travel, and it’s so dark and gloomy - and the journey is taking so long - that she begins to think that she should have take his advice.

The coach has to halt due to branches across the road, and when the three travellers start to pull them aside, they are attacked by masked men. When she says who she is, they are allowed to travel again, with dire threats if they tell anyone what happened. And, at last, Christina arrives at the mansion where, she hopes her grandfather is expecting her. She has never met him, but had promised her late father that she would try to get to know her English family. 

The quiet war of Rebecca Sheldon (by Kathleen Rowntree)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s a long time since I acquired and read the novels by Kathleen Rowntree. I decided to reread them, choosing the order of publication, although each novel is complete in itself, without any overlap of characters.

So I began with ‘The quiet war of Rebecca Sheldon’, which I read in 2001. I had totally forgotten what it was about, and so was mildly surprised to find that it’s historical rather than contemporary fiction. The novel opens in 1892, when the teenage Rebecca is visiting her schoolfriend Louisa Ludbury during the summer holidays. Rebecca merely tolerates Louisa, who prattles a lot, because she’s rather keen on Louisa’s older brother George.

Mrs Ludbury, who is widowed, is a small and very snobbish woman who tends to look down on anyone who isn’t in her social circles. She doesn’t even like the fact that she lives on a farm; she never wants the farming discussed in the house, and really doesn’t want George to end up as a farmer. And she definitely doesn’t want him marrying Rebecca, whom she insists is a ‘shop girl’. 

Ruey Richardson - Chaletian (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly ten years since I read ‘Ruey Richardson - Chaletian’ by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. It's 44th in the original series. I recalled that I was very pleased to have acquired a ‘Girls Gone By’ full edition, and then a tad disappointed that the book wasn’t all that interesting. So I wasn’t expecting much of it. Still, I hadn’t remembered most of the details, and once I’d started I found it hard to put down. 

The book follows on directly from ‘Joey and co in Tirol’, which I reread - and very much enjoyed - last month. It follows Ruey, the Maynards’ new ward, in her first term at the Chalet School. She is looking forward to it, but she hasn’t been to a boarding school before. So she’s not entirely happy about the rules, and bedtimes in particular. However, she’s a likeable girl, and mostly happy to go with the flow.

Ruey is disliked on site by Francie, a girl in her form who had hoped to become Margot Maynard’s best friend. This thread runs through the book, mostly in a low-key way, and is eventually resolved rather unexpectedly. 

The sunrise sisterhood (by Cathy Bramley)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve liked all the books I’ve read so far by Cathy Bramley. She’s quite a prolific writer, and I regularly put one or two more of her books on my wishlist. However, it sometimes takes me a while to get to reading new books. I received ‘The sunrise sisterhood’ for Christmas 2023, and have only just read it in the past few days.

The story revolves around three women, with each short chapter headed with Liz, Clare or Skye. I found this a tad confusing at first, but gradually found I could remember them and their backgrounds. The author does a good job with characterisation; they’re not entirely three-dimensional, but quite distinct, with their own voices.

Liz is the owner of a catering company, but she’s done very little in the past few months. Her best friend, and partner in the business, Jen, died in a car crash over a year earlier, but she is still grieving. She’s also lost her enthusiasm for everything other than a few small events.  She has lunch with Jen’s ex-husband Mike, who is also an old friend of hers, and he says he needs repayment of a large loan he gave her company when it started out…