Six Degrees of Separation: From Land to Tea on Sunday

August 1, 2026August 1, 202610 Comments

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for another Six Degrees of Separation, hosted by Kate of Books are my Favourite and Best. The idea is that Kate chooses a book to use as a starting point and then we have to link it to six other books of our choice to form a chain. A book doesn’t have to be connected to all of the others on the list – only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month we’re starting with Land by Maggie O’Farrell. I haven’t read it, but am thinking about it. I didn’t love Hamnet as much as most people seem to have done, but would like to try more of her books and Land sounds interesting. Here’s what it’s about:

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

I’m going to use mapping as my first link. Harvest by Jim Crace (1) explores the reactions of a small rural community to the arrival of a ‘chart-maker’ who begins to measure and map their land – and their discovery that there are plans to enclose their fields and convert them to sheep farming. This is an unusual novel because we aren’t told exactly when or where it is set, leaving everything vague and timeless.

I have read another book with Harvest in the title: Random Harvest by James Hilton (2). This 1941 novel tells the story of Charles Rainier who is injured on a battlefield in France in 1917 and wakes up two years later in Liverpool with no memory at all of the intervening period. I loved this book and was completely taken by surprise by the ending.

Hilton, of course, is the name of a famous hotel chain. A book set in a hotel (though not a Hilton) is The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson (3). Anthony and Elva Pratt, creators of the game Cluedo, are invited to host a murder mystery weekend at the Tudor Close Hotel – but before they even arrive, they find themselves with a real crime to solve. I found this an enjoyable Christmas read combining historical people and events with a fictional story.

Nicola Upson is better known for her series of novels featuring the classic crime author Josephine Tey in the role of a detective. My next link, then, is to a book by Tey herself: The Daughter of Time (4), in which Inspector Alan Grant has a broken leg and decides to investigate the alleged crimes of Richard III from his hospital bed. Reading everything he can find about Richard and the disappearances of the Princes in the Tower, Grant begins to discover that historical sources can’t always be trusted and that history is written by the victors.

Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry (5) shares a word in the title. Set in Ireland, this novel follows retired police detective Tom Kettle as he looks back at his memories of a case from the 1960s which has been reopened. It involves one of the darkest episodes in the history of the Catholic Church and is not a comfortable book to read but Barry’s writing is as beautiful as ever.

The name Kettle makes me think of cups of tea, so my final book is Tea on Sunday by Lettice Cooper (6). Her only mystery novel, it was published in 1973 but feels like a much older book. The plot revolves around the death of Alberta Mansbridge, found strangled in her home as she waits for her guests to arrive for a tea party. Although the mystery isn’t very strong, the characters make this book worth reading.

And that’s my chain for August! My links have included: Map making, the word Harvest, Hilton hotels, Josephine Tey, the word Time and kettles.

In September we’ll be starting with either our book group’s current selection or the book that we’re currently reading. As I’m not in a book group, for me it will have to be a current read!

My Commonplace Book: July 2026

July 31, 20266 Comments

A selection of quotes and pictures to represent July’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

Put one foot in front of the other, and she would get to the other side. Now she knew there was no other side to grief, no other place to get to. You never got through it, not in the way you might get through an illness or a wild storm or an examination. It never went away. Instead, it became a part of you.

The Lost Château by Dinah Jefferies (2026)

You can’t win when you’re fighting someone who doesn’t know there is a fight.

The Rose and the Yew Tree by Mary Westmacott (1948)

Aphrodite and Adonis c. 410 BC

If Ares saw this, I think, if he were made to confront the consequences of his wars, would it stir any flicker of regret in his iron soul? He can fly away from the carnage, his chariot pulled by fire-breathing, bronze-hooved horses, and never have to think about it. It’s goddesses who hear the prayers of the grieving, just as Demeter said. Never the gods.

This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint (2026)

‘Love is a precious thing and needs nurturing. The love you have is a good basis for the future, but sometimes you must work to keep it alive’.

The Boleyn Secret by Alison Weir (2026)

This was the time when the rush for the spoils filled a corner of the forest with the yelping of hounds, the cracking of whips, the flaring of torches. The appetites let loose were satisfied at last, shamelessly, amid the sound of crumbling neighbourhoods and fortunes made in six months. The city had become an orgy of gold and women.

The Kill by Émile Zola (1872)

Detail from the Alexander Mosaic

“One must live as if it would be forever, and as if one might die each moment. Always both at once.”

The Persian Boy by Mary Renault (1972)

Because the truth makes a kind of deep sense, even when it appears fantastic. Truth weaves the world together. Lies shatter things and the truth restores.

The Forever Summer by Lulu Taylor (2026)

An illustration by Arthur Rackham of the goddess Hafren (Sabrina)

For no story is truly lost, as long as there’s someone willing to tell it. And someone willing to listen.

No Fair Maidens by Kim Willis (2026)

They’d worked together, just like Bill taught them, and when else did women like them ever get the chance to do that? When the only thing you’re expected to achieve in life is a decent marriage, every other woman is your competition, not your collaborator.

The Scandalous Ladies Football Club by Frances Quinn (2026)

Favourite books read in July:

The Rose and the Yew Tree, The Scandalous Ladies Football Club and The Forever Summer

Authors read for the first time in July:

Lulu Taylor and Kim Willis

Places visited in my July reading:

France, England, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Persia, India, Wales, Scotland

Reading notes: After a slow June reading-wise, July was a better month for me. It was also quite a busy month – I was away for a week visiting family in Lincolnshire, bought a new car and went to see The Odyssey, but still managed to find plenty of time for reading. I’ve now read 14 of my 20 Books of Summer and I’m sure I’ll be able to read the rest in August, especially as I’ve already started two of them. Fitting in all the reviews could be a problem as I still have some outstanding from this month as well, as you can see above, but I’ll do my best! August is also Women in Translation Month and I have at least one book lined up for that.

How was your July? Do you have any plans for August?

This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint

July 30, 202610 Comments

This is the latest of Jennifer Saint’s novels telling the stories of female figures from Greek mythology. Previously she’s written about Ariadne, Elektra, Atalanta and Hera; now it’s the turn of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

Beginning with the moment she’s born, the daughter of Uranus stepping fully formed from the sea, the novel takes us through many of the key events and myths associated with Aphrodite. Like the previous book, Hera, it has an episodic feel, but it’s all tied together by the overarching story of Aphrodite’s romance with Ares, the god of war. With love and war being opposites, Aphrodite and Ares seem an unlikely pairing, but maybe that’s why they’re attracted to each other – they represent the two sides of human nature, with passion the driving force behind both. Their relationship causes quite a stir on Mount Olympus, particularly when Aphrodite is forced into marriage with Ares’ brother Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmiths.

The triangle of Aphrodite, Ares and Hephaestus is the main focus of the novel, but we also see how Aphrodite becomes involved with various other characters from Greek myth: she brings to life Galatea, the statue of a woman created by Pygmalion; tries unsuccessfully to protect Pandora from the schemes of Zeus; and falls in love with the beautiful Adonis. I loved these glimpses we get into the world of the mortals and wished we could have explored some of these myths in more depth.

The whole book is narrated by Aphrodite herself and although I did like her, I felt that she was a bit too passive at times. It seemed that she spent a lot of time reacting to the actions of others rather than making things happen and I didn’t really get a sense of her being a strong, powerful goddess like the others on Mount Olympus. As for Ares, he’s not a popular god, being proud, angry and devoted to war and destruction, but a more tender side does begin to emerge later in the book. However, there’s no tender side to his companion Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, whom I found a fascinating but chilling character with her obvious delight in death, misery and suffering.

The parts of the book I found most interesting were those involving Hephaestus, a much more sympathetic character than Ares, being concerned with creating rather than destroying, and treated badly by Zeus. His marriage with Aphrodite comes about when he takes his revenge by binding Hera to a magical golden chair, leading Zeus to promise that the first god to free her will be given Aphrodite as a wife. There’s naturally some overlap here with Hera’s story in the previous novel but, interestingly, things don’t play out in exactly the same way. As Jennifer Saint explains in her author’s note, there’s more than one version of each myth so when writing her novels she chooses the one that feels most appropriate for the story she’s trying to tell – as well as keeping things fresh for the reader.

Although this isn’t my favourite Jennifer Saint novel, it was nice to have the opportunity to learn a bit more about Aphrodite as I’d never read a book specifically about her before. I’ll be interested to see which woman from Greek mythology she writes about next.

Thanks to Viking for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

Book 11/20 of 20 Books of Summer

The Persian Boy by Mary Renault

July 28, 20267 Comments

First published in 1972, this is the second book in Mary Renault’s Alexander the Great trilogy, following Fire from Heaven, which I read last year. It was also the book chosen for me to read in the latest Classics Club Spin (the deadline was earlier this month, but I find that Mary Renault’s novels need a lot of concentration and shouldn’t be rushed, so I took more time to finish it).

Fire from Heaven covered Alexander’s childhood and early adult life, up to the death of his father, Philip II of Macedon, and his own accession to the throne; The Persian Boy takes us through the final seven years of his life and has a slightly different style and focus. Unlike the previous book, which was written in the third person, this one is narrated entirely by Bagoas, Alexander’s servant, friend and lover.

We first meet Bagoas as a young boy, the son of a Persian nobleman who is betrayed and killed by his enemies. Bagoas himself is captured, castrated and sold into slavery, eventually finding himself at the court of King Darius III. Having become a favourite of the king, his life is thrown into uncertainty again when Darius is defeated by the Macedonian army and Bagoas is presented to Darius’ conqueror, Alexander, as a gift. At first he is disgusted by what he sees as the barbaric ways of the Macedonians, but over time he becomes a trusted member of Alexander’s inner circle, with a close friendship and romantic relationship beginning to form between the two.

With the book being written from Bagoas’ perspective, the story has a more intimate feel than Fire from Heaven. As Bagoas is a courtier, not a soldier or a fighter, battles are seen from a distance; although he travels with Alexander and his men, Bagoas does not accompany them on the battlefield but waits in camp for them to return, sharing with us the outcome and some insights into the impact, both mental and physical, on the people involved in the battle. So although Alexander’s success as a great military leader is certainly not ignored, the focus here is more on Alexander as a human being. Through Bagoas’ eyes we see a more tender, vulnerable side of Alexander, a man who often feels lonely and isolated, so relies on Bagoas to provide love, warmth and friendship.

I do feel that because of the choice to tell this part of Alexander’s story from the perspective of someone who loved him, we get quite a one-sided view of him. It’s a very sympathetic, heroic portrayal and we don’t hear much of how his enemies viewed him or what his wife Roxane thought or felt – she is pushed completely to the sidelines of Bagoas’ account (understandably, as she tries to poison him, and he wants no more to do with her after that). Hephaistion, Alexander’s lifelong companion, also has a relatively small part in the novel as he and Bagoas mostly avoid each other, having an uneasy relationship as rivals for Alexander’s affection. Renault frequently compares Alexander and Hephaistion to Achilles and Patroclus, something they apparently publicly identified themselves with, but I felt that the emotional impact of Hephaistion’s death later in the novel was lost because of seeing so little of him, especially compared to the first book where he had a much bigger role.

One aspect of the book I found particularly interesting was seeing how both Alexander and Bagoas adapt to the differences between Greek and Persian culture. Alexander wishes to unite the Greek people with the Persian people he has conquered and as time goes by, Bagoas observes him wearing Persian dress and trying to introduce Persian customs such as prostration (which meets with strong opposition from his Macedonian men).

Although there’s obviously a limit to how much we can truly know about the world of the 4th century BC, Alexander’s life has been well documented and Renault discusses in her author’s note the sources she has used and decisions she has made. Bagoas himself only appears a few times in historical sources, but Renault is such a gifted writer she makes everything he says and does seem plausible. I’m looking forward to reading Funeral Games, the final part of the trilogy, which deals with Alexander’s death and its aftermath.

Book 10/20 of 20 Books of Summer

This is also book 6/50 from my third Classics Club list.

The Alchemist’s Secret by Clare Marchant

July 24, 202611 Comments

The Alchemist’s Secret is the story of two women separated by four centuries but linked through one house – Woodham Hall in Suffolk. In 1672, Jeanne is living at the Hall with her older sister, Marie, and young niece, Hélène. Jeanne is still unmarried at the age of twenty-four and looks set to remain a spinster, but she doesn’t really care. She’s happy devoting her time to painting and practising her alchemy skills, and there’s no money for a dowry anyway. Marie, on the other hand, is very unhappily married; her husband, Sir Robert Woodham, is having an affair with a widowed neighbour who has given him the sons Marie has been unable to provide. Eventually, Sir Robert decides to move his mistress into the Hall and tells Marie and Jeanne he is sending them to a convent in France where they will stay for the rest of their lives.

Back in their home country – the two women had left France ten years earlier, when Marie married Sir Robert – they are determined to find a way to escape from their captivity and get back to England and Hélène. Their adventures take them to the court of the Sun King where they make some new acquaintances whom they hope can help them take revenge against Sir Robert and resume their rightful places at Woodham Hall.

Meanwhile, in 2026, we meet the current residents of Woodham Hall – Simon and his daughter, Paige, who has just returned home after the break-up of her marriage. Simon has been hiring the house out as a wedding venue but is starting to struggle financially and is in need of new ideas. Paige begins to research the history of the Hall and the Woodham family and comes across an intriguing painting which seems to depict a poisoning which took place in the house centuries earlier. But who was the artist – and, more importantly, who were the victims and why were they killed?

I liked The Alchemist’s Secret, although it’s yet another example of a book with dual timelines where most of the drama unfolds in one of them, leaving the other feeling a bit superfluous. The 17th century storyline dominates this book and I found it by far the most interesting. The plot was slightly far-fetched at times and there were moments when attitudes or actions didn’t quite ring true to the period, but otherwise I was much more absorbed in Jeanne and Marie’s story than I was in Paige’s. I loved the parts of the book set in Paris and at the Palace of Versailles (which is still under construction in 1672 – no Hall of Mirrors yet) and I thought this made a good contrast to the English country house that forms the setting for the majority of the novel.

There’s not a lot of mystery involved, as it’s obvious that the events depicted in the painting are connected to the historical storyline, but I enjoyed seeing how the characters get to that point and how things play out afterwards. I’m not sure if the title is really representative of the novel, though; alchemy is barely mentioned, although it doesn’t matter too much as the story is interesting enough even without it! This is the first book I’ve read by Clare Marchant but I’m planning to read her new one, The Curse of the Saltmarsh Girl, and am tempted to try some of her others as they all sound intriguing.

Thanks to Boldwood Books for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

The Scandalous Ladies Football Club by Frances Quinn

July 23, 202614 Comments

Published earlier this month to coincide with the World Cup (congratulations to Spain on their win), Frances Quinn’s latest novel is set in the final years of the 19th century and inspired by the formation of the British Ladies’ Football Club. Having loved her two previous books, The Lost Passenger and That Bonesetter Woman, I was hoping for good things from this one and wasn’t disappointed. Despite not being very interested in football (soccer to my blog readers in other parts of the world!) I found this a fascinating, inspirational story.

It’s 1897 and in a world dominated by men, where husbands and fathers make all the rules, the idea of women playing football is considered ridiculous and inappropriate. But when schoolteacher Minnie Newton kicks a ball back to a group of men playing in a London park one day, she’s reminded of how much she enjoyed the game as a child. Minnie places an advertisement in the local newspaper, not sure what kind of response there’ll be, and is thrilled when she receives several replies from interested applicants. However, as the group of women gather on Saturday morning for their first session, it quickly becomes obvious that this isn’t going to be easy. Most of the women have never even watched the sport before, let alone kicked a ball – then there’s the question of what to wear (long skirts are hardly suitable) and the problem of finding somewhere to train. Eventually, though, solutions are found, and soon the club has obtained both a patron – the explorer, writer and women’s rights activist, Lady Veronica Montague – and a coach, retired male footballer Bill English.

The novel focuses on three of the lady footballers. The first is obviously Minnie herself as the club’s founder and leader. The second is Grace Mousel, a shy single woman who lives with her father and spends her days catering to his every whim. Grace discovers that she has a real talent for football but feels that she has to keep her new passion hidden from her father, as he would never understand and would insist that she give it up. Then there’s Harriet Flinders, a married woman whose husband, Richard, is stationed in India, leaving her alone in London with their two sons. Bored and dissatisfied with her marriage, Harriet decides to join Minnie’s club purely because she knows it would annoy Richard if he found out but, like Grace, she soon finds that playing football is something she enjoys both for its own sake and for the independence it gives her.

As for Minnie, we know from the beginning that she’s hiding a big secret – her real name is Adela Adams and she’s a married woman, a fact that would cause her to lose her job as a teacher if it became known. Although I felt that the false identity subplot was recycled from Quinn’s last book, The Lost Passenger, it added tension to her story just as it did to Elinor’s in that book, and we find out only gradually why Adela left her husband and changed her name and what she stands to lose if she’s caught.

Quinn has loosely based the novel on the story of the real life British Ladies’ Football Club, but doesn’t stick very closely to the facts, changing the names of the people involved and imagining matches and rivalries that the club never actually had. There are some similarities, though – the real founder of the club was Nettie Honeyball which, like Minnie Newton, was thought to be an assumed name (although Nettie’s true identity is still unconfirmed); their patron, Lady Florence Dixie, closely resembled Lady Veronica in the book (she explored Patagonia and kept a pet jaguar called Affums); and of course, both clubs, real and fictional, faced a huge amount of prejudice, scorn and ridicule.

Although I found the book very enjoyable, it’s not perfect. In particular, I wished more attention had been given to other members of the club, not just Minnie, Harriet and Grace. Some of them were barely even mentioned by name. Also, without wanting to give away spoilers, I felt that the way the story ended for two of the characters seemed very convenient and clichéd. Other than that, I loved it. It’s obviously a book with a lot to say about feminism, equality and women’s rights, but the message never gets in the way of the story. Definitely worth reading, whether or not you’re a football fan!

Thanks to Simon & Schuster UK for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

Book 9/20 of 20 Books of Summer

The Kill by Émile Zola

July 21, 202624 Comments

Translated by Brian Nelson

This is the second book in Émile Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart cycle, if reading in order of publication. A few years ago I read the first book, The Fortune of the Rougons, which lays the foundations for the rest of the series, but each novel is also designed to stand alone. The connection between them is that each book features characters who belong to rival branches of the same family, the Rougons and the Macquarts, all descended from Adelaïde Fouque, whom we met in the first novel. The Kill, or La Curée to give it its French title, was published in 1872 and is set during the Second French Empire (1852-1870).

The Kill follows Aristide Rougon, son of Pierre Rougon from the first book, as he leaves his home in Provence and settles in Paris, where he changes his name to Aristide Saccard. It’s a good time to arrive in Paris as the city is currently undergoing huge renovations with new boulevards, parks and landmarks being created under the supervision of Baron Haussmann. Ambitious and ruthless, Aristide starts buying up properties he has discovered are targeted for demolition then claiming compensation from the city at vastly inflated levels. He’s beginning to make a fortune through this corrupt scheme when his wife becomes terminally ill. Before she has even died, Aristide is already arranging his next marriage – to Renée, a girl from a rich family who will come with a large dowry.

The marriage is not a very happy one, with both husband and wife aware that it’s not much more than a business deal. Bored, Renée begins an affair with Maxime, Aristide’s son by his first wife. Maxime is several years younger and expected to marry the wealthy but consumptive Louise de Mareuil, but he is excited by the idea of a forbidden, incestuous relationship with his stepmother. In an interesting reversal of normal gender stereotypes, Zola portrays Maxime as delicate, feminine and beautiful while describing Renée as having masculine traits and being the stronger, more assertive of the two. Their affair forms one major thread of the novel; the other is concerned with Aristide’s business schemes and his attempts to get Renée to sign over the deeds to her family home.

The Kill, then, is a book that focuses on the lives of the rich and privileged. It’s a very descriptive book, as Zola brings to life the huge, opulent mansions, exquisite clothing, lavish banquets and luxurious carriages of the very wealthy. The title is a hunting term referring to the scraps of prey that are thrown to the hounds at the end of the hunt and Zola uses this as a metaphor for the greed of the businessmen who are fighting for money, power and influence and taking whatever they can from the rebuilding of the city. There wasn’t a single character I liked or had much sympathy for (although Aristide’s sister Sidonie was a great villain!) and I found all the descriptions of extravagance and waste overwhelming and distasteful, but I know that was the point of the novel so it certainly achieves its purpose. Apparently Zola himself was a poor journalist at the time of writing this book and had no personal experience of the sort of world he was describing, so everything had to be written purely from research, which makes it even more impressive.

I’m aware that there are several English translations of this book available, including an old one you can download free from Project Gutenberg, but I read a modern (2004) translation by Brian Nelson and do recommend it. I also found the introduction to my Oxford World’s Classics edition interesting as it discusses not just the story but also Baron Haussmann’s transformation of Paris. One of the projects that took place under Haussmann was the creation of the glass and iron structure that housed the Les Halles food market, which is the setting of the third book in the series, The Belly of Paris, and the next one I’m planning to read!

Book 8/20 of 20 Books of Summer