Category: Historical Fiction

Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield

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It’s 1922 and Eleanor Mackridge, like many women, is finding it difficult to adjust to ‘normal life’ now that the war has ended. Compared to working in a munitions factory and feeling that she was doing something important for her country, her new job waitressing at a Brighton hotel is dull and boring. Marriage could offer an escape route, but that doesn’t sound very appealing either, so when Eleanor crosses paths with a member of the all-female crime gang, the Forty Elephants, the temptation to join them is too strong to resist.

Now known as Nell, she moves to London where she is assigned to a cell – a group of four gang members who live and work together – and begins her education in the art of theft. Soon she knows how to steal expensive furs and jewels from London’s grandest department stores, how to conceal her loot in hidden pockets and, most importantly, how to avoid being arrested. Although her conscience troubles her at first, she soon learns to love her new life and her new friends. But what will Nell’s family say when they discover what she is doing? And what will happen if her luck runs out and she gets caught?

Poor Girls is an enjoyable, fast paced novel rooted in historical fact. I wasn’t aware until I finished the book and read the author’s note that the Forty Elephants really existed (the name comes from the Elephant and Castle area of London, where they were based). Although the gang leader, Alice Diamond – known as Queen Alice – was a real person, Nell Mackridge seems to be a fictional character. However, through the stories of Nell and her friends, Whitfield explores some of the factors that may have driven young women like them to turn to a life of crime.

It was fascinating to see how the gang operated and to watch Nell learning all the tricks of the trade – all the cons, deceptions and disguises she needed to be able to avoid detection. Interestingly, women had an advantage when it came to shoplifting as store security were reluctant to stop and search female customers. Also, all those layers of clothing they wore were useful for hiding stolen goods! The success of their operations depended on working together as a team, so trust was necessary between the members of each cell and Nell formed strong bonds with Effie, Lily and Charlie, her partners in crime.

I did have one or two minor criticisms of the book: I felt that the characters of Nell’s three friends could have been more clearly defined – Charlie and Lily, in particular, seemed interchangeable – and there were times when the language felt more 2020s than 1920s. Otherwise, this was a very entertaining novel with a plot not quite like any other I’ve read. I also liked the fact that, although crime is obviously not something we should admire or find glamorous and Whitfield does make the consequences clear, at the same time she isn’t trying to push a moral message onto the reader. The ending of the book isn’t quite what you would expect either, but it’s probably more realistic that way.

It seems that Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants have been the subject of several recent novels and there’s a non-fiction book available as well. I’m not sure how I’ve missed them all, but will investigate them now. I would also like to read Clare Whitfield’s earlier novel, People of Abandoned Character.

Thanks to the publisher for making a copy of this book available for review via The Pigeonhole.

Book 51 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

City of Silk by Glennis Virgo

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I love reading about Renaissance Italy, but most novels focus on Rome, Florence or Venice, so this one, set in Bologna – famous for its silk industry in the 16th century – was something slightly different.

It’s 1575 and our narrator, Elena Morandi, is working as a seamstress in Signora Ruffo’s workshop. Although she was raised in an orphanage from the age of ten after the death of both parents, Elena remembers the skills she was taught by her father, a tailor, and has proved to have a real talent for needlework. However, she’s bored with sewing women’s gowns and capes and longs to work on men’s clothing and gain the title of tailor rather than seamstress. Sadly, this is not an option for a woman and Elena seems destined to stay with Signora Ruffo – until she flees to escape an arranged marriage.

In need of a new job, Elena decides to pursue her dreams and manages to obtain a lowly position in a tailor’s workshop, sweeping the floor and fetching fabrics and threads for the Maestro, Francesco Rondinelli, and his three tailors. Then, just as she’s settling into her new life, a figure from her past walks into Rondinelli’s workshop to ask for a fitting. This is Antonio della Fontana, benefactor of the orphanage Elena attended and one of the most powerful men in Bologna. He had abused his position of power at the orphanage and it seems that nothing has changed; when even Rondinelli and his friends begin to suffer at the hands of Fontana, Elena decides it’s time to take revenge.

City of Silk is one of several historical novels I’ve read recently that deal with women trying to forge a career for themselves in fields traditionally dominated by men. Tracy Chevalier’s The Glassmaker, Joanne Burn’s The Bone Hunters and Ambrose Parry’s The Spendthrift and the Swallow are three I’ve read just this year (featuring, respectively, a female glassmaker, a female would-be geologist and a woman desperate to become a doctor). This is obviously another and while I admired Elena’s determination and ambition, I would have liked more detail on why she felt it was so important to become a tailor instead of aspiring to be like Signora Ruffo, who was running her own successful business and was financially independent. I’m not sure I really understood why Elena seemed to look down on seamstresses so much or why she considered it so much more rewarding to make clothes for men rather than women.

As mentioned above, I did love the setting. I’ve never been to Bologna, but Virgo’s descriptions brought it to life for me. I also found it interesting to learn about the city’s role as a leading European centre of silk production and what it was like to work in a tailor’s or seamstress’s workshop during that period. Most of the characters are fictional, but Virgo explains in her author’s note at the end that a few of them really existed and another is inspired by a portrait in the National Gallery!

The scheme Elena and her friends come up with to take their revenge on Fontana seemed very unlikely to me – I couldn’t imagine anybody actually doing what they did, particularly not in the 16th century – but otherwise the plot was quite entertaining. This is Glennis Virgo’s first novel (for which she has won the Debut Writers Over 50 Award) and although I’m not sure if I’ll read her next one, I could be tempted depending on the subject.

Thanks to Allison & Busby for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

Book 50/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

The Lost Queen by Carol McGrath

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Berengaria of Navarre is one of the Queens of England I know least about and I’m sure I’m not alone in that as so little has been written about her. I’ve read novels in which she appears briefly as a secondary character, but with the exception of Martha Rofheart’s Lionheart, nothing where she takes a more central role. In The Lost Queen, Carol McGrath builds Berengaria’s story around the small amount of factual information we have about her, taking us through the early days of her marriage to King Richard I and her time spent in the Holy Land, where she accompanied Richard on the Third Crusade.

Like the other McGrath books I’ve read, there’s also a fictional heroine whose story takes place alongside the real historical one. In this case, it’s Lady Avelina of Middleton, whose husband William has disappeared after leaving for Outremer three years earlier to claim his father’s estate. William’s half-brother, Walter, is insisting that William must have become caught up in the Crusades and killed in battle, but Avelina suspects that Walter simply has his eye on herself and Middleton. Avelina is determined to prove that her husband is still alive and sets off to look for him, attaching herself to a party of nuns who are travelling to Jerusalem in search of a religious relic to bring back to their abbey.

During the journey, Avelina’s path crosses with Berengaria’s, who is on her way to her wedding with Richard. Richard’s mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, escorts Berengaria as far as Sicily, then Eleanor’s daughter Joanna accompanies her from there to Cyprus and then the Holy Land. Avelina and the nuns join them along the way and a friendship forms between Avelina and the new queen.

Berengaria is known as the only English queen never to visit England (although it’s now thought that she may have done after Richard’s death). This means that, apart from a few chapters involving Avelina, most of the novel is set elsewhere in Europe and the Middle East. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of all the adventures the characters have on the journey: crossing the Alps in the middle of winter; surviving assassination attempts; being shipwrecked off the coast of Cyprus and held prisoner.

As I know so little about Berengaria I can’t really comment on the accuracy of the novel. McGrath does include an author’s note, in which she explains some of her decisions and how she worked with the available information to create the story. We do know that Berengaria never had children, for example, but McGrath suggests that she may have been pregnant with Richard’s child and had a miscarriage. The Avelina chapters of the book obviously allow for a lot more invention and imagination and there are also a few sections here and there narrated by other characters such as Blondel, the troubadour, or Ursula, one of Berengaria’s ladies. I can understand why these perspectives were included, as they fill in some of the gaps, showing us things that Berengaria and Avelina don’t witness for themselves, but I didn’t feel they really added much to the story and we don’t spend enough time with these characters to form any kind of emotional connection.

The book ends before the death of Richard I and I was sorry that we didn’t continue with Berengaria’s later years as it would have been interesting to see how she dealt with being a widow and queen dowager. However, even less is known about that period of Berengaria’s life, so maybe it was the right decision for the book to end when it did. I’ll be looking out for news on which historical figure Carol McGrath is writing about next!

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

Book 48/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

The Bells of Westminster by Leonora Nattrass

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I’ve enjoyed all three books in Leonora Nattrass’ Laurence Jago series (Black Drop, Blue Water and Scarlet Town) and was hoping for a fourth, but it seems she’s moved on to other things, at least temporarily. Like the Jago books, The Bells of Westminster is set in the 18th century but is a completely separate story with a new set of characters to get to know.

It’s 1774 and King George III has just given his permission for the Society of Antiquaries to open the tomb of Edward I, who rests in Westminster Abbey. The Society wants to discover whether Edward’s body was embalmed, according to his wishes, and whether he was buried with any valuable artifacts. However, the opening of the tomb sets in motion a series of bizarre events: first, a ghostly figure is seen wearing the dead king’s crown, then one of the Antiquaries is found dead and Edward’s body is stolen. Mr Bell, the Dean of Westminster, is given the job of investigating, but his daughter Susan knows he’s not capable of solving the mystery and it will be up to her to solve it for him.

The novel is narrated by Susan Bell who, at twenty-three, is already considered a spinster. Her father would like her to marry her cousin Lindley, an aspiring scientist who is staying with them at the Deanery, but Susan isn’t sure what she thinks of him – and anyway, she’s quite happy with the company of her talking parrot, Cuthbert. Susan’s narration takes the form of diary entries, through which we see the mystery unfold as well as gaining some insights into life within the confines of Westminster Abbey.

I’ll be honest and say that at first I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this book. I had trouble connecting with Susan’s narrative style, peppered with notes and asides, which seemed to be trying very hard to be clever and witty. It also took a long time for the story to really get started, but once the murder happened about a quarter of the way into the book, I became drawn in. Susan’s narration also grew on me after a while and I found I liked her much more than I thought I would at the beginning.

Nattrass explains in her author’s note which parts of the book are based on fact and which are invented. The opening of Edward I’s tomb in 1774 really happened, for example – although the body wasn’t stolen and a ghost didn’t really appear! The characters are also a mixture of real people and fictional ones (Susan Bell is one of the latter). One thing that’s completely real, of course, is the setting: with the whole book being set within Westminster Abbey and its grounds, there are lots of detailed descriptions of the chapels, arches and galleries as well as the various tombs and shrines.

The eighteenth century was also a time of major scientific developments and Nattrass is able to explore some of these through Lindley’s interest in science. In particular, we see how a knowledge of science can work along with – and sometimes in conflict with – superstitions, religion or fear of the supernatural. This is a fascinating novel, then, and although I would still have preferred another Laurence Jago book, I did enjoy this one once I got past the slow, uncertain start!

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

Book 47/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

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Having enjoyed some of Tracy Chevalier’s previous books I was particularly looking forward to this one because of the setting. It takes place on Murano, an island in the Venetian Lagoon which for centuries has been associated with glass making. It begins in the 15th century but doesn’t remain in that time period because, Chevalier tells us, time works differently there – more on that later!

1486 is when we first meet Orsola Rosso, the eldest daughter of a Murano glassmaking family. Working with glass is considered a man’s job, but Orsola feels that glassmaking is in her blood and longs to have the same opportunities as her brothers. When her father is killed in an accident in the workshop and the family begin to struggle both financially and creatively, Orsola comes up with a plan to earn some extra money by making glass beads. Despite bead making being looked down on by men as not ‘real’ glassmaking, it’s difficult, intricate work and takes Orsola a lot of time and effort to master, but eventually she learns the necessary skills and is helping to keep the family business afloat.

In 1574, the Rosso family experience more hardships when plague makes its way across the water from Venice to Murano – but this is where time begins to move strangely. Although many decades have gone by, the characters have barely aged at all and the story just continues within this new setting as if nothing unusual has happened. We jump forward in time several more times throughout the book until we are brought right up to date with the Covid pandemic – and still Orsola and the other central characters remain unaware that they should have been dead for hundreds of years! I don’t think I’ve read another novel that handles time in this exact way; Virginia Woolf’s Orlando has a similar concept, but it only involves one or two characters rather than the entire cast, and she plays with gender as well as age. John Boyne’s The Thief of Time also has a protagonist who doesn’t age, but he is at least aware that something odd is going on. What Chevalier does here is different and I think readers will either dislike it or just accept and enjoy it.

The device Chevalier uses to tell the story has two advantages. The first is that it allows her to give an overview of the history of Venice and Murano from the 1400s to the modern day and explore the ways in which things have changed over the centuries (plagues, two world wars, increasing tourism, competition affecting Venice’s position as a centre of trade). The second is that she can focus on developing one set of characters – including Orsola and her brothers and sisters, her lover Antonio, the German merchant Klingenberg and the African gondolier Domenego – instead of introducing new generations. Still, I think I would have been just as happy if the book had been set entirely in one of the earlier time periods, as they were the ones that interested me most.

A lot of Chevalier’s novels tend to deal with specific crafts or vocations: embroidery and bell ringing in A Single Thread; fossil collecting in Remarkable Creatures; or growing apple trees in At the Edge of the Orchard. Obviously in this book it’s the making of glass and beads and we learn a lot about the skills required, the methods used and the personal touches each individual glassmaker brings to their work. I’m fortunate enough to have visited both Venice and Murano and seen a glass blowing demonstration so I could easily picture some of the things and places Chevalier describes, but even if you haven’t she does an excellent job of bringing them to life. This is a fascinating book and I did enjoy it, even if I wasn’t completely convinced by the time travel element!

Thanks to The Borough Press for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

Book 46/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

God is an Englishman by RF Delderfield – #1970Club

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My final book for this week’s 1970 Club hosted by Simon and Karen is one I was almost certain I would love – and I did! I’ve read several of RF Delderfield’s other books and particularly enjoyed his A Horseman Riding By trilogy, set in rural England during the first half of the 20th century. God is an Englishman, published in 1970, is the first in another trilogy, known as the Swann Saga, which promises to be equally enjoyable.

The novel begins with soldier Adam Swann fighting in India during the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. In the chaos of the battlefield, Adam stumbles upon a valuable ruby necklace in a broken casket. With no way of finding its rightful owner and reluctant to hand it over to the East India Company, he decides to use it to start a new life for himself. Disillusioned by his experiences with the Mutiny and previously the Crimean War, Adam has been considering resigning from the army anyway and the money from the sale of the necklace will enable him to launch a new business venture.

On his return to England, Adam contemplates investing in railways but a better plan soon begins to emerge. What about the areas of the country that can’t be reached by train? He rides out into the countryside to investigate the possibility of a horse-drawn delivery service and after passing through Seddon Moss, a mill town near Manchester, he has his first encounter with the mill owner’s daughter, Henrietta Rawlinson, who is running away to avoid marriage to a man she doesn’t love. The rest of the novel follows the formation and expansion of Adam’s new business, Swann-on-Wheels, and his relationship with Henrietta as they marry and start a home and family.

At almost 700 pages in the edition I read, this book was quite a commitment, especially as I needed to finish it in time to review this week and should probably have started it earlier. However, once I became absorbed in the story, the pages went by a lot more quickly than I’d expected and I was sorry to reach the end.

While the Horseman Riding By books were set in the countryside with a focus on farming and rural life, this one is set in the very different world of trade, business and industry. It’s fascinating to see how Adam starts with nothing except some jewels and some good ideas and slowly builds up Swann-on-Wheels into a successful haulage company with depots all over the country. Adam gives each region a name (the Border Triangle, the Mountain Square, the Western Wedge…) and each one presents its own unique set of challenges and opportunities depending on the terrain, the existing infrastructure and the industries already operating in that area. He also puts a manager in charge of each area and although some of them are not much more than names on the page, others are brought to life and have adventures of their own.

The broad geographical setting and large number of characters allows Delderfield to address many specific topics and social issues relevant to life in Victorian Britain. Through Henrietta’s father, the miller Sam Rawlinson, we see first the dissatisfaction of the mill workers with their pay and working conditions and later the impact of the reduction in the supply of raw cotton due to the American Civil War. The fate of homeless children and the dangers facing young boys used as chimney sweeps are also explored – and if all of this makes you think of Charles Dickens, there’s a cameo appearance from the man himself as he and several of the Swann family become involved in the Staplehurst rail accident of 1865.

At the heart of the novel, though, is the relationship between Adam and Henrietta and how it develops as both characters grow and change and make discoveries about themselves and each other. Henrietta, being a lot younger than Adam, is immature, innocent and frivolous at the start of the novel and there’s a sense that although Adam loves her he doesn’t fully understand or respect her. It’s only after the introduction of another woman, Edith Wadsworth, into both their lives, that Henrietta begins to take control of her future and Adam comes to see her as more of an equal. Ironically, Edith, the daughter of one of Swann-on-Wheels’ area managers, is in love with Adam herself, but I won’t tell you what happens there or whether she acts on her feelings!

I think some readers will probably enjoy this book more for the Swann family storylines and others for the insights into the building of a business empire. I found both interesting and felt that Delderfield got the balance between the two just about right. I will be continuing with the second book, Theirs Was the Kingdom!

Book 45/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

Midnight in Vienna by Jane Thynne

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It’s 1938 and Stella Fry has just returned to London from Austria, where she has been working as a private tutor for a Jewish family in Vienna. With the worsening political situation in Europe, the family decided to leave for the safety of New York, and Stella has found herself back home with no job. Famous mystery writer Hubert Newman is advertising for someone to type up his new manuscript and Stella applies for the position. After meeting with Newman and being offered the job, she is shocked when she learns the next day that he has been found dead. Another shock follows twenty-four hours later when she receives the manuscript of his new book, Masquerade, and finds that he has dedicated it To Stella, spotter of mistakes.

Harry Fox is a former Special Branch detective who left the police force under a shadow, but is still carrying out unofficial intelligence work, spying on suspected communists. He has reason to believe that Hubert Newman’s death was not a natural one and when his path crosses with Stella’s and he discovers that she had lunch with the author the day before he died, the two team up to investigate.

I really enjoyed Midnight in Vienna; the only negative thing I can say about it is that Stella was a bit too trusting of strangers and too quick to put herself in dangerous situations without thinking of the consequences. The biggest example comes very early in the novel when, having only just met Harry Fox, she agrees to travel back to Vienna alone on the trail of someone possibly implicated in Hubert’s murder – at a time when everyone else is trying to get out of Austria. However, I can forgive this because the Vienna sections of the book are so well done, perfectly illustrating the mood in Austria during that period which followed the annexation by Nazi Germany.

With Hubert Newman being an author, there’s also a literary element to the novel. Newman (a fictional character, by the way) is a member of the Detection Club, a real-life society of prominent British mystery writers, and Harry Fox’s investigations lead to a meeting with one of the founding members, Dorothy L. Sayers. She only makes a brief cameo appearance but I thought the way Thynne portrayed her character was very convincing. As well as the literary world, we also get a glimpse of the theatrical world of the 1930s through Stella’s actress friend, Evelyn, so there’s a lot going on outside of the central mystery.

This is the first of Jane Thynne’s novels I’ve read. It seems that most of her previous books are similar wartime/espionage thrillers and having enjoyed this one so much I’m sure I’ll be reading more of them. I’m also wondering whether there will be a sequel to this book as I think there’s plenty of scope for some of these characters to return for a second adventure.

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

Book 44/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024