Category: Historical Fiction

The Snow Witch by Kirsty Ferry

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Close to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, there’s a stream known as Meggie’s Dene Burn. According to legend it’s named after Old Meg, a witch who lived in the area in the 17th century and whose burial site is said to be marked by a pink thorn tree. When Violet Marsh, the modern day heroine of Kirsty Ferry’s The Snow Witch, comes to Hadrian’s Wall to research her new book on the Newcastle Witch Trials, it’s Meg’s story that she finds most captivating. Basing herself near the village of Newbrough, Violet sets out to discover the truth about Meg, who she was and how she died.

The story of Meg Noble unfolds alongside Violet’s and the first thing we learn is that she isn’t old. When we first meet her in 1650, she’s a young woman who has inherited her grandmother’s gift of creating herbal remedies which she uses to help the people of Newbrough. She’s aware that fifteen people have been executed in the recent witch trials just a short journey away in Newcastle and, although she doesn’t really expect the witchfinder to come to Newbrough, she can’t help feeling uneasy. Her childhood nickname, a reference to her white blonde hair, is the Snow Witch, and she worships regularly at the well of the goddess Coventina, both things that could count against her if things go wrong…

Like Ferry’s previous book, The Witch’s Stone, this is a dual timeline novel where the two narratives become more and more entwined with each other as the story progresses and the characters begin to slip between time. There’s a strong supernatural element as Violet and Meg each become aware of the other’s presence despite being separated by centuries and Violet starts to see scenes from the past play out in front of her almost as if they were really happening. However, although I did like this book, I felt that it was very, very similar to The Witch’s Stone, even in the way the time periods merge together, and I think if I hadn’t already read that other book just a few months ago I would probably have enjoyed this one more.

Meg’s story is tragic and moving, especially when you remember that it’s based on historical fact; whether or not there really was a woman known as Old Meg who was executed for witchcraft in Newbrough, we do know that many other women (and some men) really did face this fate. I was frustrated with Meg’s naivety in thinking that the witchfinders wouldn’t come for her and wished she had just run away from the village, but I suppose then there would have been no story! In the modern day, I enjoyed watching Violet unearthing information about Meg, helped by her partner, history teacher Jake, who turns up unexpectedly, and another man, Ollie, who is in the area researching his family tree. All three become emotionally invested in Meg’s story, in one way or another.

I loved the setting of the book; I have visited some parts of Hadrian’s Wall but not the place where Meg supposedly lived. I was particularly interested by the inclusion of Coventina’s Well, as I recently read about Coventina and her links with water and healing in No Fair Maidens by Kim Willis, a book about ancient British goddesses. It seems that Kirsty Ferry will be writing more books about historical witches: her next one, The Witch of the Solstice is advertised for February 2027 and I’ll be looking out for it.

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

The dark atmosphere, witch trial theme and supernatural aspects meet the requirements of RIPXXI, I think!

The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly

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My 20th and final book for the 20 Books of Summer challenge is the winner of this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Alice Jolly’s The Matchbox Girl. I wasn’t sure about reading this book as I’d heard that it was written in an unusual style, but as reading the Walter Scott Prize shortlists is a personal project of mine, I knew I’d have to at least give it a chance.

The matchbox girl of the title is Adelheid Brunner who is twelve years old when the novel opens in 1934. Accompanied by her pet rat Franz Joseph, Adelheid arrives at the Vienna Children’s Hospital where she will stay for a while to be assessed and observed by a team of doctors. It was her grandmother’s decision to send her there as she was struggling to cope with Adelheid’s unusual fixations, such as her obsession with collecting matchboxes which she is constantly counting, arranging and putting in order. One of the doctors at the hospital, referred to by Adelheid as Dr A, shows a particular interest in her behaviour because it aligns with his research into what he calls ‘autistic psychopathy’.

Dr A, as we’ll find out later, is Hans Asperger, the man whose name was given to Asperger’s Syndrome, although that term is no longer used for various reasons – partly because people are usually now diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum rather than with specific conditions, but also because of Hans Asperger’s ties with the Nazis. This Nazi connection becomes an important part of the novel as the years go by and the war gets under way. Adelheid is now working as an assistant in the Vienna Children’s Hospital, copying and typing records. She knows that some children are being transferred to another clinic, Am Spiegelgrund, where they’ll supposedly receive specialist treatment, but through her work with the hospital records, Adelheid discovers that these children are described as ‘useless eaters’ – in other words, not considered worthy of life or conforming to the Nazi ideal – and once they are sent there, they’re unlikely to return.

Dr Asperger’s role in all of this is quite ambiguous in the novel; we’re seeing things from Adelheid’s point of view and she doesn’t understand exactly what’s going on. How much knowledge did Asperger have of what was happening at Am Spiegelgrund and what was the extent of his involvement with the Nazis? In reality, it does seem that there’s still some debate around this and the level of his complicity. The other doctors and nurses are also people who really existed and Jolly incorporates some of their personal stories into the novel too, for example Anni Weiss and Georg Frankl, who also carried out research into autism at the hospital but were forced to flee Austria for America because they were Jewish, and Sister Viktorine and Dr Feldner, who both bravely try to defy the Nazi regime.

As well as collecting matchboxes, Adelheid loves writing in her notebooks, which she does compulsively. She never speaks – she’s not sure what she should and shouldn’t say, so it’s safer to not speak at all – but her voice still comes across strongly through her unusual way of writing. Unfortunately, I found this as irritating as I’d anticipated: random words have capital letters, there are no quotation marks around speech and Adelheid often repeats words three times (“For so long everything was the samesamesame. Until it was all changechangechange”). I do understand what Alice Jolly was trying to do here and I suppose it was quite effective, but I found it so distracting I couldn’t get invested in the story as much as I would have liked.

Still, the setting and subject were interesting enough to make this a worthwhile read for me. The insights into how children with autism were viewed and treated in the 1930s were fascinating and so was the portrayal of life in Nazi controlled Vienna. I can see why the Walter Scott Prize judges were impressed with this book, even if it wasn’t a complete success with me.

Book 20/20 of 20 Books of Summer

The Crownless Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick

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This is the second of Elizabeth Chadwick’s two novels about Jeanette of Kent. If you haven’t read the first, The Royal Rebel, it’s not essential, particularly if you’re already familiar with this period of history, but I would still recommend it so that you can enjoy the whole of Jeanette’s story. The first book introduced us to Jeanette (usually called Joan, but I’ll stick with the name Chadwick uses in the novel), a granddaughter of Edward I, and took us through her nine year struggle to get her secret marriage to Thomas Holland, a knight in the royal household, officially recognised and declared valid.

The Crownless Queen begins in 1361 with Jeanette, now thirty-four years old and a mother of four children, awaiting news of Thomas, who is in Normandy on military duty. Sadly, when news eventually arrives, it’s the last thing she wants to hear – Thomas has caught a fever and died. Jeanette is heartbroken but understands that due to her position and wealth, she’ll be expected to marry again, so when the king’s eldest son and heir – Edward, the Black Prince – makes her an offer of marriage, she accepts. Edward’s father isn’t pleased and believes he could have made a better match, but Jeanette and Edward have been close friends since childhood and there’s genuine love and affection between them.

All of this happens very early in the book, so there’s a lot more to follow including Edward and Jeanette’s time in Aquitaine, where Edward has been sent to govern; the lives of their two young sons and of Jeanette’s children from her previous marriage; Edward’s mysterious illness which shortens his life; the death of Edward’s father, King Edward III, and the accession to the throne of the young Richard II at the age of only ten. Most of this is written from Jeanette’s point of view, but we do occasionally see things from the perspective of other characters such as Edward himself and Jeanette’s eldest son, Tom Holland. I enjoyed watching Tom grow up and mature into a young man, learning to love and respect his wife Alys FitzAlan, to whom he is married while they are both still children. Tom’s brother John (referred to as Johan in the book) enters the service of one of the king’s younger sons, John, Duke of Lancaster – better known today as John of Gaunt – and would later marry John’s daughter Elizabeth. Their story is told in The King’s Sister by Anne O’Brien – one of the things I love about reading historical fiction is the way so many books by different authors overlap and intersect providing different angles and approaches.

Chadwick has a real talent for bringing her characters to life, so even if you already know what happens, it’s still possible to become emotionally invested in the story. We know from history that Edward would die a year before his father and would never become king, but that doesn’t make the story any less interesting or the descriptions of his long illness and Jeanette’s despair any less tragic. We also know that it would be their son Richard who would come to the throne instead; child characters can be difficult to get right, but Chadwick does a good job of showing the flaws already present in the young Richard’s character that would make him an unpopular king later on, such as an obsession with the outward symbols of power and wealth.

Another aspect of this book I loved was the relationship between Jeanette and her brother-in-law John of Gaunt, beginning with suspicion and disapproval, but developing over the years into a friendship based on mutual trust and respect. Although John is married twice over the course of the novel, first to Blanche of Lancaster then Constanza of Castile, his affair with Katherine Swynford is also touched upon and apparently John and Katherine are going to be the focus of Chadwick’s next novel, which I’m already looking forward to!

Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

Book 19/20 of 20 Books of Summer

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

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Since reading The Help, which was published in 2009, it’s been a very long wait for Kathryn Stockett’s second novel. The Calamity Club finally arrived earlier this year, after a seventeen year gap, and I put it on my list for the 20 Books of Summer challenge – which maybe wasn’t a great idea as it was so long I could probably have read two or three other books for the challenge in the same length of time! Anyway, I loved it so it was time well spent.

The book is set in Oxford, Mississippi in 1933. Many families are struggling financially as the Great Depression tightens its grip and Birdie Calhoun’s mother and grandmother have sent her to Oxford to ask her wealthy sister Frances to lend them some money. However, Birdie quickly discovers that her sister’s life isn’t as perfect as she would like everyone to believe and she and her husband are having difficulties of their own.

Meanwhile, in Oxford’s Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur is still hoping that her mother will come to reclaim her. Abandoned on Christmas Eve, Meg has been living at the orphanage for two years and is now one of the ‘big girls’, considered almost unadoptable as most people would prefer a baby or toddler. For some reason, she has also become the main target of Garnett Pittman, the cruel and abusive woman in charge of the orphanage. Miserable and isolated, Meg is given a glimmer of hope when she meets Birdie, who has taken a temporary job as bookkeeper at the orphanage.

The novel is narrated by both Birdie and Meg and each has her own narrative voice (Meg’s is particularly distinctive). As the book has more than 600 pages, there’s obviously a lot more to the plot than the brief summary I’ve given above, but I don’t want to spoil things by going into too much detail. The way in which Birdie sets out to make the money she and her family need, while also trying to help Meg, is unexpected and daring, so I’ll leave you to find out what it is for yourself if you decide to read the book. What I can tell you is that it’s a book which touches on lots of interesting but serious topics including prostitution and what drives a woman to it, views on homosexuality at a time when it was considered an illness that could be cured, alcoholism and how it can break up a family, and of course dealing with poverty and everything that comes with it. However, it’s not as depressing as it sounds and there’s plenty of humour to lighten the mood, mostly provided by the unusual group of women who form the Calamity Club of the title.

I liked Birdie, who is outspoken, loyal and courageous, but it was Meg who really won me over. I thought Stockett perfectly captured her vulnerability, her longing to feel loved and wanted and her desperation to get away from the orphanage and never be sent back. She’s also intelligent, resourceful and, due to her circumstances, often seems older than her years, so she’s a child character with a lot of depth and complexity. There are other characters who, although much less sympathetic, are equally memorable: Garnett Pittman is a truly horrifying villain, while Birdie’s shallow, self-absorbed sister Frances is a constant source of frustration for both Birdie and the reader!

So, does the book feel too long? I think at times, yes, it does, and could probably have been condensed a little bit, but on the other hand it means there was plenty of time to become fully drawn into the story and the world Stockett was building. I loved the insight this book gives us into life in 1930s Mississippi and I’m hoping we won’t have to wait another seventeen years for Kathryn Stockett’s next book!

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

Book 18/20 of 20 Books of Summer

Little Spark by Jess Kidd

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A new Jess Kidd book is always something to look forward to and this year we’ve had two of them: first, Murder at the Spirit Lounge, the second book in the Nora Breen Investigates series, and now Little Spark, a standalone novel set in Victorian England.

Little Spark is the story of Bodkin Bell, a young woman with the unusual ability to generate powerful currents of electricity within her body. Bodkin has no idea why she has this particular skill – or curse, as it often seems to be. In fact, she knows very little about herself at all, except that she’s an orphan who has been taken under the wing of Cornelius Bell, a travelling showman. Cornelius has taught Bodkin how to pick pockets and use her wits to survive and together they travel the country with a sideshow act so Bodkin can perform as ‘Little Spark’. One day, however, things go wrong and Bodkin finds herself arrested.

Separated from Cornelius, her only friend, Bodkin begins to serve a prison sentence until she is rescued by Lady Hesperia Haseley who is making a charitable visit to the prison and takes a liking to her. Bodkin is offered a position as a servant at Point Mote, the Haseley estate, but once she arrives at her new home, she begins to wonder whether Lady Hesperia may have had another motive for bringing her there.

Point Mote is a neglected, crumbling mansion situated in the Kent marshlands, an appropriately atmospheric setting for a novel like this one. The former owner, Spendlove Haseley, was an inventor of automata, and his work is being continued after his death by his son, Ramshaw. Almost the first thing Bodkin sees when she enters the house is a disembodied mechanical hand stirring a pot of stew in the kitchen – and there are other machines and devices like this all over the house and its grounds. I was reminded of Anna Mazzola’s The Clockwork Girl, another dark historical novel about a creator of automata, although the settings and plots are quite different. Bodkin’s new job is to assist Ramshaw with his inventions and as she does so, she makes some discoveries about her employer, his family and herself.

Bodkin herself is an engaging heroine and although I’d expected more focus on her strange powers, it was interesting to watch her trying to solve the various mysteries of Point Mote with the help (or hindrance) of its other inhabitants, the usual cast of colourful characters you would expect to find in a Kidd novel. I was particularly intrigued by the two maids, sisters Coralie and Claudine, who have each lost an eye, one on the left and one on the right, although they won’t say exactly how it happened. There’s also Huffkin the dog, who may or may not be real! It’s such a fascinating, imaginative story; my only criticism is that I guessed the twists too easily – one in particular is a twist I’ve come across in several other books. Still, I found this a very enjoyable, entertaining novel, probably my favourite by Jess Kidd since Things in Jars.

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

The Boleyn Secret by Alison Weir

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Alison Weir has written so many novels about the Tudors it’s surprising that she’s still able to find different angles and perspectives to write from. In The Boleyn Secret, she tells the story of Kate Carey, daughter of Anne Boleyn’s sister Mary and, some believe, Henry VIII himself. There have been other books about Kate, but I haven’t read any (apart from where she’s mentioned as a minor character), so reading a whole book from her point of view was something new for me.

Katherine Carey (referred to as Kate throughout the book, so I will do the same) was born in 1524 to Mary Boleyn and her husband, William Carey, However, as Mary was having an affair with Henry VIII around this time, many historians have suggested that he was the true father, although this has never been confirmed and Henry never acknowledged Kate as his daughter. For the purposes of this novel, Weir assumes that the rumours were true and that Kate was aware that Henry was her father. She uses this idea to explore how this knowledge may have impacted on Kate’s life, how she discovered it and whether she wanted it to be known.

The book begins with the twelve-year-old Kate witnessing the execution of her aunt, Anne Boleyn (another story that has never been confirmed). We are then taken through the whole of Kate’s life, encompassing her close relationship with her cousin and half-sister Elizabeth (the future queen), her marriage to Sir Francis Knollys, her view on key historical events such as Henry VIII’s next four marriages, the reigns of Edward VI and Queen Mary, religious change and turmoil, and finally the long reign of Queen Elizabeth and the downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Having read all of Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series and several of her other Tudor novels, a lot of this felt repetitive as I was just seeing the same events from yet another perspective. However, there was still plenty of new material, mainly surrounding Kate’s family life with Francis and their sixteen (yes, sixteen!) children. Kate and Francis appear to have had a genuinely happy marriage, a nice change from all the unhappy marriages that often fill the pages of historical novels! I particularly enjoyed the part of the book where they, as Calvinists, go into exile in Europe during the reign of Mary I and her Protestant burnings. Weir admits in her author’s note, though, that this episode of their lives is poorly documented so she had to use her imagination here.

Elizabeth is a huge presence in Kate’s life; they are very close from childhood and Kate loves her as a sister, although she’s never quite sure whether Elizabeth knows the truth about their relationship and is afraid to bring the subject up herself. Elizabeth is presented as a complex person of many contradictions: she can be exceptionally generous and thoughtful, but also incredibly selfish; she often seems cold-hearted and appears to be jealous and resentful of Kate’s loving marriage to Francis, but she also has a vulnerable side and relies on Kate for friendship and support. It’s frustrating to see how Elizabeth repeatedly finds ways to keep Kate and Francis apart, purely because she doesn’t want to share Kate with anyone else; I don’t think I could have kept forgiving her the way Kate did – but of course, in the turbulent Tudor period it was important to stay on the right side of your king or queen!

Overall, I enjoyed this book but I thought it felt unnecessarily long, a common criticism I have of Alison Weir’s novels. I understand that she wants to include as much information as possible to give a full picture of the subject she’s writing about, but this is fiction, not non-fiction, and I’m sure there must have been things that could be left out or condensed to make the story more fun to read. Still, it was interesting to have the opportunity to learn more about Kate Carey and her family. Alison Weir’s next novel will be The Pretender’s Wife, about Lady Catherine Gordon and Perkin Warbeck, so that’s something to look forward to.

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

Book 14/20 of 20 Books of Summer

The Forever Summer by Lulu Taylor

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The first thing to say about this book is that it’s definitely not the light summer read you would probably expect from the cover and title. It’s actually a tale of lies, betrayal and treason set during the rise of the Nazis in 1930s Germany. It’s the first Lulu Taylor book I’ve read and I really enjoyed it.

The novel opens with a brief section set in the modern day, introducing us to Lottie Conway, a young woman who has grown up under the shadow of a family scandal – one linked with the actions of two women at the start of the Second World War. The Conway name has become tarnished by association, although the details have always been vague. When a new blockbuster film is made about the incident, Lottie decides it’s time to speak to the one person who knows exactly what happened: her grandmother, Dinah.

Dinah’s story begins in 1931 when her wealthy friend, Marina, invites her to a dinner party. Here she meets Marina’s cousin, William Conway, whom she hasn’t seen since they were children and they quickly fall in love and decide to marry. The marriage isn’t welcomed by everyone – William’s mother refuses to even speak to Dinah, which she assumes is due to her poor background – but the two are blissfully happy and head to Germany on their honeymoon. They’re planning to visit Rosemary, another of William’s cousins, at her school in Munich, but first William wants to visit the site of the Battle of Blenheim. However, they are not the only British tourists in the area that day…Winston Churchill is also visiting the battlefield, having some time on his hands after resigning from the Conservative shadow cabinet.

The Conways’ lives are changed forever by that chance meeting with Churchill, who believes that William, who works for the Foreign Office, can be of use to him in providing information on activity in Germany and the British government’s response to it. But they also make another new acquaintance in Munich who will have an equally big influence on their future fates: Ernst Hanfstaengl, known as Putzi, a close friend of Adolf Hitler, leader of the increasingly powerful Nazi Party.

The Forever Summer is quite a long book but was a faster read than I expected as I was so gripped by it. I loved the way the author obscures the true intentions of the characters from us, leaving us questioning who can and cannot be trusted. A good example of this is Victoria Gauntlett, one of the women who brought shame on the Conway family; it’s never quite clear whether Victoria is spying for Britain, spying for Germany, a double agent or just an innocent young woman. We only see her through Dinah’s eyes and Dinah is hardly an unbiased observer, as she is jealous of Victoria’s close friendship with William. By the time we reach the end of the book, then, there are lots of secrets to be revealed and some surprising twists to look out for along the way.

What I found most interesting, though, was the portrayal of the mood in Munich during the build to the war. When Dinah first visits for her honeymoon in 1932, she can sense a tension in the air even then; there are already men on the streets wearing brown uniforms with the swastika insignia and disturbing rumours of their plans for Jews. When she returns just three years later, the atmosphere has become much more oppressive; there’s a stronger military presence and Nazi flags line the boulevards and hang from shops and houses. I was also fascinated by the depiction of Putzi Hanfstaengl, a real person although I don’t think I’ve come across him in fiction before. Most poignantly of all, the book explores the question of whether another war was inevitable or if anything could have been done differently during that period that may have prevented it.

I’ll have to investigate some of Lulu Taylor’s other books; I had previously dismissed them as probably not being for me, but I’m interested in trying more of them now.

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

Book 12/20 of 20 Books of Summer