Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

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Having enjoyed Sarah Perry’s previous two novels, The Essex Serpent and Melmoth, I had high hopes for her new one, Enlightenment. However, although I did find a lot to like about it, my feelings were more mixed than with the other two.

Enlightenment begins in 1997 in the small fictional town of Aldleigh in Essex, home to Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay. Thomas and Grace are decades apart in age but share a special bond, formed when Thomas first sets eyes on Grace as a motherless baby and experiences a wave of love and protectiveness he would never have expected. Now in his fifties, Thomas still feels an affinity for seventeen-year-old Grace who, like himself, is a worshipper at the Strict Baptist chapel in Aldleigh. The first cracks in their relationship appear when each of them falls in love – Thomas with museum worker James Bower, who unfortunately doesn’t seem to return his feelings, and Grace with Nathan, a boy from school.

Meanwhile, Thomas, who works for a local newspaper, has begun writing a column on astronomy and develops an interest – almost an obsession – with a vanished 19th century female astronomer, Maria Vǎduva, whose ghost is said to haunt a local manor. Thomas is so fascinated he devotes his life to trying to uncover Maria’s story, tracking down documents and correspondence in an attempt to find out who Maria was and why she disappeared.

The novel is divided into three parts, with the first part being set in 1997 before jumping forward in time to 2008 and finally 2017. Each time we rejoin Grace and Thomas, we see how their lives have changed in the intervening years and the effects of these changes on their relationship, while the constant threads running through the entire novel are the story of Maria Vǎduva and the mysteries of the night sky.

Sarah Perry writes beautifully but I think this particular novel might have worked better for me if it had been set in a much earlier time period. If the section heading hadn’t told us that the first part of the book took place in 1997, there was very little that would have made me guess I was reading about the 90s. The characters spoke and behaved more like Victorians, which I’m sure was intentional, to reflect the rather old-fashioned Strict Baptist community to which Thomas and Grace belong, but it still gave the novel a bit of an odd feel. It took me a while to connect with either main character, but I did eventually warm to them, finding a lot of sympathy for Thomas, who is gay and in love with a man who is not and isn’t interested, and for Grace, whose relationship with Nathan doesn’t go quite as planned either.

I did love the descriptions of the small Essex town, Bethesda Chapel where the congregation meets, and Lowlands House where Maria’s ghost is thought to roam. Not really knowing much about Sarah Perry, I was interested to learn that she drew on her own personal experience for both the geographical setting (she based the fictional Aldleigh on Chelmsford, where she was born) and Grace’s Strict Baptist upbringing (Perry herself also followed the same religion and grew up without television, pop music or fashionable clothes). And for readers who have read The Essex Serpent, this book overlaps with that one in a clever way which I’m sure you’ll enjoy as much as I did.

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

The King’s Mother by Annie Garthwaite

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Since reading Annie Garthwaite’s first novel, Cecily, about the life of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, I have been looking out for a sequel. As the first book ended in 1461 and Cecily lived until 1495, I knew there was more than enough material for a second novel – and here it is, after a three year wait!

Cecily was set during the reign of Henry VI and the early stages of the Wars of the Roses, describing how Cecily’s husband, the Duke of York, led an army against the king and was killed at the Battle of Wakefield. A few months later, Cecily and York’s son, Edward, was more successful, defeating the king’s forces at the Battle of Towton and being crowned Edward IV. The King’s Mother picks up the story as Edward begins his reign and Cecily enters a new phase of her life as mother to the king and therefore one of the most powerful women in England.

This is a complex period of history and I would find it difficult to give a summary of the plot. You may already be familiar with the key points anyway – Edward IV’s unpopular marriage to Elizabeth Woodville; the various threats to his reign and the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury; his death, leading to the accession of his younger brother, Richard III; and finally, Richard’s defeat by the future Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth, marking the start of the Tudor dynasty. This entire turbulent period is seen only from the perspective of Cecily, which is slightly limiting as Cecily is rarely at the heart of the action herself and often has to learn about major developments from letters or messengers. However, the story is never boring and moves along at a steady pace, holding my interest until the end even though I’ve read about this period many times before.

Cecily is shown as a controlling force behind Edward’s throne in the early days of his reign, advising him on what to say and do, but her influence over him gradually fades. She concentrates instead on building alliances, arranging marriages and doing whatever else she can to keep the kingdom and her family secure, taking her title of King’s Mother very seriously. The cover of the novel states ‘There can only be one’ and it’s true that Cecily is not the only candidate for this position. She forms an uneasy friendship with Margaret Beaufort, mother of the young Henry Tudor, deciding to trust her even while knowing that Margaret will do whatever it takes to further her own son’s claim to the throne. Then there’s Elizabeth Woodville, Edward’s wife, who also expects her eldest son to inherit the throne. Cecily makes it clear that she disapproves of the marriage and dislikes Elizabeth, but she accepts that Elizabeth is queen whether she likes it or not and does what is necessary to protect the Woodvilles – at least while Edward is still alive!

Elizabeth herself is not shown in a sympathetic light at all and comes across as immature, whiny and spiteful, which is disappointing as other characters are given more nuance. I thought Cecily’s relationship with her middle son, George, Duke of Clarence, was particularly well done, capturing Cecily’s mixed feelings about him – the love of a mother for her son mingled with anger and frustration as George, along with his cousin Warwick, betrays Edward over and over again.

One of the interesting things about reading a lot of books about the same period of history is wondering how the author will tackle some of the controversies and mysteries of the period. One of these is Edward’s alleged pre-contract of marriage to Eleanor Talbot, signed before he married Elizabeth. Some historians believe this was fabricated by Richard III in order to invalidate Edward and Elizabeth’s marriage and declare their children illegitimate; in this book, Annie Garthwaite assumes that the pre-contract did exist and was known to Cecily, who tried to cover it up. Another controversy, of course, is the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. I won’t tell you how Garthwaite approaches this, but authors do usually have to choose one side or the other and this is definitely more of a pro-Ricardian novel.

Richard’s entire reign is covered in the final 20% of the book, which does feel a bit rushed considering how eventful that period was. I think there would have been enough material for a third novel, which would have allowed for more depth. I felt that we never really got to know Richard’s wife, Anne Neville, for example, which took away some of the emotional impact from the later stages of the book. Still, I really enjoyed The King’s Mother. Start with Cecily if you can, but they are both excellent novels and reminded me yet again of what a fascinating period of history this is!

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

This is book 10/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.

Book 28/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

Six in Six: The 2024 Edition

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Unbelievably, we’re more than halfway through the year and Six in Six, hosted by Jo of The Book Jotter, is back again! I love taking part in this as I think it’s the perfect way to look back at our reading over the first six months of the year.

The idea of Six in Six is that we choose six categories (Jo has provided a list of suggestions or you can come up with new topics of your own if you prefer) and then fit six of the books or authors we’ve read this year into each category. It’s more difficult than it sounds, especially as I try not to use the same book in more than one category, but it’s always fun to do – and always a bit different as my reading tastes and patterns seem to change slightly each year.

Here is my 2024 Six in Six, with links to my reviews:

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Six books set in countries other than my own

1. Silence by Shūsaku Endō (Japan)
2. The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (Malaysia)
3. Water Baby by Chioma Okereke (Nigeria)
4. Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein (Trinidad)
5. The Nightingale’s Castle by Sonia Velton (Hungary)
6. Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis (France)

Six classic crime books not by Agatha Christie

1. The Undetective by Bruce Graeme
2. Impact of Evidence by Carol Carnac
3. Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh
4. Fear Stalks the Village by Ethel Lina White
5. They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer
6. Deadly Duo by Margery Allingham

Six books with a touch of fantasy

1. The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
2. The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
3. Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones
4. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
5. Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love by various authors
6. The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

Six authors I’ve read for the first time this year

1. Akimitsu Takagi (The Noh Mask Murder)
2. Zadie Smith (The Fraud)
3. Alexander Lernet-Holenia (Count Luna)
4. Paul Gallico (Thomasina)
5. Neil Jordan (The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small)
6. Benjamin Myers (Cuddy)

Six books about real people

1. The Tower by Flora Carr (Mary, Queen of Scots)
2. The Household by Stacey Halls (Angela Burdett-Coutts)
3. The Black Count by Tom Reiss (General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas)
4. The Angel Makers by Patti McCracken (Zsuzsanna Fazekas)
5. Clairmont by Lesley McDowell (Claire Clairmont)
6. The Reckoning by Sharon Penman (Llewelyn ap Gruffydd and Ellen de Montfort)

Six book covers that catch the eye

1. The Beholders by Hester Musson
2. The Book of Secrets by Anna Mazzola
3. The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal
4. The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron
5. The Puzzle Wood by Rosie Andrews
6. The Long Shadow by Celia Fremlin

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Have you read any of these books or authors this year? Are you taking part in Six in Six?

A Woman of Opinion by Sean Lusk

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In his new novel, A Woman of Opinion, Sean Lusk tells the story of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, based closely on her own published letters. Montagu, whom I previously knew almost nothing about, lived from 1689 to 1762, and was an English writer, poet and medical pioneer. She led a fascinating life and I enjoyed seeing it unfold through the pages of this novel.

A Woman of Opinion begins in 1712 with Mary eloping with Edward Wortley Montagu in order to avoid being pushed into marriage to her father’s choice of husband, the Irish nobleman Clotworthy Skeffington. Edward is a Whig politician and the two settle in London for a few years until, growing impatient with her husband’s lack of ambition and desperate to see more of the world, Mary manages to engineer a job offer for him as ambassador to Constantinople.

While Edward is busy trying to negotiate an end to the Austro-Turkish War, Mary gets to know some of the local Turkish women and is intrigued when she observes them inoculating their children against smallpox, through the method of ‘engrafting’ – taking pus from an infected person and introducing it into the arm or leg of an uninfected child. Mary, who has suffered from smallpox herself and been left with scarring to the face, is so impressed by the results of this procedure that when she returns to England she becomes determined to inoculate as many children as possible.

Most of the novel is narrated by Mary herself – in a formal, eloquent style that fits the 18th century setting, with no glaringly anachronistic language – but some chapters are narrated by her sister, Frances. Unlike Mary, who is the strong, independent ‘woman of opinion’ of the title, Frances has a gentler, more trusting nature. She is easier to like than Mary but her story is much less interesting and I didn’t feel that her perspective really added anything to the book.

Although the Constantinople episode is the most engaging part of the novel, Mary’s life continued to be eventful after her return. She formed a friendship and then a rivalry with the poet Alexander Pope, travelled to Italy where she began an affair with Count Francesco Algarotti, and produced a number of poems and essays. She also left behind her collection of letters, which were published in three volumes after her death as Turkish Embassy Letters (and are still in print today). Her other lasting legacy – her role in the development of the smallpox vaccine – has been overshadowed by Edward Jenner and I’m pleased that this novel has been able to raise some awareness of her contributions.

I enjoyed A Woman of Opinion much more than Sean Lusk’s debut, The Second Sight of Zacahary Cloudesley, which I felt had an unnecessary magical realism element and lost its way halfway through. However, I discovered from Lusk’s author’s note at the end of this book that one of the characters in Zachary Cloudesley was also based on Mary Wortley Montagu. If you’ve read both books, I’ll leave you to guess which one!

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

This is book 9/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.

Book 27/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

Six Degrees of Separation: From Kairos to Weyward

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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 the 2024 winner of the International Booker Prize, Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Michael Hofmann). I haven’t read it, but here’s what it’s about:

Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she strays for a single night he cannot forgive her and a dangerous crack forms between them, opening up a space for cruelty, punishment and the exertion of power. And the world around them is changing too: as the GDR begins to crumble, so too do all the old certainties and the old loyalties, ushering in a new era whose great gains also involve profound loss.

From a prize-winning German writer, this is the intimate and devastating story of the path of two lovers through the ruins of a relationship, set against the backdrop of a seismic period in European history.

I struggled to get started with this month’s chain. I know I have already used Berlin as a link in several previous chains, so I wanted to do something different. Eventually I decided to go with another book with a one-word title beginning with K: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (1). This is a fascinating novel exploring slavery on a Maryland plantation through the eyes of a woman from 1976 who travels back in time to the 1800s.

Another time travel novel, also with a one-word title, is Mariana by Susanna Kearsley (2), although the setting is quite different. Our heroine, Julia Beckett, moves into a lonely farmhouse and finds that her life has become linked with the life of a woman who lived there centuries earlier, during the aftermath of the English Civil War. This was one of my first Susanna Kearsley novels and still a favourite.

Staying with women’s names, my next link is to Theodora by Stella Duffy (3). This novel is set in 6th century Constantinople and tells the story of Empress Theodora, wife of Justinian I. Theodora begins life as an actress and entertainer, before rising to become one of the most powerful women in the Byzantine Empire.

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (4) also has a theatrical theme (and another one-word title). I loved this fictional biography of the 19th century theatrical family, the Booths, which focuses not just on the infamous John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, but also on his parents, brothers and sisters.

Junius Brutus Booth and Edwin Booth were renowned Shakespearean actors, which leads me to a play by William Shakespeare himself: Macbeth (5). I could have picked any play here, but my reasons for selecting Macbeth are simple – it’s one of the few Shakespeare plays I’ve actually posted about on my blog and, most importantly, it has a one-word title which keeps that theme going throughout my chain!

The three witches in Macbeth are referred to as the ‘weyward sisters’ in Shakespeare’s First Folio (and later, the ‘weird sisters’) so my final link is to Weyward by Emilia Hart (6). In this novel, Hart explores the stories of women from three generations of the same family who are connected through witchcraft and the power of nature.

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And that’s my chain for July! My links have included titles beginning with K, time travel, women’s names, acting, Shakespeare and witches. As an extra challenge to myself I only used books with one-word titles in this month’s chain.

In August we’ll be starting with The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose.

Babylonia by Costanza Casati

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‘Not all of us are made for the dust. Those who are destined to rise will rise one way or another.’

Babylonia was something slightly different for me. Although I read a lot of historical fiction, I’m not often drawn to ancient history and I think this could possibly be the first novel I’ve read set at the time of the Assyrian Empire. I enjoyed Costanza Casati’s previous book, Clytemnestra, though, so I decided to give this one a try.

Babylonia is set in the 9th Century BC and tells the story of the legendary Semiramis, thought to be based on the historical Assyrian queen, Sammuramat. I had heard of Semiramis before beginning the book, but knew almost nothing about her or the legends surrounding her.

Semiramis, at least in this version of the story, is the daughter of Derceto, who kills her lover after he denies being the father of her child and then drowns herself. The orphaned Semiramis is taken in by a shepherd, Simmas, who raises her along with his own son. However, Simmas is not a loving father and treats Semiramis so badly that as she grows into a woman she begins to plan her escape from the village. She finally gets her chance to move on and start a new life when she marries Onnes, the new governor of Eber-Nari. Onnes is the illegitimate half-brother of King Ninus and through marriage to him, Semiramis becomes close to the royal household. Still not content with how far she has come, Semiramis sets her sights on the throne, but when it comes to politics she may have met her match in the King’s mother, Nisat.

Much of the focus of the novel is on the relationships between Ninus, Onnes and Semiramis and the different kinds of love and hate each one of them has for the other two. It’s a fascinating triangle to read about with the dynamics shifting and changing throughout the book and the use of multiple perspectives helps us to see that there’s more than one side to the story. These three are not the only interesting characters in the novel – I’ve already mentioned Nisat, but two others who stood out for me were Sasi, the King’s spymaster, and Ribat, a young slave who serves as Semiramis’ eyes and ears in the palace, while dreaming of becoming a scribe.

Because of my lack of knowledge of Semiramis and this period of history in general, I can’t really comment on how this novel compares to other retellings of the same legends. I suppose one of the advantages of writing about a mythical figure is that it does allow the author a lot of freedom in how they choose to approach the story. As for the Assyrian world Casati builds around Semiramis, it feels real, believable and rooted in historical research, from the descriptions of food and clothing to the accounts of battles and political intrigue. Casati writes so beautifully this novel really was a pleasure to read.

If any of you have read any other books about Semiramis/Sammuramat or the Assyrian Empire, I would love to hear your recommendations.

Thanks to Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.

This is book 8/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.

Book 26/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Going Green

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This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Books with My Favourite Colour on the Cover”.

I’ve always loved green so here are ten books I’ve read and enjoyed with green on the cover:

1. The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo – A Japanese classic crime novel first published in 1950 and available in a new English translation by Bryan Karetnyk.

2. A Corruption of Blood by Ambrose Parry – The third book in one of my favourite historical mysteries series, set in the medical world of 19th century Edinburgh.

3. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin – A Gervase Fen mystery with a theatrical theme. I’ve only read two books in the series so far and must read more!

4. That Lady by Kate O’Brien – The first of two Virago Modern Classics on my list, with those famous green covers. This one is about Ana de Mendoza, Princess of Eboli and Duchess of Pastrana.

5. Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier – This family saga set in Ireland is a particularly bleak du Maurier novel and not a favourite, but I did still like it.

6. Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession by Alison Weir – Part of Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series, retelling the stories of the six wives of Henry VIII.

7. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith – The first in McCall Smith’s popular detective series set in Botswana and still the only one I’ve read!

8. Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy – Another VMC book. I loved this one, set in Regency England and telling the story of a man with two very different sides to his character.

9. The Deadly Truth by Helen McCloy – A 1941 mystery featuring the New York psychiatrist Dr Basil Willing. McCloy’s books seem to have gone back out of print again, so I’m glad I managed to read some of them while they were available!

10. Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson – This early Atkinson novel is an unusual, imaginative read that plays with the concept of time in some fascinating ways.

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Have you read any of these? Are there any other books you’ve enjoyed with green covers?