The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

August 19, 202424 Comments

I enjoyed Helen Simonson’s previous two novels, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and The Summer Before the War, but we seem to have had a very long wait for her third one. Eight years, in fact! Was it worth waiting for? I think so.

Although there’s not really any connection with The Summer Before the War, this book could easily have been titled ‘The Summer After the War’. It’s set in a small English seaside town in 1919, the year after the end of World War I. Now that the men have been returning from the front, Constance Haverhill has had to give up her wartime job running a farm and estate and is now at a loose end. Reluctantly contemplating work as a governess, she is given a temporary respite when a family friend asks her to accompany her elderly mother to Hazelbourne-on-Sea for the summer. Working as a lady’s companion is not really what Constance has in mind, but she agrees and soon she and Mrs Fog are settling into the hotel that will be their home for the next few months.

Everything changes for Constance when she meets Poppy Wirrall, a young woman from a wealthy local family who has started a motorcycle club for ladies so that they can use the skills they gained during the war. Some of the women are mechanics, while others are using their motorcycles to provide a taxi service for Hazelbourne residents. Constance is intrigued, particularly when Poppy decides to buy a damaged Sopwith Camel fighter plane so that, once it’s been restored, the club can begin training women pilots in addition to their other services. Poppy herself has never flown a plane, but she knows who will be the perfect instructor: her brother Harris, a former fighter pilot who returned from the war missing a leg and has been sinking into depression ever since.

The Hazelbourne Ladies… is a fascinating portrayal of life in the aftermath of the war. The War Practices Act, which is referred to in the novel, means that men returning from war must be given their jobs back – jobs which have been filled by women during their absence. It’s easy to have sympathy for women like Constance and her new friends who had, at least in some ways, experienced a greater degree of equality during the war that seems to be being eroded again in peacetime. Simonson also explores a different but equally frustrating situation through the story of Harris, whose disability has left him feeling useless and unwanted.

Another interesting character is Klaus, originally German but now a naturalised British citizen, who is working as a waiter at the hotel and is worried for his safety and position due to the general anti-German sentiment of the public. Although most of the novel is written from the perspectives of Constance and Harris, we do occasionally hear from Klaus as well, adding another layer to the story. I felt that the book was a bit longer than it really needed to be and it took me a while to become fully absorbed in it, but once I did I found it a perfect summer read.

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

This is book 18/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.

Book 37/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

A Court of Betrayal by Anne O’Brien

August 16, 2024August 16, 202418 Comments

I enjoyed Anne O’Brien’s last two novels, about the Pastons – one of England’s most influential families in the 15th century, who left behind a collection of correspondence known as the Paston Letters – and I wondered if she would continue to write about them in a third novel. However, with A Court of Betrayal she has chosen to tell a very different story: the story of Johane de Geneville.

Johane (or Joan) de Geneville is not a well known historical figure and most people have probably never heard of her, but as the wife of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, she played a part in an important and eventful period of English history. Having been imprisoned for leading a revolt against King Edward II, Mortimer escaped to France where he joined forces with Edward’s estranged queen, Isabella, and together they led a successful invasion of England in 1326. With Edward forced to abdicate and his young son crowned in his place, Mortimer and Isabella effectively ruled the country for several years. The Stone Rose by Carol McGrath, The She-Wolf by Maurice Druon and Isabella by Colin Falconer are just a few of the novels I’ve read that cover this period, but the focus is always firmly on Isabella, Edward and Mortimer. What was Johane doing while all of this was happening and how did she feel about it? These are the questions Anne O’Brien sets out to explore in A Court of Betrayal.

The novel is written in the first person from Johane’s perspective and I found her much more likeable and sympathetic than some of O’Brien’s other heroines. Throughout the course of the novel, as the title would suggest, she experiences and witnesses betrayal of many kinds, but the most significant for Johane personally is the betrayal she faces at the hands of her own husband. The marriage between Johane and Roger Mortimer is portrayed as a happy one at first. Although it was an arranged marriage, which was normal amongst the medieval nobility, there seems to be genuine love and affection between them and they go on to have twelve children together. This all changes when Mortimer begins an affair with Isabella and makes no real attempt to hide it, either from Johane or from the public – and even insists on Isabella being accepted as a guest in Johane’s home. I feel bad that, despite having read about the Mortimer/Isabella relationship before, I’ve never really given any thought to the fact that Roger had a wife!

With the story being told from Johane’s point of view, there’s a limit to the things she sees and experiences for herself (particularly as she spends large chunks of the novel imprisoned or under house arrest) and information often comes to her via other people. This doesn’t make the novel boring, however; there’s always something happening in Johane’s personal life and it’s still interesting to read about the political developments happening elsewhere even if we’re not seeing them at first-hand. Like most periods of history, this one has its fair share of controversies, mysteries and other matters on which historians have never been able to agree – how and when did Edward II die, for example, and what was the nature of his relationships with his favourites, Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser? O’Brien has her opinions on these things and incorporates them into the plot. It’s all very fascinating, whether you’ve read about this period before or not.

Although I haven’t read all of Anne O’Brien’s books yet, I have read a lot of them and I think this is one of her best. I’ve discovered that her next novel, due in 2025, is going to be set during the Wars of the Roses and will tell the stories of Margaret of Anjou and Anne, Countess of Warwick. Something to look forward to!

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

Book 36/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas

August 15, 202415 Comments

In the Upper Country came to my attention earlier this year when it was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and as I’ve been looking out for historical fiction set in Canada (see my Historical Musings post from last year) it’s one I was particularly interested in reading.

The novel opens in 1859 in Dunmore, Ontario, a fictional town settled by people fleeing slavery in the American South. It is home to Lensinda Martin, a young black journalist who works for a local newspaper. When an old woman who has recently arrived in Dunmore through the Underground Railroad kills a slave hunter and is arrested, Lensinda is sent to interview her in jail. The old woman insists that if she’s going to tell her story, Lensinda must tell one in return and so, over the course of several days, the two women begin to exchange tales.

The stories they tell reveal not only how the old woman came to be in Dunmore and to kill a man, but also the journeys of other slaves and the significance of all of this on Lensinda’s own life. They also explore the connections between the Black and Indigenous communities of North America – something which Kai Thomas in his author’s note points out is usually ignored in other novels about slavery. It’s certainly not a subject I know much about, so I found that aspect of the book interesting.

Although Dunmore is not a real place, Thomas explains that it’s inspired by similar towns that did exist, such as North Buxton, Ontario. It had never occurred to me that there were whole towns settled by slaves in Canada; in fact, everything I’ve previously read about the Underground Railroad has focused more on how the slaves manage to escape and begin their journey rather than on what happens to them after they reach their destination. It’s a book with lots of interesting themes and topics, then – and it’s always good when you reach the end of a novel feeling that you’ve learned something new.

On a more negative note, the structure of the book didn’t work very well for me at all. There were too many different stories, too many different voices and I found it difficult to follow what was happening and engage with the characters. I almost abandoned it several times because I just couldn’t get into the flow of the writing, but I kept going and did manage to finish it. I don’t regret reading it, but for me it was definitely more of an educational book than an enjoyable one!

This is book 17/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.

Book 35/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

August 13, 2024August 14, 202421 Comments

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is: “Planes, Trains & Automobiles/Books Featuring Travel (books whose plots involve travel or feature modes of transportation on the cover/title) (submitted by Cathy @ What Cathy Read Next)”.

I have listed below four books featuring planes, four with trains and two with automobiles!

Planes

1. The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin – The story of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of the famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh, and an accomplished pilot in her own right.

2. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson – I’ve just recently finished this one, so no review yet. A group of ladies in post-WWI England form a motorcycle club, then come up with the idea of expanding to offer flying lessons to women.

3. Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie – A Poirot mystery in which a woman is found dead on a plane flying between Paris and London. After landing in England, Poirot must decide which of his fellow passengers was responsible for the murder.

4. The Wild Air by Rebecca Mascull – I loved this novel about a young woman who decides she wants to become an aviator and sets out to pursue her dream.

Trains

5. Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith – Only a small part of this psychological thriller is actually set on a train, but it’s the scene of a very significant meeting between a pair of strangers who find themselves discussing a plan to commit two perfect murders!

6. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie – Christie wrote several novels set, or at least partly set, on trains: Murder on the Orient Express and 4.50 from Paddington are two others. In this one, Poirot investigates the murder of an American heiress found dead in her compartment on the famous Blue Train.

7. The Venice Train by Georges Simenon – Another psychological novel in which a man travelling from Venice to Paris by train agrees to deliver another passenger’s briefcase to an address in Switzerland. I read an English translation by Ros Schwartz.

8. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks – An alternative history/fantasy novel set on the Great Trans-Siberian Express in 1899. A book that leaves us with lots to think about!

Automobiles

9. Madam, Will You Talk? by Mary Stewart – This suspense novel set in Provence is one of my favourites by Mary Stewart and features a very memorable car chase scene.

10. Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North by Rachel Joyce – A sequel to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, in which Harold’s wife, Maureen, travels by car from the south of England to the north to visit a garden containing a memorial to her son.

Have you read any of these? Which other books can you think of featuring forms of transport?

Miss Granby’s Secret: or The Bastard of Pinsk by Eleanor Farjeon

August 12, 202415 Comments

Like many readers who have previously enjoyed books published by Dean Street Press, I was pleased to hear recently that they were continuing with their Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, after a period when the future had looked uncertain. Miss Granby’s Secret: or The Bastard of Pinsk is the first new book since that announcement was made. First published in 1941, it was written by Eleanor Farjeon and this edition also includes an introduction by Elizabeth Crawford.

The novel opens with the death of Miss Adelaide Granby in 1912. Miss Granby had been a prolific and very successful author, publishing forty-nine romance novels and gaining a large readership, but to her great-niece Pamela, she was always just Aunt Addie. Pamela, who considers herself a ‘modern woman’, has long suspected that Addie, who never married, didn’t understand the facts of life – in fact, Addie always insisted that she didn’t want to know, as it would affect the innocence of her writing. When a large, elaborate wreath is delivered to the funeral, then, accompanied by a romantic poem and a card inscribed “from Stanislaw”, Pamela is intrigued by the idea that Addie must once have had a love interest after all.

Pamela has inherited Aunt Addie’s house and her collection of papers, which includes letters, diaries and the unpublished manuscript of her first novel, written when she was just sixteen. This novel is entitled The Bastard of Pinsk (it seems from Addie’s notes that she believes a bastard is “a very noble Hero of Royal Blood”). As Pamela reads the documents she looks for clues to the identity of Stanislaw and wonders if it will be possible to track him down.

The text of The Bastard of Pinsk is included in its entirety, forming a story-within-a-story. Incorporating lots of tropes of the Romantic or Gothic novel, it’s both ridiculous and quite amusing, mainly because Adelaide Granby clearly doesn’t understand the words she’s using or what they imply. Although it was fun for a while, I started to get impatient to go back to the main story, but I’m sure for other readers it will be their favourite part of the book! I can see why the full story was included, though, as some of the things the young Addie writes about have parallels with her own life.

I enjoyed Pamela’s parts of the book and seeing the mystery of Addie’s relationship with Stanislaw unfold and overall I found it a lovely, entertaining read. A good choice for the revival of this imprint!

Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

August 8, 202414 Comments

Kate Quinn’s new novel, The Briar Club, begins with a murder in a Washington, D.C. boarding house on Thanksgiving, 1954. We don’t know who the victim is – that will be revealed later on – but it does seem that the killer is likely to be one of the seventeen people gathered in the kitchen waiting to be interviewed by the police. To get answers, we have to go back to the day four years earlier when Grace March arrives at Briarwood House and agrees to take the tiny apartment in the attic…

Grace is just one of several women living in the house, all of whom are hiding secrets and in some cases are not quite what they seem. There’s Nora, who works at the National Archives and is in love with a gangster; Bea, a former baseball player forced to give up her dreams; Claire, who is desperately trying to save to buy her own home; Fliss, an Englishwoman with a baby and an absent husband; unhappy, spiteful Arlene whom nobody likes; and Reka, an elderly Hungarian refugee. The novel unfolds through a series of interlinked short stories each focusing on one of these women, interspersed with chapters describing the aftermath of the Thanksgiving murder. The latter are narrated by Briarwood House itself, because the house knows better than anyone else what has been going on within its walls!

I enjoyed The Briar Club, but found some of the women’s stories much more engaging than others. Nora’s story came first and was completely gripping, which maybe raised my expectations too high for the rest of the book. By the time I reached Bea’s section in the middle, I was starting to get bored, although things did pick up again later on. Despite the brief chapters about the murder that are scattered throughout the book, I think anyone who starts to read this expecting a mystery novel or a thriller will be disappointed – but if you like character-driven novels with a slower pace it will probably be more to your taste. Speaking of taste, food and drink play a big part in the story, with each character sharing some of their recipes with us! So if you want to know how to make Bea’s ragù, Arlene’s candle salad or Claire’s potato pancakes, the instructions are all in the book (and even if you’re not a cook, I recommend skipping to the end of each recipe where you’ll find a suggestion for a suitable song to accompany the meal).

Although each woman in the house has her own individual story to tell, they all get together for weekly social gatherings in Grace’s attic room (the ‘Briar Club’ of the title) and over the years most of the women begin to form close bonds. A very different kind of relationship that also develops is between the women of the Briar Club and the two children of their landlady, Mrs Nilsson. Pete Nilsson gets a chapter of his own, but I particularly loved seeing how his younger sister, Lina, grows in confidence (and improves her baking skills) due to the friendship and support of the Briar Club. The novel also provides us with a snapshot of life in America in the early 1950s, with a focus on McCarthy and the fear of communism.

The Briar Club was an enjoyable read overall, but I would have preferred some of the women’s stories to be cut short or left out altogether. So far, The Rose Code is still my favourite of the three Kate Quinn books I’ve read (the other is The Diamond Eye).

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

This is book 16/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.

Book 34/50 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Favourite Books from Ten Series

August 6, 202430 Comments

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, is “Ten Favourite Books from Ten Series” (submitted by A Hot Cup of Pleasure).

I have limited this to one series per author and have only included series where I have read most or all of the published books. I’ve linked to my reviews where available.