A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson

15 Comments

Before summer draws to an end (not that it’s been much of a summer here anyway – I started writing this during a thunderstorm), I decided to read the appropriately titled A Song for Summer, Eva Ibbotson’s last adult novel, first published in 1997. It has more recently been reissued and remarketed for a YA audience but, like Ibbotson’s The Secret Countess and The Morning Gift, I think it’s a book that could be equally enjoyed by both adults and young adults.

Ellen Carr is the daughter of a suffragette and a solicitor who was killed during World War I. Raised by her mother and two aunts, also former suffragettes, Ellen is expected to go to university and then pursue a suitably impressive career – a politician, perhaps, or the first female President of the Royal Academy. However, it quickly becomes obvious that Ellen’s talents and ambitions lie in another direction. What she really wants to do is cook and clean, so she heads for Austria to take up a position as housekeeper at the experimental Schloss Hallendorf School.

As Ellen tries to settle into her new job and home in the beautiful Austrian countryside, she discovers that the school is not the idyllic place she had hoped it would be. There are lots of eccentric misfits among the staff, as well as several troubled children with difficult family lives whose parents have either sent them to boarding school because they don’t have time for them or because they’re not able to care for them. With her warm, maternal nature, Ellen sets out to solve everyone’s problems and bring some happiness to Schloss Hallendorf.

Although this book was published in 1997, Ellen is not really what you could describe as a ‘modern’ heroine. She rejects a university education and the chance to be a pioneer for women’s rights like her mother and aunts because she prefers to bake and sew and clean. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, as long as it’s a woman’s own choice rather than something she feels is her duty, but not many of today’s historical fiction authors would choose to write about a woman like Ellen and this book does at times feel more like one written in the 1930s, when it is set, than in the 1990s.

There’s a love interest for Ellen, in the form of the Czech gardener and fencing teacher, Marek Tarnowsky. As we discover early in the novel, there’s a lot more to Marek than meets the eye; not only is he a talented composer and conductor, he is also working undercover to help Jews flee the Nazi regime. The story of Ellen’s domestic life at Hallendorf is interspersed with accounts of some of Marek’s missions, including a daring attempt to rescue his best friend, a Jewish violinist, and eventually Ellen also becomes involved in helping him. However, although I’m sure we are all supposed to love Marek as much as Ellen does, I never really warmed to him and this took away some of the emotional impact of the story.

Although I liked this book, mainly for its portrayal of Austria on the brink of war, I found it the weakest of the four Ibbotson novels I’ve read so far (my favourite is probably Madensky Square). I’ll continue to read her books and hope that I’ll enjoy the next one I read more than this one.

This is book 15/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2023

This is book 36/50 for the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

Ibiza Surprise by Dorothy Dunnett

12 Comments

Today (25th August) marks the centenary of one of my favourite authors, Dorothy Dunnett, and to celebrate I decided to read her 1970 mystery novel Ibiza Surprise, which has recently been released in a new edition by Farrago Books. Although Dunnett is better known for her historical novels (The Lymond Chronicles, the House of Niccolò series and King Hereafter, all of which I highly recommend), she also wrote seven of these contemporary mysteries featuring the portrait painter Johnson Johnson and his yacht, Dolly. The original title of this one was Dolly and the Cookie Bird and in the US, Murder in the Round.

Each book in the series is set in a different part of the world and narrated by a different young female protagonist. The narrator this time is Sarah Cassells, the twenty-year-old daughter of Lord Forsey of Pinner, who has been training as a cook since leaving school. Despite her father’s title, he is not a rich man and Sarah is earning a living by providing catering for private parties. When she hears that Lord Forsey has been found dead in an Ibiza boatyard, apparently having committed suicide, she refuses to accept that her father has killed himself. Suspecting murder, she sets off for Ibiza, where she hopes to uncover the truth.

Staying with the wealthy family of a school friend, Sarah finds herself doing the catering while also investigating her father’s death – and at the same time, looking out for a potential future husband. This last task could be easier than expected, as within hours of landing she becomes surrounded by eligible men. However, it appears that at least one of these men may not be all he seems – but which of them can and cannot be trusted?

From a mystery perspective I enjoyed this book more than the previous two – Tropical Issue and Rum Affair – because I found the plot easier to follow. I didn’t solve it all myself, though, and had to wait until the end for everything to be revealed. Sarah is not a character I could particularly like or identify with, but Dunnett perfectly captures her personality through her narrative style: an intelligent but frivolous young woman interested in men, parties, clothes and having a good time. Ibiza, of course, is an ideal place for Sarah to indulge her interest in those things, although I expect it was not quite the same there in 1970 as it is today! Away from the social whirl, there are also some lovely descriptions of the scenery, as well as some insights into the cultural side of life on the island.

We still don’t know a lot about the curiously named Johnson Johnson, apart from the fact that he’s a secret agent of some sort. He is on the peripherals of this particular mystery, although there’s obviously a lot going on behind the scenes that we don’t see. In this series, Dunnett employs the same literary device as in her other books, allowing us to see her heroes only (or mainly) through the eyes of other characters, which leaves a lot open to misinterpretation.

I will get to the other four Johnson mysteries eventually, beginning with the next one, Operation Nassau, which has also just been reissued. Meanwhile, if you think Dunnett’s historical novels could be more to your taste, here’s a post I put together for my Historical Musings series a few years ago on Reading Dorothy Dunnett – and just for fun on what would have been her 100th birthday, some Lines from Lymond!

Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue

8 Comments

Emma Donoghue’s new novel, Learned by Heart, is the story of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine, two real historical figures. Lister, best known for her diaries in which she writes about her lesbian relationships as well as her daily life in West Yorkshire, has been made famous to modern audiences thanks to the recent BBC/HBO drama series, Gentleman Jack. Eliza Raine, her first lover, is believed to be a possible inspiration for Bertha Mason, Mr Rochester’s wife in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

Eliza was born in Madras (now Chennai), the younger daughter of an Indian mother and an English father, who was working there as a surgeon for the East India Company. Following her father’s death, Eliza and her sister were sent to England to live with a Yorkshire family, the Duffins. We join Eliza at her boarding school in York, where she has made several friends but still feels that she doesn’t entirely fit in due to her background and skin colour. When Anne Lister arrives at the school one day in 1805 and is told to share Eliza’s bedroom, Eliza is immediately drawn to the new girl. Lister, as she prefers to be known, is a strong personality – intelligent, rebellious and an ‘outsider’ like Eliza herself. As the two grow closer, their friendship develops into romantic love, but as two fourteen-year-olds in 19th century England they are denied the freedom to be who they really are.

Interspersed with the account of their schooldays are several letters written by Eliza to Lister ten years later. Through these letters, we are aware from the beginning of the novel that Eliza will end up in an asylum, but we don’t know exactly how or why she came to be there. Although we do learn a little bit more as the story progresses, it’s not fully explained until Emma Donoghue’s author’s note at the end of the book. The novel itself concentrates almost entirely on Lister and Eliza’s time at the Manor School in York, something I hadn’t expected when I first started reading, and I do feel that rather than the letters, it would have been more interesting to have had a sequel continuing the story after they leave school and become adults.

After last year’s Haven, an unusual novel about a group of 7th century monks settling on an uninhabited island, Donoghue is on more familiar territory with this one (several of her earlier books have also been set in the 18th and 19th centuries). A huge amount of research has obviously gone into the writing of this book and her portrayal of everyday life in an English girls’ school during the time of the Napoleonic Wars feels vivid and real. However, I don’t think we really needed so many long, detailed descriptions of every game the girls played at school!

Anne Lister is an intriguing character and seeing her only through Eliza Raine’s eyes gives a real sense of the qualities that Eliza finds so attractive. It also means that we don’t fully get to know Lister or to understand her innermost thoughts and feelings, so she is always surrounded by a slight aura of mystery. I didn’t always like her and as she was clearly the dominant force in their relationship, I felt concerned for Eliza as it seemed obvious she was going to get hurt.

As I’ve said, I think I would have been more interested in learning about the adult lives of the characters, but I did still enjoy the book and thought it was a great introduction to the lives of these two fascinating women.

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

This is book 14/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2023

This is book 35/50 for the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

Top Ten Tuesday: Historical novels I read pre-blog

50 Comments

This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is “Genre Freebie (Pick a genre and build a list around it.)”

As you all probably know by now, my favourite genre is historical fiction. For this week’s list, I decided to highlight some books I haven’t mentioned here very often because I read them before I started my blog in 2009. I’ve included a good variety of different time periods and geographical settings, so I hope there’ll be something to interest everyone.

~

1. Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd – I’ve read and enjoyed all nine of Edward Rutherfurd’s books, each of which explores the history of a specific city, region or country, usually over a period of many centuries. I’ve only reviewed his two most recent books, Paris and China, but I think his earlier ones were better, including Sarum which is set around Salisbury and Stonehenge and follows five families from the Ice Age to the present day.

2. North and South by John Jakes – The first in a trilogy in which we follow two families, the Mains from South Carolina and the Hazards from Pennsylvania, before, during and after the American Civil War. I enjoyed all three books, particularly the first two, and also loved the star-studded 1980s miniseries. I felt that the story being told from both perspectives – north and south, Union and Confederacy, slave owner and abolitionist – helped me understand the Civil War in more depth than other books I’ve read.

3. Cloud Mountain by Aimee Liu – I read this when it was first published more than twenty years ago and loved it. It’s about an American woman who marries a Chinese man in the early 20th century – a time when this was not considered acceptable – and it explores issues including racism and prejudice, war and revolution, all set during a fascinating period of Chinese history.

4. Katherine by Anya Seton – Again, I’ve reviewed a few of Anya Seton’s books on my blog, including Devil Water and Dragonwyck, but not my favourite, her 1954 novel Katherine, which tells the story of Katherine Swynford, mistress of John of Gaunt (son of Edward III). It’s much more than just a romance – I loved Seton’s vivid and memorable portrayal of medieval England.

5. The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough – Another classic family saga I enjoyed when I was younger, this time set on a fictional sheep station in Australia where the story of Meggie Cleary and the priest Ralph de Bricassart plays out. It’s also another one that was made into a successful TV miniseries, although in this case I think I preferred the book.

6. Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati – This is the first of a series of six novels, although I lost interest after the third one and haven’t read the rest. The first book introduces us to Elizabeth Middleton, who leaves England in 1792 to join her family in a remote New York mountain village. Donati has said the series was loosely inspired by James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans.

7. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons – The first in a trilogy set in Leningrad, now St Petersburg, during World War II and following the story of Tatiana Metanova and her love for the Red Army soldier Alexander Belov. The horrific descriptions of life during the Siege of Leningrad, where the people suffer from the actions of both the Nazis and their own communist government, will stay with me forever.

8. The Physician by Noah Gordon – I loved this book and its sequel, Shaman, and have been meaning to re-read both for years, although I never have. It tells the story of Rob J. Cole, a boy who grows up in 11th century England dreaming of becoming a physician and who later makes the long journey to Persia looking for an opportunity to study medicine and fulfil his dream.

9. Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor – My edition of this book states “The original bodice-ripper is back in print”, which is quite amusing as this 1944 novel is very tame by today’s standards. It follows the adventures of Amber St Clare in Restoration England, during the plague and the Great Fire of London and although I can’t remember much of it now, I do remember being shocked by the unexpected ending!

10. Shogun by James Clavell – I haven’t read much historical fiction set in Japan, but I did read this one, about a 17th century sailor and navigator, John Blackthorne, who is shipwrecked on the coast of feudal Japan. The character is based on William Adams, the first Englishman to visit Japan. I remember finding the book interesting, but it wasn’t one I particularly enjoyed and haven’t been tempted to read again.

~

Have you read any of these? What are your favourite historical fiction novels?

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

7 Comments

Throne of Jade is the second book in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series set during an alternate version of the Napoleonic Wars where domesticated dragons are used for aerial warfare. It’s been a long time since I read the first book, Temeraire – in fact, I was shocked to discover that it’s been eight years! – but I found that I could pick up the story again without too much trouble and will try not to wait so long before starting the third one.

If you’re not a fan of fantasy and are put off by the mention of dragons, I can reassure you that the dragons are the only real fantasy element in these books (at least in the two that I’ve read) and they feel much closer to the seafaring historical novels of Patrick O’Brian than anything else. In Novik’s series, dragons have existed for centuries and by the time of the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century they have become an accepted part of the armed forces of many countries around the world. The dragons are intelligent creatures, capable of human speech, and form strong bonds with their human handlers.

In the first novel, we were introduced to Will Laurence, a former Royal Navy Captain who becomes the handler of Temeraire, a dragon who hatches from an egg found on a captured French ship. Having trained together for service in Britain’s Aerial Corps, Laurence and Temeraire develop a close friendship, but when it emerges that Temeraire is one of a rare breed – a Chinese Celestial – it seems that they may have to be separated. Celestials are supposed to be reserved for royalty and the Chinese had intended Temeraire to be a gift for Napoleon. As Throne of Jade opens, a group of envoys have arrived from China to recover their rare dragon. Due to Temeraire’s bond with Laurence, the envoys agree to allow Laurence to accompany them back to China with the dragon and the Navy provides a dragon transport vessel, HMS Allegiance, for the voyage.

In 1805, when the novel is set, it takes many months to sail from Britain to China. This means that most of the story takes place at sea on board the Allegiance, which gives the book a transitional feel with the sense that you’re always waiting for the destination to be reached so that the plot can finally pick up pace. That’s not to say that nothing happens during the journey, because it does – there are encounters with the enemy, storms and sickness, and several possible attempts on Laurence’s life – but I did feel that it was very drawn out and I was pleased when the ship eventually arrived on the shores of China.

As with the first book, the writing style and language are suitable for the setting, with none of that inappropriately modern dialogue that can pull you out of the time period. Although the addition of the dragons and the Aerial Corps obviously means that a large part of the story is fictional, real historical events are still playing out in the background. During the voyage, Laurence and his companions receive news of the French victory at the Battle of Austerlitz and the death of the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger.

The long period spent at sea does allow for more character development and for some interesting conversations between Laurence and Temeraire in which Laurence begins to see things from Temeraire’s point of view and to understand how much he has taken for granted regarding the feelings and sensibilities of dragons. He also starts to discover that the Chinese people treat their dragons very differently than the British – and once in China, these differences become more obvious and pronounced. Even if he’s allowed to, will Temeraire want to return to Britain with Laurence after experiencing another way of life? I won’t tell you what happens, although knowing that there are another seven books in the series after this one does take away a lot of the suspense in that respect. Black Powder War is next and I’m looking forward to reading it, hopefully not after another break of eight years!

This is book 13/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2023

This is book 34/50 for the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper

10 Comments

Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den, about a group of women working in a brothel in ancient Pompeii, was one of my favourite books that I read last year. With the third book in the trilogy on its way, I decided to catch up this summer with the middle novel, The House with the Golden Door. This book picks up the story where The Wolf Den left off, so if you haven’t read the first book yet you may come across spoilers here that you would prefer to avoid.

The House with the Golden Door is again set in Pompeii just a few years before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Amara has now escaped enslavement in the notorious Wolf Den and has started a new life as a courtesan under the patronage of the wealthy Rufus. She’s grateful for the opportunities Rufus has given her, but at the same time she misses the friends she’s left behind at the brothel and decides to do whatever it takes to rescue some of them too – a decision that she will begin to regret as it brings her back into the clutches of her old master and pimp, Felix. Life with Rufus also turns out to be not quite what Amara had hoped and she soon discovers that she’s not as ‘free’ as she had imagined.

Like The Wolf Den, this book is completely immersive and although it’s quite long at almost 500 pages, I was never bored. That’s partly because the Pompeii setting is so vivid and believable and partly because I find Amara such an engaging protagonist. In this book, we see her struggling to come to terms with her new status in life and the discovery that her freedom is not all she expected it to be. Despite her powerful new friends, she knows that she owes everything she has to Rufus and if he tires of her she’ll lose everything she has unless she can find another patron to take his place. This means she will always be under the control of one man or another, while not being free to be with the man she truly loves.

If Amara is experiencing conflicting emotions and loyalties, so is her old friend Victoria, who comes to join her in her new household. While grateful to leave her life of slavery at the Wolf Den, Victoria is still drawn to Felix despite everything, which is another source of worry for Amara. However, I enjoyed meeting one of the other Wolf Den women, the Iceni slave Britannica, again and watching her character develop as her grasp of the language improves and she finds her own unique place in Pompeii society. It was good to see that Amara at least has one loyal and protective friend!

Meanwhile, we’re drawing ever closer to the eruption of Vesuvius, of which the characters are still blissfully unaware although the reader has been anticipating it from the beginning. The final book in the trilogy, The Temple of Fortuna, is out in November and I’m looking forward to finding out how Amara’s story ends.

This is book 12/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2023

This is book 33/50 for the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

22 Comments

Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 novel Strangers on a Train begins, as you might expect, with two strangers meeting on a train. One is Guy Haines, an aspiring architect who is on his way home to Metcalf, Texas to see his wife, Miriam, from whom he’s been separated for the last three years. Guy is hoping to secure a divorce from Miriam so that he can start a new life with Anne, the woman he loves. Although Miriam has so far been reluctant to agree to a divorce, she is now pregnant with another man’s child and Guy is optimistic that this will be a chance for both of them to move on.

The other stranger is Charles Bruno, a young man from a wealthy Long Island family. After falling into conversation on the train, Bruno invites Guy to come and eat with him in his private dining compartment. Guy doesn’t particularly like his new companion, but soon finds himself telling Bruno about his troubles with Miriam. In turn, Bruno confesses that he hates his father – and then makes a shocking suggestion. If Bruno were to kill Miriam on Guy’s behalf, there would be nothing to link him to the crime. Guy could then kill Bruno’s father and again there would be no motive and no connection. Two perfect murders! Horrified, Guy refuses to have anything to do with the plan and when the train reaches his destination he leaves Bruno behind, hoping he’ll never see him again. However, when Miriam is later found dead, Guy quickly begins to suspect the truth. Has Bruno gone ahead with the plan – and is he waiting for Guy to uphold his side of the bargain?

This is the first book I’ve read by Patricia Highsmith; I thought it would be a good idea to start with one of her most famous novels and this one proved to be a great choice. It reminded me very much of In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, another classic psychological thriller I read recently. Although I didn’t love this one quite as much, I did still enjoy it very much and found it a real page-turner, despite the fact that Highsmith often slows down the pace to concentrate on exploring the thought processes of Bruno and Guy as they each try to deal with the situation in their own way.

The novel is written from the perspectives of both men and although they are both interesting characters, Highsmith doesn’t make it easy for us to like either of them, particular the spoiled, immature and constantly drunk Bruno. We can have some sympathy for Guy at first, as he tries to resist getting involved in Bruno’s schemes, but he has his resolve gradually worn away as he comes under more and more pressure to carry out the murder and in turn becomes less likeable as the story progresses. The secondary characters are less well drawn – Anne and Miriam never fully come to life and we don’t get to know the other potential murder victim, Bruno’s father, at all, which lessens the emotional impact of the book. From a psychological point of view, however, I found this a fascinating novel.

If you’ve read any other Patricia Highsmith books, please tell me which one you think I should read next!

This is book 11/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2023

It’s also book 41/50 from my second Classics Club list.