Recently in Historical fiction Category
I hate to say it, but I find Philippa Gregory's books a much better read than Elizabeth Chadwick's. Even though both authors often deal with historical events and key characters from a romantic perspective, I seem to put down Philippa Gregory's novels feeling that I'd been given a deeper insight into what might have happened at key points in history.
I think I've said it before, but having studied history to degree level, I still feel that the focus on political history that we followed missed out the significance of the individual and human relationships - we learned the what without really understanding the why.
In The Boleyn Inheritance Philippa Gregory tries to explain why Henry VIII got through so many wives in the final 8 years of his life, with the focus being on Anne of Cleves (No 4, divorced) and Catherine Howard (No 5, beheaded). There are sideways glances at the fates of Katherine of Aragon (No 1, divorced), Anne Boleyn (No 2, beheaded), Jane Seymour (No 3, died) and Katherine Parr (No 6, survived), underlining how Henry changed from golden youth to despotic tyrant, desperate for another male heir and to cling onto his more heroic and handsome yesteryears.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory
A tale set in England during the turbulent 12th century, when the repercussions of the Norman Conquest were still being felt - not just in England but in what we now know as France too - as Empress Matilda and her cousin King Stephen fought for the crown, bringing civil war, famine and fear to the country that Henry I had made strong and prosperous.
The man at the centre of the novel is John FitzGilbert, Lord Marshal of England, who after loyal service to Henry I, first supports Stephen and then switches sides to support Matilda, staying Lord Marshal throughout. He discards his first wife on the grounds of consanguinity, and swiftly makes a political and more profitable marriage to Sybilla of Salisbury.
As you might expect, Elizabeth Chadwick turns this somewhat unsavoury set of events into a tale of passion, heroism and honour - and whilst it is a good read, be prepared for rather a lot of battles and sieges.
Amazon.co.uk link: A Place Beyond Courage - Elizabeth Chadwick
Set in the Middle East during the 12th century crusades, this novel covers the build up to the infamous battle at the Horns of Hattin where Saladin and his Muslim forces trounced the faction ridden crusader armies led by King Guy de Lusignan.
Sarah Bryant tells the tale from the perspective of a young Bedouin girl and boy - Khalidah and Bilal - both half caste in the eyes of their nomad community and whose childhood ends and destinies diverge when Khalidah flees from a dynastic marriage, in the company of mysterious minstrel Sulayman. As the story unfolds it becomes clear that the past, present and future of these three characters are more closely linked than first appears.
For me, there were the added incentives of maps showing that (for some characters at least) their travels would take them to Persia and the Hindu Kush, and lots of accurate historical detail in easily readable form.
This novel is in the same vein as, but better than, Elizabeth Chadwick; better because it covers a wider canvas than simply boy-meets-girl-and-after-various-trials-find-love-and-marriage.
Loaned to me by Janette, The Constant Princess was a good dose of historical fiction, and one that offered me new insights on the life and role of Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife. Even having studied "The Tudors" at several stages of my education, I'd never really approached late 15th and 16th century English history from any other perspective than the core members of three generations of the Tudor dynasty: Henrys VII and VIII, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth.
Philippa Gregory starts with Katherine's childhood, growing up in Spain, one of the daughters of Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon. As Los Reyes Católicos, this powerful couple conquered the Muslim kingdom of Granada and brought to an end Muslim rule in Iberia after centuries of the peninsula forming the northern boundary of the Arab empire.
With Spain becoming the most powerful country in Europe, Katherine was always destined for a dynastic marriage and at an early age was betrothed to Henry VII's elder son, Arthur - named in honour of the mythical King Arthur of Camelot and in anticipation of a similarly golden age under the Tudor kings.
With such an upbringing it's not surprising that Katherine struggled in to adapt to the cold and less catholic climate of England. However, as the story of The Constant Princess unfolds we are shown how she matures, becoming adept at handing both politics and love with enduring pragmatism whilst never forgetting her duty to her faith and family.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Constant Princess - Philippa Gregory
Jed Rubenfeld brings together psychology, sociology and sleuthing in this highly readable murder-mystery.
The plot is set in New York in the early part of the 20th century, when money, power and social standing were all still controlled of the upper classes dynasties. However tradition is under threat as the cityscape and more egalitarian society we know today start to emerge.
The main cast comprise Sigmund Freud and acolytes, on their first visit to the United States and at a key time in the acceptance of Freud's theories on psychoanalysis. Their arrival coincides with the sexually-motivated murder of a beautiful young socialite and within days there is a second attack in a similar vein.
Despite the erudition, it's not a literary masterpiece - more CSI meets Cracker in an Edith Wharton setting - but a good read nevertheless.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld
David Malouf tells the story of one Australian man, Digger Keen, and the people in his life.
Digger's story starts with his mother's arrival from England at the start of the 20th century. Having established a home and a store at Keen's Crossing, children follow, but only Digger and his elder, "simple" sister Jenny survive to adulthood.
Digger's experiences as a soldier and prisoner of war in Malaya and Thailand introduce us to the tales' other key character, Vic Curran - a chap of conflicting characteristics whose life post war bring wealth and happiness, albeit built on slightly dodgy foundations. Having formed during their harsh PoW experience, and not always understood by either of them, the mateship between these two men is strong enough to endure the passing decades and the divergent paths their lives take.
It is a long novel, and the pace is slow - but this slow motion journey allows you to see and appreciate so much more about the characters and the times, places and events they live through. I loved every minute of it.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Great World - David Malouf
Recommended by Michael-at-work, I'd picked this up more than once from the library, but for some reason the synopsis hadn't seemed alluring enough. I'm glad I gave it another go.
Tash Aw tells us the story of Johnny Lim from three angles - his son's (Jasper), his wife's (Snow), and his British friend's (Peter) - each forming a separate section of the novel. Their memories and experiences overlap and frequently conflict, such that the central character - Johnny - and the truth, ultimately remains elusive. With a relatively small cast of characters, this novel brings to life a period of turmoil in South East Asia, principally Malaya/Malaysia: the end of era of British Empire and the expansion of Japanese power, and war, in its place. And it's beautifully done.
Set in 19th century London (in the main), this novel mixes historical fiction with biography to suggest a backstory for Edgar Allen Poe (the boy of the book's title), his childhood in England and parentage.
Told by his schoolmaster and one-time soldier Thomas Shield, the story covers mystery and murder, love, lust and lechery, financial scandal and social ruin. There's the high society balls and dinner parties of the country elite, the honest poor making ends meet in London's labyrinthine tenements and the ne'er-do-wells of both worlds.
It's not an easy read, but ultimately it is a worthwhile one.
Amazon.co.uk: The American Boy - Andrew Taylor
An excellent historical novel from Elizabeth Chadwick, telling the (true) story of Fulke FitzWarin, growing from squire to knight to outlaw to Lord of Whittington in the Welsh Marches during the reigns of Henry II, absentee Crusader King Richard the Lionheart and treacherous King John.
The love story strand tells of his marriage to Maude le Vavasseur, the politics feature Llywelyn the Great, Hubert Walter, Ranulph of Chester, and the action takes place throughout the lands of the Angevin Empire, which stretches across the English Channel.
What I enjoyed most about this novel was the balance between the male and female characters - Maude le Vavasseur wasn't portrayed as a damsel in distress, predestined to fall into the strong arms of Fulke FitzWarin (having overcome some obstacles in the path to true love, naturally). Instead we get to see these two main characters develop from childhood to adults, carefully picking their way through the tricky politics of the period, maturing as individuals and developing relationships as one does in real life.
Amazon.co.uk link: Lords of the White Castle - Elizabeth Chadwick
An unexpected delight. I remembered thoroughly enjoying Cloud Atlas, and I'd not expected this earlier novel to use a simpler version of the linked stories theme, and I enjoyed it just as much.
Each chapter features a different genre, time and place, and largely separate characters - but there are just the occasional chance connections between people that link all of them together - although you probably don't realise the significance at the time. The result is a novel that illustrates the butterfly effect theory, although in this case it is hard to work out who is the butterfly and which (where?) is the tornado.
Amazon.co.uk link: Ghostwritten - David Mitchell
Quickly read over an extremely wet May Bank Holiday weekend in Walton, another loan from the caravan's "library".
As with The Secret River, this is a novel set at an interesting time, in this case the 1930s, tracing the lives of a British-American family whose fortunes revive from the depths of the Depression, a revival that many are unaware is spurred on by nations preparing for war. The story moves from an industrial setting in England-between-the-wars to a delapidated plantation house bequeathed by a distant relative, and a world of farming and society still very much the same as it had been 50 years before.
But it is not really a novel of economics and business. Rather it's a gently paced novel, where the characters take centre stage. It put me in mind of the kind of thing Anne Tyler might write, if she were to set one of her novels in this period.
Amazon.co.uk link: Mason's Retreat - Christopher Tilghman
If you liked the historical sections of Kate Mosse's Labyrinth, you will definitely enjoy this novel. It is set in the Languedoc at the time of the Albigensian Crusade and the persecution of the Cathars by the twin powers of the Catholic Church and the northern French nobility, notably Simon de Montfort - the former thirsty for souls, the latter for land and the power and wealth it would bring.
I haven't quite worked out why, but the love story part of the plot of this novel didn't irritate as much as it has done in other Elizabeth Chadwick novels I've read of late. Possibly because all the characters remained strong throughout, and the story didn't end when the guy got the girl.
Amazon.co.uk link: Daughters of the Grail - Elizabeth Chadwick
Having enjoyed The Idea of Perfection I decided to try The Secret River, and found it an excellent read. Set in the late 18th/early 19th century, it follows the descent into poverty and crime of Thames waterboatman William Thornhill, culminating in Will's being transported to Australia, and fortunately (for him) his childhood sweetheart Sal and wife was allowed to follow.
The New South Wales section of the novel is a reflection of the London opening - seeing roles reversed and the family slowly but surely pulling themselves out of penury in this strange new land of heat and big skies. Their relationships with the local aborigine peoples of the Hawkesbury River provide a whole range of reflections - cultural, personal, political - not just between the native population and the European settlers, but between the incomers themselves, highlighting the range of approaches and opinions across the generations.
A good book. Strange reading it in Iran.
Amazon.coluk link: The Secret River - by Kate Grenville
Selected from my Library Books To Read pile on the basis that the cover illustration might not be allowed into Iran (I go there for a fortnight at the start of May), The Marsh King's Daughter was a quick read.
Set several centuries earlier than The Lady and the Unicorn, and in the lowlands of East Anglia it tells the story of a headstrong wool merchant's daughter who runs away from the convent to which her stepfather consigns her, and ends up becoming a successful business women, trading in sheep, wool and cloth, travelling around England and to Europe. There's the usual love story accompanying the history, and the Marsh King references are to King John's baggage train being lost in the treacherous quicksands of The Wash in 1216.
I fear that familiarity with Elizabeth Chadwick's novels is at risk of breeding some kind of contempt, which I wouldn't want as I do enjoy them - the books are well written and detailed, with good characters and plot; they're just a bit too similar in the overarching tale of two people overcoming adversity to find love.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Marsh King's Daughter - Elizabeth Chadwick
Hot on the heels of William Dalrymple's The Age of Kali, another good read - but of a completely different kind. The Lady and the Unicorn is a historical novel, set in 15th century Paris and Brussels, and tell the imagined story behind the amazing tapestries of the lady and the unicorn that are displayed in the beautiful Musée de Cluny / Musee du Moyenne Age [the Middle Ages] in Paris.
Tracy Chevalier provides insight into the detail included in the tapestries - the significance of the selection of the flora and fauna, and the poses and actions of the ladies and the unicorn - and into how the tapestries were made - from painting the intial images, to the dyes used to colour the wool, to the weaving and finishing. You learn about mediaeval business, society and economics, the power of the guilds and the role of women. The Lady and the Unicorn is a really informative read, lightly yet learnedly done.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracy Chevalier
Another strongly researched mediaeval romance from Elizabeth Chadwick, but the first that left me wondering whether I should have a break from her before reading another of her novels.... The Winter Mantle is by no means a bad book, but three generations' worth of stories isn't really sufficiently supported by three generations of characters and depth. And for the first time I failed to warm to any of the characters.
What you do get in exchange is a plot that shows the social and political impact of the Norman invasion of 1066 and the gradual merging of the Norman and Anglo-Saxon worlds, at a time when the Normans were building an empire on the continent that would power the Crusades - and which would once again emphasise the position of England and the English on the periphery of the Western world.
As one of the amazon reviewers put it, Elizabeth Chadwick "now writes about the period with the convictions of her obvious knowledge of the subject and has also made a subtle change from writing what were in effect historical love stories (nothing wrong with that) to historical novels with a love interest."
Amazon.co.uk link: The Winter Mantle - Elizabeth Chadwick
Another thoroughly enjoyable piece of historical chick lit from Elizabeth Chadwick in a richly evoked, detailed setting which I have come to expect in her novels.
As ever, the novel features a pair of star crossed lovers, although it takes a while for Annais and Sabin to grow up enough to recognise their destiny. Even then the path to true love does not run smooth in this tale which takes the reader, and the characters, from the dour Scottish borders to the vibrant and voilent Crusader Kingdoms of the 12th century, showing how close these two distant areas were brought by the Crusades and the people involved in them, on both sides.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Falcons of Montalbard - Elizabeth Chadwick
This novel charts the rise to power of the last Empress of China, from provincial governer's daughter to the establishment of her small son as Emperor in the 1860s.
At times it felt like a thinly veiled piece of academic work, which sat uneasily with the added shots of sexual and political intrigue. Still, I learned at lot about the workings of the Imperial Court and the Forbidden City in the declining years of the Manchu Qing dynasty, and their attempts to deal with predatory manoevrings of the western powers during the Opium Wars.
Amazon.co.uk link: Empress Orchid
I managed a trip to the Barbican library after work on Friday lunchtime, returning home with a pile of books - a fitting start to the Christmas holidays. I demolished this mediaeval Mills&Boon within 24 hours, mainly due to the fact that I started reading on Saturday evening in the absence of anything decent on the telly, carried on into the wee small hours of Christmas Eve..... eventually finishing the book on the way home from Michael's evening of food, (mulled) wine and bonhomie in Ladbroke Grove.
Very much along the same lines as The Love Knot, my first Elizabeth Chadwick, and just as enjoyable. The Champion tells the tale of two young lovers, one a runaway monk, the other the unacknowledged grand daughter of the Duke of Stafford, who grow up in the community of the tournament camp in late 12th century France, in the shadow of the Angevin courts of Richard the Lion Heart and Prince/King John and the French and Norman world of King Philippe. Nothing too demanding.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Champion - Elizabeth Chadwick
A perfect antidote to the sadness I felt on finishing The Master, Elizabeth Chadwick's merging of mediaeval historical fiction and modern chick lit is a notch above a bodice ripper, on a par with Jean Plaidy for plot and accuracy but with rather more racy sex scenes!
Set during the 12th century civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda - a time when Christ and his Saints slept leaving the people of England to freeze and starve - this tale tells the lives and love of a normanised Saxon knight, Oliver Pascal, and young widow turned midwife Catrin.
An easy page turner, but a credible one. My first encounter with Elizabeth Chadwick, but I'll be on the look out for more of her novels.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Love Knot - Elizabeth Chadwick
I wasn't too sure I was in the mood for an erudite biography of Henry James, particularly as I've never read any of his novels (although I watched the film version of The Portriat of a Lady, I was not inspired to read the novel), but Colm Toibin's lightly fictionalised account of Henry James' life during the final years of the 19th century was a joy to read.
This novel brings to life James' family and friendships, his American upbringing at the time of the Civil War and the ways he used his novels to provide alternate lives for the people he loved, and for his relationships with them. I put down this book with a feeling of immense sadness arising from James' inability to allow himself to recognise or accept the love he felt for others and they for him.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Master - Colm Toibin
Interesting as an account of the New Zealand gold rush of the 1860s, and the lure of 'the colour': gold. However, I didn't warm to any of the characters, not even Harriet the main female lead who exchanges a governess' life in England for that of an immigrant's wife in New Zealand where she and her equally novice husband try to estalish a farm in the harsh conditions of the South Island, with mother-in-law in tow.
Buy it: Amazon link
I've seen this in many a bookshop's Bestsellers pile over the past few months, so spotting it at the library I picked up a copy, having already bought a copy for Karen for her birthday a few months ago.
Although it's clearly of the Da Vinci Code genre, it's got different historical emphasis, much stronger female characters and a few drops of mysticism. Not to be taken too seriously, it's an enjoyable read with the twin tales set in the 13th century and the 21st intertwining throughout the novel, and not surprisingly coming together at the end.
Buy it: Amazon link
Having polished off All That Remains rather more rapidly than expected, I resorted to the books that line the shelves of the Gyford's Walton residence.... Having already plundered the shelves on numerous occasions I knew I'd have to try something I'd previously rejected.
The one I picked, Richard Rayner's The Cloud Sketcher, has proved a very good read, and I'd never have expected a novel to teach me about both American urban architecture and Finnish history, whilst simultaneously managing to build in a romance across a vast social divide!
The Cloud Sketcher follows the life, loves and career of Finnish architect Esko Vaananen, taking him and us from his childhood in a remote peasant village to the prosperity and opportunities available in Helsinki to a young architect at start of his career in the early years of the 20th century. This promising start is cut short by the bitter fighting between the Reds and the Whites as Russia's Bolshevik Revolution spills over into Civil War in Finland, its neighbour and, at this time (I think...), vassal state.
The action then moves on to east coast of America in the glorious 20s, a time of prohibition and jazz, millionaires, gangsters and their molls, and the skyscrapers evoked in the title. Even if times the plot seems a bit bloated, Richard Rayner keeps you turning the pages right to the bitter end.
Buy it: Amazon link
I would put this novel into the "I'd've been happy reading it as a library book; but I'd have felt disappointed if I'd paid anything like the RRP for it". So it was a good job I'd bought it at the cheap and cheerful charity second hand bookshop in Hereford.
It wasn't bad, just a little light in places - but that's the risk of reading historical novels featuring dashing heroes amidst a cast of characters from a range of cultures, enjoying epic adventures and political intruige in lands afar.... I *always* end up comparing them with Dorothy Dunnett's, and by and large they come up short.
And there were always going to be some cultural/literary differences arising from the fact that I was reading a translation of a book originally penned in french. Occasionally this was irritatingly obvious, albeit at the gnat rather than shark end of the scale, in the over-elaborate use of synonyms. The example that sticks in the mind is the various words for elephant that appear in the space of a few paragraphs on pages 315 and 316: pachyderm, mastodon, animal - I can just hear the french stylistic flourishes.....
But enough gripes, because The Seige of Isfahan is definitely worth a read if you like historical novels. In it, Jean-Christophe Rufin returns to the characters twenty years after he created in The Abyssinian and finds them scattered across the countries and empires of Persia, Europe and Central Asia. From the central base of Isfahan under the last of the Persian Kings, the plot twists and turns its way across time and place reuniting the orginal cast back once more, but this time in an Isfahan destroyed by seige and ruled by the Afghans of Kandahar.
Buy it: Amazon link
An enjoyable birthday present from Karen, a mixture of modern and historical fiction in the mould of The Da Vinci Code. As the name suggests, The Last Templar features the Knights Templar , but this time the leading couple (both americans in this version, with the female as the academic, and her love interest a New York FBI agent) unearth a different long hidden secret that explains and the Templars' strained relationship with the Roman Catholic church.
A definite page turner, which you'd expect as the author - Raymond Khoury - is a script writer, but if you didn't find The Da Vinci Code erudite enough, I suspect this isn't a novel for you.
Buy it: Amazon link
I wasn't at all sure about this from the blurb and (over)enthusiastic recommendation from Joanne Harris. Still, I'm always a sucker for epic novels set in glorious eras in the past, and all the more so when the action takes place in pre-Maoist China. In this novel we're quickly introduced to the cast of (mainly) female characters and the concept of jin-shei - a sisterhood determined by a self-determined commitment to friendship and loyalty, and facilitated by a secret women's language. Once the relationships are established, the plot continues headlong into tales of courtly intrigue and powerplays, spiritual and self-discovery - both for good and for bad set against the background of social and cultural life in mediaeval capital of the Syai empire, aka mediaeval China.
Not as good as Dorothy Dunnett, but then she does build her plots over a whole series of books.
Buy it: Amazon link
Another Barbican library loan, and another good Easter holiday read. Set in an unnamed English county in the early years of the 20th century, this novel is narrated by Catherine, and takes us from her childhood years of priveledge without parents, to incest and abortion and on into genteel poverty and loss brought The Great War. Not a joyous novel, but a good read, especially sitting in rural Herefordshire.
Buy it: Amazon link
Phil bought this for Christmas 2004.... and it has sat on the "Books to read" bookshelf ever since.... It's not that I didn't want to read Cloud Atlas, just that as a hefty hardback I knew that it would be awkward to read in bed, which is where I do most of my reading.
However, it turned out to be a classic "I've started so I'll finish", in the sense that I just kept having to turn the pages, to read "just one more chapter". I loved the way the book's structure and story set mirror a book's physical make up of each of the signatures (I've just had to look that up on Wikipedia), where you only get a continuous selection of text printed on the middle pair of pages.
I also really liked the way David Mitchell gradually revealed the connections between the stories and their narrators, and carried forward a narrative stretching from the 19th century to an unspeficied number of centuries in the future.
If you enjoy fiction in flavours raning from historical, to modern, to science, then read this novel!
Buy it: Amazon link
There's been a bit of a lull in my keeping my Reading pages up-to-date, initially because we spent Christmas and New Year in the Falkland Islands, where our access to the internet was over dial-up, and subsequently because I've been busy/not in the mood since our return. And I'm sure that I would have read something between finishing Crimson Rose at the start of December and our two-day flight out to Mount Pleasant Airport, East Falkland.
Time for a catch-up.....
The Evening of the World: A Novel of the Dark Ages by Allan Massie promised much in the blurb, but proved to be a struggle to complete. I am sure that had I not been flying at 30,000 feet with only one other novel to last me to Patagonia I would have given up. It was too mystical for my taste, and I didn't click with any of the characters.
One month on, the only elements of the story that I can recall are that it is set at the time when the Roman Empire is on the wane, and that the lead was a Roman nobleman/warrior. At the start of the tale he has a strange encounter in a mysterious forest in Italy, and soon after fights one of the Knights of the Round Table.
Buy it: Amazon link
Another excellent historical read from Philippa Gregory (on loan from Janette), this time covering the early years of Elizabeth I's reign, the rise to power and fall from grace of her favourite Robert Dudley, the political machinations of Cecil, the religious uncertainty of the early decades of the protestant religion, the marital manoeuverings of various European powers, and the untimely death of Lord Dudley's wife, Amy.
Philippa Gregory succeeds in making you appreciate that not only is history written by the winners, but also that the focus on political history masks the domestic and day to day events and relationships that underpin those politics. However, in revealing the day to day behaviours of the great and the good, Philippa Gregory also draws a cast of characters most of whom we know of already yet none of whom are particularly likeable. Although this in itself does not mean that the book is any less worth a read, it does mean you are not drawn into the novel so readily. In fact, what I particularly liked about this novel was the author's end note, which in essence states that, "This is based on a true story", the bare outline of which I knew. However the detail of that truth delivers a far more fascinating scenario than I'd hitherto imagined.
Hmmm, what next? I had a few false starts before I got to this book ... do I go back to The Saskiad (the promise of the random paras I read in the second hand shop in Hereford didn't stand up to closer scrutiny), or further back to White Mughals (a bit heavy going, although very good on the detail) .... or on to something completely different?
Buy it: Amazon link
I fear that historical novels are never 'as good' once you've read Dorothy Dunnett....
The plot of this relatively slim volume sounded promising enough - young orphan adopted by glass-making family is sent on a quest for Lapis Lazuli, the pigment that produces 'the colour of heaven' - but the telling is just too thin. Runcie skates over the thirteenth century's scientific discoveries and their dissemination (spectacles) and the pre-Marco Polo travel and trade (travelling from Italy to present-day Afghanistan) with the concomitant meeting of cultures. And as for the love story, wholly unnecessary (unless Runcie is looking to sell the movie rights to Ridley Scott).
Dorothy, do it justice!!
Buy it: Amazon link
Set in 9th century China at the twilight of the Tang Dynasty and their Empire, Justin Hill's novel is a gem. It tells the tale of the doomed lives and loves of Minsiter Li, a Government Official from a powerful family, who buys as his concubine Little Flower/Lily, a beautiful and educated orphan from the northerm fringes of the Empire. When their love thwarted by pride, custom and family, Lily turns to poetry and becomes a courtesan to the rich and powerful.... so far, so clich
The blurb and the plaudits didn't entice, but to have continued to overlook this book would have been my loss. Small Island follows the lives of two couples, one from Jamaica the other from England, focussing on their experiences during World War II and the years that followed when Empire faded into Commonwealth, and Jamaicans moving to England became immigrants rather than fellow war veterans and members of the Empire.
The strong and individual voices of the characters make this a powerful, thought-provoking novel, when it could easily have been far more heavy-handed and less convincing.
Buy it: Amazon link
Now, do I go back to give The Star of the Sea another go.... or abandon that ship for another of the recent selection from the Barbican library's fiction section.....?
Another easy read from Joanne Harris, and the first one I've read whilst in France where the novel is set. Timewise, the setting is the renassiance (although the feel is more middle ages) with the murder of King Henri IV throwing the tranquil world of the Abbey of Ste Marie de la Mer into chaos, and in particular that of the lead character Juliette, a former actress and rope dancer who had taken refuge in the convent to protect herself and her baby daughter after the betrayal of the troupe of travelling players she'd grown up in.
I have to agree with the Amazon reviewer who describes Joanne Harris's leading ladies as being as predictable as the Model-T [Ford].... and whatever else the reviews say, Joanne Harris is no Dorothy Dunnett.
Buy it: Amazon link
A Christmas present from Phil selected from my Wishlist, this slim novel continued the crime theme I'd started with Cabal.
Set in mediaeval London, half of the book's attraction was that the action takes place around where I live, and many of the street names and places remain in place in the 21st century. Peter Ackroyd tells a tale of religious and political intrigue, with each chapter advancing the plot from the perspective of a different character. Cleverly done, making for an easy read. But then I'm biassed by the location, in terms of both in time and place.
Buy it: Amazon link
Set in London the early 18th century, in the era when financial institutions and paper-based monetary systems were emerging in concept and in fact, this book is part murder-mystery, part-historical novel, with lots of detail on the jewish and financial communities in London, as well as its underworld of fist-fighters, gin joints, pick pockets and prostitutes.
It took me a while to get into it - in addition to the breadth of information provided by way of general backgrounds and settings, the main character is a bit of a mish-mash, and I found it hard to get a feel for him. At times it felt like David Liss was just desparate to fit in everything he'd discovered in doing his research.
That said, in the end, I wanted to know what happened enough to take the novel with me on my trip to India and Nepal! I still couldn't articulate a snappy description of the book when asked by the Gulf Air stewardess though....
Buy it: Amazon link
A hefty historical novel, but an interesting one, telling the tale of the Tudor court from the perspective of a jewish girl growing up through the Spanish Inquisition and Reformation Europe. The bulk of the novel set in England as it slowly and painfully progresses through the decades of religious strife - from Henry VIII's opportune adoption of protestantism through the short reign of Edward VI and the burnings under Catholic Mary I to an eventually more tolerant era under Elizabeth I. It's an unusual angle and a riveting read, mixing well known facts with the more personal insights allowed by fiction.
Buy it: Amazon link
I missed out on the mini series they made of this stand-alone Philippa Gregory novel - I'd not caught the PG bug, and the adverts made the whole thing seem a bit worthy.
I was wrong. The book is great, and the end leaves you with more unknowns than you might expect. Although the early chapters give you a lot of insight into what's going on in Mehuru's head, I found it disappointing that this tailed off once he'd got to Bristol at which point the book became much more action-narrative based. That said, the action's gripping, and you are still aware of the emotions that the main characters go through and the battles between the upwardly mobile Traders and the downwardly mobile niece of the Gentry as well as the ensalved Africans, and the host of lesser characters that make up the backdrop of 18th century Slaves and Sugar Trade.
An excellent and accessible book for people who don't know much about England's 18th century slave trade, and the way it underpinned many other trading activities, and influenced Parliament.
Buy it: Amazon link
An excellent historical novel, evoking the crazy days of Savonarola's reign in early renaissance Florence, subtly weaving together the early, less well known, years of well known historical figures with intruiging fictional characters.
As one of the Amazon reviewers puts it:
The beginning is extremely gripping - when I read it I thought 'wow - who is this nun who decided to fake a breast tumour, commit suicide and had an erotic silver serpent tattooed all over her body??' What on earth can she have gone through, what kind of person was she before she became a nun?'
I read this (morning, noon and night!) on the recommendation of Karen Grimshaw after I'd given her The Lady and the Unicorn for her birthday. We shared the delights of Lymond and Niccolo at St Andrews, and Karen reckons Sarah Dunant isn't far off Dorothy Dunnett status. Hurrah!
Such a shame that The Birth of Venus is a stand-alone novel, and Sarah Dunant's other books seem to be modern day detective fiction.... let's hope there are more where it came from.
Buy it: Amazon link
I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel meets SciFi/Fantasy - my two favourite fictional genres! A good borrow from Phil.
As the blurb on the back said, "Imagine a world without Europe...."
.... or more accurately a world where the population of Europe is almost entirely wiped out by the Plague in the Middle Ages. Focussing key people, eras and events, Kim Stanley Robinson describes the next 600 or so years (it's hard to keep track of where "we"'d got to in his timeline) and conducts a huge thought experiment over the course of 800 pages.
It would have been useful to know that "Extra continuity is given by a touch of fantasy as the Buddhist wheel of reincarnation brings back the same characters (coded by initials) again and again with varied roles, relations and sexes."
Buy it: Amazon link
A page turner of a novel, set in the London of the last quarter of the 19th century, with the plot and the narrative slowly metamorphosing in the telling of the tale of a London prostitute's life changing from the lurid to the (almost) respectability. Crammed full of colourful characters and lots of detail on all manner of subjects - a great New Year novel.
Buy it: Amazon link
At its simplest, this is a tale of two girls, who become friends and grow up in London during the first two decades fo the 20th century. Overlying this simple story is the emergence of women's suffrage, and the slow but steady social changes between the death of Queen Victoria and the upheavals of World War I.
The action revolves around a fictional graveyard in North London, where two families have adjacent plots, and where the girls themselves meet, and then befriend a young grave digger, whose contributions to the narrative provide an insight into how the metropolitain world worked at the start of the 20 century.
Buy it: Amazon link
Enjoyable novel set in the last decades of empire. Written from the perspective of a semi-anglicised Indian and his Anglo-Indian adopted son, the story takes you from India to China and on to Borneo. Not a great deal of action, but the story covers a lot of ground, emotionally, historically and geographically.
Buy it: Amazon link
My first encounter with Kunal Basu, and a good bank holiday read about persian artists in the indian kingdoms of the 16th century. It's not going to be to everyone's taste, but I enjoyed the mix of history, art, culture and politics in an exotic setting. The inclusion of a few minatures by way of illustation/example would have enhanced the novel for the non-art historians amongst us!
Buy it: Amazon link
Another collection of short stories spanning the 18th to 20th centuries, set mainly in North America, but with the glory explorer days of the British Empire as its starting point.
I really enjoy the way Andrea Barrett gives you a glimpse into her characters' worlds, and then leaves them there... but then in subsequent stories, about apparently unconnected people, she provides sideways glances at the paths their lives then followed.
This collection starts off with maps and mapping, exploration and discovery and ends up with health and social history. Fascinating, and engaging.
Buy it: Amazon link
A birthday present from Emma, this novel travelled out to Walton and back again before I started it this weekend just gone.
Shuttling between mid-17th century life of down on his luck portrait painter van Rijn (Rembrandt), and 21st century girl Amy Dale, this is shaping up to be a lovely combination of historical novel with a quasi-Changing Rooms slant, and a smidgeon of Joanna Trollope thrown in for good measure.
Reminds me of Michael Frayn's Headlong, and I suspect that it stems from the current trend in novels about Dutch art. However, as far as I can tell, neither Deborah Moggach's Tulip Fever, or Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring, are set partly in modern day Hull!
Hmm... there's a hint of Philippa Gregory here too....
Verdict: Haddock review
Buy it: Amazon link
Vols 1 and 2 of The Crusades Trilogy, by swede Jan Guillou, translated by Anna Paterson.
Borrowed from Battersea library in April 2003, and after a slow start, devoured over the chil Easter weekend in Walton (well, Good Friday and Easter Saturday at least).
Verdict: Haddock Review
Haven't yet come to terms with prospect of waiting until June 2004 to read the third and final book - The Kingdom at the End of the Road.
Buy it: Amazon link
One for lovers (and avoiders) of historial fiction.
A fantastic page turner, with believable characters illustrating that events in the great Henry the Eighth's reign were not the dry theological and poltical posturigs they may have seemed at school.
Philippa Gregory's latest novel may have attracted criticism on the ground of historical inaccuracies, but it does not claim to be a text book. Rather, as a novel it provides a cast of the soap opera stars of the period and indications as to their motives, which in turn allows the reader to develop an understanding of what prompted the twists and turns of the court factions and of the king at its helm. This in turn underlines the signifiance of his power and his decisions, and their impact on the people living in the lands he ruled and in the wider European arena.
Personally I
For once, choosing a book by its cover proved a good decision!
A great collection of short stories, themed around the scientific explorations flowing from the Enlightenment, and set against the backdrop of daily life - ordinary, and, in Ship Fever (the novella which closes the collection) extraordinary.
Ideas crop up in different guises throughout the collection - the most memorable being the part played by amateurs and women in piecing together the small discoveries and theories into the patchwork of the sciences we are taught today.
One woman, three journeys, many perspectives.
A chance find in one of Hay-on-Wye's many bookshops, this has turned out to be one of my favourite books of the year so far.
Part historical novel, part mystery with a romantic hue, this slight novel demanded to be read in one sitting. A rare book, combining history and travel, together with astute observations on the emerging desire of and support for women to be able to share in the freedoms and the intellectual and educational becoming opportunities available in the closing decades of the 19th century.
An excellent read for anyone who enjoys history (in particular women's history) and travel. And not as heavy as I might have made it sound!
