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#1954Club: post your reviews

StuckinaBook All 61 Comments

The 1954 Club has started! Karen and I are asking everyone to read one or more books published in 1954 – in any language, format, or place – and share your reviews. Together, we’ll put together an overview of the year. I think it’s our 14th club year, which is incredible.

Pop a link to your review in the comments, and I’ll put together an overview of all the links. It can go to blog, social media, GoodReads, wherever – if you have nowhere to post a review, feel free to put it in the comments.

Excited to see how everyone found 1954!

Lease of Life by Frank Baker
Stuck in a Book

Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin
What Me Read

Good Work, Secret Seven by Enid Blyton
Literary Potpourri

Death Going Down by María Angélica Bosco
Words and Peace

The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
Staircase Wit

Death Likes It Hot by Edgar Box
Bitter Tea and Mystery

The Cuckoo in Spring by Elizabeth Cadell
Staircase Wit

The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron
Staircase Wit

Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie
Veronique on GoodReads
What Me Read

Because of Sam by Molly Clavering
Read Warbler

Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
Harriet Devine
Karen’s Books and Chocolate
Madame Bibi Lophile

The Last Train by Bernard Cronin
Whispering Gums

The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
Literary Potpourri

Mary Ann by Daphne du Maurier
Hopewell’s Public Library of Life
Pining for the West

Whole Days in the Trees by Marguerite Duras
1st Reading

Doctor’s Children by Josephine Elder
Stuck in a Book

The Native Heath by Elizabeth Fair
Adventures in Reading, Running and Working From Home
Stuck in a Book
Staircase Wit

The Cretan Counterfeit by Katharine Farrer
Stuck in a Book

Jill Enjoys Her Ponies by Ruby Ferguson
Scones and Chaises Longues

The Case of the Restless Redhead by Erle Stanley Gardner
Literary Potpurri

Beside the Pearly Waters by Stella Gibbons
Stuck in a Book

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Reading Envy

The Desperate Hours by Joseph Hayes
A Hot Cup of Pleasure

Tintin Goes to the Moon by Hergé
Finding Time To Write

The Toll Gate by Georgette Heyer
Desperate Reader
She Reads Novels
Wicked Witch’s Blog

The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes
Neglected Books

The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson
What Me Read

Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson
Bookish Beck

Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell
Bookish Beck

The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
JacquiWine
Brona’s Books

Death in Rome by Wolfgang Koeppen
1streading’s Blog

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
Annabookbel
Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings
Calmgrove
Entering the Enchanted Castle
Staircase Wit

Mio, My Son by Astrid Lingren
Becky’s Book Reviews

Shroud of Darkness by E.C.R. Lorac
Literary Potpourri

The Refuge by Kenneth Mackenzie
Reading Matters

Confessions of Felix Krull by Thomas Mann
Lizzy’s Literary Life

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
What Me Read
Mad Cap Hat

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Mr Kaggsy

Faintley Speaking by Gladys Mitchell
Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford
The Captive Reader
Literary Potpourri

Contempt by Alberto Moravia
Winstonsdad’s Blog

Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
Kinship of all Species
Book Word

Go, Lovely Rose by Jean Potts
Bitter Tea and Mystery

Story of O by Pauline Réage
Reading and Watching the World

Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
Reading and Watching the World

Katherine by Anya Seton
Becky’s Book Reviews
What Me Read

The Gypsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
HeavenAli
Madame Bibi Lophile

Maigret Goes to School by Georges Simenon
Harriet Devine

Maigret and the Minister by Georges Simenon
Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

The New Men by C.P. Snow
Winston’s Dad

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
Winstonsdad’s Blog

Charlotte Fairlie by D.E. Stevenson
HeavenAli
Bag Full of Books

The Black Mountain by Rex Stout
My Reader’s Block

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
Staircase Wit
She Reads Novels

Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
Let’s Read
Bookish Beck

The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook by Alice B. Toklas
Scones and Chaises Longues
Madame Bibi Lophile

The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
Calmgrove
Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

The Two Towers by JRR Tolkein
Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

Legions of the Eagle by Henry Treece
Pining for the West

Dishonoured Bones by John Trench
Stuck in a Book

Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman
The Captive Reader

Messiah by Gore Vidal
746 Books

The Golden Waterwheel by Leo Walmsley
Stuck in a Book

The Untidy Pilgrim by Eugene Walter
ANZ Litlover’s Litblog

Highland Rebel by Sally Watson
Staircase Wit

The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty
Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud

Beyond the Glass by Antonia White
Madame Bibi Lophile

Swamp Angel by Ethel Wilson
Stuck in a Book

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P.G. Wodehouse
Karen’s Books and Chocolate
Old Geezer Re-reading
Literary Potpourri

Overview of 1954 in books
Whispering Gums
Brona’s Books
Gallimaufry Book Studio

The Dogs Do Bark by Barbara Willard

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I can’t remember why I bought The Dogs Do Bark (1948), but it’s possible it was seeing a mention in passing on Scott’s Furrowed Middlebrow blog. There, he talked about it being a novel set in a seaside resort, and the title made me think it might be in a boarding house. Sorry, boarding house novel fans, it is not. But it is interesting in its own right.

There aren’t any dogs in the novel. Instead, the title comes from an idiom or poem or something. I’d never heard of it, but it is helpfully put as an epigraph to the book: ‘Hark, hark! The Dogs do bark! The Beggars are coming to Town. Some in rags, and some in tags, and some in velvet gowns.’ Eventually the meaning of all of this is explained, but I’m not sure it ever quite made sense.

The setting is St. Swithin’s-by-Sea, and Willard introduces the community very amusingly. I think her strongest, wittiest writing comes at the outset of the novel – the drama of events somewhat take over the archness with which she begins, but I loved this scene-setting:

The concert hall was full. St Swithin’s-by-Sea prided itself on an appreciation of the arts. It was a small, clean town, swept by south-west gales and great seas in winter-time, swept by trippers and red-faced holiday-makers in summer-time – a small town with a keen municipal conscience, which burgeoned in the shape of neat painted litter baskets, a picture gallery which was the bane of the ratepayers, a repertory theatre with a small subsidy, and fortnightly concerts in the autumn and spring. A visiting orchestra, under the baton of a conductor whisked rather unexpectedly into prominence by the BBC, had today brought forth a tribute in the form of pots of azaleas, which were spaced among the perennial ferns at the edge of the platform. The ladies of St. Swithin’s were very much in evidence, wearing their pearl earrings, their furs, their most responsible and intellectual bearing. The listened, flatteringly rapt, to a programme devoted without stint to the works of Grieg.

At the concert is Christine – an eager and passionate young woman, with the competing emotions of duty, romance, and honour. She is, I reiterate, young – young and naïve. Her sister Rosetta is neither of these things, married to a weak man she doesn’t much respect or like, though perhaps deep down she loves him. And all of them live with their domineering father and his mild, wise sister. Throw into the mix a devoted and slightly creepy butler, and that’s the uneasy household.

Mr Zeal – yes, Zeal is the family name – was injured in the First World War, and is a wheelchair user. He certainly doesn’t let that stand in the way of ruling his family with a rod of iron, particularly sapping the life out of his son-in-law. He is not cruel to them, but his jokes often have a sharp edge and other people’s feelings don’t factor in his decision making. Nobody seems to expect anything else.

With this set up, it’s rather a surprise that the main theme of the novel is… begging letters! It’s certainly a plot that I haven’t read anywhere else. In an era before spam emails and online fraud, the professional begging letter was the way in which the undiscerning kind could be swindled of their money. Of course, no doubt some people genuinely sent out pleas for money they needed. But, according to Zeal’s friend and local political candidate Crowther, there is an epidemic of wicked people using begging letters falsely. (Crowther’s son, by the way, is going out with Christine, and an engagement is on the cards.)

Crowther launches a campaign against such begging; Zeal thinks there is no problem with it. It all leads to the crux of the novel, where Zeal decides to trick Crowther. But there is more going on, under the surface…

I really enjoyed The Dogs Do Bark, and Willard’s writing is certainly very adept. As I hinted earlier, she does get a little melodramatic when the peaks and troths of the plot take over, and I’m not sure the stakes are quite as high as she thinks they are. While begging letters are a fascinatingly unusual topic for a novel, I think I’d have preferred them to have to bear a little less dramatic weight. A novel that just depicted life in St. Swithin’s-by-Sea, maintaining the dry style of the book’s opening, would have been a total delight. Apparently Willard was better known as a children’s historical fiction writer, and I can see that the approach she takes might well suit that genre and audience.

As it is, it was an enjoyable romp and all a bit silly – though not without poignant moments alongside. Certainly worth picking up if you come across it, if only because you’re unlikely to read anything from the 1940s quite like it.

Tea or Books? #102: Do We Read Books about Grief? and Five Windows vs Four Gardens – with Claire The Captive Reader

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D.E. Stevenson, Margery Sharp – and a special guest!

In this episode, we have a special guest in the form of Claire – you’ll know her blog The Captive Reader. We were delighted to have her as a guest, especially as she also came up with our topics.

In the first half, we discuss books about grief – and whether or not we are drawn to them. In the second half, we compare two novels with similar premises: Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson and Four Gardens by Margery Sharp. Both, thankfully, have recently been republished by Dean Street Press.

Get episodes a couple of days early at Patreon, and listen to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your podcast app of choice. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we’d really appreciate them.

Get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com with any suggestions or feedback – we love hearing from you.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Maeve Kerrigan series by Jane Casey
The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
Let’s Get Physical by Danielle Friedman
Ghosts: A Cultural History by Susan Owens
Un Noel de Maigret by Georges Simenon
Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson
Dishonoured Bones by John Trench
John Buchan
Swamp Angel by Ethel Wilson
Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson
Margaret Atwood
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
Enid Blyton
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill
Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt
Let Not The Waves of the Sea by Simon Stephenson
Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
All The Lives We Ever Lived by Katharine Smyth
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
A Half-Baked Idea by Olivia Potts
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Anthony Trollope
A Magnificent Obsession by Helen Rappaport
After the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport
These For Remembrance by John Buchan
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D.E. Stevenson
The Stone of Chastity by Margery Sharp
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
The Gipsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp
The English Air by D.E. Stevenson
Green Money by D.E. Stevenson
Listening Valley by D.E. Stevenson
Miss Read
Moon Tiger by Penelope Tiger
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence

Tea or Books? #101: Rachel explores Simon’s shelves

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? 15 Comments

Rachel takes a look at Simon’s bookshelves – will she take any books away with her??

Way back in episode 70, I was in Rachel’s flat in London and took a look around her bookcases. We planned a return visit… and then the pandemic happened. But now travel and visiting is easier, we have finally got around to organising Rachel coming out to rural West Oxfordshire to look at my bookcases.

Trailing around with a mic was a bit tricky, so the sound isn’t perfect – but hopefully plenty to enjoy nonetheless.

You can support the podcast on Patreon – where, from this episode, you’ll get episodes a few days early! Find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts – and you can get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com.

The (enormous number of!) books and authors we mention in this episode are:

A Natural History of Ghosts by Roger Clark
Contested Will by James Shapiro
A Woman of Passion: A Life of E. Nesbit by Julia Briggs
The Lark by E. Nesbit
The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons
Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson
Four Gardens by Margery Sharp
Return to Cheltenham by Helen Ashton
The Half-Crown House by Helen Ashton
Jane Austen
Master Man by Ruby Ayres
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Elizabeth Bowen
Illyrian Spring by Ann Spring
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Two Doctors by Elizabeth Cambridge
Susan and Joanna by Elizabeth Cambridge
Willa Cather
Children of the Archbishop by Norman Collins
London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins
The Double Heart by Lettice Cooper
Desirable Residence by Lettice Cooper
The Rising Tide by Margaret Deland
Will Shakespeare by Clemence Dane
Catchword and Claptrap by Rose Macaulay
Virginia Woolf
Tea Is So Intoxicating by Mary Essex
The Amorous Bicycle by Mary Essex
A Child in the Theatre by Rachel Ferguson
Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson
The Brontes Went To Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
The Matchmaker by Stella Gibbons
My American by Stella Gibbons
Miss Linsey and Pa by Stella Gibbons
Told In Winter by Jon Godden
Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
Brief Candles by Aldous Huxley
The Honours Board by Pamela Hansford Johnson
An Error of Judgement by Pamela Hansford Johnson
The Unspeakable Skipton by Pamela Hansford Johnson
Love of Seven Dolls by Paul Gallico
Coronation by Paul Gallico
Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico
The Hand of Mary Constable by Paul Gallico
Stephen Leacock
The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins
Honey by Elizabeth Jenkins
Robert and Helen by Elizabeth Jenkins
Herbert Jenkins
The World My Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay
Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
The Making of Bigot by Rose Macaulay
Mystery at Geneva by Rose Macaulay
What Not by Rose Macaulay
Told By An Idiot by Rose Macaulay
Summertime by Denis Mackail
We’re Here by Denis Mackail
Greenery Street by Denis Mackail
What Next? by Denis Mackail
Ian and Felicity by Denis Mackail
The House by William McElwee
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
Safety Pins by Christopher Morley
Thunder on the Left by Christopher Morley
Where The Blue Begins by Christopher Morley
An Unexpected Guest by Bernadette Murphy
Beverley Nichols
The Shoreless Sea by Mollie Panter-Downes
The Storm Bird by Mollie Panter-Downes
My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck
A Clear Dawn by Winifred Peck
Housebound by Winifred Peck
Lavender and Old Lace by Myrtle Reed
The White Shield by Myrtle Reed
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
The Gipsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
D.E. Stevenson
Elizabeth Taylor
Gin and Ginger by Lady Kitty Vincent
Lipstick by Lady Kitty Vincent
The Benefactress by Elizabeth von Arnim
Princess Priscilla’s Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Happy Ending by Leo Walmsley
The Golden Waterwheel by Leo Walmsley
Love in the Sun by Leo Walmsley
The True Heart by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Swans on an Autumn River by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson
Fell Top by Winifred Watson
Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White
The Wheel Turns by Ethel Lina White
The Dragon in Shallow Waters by Vita Sackville-West
The Hills Sleep On by Joanna Cannan
Three Lives by Lettice Cooper
The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West
Elizabeth Berridge
Margaret Drabble
The East Window by Margaret Morrison
There is a Tide by Agnes Logan
The Dogs Do Bark by Barbara Willard
The Gothic House by Jean Ross
The Visitors by Mary MacMinni es
A Lion, A Mouse and a Motor-Car by Dorothea Townshend
Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Faster! Faster! by E.M. Delafield
The War Workers by E.M. Delafield
Mrs Harter by E.M. Delafield
The Heel of Achilles by E.M. Delafield
Tension by E.M. Delafield
The Pelicans by E.M. Delafield
Frost at Morning by Richmal Crompton
Matty and the Dearingroydes by Richmal Crompton
This Little Art by Kate Briggs
Edith Olivier
A Fairy Leapt Upon My Knee by Bea Howe
David Garnett
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Pride of Place by Patience McElwee
Miss Elizabeth Bennet by A.A. Milne
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Infused: Adventures in Tea by Henrietta Lovell
Beware of Children by Verily Anderson
Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson
The Three Brontes by May Sinclair
The Three Sisters by May Sinclair
Katherine Mansfield
Mitford sisters
As It Was and World Without End by Helen Thomas
Edward Thomas
Love, Interrupted by Simon Thomas
Leaves in the Wind by Alpha of the Plough
Wintering by Katherine May
The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May
Oliver Sacks
Random Commentary by Dorothy Whipple
The Other Day by Dorothy Whipple

Top Books of 2021

StuckinaBook All 23 Comments

I always wait until New Year’s Eve to compile my best reads of the year, because you never know when something brilliant will sneak in, do you? As it happens, this year has had lots of Very Good Reads, and even some Very, Very Good Reads, but nothing that is likely to enter my all-time favourites pantheon. So I love all twelve of the books on the list, and a good many that didn’t quite make it, but I didn’t have a life-changing book this year.

But, as I say, these 12 books are all wonderful! As usual, I have excluded re-reads and can only include an author once. The links take you back to the original reviews…

12. The Familiar Faces by David Garnett (1962)

I haven’t read the first two volumes of Garnett’s autobiography – I went straight for the one where he becomes an author, because that is the stage of his life I am most interested in. As it happens, and as the title perhaps implies, this is more about portraits of people he knew, often very gossipy, including Dorothy Edwards, T.E. Lawrence, and George Moore.

11. The Painful Truth by Monty Lyman (2021)

When my friends publish books, I try to read them – or at least buy them. But it’s no hardship when they are as brilliant as my friend Monty’s. His previous book was about the skin; this one, on pain, is even better. Which four-letter word ending in ‘in’ will be next?? Vein? Shin?? Anyway, Monty writes about a wide range of issues to do with pain that are fascinating and, above all, compassionate. I don’t read much popular science, but if more of it was like this then I would.

10. Brook Evans by Susan Glaspell (1928)

Rachel and I read a couple of Persephones for an episode of Tea or Books?, and it helped me get Brook Evans off the shelf where it’s been for many years. I love Glaspell’s spare, insightful prose, and the way she shows us a moral dilemma that works it’s way through three generations of a passionate, unhappy family.

9. Ignorance by Milan Kundera (2002)

The first of several Top Books that I read during A Novella A Day in November – I wrote ‘Like most of Kundera’s novels, the plot is a simple thread through the centre of the book – but what makes the book so wonderful are the tangents, the reflections, the aleatory connections between fictional characters and moments in time.’ Translated by Linda Asher, this is another Kundera success for me.

8. Murder Included by Joanna Cannan (1950)

It was great fun to race through a murder mystery in a single day. This is on here partly because it was fun and pacy, with an enjoyable irritating detective, but also because it has a beautifully simple and clever twist in its solution.

7. Three To See The King by Magnus Mills (2001)

You never quite know where you are with Mills, and never more so than with this parable(?) about a man living in a tin house in a desert, miles from his nearest neighbour. His life starts to change when a friend of a friend turns up and moves in – and then rumours come of a charismatic man changing lives in the distance. Mills is so brilliant at making something eerie without being at all evident why it feels that way.

6. Love in the Sun by Leo Walmsley (1939)

This autobiographical novel tells of a man and his partner who have left Yorkshire for Cornwall, escaping some sort of ignominy. They have almost no money and craft a makeshift life in a rickety house in a cove. Walmsley writes about this corner of Cornwall with such tender love and clarity, and the novel is a slow-paced, winding joy.

5. The Invisible Host by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning (1930)

A reprint from Dean Street Press that is getting a lot of love, The Invisible Host is curiously close to the premise of Agatha Christie’s later And Then There Were None. A group of strangers have been beckoned to a penthouse, each believing that a party is being thrown in their honour – whereas, in fact, they are going to be killed off, one-by-one, while a gramophone gives them instructions and warnings. The mechanics can be a little graceless, especially compared to Christie’s book, but it is still a brilliant read.

4. The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson (2021)

I didn’t get around to blogging about this one, which I listened to as an audiobook, but I do encourage people to seek it out. Casey Wilson is one of the funniest people alive, and stars in my favourite ever sitcom, Happy Endings. I’ve followed her work ever since, and was so delighted when she came out with a collection of essays – they are enormously funny, about bizarre moments in her life to date, but also very poignant: the loss of her mother, and Wilson’s grief, are front and centre.

3. Things That Fall From the Sky by Selja Ahava (2015)

Ahava’s novel won the EUPL prize a few years ago, and I read a translation by Emily and Fleur Jeremiah. It’s about people who experience extraordinary events – whether an ice berg falling from the sky, winning the lottery multiple times, or being struck repeatedly by lightning. I wrote, in my review: ‘the prose and characters that Ahava has created seem both dreamlike and vividly real – I don’t really understand how that combination is achieved, but it is done with astonishing consistency and assurance. I loved spending time in this world, and the way Ahava balances genuine pathos with a fairytalesque surreality is truly wonderful.’

2. Miss Linsey and Pa by Stella Gibbons (1936)

The beginning of my year had a lot of books but not all that many brilliant ones, which is perhaps one of the reasons I was so blown away by Gibbons’ novel, which I read for the 1936 Club. Miss Linsey and her father move to be nearer relations – rather reluctant relations – but the short novel encompasses enormous amounts more, with my favourite bit being a satire on Bloomsbury parents. There’s also a lot of heart, particularly in one character’s memories of a wartime romance.

1. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson (2006)

Finally, here is an ode to keeping books on the shelf for years – and then discovering how wonderful they are. I bought this well over a decade ago, and its moment came in 2021. This novel of a farming community in Ontario in the 1930s and 1950s is beautifully immersive, and deserves comparison to Marilynne Robinson’s work. Lucky me, there are still a couple of her books I haven’t read – and I predict at least one of them will be a contender for next year’s best books list.

The Invisible Host by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning – #NovNov Day 22

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I was sent The Invisible Host (1930) by husband-and-wife authors Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning the other day, a review copy from Dean Street Press. It isn’t actually released until 6 December, but I couldn’t resist tearing into it straight away – and read all 186 pages at a breakneck speed today, stopping only, reluctantly, for work.

And what made me so furiously keen to read it? Well, that enigmatic line on the cover: ‘Was it the inspiration for Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None?’

It’s kept as a question because there’s no way of knowing if Christie knew the novel, or the play and film that were adapted from it before And Then There Were None was penned. But there are certainly extremely striking similarities.

In the opening chapter, eight people receive the same mysterious telegram:

CONGRATULATIONS STOP PLANS AFOOT FOR SMALL SURPRISE PARTY IN YOUR HONOR BIENVILLE PENTHOUSE NEXT SATURDAY EIGHT O’CLOCK STOP ALL SUB ROSA BIG SURPRISE STOP MAINTAIN SECRECY STOP PROMISE YOU MOST ORIGINAL PARTY EVER STAGED IN NEW ORLEANS – YOUR HOST

Each has their own suspicions about who might have arranged the party – and each of these other people also happens to be a guest. There is a famed actress, a noted doctor, a dodgy lawyer, a society hostess, a clubman, a writer – so on and so on. Each has a reason to despise one of the others there. Each doesn’t question that a party would be held in their honour.

But – much like And Then There Were None – they are in for a nasty surprise. Once they arrive in the penthouse, the exit is sealed and a radio soon starts playing. Their invisible host has a message for them:

”Ladies and gentlemen, you must be tired of gatherings at which you hear only the soft bubbling of elegant effervescence. The ideal entertainment would be at once a diversion and a creative challenge. It is absurd that one should have to assume the mental attitude of a grocery clerk before he can be entertained. One has a right to look with critical curiosity at the entertainment offered him. So to-night, my friends, I invite you to play a game with me, to pit your combined abilities against mine for suitable stakes. I warn you, however, it has long been my conviction that I should be able to outplay the most powerful intellects in our city, and to-night I shall work hard to prove myself – and you. For to-night, ladies and gentlemen, you are commanded to play an absorbing game  a game with death.”

As this is a New Orleans penthouse, rather than Christie’s inaccessible island, there is a bit more explanation needed about how the door is electrified and the walls are unscalable etc etc. Manning and Bristow successfully seal off all possible exits, leaving us to the enjoyment of watching eight people deal with the prospect of their entrapment and death. For, the host tells them, one of them will die each hour until there is nobody left. But if they manage to outwit him in any of the specially chosen fates, then he will let them live and will die in their place.

And – yes, reader, the characters start dying.

I shan’t spoil anymore, except to say this novel is a delicious, fast-paced, very satisfying read. I loved every moment. Some of the mechanisms involved are a little more elaborate than Christie would have allowed herself, but nothing is too outlandish. And the revelation of the murderer is guessable, if you spot the details along the way – which, of course, I didn’t. I never do.

I’ve read a fair bit of vintage crime, including Joanna Cannan’s excellent Murder Included earlier in Novellas in November – but this one might well be the most fun and best non-Christie murder mystery that I’ve ever read. A total delight from beginning to end. I’d heartily recommend that you preorder it today. And did Christie read or watch it and decide that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery? Perhaps that is the best unsolvable mystery about the whole thing…

Rosemary’s review of Project Places

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In 2019, Rosemary joined me in #ProjectNames – one of the most rewarding reading projects I’ve done. Last year, she decided to keep going with #ProjectPlaces. I asked if she wouldn’t mind sharing her experiences – and she has kindly written the guest post, below. You can find Rosemary’s blog at Scones and Chaise Longues.

Most of us haven’t been further than the Co-Op this year (not that I’m complaining, as I’m privileged to have beautiful countryside on my doorstep – and the ladies in my little local Co-Op are lovely..)   By some happy chance, however, I decided in January to set myself a reading theme, and having so much enjoyed Simon’s #projectnames in 2019, I hit upon #projectplaces.

Reading only books already resident on my sagging shelves, I would choose titles that either were, or included, the name of a place – though as you’ll see, I interpreted that requirement rather liberally to say the least. So throughout these strange stay-at-home seasons I’ve been to France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, North America and even once round the world.  The majority of my travels were, though, in the UK, from Cornwall to Cumberland and the Hog’s Back to the Highlands and Islands. It’s been great.

I didn’t set out to choose mainly English locations, but when I think about it, it’s hardly surprising that my preference for certain types of novels kept me firmly in the villages of everyday and the country estates of days past. I went with Angela Thirkell to Pomfret Towers and (Christmas at) High Rising, to (The School at) Thrush Green with Miss Read and to Turnham Malpas with Rebecca Shaw (Trouble in the Village, Whispers in the Village, The Village Newcomers.) Turnham Malpas is a bit like Midsomer without the murders; there’s always some intrigue going on, whereas I’ve lived in my fair share of villages and, much as I love them, intrigue is not their USP – or maybe I just don’t notice.)

Beginning, though, in my beloved Scotland and one of my very best reads of 2020: O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker;

‘Janet lies murdered beneath the castle stairs, oddly attired in her mother’s black lace wedding dress, lamented only by her pet jackdaw…’

I’d never even heard of Barker before, and without the project in mind this strange and compelling story of Janet, a misfit child growing up in Auchnasaugh, the remote Aberdeenshire home of her eccentric, dysfunctional family – a place where eagles fly and hogweed flourishes – would probably have languished, ignored, for evermore. Now I recommend this haunting novel far and wide. (My full review is here) and I was delighted to find that it is being reprinted by Orion in October 2021

Still in Scotland, the project encouraged me to take up Compton Mackenzie’s Monarch of the Glen, which may have been the inspirations for the TV series, but is quite unlike it. (And no it’s not, as my husband, ventured to suggest, ’the book of the film’…) Persevere with Mackenzie’s slightly convoluted style and you will be rewarded with a light and entertaining story, one that is very much anchored to a time, and especially to a place.

I often find short stories frustrating – ‘What happened next?’ is my plaintive cry – but Thomas Clark’s Selkirk FC vs The World proved the exception. Selkirk is a Borders football club struggling in the middle of serious rugby country, and in 2015 – for reasons impossible to fathom – it appointed Clark its first ever writer-in-residence. The result was this outstanding collection of stories and poems.  Clark captures the cynicism, resilience and grimly morose nature of the area perfectly; some pieces are funny, some sad, and there is even an outstanding science fiction story, The Keys of Paradise – definitely something I’d never have looked at without the project to take me there.

The US provided me with comedy (Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegon Summer, 1956), black history (Margo Jefferson’s eye-opening Negroland), sagas (Joan Medlicott’s Covington books, and even Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove series – yes, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not proud…) and academic intrigue in the form of my much loved Amanda Cross’s The Theban Mysteries. Set not in Greece but New York City, this is another outing for Kate Fansler, professor of English, lover of Austen, ardent feminist and (usefully) rich as Croesus.  In the 1970s Virago published many women crime writers, and I have to say some of them did not deserve this honour – but Cross (pen name of Carolyn Heilbrun, first ever female professor of English at Cornell) was one who did, and I still re-read her books with great joy.

Back in Europe I went to Florence with the late Diana Athill, and to Lake Garda with Rumer Godden’s Battle of the Villa Fiorita. The Black Forest Summer by Mabel Esther Allan may be a 1950s children’s book, but it changed my ideas about Germany, a country of which I have seen only Berlin. Now I want to visit Freiburg, the setting of this perhaps unlikely but most enjoyable story of an orphaned London family being rescued by their father’s affluent brother.

Irish writers seem to have a particular talent for the short story, and so it was that I read William Trevor’s brilliant, memorable collection The News from Ireland. And although Maeve Binchy may not be in Trevor’s league, she remains one of the great tellers of tales, with a perfect ear for her native speech; I enjoyed Dublin 4 immensely.

The British Library Crime Classics were, of course, a great source of place-name titles. I can’t say I enjoyed them all, and I do wonder if the ‘Golden Age of Crime’ is really my thing, but I still travelled to the South Downs with John Bude (The Sussex Downs Murder) and with Freeman Wills Crofts to Surrey (The Hog’s Back Mystery.)  Better reads for me came in the shape of the ever-excellent Mary Stewart’s Rose Cottage, Jennifer Ryan’s The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir, Elizabeth Taylor’s At Mrs Lippincote’s and Miss Read’s School at Thrush Green.

And finally, off I went with Phileas Fogg in his attempt to go Around the World in 80 Days. I’d always thought of Jules Verne as a ‘difficult’ writer – goodness knows why, as this tale of adventure positively flies along. Great and unexpected fun.

Three books stand out: the aforementioned O Caledonia, Marghanita Laski’s wonderful, quiet, beautifully observed The Village (review here) and (predictable to all who know me) Kenneth Grahame’s story of humble Mole, clever, kind Rat, sage and sensible Badger, jolly Otter and impetuous Toad, living their rural lives through the changing seasons on the riverbank and in the Wild Wood. In a year in which comfort has been needed more than ever before, The Wind in the Willows gave it in abundance:

‘As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings, the cultivated garden plot. For others the asperities, the stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough , in their way, to last for a lifetime.’

I’m addicted to reading projects now; they are such a great way to focus my wavering attention. I’ve already thought of one for 2021, and this week I spent a glorious hour sorting out the books to fit it. So thank you again Simon, for setting me on this happy path.

The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes by Janet Malcolm

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My love for Janet Malcolm continues apace. I’ve been buying up her books but initially hadn’t bothered with The Silent Woman (1993) because I’m not especially interested in Sylvia Plath. Then somebody told me, probably on here, that it’s much more about the ethics and process of writing a biography than it is about Plath – and that sounded completely up my street.

Malcolm sets out the key moral quandary at the heart of writing and reading biographies, and she puts it so well that I’m going to quote a long passage:

The voyeurism and busybodyism that impel writers and readers of biography alike are obscured by an apparatus of scholarship designed to give the enterprise an appearance of banklike blandness and solidity. The biographer is portrayed almost as a kind of benefactor. He is seen as sacrificing years of his life to his task, tirelessly sitting in archives and libraries and patiently conducting interviews with witnesses. There is no length he will not go to, and the more his book reflects his industry the more the reader believes that he is having an elevating literary experience, rather than simply listening to backstairs gossip and reading other people’s mail. The transgressive nature of biography is rarely acknowledged, but it is the only explanation for biography’s status as a popular genre. The reader’s amazing tolerance (which he would extend to no novel written half as badly as most biographies) makes sense only when seen as a kind of collusion between him and the biographer in an excitingly forbidden undertaking: tiptoeing down the corridor together, to stand in front of the bedroom door and try to peep through the keyhole.

One of the catalysts for this exploration was Anne Stevenson’s 1989 biography of Plath, Bitter Fame, which Malcolm describes as ‘by far the most intelligent and the only aesthetically satisfying of the five biographies of Plath written to date’. This was 1993, and I’m sure plenty have been written since – but Malcolm tracks down all the biographers and memoirists who had written about Plath, critically and sympathetically, from personal experience and none. Because, though Malcolm admires Stevenson’s book, it was apparently received very critically – because it is sympathetic to Ted Hughes.

This is all before Hughes published Birthday Letters and the tide started to turn a little on seeing him as the villain of the piece. At the time, any criticism towards Plath or sympathy towards Hughes was seen as giving into the dominant force of the Plath estate: Olwyn Hughes. She is the most vivid character in Malcolm’s book. As Ted Hughes’ sister, she is the gatekeeper to Plath’s works and archives, and tries fiercely and hopelessly to determine the narrative. Well, again, Malcolm puts it best:

After three and a half years of acquaintance with Olwyn – of meetings, telephone conversations, and correspondence – I cannot say I know her much better than I did when she first appeared to me in her letter. But I have never seen anything in her of the egotism, narcissism, and ambition that usually characterise the person who welcomes journalistic notice in the belief that he can beat the odds and gain control of the narrative. Olwyn seems motivated purely by an instinct to protect her younger brother’s interests and uphold the honour of the family, and she pursues this aim with reckless selflessness. Her frantic activity makes one think of a mother quail courageously flying in the face of a predator to divert him from the chicks scurrying to safety.

And there is some truth to the reputation Stevenson’s book apparently had. She is so beset upon by Olwyn, every word of the biographer examined and questioned, that (in interviews with Malcolm) she describes the experience of writing the book as a kind of trauma. In many cases, she gave up. But when Malcolm meets and interviews the others who have written about Plath, she also pierces through all of their veneers, finding the real moral and personal choices behind their books (as well as the academic or supposedly objectives ones).

Malcolm is always arrestingly honest in a way that makes it seem like candour was the only option that occurred to her. She relays conversations with all her interviewees without even seeming to notice when they have exposed themselves and their flaws. There is an astonishing immediacy to it all and, given the discussions in the book about the difficulties of getting permission to quote from letters, I’m amazed that everybody involved signed up. Malcolm must be very persuasive. Some of the letters between Stevenson and Olwyn Hughes, for instance, are quite shocking. At one point, it’s almost like watching an abusive relationship from the inside.

As I say every time I write about a Malcolm book, she is the main draw. Don’t pick this up if you chiefly want to know the facts of Plath’s life. But if you’re at all interested in the ethics and practicalities of biography, or even just in how people interact when there is a lot at stake, then The Silent Woman is a brilliant and fascinating book.

Some books I’ve bought recently

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Remember early in 2019 when I said I wouldn’t be buying any books this year? Except special occasions? Well, that is increasingly looking stupid. Cos I’ve bought a lot of books this year. I’ve also read a lot, but still…

Anyway, the silver lining to my total lack of self-control is that I get to do a haul blog post! It’s not all from one place, but here are books I’ve bought over the past month or so. Many of them on two trips to a great secondhand bookshop in Wantage.

Here’s some more details, from top to bottom…

This Other Eden by E.V. Knox
I love a collection of essays – to the extent that my essay shelves are bursting. Might need a shelving rethink.

Don’t, Mr Disraeli by Caryl Brahms and S.J. Simon
I’ve not read anything by these two, but I keep seeing A Bullet in the Ballet around. I guess they were good at titles! This mystery novel will tick Project Names anyway, and that’s enough to convince me that it’s a good purchase.

Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather
Another that will work for Project Names, and a novel by Cather that I hadn’t even heard of. I think she might now be on my list of “stop buying books by them and actually read one” now.

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
I haven’t bought a book by Christie for ages – mostly because I bought dozens when I was around 14, and have still not quite made my way through them. But I am coming towards the end of that pile, so picked up some cheaply in a charity shop.

The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida
I can’t remember how I came across this book, written by a severely autistic boy about his experience, but I do know that I thought it could be a good way for me to try and understand autism better.

Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
I do have a few unread Livelys, but it was a heat wave when I picked this up, and clearly I’m that suggestible.

Wine of Honour by Barbara Beauchamp
Peace, Perfect Peace by Josephine Kamm
Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson
Table Two by Marjorie Wilenski
I’m grouping these because they’re all among the latest reprints from the Furrowed Middlebrow series from Dean Street Press. I got three as review copies, and then bought these four on top – it is such a fascinating looking batch this time around. They’re all connected with WW2. Do check them out!

Sixpence House by Paul Collins
One of my favourite books of the year so far is The Book of William by Collins, all about the First Folio. So it was only a matter of time before I got hold of his book about living in Hay on Wye, and I finally crumbled.

Keep The Home Guard Turning by Compton Mackenzie
Rich Relatives by Compton Mackenzie
Mackenzie is DEFINITELY on the list of authors I should stop buying and start reading – but I’ve made an exception here because the first one was recommended by a couple of people, and because the second is a sequel to Poor Relations, which I loved. At least I think/hope it is.

The Question Mark by Muriel Jaeger
I don’t read a lot of science fiction, but Karen made this one sound so interesting that I went right out and bought the British Library reprint.

There’s a Porpoise Close Behind Us by Noel Langley
I read a fun little book by Langley a while ago, and I couldn’t resist (a) this title, and (b) the fact that it features theatre actors. That’s one of those elements of a novel that I cannot resist.

The Sun in Scorpio by Margery Sharp
The Innocents by Margery Sharp
I am increasingly loving Sharp, and so was delighted to find a couple of her novels in the wild. In Wantage, to be more precise.

Tea or Books? #76: Illustrations (yes or not), and Miss Hargreaves vs Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves

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Miss Hargreaves! Finally! But also illustrations and a novel by Rachel Malik.

In the first half of this episode, we discuss whether or not we want illustrations in our books – taking a little venture to graphic novels on the way. In the second half – only four years after the podcast started – we finally read my favourite novel, Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker. We compare it to the similarly-named Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik, and discover that that’s about all it has in common.

Fun! Please get in touch if you have any topics – or any questions to ask or advice you’d like us to give! We’re at teaorbooks@gmail.com. And you can support the podcast at Patreon or find us on iTunes. We appreciate all your reviews and ratings so much.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
A Shooting Star by Wallace Stegner
Fair Stood the Wind For France by H.E. Bates
Dark Hester by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
The Old Countess by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
Sylvia Plath
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Edith Olivier
Tove Jansson: Work and Love by Tuula Karjalainen
Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words by Boel Westin
Enid Blyton
The Making Of by Brecht Evens
Panther by Brecht Evens
The Wrong Place by Brecht Evens
Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks
Emma by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Charles Dickens
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Little by Edward Carey
Alva and Irva by Edward Carey
Country Matters by Clare Leighton
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
Agatha Christie
Curtain by Agatha Christie
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie
The Love-Child by Edith Olivier
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Before I Go Hence by Frank Baker
I Follow But Myself by Frank Baker (autobiography)
Mr Allenby Loses The Way by Frank Baker
The Shooting Party by Isobel Colegate
Beneath the Visiting Moon by Romilly Cavan
Wine of Honour by Barbara Beauchamp