‘’This is my destiny,’she declared. ‘Just you watch, Kitty. I’ll set that stage on fire.’’
We know that the world of Theatre is fascinating, mystic‘’This is my destiny,’she declared. ‘Just you watch, Kitty. I’ll set that stage on fire.’’
We know that the world of Theatre is fascinating, mystical, terrifying. We know that actors are mercurial, chaotic, obsessed with their calling. Yes, Jenny knows but she has no choice. Her family needs her and, after all, costumes are HER obsession. Not to mention that her ‘protector’, Mrs Dye, is such a nice woman!
Oh, Jenny, Jenny…What have you got yourself into?
Prepare to have your mind, free time, and life taken over by a book. Laura Purcell’s ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE!
Yes, all capital letters because I CAN!
Where to begin? The setting, the imagery, the plot, the characters? We’re talking pure perfection here. A rainy summer welcomes you once you open this astonishing book and transports you to a vibrant, dirty, lusty London. Follow the lead of two brilliant women and become part of the haunting world of Theatre. Jenny and Lilith, named after the controversial figure of the Hebrew culture. The disobedient, the profane, the one driven by her own principles. Jenny is responsible for her costumes, creating a persona, forming a facade right from the start. Stereotypes are strong here, after all. Actresses are women of ‘loose morals’. Even marrying into the business will have you marred in the eyes of society. Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra, Margaret. Women who defied the rules and became symbols of ‘Evil’. Cautionary tales.
But what salvation is there when you willingly make a pact with the Devil? When all you have left is quoting plays? That’s all your obsession drives you at and Hell is murky…
The writing is glorious, sumptuous, terrifying. From the very start, we are given shocking, dark moments and some are quite hard to stomach. BUT! Laura Purcell turns even the goriest of scenes into sheer, frightening poetry. I adored the way Mythology was inserted in the narrative. The Muses and the Sirens, Mercury, Eurydice, the connections with the Underworld. Mythology is a dark place and Theatre rises up to the challenge. The heart of the book lies in the story of Macbeth, the Cursed Play (which never fails to remind me of the hilarious circumstances taking place in an extraordinarily funny Blackadder episode…)
‘’I must pay my pound of flesh…and there is no Portia to save me.’’
There is guilt, and death, and obsession. We can be Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff at the same time. We can sacrifice everything for one touch of glory, for a career. You become ‘unwomanly’, ‘unsexed’ and there is a heavy price to pay. Along with the extraordinary plot, Laura Purcell doesn’t refrain from touching difficult themes, from the ‘kept’ and ‘fallen’ woman to abortion. However, your heart will be captivated by the setting with a playhouse, an otherworldly land of darkness, superstitions, and raw emotions. Some believe that Theatre is all about lying and pretending. Far from it. Theatre changes you and lures you into revealing aspects of a self you didn’t know you were hiding inside. Theatre hovers between this tangible world and a land created by poets and Muses and spirit. I loved the reference to the tradition of the Ghost Light, the notion that a light must always remain within an otherwise dark theatre for the spirits of the actors who have passed away. My dad was an actor and can verify that this custom was more than alive even in our time.
A plot, no matter how ingenious it may be, cannot work independently of its characters. And my God, what characters we have here! Lilith is FASCINATING! I loved her, I want an entire novel about her. Jenny was a refreshing character. Obnoxious and a bit irritating at first, she is no naive young girl (the kind we have often met in Gothic Fiction.) She knows what she wants, she sees right and wrong, and tells it like it is. Mrs Dyer starts as a character you wonder about and slowly becomes the utter fiend she is. Oscar is a charming young man without being superficial. The cast is beyond perfect, the dialogue is brilliant!
My review is all over the place but this novel absolutely floored me. I fell in love with it, I am its slave for eternity. Laura Purcell is one of my absolute favourite writers, I would read her shopping list and consider it poetry, I have read every single novel of hers and adored it but The Whispering Muse is a supernatural, otherworldly experience.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Acknowledgments section had me wailing in tears. Laura Purcell, why are you so perfect?
‘’Do you think you could tell the difference between the Muse and the Siren Song? One a divine voice calling you to create and the other a lure, pulling you down to destruction? What if…what if they sound precisely the same?’’
''Dark everywhere. Creepers grew up the windows. Even in summer, darkness. Candles. Torches on window ledges, with dead flies and beetles and tarnis''Dark everywhere. Creepers grew up the windows. Even in summer, darkness. Candles. Torches on window ledges, with dead flies and beetles and tarnished silver dishes. The old men died there. Preserved. Time wrap, like a fairy story. Thickets and thorns grew round. Light coming through the windows, filtered through leaves and branches, green, as if were under sea.''
The Travelling Bag: A dark story of a war between scientists, obsession, injustice and revenge.
Boy Number Twenty-One: A lonely boy with a highly problematic family befriends a new classmate. But Andreas is mysterious, almost elusive and a school trip to Cloten Hall reveals a haunting past.
Alice Baker: There is a new co-worker in the office and she is quite bizarre. Silent, observant, speaking in riddles. Soon, a strange odour starts disturbing her colleagues and unexplained phenomena escalate into a dubious crescendo. This story was simply perfect and had a Shirley Jackson atmosphere.
The Front Room: A family takes a Sunday sermon far too seriously and invites a ghastly old lady into their house. What follows is a nightmare in one of the most terrifying and excruciatingly irritating stories I've ever read!
''Every morning mist rose and hung over the river after a cold night and when it runed milder for a day or two, the choking fog rolled over the city, muffling sounds, blurring the outlines of buildings and tasting fol in the mouth and nostrils, so that everyone went about with their faces half-covered in mufflers.. Braziers burned at the street corners, where the hot chestnut and potato sellers rubbed hands stiff and blue with cold. Traffic crawled along the Strand to Fleet Street, headlamps looming like great hazy moons out of the mist.''
Printer's Devil Court: A bunch of stinking atheists, wannabe-doctors dismiss The Ressurection of Lazarus and try to bring the dead back to life. What they get is what they deserve.
'Tell me', I said, 'I will try to help you. Are you looking for a particular grave? That of a parent perhaps? A loved one? Let us look together, though we had really better do it in the daylight.' She sank to the ground and bent her head. 'My own...' she said.'...more
A comprehensive, entertaining guide to the supernatural hiding and hauntings (and there are so many...) of the United Kingdom. From the buzzing metropA comprehensive, entertaining guide to the supernatural hiding and hauntings (and there are so many...) of the United Kingdom. From the buzzing metropolis of London to the remotest corners of Scotland, there are famous spectres and many contemporary hauntings to satisfy the curiosity of the paranormal afficonado.
I wasn't aware of the Welsh myth of the mountain that grew so angry during the Crucifixion of Christ that split in two nor did I know about the rare spirit of the two-headed ghost, the headless dog or the strange footprints like the ones found in Devil and the ghost of a mermaid. In Scotland, there is the angry spirit of the brownie that foretold the death of the master of the house at the Battle of Culloden. On moonlit nights, one can hear the Highland bagpiper lamenting the glories of the past. Did you know about the A75 road that is haunted by a literal army of ghosts, from animals to knights, to disembodied cries and attacks on cars? I had never read about Major Weir and his story was downright creepy...But I did know about Bloody Mackenzie and his attacks around the area of Greyfriars Kirkyard cemetery. Not to be neglected, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands are home to some of the most terrifying Scottish ghosts.
From pubs to churches, to highways, castles, landscapes, buildings, the UK is a treasure trove for lovers of the paranormal and this guide is absolutely necessary to your collection....more
‘’A wind comes down from the hills and breaks through the oaks. Behind me, Guardbridge throws a series of flawed shadows, creating patches of darkn‘’A wind comes down from the hills and breaks through the oaks. Behind me, Guardbridge throws a series of flawed shadows, creating patches of darkness where none should exist. And as I stand there I feel suddenly watched.’’
So, you are about to follow Annie in her new life in Guardbridge, a life away from painful secrets. You are about to travel to Yorkshire. You are about to step into a story of darkness and sorrow and obsession…A tale of black feathers left by the spirits of the tormented dead and omens of impending doom. A tale of bravery and resilience. A story of betrayal.
‘’By lunchtime the rain has turned again to snow and a storm is blowing off the moors, sending spindrift whirling at the windows; smoke coughs from the chimney flues and taints the air.’’
Annie’s world is one of falling snow and shadowy skies. As the moor entices and threatens with its wintry light, its wildness, its sorrowful wind so does Guardbridge. A place that promises a new start and threatens with its locked doors and dark corners where spirits abound. The light finds it hard to escape the ‘’lowering sky’’ and the creaking willows and birches are silent witnesses of a painful past.
Don’t look up. Faces are staring at you from empty windows. Don’t turn around. There are spirits in the mists and the moor is treacherous…
Tread carefully. There are ravens, flying away, their squawking a mysterious lament.
Be careful what you hear. There is so much whispering in this house…
Don’t fear the darkness and do not leave the candle by the window unless you want a spirit tapping on your window.
In Rebecca Netley’s world, you will feel the wind and the rain on your face. You will smell the damp air, and the musky aroma of the moor, you will follow unknown footsteps in the thick darkness of the night, you will watch the gloomy light and the bleakness of a winter’s day through your blurry window. You will come across characters to be loved and characters to be hated. You will converse with ghosts.
If you want to read a book whose atmosphere is the finest after Wuthering Heights, Rebecca Netley is there to cater to your needs. The Black Feathers is the perfect continuation of the legacy started by Emily Bronte. I don’t think there is a greater compliment than that.
Quite simply, one of the most haunting and atmospheric books you will ever read.
‘’Mist has come down about the house like the film of an eye, but high up a moon, blown to fullness emerges behind the chimneys. There is a drumming of wing beats and the sky darkens as a swarm of birds descends to the copse with muffled caws, settling on branches and knocking flakes of whiteness to the ground. They gather on the roofs and the oaks shudder with their calls.’’
‘’The past never dies. Humans die. But then what?’’
App-arition: A widow buries her husband. Her sister introduces her to an app that will supposedly c‘’The past never dies. Humans die. But then what?’’
App-arition: A widow buries her husband. Her sister introduces her to an app that will supposedly call her and text her, just as he did when he was alive. And then, slowly, layer by layer, we uncover Bella’s marital life and the secrets she has been harbouring. An outstanding story. And I LOVED Bella.
‘’On that walk to West 10th Street I noticed nothing. An anonymous man in a crowded city. We pass through one another as though we are ghosts. The city itself a kingdom of the lost.’’
‘’How long is the night when it does not end?’’
The Old House at Home: Set in New York on Halloween’s night, the gathering of a group of paranormal investigators steps on the metaverse of avatars and hauntings.
Ghost in the Machine: A woman tries to create an improved avatar of her dead husband but things rarely go according to plan. A darkly humorous tale with faint traces of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
‘’Spitalfields is ghost-friendly. The place is low-lit at night, there are always candles and I had the fireplace grates fitted with flame gas-fires. So, in the evening, in the winter, the wood panelling glows, and the floorboards shine, and there is no TV, only the quiet sound of me and a book.’’
JW1:Strange Meetings: Winterson narrates her personal experience of a domestic ghost. So atmospheric!
The Spare Room: A woman moves to a charming house after her divorce. Still clinging to the time with a husband who didn’t love her, she notices strange happenings in the spare room. A tender, haunting story of complicated love and letting go. Extremely atmospheric, like a quiet October night.
A Fur Coat: A couple who works in a circus (among other things…) is giver a six-month free residency in a cottage, part of a rather significant estate The moment they step foot in the house, everything changes. Johny starts behaving like a drunk brute, Max is literally attacked by a fur coat. A frightening, dark tale told via Max’s perspective.
Boots: The point of view changes to focus on Johny and the power that starts overcoming him once a pair of boots is given to him by a man named Edwin. These are the origins of a dreadful tale.
Both stories communicate two voices full of darkness and despair in one of the most memorable pieces I’ve ever read, faintly reminiscent of The Turn of the Screw, a token of Winterson’s outstanding talent. You read it with a heavy heart. The Door: A wedding is going to take place in a castle. The groom is separated from his bride-to-be, honouring tradition, unperturbed by the barman’s tale of haunting love and tragedy. But the darkness is thick, the moonlight weak, the wind sorrowful and there are footsteps in the corridor. And a door that leads nowhere…
JW2:Unexplained: Death omens, and your loved ones being always with you…
‘’Life is not a movie’, she says, ‘and God is not a special effect’’.
No Ghost Ghost Story: Winterson describes the sorrow of the one who has to stay behind when the person you love is gone in heart-shuttering writing. What happens when all you want is a ghost that refuses to come? Think of Heathcliff waiting for 20 years by the window…
This story contains some of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL sentences you will ever read.
The Undiscovered Country: The continuation of the previous story, told from the perspective of the deceased.
Canterville and Cock: I can think of far worse jobs than being a ghost tour guide. Right? Yes, but it’s not the same when the hauntings you invite people to are staged and fabricated. That’s what a self-named illusionist does in Berkshire, and now an ‘ingenious’ idea of a tragic ghost story from the 1960s is about to become real.
And I mean literal reality…A hilarious, modern-day Topper story.
JW3:All the Ghosts We Cannot See: Some things are invisible, yet standing right there in front of us.
‘’What we do or don’t believe makes no difference. In the end it is what it is.’’
Thin Air: A group of friends are honouring their annual, New Year’s tradition of withdrawing from the modern world, a ski resort as their shelter. But winter calls for ghost stories. And this is the story of a very tangible spirit. P.S. Loved the Sherlock Homes tidbits.
‘’Endless rain. Warming cold and cooling warm delivered the city over to a strange and spectral vision of itself. Buildings loomed out of the mist. On the streets, people materialised from nothing, too close, too sudden, their bulky bodies in winter wrappings like travelling mummies, then, just as suddenly, they disappeared, unravelling, so it seemed, in grey bandages of fog. Look behind and there’s no trace.’’
Fountain with Lions: A bittersweet, winter’s tale of Life and Death. Simply beautiful.
‘’Some people like to say that when we die we are going home. But it’s a strange home. We never visit it, until we do, and when we do, we never return.’’
Night Side of the River: A woman experiences a strange encounter while on a boat party in the middle of the Thames. The best way to end an exquisite collection. Do yourselves a favour. Read a good book... Read Jeanette Winterson.
‘’Every night I want to be Heathcliff with Cathy tapping at the window. I want to be Hamlet on the windy battlements. I want the Flying Dutchman to dock. I want what everyone who has lost someone wants: a visitation. Every second, someone dying is promising to come back from the dead. Every hour, waiting for it to happen, someone living notches up another hour lost.’’
Bare brown branches against a blue sky (And Silence within the wood), Leaves that, listless, lie under your feet, Bold brown boles thaDown in the Wood
Bare brown branches against a blue sky (And Silence within the wood), Leaves that, listless, lie under your feet, Bold brown boles that are biding their time (And Silence within the wood). Spring has been fair in the fashion of youth, Summer with languorous largesse of love, Autumn with passion that passes to pain, Leaf, flower, and flame – they have fallen and failed
And Beauty – bare Beauty is left in the wood!
Bare brown branches against a mad moon (And Something that stirs in the wood), Leaves that rustle and rise from the dead, Branches that beckon and leer in the light (And Something that walks in the wood). Skirling and whirling, the leaves are alive! Driven by Death in a devilish dance! Shrieking and swaying of terrified trees! A wind that goes sobbing and shivering by …
And Fear – naked Fear passes out of the wood!
If you think that the word "chills" refers to ghosts, haunting and various Halloween-y paraphernalia, this collection is not going to satisfy you. This autumnal volume in the seasonal Agatha Christie collections is dedicated to various crimes and shady actions set in the "-ber" months, the tranquil, sleepy and suspicious 91 days of Fall.
A strange love triangle, a customer that is not where he should be, a lady that doesn't know what to do with her money, a woman who hears voices in the dark, a suicide on November 5th, a woman that seems to have escaped from the fairy lands. Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Mr Quin, Tuppence and Tommy are here to accompany a cozy night.
‘There’s a lot of magic about tonight,’ she said. ‘Don’t you think so?...more
A collection of short stories that easily falls into the genre of Literary Fiction, dealing with themes tha‘’Some things are better left unsaid.’’
A collection of short stories that easily falls into the genre of Literary Fiction, dealing with themes that vary from the ‘writer’s soul’ to the bond between family which can be so strong and yet, so fragile. A volume that kept me hooked - with the exception of a couple of rather mediocre moments - and will definitely appeal to the seasoned lovers of the Short Story genre.
How to Tell a Short Story: A couple tries to compose a short story and succeeds in using very cliche imaginable.
‘’He knew he’d died at three o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, July the 29th, 1988, the moment he woke up in the room that he’d come to hate.’’
Blue: A heartfelt, moving account of death and the sweetness of a world seen with unusual clarity. A truly bittersweet story.
Harvest: A woman tries to cope with her husband’s death by obsessively digging her garden.
Fidelity: A story about the process of becoming a short story writer in college. And infidelity…
Invisible Children: A festival of (bad) music, drugs and stoned lunatics provides the ground for repressed feelings to resurface. Do you tell the truth when you have the chance?
Chemistry: The longest story in the collection is a lifeless account of a good-for-nothing family who are the epitome of the atheistic parasites that live at our expense. A useless ‘mother’, a hideous New-Age, stinking feminist of a ‘daughter’ and a son who tries to find himself, surrounded by sex-obsessed maenads. A horrible piece of ‘writing’.
Hunters in the Forest: From smelling feminists, we move on to macho idiocy. Three friends believe that a hunting trip in the forest makes up for all the human decency they’re obviously lacking.
Brothers at the Beach: Two estranged and remarkably different brothers decide to spend their summer holidays together, with their families. Words of unspoken and unbearable tension are brewing like the indecisive days of late summer. Quietly haunting, this story makes use of themes we have encountered before but manages to invoke strong emotions.
Rapture: A father of two watches his daughter play in an indoor play arena. Having to care for his infant son while being vigilant and in conversation with the mother of a boy seems a bit too much for him. A story about fatherhood (a subject that our modern ‘values’ have decided to overlook…) and the struggle of being the ‘’protector’’ which culminates in a memorable (and semi-traumatic) end.
Generation to Generation: The colourful characters of a tower seen through the eyes of a very sympathetic man whose life won’t be completed until he and his wife become parents. Or so she would like him to think…Many layers and many themes can be found in a story that perfectly captures the spirit of the modern family and the financial struggles of our age.
Blood Moon: An idyllic evening on a Greek island is viciously disturbed by a horrible act of violence. But the heroine of the story is not one to be intimidated. Although I think that trigger warnings are stupid (as stupid as the ones who ask for them…), I must say that one needs to be cautious with this story for it is rather disturbing.
Cinema: This story was the most disturbing, in my opinion. A mother leaves her son in a cinema. One film ends, another begins, and the boy is there, unattended, waiting…
Through the Tunnel: A teenage girl has to face her mother’s approaching end and the difficulties of changes, sexual awareness and insecurity. A touching tale without being melodramatic.
Very interesting Author’s Note.
P.S. We are tiiiiiiiiiired to read that ‘’short stories isn’t your cup of tea.’’ Nobody cares. Go away. Shut up. Read a ‘romance’, instead. Idiots.
‘’We drank some more cool beer in the still autumn evening, and looked out over the lights and the traffic in the churning urban ocean below. There are so many of us, that’s what’s so hard to get your head around. A multitude of floundering creatures, plunging, lunging, towards our misbegotten destinies.’’
‘’Remember me to them all,’’ cried Mrs.Alladale. ‘’Remember everything. Remember that the jasmine is in flower and how bright the stars are over Fl‘’Remember me to them all,’’ cried Mrs.Alladale. ‘’Remember everything. Remember that the jasmine is in flower and how bright the stars are over Florence.’’
From France to Lake Como, from Florence to London, these are stories in which some of the most important women writers of the 20th century communicate feelings, thoughts and deeds heightened by the summer ambience. Many see summer as a time of beginnings. I’ve always thought that summer is a time for beginnings that end abruptly, at times bitterly, leaving their marks on your heart. Most of the stories included dealing with loss, sadness, regret and the burden of a love that may not flourish for various reasons.
Summer is not a time for reading silly romances and ‘’ever-afters’’ to…cleanse your palate. If you need to do that, you’re not a true reader in the first place and this is God’s honest truth, so don’t even bother with true Literature. For the rest of us, collections like this one are treasures.
Carnation (Katherine Mansfield): Can you really focus on a lesson when the glory of Nature envelops you in its arms?
Kew Gardens (Virginia Woolf): Kew Gardens is an enticing place to be. A place where relationships unfold, where secrets are being whispered.
‘’Three weeks afterwards found him in the prow of a motor-boat, furrowing Lake Como as he sped towards the villa. The sky was cloudless, the hills to the right rose sheer above him, casting the lengthening shadows of the afternoon across the luminous and oily water; to the left were brilliant and rugged above the clustered villages. The boat shot closely under Cadenabbia and set the orange-hooded craft bobbing; the reflected houses rocked and quivered in her wake, colours flecked the broken water.’’
I had the immense happiness to read this collection while vacationing in the Northern Italian Lakes, in Como and Maggiore, and just HOW PERFECT WAS THAT?
Requiescat (Elizabeth Bowen): The loss of a husband and the appearance of an old friend brings repressed feelings to the surface in a story set in beautiful Como.
‘’George Bingham looked down across the valley at Florence, across the smoke of grey olive-tress and the black geometrical shapes of the cypresses, black triangular cypresses, smoke-vague olives - and the white-walled houses with their flat roofs, golden in the evening light. The vine-wreathed canopy of the terrace made a dark frame for the landscape. Just below, steeply and deeply below, was a little garden, paved with grey flagstones. There were stone bowls containing little pools of water, dark-leaved tropical plants in grey stone vases, and thin pale grey cats prowling about softly as smoke among them. Mist covered the distant Arno. The copper-red dome of the cathedral glowed above it.
Exile (Sylvia Lynd): Florence, the land of Art, Love and Loneliness…
‘’London in early June hints that this is going to be the loveliest summer, the only summer, the summer of gay adventures and desires come true. You can catch these subtle whispers in the very way the awnings flap in the light breeze; in the brilliance of the window-boxes, scarlet and pink geraniums, on the facades in Mayfair; in the hydrangeas and rhododendrons massed bushily about the parks, and seen through the railings of demure private gardens; in the flutter of light chiffon dresses, in the very cadence of a passing voice, in the glimpse of a cool hall through a doorway left open.’’
Black Cat For Luck (G.B.Stern): Summer London sets the stage for a story of a lovestruck, superstitious youth and a flight girl.
The Sand Castle (Mary Lavin): Three children discover that building a castle is the surest way to overcome all differences in a story of that unique innocence that comes with being a child on a beautiful summer day.
‘’Most people get what they live for, but as they do not know what they are living for, they do not always like it.’’
The Shark’s Fin (Phyllis Bottome): Set in the Caribbean, this is the story of a newly married couple who is already facing cracks in the heaven of their honeymoon, as the woman’s whim reveals multitudes about the way they view the world and each other.
‘’Sarah laughed: she had wanted ‘’Italy’’ to be like this. It wasn’t always. There had been windy nights when the tablecloths flew up and napkins slithered away into the shadows: when the gay Campari umbrellas, threshing a little, swayed from their moorings and suddenly took wing; there had been nights of mist - the lake ‘perspiring’: and nights of sudden thunder storms, which blew up without warning - crashing about between the peaks. On such occasions, one ate upstairs in a white-washed dining room, hung with last year’s calendars.’’
The Lovely Evening (Mary Norton): A night somewhere in a lakeside Italian town hides surprises for three women. Norton got the unique ‘feeling’ and the atmosphere of my favourite country to a tee.
The Pool (Daphne du Maurier): A young girl tries to cope with loss resenting her family and begging to be accepted in an imaginary world. A masterpiece by du Maurier, a tale that is the epitome of the psychological study of lost innocence.
In a Different Light (Elizabeth Taylor): Barbara’s visit to support her sister following the death of her husband prompts her to see her life back in England in a different light. The Greek aura wins her heart and an encounter with a compatriot married to a horrible woman uncovers thoughts she didn’t know she’d been nurturing. A story that contains a plethora of layers with a beautifully tender ending.
In and Out of Never-Never Land (Maeve Brennan): Excuse me for my shameless self-promotion but Maeve Brennan must have met me in another life. Mary-Ann is the most ‘me’ character I’ve ever encountered in the millions of books I’ve read. She is perfectly content to stay in her lovely house with her books, her cats and her dog and the hullaballoo of the 4th of July doesn’t really do anything for her. On an all-too-conspicuous night, though, she realises that we may not enjoy the company of adults, but children are a different matter.
Afternoon In Summer (Sylvia Townsend Warner): A serene snippet of a young married couple’s afternoon spent at a funeral. It sounds strange and morbid but the tranquility of the story reflects the calmness of a late summer afternoon.
The Fortune Teller (Muriel Spark): A young woman travels with her friends to France. They decide to stay in a lovely chateau, guests of a strange hostess. Thus starts a peculiar interaction between a clairvoyant and a fortune teller in a terrific story by Spark.
Men Friends (Angela Huth): The string of lovers of a deceased woman attend her funeral, I must confess I can’t fully grasp why this story was included in this collection…
‘’You have got your wish [...] However, it is a wish that you should not have made.’’
It is London. In all its dark, haunting, mysterious, criminal, glorious past. A unique guide, rich in information and embellished with impressive photIt is London. In all its dark, haunting, mysterious, criminal, glorious past. A unique guide, rich in information and embellished with impressive photographs. Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review....more
‘’Life can be full of difficulties and challenges - those stings of a nettle, those lurking rabbit holes. But by taking that unknown path - by embr‘’Life can be full of difficulties and challenges - those stings of a nettle, those lurking rabbit holes. But by taking that unknown path - by embracing the spirit of being eighteen - the rewards can be manifold. Who knows what sun-dapple orchards or gently flowing streams await?’’
‘’And as you pull open the door, and head down the stairs to join the others, you step forward into the rest of your life. Ready for whatever the future may hold. Ready for whatever is written in the stars.’’
In this outstanding book, you will have dinner with queens, historians, thespians, fashion designers, scientists, adventurers, doctors, poets, writers. You will have dinner with people like you and me whose fate became synonymous with Britain’s destiny. You will come to understand that at eighteen we thought we could change the world. Some of us succeeded in doing just that. Others wanted to ‘just be adults, finally’. And we managed to do so. At eighteen, the world is there for the taking.
Alice Loxton is an amazing writer. The freshness of her narration, the vividness with which she breathes life into larger-than-life personalities, the way her writing makes everything and everyone so approachable is nothing short of outstanding. She is a treasure for Britain, and for all of us who adore History told not in a textbook ‘voice’ but in the spirit of our time. She makes History come alive in the most striking way possible.
From the Venerable Bede to Geoffrey Chaucer, from Empress Matilda to Elizabeth I, from Horace Nelson to Mary Anning, from Elsie Inglis to Vita Sackville-West, from Richard Burton to Vivienne Westwood, eighteen Britons await for you to discover them in all their early adult glory in a book that will captivate your heart.
‘’Without further ado, this is a story of young people who made their mark and played a part in the story of Britain. Hold onto your party hats. It is much more surprising, exciting and impressive than you might expect. This is a snapshot of Britain through the eighteen-year-olds who have sculpted it. This is what it means to be British. This is what it means to be eighteen.’’
Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. ...more
‘’All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open doors The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that m‘’All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open doors The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no sound upon the floors.’’ Haunted Houses, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Buckland Abbey, Dartmoor. The crimes of the wreckers, preying upon the North Devon coast, resulting in tragedies too terrible for words and manors that seem to move. In Glastonbury Abbey where Christianity meets legend in St Joseph of Arimathea and King Arthur, monks and women drift down the corridors, echoing a past that still fascinates us After all, the Tor hidden in the mists is one of the most beautiful sights you will ever experience. The Ancient Ram Inn, the Tower of London, Canterbury, Preston Manor, Hampton Court Palace with its Anne Boleyn spectre. Houses so cursed that had to be torn down, battlefields echoing the souls that met their end in blood.
Religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants that produced some of the blackest pages in European History. Cannock Chase where portals open, lost in the millennia, and a Black-Eyed child terrorise visitors since the 70s. After all, who said ghosts are meant to stay in the past? High Peak District hides the scene of a tragic love and Newstead Abbey is forever sealed by the fate of its famous inhabitant, Lord Byron himself. Beware of the Lantern Man and the terrifying Black Shuck in Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire and see if you can meet the unjustly perished family of the Boleyns in Blickling. Sutton Hoo and Pendle Hill stand witnesses to a glorious and dark past, from the Anglo-Saxon era to the terrible witch-hunting and the cries of the innocent. In Cumbria you may listen to the cries of the Crier of Claife. In North Yorkshire, in Treasurer’s House, spectres appear by the dozen, from ladies to Roman soldiers stuck in the loop of the centuries that go by. The Thackray Museum of Medicine, Bamburgh Castle and Chillingham Castle in Northumberland (with the coolest Torture Chamber ever and the story of a devil in human form that once ‘’worked’’ there as a professional torturer.
From Ceredigion and Caerphilly in Wales to Ballygally Castle in County Antrim and the mythical Mourne Mountains in County Down in Northern Ireland, from Glencoe and the Scottish Highlands to haunting Edinburgh, Britain is there to remind us that life beyond the grave DOES exist in various forms. The nay-sayers can go and read a book or something, their opinion is irrelevant anyway.
I have dozens of books on Britain and its hauntings, its spectres and legends. This volume is going to become THE guide to a troubled, violent, yet enchanting past. And Anna Groves is a brilliant writer!
Thank God for the National Trust.
Many thanks to National Trust Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I can't really explain except to say that night is my enemy. It's dark and terrible. Night whispers death. Every creature shrinks from it because I can't really explain except to say that night is my enemy. It's dark and terrible. Night whispers death. Every creature shrinks from it because the dark wants us and we sense it will bite to kill. It will kill if it can. And somewhere this tiny voice I hear is reassuring me. It repeats that night is only a means to morning, and the morning will take away all my terrors and give me fresh hope, if I can get to Walsingham.''
One of the best instalments in the series.
Highlights include:
The Woman Who Lived in a Restaurant (Leone Ross): A woman ''haunts'' a restaurant in order to be close to her one true love. Extremely moving and haunting.
The Politics of Minor Resistance (Jessie Greengrass): Working in a job that practically requires you to become a robot, a woman narrates her daily routine in a voice that cries in despair.
Walsingham (Trevor Fevin): Such a mysterious, eerie story...A woman who has experienced abuse is making a pilgrimage to find peace. However, the omens she encounters foretell anything but. A masterpiece that hovers between Gothic terror and Folk horror.
Mrs. Świȩtokrzyskie's Castle (Colette Sensier): A middle-aged woman becomes obsessed with an online RPG game. She falls (in dubious ways) for a man she has never seen and her actions result in strange repercussions for her children. Just how far can loneliness impact the weak-minded?
A Leg to Stand On (Neil Campbell): An academic feud goes horribly awry...
''We came back as ghosts from the war, haunting the places we once called home, but they had changed utterly, or rather it was that trench foot, trench mouth, the dawn burst of star shells, had changed us. The things we'd seen meant that we could no longer step upon the same blithe pavements, could no longer hold the dry, decisive hands of older girls on summer evenings, could no longer look with the same eyes on the wainscoting and gambling, the ivy, the chimney-topped roofs of our homes. Now we live between London's boarding houses and cafes, her pubs and her parks, striding with collars up through the endless, pitiless rain.''
Wyndham Le Strange Buys the School (Alex Preston): Four veterans of WWI (who might or might not be ghosts...) return to their familiar grounds only to find that the world has changed beyond recognition. An ode to Checkhov and a lament to life.
Song of the River (John Saul): Two young women move in a place near the Thames and we witness their almost whimsical conversations about strange dreams and music.
1961 (Greg Thorpe): A story of identity and stardom, using the icon that was Judy Garland, set in New York.
The Staring Man (David Gaffney): A woman who makes models is visited by a mysterious old man, prompting her to create the figure of a staring man. She can't know that she has found herself a part in a tragic story. A beautiful dance between the supernatural and the real horrors in our lives.
''From the window at the sink I see blackbirds tapping the soil, early-morning spring thrushes, sheep at the fence. I notice the state of the clouds across the valley. Sounds I've made fill the room - the suck of water as it drains from the sink, mugs on their hooks chiming against each other, the end of conversation.''
My Husband Wants to Talk to Me Again (Kate Hendry): The disintegration of a marriage depicted through an absolute lack of communication.
The Only Thing Is Certain Is (Thomas McMullan): A true masterpiece! A man faces the death of his child and the cruel task of a cremation gone wrong in a city that seems to have succumbed to a strange regime. Is it a hallucination or a coping mechanism?
''That was what Scottish Islands were, after all: heather and bracken, tumbledown crofts and Highland cows, solitary eagles, hovering over rugged grandeur. And water: streams to waterfalls, crashing waves - a lot of water.''
Distance (Janice Galloway): A mysterious woman, who is clearly facing psychological issues, is almost disappointed when she finds out that her illness is actually curable. A story with a protagonist whose motives are unclear and a highly troubling mother-child relationship.
It is December now. Frost patterns the windows, shimmers on the roofs, making icicles of the towers. The weeds that smashed through the cellar door, that vined their way in through windows and shutters have died, leaving their yellow-brown corpses underfoot. The bats control the towers; further down the moths rustle and birds shriek and creak and cackle. Foxes scarper through the corridors, their swift brushes sweeping trails in the dust. There is an owl in the dormitory sitting watch over me as I sleep. Through the broken windows of the library, snow has blown, and banks up against the armchairs, the mildweed ottoman.''
‘’For a moment she felt the earth shudder and rick beneath her, for a moment the guns thundered in her ears, and the drone of the bombers was torn by‘’For a moment she felt the earth shudder and rick beneath her, for a moment the guns thundered in her ears, and the drone of the bombers was torn by the shriek of a falling bomb…Six months of it. Six months of it, day and night, almost incessantly - and in all that time she had not known the meaning of fear; had not seen in the faces about her, the faces of middle-aged women or young girls, a shadow of panic or failure or endurance-at-an-end. One felt it, of course, some people had a queasy sensation when the sirens wailed; some people’s tummies turned over at the sound of a falling bomb; most of them would go through life with a humiliating tendency to fling themselves flat on their faces at any loud noise; but that was all. They were all much too busy and tired to be afraid.’’
1943, Kent. The air raids carried out by the Nazi monsters are in full swing, yet in Heron’s Park military hospital, Death is lurking in every corner, acquiring various facades, vehemently fought by the doctors and nurses who have dedicated their lives to their profession and the Cause. But who would have thought that a postman would die on the operating table while in a low - risk surgery? One death follows another and the seven suspects seem to have little motive to commit such acts. Yet, one person among them is undoubtedly a murderer.
Or are they?
Needless to say, I must reveal nothing that could be considered a ‘spoiler’. What I can say is that Christianna Brand’s novel isn’t just a marvellous mystery but a poignant and moving literary creation as a whole. Brand’s observations in her Author’s Note concerning the readers’ assumptions (and stupidity…) are brilliant. The atmosphere is tense, the tentacles of the war seem to be everywhere, the cost the civilians had to pay because of one man’s madness is tangible and unbearable. The dialogue, the characterisation, the claustrophobic setting, the deathly threats, the personal demons that each character has to face create a work that will have you on the edge of your seats. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who the murderer is. The war remains the one and only perpetrator.
One of the finest mysteries in the British Library Crime Classics family.
’The apples were young and green upon the boughs and all the air was sweet with the scent of a dying summer day. They walked in silence through the country lane, and in the rich fields, the rabbits sat up to watch them, rubbing black noses on little, furry paws. The last soft rays of the sun gleamed on the whitened stems of the trees, and foxglove and ragged robin caught at them as they passed, as though to hold them for a moment longer in the mafic of a Kentish twilight.’’‘
One of the weakest volumes in the series, filled with stories that felt focused on being gross and shocking, And NOT in a pleasantly literary way. StoOne of the weakest volumes in the series, filled with stories that felt focused on being gross and shocking, And NOT in a pleasantly literary way. Stories like Sink Rate by David Frankel should come with a tiger warning and I am a sworn enemy to trigger warnings. However, some of us do travel a lot, others have experienced traumatic events related to flights. Why any editor would think this story should be included in the collection is beyond me. Others like RZ Baschir’s The Chicken and Will Wiles’s The Meat Stream were horrible, unreadable. If these writers have won ‘awards’ for their writing, I pity us all contemporary readers.
When you only enjoy 10 out of 20 stories, the omens are not in your favour, right? On the bright side, these 10 stories are easily among the best I’ve ever read, born out of bold ideas and exceptional writing.
How You Find Yourself (Sara Sherwood): A life narrated in relationships with acute remarks on womanhood and intimacy.
Single Sit (Edward Hogan): The lightning relationship between an employer and an employee, set in the quietly haunting English landscape.
Offcomers (Rosanna Hildyard): In a situation that mirrors the time of the pandemic, a couple (not a father and a daughter as an idiot below would have you believe…) tries to cope with the risks of farming. Except the husband is an absolute brute. Set in the rugged land of Yorkshire.
‘’A window a table a recess with a lamp. A window a table. A moon looking in.’’
Square/Recess/Moon (Ben Pester): A brilliant, evocative metaphor for the loneliness and frustrations of modern life. Extraordinarily beautiful writing.
Sarcophagus (Alice M): A woman narrates her thoughts while being in an MRI scan machine.
The Comet (Sonya Moor): A make-up artist narrates her meeting with Simone Veil, the French politician who survived the unimaginable horror of Auschwitz and went on to pass the legalization of abortion in 1975. Moving, poignant, the absolute gem in the collection.
A Visit to the Bonesetter (Christopher Burns): This story scared the living daylights out of me. In a dystopian society, a married couple gets a taste of the authority’s desire to eradicate what makes us humans.
An Easement (Paul Mcquade): A new life awaits the lovers of our story, yet new beginnings are seldom pleasant. An atmospheric story set in the rural landscape of the USA.
New To It All (Sean Padraic Birnie): A body horror tale done right. Exquisitely disconcerting.
Wild City (Sophie Mackintosh): A designer returns to a city that has decided to make the transition from urban to rural in a dystopian setting that looks eerily familiar....more
‘’Passengers are advised to board while the train is still in existence.’’
If we come to think of it, we daily commuters live in a softened, less thre‘’Passengers are advised to board while the train is still in existence.’’
If we come to think of it, we daily commuters live in a softened, less threatening (hopefully…) kind of transportation loop. I have been coveting this collection for three years and although we got off to a rocky start, I soon realised that we were simply meant to be. From the eerie feeling of being alone on the platform, closely listening for the sound of the train that will surely carry you home (or will it?) to the congestion that grows and grows like a deranged Hydra, this volume gives voice to each and every fear of the commuter.
From Prague to New York, Paris and - naturally -London, these are 19 little horrors for the daily commuter to despair upon.
All aboard…
Bullroarer (Paul Meloy): There’s nothing extraordinary in this…thing. It is a stinking pile of utter bullshit and one of the most disgusting stories I’ve ever read…
The Girl in the Glass (John Llewellyn Probert): A young woman finds himself haunted by a girl who hovers between life and death. Quite unique this one…
The Lure (Nicholas Royle): Sensual, tense, elegant. Like a haunting tour of Paris. A young teacher falls prey to the desires of a strange couple. This story needs to be made into a film.
23:45 Morden (Via Bank) (Rebecca Levene): I can’t begin to count the number of shocks my brain was subjected to while reading this extraordinary story of a life turned upside-down in the most horrible way imaginable.
End of the Line (Jasper Bark): A story of time loops and psychogeography that could have been better developed. Interesting, nonetheless.
The Sons of the City (Simon Bestwick): An interesting premise focusing on the futile efforts to create an Underground in Manchester, drawing parallels on how technology disturbs the creatures of the Old World that quickly lost momentum. It contains a few scenes of absolute horror, though.
The Roses that Bloom Underground (Al Ewing): I don’t know what is more disturbing. Things growing out of the walls or happy commuters trying to accommodate each other…
Exit Sounds (Conrad Williams): Mysterious and fascinating, this story has the old glory of the Cinema and the unnerving setting of the nightly Tube walk hand-in-hand.
‘’Where would you like to go that we’ve never been before?’’
Funny Things (Pat Cadigan): An extraordinary piece of writing, one of the best stories I’ve ever read! The agonizing battle of a woman against sudden loss and unbearable grief. An elegy of eerie coping mechanisms, a real Odyssey accentuated by sorrow and loneliness. Simply mindblowing!
‘’You might be on holiday, but some of us have to get to work, dear.’’
On All London Underground Lines (Adam L.G. Nevill): Accidents, incidents and malfunctions keep on happening and the narrator finds himself in a terrifying loop. As if Kafka wrote about life in the Underground, this story is the definition of life as a daily commuter. An all too familiar masterpiece and may I say that the protagonist is my spirit animal, trapped in an endless There and Back Again.
P.S. Bloody tourists…
Fallen Boys (Mark Morris): A teacher finds herself in an eerie tale while on a school field trip in an old mine. A beautiful, sad story that follows the good old tropes of a quintessential British ghost story. Furthermore, it felt oddly relatable since I am a teacher who has had her share with what others would deem as ‘’troubling students’’.
In the Colosseum (Stephen Volk): A hedonistic, hallucinatory nightmare exposing all the layers of human cruelty.
The Rounds (Ramsey Campbell): An outstanding, heart-pounding story with the epitome of the Unreliable Narrator. Is he paranoid or is he really trying to save his fellow passengers?
Missed Connection (Michael Marshall Smith): A man is trying to go shopping before Christmas but is unable to escape the claustrophobic boundaries of the Underground. All exists closed, the city is different and the nightmare is never-ending.
Siding 13 (James Lovegrove): A passenger is trapped in a train that becomes more and more and more and more congested. I got claustrophobic just by reading this masterpiece!
Diving Deep (Gary McMahon): What if Antarctica had its own underground transport system? Yes, I can’t say I liked this one…
Crazy Train (Natasha Rhodes): An intriguing heroine (I ADORED HER!!) and an ode to the dark stories of Rock music, set in LA.
‘’The ground couldn’t hold him.’’
All Dead Years (Joel Lane): A psychologist is trying to help a woman who has experienced manipulation and abuse but the tunnel seems endless. With traces of the myth of Persephone and Hades, this story is exquisitely elegant.
‘’He once read that those who die by the hand of another are the easiest to see. At the far end of the scale are those who die natural deaths - they can never return. But what about the ones whose departures are simply accidental? What does it take to see them?’’
Down (Christopher Fowler): An Underground worker helps victims of the past find their way through the labyrinth of the Tube. Whether those who perished during the Blitz or in tragic accidents, the spirits need a guide. A shuttering ending and if this story doesn’t bring wailing tears in your eyes, then you are Satan!
‘’He turned the corner onto something so unexpected that he stopped dead in his tracks. In front of him were the steps which he knew led down onto the southbound platform of the Northern Line. They did not lead down into the usual shuffling malee of irritable shoppers, however. They led down into total darkness.’’
‘’Emma Green is boldly hale Her house is warm but narrow On scattered grass until she dies She’s wide awake in sorrow.’’
‘’Anna Green is old and frail‘’Emma Green is boldly hale Her house is warm but narrow On scattered grass until she dies She’s wide awake in sorrow.’’
‘’Anna Green is old and frail Her house a warmer borrow Her scattered ashes, unbidden eyes Still wide awake and hollow.’’
Always look both ways when you cross the street. Don’t go anywhere near pylons. Don’t ever go to Almanby. Almanby is the Other. Its name is uttered in frightened whispers, the place of mystery, terror and fascination for the youth who is constantly being flooded with the cautionary tales of the adult world. But what if there is actual truth in those tales? What if some places ARE the Other that must be avoided at all costs?
Three young adults, Heather, Rachel and Antonia, must go to Almanby to find Heather’s boyfriend. Many of their friends have disappeared never to be seen again. And this is how a summer Odyssey of mystery, despair, deceit and obsession begins…
And this is how one of the most beautiful and unique books you’ll ever read is born…
‘’Front doors changed colour overnight, their locks fit different keyes, they opened outward instead of inward. Pets changed colour, or were slightly larger or smaller than before, or they changed sex. Light switches inverted, windscreen wipers swapped sides, fridge magnets demagnetised, televisions detuned, piano keyboards swapped ends with the high notes on the left and the low notes on the right. Beyond the rash of wild conspiracy theories, nobody had a good suggestion, either for the changes or the ghosts. The best anyone could come up with was that reality itself had become sick.’’
First of all, this astonishing novel contains some of the BEST first pages I’ve ever read. We’re talking true, pure Masterpiece Material! Adam S. Leslie has created a dystopia unlike any other and breathed new life into a much-abused genre. The summer seems endless, voices are heard through radio waves, people wither, die and become ghosts. Ghosts lurking in the fields. Ghosts wandering, lost and sad. Ghosts banging on your windows. Ghosts trying to attack you and kill you. This is a land where danger is constant, unpredictable and unbeatable. Your dead relatives will hurt you, silently whispering, watching with dead eyes and lethal intentions. And Almanby is always there, the destination that seems to resemble a different Hell on Earth. And the Earth itself has changed…
‘’Six years of summer. Six years without grey skies or snowdrifts or icy northerly blasts. Six years of sweltering in the same gelatinous humidity.’’
‘’Six years ago, a different kind of pollen drifted in on the summer winds.’’
It is a world of suffocating beauty. A world of summer afternoons and silent interactions, where ‘’the grass smelled of evening.’’ A land of abandoned cars in the fields, of empty towns, of sighs containing terrifying lullabies, of empty funfairs and maypoles moving on their own. A time when you can sit on the grass and let the meadow hear your cries on the way to your meeting your Fate with a sad soul.
‘’Dusk was Rachel’s favourite time of day. The heady stink of night-time plants, still hot from the day’s glare, filling the atmosphere now with their aromas. Everything red and purple and lavender, at once insubstantial and supremely solid. Nothing was quite real at twilight.’’
‘’[...and the sun had baked the sky cobalt blue and naked, burnt all its clothe off. Now just a tortoiseshell of fields lay ahead of them, as flat as the ocean or an alien world, and impossibly green. Woodland, misted blue by the distance, stretched out to their left - and even against its furthest flank, Heather could make out the pinprick- small presence of ghosts. Tiny moments of black and white.’’
The way the writer shocks us in the middle of a ‘’simple’’ paragraph is nothing short of outstanding. Using references to fairytales and folklore, he has composed a dark folk song, steeped in the light of the midday sun, equally scorching and hypnotising.
This is Folk Horror at its finest, and a genuinely BEAUTIFUL novel.
‘’Emerald green the boat that sails The mouse will surely borrow On shattered glass ‘neath stars he cries To guide this day to sorrow.’’
**spoiler alert** Having loved Blood Queen and since King Lear and Cordelia hold an exceptional place in my heart, I was more than enthusiastic to sta**spoiler alert** Having loved Blood Queen and since King Lear and Cordelia hold an exceptional place in my heart, I was more than enthusiastic to start Iron Queen.
I was severely disappointed...
Through four 'units' named after the four major festivals in the Celtic Calendar (Imbolc, Samhain, Lughnasad and Beltaine), this is the story of Cordelia, Goneril and Regan, daughters to Leir and Branwen, taking part in a furious, relentless game of power and domination.
But.
Why do we need 150+ pages about dog breeding, puppies and dog tags? What's with the wings and flying? Ancient Greeks did it first and did it well. What's with the jarring, outrageously ridiculous nicknames of Dee, and Ree, and Gee? Are we in a series set in junior high school or something? What's with the ''er''s? The druidesses/prostitutes? The uninspiring dialogue, the love story suitable for teenagers whose only relation to reading is the screen of their mobile phones?
359 pages and the story becomes vaguely interesting (and then, falls flat again) after page 284. The Historical Notes were atrocious, revealing a woeful self-absorbed side of the writer and I begin to believe that Blood Queen was written by a different author. If you want to write Game of Thrones - style, you must know how.
Unfortunately, in this case, the Bard did it better and his monumental play should have remained untouched and not made into a ridiculously shallow teenage rump.
I will continue with Fire Queen but my expectations have become significantly lower.
Sidenote time: Dear writer, Christianity may be a 'rigid' religion to the likes of you, but at least WE DO NOT SACRIFICE PEOPLE.
Scots playing tricks on an Englishman, resulting in linguistic misunderstandings. A ‘’poet’’ in love with himself, unaware of a frightful lack of any Scots playing tricks on an Englishman, resulting in linguistic misunderstandings. A ‘’poet’’ in love with himself, unaware of a frightful lack of any talent whatsoever publishing his ‘’gems’’ until his death. A book that practically predicted 80% of future inventions. The tremendous influence of Robert Burns in Literature and Culture and the impact of Sir Walter Scott that shaped an entire genre from scratch. Did you know that Tolkien did NOT invent the term ‘Middle - Earth’ or that the great Dr Johnson wanted to make amends for denying his father help? Discover the mysteries of haunting Whitby, the moors adored by Emily Bronte, the nostalgia of Beatrix Porter’s world, the seventeen days on Morecambe pier that have us John Osborne’s masterpiece Look Back in Anger.
Trace the bond between Ivanhoe and Robin Hood, witness the premiere of Christie’s The Mousetrap in Nottingham and the origins of the British National Anthem. I was amazed to learn about Marie Corelli in a chapter where Oliver Tearle skins the idiots who refuse to accept that Shakespeare IS actually…Shakespeare and I am SO here for it! Discover little stories about the pub where Christopher Lee met Tolkien, how Bletchley Park gave us our freedom from the Nazi monsters, how Anna Sewell’s mother, Mary, contributed to the creation of one of the finest books in Children’s Literature.
What is Britain’s most unfortunate town? Why is Fleet Street so laden with dark stories? Who was Anne Anskw, a prisoner in Newgate and one of the first female poets to compose in the English language? We will walk through London from Paternoster Square, Westminster Abbey, and Brick Lane. What were the secrets of Robert Browning’s haunting poetry?
From Applegarth and Burgess’s home to Milne’s Hartfield, the Welsh coast and Dylan Thomas, to Austen’s Bath. From Lady Charlotte Guest and The Mabinogion to the tragic life of Thomas Chatterton, John Aubrey’s love for Stonehenge and Avebury, Winston Churchill’s affinity for ‘kisses xxx’. Walk with Thomas Hardy into his Wessex, visit Stinsford where his heart lies and discover Cecil Day-Lewis’s final resting place. Find out how crazed fans exasperated Tolkien and the rumblings of a ‘prophetess’ who actually thought she was the real deal. Marvel at du Maurier’s Cornwall and finish your journey looking for King Arthur as his voice echoes through the mists.
This is only a handful of the places Oliver Tearle calls us to discover in his beautiful book, on a journey in the land of Literature. Written with vividness, gusto and utmost respect, you need this book in your life if you want to be called a true lover of books.
‘’I did not ask to be queen but I did look for the right to be so and the way the times turned around me, it amounted to the same thing.’
I am asha‘’I did not ask to be queen but I did look for the right to be so and the way the times turned around me, it amounted to the same thing.’
I am ashamed to admit that my TBR shelf is full of Joanna Courtney’s works, but for unfathomable reasons, it is only now that I decided to start my journey into the exciting world of her novels with a book that aims to shed some necessary light into the real life of the woman we have come to know as ‘’Lady Macbeth’’.
Shakespeare is my life but there is no doubt that he did Lady Macbeth dirty so several novels are coming out to set things straight and I am here for it.
The synopsis is adequate so I won’t waste your time. What will you find in this novel? You will find the reason why Historical Fiction is a genre that can conquer the heart of a serious reader. You will find not ONE remarkable heroine but two. Yes, Cora is the heart of the novel but Sibyll is no less wonderful and what a joy it is for a writer to be able to make a reader root for both (opposing) sides at the same time. You will find noble men, men of valour and courage, you will find men whose actions seem to confuse treachery for love, you will find fiends and heroes.
You will read beautiful paragraphs, you will enjoy dialogue that is vivid, realistic and sensitive without becoming pretentious. You will find women who do not behave like men to appear strong. You will find the hard work of a writer who didn’t want to cancel or massacre Shakespeare. You will find no DOWN WITH THE PATRIARCHY nonsense targeted to pour honey into the ears of dirty, illiterate neo-leftists and misguided pseudo-feminists.
You will find Historical Fiction done to perfection.
And I adored the notes in the end. THAT is how Historical Fiction is done and I cannot wait to start another novel by Joanna Courtney....more
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