Category: Tales from the past

The Unforgettable Loretta Darling- Katherine Blake (Viking 2024)

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This British debut featured in my round-up of what I was looking forward to in 2024.  I thought it might be a perfect beach read and having now finished it I think I was on the right track but I do have reservations.

It is set in Hollywood in the early 1950s- a time when the studio system is still exerting an influence but the Golden Age is drawing to a close with television infringing on the movie world’s domination.  Main characters are fictional but real names associated with this time including gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and such stars as Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye, Liz Taylor, Doris Day etc. hover around in the background, with one, silent star Louise Brooks featuring in a cautionary cameo of how the studio discarded those they felt no longer fit the bill.

Into this and from the British seaside town of Morecambe comes Margaret who soon restyles herself as Loretta Darling and aims to succeed in the world of film make-up.  This isn’t a bad idea on the author’s part as this role gets to see a different, more vulnerable side to the acting talent.  In this male-dominated world the bully boys seem to hang around the longest and events following a fateful wedding lead Loretta onto a plan of revenge.

The theme of exploitation in the entertainment industry is still very relevant and there’s a definite aspect of the author wanting to redress the balance but when it comes down to it there’s not a lot of difference from her depiction of this world to earlier and perhaps less nobly motivated novels such as “Valley Of The Dolls” by Jacqueline Sussan (1966) and some of the work of Jackie and Joan Collins springs to mind.  The trashiness is still there amongst the glamour and that’s why I’d recommend it as a holiday read.  I think I was expecting something a little more literary, a little spikier and with characters I could care more about but it reads well.  I’m not sure how great a commercial prospect it is in that I’m not sure who it will appeal to but probably by just saying that I’ve ensured it will be the runaway hit of the summer.  I’m not totally convinced by it.  There’s a couple of minor characters who seem to have their more resonant story to tell, which could be something the author could explore in the future.  I didn’t dislike it by any means but it felt underdeveloped and flat which is a shame giving the potential of its setting.

Calling the main character “Unforgettable” in the title seems a little risky, the author would really need to ensure that this was the case otherwise there is an inevitability to the comments critics will make.

The Unforgettable Loretta Darling is published in hardback by Viking Books on June 20th 2024 (E-book is available from 18th June) .  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy. 

The King’s Witches – Kate Foster (Mantle 2024)

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The second historical novel by Scottish author Kate Foster following her critically acclaimed “The Maiden” (2023) is an impressive work set in the late sixteenth century.

Central to the novel is Princess Anna of Denmark, betrothed to King James VI of Scotland at a time when paranoia regarding witchcraft was spreading through Europe and James’ rule is threatened by the Earl of Bothwell.  Ferocious storms carrying Anna to Scotland are blamed on witchcraft with Bothwell deemed to be behind this supernatural plot.

It starts off very atmospheric and intense and reminded me of the historical novels of Hannah Kent.  It is made up of three first-person narratives, one from Anna, another from her lady-in-waiting Kristen, who has previously visited Scotland and from Jura, a “cunning woman”, grieving the death of her mother who has passed on her knowledge of herbs and tinctures.

Behind the fiction is the historical fact that some 40-60,000 people in Europe were killed because they were said to have been witches between 1400-1782 and King James was known to have been obsessed by devilry and witchcraft which he believed was a serious threat to his god-given title.  There’s going to be trouble in Scotland….

My interest in this book was piqued by the recent Sky TV series “Mary & George” (2024) which featured James and Anna in England and I found myself wanting to know more about their earlier lives (especially as looking at my family history has unearthed a possible direct descendant (Thomas Erskine) as a Groom Of The Stool for King James – a nobleman who was there to assist the king on the toilet, which is probably as prestigious as my family could get!)

Most of the elements in this novel are very good indeed.  It is highly readable and I certainly wanted to know what would happen.  The plot takes a turn with a pretty hefty coincidence which certainly opens out the fictional elements but which felt a little implausible to me but I can justify it by the world being a much smaller place in the 1590s to explain this.

Kate Foster has certainly enthralled me with her account of witchcraft and royalty and has me wanting to read “The Maiden”.  Maybe I would have preferred a slightly stronger balance of historical fact amongst the fiction but there is no denying how involving this book was and how important to illuminate these issues, still centuries on, swathed in misinformation.  In her Historical Note the author highlights from 2022 the then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon making an apology for the persecution of witches in Scotland’s past and the events in this novel certainly mark a surge in that persecution.

The King’s Witches is published on 6th June 2024 by Mantle, an imprint of Pan Macmillan.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

Brooklyn- Colm Toibin (2009)

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My first experience of Irish writer Colm Toibin was a very good one in 2023 when I read his 1996 novel “The Story Of The Night” and it ended up in my Top 5 Of The Year.  I’ve fast-forwarded 13 years through his back catalogue for the book he is probably best known for.  It won the Costa Novel Prize in 2009 and there was a successful 2015 film adaptation starring Saoirse Rohan which I’ve up to now steered clear of as I wanted to read the book first.

Judging from these two novels, Colm Toibin’s novels are really quite quiet, with detailed observations which slowly build up a world which we, as readers, get really drawn into.  It is the 1950s and in Enniscorthy in County Wexford, Ireland, Eilis is struggling to find work.  An opportunity comes her way to relocate to Brooklyn and this is the story of how she adapted to life in America.  The action (such as it is) moves between Ireland and the USA in four parts within a straightforward, unfussy, third-person narrative.

Eilis is pretty much a blank canvas, things seem to happen to her without that much personal input.  At home her mother and, especially, her older sister Rose are pulling the strings and things do not change much initially in Brooklyn where she is reliant on a local priest and landlady and housemates in lodgings which have been found for her.  Despite this passivity (or maybe because of it) she proves to be an enthralling  character and this particular reader only wished good things for her.

Fitting in and adapting are major themes as is duty – Eilis is always keen to be seen to be doing the right thing.  She’s playing catch-up a lot of the time as her lack of experience with the world sees her failing to recognise homesickness for what it was. I did really enjoy this, not as much as “The Story Of The Night” which built so beautifully but this is an endearing, resonant work.  I’m looking forward to seeing the film now. A sequel to “Brooklyn”, entitled “Long Island” is due out on 23rd May 2024.

Brooklyn was first published in 2009 by Vintage.  I read the 2010 Penguin paperback edition.

The House Of Shades – Lianne Dillsworth (Hutchinson Heinemann 2024)

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Lianne Dillsworth’s debut “Theatre Of Marvels” (2022) was a four star treat of strong story-telling set in Victorian London and showed such potential that news of her second novel had me selecting it as one of the novels I was most looking forward to in 2024.

Timewise, this novel is set a little earlier in 1833 and has once again Black British History in focus.  Here it centres on the argument about reparations being made by slave-owners to those enslaved following the slow-to-be-implemented Abolition Of The Slave Trade in 1807.  The author has used this for another strong tale of family, responsibility and justice.

Hester Reeve is a doctoress employed by an ailing wealthy man.  Hester agrees to what is believed to be a short term of employment, taking her away from caring for the prostitutes of the King’s Cross area because the money is good and her sister has become involved with his reprobate son who is her employer in a factory.  It isn’t long in the forbidding atmosphere of Tall Trees before Hester discovers Gervaise Cherville’s true intentions and the role she is expected to play.

There are good twists, an explicit villain in Rowland Cherville and a more complex one in his father.  The plot, as in her last book, moves along well and I think this ends up being an even stronger novel.  I felt last time out I wanted some variety in viewpoints but here I’m very happy with Hester’s first-person narration.  Publishers like to add the Gothic tag to Lianne Dillsworth’s work but I don’t really get that strongly, unless the meaning has shifted recently.  (I also didn’t get it particularly from two other 2024 publications I’ve read “The Beholders” by Hester Musson and “The Library Thief” by Kuchenga Shenje where there is also just a hint of the Gothic but there is strong story-telling here and a healthy touch of melodrama (perhaps not as marketable as Gothic) which is fine.  I certainly enjoy historical novels set in London around this time period and Lianne Dillsworth has shown now, on two occasions, that she excels in such writing.

“The House Of Shades” is published by Hutchinson Heinmeann on May 16th 2024.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

From The City, From The Plough – Alexander Baron (1948)

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Anyone who wishes to commemorate in some way the 80 year anniversary of the D-Day Landings on 6th June may like to consider reading this book as a way of marking tribute.  This author was one I selected as a pick from Christopher Fowler’s “Book Of Forgotten Authors” (2017) and he took part as a member of the Pioneer Corps in this campaign writing this fictional account soon after the end of the war in late night shifts following on from his job at a theatre company.  When published in 1948 it was popular and met with strong critical acclaim but has faded from view over the years.  I read a 2019 edition published by the Imperial War Museum.

Considering battle-grounds it’s the First World War which gets the greater focus in fiction.  The futility, the use of humans as bait, the courage, the fear and the mud, blood and blisters were equally as present 30 years later.  The second half of the book offers a realistic, visceral record from one who experienced it.  Reading this, it is amazing that anyone survived.

A significant chunk of the novel is about waiting, the preparations, the awareness that something big was going to happen but nobody seemed sure when.  We focus on the fictional Fifth Battalion of The Wessex Regiment.  It’s an ensemble piece with scenes which flit through the ranks capturing the activities and feelings of the men from raw recruit Alfie Bradley, who finds love at a dance; Tom Smith whose real love is farm work and who helps out on one after a full day’s training; Charlie Venables, so popular with the men that he can flout regulations and Colonel Pothecary whose concern for his son joining the Navy filters over to his attitudes towards the soldiers.  It is a very visual approach, the change of focus occurs frequently and it is no wonder that the author later focused on screenplays for film and television.

This was the first of a trilogy of war novels.  Alexander Baron (1917-99) later wrote London-based fiction, one of which, “King Dido”, Christopher Fowler describes as “one of the greatest and least read novels about London ever written”.  So that’s one to seek out.

This debut novel is gritty, written from the heart with the latter battle sections based on the Fifth Battalion Wiltshire Regiment (thinly disguised here) and their encounter at Mont Pincon alongside the author’s own experiences with which he must have lived with every day of his life after that but was able to use these for an unflinchingly realistic and unsentimental account.  Certainly worth reading.

From The City, From The Plough was first published in 1948.  I read the 2019 Imperial War Museum publication.

Dead Man’s Rock – Arthur Quiller-Couch (1887)

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What makes a book a classic?  Is it to do with age?  With its popularity when it was published?  Its staying power?  Its literary worth?  Probably a combination of these and many other factors.  As far as I am concerned I have just read a novel which deserves classic status yet when I went on to GoodReads to give my five star rating I discovered there were no other reviews or ratings.  Am I the only person out there to have read this?  It’s a little gem!

You may have heard of the name of Sir Arthur Quiller Couch (1863-1944).  He was the editor of the Oxford Book Of English Verse (1939) that seemed to be on everyone’s bookshelves at one point.  I’ve always had a copy.  The name conjured up for me an austere Victorian literary figure.  I never knew he was such a prolific writer with over 20 novels, loads of short stories, poetry and non-fiction works many of which were published under the pseudonym Q.  I recently purchased a Delphi Classic e-book edition which has all of these and this is the first novel from the Cornish resident published in 1887 when he was 24. 

Cornwall is often featured in his fiction and here the rugged coastline gives us Dead Man’s Rock, not far from The Lizard.  A perfect setting for an adventure tale and this is what we have here as three generations of the Trenoweth family become obsessed with treasure, especially a large ruby.  The grandfather indicated he had found it and hid it and left a will with cryptic instructions for his son to seek it only if in dire circumstances, he sets off to recover it and the search is once again picked up by his son, main character and narrator Jasper.

Jasper is eight years old when we first meet him and is so sophisticated in word and deed that it is later on recognised that the reader may struggle with plausibility and the narrator needs to intervene and explain it away.  “How will it be asked could any boy barely eight years of age conceive the thoughts and entertain the emotions there attributed to Jasper Trenoweth?”

But, park that to one side as the narrator urges and we get early on a clifftop scene reminiscent of the opening of “Great Expectations” (1861) with Pip and the convict, one of the most chilling encounters in classic fiction and to push the connection further, there’s later on a superbly cold female character, this novel’s equivalent of Miss Havisham.

The first half is pure adventure with travel, journals and events which felt more gripping and involving than “Treasure Island” (1882) which was published just five years earlier and was an obvious influence but there’s more to it than this as the second half develops and introduces characters, has a love story element and gets very dark indeed.  All the way through there is the sense of a plot moving forward without the padding there was in works drawn out to fit serialisation, something which even “Great Expectations” is guilty of.  In the opening sentences the narrator informs us he is going to impart “a plain tale, plainly told” and whereas he keeps the second part of the bargain, the first not at all as this is far too extraordinary a tale to be called plain.  Now, there are a lot of coincidences, but this is very common in works of this vintage, look at Thomas Hardy, but I was still able to buy into the implausible as I was enjoying what I was being given so much.

I really think this book deserves a larger audience.  A sensitive adaptation which conveys the swashbuckling adventure, the romance, melodrama and undeniable penny dreadful elements could reclaim this work.  I loved it.  If subsequent works are as good I think I’m going to be shouting Arthur Quiller-Couch’s name off rooftops to get him rediscovered.  It is certainly an under-rated classic up there with the best adventure tales and so readable.

You can buy his complete works from Delphi Classics currently available on Amazon for the paltry sum of £1.99.  Even if you only read his first novel (although skip the horrendously plot-spoiling introduction until afterwards) you will have a real bargain.

Dead Man’s Rock was originally published in 1887.

The Library Thief- Kuchenga Shenjé (Sphere 2024)

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I’ve read a number of Gothic-tinged historical novel debuts over the last few years.  Titles that spring to mind are “The Beholders” by Hester Musson (2024), “The Animals Of Lockwood Manor”- Jane Healey (2020), “The Confessions Of Frannie Langton” – Sara Collins (2019), “Theatre Of Marvels” – Lianne Dilsworth (2022) and my favourite of all “The Wicked Cometh” by Laura Carlin (2018). These books appeal to me as a reader.  I like the darkness which gradually reveals itself from beneath a thin veneer of respectability.  They often have a nod towards the work of The Brontes, Daphne Du Maurier and/or Sarah Waters and some of these have been strong in depicting characters who would have had to operate on the fringes of society who find themselves plunged into disturbing situations.  This can mean characters offering a Black British and/or LGBTQ+ experience.

These factors are present in Kuchenga Shenjé’s debut.  It doesn’t feel quite as embedded in the history of the times as some of the above but we do have outsiders placed in an atmosphere which becomes increasingly twisted.  This is an effective and satisfying mystery novel.  Rose Hall, a large house in the Lake District sounds respectable enough and it is the place main character Florence Granger chooses to provide a temporary place of escape.  Her father is a bookbinder and she has absorbed enough of his skills to repair the book collection in Lord Belfield’s library.  Belfield’s wife Persephone died in mysterious circumstances and the grieving Lord has reduced his staff to just a cook and a manservant.   Florence joins them for a temporary live-in assignment to prepare the books for sale, but what are the secrets the houses, the staff and the Belfield family are hiding?

Good characterisation, good pace with things that we’ve encountered in those other Gothic debuts alongside fresh perspectives which makes this a very readable debut for which there should be an appreciative audience.  I actually really enjoyed the details of the bookbinding work before the delicate twists of the plot start to be revealed.

“The Library Thief” is published on 9th April 2024 by Sphere Books.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.  

Shrines Of Gaiety- Kate Atkinson (2022)

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This is the 6th Kate Atkinson I’ve read, two of which “Life After Life” (2013) and “Case Histories” (2004) have made my end of year Top 10s. She has always really impressed me.  There’s been three 5* ratings and two 4*s which makes me a little uneasy to say that this didn’t make the impact upon me that I was expecting it to.

There is no doubt that it is well-written.  The author is one of the best around and her hallmarks of quality, her rich language, her feel for time and location, her confidence and playfulness are all in evidence here but there is just something lacking in a work I thought I’d love.

It’s 1926 and we begin with nightclub legend Nellie Coker (based on the real life Kate Meyrick – the one-time Queen of London’s clubland) and her release from prison going back to take control of her empire managed by her offspring whilst she was incarcerated.  Inspector Frobisher suspects her of darker dealings than she’d been jailed for and enlists the help of ex-librarian Gwendolyn who has come to London from York to track down a couple of missing girls, seduced by the lure of the West End stage.  I really like the sound of this even as I’m writing it and putting these plot-lines into a heady mix of The Jazz Age, The Bright Young Things, alcohol and drugs it feels like my highest star rating would have been inevitable.

It just feels cluttered.  It’s pretty much an ensemble piece with no clearly defined main character- Gwendolyn, perhaps?  Not all of the characters worked, some I wanted more from, some didn’t matter to me and almost felt they got in the way preventing the magic I felt was always under the surface from happening.  It doesn’t flow consistently, and is a little stop-start which I found ultimately frustrating.  It starts to get really good on a number of occasions then switches to another plot-line or to less interesting characters.  I can follow multiple narrative threads but there were moments here I felt I wasn’t keeping up, which was a little unsettling and I think this was also to do with flow.  I really wanted to get the feel of the London nightlife of this era but it felt a little superficial.  I felt I wasn’t being pulled into the Coker’s nightclubs, I was still outside in the queue.  I wanted to be more of a participant in this world than a spectator and this author really has the skills to let this happen.

There’s quite a lot of back-story and this is something I also usually like but here it held things up. 

In its feel and depth there is a sense of a more modern slant on a Dickensian novel and there were echoes for me of the experience I felt reading Fiona Mozley’s London novel (also set in another era) “Hot Stew” (2021) which had the same feel of a more modern slant upon Dickens and which also did not quite hit home in the way her previous novel “Elmet” had.

I’m so perplexed about how I feel about this that I looked at Good Reads whilst writing this review which I seldom do.  It is a bit of a mixed bag 25%-5*, 43%-4*, 24%-3* which suggests its certainly not a disaster but that its not classic Kate Atkinson for everyone.  All the elements are there, they just don’t come together consistently enough for this reader.

Shrines Of Gaiety was first published in 2022.  I read the 2023 Penguin paperback edition.

The Gallopers- Jon Ransom (Muswell Press 2024)

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The first of the books I had highlighted as a must-read for 2024 was very nearly my first five star rating of the year.  Jon Ransom won the Polari First Novel Prize for his debut “The Whale Tattoo” (2022) which I really enjoyed giving it four stars and describing it as “dark, raw and relentlessly gritty.” This offers more of the same and I think I liked it even more.

Eli is a young man living with his aunt in Norfolk in 1952.  His mother disappeared following a flood in the area, which did not spread to the land Eli’s family live on.  Because of this, local residents think the fields are cursed and respond by acts of hooliganism towards the property.  Eli’s aunt allows Jimmy, whose family work the merry-go-round at fairs (the gallopers) to stay in their barn and Eli finds himself becoming obsessed.

There’s real intensity here- the first half of the novel takes place during a heatwave and as emotions simmer it reminded me of the Southern American work of authors such as William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams and I found myself having to remind myself that this was early 1950s Britain.  There is a sense of detachment from the characters which does feel very English, however, and which steers clear of the melodrama we might associate with the American authors.  It moves well, I read it quickly and it exerts an enigmatic power which I enjoyed. What had really appealed to me when I first heard about the book was that it was offering a spread in time and would move forward thirty years to London at the time of AIDS.  In the end this was the element of the novel which stopped me from reaching for my five stars.

This change of time setting is reflected by the beginning of the script of a play written by the main character which retreads some of the events from a more modern perspective.  It isn’t a very long section but it does not work as far as I am concerned and I couldn’t see its relevance.  It seems an odd stylistic choice and now I’m very aware that Paul Murray’s “The Bee Sting” also saw the author making odd choices and that ended up as my current Book Of The Year but here I’m just puzzled.  It breaks the flow of an involving plot and the book is not long enough to require a break from the main narrative thread and it seems to have been done for reasons I can’t fathom. 

Putting that aside there’s much to impress here, more disappearances, hypocrisy, lives lived by rules and a self-loathing lead character offended by his “sissy-sounding voice” who puts his family’s problems down to his inability to fit into the working-class male environment of 1950s Norfolk.  This made for a gutsy and at times grubby read as well as exerting an almost elemental power especially with Eli’s relationships with the female characters. I would be interested in other perspectives from readers concerning the more modern section.

The Gallopers is published on 25th January 2024 by Muswell Press. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

The Beholders – Hester Musson (4th Estate 2024)

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Debut novel time and publishers 4th Estate are using the tagline “Some houses are haunted by the living” to promote this strong historical thriller.  Written in the form of a diary from the 1870s the narrator is Harriet Watkins who becomes a maid for MP Ralph Gethin and his wife Clara.  Gethin starts off a shadowy figure, often absent from home but very much respected by the household staff.  Clara is seen as morose and neurotic by those living with her.  Harriet, on her arrival, begins to wonder if these perceptions are twisted.

The author gives the direction this will be going in right from the start with proceedings from a court case where we piece together Clara is on trial for the murder of her infant son.  We backtrack as to how this has come about through Harriet’s writings.  It’s being touted as a Gothic thriller and there are some Gothic elements here but not especially so.  The country house setting with an outsider trying to penetrate its secrets and what has gone on before will be familiar and I feel that it takes the first half of the book to fully get up to speed and then it goes off in a surprising way.

There’s some vivid well-drawn characterisation here (the narrator Harriet comes across extremely well) although the MP remains a little elusive as a character (intentionally perhaps as Harriet is never going to know how to react to him).

Certainly for the second half of the novel I was really drawn into some strong story-telling and this feels an impressive and commercial debut which should win Hester Musson a considerable number of fans eager to see what she comes up with next.

The Beholders will be published on 18th January 2024 by 4th Estate.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.