My Favourite Books of 2015

One benefit of not reading enough is that the good books I've read stand out that little bit more. Interesting thing? I read all of these in the first seven months of the year. You can find the complete list of books I've read this year here but these are my top five, in no particular order.

Dead to Me by Cath Staincliffe

The first book I read in 2015 is still one of my favourites. A prequel to the Scott & Bailey television series, this was an excellent read and the plan is still to read the next novel when I get a chance. My full review can be found here. 

Felix Holt, the Radical by George Eliot

It's taken quite a while for me to find an Eliot book that really got me but Felix Holt  turned out to be it. Almost a year later I'm still thinking about the evocative riot scenes and this is one of those rare novels I remember exactly where I was when I read it, down to the bumps on the track between Wakefield and Sheffield. My full review can be found here. 

Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature by Emma Donoghue

My favourite non-fiction book of the year, this is an excellent analysis of same-sex desire that has provided me with so much potential reading material that it's already paid for itself ten times over. My full review can be found here. 

Murder in the Afternoon by Frances Brody

My infatuation with Kate Shackleton doesn't seem to be easing but who cares? Out of the three Brody novels I reviewed in 2015, this one is my favourite thanks to the Wakefield setting. My full review can be found here. 

Here Be Dragons by Stella Gibbons

Here's another author who I could read forever. No matter what I think of a Gibbons plot, the settings are evocative and the characters memorable. Here Be Dragons is another excellent examination of post-war London and it struck a chord. My full review can be found here. 

Book Review: Here Be Dragons by Stella Gibbons

Since first reading Westwood in 2011 (review here) I've been slowly reading the Gibbons novels I can get my hands on, savouring them in the way that I savour Frances Brody's Kate Shackleton mysteries. Both authors have the knack of distracting me from the real world and making me smile - albeit for different reasons. So when I added Here Be Dragons to my 'Women' challenge reading list this year it was inevitable that it would be one I'd make sure I read.

The novel tells the story of Nell Sely, a young woman who moves to Hampstead from Dorset following her father's lost of faith and resignation from his parish. Nell and her parents end up living in a house owned by her father's sister Lady Fairfax, a television personality, and she becomes entwined with her bohemian cousin John and his crowd. Nell's also aware she needs to start earning money to support her family and initially starts work as a secretary. However, she soon decides she'd rather be a waitress and finds she's rather good at it.

Here Be Dragons works, like other Gibbons novels, as a study of London life during the 1950s. Hampstead springs to life once more with vivid detail, particularly with the suggestions of urban change peppered throughout. One of the most interesting characters in that respect is the aristocratic Miss Lister who lives in a cottage at the bottom of Nell's garden and has an unexpected role to play in the plot.

The infatuation Nell has for John isn't something that I completely understand, due to him being a horrible character, but the act of infatuation is something infinitely relatable and it permeates the novel in various guises. Gibbons's representation of another troubled relationship in the form of Benedict and Gardis is interesting, demonstrating further the breaking down of barriers in the post-war world. However, for me the most intuitive aspects of the book came in the descriptions of the loss of Martin Sely's faith, which he cautiously comes to terms with during the novel and fashions a faith of his own. The exploration of his thoughts is one of the things that has lingered with me, along with the depictions of Hampstead and the depiction of some very unsettling relationships.

Here Be Dragons meanders a bit at times, with some characters feeling superfluous but generally making a point, and won't be to everyone's tastes but I thoroughly enjoyed it. My delight in reading a Gibbons novel apparently hasn't diminished.

This book was read as part of the 'Women' reading challenge, details here.

Birthdays Are Book Days

It's that time again. Another year older (which I'm trying not to think about) and something that goes hand-in-hand with birthdays for me - a cornucopia of new books. As far back as I can remember, if people were stuck for a present for me, they just got me a book and I never complained. I recall car journeys to the coast on birthdays with my nose more in a new book than bothered about sniffing the sea air. Don't worry, I eventually put it down and did kid stuff but the point is that birthdays and books are entwined in my head.

I went to York for a few days and went a little crazy in the book department. It's easy to be free with someone else's money but this is my York haul:

Three shops contributed to that. I've been meaning to read Brody's Kate Shackleton series from the beginning since I read A Woman Unknown (reviewed here) over a year ago but I'd got it into my head that I wanted to buy it from a 'proper' bookshop in Yorkshire and, being too dippy to order it in, I was waiting until I found it. Looking forward to that one immensely. The Stella Gibbons book will be the fourth of hers that I've read (and still haven't touched Cold Comfort Farm) and, although the last one I read was a little odd, I do have high hopes for this one. As for Jude the Obscure... Well, I might give that a wide berth for a while. I want to read it but Hardy tends to emotionally break me. 

Now the non-fiction. Out of the five, Dickens and the Artists is probably the most intriguing and the prettiest. Dickens and the Social Order might be put off until I've read two of the novels it discusses but it was too good a deal to ignore and, while I've heard mixed things about the Collins biography, I couldn't really pass that up either. The Virginia Woolf book, although small, is notable for the illustrations so that should be good and as for Yorkshire's Murderous Women... Can I just point out that until I started studying sensation fiction my interest in gruesome historical murders was almost nil? I think we can blame Edmund Yates and Wilkie Collins for that one. 

There's one other book to mention, a present from a good friend who aims to aid my procrastination by giving me books like this: 

She knows me so well.

Here, have Audrey Hepburn singing (with her real, charming voice) in a bookshop in Funny Face:

Book Review: Starlight by Stella Gibbons

Starlight is the fourth Stella Gibbons novel I've read (and I still haven't touched Cold Comfort Farm, the most famous). It centres on a run-down house in London where elderly sisters Gladys and Annie Barnes live with the eccentric Mr Fisher - he changes his name every month for variety - in the flat above. They get a shock one day when the house is abruptly sold to a 'rackman' and the residents fear for their survival. However, the new owner simply installs his wife, Mrs Pearson, and her new German maid, Erika, in the house in the hope that it'll improve his wife's health. His wife, we soon learn, claims to have been a medium in the past and the other residents of the house begin to think she's possessed by an evil spirit. Rounding out the cast are the vicar and his curate and Peggy Pearson, the daughter, amongst others.

This was a much darker novel than the others I've read by Gibbons but still comic in tone. The last quarter, specifically, starting with a horrific attack referred to so casually at first that the significance of it is downplayed until it intrudes on the house itself up until the final pages is very dark. It was creepier than I expected, given the light-hearted tone of much of the novel. The flashes of darkness didn't really prepare me for the climax.

In terms of characterisation, Gibbons succeeds once again. Gladys is a chatterbox, the perfect character to follow around, even if you have to reread her speeches a few times to realise what she's actually wittering on about (think Miss Bates in Emma). Her sister, Annie, is much quieter and the soft friendship which springs up between her and Mr Fisher is so slight that it could almost pass the reader by - only one character comments on it, and it's not chatterbox Gladys. Mr Fisher holds his own secrets, walking Hampstead Heath by night with a purpose not fully revealed until the end of the book. Gibbons certainly has an interest in foreigners acclimatising to their new surroundings - Erika is an interesting enough specimen, especially when Gladys takes it upon herself to teach her English and how to do things. As for the rest - Peggy and her employers feel like the most superfluous of the cast, but they do serve a purpose, while the vicar and curate provide a nice contrast to each other in terms of personality and the direction their faith takes them.

The beauty of having Gladys as a primary character is that you go off on tangents without really noticing, as she links one thing to another and talks to the point of driving everyone to madness. Her interactions with the vicar and, especially, the curate are the most hilarious in the book. The actual meat of the plot - the medium and her problems - doesn't take up as much space as you'd assume it would. Starlight is another Gibbons novel that covers life in all its forms and this variety is perhaps why I enjoy her novels so much.

Although I've had issues with her endings in the past, this time I actually thought the finale fitted the book. It brought us back, as it were, from the murky events of the previous chapter, and provided a decent ending for two of the most important characters.

I don't think any Gibbons novel will overtake the fondness I have for Westwood but I found Starlight to be enjoyable and, yet, thought-provoking. A few too many adverbs for my tastes but not to the detriment of the book as a whole.

London and VPFA Conference (Part 1)

I spent Tuesday to Friday last week in our over-heating capital. The purpose of my visit was the conference mentioned in the title but I also found time to do a few other things. The title of this post is a little misleading - this part will talk about London and the second part will discuss the actual conference. So...here goes.

Me being me, I got myself worked up into quite a state before I left. My first 'job' was meeting the lovely Laura (@HistorianLaura on Twitter). We had a late lunch at Pizza Express which I thoroughly enjoyed. Nice and easy conversation with someone on my wavelength - perfect! 

That evening I was fortunate enough to have a cheap theatre ticket. I've wanted to see Merrily We Roll Along since I heard Jenna Russell had been cast and Maria Friedman was directing. Thanks to a last minute deal I found myself in the second row of the stalls gaping up at the stage. What a performance! Sondheim is never easy and you really have to concentrate - especially with a show that moves backwards - but the production was gorgeous and the acting sublime. Clare Foster and Jenna Russell's versions of 'Not a Day Goes By' were probably the highlights for me but 'Old Friends' was up there too, along with 'Franklin Shepard, Inc'. Now, here's the thing. On the performance I went to the role of Charley was taken on by the understudy, Matthew Barrow. I wasn't going to comment on his performance at all because it was the embodiment of what I felt Charley should be. He was outstanding, particularly in 'Franklin Shepard, Inc', which requires energy and a certain connection with the audience. Jenna Russell's Mary also needed this and there was no doubt she succeeded. I know Sondheim isn't for everyone and the woman sat beside me asked what the hell was going on at the interval. But, for me, it was a perfect first Sondheim for me and I'm grateful I managed to land a ticket I wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford. 

On Wednesday morning I had a few hours to kill before the start of the conference. So where better to spend it than the Charles Dickens Museum on Doughty Street? I did get told off by one guide for not lingering to listen to her rehearsed introduction but, really, I knew enough about Dickens to proceed without help. It was a wonderful little house and I thoroughly enjoyed looking round. I also had an excellent chat with another guide about my PhD before I left. Then I went down to the cafe and had a cup of tea in the back garden. As you can see from the pictures it was a gorgeous day out there. 

After I'd finished my tea I inevitably stepped into the shop. As well as a keyring, I bought the book and postcards below. The postcards are just beautiful and, really, anything that mentions Wilkie Collins I can thoroughly justify...right? I do love Hesperus books - I always get the sense they're lovingly created. 

For now I'll skip over Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday and skip straight to Friday. I had to go to Foyles to pick up a Proms book for my grandmother. Naturally, with the music department being on the top floor, I got a little sidetracked as I progressed. I'm sure the saleswoman thought I was a bit mad: a Proms guide, a self-editing book, a Katharine Hepburn biography and a Stella Gibbons novel? Well, I'm certainly varied!

My next shop was The Tea House in Covent Garden. I've recently gone a little nutty on loose leaf tea so I decided to indulge my new obsession and I bought the below teas. I've tried all of them. The Moroccan Mint is luscious, light and still lovely. The Tutti Frutti smell nearly knocked my socks off but thankfully the taste is less intense. However, it's the Calming Tea that looks like wood-chip that really astonished me - because of the ginger, I think, it has a little kick to it making it, remarkably, the tastiest of the bunch. Also, the prices were extremely reasonable and they should last me a while. I've got no reason not to be relaxed with these in my possession!  

So that was the so-called 'fun' part of proceedings. I'll tell you almost all about the conference tomorrow...

Book Review: The Matchmaker by Stella Gibbons

The Matchmaker is my third foray into Gibbons's fiction (after Westwood and The Bachelor). This tells the story of Alda Lucie-Browne who, with her three daughters, is awaiting her husband's decommission from the army in a small run-down cottage in the country. Her neighbours include Mr Waite, a chicken farmer, and Mr and Mrs Hoadley who own a nearby farm and supply their milk. The three workers at the farm at two Italian prisoners who live in the nearby camp - Fabrio and Emilio - and Land Girl Sylvia. Rounding out the group is Jean, Alda's old friend, who comes to stay following the death of her father. Alda gets it into her head that Jean would be perfect for Mr Waite (because Jean needs a husband and he needs a wife really) and that Sylvia and Fabrio should marry. She sets around engineering the matches but her calculations don't always prove effective.

I enjoyed this book as much I did the others. Alda is a difficult character to appreciate, meddlesome as she is, but other characters are far easier to relate to. Jean, desperate for a love affair and flirting with religion, became my favourite as she decides on one course, changes her mind then changes her mind again. Sylvia is a complex character, a wannabe actress who doesn't really stand a hope, and manages to repel Fabrio when she's herself and accidentally ensnare him during a visit to another village.

Gibbons's writing style - serious with touches of amusement hidden in almost every line - perfectly accentuates the flaws in each character. Her descriptions of Alda's two elder daughters Louise and Jenny show their differences beautifully without them becoming tedious characters. Fabrio also has the potential to be irritating but his evolution from uninterested in Sylvia to besotted by her mitigates the effects of his romantic personality.

I'm discovering, however, that when I reach the end of a Gibbons book I'm strangely unsatisfied by the finale. This may be because I've lived with the characters and am disappointed to leave them at all. But the ending of The Matchmaker ignored one of the confrontations I wanted to see - that between Alda and Jean - in favour of a 'wrap-up' chapter focused on Alda and then another one focused on Fabrio. I felt somewhat miffed that we skipped a few years then said a swift goodbye to the characters. Still, I don't think this detracted from the book as a whole. There are some memorable characters in this one, as with Gibbons's other novels, and some wonderful observations that had me giggling aloud.

Book Review: The Bachelor by Stella Gibbons

I noted when I read Westwood last year that I was determined to become more acquainted with Stella Gibbons. Once again, instead of reaching for the famous Cold Comfort Farm I picked up The Bachelor, a story about a well-off 'family' in wartime. This family consists of middle-aged brother and sister Kenneth and Constance Fielding, their cousin Miss Burton, the home help Vartouhi and the various guests who descend on the house, including mother and son Betty and Richard (Betty happens to be Kenneth's old flame) and the Fielding father, something of a playboy who abandoned his family years ago. Rounding out the main cast is Alicia Arkwright, a local girl who had an ill-fated love affair and may be in line for another when she catches sight of Richard (catches sight as in accidentally runs over his foot in her car).

You see, the romantic entanglements of the household are a little complex. Kenneth had his heart broken in his youth by Betty and has been ruled by his sister ever since but there's still a spark between the old sweethearts. Equally, there is a spark between Kenneth and the much-younger foreigner Vartouhi. Richard falls hard for Vartouhi himself while Alicia falls hard for Richard. To complicate matters further, the older Mr Fielding takes an interest in his son's old flame.

In parts this book is hilarious. Meek Miss Burton has a voice in her head labelled The Usurper who passes internal comment on what's going on, particularly in relation to her heavy-handed cousin, Connie. Miss Burton is probably the nicest character in the book and, being separate from all the love affairs, she is somebody to anchor onto. Although the war is ostensibly the reason for all these characters converging  Sunglades, it doesn't impact the house much as Connie has determined it won't. Connie is a recognisable 'type' - an intellectual woman who believes she knows best in everything. In a way, all the characters are recognisable types but that doesn't make the novel boring.

There are some genuinely funny pieces of dialogue in The Bachelor. It's an unpretentious satire about love and human nature. Although Vartouhi's speech gets a little irritating after a while, that's really my only criticism of a wonderful book.

My Favourite Books of 2011

I've read some fantastic books this year. The full list can be found in this post. However, I just thought I'd highlight some of my favourites in a special post. They're in no particular order because these are the cream of the crop - in my eyes there's no picking between them for quality. I found them to be pleasurable reads, though vastly different in content.

Carol by Patricia Highsmith 

This tells the story of Therese and her attraction to a woman she meets in a department store, the Carol of the title. It's a fairly short novel but the prose is wonderfully evocative. You can read my review here.

Girl Reading by Katie Ward

Ward takes seven portraits of women reading as her starting point and weaves seven marvellous little stories out of them. Each individual story is digestible in one gulp but, if you're like me, you'll want to read them all in one go. You can read my review here.

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

After splitting from her husband, Zoe Baxter falls in love with Vanessa. Although she's suffered miscarriages which pushed her marriage to the limit, Zoe and her new partner are keen to use the eggs she has in storage. However, her ex has become involved with a conservative religion group and she needs his permission. A very modern novel, and a heartfelt one too. You can read my review here.

Westwood by Stella Gibbons

Gibbons' work is now being reissued and this book absolutely delighted me. Set against the backdrop of WWII, the novel tells of Margaret Steggles and her connection with a richer family she comes across quite by accident. Funny and well-written. You can read my review here.

Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Adding a sensation novel to my list was, I suppose, a given. This book is gripping and still possessed the ability to scare me out of my wits. Not bad for a book that's around 150 years old! You can read my review here.

Have you read any excellent books this year I should add to my own for next?

Book Review: Westwood by Stella Gibbons

I first became attracted to this book by seeing the cover on the Guardian website. The new Vintage Classics edition is striking, as book covers should be, and enticed me towards an author I hadn't heard of before.

Gibbons is one of those authors seemingly lost in the mid-20th century. She has over a dozen novels to her name, though many of them have fallen out of print until now. Westwood was a delightfully amusing book that certainly inspired me to become better acquainted with this author.

The novel tells the story of Margaret Steggles, a school teacher, who finds a ration book on Hampstead Heath and returns it to the Niland residence. Alexander Niland is a well-known artist and his father-in-law, Gerald Challis, is a famous dramatist. Margaret itches to become well-acquainted with the Challis family (and Gerald in particular), despite the fact that they treat her as a glorified child-carer. In a twist of fate, her friend Hilda attracts Gerald one night when he walks her home in the blackout. He gives his name as 'Marcus' while he idealises and courts Hilda, who has no interest in anything he has to say and simply sees him as a kind old man.

Gibbons is an expert at character sketches. There are many people who pass through the pages of the novel but they all have a distinct voice. I particularly found it remarkable that the half dozen or so children are recognisable by their differences. This applies to Alexander Niland's three children and the others encountered throughout the pages, including Linda, a girl with learning difficulties. I especially enjoyed being able to guess which child was talking when dialogue tags were sparse in a section towards the end of the book. If your characters are that distinctive then you don't need to highlight who's speaking on every other line.

As may have been gleaned, the novel is set during WWII. The war seems to be an inconvenience to the lives of the Nilands and Challises. Alexander is concerned about his paintings being destroyed and Gerald notes a significant alteration in the reception of his plays. The backdrop of the war isn't thrust forward on many occasions but that's something I appreciated: life went on in many ways and it was pleasant to read a war story that wasn't actually about the war. Gibbons describes England in very vivid terms throughout, notably when Hilda and Gerald meet in the blackout and when Margaret takes a rowdy bunch of children for a walk. However, I still think the opening description is one of the most evocative:

"London was beautiful that summer. In the poor streets the people made an open-air life for themselves under the blue sky as if they were living in a warmer climate. Old men sat on the fallen masonry and smoked their pipes and talked about the War, while the women stood patiently in the shops or round the stalls selling large fresh vegetables, carelessly talking." (p1)

The narrative swiftly moves on to Margaret's emotions on Hampstead Heath. The first few pages are all description but it doesn't drag: it helps frame the story that is to come against the backdrop of fighting abroad and struggling at home. It's a luxurious read which explores the desires of humanity and their worshipping, infidelity and difficult friendships. It's a novel about life - lightly and comically told - which ends rather ambivalently. Don't read this in search of a traditional happy ending; read it to smile and recognise different types of people who are as familiar now as they were in 1946 when Westwood was first published.