Fab, fab, fab. If you read The Secret Garden as a child, if you love dark fairy tales and legends (my favourite fairy story was The Snow Queen) and ifFab, fab, fab. If you read The Secret Garden as a child, if you love dark fairy tales and legends (my favourite fairy story was The Snow Queen) and if you like books which have multiple time strands telling the same story, you'll love this. I've read all of Kate Morton's work and this was my favourite, the sort of book I really wish I'd written myself.
Updated August 2015 A reread. I'm in the middle of writing a book and I was looking for something I knew I'd enjoy. I loved this every bit the second time around, even though I remembered the twists and turns of the story quite well. There were quite a few coincidences required to keep the plot turning that I hadn't noticed before, but entirely forgivable. What struck me much more on a second read was the fairytale quality of this story, and I absolutely adored that. I mentioned the Secret Garden in my first review, but this came over much more, and the way that Eliza's fairy stories were woven into the text worked better for me too (I hesitate to compare it to one of my other all-time favourite books, Possession, but I've done it now!). Lovely, a really lovely ready. She has a new book out in October, I can't wait.
Updated March 2017. Another reread! And just as fab. ...more
I loved The Bed I Made, Lucie Whitehouse's next book and the first I read, I couldn't put it down,that slow **spoiler alert** Majore spoiler alert!!!!
I loved The Bed I Made, Lucie Whitehouse's next book and the first I read, I couldn't put it down,that slow creeping sense of impending disaster was brilliantly done. It's there in this book too, only it didn't work for me. I still read it quickly, but the group of characters bored me - no, if I'm honest I found most of them unlikable, like a latter-day Brideshead. The house was a really good character on its own though and the back story was enough to keep me going. It was good, actually, until the end. I hated the end. Not the fact that it was left unresolved, I didn't mind that, but it seemed to me unbelievable first that the main protagonist's lover wouldn't just call her and tell her what he was doing, especially given everything that had gone on before, and even more unbelievabe was the fact that Jo would leave him bleeding to death on the carpet for TWENTY MINUTES on his own while she went off to track down addo Lucas. But even after all that, I loved The Bed I Made so much that I'm really looking forward to Ms Whitehouse's next. ...more
A re-read of this one for me, and I have to confess that I don't actually remember reading it at all the first time around, though I must have, the paA re-read of this one for me, and I have to confess that I don't actually remember reading it at all the first time around, though I must have, the paperback is far from pristine - I'm one of those very annoying people who break the spine of novels when they read print.
Louse Welsh writes brilliant prose. She sooks you into the world of her main characters from page one, and she has a real knack for page-turning writing, even when, as in this case, you'd think the subject matter far from page-turning - at least initially. This book concerns an English professor who has taken a sabbatical to write a biography of an obscure Scottish poet who died young. The opening chapters are all about his life, not the dead poet's, his broken relationship with his brother, his affaire with his boss's wife, his generally chaotic, drink-fuelled, going nowhere social life. Okay, but not riveting, you'd think. But gradually it dawns on you that Professor Murray Watson is pretty obsessed with Archie, his dead subject, and that his obsession has somehow prevented him from getting his own life. Then we begin to discover that all is not how it seems with his subject's life and with the people he is interviewing associated with it, and of course, you're into classic Welsh territory. There's a mystery which you are dying to discover, with lots of twists and turns and dead ends, and ultimately, it's a mystery that is not fully resolved.
I really enjoyed this, and I'd stick with my original 4 stars. it's made me want to go back and read The Cutting Room and The Bullet Trick too. Yay, I love it when a reread does this. ...more
Scurrilous is the term that comes to mind when seeking to describe Lord George Bentinck, poacher turned gamekeeper and 'hero' of this book. I really eScurrilous is the term that comes to mind when seeking to describe Lord George Bentinck, poacher turned gamekeeper and 'hero' of this book. I really enjoyed it, it was witty (extremely so in places), acerbic, clever, historically impressive, and it told a darn good yarn.
The focus of the book was the plot to win the 1844 Derby by using a four year old horse to impersonate the required three year old, and just to make sure, by employing various tricks and underhand methods to put out the main challengers before and during the race. Foulks does an excellent job of setting the scene, as 'the turf' stops being the provence of gentlemen and starts to be taken over by the great unwashed. Gambling and gaming hells soaked up the income of bakers, butchers, footmen and chimney sweeps alike, who, according to the disapproving (and fast-growing) Victorian equivalent of the moral majority, deprived their starving children of food and shelter in a bid to emulate their betters. A surge of disapproval brought the wrath of the law on the gaming hells, and had Parliament debate the rights and wrongs of betting, just as the Derby was about to become the most bet-upon race in the calender. The eponymous Lord George, who had spent his life and several fortunes, including those of his brother and father and best friend, in establishing his racing stable (and in the proces learning every underhand trick in the book of how to cheat to win) saw which way the wind blew. When the Deraby of 1844 went against him, he threw his all into exposing the sham,and in the process set himself up as the model of propriety and defender of morality which he most certainly was not.
The scam itslef, which involved hair dye, and so many moonlight flits for the two horses in question that it's amazing they ever managed to get the pretender to run at all, stands in history as the most outrageous until Shergar (Foulkes' comparison, not mine). I knew next to nothing about racing and betting, but I found it enthralling. ...more
I loved this, it had all my favourite things. Two paralles stories, a big old castle, mysteries, books, letters, and tons and tons of ambiance. I coulI loved this, it had all my favourite things. Two paralles stories, a big old castle, mysteries, books, letters, and tons and tons of ambiance. I couldn't put it down and I didn't want it to end, and it was one of those books where you're desperate to have absolutely everything resolved - and it is. Just a fab summer read.
December 2016. Just finished a re-read of this and I loved it just as much. Kate Morton is the queen of the timeslip, with a way of weaving the two parallel stories together so seamlessly, and of unravelling them too, so that they twist and turn right until the very last page. Loved this, and I'd upgrade it to 4.5 stars. ...more
In many ways, Daphne du Maurier is as unlikeable as the heroines of some of her greatest books, but in the same ways, she's also compelling. This was In many ways, Daphne du Maurier is as unlikeable as the heroines of some of her greatest books, but in the same ways, she's also compelling. This was an excellent bio, candid without being lurid, enquiring without going too wildly astray into the author's own theories. As a writer, I'm always fascinated by where other writers get their ideas from and how they go about writing. Du Maurier was a major and detailed plotter, keeping immense amounts of notes and diaries, and only writing (save one book) once she had every bit of the characters and story sorted in her head - not for her, the idea that the characters might take over once she started putting them on the page. Only in her writing could she express what she called her Number 2 character - the inner boy which she thought of as her true self. The extent of her self-dullusion or repression of this true self is tragic, and makes many of the unattractive facets of her character understandable if not acceptable. I'm making her sound awful, but like Rebecca, as I said, I found her horribly compelling, and this a really great book. ...more
I havent read this book in a very, very long time, but it's always been one of my favourites. I wasn't sure what I'd think, going back to it after allI havent read this book in a very, very long time, but it's always been one of my favourites. I wasn't sure what I'd think, going back to it after all this time, and it was definitely a different read. The thing about Rebecca is that even though you know the story, every if you know the story really, really well, it's so compelling that you can cope with the book's flaws. Mrs Danvers and Rebecca herself must be two of the best ever fictional creations. The scene with the new Mrs de Winters and Mrs D in the West Wing is utterly terrifying (on the odd chance there's someone out there who doesn't know the story, I won't say any more).
Things that bothered me. The two main protagonists. Neither Maxim nor the second Mrs de W are exactly sympathetic. The narrator is downright pathetic, and there are times when you're clenching your fist almost screaming at her just to speak up, speak out. Maxim is also too clenched. If he too had just spoken up, acted, instead of being all repressed and English, then he wouldnt have got himself into such a mess. On the other hand, there wouldn't have been a story. And it's a really, really great story. And in the end, the story and the rest of the characters and fabulous Manderley itslef carry the book. If you haven't read it, and you want a good story, I'd highly recommend it. ...more
Like most of the people who've reviewed this book, I've been obsessed with Rebecca since I first read it, aged 16. I'm a huge fan of books which interLike most of the people who've reviewed this book, I've been obsessed with Rebecca since I first read it, aged 16. I'm a huge fan of books which interleve past and present stories (AS Byatt's Possession is one of my all-time favourite books),and Daphne did this really well. The sections with Du Maurier at Menabbily were the most haunting and worked best for me, and I loved the complexity of the parallel strands, the stories within stories even within the real Du Maurier's life - the metaphor of the lost boys, for example, was really well done.
Again, like almost all of the other reviewers, I thought the sections with the modern-day protagonist were the weakest. The parllel's between her and the second Mrs de Winter, whom I've always found irritating, meant I was never going to be empathetic towards her though perhaps that's what Ms Picardie intended.
All in all though, I realy liked this. It made me want to go to Cornwall. I've just ordered a bio of du Maurier, and I've looked out my very ancient copy of Rebecca for tonight. ...more
Funny, in places really funny, and you just don't want it to end. I've read it three times and I still want more. Like one of the reviewers said, it'sFunny, in places really funny, and you just don't want it to end. I've read it three times and I still want more. Like one of the reviewers said, it's Jane Austen rewritten by Dorothy Parker - and I think that says it all. ...more
I picked this up because it was a TV Book Club read. Clever, on the whole gripping, and really quite unusual. This is the first Iain Pears book I've rI picked this up because it was a TV Book Club read. Clever, on the whole gripping, and really quite unusual. This is the first Iain Pears book I've read, but I'd definitely look for another. I thought the idea of this book was clever, and it was a brave move to sustain such a long novel with first person narrative (albeit by three different people). This was one of the things I actally didn't like much, I found myself constantly distracted by wondering if this was a false narrator clue, and also missed the other POVs there could have been. The plot was complex, and at times I admit I glossed over some of the detail about finance and weaponry, but I liked it, and at times I really liked it. Just wish I hadn't guessed the end, and to be honest, wished the end had been a bit different. ...more
I didn't know what to think of this book. I've given it three stars because it was compelling and at times hilarious and really well written, but it aI didn't know what to think of this book. I've given it three stars because it was compelling and at times hilarious and really well written, but it also made me very, very uncomfortable and occassionally confused and I was left completly - I just don't know. I really admired the writing and the author for writing it, and to treat such sensitive subject matter in such a way was bold, really bold. Overall, this book was an experience, I just can't say what kind. ...more
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