Janet

A Child in the Forest by Winifred Foley The ‘blurb’ Winifred Foley grew up in the 1920s, a bright, determined miner's daughter - in a world of unspoilt beauty and desperate hardship, in which women were widowed at thirty and children died of starvation. Living hand-to-mouth in a tumbledown cottage in the Forest of Dean, Foley - 'our Poll' - had a loving family and the woods and streams of a forest 'better than heaven' as a playground. But a brother and sister were dead in infancy, bread had to be begged from kindly neighbours and she never had a new pair of shoes or a shop-bought doll. And most terrible of all, like her sister before her, at fourteen little Poll had to leave her beloved forest for the city, bound for a life in service among London's grey terraces. I absolutely loathe the word belly! Sorry if that offends anyone, it's probably just me, but ugh – it's up there with moist! However, Winifred Foley's excellent book A Child in the Forest, first published in 1974, has been rebranded as Full Hearts And Empty Bellies: A 1920s Childhood from the Forest of Dean to the Streets of London - catchy, huh! In the 1960s, the social historian John Burnet put out an appeal for people to write down their memories, and so, aided by her husband who helped to edit her writing, she submitted her memoirs which were turned into this book. I managed to find a copy of it in the Bookbarn and read it for Gloucestershire, having already read (and loved) Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee. Foley and Lee were born within a month of each other in 1914, but their reminiscences are quite different, in particular, Lee's are more whimsical than Foley's. Winifred, known as Poll to her family, was a lively child who lived with her mother and father and younger siblings in the small Gloucestershire village of Brierley. The family lived in abject poverty, subsisting by cadging food from willing neighbours, persuading the local shopkeeper to let them have goods 'on tic' and even, on occasions, scrumping – an activity which wasn't always successful! The conditions in which the family lived – the fleas, the hunger, the ragged clothing are almost incomprehensible (although of course poverty does, sadly, still exist). Despite the family's lack of money it was mostly a happy childhood for the young Poll. She recounts her early years in the Forest, and the period from the age of 14 when she went into service in London up until the point she met her husband, with humility, warmth and humour. She uses quite a lot of dialect in the book. Although I'm not a native of Somerset I have lived here for nearly 29 years and have learned many phrases. The language of Somerset is quite similar, which I think helped! I very much enjoy books about social history, particularly the Victorian to post WW2 period, so this book was right up my street and I very much enjoyed it. There are two more 'Forest' books (both rebranded for a modern audience) and I would definitely like to try the second one at some stage. The paperback edition is 256 pages long and is published by Abacus. It was first published in 1974. The ISBN is 9780349122182. 4/5 (I really liked it) (Finished 30 January 2017)

Copied from my blog (with a bit extra at the end!) As I know Jane Austen's wonderful Pride and Prejudice backwards I decided to read this as an alternative to Hertfordshire]. Margaret Schlegel has looked after her younger siblings Helen and Tibby (short for Theobald) since their parents died. The book opens with letters from Helen to Margaret from Howards End where she is staying with the Willcox family. When Helen informs her family that she plans to marry Paul Willcox, despite them having only met briefly, their Aunt Juley is despatched to step in and prevent the engagement. However, as is the fickleness of youth, before the Aunt can arrive the relationship is over! Despite this, Margaret and Mrs Willcox form an unlikely friendship. The Schlegels then meet Leonard Bast. He is a man of lower-class who wants to improve himself – he meets the siblings at a classical concert and when Helen leaves early and takes Leonard's umbrella with her, Margaret gives him her card and tells him to call for the umbrella. They decide to make a project out of Leonard but he is held back by his wife (although I don't think they're actually married – at least, maybe not at the start of the book – I really can't remember!) and by lack of money. There are quite a few themes in this book including (and perhaps most importantly) class and social standing. The Schlegels and Willcoxes are of different backgrounds but similar classes, whereas life is a struggle for the Basts who are held back by their lack of money. When the lives of the three families collide, these societal differences are highlighted with serious consequences for all. It took me a long time to read this because I wasn’t enthused enough to pick it up! I don't usually mind character-driven plots, but it helps to like the characters (or to hate them, I guess) but the characters in this book just left me feeling a bit ambivalent. It's not my first read of E M Forster – I read A Room with a View a few years ago and that left me feeling unsatisfied too. I think maybe Forster's writing is just not for me (different strokes for different folks, and all that), although I have wanted to read A Passage to India for a long time, so who knows – maybe I'll give him another go some time. In terms of location, it didn't really feel like it gave me a feel for the county. Some books have done so more than others. This could have been set anywhere really. If it wasn't for the challenge I'm not sure I'd have read to the end, but the book did pick up for me towards the end and I enjoyed the last hundred or so pages, so that was something. For me, though, Pride and Prejudice is infinitely superior!

Howards End by E M Forster The ‘blurb’ 'The poor cannot always reach those whom they want to love, and they can hardly ever escape from those whom they love no longer. We rich can' 'Only connect.' is the idea at the heart of this book, a heart-breaking and provocative tale of three families at the beginning of the twentieth century: the rich Wilcoxes, the gentle, idealistic Schlegels and the lower-middle class Basts. As the Schlegel sisters try desperately to help the Basts and educate the close-minded Wilcoxes, the families are drawn together in love, lies and death. Frequently cited as E. M. Forster's finest work, Howards End brilliantly explores class warfare, conflict and the English character. As I know Jane Austen's wonderful Pride and Prejudice backwards I decided to read this as an alternative to Hertfordshire on the English Counties Challenge. Margaret Schlegel has looked after her younger siblings Helen and Tibby (short for Theobald) since their parents died. The book opens with letters from Helen to Margaret from Howards End where she is staying with the Willcox family. When Helen informs her family that she plans to marry Paul Willcox, despite them having only met briefly, their Aunt Juley is despatched to step in and prevent the engagement. However, as is the fickleness of youth, before the Aunt can arrive the relationship is over! Despite this, Margaret and Mrs Willcox form an unlikely friendship. The Schlegels then meet Leonard Bast. He is a man of lower-class who wants to improve himself – he meets the siblings at a classical concert and when Helen leaves early and takes Leonard's umbrella with her, Margaret gives him her card and tells him to call for the umbrella. They decide to make a project out of Leonard but he is held back by his wife (although I don't think they're actually married – at least, maybe not at the start of the book – I really can't remember!) and by lack of money. There are quite a few themes in this book including (and perhaps most importantly) class and social standing. The Schlegels and Willcoxes are of different backgrounds but similar classes, whereas life is a struggle for the Basts who are held back by their lack of money. When the lives of the three families collide, these societal differences are highlighted with serious consequences for all. It took me a long time to read this because I wasn’t enthused enough to pick it up! I don't usually mind character-driven plots, but it helps to like the characters (or to hate them, I guess) but the characters in this book just left me feeling a bit ambivalent. It's not my first read of E M Forster – I read A Room with a View a few years ago and that left me feeling unsatisfied too. I think maybe Forster's writing is just not for me (different strokes for different folks, and all that), although I have wanted to read A Passage to India for a long time, so who knows – maybe I'll give him another go some time. The paperback edition is 400 pages long and is published by Penguin Classics. It was first published in 1910. The ISBN is 9780141199405. I read it on Kindle. 3/5 (I liked it) (Finished 27 January 2017)

Thanks - and happy shopping!

Coffin Road by Peter May The ‘blurb’ A man stands bewildered on a deserted beach on the Hebridean Isle of Harris. He cannot remember who he is. The only clue to his identity is a folded map of a path named the Coffin Road. He does not know where this search will take him. A detective from Lewis sits aboard a boat, filled with doubt. DS George Gunn knows that a bludgeoned corpse has been discovered on a remote rock twenty miles offshore. He does not know if he has what it takes to uncover how and why. A teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her scientist father's suicide. Two years on, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that he would wilfully abandon her. She does not yet know his secret. Coffin Road follows three perilous journeys towards one shocking truth - and the realisation that ignorance can kill us. A man wakes up on a beach, freezing cold and with unaccountable injuries. He struggles to his feet to head for home and the warmth he needs to prevent him from dying of hypothermia. There is just one problem – he cannot remember who he is, or where he lives. Finding out through a chance meeting with a woman who is his neighbour, he heads inside and once he's warmed up (and been greeted by his dog, Bran) he sets out trying to learn his identity. He discovers a laptop computer and fires it up, but it appears to be empty. There are traces of a manuscript, but when he clicks on the chapter names, the files are empty. As he digs deeper in an effort to discover his identity, and just what he's doing on a remote Outer Hebridean island, he eventually discovers that his name is Neal Maclean and he appears to be researching the story of the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse-keepers in the 19th century… Meanwhile, in Edinburgh a young girl struggles to accept her father's suicide. Relations with her mother are fraught, and she sets out to try to uncover the real reason her father killed himself. It appears that he ruffled a few feathers in the pharmaceutical world after publishing some research. As Karen Fleming seeks the truth she unwittingly sets of a chain of events that will put both herself and Neal McClean in grave danger… We listened to this audio book in the car. It was slightly longer than we anticipated (only 10 or so hours, so not really that long, but there was limited driving time!), so we started it in December and only finished on 21st January! It was such a great story. It got off to quite a slow start (hence the dropping of one star) but once it picked up it had us gripped as the story-line twisted and turned. Each time we thought we'd sussed out where it was going it took another turn. The narrator, Peter Forbes was just perfect – a gentle Scottish lilt that was so easy to listen to. I really liked the main characters and was disappointed when it came to an end – always the sign of a good book. I hadn't read any of Peter May's books before, but we will definitely listen to the first of his 'Lewis Trilogy', The Blackhouse sometime later this year when we go on holiday. The paperback edition is 400 pages long and is published by Riverrun. It was first published in 2016. The ISBN is 9781784293130. 4/5 (I really liked it) (Finished 21 January 2017)

Ooh, a new blog. You have some great books on your 'to read' pile. Happy reading in 2017!

I'd be more than happy to lend it to you, but honestly, I think there are so many other books out there that it would be kinder not to!

The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland The ‘blurb’ A luminous and bewitching debut novel that is perfect for fans of Angela Carter. Set in Victorian London, it follows the fortunes of Eve, the Lion-Faced Girl and Abel, the Flayed Man. A magical realism delight. Before Eve is born, her mother goes to the circus. She buys a penny twist of coloured sugar and settles down to watch the heart-stopping main attraction: a lion, billed as a monster from the savage heart of Africa, forged in the heat of a merciless sun. Mama swears she hears the lion sigh, just before it leaps…and when Eve is born, the story goes, she didn’t cry – she meowed and licked her paws. When Abel is pulled from the stinking Thames, the mudlarks are sure he is long dead. As they search his pockets to divvy up the treasure, his eyes crack open and he coughs up a stream of black water. But how has he survived a week in that thick stew of human waste? Cast out by Victorian society, Eve and Abel find succour from an unlikely source. They will become The Lion Faced Girl and The Flayed Man, star performers in Professor Josiah Arroner’s Palace of Curiosities. And there begins a journey that will entwine their fates forever. The Palace of Curiosities tells of two people forced together due to their differences. Eve lives with her mother in a small room where they make ends meet by taking in sewing. Life is hard for Eve, who has a condition that means she is covered in fur like a lion. One day, a Mr Arroner arrives at the house and wastes no time in courting Eve. She can hardly believe her luck and readily agrees to marry him, but when they get back to his villa (which is palatial compared to what Eve is used to) it quickly becomes apparent that he hasn't married her for love. Meanwhile, across the city a man called Abel dwells in a boarding house and works as a slaughter-man. He has trouble retaining memories and relies on a friend to help him. When he loses his job things go from bad to worse and soon he finds himself jobless and friendless. But Abel has a strange 'talent' which will also lead him to Josiah Arroner where he, and Eve, will join the other people in the Palace of Curiosities. But as Josiah's greed increases, Eve and Abel find themselves in danger. Can the pair escape their fate or will they be forever exhibited as freaks in Aaroner's show? This was chosen for Book Club and I did wonder whether it might be similar to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – but sadly it wasn't! I can't put my finger on what it was – the writing is good (the author is also a poet) and the story is interesting but somehow I just didn't love it as much as I hoped. I don't have a problem with magic realism, but it just didn't seem to work for me. I didn’t particularly like the main characters very much, although I did like one of the minor characters, Lizzy. I shan't mention what Abel's 'talent' is, but let's just say that some of the… surgical… descriptions were difficult to read. It did make for a good discussion at Book Club, so that's something. This was the author's debut novel. She has since published The Vixen and The Night Brother is out this year, but I don't think I'll be rushing to read them. The paperback edition is 336 pages long and is published by The Borough Press. It was first published in 2013. The ISBN is 9780007492787. 2½/5 (it was okay) (Finished 14 January 2017)

Please look after yourself, Ben.

I'm another who has had Lily and the Octopus on my Wish List for aeons, so I hope you enjoy it.

I've been trying to do the same, MRTR. I go and hide* in the small meeting room with my book and my lunch! *Not really as it has glass walls!!

Happy reading in 2017, Ian. Sorry it's late! I love your story about Mrs Baker. I have two teachers in my past who encouraged my love of reading. The first was Mr Berwick when I was in the last year of primary school (what is now called Year 6 but I'm sure was called year four when I was there!), and the second was Mr Menday from secondary school. I already loved reading but they both help to cement that love by their enthusiasm. I've read The Toymaker. The author's wife taught at my children's Primary School!

I can only find that article here, on the GH USA site, but there is no info of where the data came from!

Yay - I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Phew! I bought '...Wooded Plain' when I met up with you, Alan and Claire at the beginning of the month so I've skipped over your review. I'm considering saving it as a Book Club book following a recommendation from a member of Waterstone's staff, although I'm also considering something non-fiction, which we haven't done for a while.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. I've heard of it, of course, but I've never read it (I think there's a film - but I haven't seen it). A quick Google reveals that it wasn't published in the US until 1958 so I guess Good Housekeeping went by American dates.

I started The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange last night, which Chesilbeach bought me for Christmas. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but so far, so good.

I'm nearing the end of A Child in the Forest by Winifred Foley (my English Counties challenge alternative to Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie for Gloucestershire) and I'm loving it!

I might still try the film at one stage, Claire! I finished Howards End today - that's number 33/48

Thanks, Ian.

I read that last year (or was it the year before? No matter...) and thought it was good too. I thought Grayson wrote it himself because Wendy Jones's name is quite disguised! Have you read Playing to the Gallery or The Descent of Man? I quite fancy trying one of those. My friend's daughter (who is autistic) is fascinated by his house which is near where they live. She won tickets to go and visit it and was beside herself! http://www.living-architecture.co.uk/the-houses/a-house-for-essex/overview/

(A shorter version of this review appears on my blog) Florence Green, a widow of advancing years, decides to open a book shop in the Suffolk town of Hardborough. After some investigation she settles on The Old House, a neglected and rather damp property that comes with its own poltergeist! Whilst she gets off to a good start, she soon faces a problem in the form of a local, powerful, woman called Violet Gamart who will stop at nothing to get her own way. With few allies apart from local near-recluse Edmund Brundish will Florence's business survive? When my children were small we used to visit Suffolk quite often to stay with relatives, so it's an area I know reasonably well. I *think* that Hardborough is possibly based on Aldeburgh (at the time of writing, I haven't actually Googled to see if that's the case though) but in any case, I was picturing some of the bits of Suffolk I know whilst I was listening. I enjoyed this gentle story - it's a very short book – 176 pages and the audio version I listened to (ably narrated by someone called Stephanie Racine - I haven't come across her before) is only a fraction over four hours long so I was able to listen to it in one day. I really liked the writing and the characters, especially Florence. I really wanted her to have a happy ending and felt a bit sad when the book finished. The ending felt rushed and I felt really sorry for Florence at the end of it - I hope she found happiness in her new life!! There is a film coming out this year starring Emily Mortimer as Florence, Bill Nighy as Edmund Brundish and Patricia Clarkson as Violet Gamart which I will probably go to see.

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald The ‘blurb’ In a small East Anglian town, Florence Green decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop. Hardborough becomes a battleground. Florence has tried to change the way things have always been done, and as a result she has to take on not only the people who have made themselves important but natural and even supernatural forces, too. Her fate will strike a chord with anyone who knows that life has treated them with less than justice. (There is a longer version (with spoilers because it's assumed the book has been read) as part of the Counties Challenge here) Florence Green, a widow of advancing years, decides to open a book shop in the Suffolk town of Hardborough. After some investigation she settles on The Old House, a neglected and rather damp property that comes with its own poltergeist! Whilst she gets off to a good start, she soon faces a problem in the form of a local, powerful, woman called Violet Gamart who will stop at nothing to get her own way. With few allies apart from local near-recluse Edmund Brundish will Florence's business survive? I enjoyed this gentle story which is set in the late 1950s. It's a very short book – 176 pages and the audio version I listened to (ably narrated by someone called Stephanie Racine) is only a fraction over four hours long so I was able to listen to it in one day. I really liked the writing and the characters, especially Florence. I really wanted her to have a happy ending. Does she? Well, that would be telling! There is a film coming out this year starring Emily Mortimer as Florence, Bill Nighy as Edmund Brundish and Patricia Clarkson as Violet Gamart which I will probably go to see. The paperback edition is 176 pages long and is published by Harper Collins. It was first published in 1978. The ISBN is 9780006543541. 3½/5 (I liked it) (Finished 11 January 2017)

Sorry - I missed this post. Thank you.

I'm on 77% of Howards End by E M Forster. It has picked up slightly but I'll be glad to finish it, I think - I started it 10 days ago and it's not a big book!

I have read all the Wycliffe books. I bought one when we were on holiday in Cornwall more than 20 years ago and really liked it and then spent ages tracking down as many as I could (this was before the TV series). I actually wrote to the author W J Burley - I simply addressed it to 'Author of the Wycliffe Books, Newquay, Cornwall' and it got to him and he replied, telling me about the TV series.