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rosegarden

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    The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadow in 1911 by Juliet Nicolson

    in Non Fiction

    Posted

    I read this book last summer and enjoyed it so much I'm planning to read it again. It's a great way to absorb history without it feeling like work! Around the same time I also read King, Kaiser, Czar and together they painted a fascinating and personal portrait of an era that all too often is only portrayed in political terms.

     

     

    That's a great way of putting it! You're absolutely right - I used to quote lines from it to anyone around, usually husband, sons, as I found it so fascinating and just wanted to share it. :welcome:

     

    The King,Kaiser,Czar book is in my local library, I checked online, so next time I'm in there I'll take a look at it, it sounds interesting, thanks. :smile2:

     

    Carole

    The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadow in 1911 by Juliet Nicolson

    in Non Fiction

    Posted

    The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadow in 1911 by Juliet Nicolson

     

    Published by: John Murrary 2006

    Pages: 290 (Paperback)

    ISBN-10: 0719562430

    ISBN-13: 978-0719562433

     

     

     

    Set against the backdrop of the long hot Summer of 1911 we see English life through the eyes of several different people including

     

    **Queen Mary (who's husband George V was to be crowned the new King in May) and who 'had never felt so lonely'

    **Politician Winston Churchill

    **Lady Diana Manners (a debutante) who was looking forward to a Summer of relentless partying

    **War Poet Siegfried Sasson who, in the middle of the summer, said 'We seemed to have forgotten that there was such a thing as the future'

    **Butler Eric Horne who thought some of the noblemen and women he worked for had 'a kink in the brain'

    **Trade Unionist Ben Tillett who almost brought the country to its knees through a series of industrial strikes

     

     

    This is an absolutely absorbing look at the England of yesteryear, we see how life was changing especially for the under-class in society, they were beginning to question their role and the rules they were governed by.

     

    Juliet Nicolson's detailed research could not be faulted and at the end of it I almost felt as if I had lived through the heatwave. I loved so many of the fascinating facts she gave us. Thinking about the present furore over many UK MP's expenses claims I found this nugget -

    The proposed salary of

    This Time of Dying by Reina James

    in Historical Fiction

    Posted

    THIS TIME OF DYING BY REINA JAMES

     

    Genre: Historical Fiction

    Publishers: Portobello Books (2007)

    Pages: 290

    ISBN-10: 1846270464

    ISBN-13: 978-1846270468

     

    Synopsis

    It is October 1918, and England is gathering its dead. For Henry Speake, Undertaker, laying to rest the shattered bodies of young men sent home from the front has become a grimly familiar duty. But then a country already reeling from war faces an unexpected shock: an epidemic. The Spanish influenza will kill more people than World War I. There is no cure, no help from the government, not even a clear sense of what is happening.

    Henry sees the dangers much sooner than most, especially when he finds a letter left behind by a dying doctor, who begs health officials to start closing ports and setting up quarantines before it is too late. Unable to get a government minister to listen to him, Henry turns to a local schoolteacher, Allen Thompson, a woman who would usually be above his station.........

     

    I'm not really sure why this book appealed to me, perhaps it was because of the time period, perhaps it was the cover. Well, whatever it was I'm very pleased that it did. It was a thoroughly engrossing and informative read, if somewhat ghoulish in parts. It covers 3 weeks in the winter of 1918 and it was interesting to note how people were kept in the dark about the epidemic.

     

    Reina James compelling writing was a delight to read and even though I didn't like either of the main characters - middle-aged, grumpy, dull, Henry the Undertaker who loves playing his piano, and lonely, indecisive Mrs Allen Thompson the Teacher, I was always hoping that their friendship would turn to a romance by the end of the book.

    This is not a book for the squeamish, as you can imagine there are plenty of deaths, sometimes whole families, but it was a fascinating account of how people coped while WWI was coming to an end, how they survived and carried on.

     

    Carole

     

    Libraries, then and now

    in General Book Discussions

    Posted

    I love my local library, I've even written a small piece about it on my blog. They spent quite a large amount of money refurbishing it a few years ago and, personally, I think it was money well spent, it's now one of the ten most popular libraries in the country - not bad for a small Lancashire town!

     

    There are 3 floors comprising -

     

    Reference Library

    Computer Room where access to the internet is free

    Another small Computer Room where they have free computer courses (I help out there as a volunteer occasionally)

    Local History books and microfiche

    Newspaper Reading Room

    Prayer Room

    Separate Childrens Library

    Various rooms for seminars, and different authors visit every month to talk (went last week to hear Steven McLaughlin talk about his book Squaddie and hubby ended up buying the book)

    Playstation where kids play games on there - in a corner where you can't really hear them

    Plasma TV showing Sky Sports near the CD's and DVD's

    Comfy chairs to sit and read

    Good selection of audiobooks, I think they're 50p for 3 weeks

    Machines for checking out but there are plenty of staff around if you don't like using the technology

    Open 7 days a week

    Oh, and lots of books!

     

    I could probably go on but I think you get the idea :)

     

    I go in every week, it's like my second home!

     

    Carole

    The Conjuror's Bird by Martin Davies

    in General Fiction

    Posted

    The Conjuror's Bird by Martin Davies

     

    Genre: Historical Fiction

    Published by: Hodder & Stoughton (2005)

    Pages: 306

    Synopsis: It seems a long time ago that Fitz and Gabby were together, with his work on extinct species about to make him world-famous. Now, it's his career that is almost extinct. Suddenly, though, the beautiful Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of The Mysterious Bird of Ulieta, a creature once owned by the great 18th Century naturalist Joseph Banks. It soon becomes clear that Fitz is getting involved in something more complicated - and dangerous - than the search for a stuffed bird. To solve the puzzle, he must uncover the identity of the amazing woman Banks loved - a woman who has disappeared from history as effectively as the specimen he is hunting.

     

    The book has two parallel stories, separated by almost 300 years. The 1700's story gave you a real feel of how difficult and different life was for a young woman with no prospects at that time, and how dependent they were on men looking after them. This contrasts sharply with both Katya and Gabby, the two very independent women in the present time who face no such problems.

     

    Alternate chapters effortlessly blended into each time line with ease so you didn't feel as if you were getting confused.

     

    Combined with an usual mystery about a stuffed bird this is a lovely mix of history (Captain Cook's voyages) with a little romance........who was the mysterious woman in the woods that Joseph Banks becomes captivated by? And how is she connected to the missing bird?

     

    Martin Davies slowly and tantalisingly reveals the connection between the different eras without giving too much away too soon.

     

    This is an enjoyable mystery with a difference - not just for ornithologists!

     

    8/10

     

    Carole

    The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon

    in Historical Fiction

    Posted

    I felt that this was one of those books that don't look too exciting (the front cover didn't appeal to me at all) and I started reading it with not very high expectations. But, I was very pleasantly surprised, especially when Mariella arrived at the Crimea, I couldn't put it down, I really started to enjoy it.

     

    I would put this as one of my all time favourite books now. :)

     

    And I was also fascinated with the references to Florence Nightingale, especially the fact that she only chose the older and plainer women to take with her, in the hope that the wounded soldiers wouldn't fraternise with them! :giggle:

     

    Carole

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