A Book Blog 2025 by Books do Furnish a Room

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Eerie East Anglia edited by Edward Parnell

Another British Library Tales of the Weird collection, this time focussing on a particular area. In this instance East Anglia covers Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. Also included are parts of Cambridgeshire and South Lincolnshire (the Fennish part).

There are seventeen stories in total. Two are by M R James, including one of his more famous stories “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll come to you, my lad”. There are also stories by R H Benson, E F Benson (brothers), E G Swain, Gerald Bullett, Ingulphus, H R Wakefield, F M Major, Marjorie Bowen, Frederick Cowles, R H Malden, Robert Aickman, John Gordon, Penelope Fitzgerald, Matthew Holness and Daisy Johnson. Some of the stories are quite recent and the Daisy Johnson story is from her collection Fen.

The topography of the area feeds into the stories. The flat, wet landscape of the fens and the Norfolk Broads. Isolated sand dunes and a certain bleakness. There’s a lot of history as well and one story has links to druidic influences. M R James’s influence is strong and the understatedness of both his pieces stand out. Generally these are fairly rural tales and some good ones are included. Apart from James, the stories by Bowen, Swain, Wakefield and Fitzgerald are also good. 

8 out of 10

Starting Medusa by E H Visiak

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We are not Numbers edited by Ahmed Alnaouq and Pam Bailey

This is a remarkable collection of brief pieces of writing by some of those caught up in the genocide in Gaza. The writings are from 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 202, 2022, and 2023/2024, before and after October the 7^th. Some of the writers are now dead, probably more now than when it was published in early 2025. There are dedications to five of the dead in the front of the book.

There are short individual pieces and some poetry. The writers are all young, under thirty, many of them in their teens. They write about everyday life: education, family, friends, love, children; the usual stuff of everyday life. However lived under unusual circumstances and under constant threat. One of the editors Ahmed Alnaouq explains it:

"I was depressed, it was after the 2014 war, and I lost my brother. I was asked to write about him, and I saw writing as a way to pin down all my emotions. I also wanted to challenge the way the Western media writes about us."

Alnaouq also lost twenty one members of his family in 2023. This extract is from Ismail Abu-Aitah:

“The next thing I remember is waking up in Shifa hospital (Gaza City). Confused, I asked about Mom, Dad and the rest of my family. The doctors said they were ok, and the relief of knowing they were safe was all that mattered to me: I could handle my own pain.

Shrapnel had lacerated my entire body, and I had suffered a severe concussion. The doctors took X-rays, cleaned and stitched my wounds, and put me to bed for rest. Meanwhile, I briefly saw my third brother, Mahmood, who was also hospitalised for treatment. He was discharged quickly, but I stayed due to my head trauma.

At noon in the first full day in the hospital, a few of my friends visited. I was in tremendous pain and couldn’t move. Yet I was happy because I felt I had somehow taken a hit for my family, sparing their lives. But after a short while, one of my friends broke the news. Despite my uncles’ hesitancy to tell me they had decided that I deserved to know: an air strike which had targeted our neighbour’s house had badly damaged my own home and killed five of my family members: my mom Jamila, my dad Ibrahim, my two brothers Mohammed and Ahmed, and my four year old nephew Adham. Ten other family members were wounded. Everything went black.”

There are shafts of hope as well and some of those who write have left Gaza over the years for education and jobs.

There is an ordinariness of life and an extraordinariness of trying to live amidst death and destruction. Many of those who write have been moved up to a dozen times during the war.

These accounts have impact and are very moving. They shed light on the death, destruction and genocide being wreaked on Gaza at the moment. They have power because they show the very ordinary aspirations of Gazans in impossible circumstances.

10 out of 10

Starting Domination by Alice Roberts

 

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An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma

“He had joined many others ….all who have been chained and beaten, whose lands have been plundered, whose civilizations have been destroyed, who have been silenced, raped, shamed, killed. With all these people, he’d come to share a common fate, they were the minorities of this world whose only recourse was to join the universal orchestra in which all there was to do was cry and wail.”

This was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2019. Its author is Nigerian and I think the best way to explain the novel is in his words:

“An Orchestra of Minorities is a novel that is firmly rooted in Igbo cosmology, a complex system of beliefs and traditions that once guided – and in part still guides – my people. Since I’m situating a work of fiction in such a reality, curious readers might decide to research the cosmology, especially as it relates to the concept of the chi. I must therefore declare that, like Chinua Achebe in his essay on the chi from which one of this book’s epigraphs is drawn, “what I am attempting here is not to fill the gap but to draw attention to it in a manner appropriate to one whose primary love is literature and not religion, philosophy or linguistics””.

The structure is also loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey. Chinoso, a chicken farmer falls in love with Ndali when he sees her about to jump off a bridge and intervenes. The novel chronicles their ups and downs (mainly downs it must be said). It is narrated by Chinoso’s chi, who is at the same time writer and reader. Chinonso seems to be one of the most unlucky and naïve characters in literature and this isn’t an upbeat novel.

It's an old tale being retold in Igbo form and told rather well.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting No New Land by M G Vassanji

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Pilots and Soldiers of the Caribbean by Maureen Dickson

“There is little known of the fighting men and women of the Caribbean who left their own country (some at a very early age), to travel thousands of miles to join the services. Although their motives were varied, the bottom line was that they were fighting to keep democracy alive. Most were fighting for the mother country, for Britain.”

This is a brief history of those from the Caribbean who joined the British armed forces during the two world wars and up to the present. It also covers the Falklands, Iraq, Northern Island etc. One of its strengths are the numerous small biographies Dickson includes of the men and women themselves. It is particularly interesting because of the inclusion of women members of the services with their biographies. I had heard previously about a number of the men included: Walter Tull (one of the first black professional footballers), Errol Barrow (first Prime Minister of Barbados), Ulric Cross (later High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago), Cy Grant (POW in World War 2 and part of the planning for the Great Escape (yes, that one)), Sam King (First black Mayor of Southwark and one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival), Johnson Beharry (awarded a VC in Iraq, the first since 1982). I hadn’t heard of most of the servicewomen.

Dickson also outlines some interesting facts, which are important because of the increasingly febrile and dangerous rhetoric from the far right. This is pertinent particularly to Britain, but the far right seem to be an increasing menace globally at the moment. The Caribbean nations made significant financial contributions to the war effort in the 1940s, a fact not well known; Dickson outlines amounts. People in the Caribbean were encouraged to invest their savings in war bonds and many did. The British Army recruited in the Caribbean in the 1960s and 1970s, another fact that would not sit comfortably with current mood music from the right.

This is an interesting and useful addition to the literature in this area. Dickson, over a number of years, interviewed many of the men and women included here. She doesn’t shy away from the more difficult issues of racism and colonialism, but this is really about the men and women and their stories.

8 out of 10

Starting Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton

 

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Medusa by E H Visiak

This is a 1929 novel that is still little known, published in the Tales of the Weird series. Visiak was a Milton scholar and this shows: the penultimate chapter is entitled Gorgonian horror, a phrase from Paradise Lost. Visiak also wrote poetry in opposition to World War One and was a conscientious objector.

It is essentially a nautical tale with odd goings on in the tropics. It is very well regarded in some circles. Karl Wagner when compiling collections of supernatural tales declared it one of the “13 best supernatural horror novels. Wagner, getting somewhat carried away also said:

“If David Lindsay had written Treasure Island in the throes of a peyote-induced religious experience … well if Coleridge had given Melville a hand on Moby Dick after a few pipes of opium …”

And also:

“John Milton may have popped round on his way home from an opium den to help {Visiak} revise the final draft.”

“the probable outcome of Herman Melville having written Treasure Island while tripping on LSD,” 

There’s more in that vein. Others have described it as a nightmare almost recollected.

There is a good deal of messing about on boats and going to sea to avoid difficult home circumstances. So far so Conrad. There is a long build up to the last few chapters where all the odd and hallucinogenic stuff happens. The style is archaic and it does feel like it could have been written a century earlier.

The story itself doesn’t quite live up to the rather grand billing above. The odd parts are suitably odd and do feel hallucinogenic rather than supernatural.

7 out of 10

Starting The Human Chord by Algernon Blackwood

 

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The Charthouse of Parma by Stendhal

“There's one convenience about absolute power, that it sanctifies everything in the eyes of the people.”

I read The Scarlett and the Black when I was in my teens (many years ago) and seem to remember enjoying it. It’s taken al most fifty years to get round to the next one! To be frank I wish I hadn’t bothered. I am aware that the novel’s list of admirers is a lengthy one (including Hemingway, Balzac, James and Proust, to name a few). There has been a film and several TV mini-series, not to mention an opera.

There is a positive, I thought it started quite well and the depiction of the Battle of Waterloo was quite effective. Stendhal depicts the fog of war quite well. It’s downhill from there though. The hero Fabrizio I found intensely annoying (that may, of course, be the point).

There are lots of romances and swooning women, plenty of intrigue at a political and court level, a good sprinkling of tyranny and a little Jacobinism, and of course there’s the Church and everything that goes with that, Add some brigands and actors, poisoning, imprisonment, daring escapes. There is also a surfeit of sentimentality, particularly towards the end:

“This beautiful thought, of 'dying close by that which one loves', expressed in a hundred different ways, was followed by a sonnet in which it was found that the soul, separated, after atrocious torments, from the frail body in which it dwelt for twenty-three years, and impelled by that instinct for happiness natural to all that has once existed, would not reascend to heaven to mingle with angelic choirs as soon as it was set free, and in the event of the awful judgment according it forgiveness for its sins, but, happier after death than it had been in life, it would go a few steps from the prison where it had lamented for so long, to be reunited with all that it had loved in the world. And thus, the sonnet's last line went. I shall have found my paradise on earth.”

 

There’s a good deal of melodrama and twisted plot turns. I do wonder if Stendhal was around today if he might have been writing daytime soap operas.

There are many who do appreciate this: maybe it’s just me!

4 out of 10

Starting The Story of my Life by George Sand

 

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Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

“My behaviour is nonetheless, deplorable. Unfortunately, I'm quite prone to such bouts of deplorability--take for instance, my fondness for reading books at the dinner table.”

Now I have retired I have more time for reading nonsense and things I wouldn’t have bothered with when I had a more restricted time schedule. Hence another venture into fantasy. This time it’s Brandon Sanderson and the first of the Mistborn series. This is the first of many books set in this world, it is apparently called cosmere. There are always inevitable comparisons with Tolkien and yes there are some obvious similarities. The worldbuilding is pretty good and there is plenty of detail. I am not going to go into any outlines of the plot. There have been the usual board games and role-playing games. It hasn’t been filmed or televised yet.

It's well written and plotted, but does lack a little depth. There are lots of open questions and unexplained phenomena, presumably to draw the reader into the next volume. Some of the minor characters are a bit two-dimensional.

There is a massive spoiler ahead, this is at the very end of the novel:

“”Elend Venture” she said, standing up. “There is something I’ve been meaning to tell you for some time.” She paused, blinking away her tears. “You read too much, especially in the presence of ladies.”

He smiled, throwing back his chair and grabbing her in a firm embrace. Vin closed her eyes, simply feeling the warmth of being held.

And realized that was all she had ever really wanted.”

Really, you go through a whole novel of adventure and derring do only to decide that all you want is to be in the arms of some bloke. I was irritated. It’s probably just me.

6 out of 10 

Starting Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill

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No New Land  by M G Vassanji

M G Vassanji was born in Kenya and has lived in Tanzania and now resides in Canada. This is a diaspora novel. It starts following a family in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania and follows the family to Canada. The Lalani family are Asian in origin. Vassanji looks at how the characters lives are affected by migration. The title indicates the problem.

Despite being in a new land the characters try to live the same lives and with the same problems, not to mention racism, they discover the racism they encountered in Dar is still an issue in Canada. They encounter the usual problems of cultural alienation, problems of adjustment.

Vassanji employs stream of consciousness some of the time, especially with Nurdin Lalani, the head of the family, who struggles to find work commensurate with his status. The only member of the extended community who does make it is Jamal who is a lawyer! Vassanji explores the tension between assimilation and maintaining cultural identity.

There continue to be lessons that we need to be aware of today. The racism of the 80s and early 90s hasn’t gone away and is sharply in focus today, certainly in Britain.

This is brief, two hundred or so pages and tells a story that goes beyond just Canada. It could have been written about any western nation I suspect. The issues and debates are very similar and the solutions equally elusive.

7 out of 10#

Starting The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam

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The Rape of the Rose by Glynn Hughes

This is a sort of follow on from The Hawthorn Goddess as one of the main characters here (Mary) is the daughter of the protagonist of the first novel, Anne Wylde. It is though, a stand alone novel. It’s been on my shelves for about thirty years. I’m in a phase of trying to read books on my shelves that have been there too long, so I can move them on. The background is again the Luddite rebellions, this time in 1812, the year the Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated. The setting is the mill towns and moors of West Yorkshire.

This is the unpleasant underbelly of the Industrial Revolution with plenty of unrest and machine-breaking, zealous and brutal soldiery, the shadow of the workhouse, Methodism. The protagonist is Mor Greave who is a schoolteacher, Luddite and freethinker. There are two primary female characters. Mor’s wife Pheobe and Mary a prostitute (Anne Wylde’s daughter). The mill owners and overseers are suitably brutal and wicked. All of the characters are flawed. The brutality and abuse directed at the children is difficult to read, but I understand that this just reflects the brutality of the newly built factories and the demands of the new machines.

I think more could have been done to flesh out some of the political arguments of the time. I also had concerns about the way the two main female characters were portrayed: 'lady of the night' vs fundamentalist Christian.

This is a mixed bag, but the historical background is interesting, and Hughes does highlight the tensions that the upheavals of the industrial revolution created.

6 out of 10

Starting The Street Philosopher by Matthew Pamplin

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The Human Chord by Algernon Blackwood

More tales of the weird. A 1910 novella by Blackwood and the first of his novels I have read (I’ve read a few of his short stories). It’s helpful to consider what Blackwood meant to explore with his writing:

“My fundamental interest, I suppose, is signs and proofs of other powers that lie hidden in us all; the extension, in other words, of human faculty. So many of my stories, therefore, deal with extension of consciousness; speculative and imaginative treatment of possibilities outside our normal range of consciousness.... Also, all that happens in our universe is natural; under Law; but an extension of our so limited normal consciousness can reveal new, extra-ordinary powers etc., and the word "supernatural" seems the best word for treating these in fiction. I believe it possible for our consciousness to change and grow, and that with this change we may become aware of a new universe. A "change" in consciousness, in its type, I mean, is something more than a mere extension of what we already possess and know.”

That sets the background for this tale. It concerns Robert Spinrobin who is looking for some purpose (he is in his 20s) and he comes across and advert:

“WANTED, by Retired Clergyman, Secretarial Assistant with courage and imagination. Tenor voice and some knowledge of Hebrew essential; single; unworldly. Apply Philip Skale.”

The setting is a remote house in Wales. Skale is looking for 4 voices. He is bass, Spinrobin is tenor. His housekeeper Mrs Mawle is alto is alto and her niece Miriam is soprano (and also, predictably, the love interest). There are no other characters of any note. Skale has some rather esoteric ideas about sound and its nature and believes that certain combinations of sound can alter reality and reveal the true names of things. Skale has some big experiment in mind which might be potentially rather dangerous. It all seems a little far-fetched. This is a one idea novel based on the idea that the speaking of a name is in some way powerful:

“Sound,” he went on, the whole force of his great personality in the phrase, “was the primordial, creative energy. A sound can call a form into existence. Forms are the Sound-Figures of archetypal forces—the Word made Flesh.”

These ideas were promoted by Theosophy and Blackwood was a member of the Theosophical society, hence the interest.

The ending is a little predictable. It’s certainly rather odd and plays with concepts of knowing. Some of it is interesting, but there was a bit too much “Mills and Boon” romance stuff for me.

6 out of 10

Starting Halloweird: Classic stories of the season of Samhain edited by Johnny Mains

[lunababymoonchild]

Halloweird: Classic stories of the season of Samhain edited by Johnny Mains, have bought this, it looks delicious!

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It is good Luna

Greenteeth by Molly O'Neill

“That’s preachers for you. They care less about facts than about fear. That cursed parson probably didn’t even think I was really a witch, just a woman who was cleverer than he thought she should be.”

Another folklore based ramble based on the Jenny Greenteeth myths. Jenny Greenteeth (or many similar variations of the name), lives in rivers, lakes and pools snaring and capturing the unwary (especially the elderly and children). She is generally used to scare children away from water and its dangers. Many countries have similar myths: River Mumma (Jamaica), Bunyip (Australia), Kappa (Japan), Storm Hag (Lake Erie), Rusalka (Slavic Countries) and so on.

This is a quest novel involving Jenny Greenteeth, a goblin called Brackus and a human witch called Temperance Crump. The setting is I think, the seventeenth century. Jenny’s lake is near the village of Chipping Appleby. One day a local witch is thrown into her pond at the bidding of a new local parson. Various things ensue and Jenny and Temperance discover the parson is really the Erl King (another mythological figure) who is thoroughly evil. His power is beyond Jenny or Temperance and they set off on a quest to get help along with Brackus a goblin who is a travelling tradesman. Various adventures ensue and assorted fae creatures are encountered. We have unicorns (apparently, they live on the Isle of Skye and the wild hunt. It’s all pretty much escapist fantasy, but I sensed a bit of a state of the nation feel to it. There is a spreading and pervasive evil in the land and what is required to defeat it is cooperation and the working together of a group based on diversity and difference. Seems somehow relevant to the UK at the moment.

It reads easily and the first person narration works well. I enjoyed this and appreciated the underlying message. 

8 and a half out of 10

Starting Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann

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Heartstone by C J Sansom

“Politics is like dice: the better the player, the worse the man.”

This is the fifth in the series of Shardlake novels set in the reign of Henry VIII. This time we are in 1545 and England is on the brink of war with France. The action moves between London, Portsmouth and rural Hampshire.

There are some recurring characters. Barak is still Shardlake’s sidekick. Sir Richard Rich is suitably villainous as ever and Guy the physician also continues to be a part of the story. The plot this time has a couple of focuses. The Court of Wards is one of them dealing with the wardship of orphaned children. The other is a continuation from a previous book and deals withy a resident of Bedlam.

As ever there are plenty of twists and turns. There are always some predictabilities. Shardlake inevitably gets threatened and taken captive. He is always in the middle of whatever historical event is going on. During the build up I thought to myself, surely he’s not going to stick the poor chap on the Mary Rose when it sinks? Well, wait and see!!

There is another interesting story line in the form of a transgender character and Sansom handles this pretty well without resorting to formulaic solutions.

Ideal comfort reading (for me anyway).

7 and a half out of 10

Starting Death under a little Sky by Stig Abell

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Halloweird edited by Johnny Mains

This is another collection from the British Library which covers the season of Samhain/Halloween. It includes short stories and some poetry (one from Rabbie Burns no less). Samhain is one of the two pagan fire festivals in Britain’s pagan year. The other is Beltane in May. The publication range is from 1780 to the 1970s: although most of the tales are pre 1930s.

There is poetry from Mayne, Burns, Revi and Geraldine. Short stories by R Fryer, Elizabeth Train, Letitia Douglas, Edgar Wakeman, Lyllian Huntley (x2), Herminie Kavanagh, Alphonse Courlander, Eleanor Fitzgerald, Rachel Macnamara, Tod Robbins, Flavia Richardson, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Walter, Virginia Lafefsky and Mary Williams (this one is excellent).

There is the usual diet of spurned lovers, bone carriages, graveyards, castles, ghosts, ghouls, one set in the old US west (cowboys and all), unexpected apparitions and the usual sense of the reader saying “Don’t open that door!!” In more modern parlance FAFO.

Then there’s the oddest line in the book from the poem “Twas the night of All Hallows” by Geraldine:

“She lies there, but lo! most amazing to note,
Encircling her neck was a FROLICSOME GOAT”

Don’t ask.

This is a good collection. There are a couple of duds, but some pretty good ones too. The cover art is effective too.

8  out of 10

Starting Fear in the Blood, Another collection in the Tales of the Weird series  

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The Story of my Life George Sand

George Sand was the name adopted by Aurore Dupin and this is her own account of her life (and some of her loves). She gives an account of her family history before her birth as well as her own history.

This is her account of her birth:

 

“My good aunt Lucie was on the eve of marriage with an officer who was a friend of my father, and they were all celebrating in the intimacy of the family. My mother was wearing a pretty dress the colour of roses. They were dancing a quadrille composed by my father, as he played on his faithful Cremona violin. . . . My mother, feeling a slight malaise, left the dance and went to her bedroom. Since she showed no signs of indisposition and had left so quietly, the dancing continued. My aunt Lucie, as it was ending, went to my mother's bedroom, and almost immediately she was heard to cry, "Come, come quickly, Maurice, you have a daughter!"

"She shall be called Aurore," said my father, "after my poor, dear mother, who is not here to bless her, but who will someday!"
And he took me in his arms. . . .
"She was born to the sound of music and in the colour of
roses," said my aunt. "She will know happiness.”

 

 

In the edition I have there are also some of Sand’s letters, mostly to Alfred de Mussett (one of her lovers). There are also some extracts from a personal journal which consists of letters she didn’t send. Finally there is an extract from an account of a visit to Majorca with Chopin. This last extract is the part I enjoyed least as Sand is very scathing about the culture and peasantry of Majorca.

Most of the book concerns Sand’s childhood and her relationship with two very strong women, her mother and her grandmother. These two did not get on most of the time and Sand was often caught between the two: she spent a good deal of her time with her grandmother.

Sand remains discreet about her lovers, of whom there were quite a number and she moved in literary circles, spending time with most of the significant writers of the time. She is interesting in her own right. Often dressing as a male and adopting a male pseudonym in her writing and balancing that with motherhood. She is an interesting subject and this was worth reading.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith

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Domination by Alice Roberts

Reviewing this could be interesting as it raises all sorts of issues as the book goes against many of the trends of the time, particularly in the UK. Alice Roberts is well known in the UK for her TV appearances on archaeological programmes. She trained as a medic and worked as a junior doctor. She went on to do a PhD in paleopathology and researched osteoarchaeology. She’s had a variety of roles, including being Chair of the British Humanist Association. This, of course, means she does have an opinion on the issue of how Christianity grew and spread.

There has also been an awful lot of vitriol heaped on Roberts on social media, especially on X from a variety of sources. There is a strand of particularly British nationalism spreading at present, often focussed on Reform UK and Nigel Farage. This involves the flag, a weird concept of what the Knights Templar were, deporting everyone who is not white and a version of some sort of pure Christianity. It’s all a load of nonsense (there are other more satisfactory words I could have used here), but it means Roberts has been subject to a good deal of criticism. There is a clear critique as Sebastian Milbank says:

“ her view is that Christianity’s success was due to its usefulness to elites, and that its members were primarily motivated by the desire for wealth and power.”

Roberts’s arguments are broader than this but views become fixed. It is important to remember this isn’t an academic historical tome. It is broader in scope and more polemical.

The book looks at the way Christianity grew from a small Jewish cult into the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. I’m not going to give a blow by blow account of this, but to just raise a few issues that struck me.

The first part of the book looks at archaeology and in particular at Wales, Cornwall and Brittany and at the way society developed as Roman influence declined. Often cemeteries were outside town walls. As time went on they often had chapels built and eventually roles were reversed and the church became more important than the cemetery. Another interesting development was that many roman villas, because of their size, became places of worship as the buildings were repurposed.

Roberts makes some interesting points about asceticism and suggests maybe it wasn’t always as it seemed. Eucherius of Lyon, when he went on a Lenten retreat to a monastery, took with him 1740 litres of wine and 66 kilos of cheese. She also suggests that Simon Stylites, who spent many years sat on top of a twenty-foot pillar, may have been fooling himself if he thought it was a way of avoiding people. When I first heard the story as a child, my first thought was “Where does he go to the toilet?” A question no one has ever satisfactorily answered.

Robert also points out that as the administration of the Church and the imperial administration grew ever closer, one principle was assured, “The rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor.” Roberts spends a good deal of time looking at the life and conversion of Constantine and makes some interesting points about syncretism, the mixing of old and new ideas and the fluidity of moving between two sets of ideas. Christian conversion is often portrayed in very dichotomous terms, but in reality the situation was that of a gradual acceptance and movement, to and fro. Roberts also points out that the language of the Church is often straight from terms used by Roman administration. For example clergy, laity, baptistry, basilica, curia, ecclesia are all terms straight from roman antecedents.

Towards the end of the book Roberts argues that the structure and nature of the Church made it similar to a multi-divisional firm. She takes some of the economic arguments from Ekelund and Tollison and quotes them:

“In the corporate structure of Christendom the medieval monastery operated as a (downstream) franchised firm, receiving quality assurance and name-brand recognition from the Church of Rome in return for certain payments (upstream).”

The concept of the Church as an economic firm hasn’t gone down well. It has been discussed in academic circles for a while and even Adam Smith mentioned it, putting it blatantly in the mainstream has created a reaction.

This is by no means a flawless book and I think Roberts spends too long on some of the theological debates and heresies, but it does explode a few myths along the way. It explains why Christianity was attractive to the elites and the middle classes. The poor, of course, are almost invisible and I suspect their primary objective as always was survival. If you want a not too academic look at the rise of Christianity, then this may be for you.

9 out of 10

Starting Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction by Venetria Patton   

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The Street Philosopher by Matthew Plampin

A historical novel set at the time of the Crimean War. The title was the way society journalists were referred to at the time. The action alternates between The Crimea during the war and Manchester three years later in 1857. War reporting holds the novel together and the three main characters work for the London Courier. The senior reporter is Richard Cracknell. His colleague Thomas Kitson is the main protagonist. Robert Styles is their illustrator.

Pamplin does detail pretty well and manages to capture the fog of war. There is a level of brutal realism which is quite effective. Mary Seacole pops up and Plampin does show how ineffective medicine was (there’s no Florence Nightingale though). Another theme is the total incompetence of much of the senior military. There is a side story which moves to and fro from the Crimea to Manchester which involves corruption, looting and intrigue.

On the whole it works and moves along at a fair pace. It works as a thriller and does illustrate the horrors of the Crimean War. There are some over used tropes and the romantic thread felt out of place.

6 and a half out of 10

Starting The Wych Elm by Tana French

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Death Under a Little Sky by Stig Abell

This is the beginning (I suspect) of a new crime series. Jake Jackson retires from the police force at the grand old age of 38. His uncle has died and left him a property in the country, a house called Little Sky (with attached lake). The house is odd, there is no internet connection or signal for a phone. Some aspects are rather primitive (no washing machine), but there is a massive library with a collection of thrillers and crime books.

The novel is about how Jake becomes embroiled in a local mystery and possible murder. Jake works with a local policeman. There is a love interest (inevitably), some rather odd and often surly locals. There is plenty of eccentricity and no shortage of suspects. It is well written and rather predictable at times and probably falls into the category of “cozy crime”.

It's easy reading, not at all demanding. Perfect bedtime reading.

7 out of 10

Starting Lost in the Garden by Adam Leslie

[France]

I found this pretty slow so it's been relinquished to the 'I might pick this up sometime and finish it, but not yet' pile.  Not so slow that it went into the charity pile though.

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I found it a bit slow too France and now I've read it, it's going to the charity shop

The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam

“Even the air of this country has a story to tell about warfare. It is possible here to lift a piece of bread from a plate and following it back to its origins, collect a dozen stories concerning war-how it affected the hand that pulled it out of the oven, the hand that kneaded the dough, how war impinged upon the field where wheat was grown.”

This is set in post 9/11 Afghanistan but also looks back to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. I did struggle with aspects of this, particularly in relation two the characters. There are four main characters. Marcus is British, older and has lived in Afghanistan for many years: Lara is from Russia, looking for information about someone she lost: David is from the Us (and is CIA): Zameen id half British, half Afghani. There are other significant characters who are Afghani; Qatrina, Dunia and Casa, but theses are less well drawn. Most of the nuance comes from the western characters. The perspectives of the characters linked with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban feel rather two-dimensional (that may be the nature of fundamentalism of course) and less interesting. Each of the main characters has a quest and they generally do not manage to complete it due to a variety of circumstances.

The language and prose is rich and beautiful, but as you would expect very sad because of the history of the place:

“This country was one of the great tragedies of the age. Torn to pieces by the many hands of war, by the various hatreds and failings of the world. Two million deaths over the past quarter-century. Several of the lovers on the walls were on their own because of the obliterating impact of the bullets – nothing but a gash or a terrible ripping away where the corresponding man or woman used to be. A shredded limb, a lost eye.”

I feel this should have gripped me more than it did, maybe it’s me. But the main characters didn’t ring true and seemed so unlikely.

6 out of 10

Starting Hunger by Choi Jin-young

[Books do furnish a room]

Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann

Another venture into Steampunk. This one is a mixture, there are also elements of noir, hardboiled detective, comic book, batman with some nods to Lovecraft and Cthulhu. It is set in 1926 Manhattan. The main character is Gabriel Cross a wealthy playboy type. On the side he has a disguise as a caped vigilante/crimefighter. That’s where the batman element comes in. There is a suitably nasty crime boss called The Roman with numerous deadly henchmen and a few extra tricks up his sleeve. There is, of course a well meaning cop who refuses to be corrupted by The Roman and a sultry night club singer (of course).

The international backdrop is that there is a cold war between the US and the British Empire. There are steam and coal-powered cars and rocket powered biplanes. The Ghost uses similarly powered back packs to fly short distances. There are the inevitable tommy guns, but some more creative weaponry as well.

There is a plot and there novel moves along at a fast pace. Serious injury doesn’t seem to stop the characters running around a lot. There isn’t much nuance or subtlety and I wonder whether this would have been better off as a comic book. Those in the know say that Mann has got the geography of Manhattan wrong as well.

This is essentially pulp fiction with little depth. Entertaining at one level, undemanding and rather flawed. But it has a certain pace and is easy to read.

6 out of 10

Starting Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

[Books do furnish a room]

Fear in the Blood edited by Mike Ashley

"As I stooped to reach it I felt someone pull my dress from behind. I fancied I had caught the train in something, and I turned to disengage it. But the folds were perfectly free, and I returned to my original design of ringing the bell... My first impulse was to examine my dress. Yes! There on the new velvet was the distinct impress of a little hand where the material had been grasped and pulled, just about on a level with my knees" (Florence Marryat).

A British Library tales of the weird collection. This collection of weird tales is grouped into six family collections with a total of eighteen stories. The first set is the Marryat family, Frederick and his daughter Florence. The other family groups are Le Fanu, Hawthorne, Dickens, Pangborn and Aitken.

There are some stand out stories. These include Fran Nan’s Story by Sarah LeFanu, set in the foot and mouth outbreak in 2000 and by a feminist writer I have recently discovered. Old Fillikin by Joan Aitken is about a boy who is having problems with his Maths teacher, the solution is rather interesting. Wogglebeast by Edgar Pangborn is rather melancholic and sad.

The Secret Ones by Mary Danby (great great granddaughter of Charles Dickens) says a good deal about our current issues in relation to asylum seekers and migration:

“The husband, the wife and the wife’s sister arrived by boat one fear-grey dawn. Nobody saw them as they sidled down the gangplank and hurried nervously to the shelter of a deserted warehouse. They had been many days without food, hidden and afraid in the lurching hold, huddling for warmth in the relentless dark. And as the sun rose behind the cranes and girders of the quayside, they blinked uncertainly and trembled in the unaccustomed chill of an east wind that sought out their hiding place with no mercy.”

“They … were disheartened to find the land of their dreams to be one of hate not plenty.”

A powerful story with a shocking ending.

As always with these collections the quality varies, but on the whole, this is a good collection.

8 out of 10

Starting Night Wire and other tales of Weird Media

[Madeleine]

Is Sarah Le Fanu a descendant of Sheridan Le Fanu?

[Books do furnish a room]

Yes Madeleine, she is

The reason why by Cecil Woodham-Smith

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

Someone had blundered.

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.”

 

Cecil Woodham-Smith was a historian and biographer writing mid twentieth century. She wrote a noted work on the Irish famine of the 1840s and a biography of Florence Nightingale amongst other works.

The clue to this one is in the snippet from the Tennyson poem quoted above. Woodham-Smith looks at The Charge of The Light Brigade. She does this by essentially writing the biographies of the two main military commanders involved. They are George Charles Bingham, 3^rd Earl of Lucan (yes, ancestor of that Lord Lucan) and James Brudenell 7^th Earl od Cardigan.

Woodham-Smith follows their lives and characters. They were brothers-in-law and hated each other: this was to have a significant effect on the course of the battle as Lucan was in theory the senior officer.

Two more unpleasant men it would be difficult to find. Cardigan was absolutely convinced that he was always right and was a bully, especially to those he commanded. Lucan was of a similar personality, he had property and land in Ireland and was notorious for his ill-treatment of his tenants.

The descriptions of the build up to the battle and the Crimean campaign tell the tale of the losses to cholera and the huge loss of horses (again mainly due to the incompetence of senior officers).

What is baffling is that one wonders how the British managed to get and maintain the empire they did with such incompetents in charge. The truth here is that the Russians made an equal number of mistakes so the two sides sort of cancelled each other out. As usual it was the common soldiery on each side who suffered and died.

The military descriptions do get somewhat tedious but this certainly illustrates how war was fought in the nineteenth century and how armies were led.

7 out of 10

Starting An Innkeeper's Diary by John Fothergill

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Women in Chains by Venetria Patton

“Feminism often conjures up idyllic visions of a united sisterhood: however, black feminists such as Hazel Carby and bell hooks, among others, have questioned the existence of a sisterhood of black and white women. Carby states, “Considering the history of the failure of any significant political alliances between black and white women in the nineteenth century, I challenge the impulse in the contemporary women’s movement to discover a lost sisterhood and to reestablish feminist solidarity.””

 

Venetria Patton writes about black women writers and their responses to slavery, race, gender and motherhood. Patton looks at writers such as Gayl Jones, Toni Morrison Shirley Anne Williams, Pauline Hopkins, Harriet Wilson and Frances Harper. She pulls out recurring themes.

Motherhood in particular is an important theme. There are issues related to bringing a child into the world who is destined to be a slave and some writers (Morrison for example) write about women who kill their children to spare them a life of slavery. There is also consideration of sexual relationships between slave owners/overseers and female slaves and the way “mothering” was discouraged, female slaves being regarded as breeders rather than mothers. Patton contrasts attitudes in the nineteenth century with those in the twentieth century.

Another aspect of the work is looking at the nineteenth century so called “sentimental novel”. A prime example of this is Uncle Tom’s Cabin. There is a chapter devoted to an analysis of the novel.

The work has been criticized for not taking into account Africa and African diaspora values. The analysis is interesting. I had read three of the novels being examined, which helped. It is an important analysis of how slavery, gender and motherhood has been examined by black female writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

7 and a half out of 10

Starting Roman Lincoln by Michael Jones