What other author are you reading at the moment?

[Chrissie777]

I kept my childhood annuals (Jinty, Misty, Tammy, Judy, Diana, Bunty, School Friend, June, Grange Hill, Black Beauty, Rupert and several others) and have picked up quite a lot more secondhand over the years, including my three Twinkle ones. They're fun to dip into.

I only have the Famous Five annuals. My favorites are the last few with Soper's illustrations.

[Anita Bensoussane]

The recent Famous Five Annuals are lovely but I like the 1970s-80s ones too, and the Secret Seven ones as well. I didn't have any as a child but I've collected them from charity shops as an adult. I like the fact that they contain articles about smugglers, castles, camping, treasure, etc.

[Chrissie777]

Two days ago I went to the public library which I do every Wednesday morning.
Usually there's nothing interesting among the newly published books section, so I just drop off/pick up the books and DVD's that I had requested the week before, but 2 days ago I was very lucky and discovered "Where are the Children now?" by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke.

Supposedly this was a project on which they worked when MHC died 2 years ago.
So now it was published in English and next year Heyne Verlag will publish the translation in German. I have more than 50 crime novels by MHC, all in hardcovers, almost all in German. So I'll wait to order it next year at amazon.de.

Right now I'm reading it and it's really very compelling.

BTW "Where are the Children?" was MHC's first book success in 1975 and ever since she developed into the Queen of Suspense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Higgins_Clark

[Chrissie777]

In the long run I was rather disappointed by the "Where are the Children now?" sequel to MHC's 1975 debut novel "Where are the Children?". For one thing it had way too many characters which made reading rather confusing. It had too much dialogue and too little atmosphere. I could recommend to Alafair Burke to read the Ripliad by Patricia Highsmith who was able to create atmosphere and suspense with few words.

Last night I finished reading "I was a Male War Bride" by Henri Rochard. It's not nearly as good as the Cary Grant & Ann Sheridan movie based on the autobiography by Rochard.
I'm in the middle of "The House in the Woods" by Isabelle Holland, an author whom I often read in the 1980's. This book is from 1991 and even though the reviews in Goodreads.com were bad, I thoroughly enjoy it so far.

[Katharine]

I have two books on the go at the moment.

The first is Kings of Space by Capt. W.E. Johns. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting this to be my kind of book, but I'm a couple of chapters in, and really enjoying it. It's amazing to think that as far back as the 1950s, someone was already writing about concerns of the impact mankind was having on earth regarding population and lack of food. Although in this case, rather than trying to concentrate on environmental issues, the solution being considered is moving to other planets. Considering the book was written a good 15 years before the first moon landing, the information given seems pretty knowledgeable for what would really be involved for space travel.

The other book is called The Fireside Omnibus from the mid 1930s. It has been sitting on my shelf for a while, and at first I thought it was a collection of children's stories. However I soon realised that it's for adults. It seems to be so far all Christmas related stories, and has consisted of short stories interspersed with a 'whodunnit'. The story I'm currently reading is A Christmas Carol. I assumed it would be just an extract, but it seems to be the whole tale. I've never read it before, so don't know if it is an abridged version, although the Omnibus is a very large book, and the print is very small, so maybe they have managed to squeeze the whole story in.

I assumed the book was one I'd picked up cheap somewhere, but when I opened it, there was an inscription inside which makes me think it may have been a gift to one of my great aunts, from a friend. I know I have another book of hers, from the same friend, so when I find that, I can compare the handwriting to see if it belonged to her, or whether the inscription is just a co-incidence of names. There is a completed crossword in the book too, but it's over 30 years since I lost my great aunt, so I don't have anything to hand to see if it's the same writing. I'm hoping it was her book, as I'm enjoying it so much.

[Susie9598]

That’s lovely, Katharine. I do hope it was your great aunt’s book too. I came across an inscription recently- in a two-books-in-one edition of The Children of Kidillin and Mischief at St Rollos, addressed to me on my birthday with love from my grandparents. It was dated 1971, and made me feel happy and sad at the same time. They’ve been dead for decades, but it was so nice to see Nannas handwriting.

I am in a book club where we read books by neglected women writers, and I’m just finishing The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen. Not the easiest book to read as she has a very strange, though beautiful, writing style. It’s a good group; I’ve discovered some amazing writers that I’d never heard of!

[Boodi 2]

I am actually reading Agatha Christie at the moment as somebody kindly gave me two books (in English!!!) that I had never read before, so it is a rare treat. Mind you, while I am enjoying the return to my youth I was nevertheless surprised at the amount of casual racist comments in the first one...while first published in 1955 the version I have is from 1988, but I assume that some of the references to colour and race would have to be removed (or toned down) for today's readers.

[Chrissie777]

As we've booked at week in late April/early May at Carol Drinkwater's Olive Farm guest cottage near Cannes, France, I'm reading now the second volume of her autobiography called "The Olive Season".
Carol Drinkwater played Helen Herriot in the 1979 BBC TV series "All Creatures Great and Small".

[Katharine]

I finished reading A Christmas Carol, and found it very interesting. I was very familiar with the story as I've seen several film/TV versions of it. I was quite surprised to find that most versions that I've seen have stuck to the book, although perhaps in a more simple form. I don't think I've ever read anything by Charles Dickens before, and did find some of his language a little difficult to understand, but mostly I enjoyed it. He created a very atmospheric picture of what life in Victorian London was probably like - very cold and bleak for many! I was also fascinated by the idea that shops such as the butchers were still open on Christmas day - presumably a true fact?

The story was included in a large book - The Fireside Omnibus. There had been an interesting mix of stories and I was really enjoying the book. The next story was by A.J. Cronin - Christmas for Agnes. It was awful, really miserable and a dreadful ending. I looked up the author and was shocked to discover that his wife was called Agnes!

SPOILER ALERT



The story is about a smug man who has 'got on in life' by overhearing about a forthcoming merger, buying shares and making himself a good amount of money. He returns to his home town after about 10 years for a short visit and bumps into Agnes, who it turns out he was engaged to, but he decided she was too lowly for him, so he left town without a word! Unknown to him, she was pregnant, and she was left to face the shame of being an unmarried mother (it's the 1930s) and doing the best she could in the circumstances.

It turns out that the man has made himself a 'good' marriage, but the one thing that money hasn't been able to buy himself is children - over the course of 24 hours or so, he bullies Agnes into handing the boy over to him and his wife (on Christmas morning), as he makes her feel that she is being selfish to continue to bring the son up in their impoverished surroundings, and that she shouldn't deny him the chance to live with his father and have all the 'advantages' that his money can bring.

The boy of course has no idea who the man is, and just thinks he's going away for a few day's holiday. The story ends with Agnes locking herself in the kitchen with her head in the oven.

FIrstly, I couldn't see the point of writing a story like that, it's horrific, and to set it at Christmas somehow makes it even worse - not even a glimmer of hope for poor Agnes. Secondly, why on earth did the writer call her Agnes, which was his wife's name! Makes me wonder if he subconsciously thought his wife was a substandard mother, or maybe he had a secret desire for her to die??

I'm now feeling a bit apprehensive about reading the rest of the stories in the book in case any more are in a similar vein.

[Katharine]

After the miserable story I've mentioned above, I felt I needed something more comforting, so I turned to 'Ballet Shoes'. According to the pencilled inscription at the front, I've had it since I was at least 14.

I enjoyed the story even more than usual, as my daughters have both learned ballet and appeared in a few local performances, so some of the technical terms which would have meant nothing to me at the time I can now understand.

Just one small thing jarred, that I don't think I've noticed previously. There are a couple of handwritten documents included in the book, and one is dated 1931, the other 1932 - maybe I've misread it, but I'm pretty certain that these documents were supposed to have been written within a couple of weeks of each other! My edition dates from the 1970s, so I don't know if it's a mistake that's always been there, or something that has crept in over the years.

The illustrations are by Ruth Gervais, who, according to Google was her sister. I recognise her illustrations from some of Enid's books - it's a small world.

I've just seen that the original BBC version is available on DVD - guess what I'll be asking Father Christmas to get me this year.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It's lovely to hear that you enjoyed A Christmas Carol, Katharine, which has always been a favourite of mine. I like the way it combines spookiness, dread and melancholy with biting social commentary, good cheer and soul-stirring scenes. It's a short book with a great deal in it, and beautifully structured too. I've read it several times - and the same applies to Ballet Shoes, which I've loved since I first read it as a child. I've just checked my copy and I see what you mean about the dates on the documents!

I've never read A. J. Cronin's 'Christmas for Agnes' but I wouldn't have expected to come across such a depressing story in a volume called The Fireside Omnibus, which sounds like quite a cosy title! Still, I expect that A. J. Cronin wanted to draw attention to the plight of women who found themselves in a situation like that.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I've read some very enjoyable modern children's books over the last few weeks. All of them are by female authors and each one revolves around a heroine aged about twelve (although in every case the main character is firm friends/becomes firm friends with boys as well as other girls, all of whom feature prominently).

My most recent read is The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell, a dramatic adventure story which takes place in 1920s Manhattan and is chock-full of enticing elements - a castle, a circus, an emerald and a plucky band of children. As always, Katherine Rundell's style is crisp and evocative and her enjoyment of language shines through. I've read several titles by the same author and a couple of them had disappointing endings which didn't live up to the rest of the story, but this one is wonderful from start to finish.

Another absorbing read was The Stolen Songbird by Judith Eagle. It's set in 1950s London, where children create a world of their own on Hampstead Heath and amid "the rubbles" near Waterloo Station. They find themselves caught up in the mystery of the stolen songbird, and secrets are gradually uncovered. The book evokes an era strongly and is surprisingly moving.

Before that I read Peril on the Atlantic by A. M. Howell, a compelling adventure which takes place on board the Queen Mary as it voyages to New York in the 1930s. It's pacy and dramatic and kept me hooked. It's the first in a trilogy (though it can be read as a stand-alone story) and I look forward to the next two books.

Greenwild - the World Behind the Door by Pari Thomson differs from the others in that it's a fantasy story, incredibly inventive, with a botanical bent. The author has a powerful imagination and is not only well-versed in mythology and botany but possesses a real command of language, writing with beauty, wit and precision. Daisy Thistledown escapes from her boarding school, afraid that something terrible has happened to her mother, and has no idea of the wonders and dangers that await her behind a door in Kew Gardens. In places there are shades of Harry Potter, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Oz and the Faraway Tree, but at the same time the story feels original and unexpected. A sequel is in the offing and I'll certainly be looking out for it.

I'm going from modern to ancient now as the next book on my list is Dangerous Treasure by Norman Dale, a wartime adventure published in 1944.

[Courtenay]

Those sound really interesting, Anita, especially Greenwild! I might have to look out for that one, as I especially love fantasy stories.

[db105]

Those sound really interesting, Anita,

Agreed!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I hope you enjoy Greenwild, Courtenay. It sweeps the reader into a magical world and is beautifully illustrated by Elisa Paganelli, though I did notice that one or two things the artist had drawn (fairly complex things, admittedly!) didn't quite tally with the text.