The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker

The trend for the retelling of the Greek legends from the female perspective is sustained in this engrossing novel from the masterful pen of Pat Barker. 

‘There was a woman at the heart of the Trojan war whose voice has been silent - till now. Discover the greatest Greek myth of all - retold by the witness that history forgot . . .

Briseis was a queen until her city was destroyed. Now she is slave to Achilles, the man who butchered her husband and brothers. Trapped in a world defined by men, can she survive to become the author of her own story?’

Like Circe, the novel concentrates on one woman’s story, Briseis. That is not to say that we are not privy to the fates, the feelings of the other women but the main thrust of the story is the Achilles/Briseis one. Much of the narrative is given to Achilles and the Achilles/Patroclus dynamic but I feel it is to offer us the opportunity to understand Briseis better and get some kind of angle on the situation as a whole. The Iliad is an ancient work and to read it today it has to be placed in context. That is never easy when you’re bringing contemporary thinking with you. That’s why stories such as these are so fascinating. We can question why these woman seemed to be so accepting of their fate but they were behaving within the social framework of the time.  What modern fiction is doing is offering the women a voice from a more contemporary frame of reference. It makes for some compelling stories.

But I think you have to add to that mix the fact that, as an author, Pat Barker is continuing to write about war albeit a very different one from those of the Regeneration trilogy and the Life Class trilogy. But again it’s young people living in a war situation. The brutality and its after effects resurfaces in all the books whether graphic or oblique. So it becomes interesting to compare war though the centuries. As Kim Sherwood observed in Testament, ‘‘We are here because history doesn’t happen in the past tense.’ History is now and that's how we make sense of it. It was the same for the women living through the Trojan war. Their pasts and their futures were inconsequential compared to their present and ultimately their survival.

But it's one thing to have a ready-made story plotted for you. It's how you deal with it, how you take that story and create a narrative that gives it an alternate substance and a texture that will determine whether your readers want to go with it. After all anyone can  pick up a copy of the Iliad. So why would you want to read The Silence of the Girls? Because it's beautifully written. Brutal in its descriptions. Expansive in its emotion. Eloquent in its exposition. And haunting in its after effects. 

The Girl in the Glass Tower - Elizabeth Fremantle

I’ve now read all of Elizabeth’s Fremantle’s books. That is until she publishes another. Then I will read that. She is one of those authors whose books I will buy on blind faith. In my opinion she is one of the best historical novelists out there. It’s possibly something to do with the fact that she writes about my favourite periods in history. More than that though she strikes a balance between producing an historical novel, resplendent with copious research and convincing detail, and a fiction featuring historical characters again, meticulously researched, but with a twist or a plot that seems to encompass contemporary themes and trends in fiction, psychological thrillers for example, women in society for another example but places those themes within an historic context. It’s very clever. 

I remember receiving a proof of Queen’s Gambit early in my reviewing “career”. And for the first time ever Catherine Parr came to life for me in a way that no author had attempted or achieved before. It was a wonderful experience. And that was what put this author firmly on my radar.

The Girl in the Glass Tower tells the story of Arbella Stuart, the great, great granddaughter of Henry VII and a niece of Mary, Queen of Scots. No, I’d not heard of her before either. But having read this book, now I will never forget her. I think that’s another thing Ms. Fremantle does. She takes a lesser-known figure from history and brings them to life. Not only that but when you finish the book you can’t leave the character. I go scuttling off googling everything I can find out about them wondering why I’ve never come across them before. 

The story is told from two perspectives, Arbella’s own and that of a court poet, Aemilia Lanyer, a poetess fallen from grace, who acquires some papers of Lady Arbella from a man charged with clearing her effects. Both women have their stories to tell. Arbella dominates, as the titular ‘girl’. With a tenuous claim to the throne her life is seldom her own. ‘Protected’ or imprisoned and manipulated she is victim to the politics and intrigues of the Elizabethan and Stuart courts but underneath all of that she strives to be her own person regardless of the restrictions imposed upon her gender by the male dominated ethos of the age. The two women are not so dissimilar despite their different backgrounds. Aemilia, or Ami’s story is told alongside Arbella’s and the part she plays unfolds alongside Arbella’s. It’s all tied up at the end with a satisfactory outcome. But that’s after we learn of Arbella. 

It’s a slow paced story that mirrors Arbella’s life which seems to be in some kind of limbo for much for the time as we all wait to see if Elizabeth I names Arbella as her successor or not. It’s no spoiler to say she doesn’t. Queen Arbella doesn’t ring any bells!? But as Arbella’s life becomes more exciting the pace of the narrative speeds up to a nail biting conclusion the details of which I refuse to divulge as that would be a spoiler. 

Chronologically this novel occurs before The Poison Bed. It’s my bad for reading out of order. It won’t happen again. 😉

Chasing the Sun - Linda Geddes

Time for a little non-fiction, methinks, in the midst of all these wonderful novels I’ve been reading. And I’ve owned this book for over a year. I was waiting for an opportunity to savour it unpressured by other reading/review commitments. The time is now! 

I am a sunlover, a sun worshipper. By that I don’t mean that I choose to lay out for hours on a sun drenched beach seeking a sun tan. Far from it, I find that incredibly boring. No, I love and worship the sun for its warmth, for its light and for the way it makes me feel. I’ve believed for years that the Sun is vitally important for my well-being. I’ve joked with friends that I am a solar cell and I need the Sun to recharge. So it felt like this book could’ve been written for me when I saw it.

‘Since the dawn of time, humans have worshipped the sun. And with good reason. Our biology is set up to work in partnership with the sun. From our sleep cycles to our immune systems and our mental health, access to sunlight is crucial for living a happy and fulfilling life. New research suggests that our sun exposure over a lifetime - even before we were born - may shape our risk of developing a range of different illnesses, from depression to diabetes.

Bursting with cutting-edge science and eye-opening advice, Chasing the Sun explores the extraordinary significance of sunlight. - from ancient solstice celebrations to modern sleep labs, and from the unexpected health benefits of sun exposure to what the Amish know about sleep that the rest of us don't.

As more of us move into light-polluted cities, spending our days in dim offices and our evenings watching brightly lit screens, we are in danger of losing something vital: our connection to the star that gave us life. It's a loss that could have far-reaching consequences that we're only just beginning to grasp.’

It’s a scientific book for sure but it’s not so scientific that the layman can’t get a reasonable grasp on it. I suppose I related mostly to those things that were relevant to my own situation. For example for some years I’ve believed that I’ve suffered from SAD. Reading this book has made me wonder whether it’s just a very extreme case of the winter blues that I have. But certainly I’ve been reassured that my light therapy is probably one of the best treatments I can use for my condition.

I never made a secret of the fact that I abhor e-readers. This may be why.

‘Another study found that, compared with reading a print book, using an e-reader prolonged the amount of time it took participants to fall asleep, reduced the amount of REM sleep experienced and left him feeling more tired the next morning.’

I read a lot in bed and I suffer from insomnia. Sometimes for review/blog tour purposes I’ve been in situations where I’ve had to read an ebook. But I’ve never looked at any kind of relationship between using an e-reader and an increase in my sleeplessness. But it may not be quite that simple. For the book has much to say about sleep and circadian rhythms.

Interesting to wonder whether this is a book that I should’ve read because I don’t need to be converted to how important the Sun is. It is one which I would recommend to sceptics. However there was much to learn within a broader context because as we know nothing in isolation can be the sole provider of all the health and life benefits we need. But the book confirmed for me that, as I always suspected, the Sun is vital and I do right to worship and revere it!

The Corset - Laura Purcell

I’ve had me a histfic fest this week. Along with Stacey Hall's The Familiars this is another book I’ve been wanting to read for ages. I believe the writer has subsequently published another book in the time that I’ve had this sitting waiting! I comfort myself with the thought that I am contributing to the endurance of a book over time by reading and blogging about it a good while after the initial excitement has died down, keeping a book on the radar. It does sadden me sometimes that a book which is all over social media one minute, on everyone’s TBR, everyone’s blog, garnering all the praise and accolades and then it disappears. Others take its place, no less deserving, maybe, but it seems that books become all but forgotten to make way for others. 

‘Is prisoner Ruth Butterham mad or a murderer? Victim or villain?

Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor and awaiting trial for murder.

When Dorothea's charitable work leads her to Oakgate Prison, she finds herself drawn to Ruth, a teenage seamstress - and self-confessed murderess - who nurses a dark and uncanny secret. A secret that is leading her straight to the gallows. As Ruth reveals her disturbing past to Dorothea, the fates of these two women entwine, and with every revelation, a new layer of doubt is cast...

Can Ruth be trusted? Is she mad, or a murderer?’

Two women who couldn’t be more different on the surface find their paths crossing fuelled by that Victorian propensity for doing good and finding that charity begins far from home. Thus it is that Dorothea Truelove, oh how Dickens would have loved her name, becomes fascinated almost obsessed by the confessions and revelations of Ruth Butterham, who admits to and believes that she is a murderer. As well as Dickens you might also experience a flavour of Sarah Waters and a DuMaurieresque menace. 

The two women’s histories are told as a dual narrative with Ruth’s retrospective account told to Dorothea from her prison cell. Dorothea’s is recounted as a present day 

account of her life and inclinations. Both raise questions as to the treatment and understanding of women in a society bound in a straitjacket of its own convention. 

On one level it is as if Purcell has carried on from a female perspective where Dickens left off. 

But the Corset is also something of a gothic thriller, a measured thriller rather than a fast paced swashbuckler. But it is brutal in places which fills you with a cold shiver. There’s a also a sense of something almost supernatural in Ruth’s naive beliefs. Gothic is a much bandied term nowadays. True gothic, to my mind, IS horrifying. This book satisfies the criteria. 

It’s a well constructed narrative that pulls the reader along with it willingly. The juxtaposition of the two past and present narratives vie for your attention. You’re desperate to find out exactly what happened for Ruth to confess to murder and you also want to know how Dorothea’s aspirations progress. I’m trying to word this carefully because I don’t wish to offer any spoilers. Although I feel like I’m the last person on the planet to read this book!

It’s a tight plot with an unexpected twist at the end. Cleverly executed as the poor unwitting reader is led to believe one thing and is unpreprared for the ultimate revelation. A real chiller thriller. 

The Familiars - Stacey Halls

This was one of the books I bought last year fully intending to read sooner rather than later but it has been later. Another book published a year ago but I have to say it was well worth the wait. Utterly engrossing historical fiction concerning the Pendle witches of Lancashire.

Some blurbish matters……

‘To save her child, she will trust a stranger. To protect a secret, she must risk her life . . . 

Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married, and pregnant for the fourth time. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband Richard is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn't supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy.

Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby, and to prove the physician wrong. 

As Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations that are sweeping the North-West, Fleetwood risks everything by trying to help her. But is there more to Alice than meets the eye? 

Soon the two women's lives will become inextricably bound together as the legendary trial at Lancaster approaches, and Fleetwood's stomach continues to grow. Time is running out, and both their lives are at stake. 

Only they know the truth. Only they can save each other.’

Almost a dual narrative in concept the novel tells the story of the Pendle witches and their subsequent trial but alongside it and very dominantly is the courageous tale of Fleetwood Shuttleworth. So it is also what I call a ‘big house’ story (and, oh, how I want to visit Gawthorpe Hall!). All these elements work in harmonious tandem with each other to produce an immersive read with plenty of intrigue and rich historical research that will have you scuttling off to raid Wikipedia - if you’re anything like me!

The book examines the role of women within the society of the time. The two main female characters, Fleetwood and Alice, are from different social and economic backgrounds but their implicit views converge. The men portrayed in the book are domineering, with a sense of superiority and that arrogance assumption that they are right about everything even if it borders on infidelity. 

For all Fleetwood’s youth and her, perhaps less than happy and fulfilling childhood, she is quietly feisty and determined. Always trying to shake off the manacles of the seventieth century views on how women should behave she baulks at little to protect her unborn child and to seek justice when it seems justice will not be sought. Loyalty, too, is fundamental to her motivation. 

Wherever you have witches you have a sense of the supernatural and ethereal but not in the ghostly, ghastly, ghouly way. Some of it is subtle. A dog called Puck? Oh yes. And descriptions of the pastoral landscape might conjure Titania. 

As with any good historical novel the quality of research is tantamount to the reader being able to engage fully with the narrative. And if you’re a bit of a history buff you twitch at any glaring anomalies and inconsistencies. I didn’t twitch, not once. And I’m a history buff. I was riveted the whole way through. A wonderful lockdown read. I’m now pleased I waited. And I’d like to thank myself for buying a copy of this book.

The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides

I won this book in a Children in Need auction. I'm not sure if 'won' is the right word. My bid was the winning one, perhaps, is more accurate. I've often seen these auctions but never before proffered a bid. Always the pessimist I assumed I'd be unsuccessful and I would do better just giving my intended bid straight to the charity. But last year I decided to go for it. I put in a number of bids on various books and this one was successful! A hardback copy personally signed by the author. I can't even remember what I bid! It doesn't matter. I was thrilled and sometimes you can't put a price on that. In addition to my pleasure there was the added one of knowing that hopefully my book acquiring and reading habit has in some way benefited somebody in need.

Why did I bid on this book? There was such a lot of positive buzz on social media. Numerous endorsements that infiltrated my susceptible radar. But since the auction was in 2019 why has it taken me so long to read it? Proofs and blog tours to put it simply. However in this pandemic lockdown physical proofs aren't on offer so I am taking the opportunity to rampage through my TBR.

For a book published over a year ago, a best seller with an abundance of reviews across the internet there's nothing new that I am going to be able to offer. Everything has already been said. So all that I can is proffer is my response.

Firstly I was very impressed by this as a debut novel. So often a writer falls prey to what I call the 'debut novel exuberance syndrome', over wording and over plotting. This story was an accomplished piece of plotting and writing. It's economic without being sparse. I think that's crucial in a psychological thriller such as this. There's a balance to be struck between reader and writer. If an author throws too much at the reader there's a danger of detachment for the reader because they can't maintain an angle on what's happening but if the novelist offers too little the reader gets frustrated. Pitching it right is necessary for this genre and this book is pitch perfect. Excellent pacing too.

There is no shortage of psychological thrillers out there. I'm constantly amazed at how authors continue to come up with the most fiendish and twisted of plots. There is something delightful in heading towards the conclusion of a book and finding yourself openmouthed at the twist. This book has a wonderful twist.

There are many reviewers out there who admit to reading a lot of psychological thrillers and therefore saw this twist coming. I can see that up to a point. You get locked into a genre of books. You get locked into the formula of such work and I suppose it becomes second nature to want to get the twist.
I am fortunate in that my reading tastes are eclectic. I've read lots of psychological thrillers but usually they're spaced out in between other genres so I don't get locked in. Possibly the twist delighted me more because of that.

It's hard to like the characters in the story. And I find that an important feature of this type of novel. As a reader you need to remain objective. If you find yourself engaged too emotionally with any of the characters your bias can cloud your enjoyment of the outcomes. But they are fascinating characters, Alice and Theo. I was in danger of sympathising with Alice at some points because I found Theo shallow and sinister.

I enjoyed the author's style, an intelligent narrative which, as well as offering us a story, invited the reader to consider mental heath issues and treatments. I also enjoyed some of the allusions to Greek mythology. The legend of Alcestis is fundamental to grasping elements of the plot.

So, would I enter a book action again? Yes, I would. Would I read another book by Alex Michaelides? Yes I would. Is he writing another one? Apparently it will be published in 2021!

The Book of Dust - Philip Pullman

I've had this book sitting on my TBR shelf since the day it was published. It's one of those books that I wanted to read but I needed to delay reading it because I wanted to read it so much! Does that make sense? I guess to another reader it probably does. The anticipation is great but the dread of finishing it is as great. The perpetual paradox for the avid reader. Now I have read it and I feel as bereft as I thought I would now that it's done.

Strangely I didn't review La Belle Sauvage on this blog. I thought,  what on earth can I say that hasn't already been said by everybody else. I know there's nothing new that I can find to say about the book. Yet something in me wouldn't allow that to happen with this second volume of The Book of Dust sequence. And now I'm here I don't know what to say about it. Did I enjoy it? You bet. Did it live up to my expectations? Yes it did. Thank you and good night!

No, seriously. If La Belle Sauvage was a prequel then the Secret Commonwealth is almost a 'postquel'! For Lyra is no longer a baby, neither is she a child. She is a young woman, a student, thoughtful and slightly less impetous, who is maturing very nicely. This volume has close links with The Amber Spyglass and refers to one of the most horrifying, draining events that happened in that book. The relationship between Lyra and Pan, her daemon, is one of the crucial themes in this volume. Malcolm is all grown up and a professor at the University. He and Lyra's paths have crossed but at the beginning of the book she is unaware of his identity. As might be expected the plot is complex; there is a murder that precipitates much journeying and travelling, much trusting of strangers, much fleeing from foes, much solving of enigmas and many unanswered conundrums. We meet old friends like Ma Costa and Farder Coram. We find new ones. 

I was reminded of the whole Harry Potter thing in terms of J. K. Rowling writing those books as her characters aged along with her readership presumably. Here there is a sense that Pullman is expecting his readers to have grown along with Lyra. Well I have! 

As with the other books in the series you can enjoy this simply as a fantasy story. But of course with Pullman you know to expect something deeper behind the fiction. Organised religion continues to be a "character" in the series. Underlying philosophies punctuate the narrative but with a much more contemporary feel that links the fantasy world to our own world perhaps more than in any of the other books.

The Secret Commonwealth of the title is tantalising. And I'm worried that by defining it I might be offering up a spoiler. Suffice to say it concerns matters which may not always be prevalent in the physical world. But as a theme that remains consistent to the intention of all the other books it's a crucial part of the development of the whole sequence.

But I guess the backbone of the book is imagination. After all that's what created the whole series in the first place didn't it? It's what we need to read the book with, isn't it? It's what the writer utilises in profound abundance to create this world that has drawn us in so completely.

And now, I sit back and wait for the final book, the concluding part..................