Month: October 2010

Heartstone by C J Sansom: Book Review

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

Mantle (Macmillan) 2010
Pages 640
ISBN 9781405092739
Dimensions 234mm x 153mm   Weight 0.95 kg

Publisher’s blurb:

Summer, 1545. England is at war. Henry VIII’s invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel . . .

Meanwhile, Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr. Asked to investigate claims of ‘monstrous wrongs’ committed against his young ward, Hugh Curteys, by Sir Nicholas Hobbey, Shardlake and his assistant Barak journey to Portsmouth. There, Shardlake also intends to investigate the mysterious past of Ellen Fettiplace, a young woman incarcerated in the Bedlam.

Once in Portsmouth, Shardlake and Barak find themselves in a city preparing for war. The mysteries surrounding the Hobbey family and the events that destroyed Ellen’s family nineteen years before, involve Shardlake in reunions both with an old friend and an old enemy close to the throne. Soon events will converge on board one of the king’s great warships gathered in Portsmouth harbour, waiting to sail out and confront the approaching French fleet. . .

This is the fifth novel in the Matthew Shardlake series and to my mind although it’s good, I think it’s not quite as good as the others. Compared to the earlier books it’s a bit plodding as Shardlake goes on numerous journeys. But that aside it’s great on detail about life in Tudor times. There’s the war against the French, details about how the troops were recruited and trained, about the French attack on Portsmouth and the sinking of the Mary Rose. Actually I found that more interesting than the mystery surrounding Hugh Curteys, which I’d guessed quite early on, although it began well with Shardlake out of his usual area of expertise, going through the records at the Court of Wards.

The story about Ellen Fettiplace is more intriguing. Ellen had been an inmate in the Bedlam for 19 years and Shardlake discovered that there was no order of lunacy to authorise her imprisonment. His searches lead him to Rolfswood, the place where Ellen had lived. There he eventually discovers the terrible truth. Shardlake is dedicated to protecting the underdog, championing those unable to help themselves and above all to justice and truth, disregarding his own safety. But his dedication has become obsessive and there were times when I agreed with Barak that he should let go and return to London.

As usual, reading Sansom’s historical novels there is the echo of the past repeating itself. In this one I found myself thinking of the nature of war, the power that national leaders have in making decisions and the effects it has on ordinary people who get dragged into the battles willy-nilly. His research is excellent, his characters are well drawn and the atmosphere and sense of place are convincing. Whilst I was reading I was transported to Tudor England at a time of war.

ABC Wednesday: L is for …

Published on by Margaret9 Comments

 

 

L is for LOVE.

The life that I have is all that I have
And the life that I have is yours
The love that I have of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have, a rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years in the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

Leo Marks

ABC Wednesday – Each week word(s) beginning with the designated letter are selected and illustrated through a photo, poem or prose.

Monday Musing

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

This week’s musing is:

What’s your favorite ‘cozy’ book €” and, by that, I’m meaning ‘curl-up-on-a-cold-day comfort read‘? Or, if you don’t have a particular book, what genre do you most feel like reading when the weather starts to turn colder?

For me it’s a ‘curl-up-on-a-rainy-day’ rather than a cold day. As a child on rainy days I used to love sitting inside watching the raindrops running down the window, curled up in front of an open fire with a book to read. Usually it was an Enid Blyton book – Mallory Towers for example, or one of the Heidi books, or What Katy Did. Over the years I read these many times.

These days, on rainy days I like to read a book such as One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes, a nostalgic look at England just after the Second World War. Anything that transports me to another world is good. It may be a book I’ve read and enjoyed before such as Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, which would whisk me off to sunny Italy. It’s nothing like the film they made of it – the book is much better. Or it could be historical fiction such as this one I’ve been looking forward to reading for ages, Helen of Troy by Margaret George.

Flodden: the Scottish Invasion of Henry VIII’s England

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Flodden by Niall Barr is an account of the Battle of Flodden between the English and the Scots in 1513, which challenges the traditional view of the battle.  In 1512 James IV, Henry VIII’s brother-in-law, had renewed the ‘Auld Alliance’ with France, promising mutual support should England attack either country. So when Henry made war on France, James had no alternative and he crossed the River Tweed into England with about 40,000 men.

The weather that September was much like it’s been this September – wet and stormy. The battle field was at Branxton, then just a few houses surrounded by bog and woodland. The two armies came face to face separated by a small valley with the English at the bottom of Flodden Hill. The Scots attacked down the hill and were chopped to pieces by the English and James himself was killed. Barr shows how, contrary to the traditional view, James led a well organised and prepared army and considers that it was using new, continental weapons and military tactics in the wrong situation that led to his defeat.

There is a bit too much detail about the weapons used and military history for my liking and I scan read the chapters dealing with that. But the book as a whole gives a real flavour of the times, the diplomacy, the main protagonists and the battle. I found it interesting, maybe because I live in the area where it all took place. I’ve been to the battle field, which today is so peaceful and tranquil, but I could imagine the terrible carnage that took place there nearly 500 years ago.

Map on the notice board in the car park below Flodden Field

Sunday Salon – Today’s Books

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

My reading today, so far has been just a short portion of Agatha Christie’s Autobiography and some more of A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve. AC’s autobiography is very entertaining. At the moment I’m still in her childhood, so a long way to go yet. I’m reserving judgement for a while on A Change in Altitude. I always used to enjoy Anita Shreve’s books, but latterly I’ve found them not quite so much to my liking. This one is set in Kenya, a very different location and so far it’s quite depressing. I don’t think it’s going to lighten up much either.

Anyway, I’m putting these two books to one side for the rest of today and will be reading Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre, because tomorrow I’m going to his Author Event in Livingston. I thought I’d get in the mood early. Quite Ugly was his debut novel in 1996. This is the synopsis from his website:

Yeah, yeah, the usual. A crime. A corpse. A killer. Heard it.

Except this stiff happens to be a Ponsonby, scion of a venerable Edinburgh medical clan, and the manner of his death speaks of unspeakable things.

Why is the body displayed like a slice of beef? How come his hands are digitally challenged? And if it’s not the corpse, what is that awful smell?

A post-Thatcherite nightmare of frightening plausibility, Quite Ugly One Morning is a wickedly entertaining and vivacious thriller, full of acerbic wit, cracking dialogue and villains both reputed and shell-suited.

Brookmyre’s books have such great titles, for example – One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye, and A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away. His latest book is Pandaemonium.