Category: Books

Revelation by C J Sansom

Published on by Margaret10 Comments

I know who the murderer is – I’ve finished Revelation!

I haven’t written anything on this blog since Saturday, partly because we’ve been staying with our son and his family and partly because I just had to finish reading Revelation. It’s the fourth book in the Matthew Shardlake series. The first three are Dissolution set in 1537, Dark Fire set in 1540 and Sovereign set in 1541. I think they all stand alone but I like to read books in sequence. It’s been a year since I read the third book and Revelation was well worth the wait. It’s a long book full of intrigue, mystery and murder. (At 546 pages long it qualifies for the Chunkster Challenge.)

Revelation is set a few years later than Sovereign; the action takes place during March and April 1543. Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth queen, has been beheaded and he has asked Catherine Parr to be his wife. She, understandably, is somewhat reluctant, fearful of what that may lead to, not to mention her involvement with Sir Thomas Seymour. This is a time of the struggle for power between religious reformers and reactionaries. Thomas Cranmer is still the Archbishop of Canterbury, despite opposition from Bishop Gardiner and Bishop Bonner, who was pursuing religious radicals, looking for heretics. The reformers are preaching that the Apocalypse was coming, inducing salvation panic, with people craving certainty that they are among those whom God has pre-ordained to be saved. Parliament is passing legislation to prevent the working classes and women from reading the new English Bible thatThomas Cromwell (executed in 1540) had been translating. It’s a time of change and uncertainty.

That’s the political and religious scene in which Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer, finds himself when the murder of his old friend Roger Elliard, brings him back to the attention of Archbishop Cranmer. He is working on the case of Adam Kite, a teenage boy, who is imprisoned in the Bedlam hospital for the insane, helped by Guy Malton (previously a monk and now licensed as a doctor). Adam is a self-hater fearing that he is unworthy of God’s love. The question is, is he mad or possessed by the devil? Then more bodies are found and Matthew along with his assistant Barak joins forces with Gregory Harsnet, the London coroner is trying to find out who is committing the horrific murders.

I’m not going to say any more about the plot. I was completely convinced of the reality presented in the book, the setting is clearly described (there are maps of the main scenes, north of the River Thames and of Westminster) and the characters are just so alive. I felt as though I was there, a spectator to everything that went on.

I particularly liked the information in the book on such topics as the state of medicine at the time, the treatment of various illnesses, how knowledge of human anatomy was discovered through post-mortems, challenging previously held beliefs. Mental illness for example was thought by some to be caused by an imbalance of humours in the brain but others were coming to think it was caused by physical disorders, such as tumours, in the brain and yet others thought it was possession by the devil, which must be driven out. There was the threat that religious-obsessives would be considered as heretics and condemned to be burned at the stake. (I found it interesting that the treatment of mental illness in the 17th century in read about in The Verneys was not much different from that in the 16th (see my post on The Verneys here.) I was fascinated by the idea of teeth set in wooden dentures, but squeamish at how the teeth were obtained and I was intrigued by the use of drugs, such as dwale (deadly nightshade) as an anaesthetic.

Another topic that fascinated me was the question of the religious beliefs of the fundamentalists. Just as Christian fundamentalists today seen signs of the end of the world, people in Tudor England were convinced that the Apocalypse was coming upon them. The Puritans were convinced of the literal truth of the Book of Revelation, accepting the violent destruction of those who were not saved without a qualm. It is of course, as the title indicates, the prophecies in the Book of Revelation that fuel the murders. Guy, next to Matthew, my favourite character in the Shardlake series, looks on these subjects more compassionately. Talking of the contemporary scene he says that men have been

‘Thrown into a world, where the Bible is interpreted as literal facts, its symbols and metaphors forgotten, and fanatics react with equanimity to the blood and cruelty of Revelation. Have you ever thought what a God would be like who actually ordained and executed the cruelty that is in that book? A holocaust of mankind. Yet so many of these Bible-men accept the idea without a second thought.’

How do I rate this book? The plot had me turning the pages to see what happens next and find out who committed the murders, there was enough commentary on the political, religious and social scene for me to grasp what it was like living in Tudor England together with information on the location of the action that did not detract from the action but enhanced it, well-defined and believable characters and a fluent, readable style with a good balance between dialogue and description.

I loved it!

It’s hard to settle down now to another book, even though I’ve plenty lined up waiting to be read. It’s like that sometimes when I’ve just finished a really good book. I’m still reading Eat, Pray, Love, but I like to have more than one book on the go. I’m behind with reading Les Miserables, so I might get back to that, but as Revelation ends with the news that Henry VIII finally married Catherine Parr in July 1543 I’m really tempted to read Suzannah Dunn’s The Sixth Wife to carry on reading more about Catherine Parr.

Do You Want To Know the End?

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

I’™m reading C J Sansom’™s book Revelation. Don’™t worry there are no spoilers here!

This is the fourth in the Matthew Shardlake series and he’™s working on the case of a teenage boy held in the Bedlam Hospital for the insane (or is he possessed?) and also investigating a series of brutal murders. The murderer is using a chapter in the Book of Revelation as the pattern for the killings.

There’™s a lot more to say about this book, which will have to wait for a later post. I’™m about half way through the book and am wondering just who is the murderer ‘“ I’™m picking up clues, but are they red herrings? I’™m always tempted to turn to the end of the book and see who done it, but I don’™t want to.

But this morning I couldn’™t resist just a little peek. So just opening the book enough to see just a few words on the last page I read part of the last sentence ‘“ with my hand over the rest of the page ‘“

‘œOut there in a chapel in a palace, the King had finally married Catherine Parr.’

So no surprises there then!

Writing Challenge – Booking Through Thursday

Published on by Margaret14 Comments

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is another variation on the page 123 theme post I did yesterday! But it needs more thought!

Pick up the nearest book. (I’™m sure you must have one nearby.)
Turn to page 123.
What is the first sentence on the page?
The last sentence on the page?
Now . . . connect them together’¦.
(And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book’“that’™s cheating!)

Well, actually, the nearest books are a pile of unread books on the desk and because to answer this question I need to understand what has gone before page 123 I’m using the nearest book that I have read, which isn’t in the pile (it’s in another pile). It’s The Secret Garden and I wrote about that too yesterday (see here) and I haven’t put it back on the bookshelves yet.

The first sentence on page 123 is: Very soon afterwards a bell rang, and she rolled up her knitting.

The last sentence is: Colin was still frowning.

This is the scene in The Secret Garden the morning after Mary had met her cousin, Colin, whom she didn’t even know existed. She had found him the night before when she had heard him crying. He believes himself to be an invalid and has been allowed to do just what he likes all his life. The “she” in the first sentence is Martha, Mary’s maid. Martha and Colin’s nurse are both astonished at Mary’s effect on Colin and that he wants to see her. The nurse tells Martha that Mary has bewitched Colin and that he has demanded that she visit him again as he has been thinking about her all the morning. Mary goes to see him and tells him that Martha is terrified that she will lose her job because Mary has met Colin – his existence was being kept secret from Mary. Frowning, Colin orders Martha to be brought into his presence and is still frowning when Martha comes in shaking in her shoes in fear of what he will do and say.

He could easily fly into a tantrum, hates people to look at him and all the servants feared his rages. He has the power to dismiss them from his father’s house.

Of course you’ll have to turn the page over to read what happens next.

The Secret Garden

Published on by Margaret4 Comments


The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published in 1911, my copy is a Penguin paperback published in 1958, 254 pages.

For the Heart of a Child Challenge

I read The Secret Garden several times as a child and the story has stayed with me ever since. For years my picture of the ideal garden has been a walled garden, just like the secret garden. The story can be read on different levels. As a child it seemed to me to be a straight forward story of Mary Lennox, orphaned after her parents died of cholera in India. Up until the age of nine she had lived a cosseted life looked after by servants, in particular her Ayah, ignored by her parents. After their death she was sent to live at Misselthwaite Manor, on the bleak Yorkshire moors, with her uncle, who was a hunchback recluse, who took little interest in her. Soon after Mary’s arrival, her uncle went abroad leaving her again in the care of servants. These were very different from the servants in India and Mary struggled to adjust.

Soon after she discovers she is not the only child in the house, when she finds Colin, her cousin, a hypochondriac, unable to walk, who believes he won’t live to grow up. Both Mary and Colin are selfish children, hating both themselves and the adults in their lives. Both also hate the outdoors, but encouraged by Martha, her maid, Mary wanders in the gardens of the Manor house and comes across a walled garden, which apparently has no door. There seems no way to get inside it – until guided by a robin, she finds an old key buried in the earth. I loved the descriptions of the Yorkshire countryside, the garden and how under the influence of Martha and her younger brother Dickon and even the grumpy gardener, Ben Weatherstaff, Mary blossomed as the year progressed along with the garden.

Reading it now I can see it is full of symbolism using nature, the Bible and myths, that I never noticed as a child. The image of the garden is used as both paradise lost and paradise regained. As the garden is nurtured and begins to blossom so do Mary and Colin, through springtime and into summer, culminating in the autumn when both are brought to full health. Dickon is accompanied by a young fox, a lamb, a crow and tame squirrels, reminiscent of St. Francis of Assisi and plays his pipe to charm the animals, like Pan. His mother, Mrs. Sowerby, is a plain-speaking down-to-earth Yorkshire woman, full of common sense and wisdom, who through Dickon and Martha helps the children, feeding Mary and Colin with both her words and wholesome food. At times I thought the language becomes over sentimental and a bit syrupy (I never thought that as a child). But there are descriptions that still appeal to me, such as this description of the roses in the garden:

And the roses – the roses! Rising out of the grass, tangled round the sundial, wreathing the tree trunks, and hanging from their branches, climbing up the walls and spreading over them with long garlands falling in cascades – they came alive day by day, hour by hour. Fair, fresh leaves and buds – and buds – tiny at first, but swelling and working Magic until they burst and uncurled into cups of scent delicately spilling themselves over their brims and filling the garden air

Above all it is the power of Magic that is invoked in this book. The magic of nature, that makes plants and people grow and develop, the magic of the power of positive thinking and prayer, of the healing power of the mind, and of laughter and love. Sometimes it seemed too simplistic and yet at the same time I was swept along with the sentiments and enjoying the experience of re-reading this book.

A Good Hanging – Page 123 Meme

Published on by Margaret


I was tagged by Zetor for this meme – pick a book at least 123 pages long. Open that book to page 123.Find the fifth sentence and post the next three.

I picked this book by Ian Rankin, as it’™s the next book I’™ll be reading for the Celebrate the Author Challenge (it’™s Rankin’™s birthday in April). It’™s a collection of twelve stories and this story, the 6th one in the book is the title story, ‘œA Good Hanging’.

On page 123 the fifth complete sentence is:

A pencil lay on the typescript, evidence that Charles Collins was taking the critics’™ view to heart himself and attempting to shorten the play as best he could.

The next three sentences are as follows:

Peter Collins’™ room was much more to Rebus’™s personal taste, although Holmes wrinkled his nose at the underwear underfoot, the contents of the hastily unpacked rucksack scattered over every surface. Beside the unmade bed, next to an overflowing ashtray, lay another copy of the play. Rebus flipped through it.

I’ve enjoyed the Rebus stories on TV, so I’m looking forward to reading the books.

If you haven’t done this meme and would like to please consider yourself tagged.

Consequences

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

Penelope Lively’s Consequences follows the lives of Lorna, her daughter, Molly and her granddaughter, Ruth. I like Penelope Lively’s style of writing, richly emotional but still taut and concise. Although I think that it is more than a love story I think this quote from the book jacket is not a bad summary:

‘An enthralling examination of interweaving love and history, Consequences pinpoints the moments when three women in very different times find love.’

It starts in 1935 when two young people, Lorna and Matt meet quite by chance in St James’s Park in London. They come from very different backgrounds but are instantly attracted to each other and despite opposition from Lorna’s parents they get married and move to a cottage in deepest Somerset. As the title indicates the predominant theme of this book is how events follow on from chance meetings and how our lives are changed because of the decisions we make. For some time now I’ve been interested in the Second World War period and although I wasn’t alive then it seems to me as though this book captures the atmosphere of that period. There is a nostalgic feel to the settings, looking back to how things were and how the war inevitably changed people’s lives and expectations.

Lorna and Matt had a daughter, Molly, then the war began and Matt was called up. I won’t say too much as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read it. It’s full of such quotable extracts, such as this in defining happiness Lorna realises that it is ‘another condition, of a different quality, a state of being that lifts you above ordinary existence, that pervades every moment, that confers immunity.’

The future is always the unknown: ‘ … you are always standing on the brink, in a place where you cannot see ahead, there is nothing certain except what lies behind. This should be terrifying, but somehow it is not.’

This message of hope pervades the book despite the tragedies and difficulties that happen. Life continues after the war, and the changes in society are reflected in the attitudes of people towards each other:

‘This was a bizarre new society in which class barriers were not broken down but subtly eroded. You still placed a person by their voice – but other things mattered too. Confidence, efficiency, sang-froid; selfishness, greed, shirking.’

People no longer knew where they were and where they belonged: ‘This was a world divided into them and us, with many subtle and significant sub-divisions.’

Molly grew up in this society and having gone through university, took a job as a librarian ‘because someone had left a copy of the Evening Standard in the tube’ advertising the job and she thought why not? Thus setting in motion another train of events. In this section I particularly liked the descriptions of the library and of books (I used to be a librarian). Here are just a few examples:

‘Fiction is one strident lie – or rather, many competing lies; history is a long narrative of argument and reassessment; travel shouts of self-promotion; biography is just pushing a product. As for autobiography …’

‘That is the function of books: they offer a point of view, they offer many conflicting points of view, they provoke thought, they provoke irritation and admiration and speculation. They take you out of yourself and put you down somewhere else from whence you never entirely return.’

‘The surface repose of a library is a cynical deception.’

Molly became a confident, determined and self-sufficient character, finding it exhilarating to cope with the challenges in life. For her work is the determining factor, being a wage earner. Molly refused to marry James, Ruth’s father and Ruth enjoyed his presence in her life as ‘a sort of benevolent patron on the fringes of everyday existence.’ For Molly, as she contemplated her life and the consequences of the choices she had made, Ruth’s ’emphatic presence seemed to make sense of chance, of happenstance.’

Ruth was also an independent character, whose marriage to Peter failed and their children alternated between them in their two flats. She reflected:

‘Every conception is fortuitous, every birth. That said, Ruth always saw her own existence as perhaps peculiarly accidental, spun from the odd conjunction of two people whose meeting was an unlikely chance. ‘Only now, in mid-life – for that was where she was, after all – did she see this background, and her very presence, as a distinctly precarious event. This put you in your place, somehow.’

The book ends with her search for the cottage in Somerset where Matt and Lorna lived. I loved the description of her journey to the cottage in such simple and direct language which perfectly conveys the scenery. Once she left the motorways and main roads she was into the countryside lanes:

‘You burrowed into this landscape, she saw. The motorways rushed through it, and the A this and the B that, but as soon as you abandoned those dictatorial highways you had slipped off into another sphere. You were in the lanes, you were in narrow tunnels between high hedge banks, routes that also knew quite well what they were about and where they were going but that was their own immemorial business, and you were now in their domain. You went where they went and that was that.’

You feel as though you’ve travel through time and place in reading this book. Penelope Lively has a website with information about the other books she has written. I thought I’d read most of them but I see there are some I haven’t come across. More treasures to find and read!