Six Degrees of Separation

Six Degrees of Separation: From The Gate of Angels to A Killing of Angels

Published on November 7, 2026 by Margaret4 Comments

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. This month we are staring with a novella that’s on your reading list – in recognition of Novellas in November.

I’m starting with The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald, a novella on my reading list. It is 1912, and at Cambridge University the modern age is knocking at the gate. Fred Fairly, a Junior Fellow at the college of St Angelicus, where for centuries no female, not even a pussy cat, has been allowed to set foot, lectures in physics. Science, he is certain, will explain everything. Until into Fred’s orderly life come Daisy. Fred is smitten. Why have I met her? he wonders. How can I tell if she’s quite what she seems? Fred is a scientist. To him the truth should be everything. But even scientists make mistakes.

My first link is Angels and Insects by A S Byatt – two mesmerising novellas are set in the nineteenth century another novella. In Morpho Eugenia, an explorer realises that the behaviour of the people around him is alarmingly similar to that of the insects he studies. In The Conjugal Angel, curious individuals – some fictional, others drawn from history – gather to connect with the spirit world. Throughout both, Byatt examines the eccentricities of the Victorian era, weaving fact and fiction, reality and romance, science and faith into a sumptuous, magical tapestry.

Next another novella, Where Angels Fear to Tread by E M Forster. When a young English widow travels to Italy and makes an unexpected decision that shocks her conservative family, the consequences ripple across cultures and relationships. E. M. Forster contrasts the warmth, spontaneity, and passion of Italian life with the restraint and propriety of Edwardian England, creating a story filled with tension, irony, and quiet tragedy..

I’m staying with ‘angels’ and books on my reading list, but the next books are not novellas.

The Time of Angels by Iris Murdoch – The central character is Carel is a widowed rector presiding over a London church destroyed during the war. He believes that, God being dead, His angels have been released. This is a novel described on the back cover as ‘chilling‘ with an ‘all-pervading sense of evil you can almost touch – evil from which no-one can escape.’

The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman, the first Merrily Watkins novel, in which the Rev Merrily Watkins tries to be accepted as the vicar (or priest-in-charge as she insists she ought to be called) in the country parish of Ledwardine in Herefordshire, steeped as it is in cider and secrets and echoes of the poet Thomas Traherne who was once based in the area.

The Weight of Angels by Catriona McPherson. I’ve read several of her Dandy Gilver books and enjoyed them. This book is a standalone psychological thriller, in which Alison McGovern takes a job as a beautician in a private psychiatric facility near her rented cottage and the ruins of Dundrennan Abbey. A body is discovered in a shallow grave by the abbey on Ali’s first day at work.

A Killing of Angels by Kate Rhodes – the second book in her Alice Quentin series. I haven’t read the first book but I thought this looks good – it’s a psychological thriller. At the height of a summer heatwave, a killer stalks the City of London.The avenging angel leaves behind a scattering of feathers with each body – but why these victims? What were their sins?

All the books are linked by their titles with the word Angels and they are all books on my books to be read list.

Next month (December 2, 2026), we’ll start with a story that takes place at Christmas – Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan – a book I have read and another novella.

Six Degrees of Separation from Life of M to The Family Upstairs

Published on October 3, 2026 by Margaret17 Comments

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. This month we are starting with Rachel Cusk’s latest novel, Life of M.

I haven’t read The Life of M, so here is the description from Amazon:

M is a film star, and one of the most recognisable faces of our time

With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rM is a film star, and one of the most recognisable faces of our time.

With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rearranged. For her, it seems, the rules of reality have melted away.

Now M has agreed to let a stranger write her biography. Their project will sprawl and expand: to the olive groves and holiday beaches where M spends her days; across hotel rooms, bourgeois facades, film sets; through endless modern cities. It is hard not to feel ugly next to M, hard not to feel insignificant. But what truths – about the very experience of living – might this proximity allow the writer to briefly capture? And what in the end will M make of their work?

There’s another character known only as M in one of Rachel Cusk’s earlier novels, Second Place. She invites L, a well-known artist, to stay at her cottage. Having read D. H. Lawrence: the Life of an Outsider by John Worthen, I’d had an inkling that L was based on D H Lawrence and indeed in her Acknowledgement at the end of the book Cusk refers to Mabel Dodge Luhan’s 1932 memoir of the time D H Lawrence stayed with her in Taos, New Mexico.

Worthen’s biography is a detailed portrait of Lawrence’s life from his birth in 1885 in Eastwood in Nottinghamshire to his death at the age of 44. I read it in November 2013 and in the same month I also read N or M? by Agatha Christie, a Tommy and Tuppence spy story, and another book with characters known only by their initials. Tommy is asked to go under cover to track down members of the Fifth Column, two German agents, whose mission is to infiltrate British society. All that is known about them is that N is a man and M a woman and they are thought to be at Leahampton on the south coast.

Following the publication of N or M? Agatha Christie was investigated by MI5 because she had named one of the characters ‘Major Bletchley’ and MI5 suspected she had a spy in Britain’s undercover code breaking centre, Bletchley Park.

In The Predicament by William Boyd, Gabriel Drax is spy who doesn’t want to be a spy. He is being drawn into the dangerous and shadowy world of espionage by his fascination/obsession with Faith Green, his MI6 handler, who effortlessly manipulates him. Part of the book is set in Berlin where Drax is assigned to assist the CIA prevent the assassination of President Kennedy.

Berlin is the setting of The Dancing Bear in the aftermath of World War Two, from Autumn 1946 to Autumn 1949. It’s Frances Faviell’s memoir mainly about her friendship with the Altmann family, who lived on the ground floor of a large ruined house – the upper storeys had disappeared and just the twisted iron girders remained, sticking up grotesquely against the sky. The ground floor looked very shaky, the windows were covered in cardboard and the door had been repaired from odd pieces of wood.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell is about a completely dysfunctional family, living in 16 Cheyne Walk, London. Their house is dark, mysterious and steeped in a malevolent atmosphere, with panelled walls, locked rooms, a secret staircase and a full-size cannon in the front garden. And within its walls the family lived in fear, locked away from the outside world, dominated by a megalomaniac.

My links are characters known by their initials, two are by the same author, two are spy novels, two are books set in Berlin, and finally two books about families and their houses.

In recognition of Novellas in November, next month (November 7, 2026) start with a novella that’s on your reading list.

Six Degrees of Separation from The Vanishing Act to Miss Pym Disposes

Published on September 5, 2026 by Margaret10 Comments

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. This month we are starting with either with your book group’s current selection or if you’re not in a book group, start with the book that you’re currently reading.

I’m not in a book group so I’m starting with the book I’m currently reading, which is The Vanishing Act by Sarah Ward. It’s the third book in the Mallory Dawson Crime Thriller series. I enjoyed the first two books and so far (I’ve read over half the book) I’m really enjoying this one too.

This is about a missing family. They disappeared from the holiday cottage, they were renting in a remote part of Wales. Apparently they had left in a hurry whilst making sandwiches for a picnic and leaving a kettle still steaming on the Aga.

Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister, a book that totally gripped and baffled me. Olivia just disappeared from a dead-end alley without being seen coming back out. The investigating police officer is DCI Julia Day, a detective with a passion for solving things, piecing things together and helping people to get to the truth. But she has come up against what seems to be an impossible crime.

The House of Lost Whispers by Jenni Keer, a review copy, which also contains a character called Olivia. I don’t often read romance or fantasy novels but this book has both elements and it’s also historical fiction set before, during and after the First World War. It explores loss and grief, family life, friendship and romantic relationships, as well as the devastating and horrific events of the First World War.

Next is another review copy, The Spy in the Archive by Gordon Corera. It’s nonfiction about Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist who defected to Britain in 1992. Mitrokhin, a quiet, introverted and determined man, was a reluctant defector, because whilst he loved Russia he came to hate the KGB and the Soviet system. It is a remarkable book about a remarkable man; an in-depth account, that took me weeks to read as it’s not a book to read quickly. It’s both fascinating and informative.

An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, historical fiction about the Dreyfus Affair. In his Author’s Note Harris writes that his aim in writing this novel was to ‘retell the true story of the Dreyfus affair‘, describing it as ‘perhaps the greatest political scandal and miscarriage of justice in history, which in the 1890s came to obsess France an ultimately the entire world‘. What follows is a chillingly dark, and realistic novel of conspiracy and espionage.

Miss Austen by Gillian Hornby – the untold story of the most important person in Jane’s life – her sister Cassandra. After Jane’s death, Cassandra lived alone and unwed, spending her days visiting friends and relations and quietly, purposefully working to preserve her sister’s reputation. It’s very well researched, a novel that held my attention from the beginning right to the end. A definite 4.5 star book.

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey. Miss Pym was pleased and flattered to be invited to Leys Physical Training College to give a lecture on psychology. But then there was a ’nasty accident‘. This is not a conventional crime fiction novel. It’s a psychological study focussing on the characters, their motivation and analysis of facial characteristics. It looks at the consequences of what people do and say and, as Miss Pym discovers who she thinks is responsible, it also looks at how much a person should intervene, or as one of the characters tells her, ‘Do the obvious right thing, and let God dispose.’ Miss Pym agonises over her decision, was she really going to condemn someone to death?

Making this chain into a very loosely linked circle I went from crime fiction to crime fiction, with historical fiction, non fiction and spy stories in between.

Next month (October 3, 2026), we’ll start with Rachel Cusk’s latest novel, Life of M.

Six Degrees of Separation from Land to The Burry Man’s Day

Published on August 1, 2026 by Margaret27 Comments

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. This month we are starting with Land by Maggie O’Farrell, her latest release. I’ve read a sample and it looks like a book I’d enjoy.

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

My first link is the first book by Maggie O’Farrell that I read – The Hand that First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell. I read it in March 2013 and loved it, but it’s such a sad story. It’s beautifully written, so much so that it took me a while to realise that for the most part it’s written in the present tense.

My second link is Mrs McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie which I also read in March 2013. Hercule Poirot, assisted by Mrs Ariadne Oliver solve the mystery. There are plenty of surprises and a lot of misdirection before the killer is revealed. It was first published in 1952 and written not long after the end of the Second World War, reflecting the difficulties of finding employment and the changes for the post-war impoverished middle classes.

My third link is another book with the word ‘Mrs’ in the title Mrs Harris goes to Moscow by Paul Gallico. It’s a lovely little book. Mrs Harris is a London char lady who wins a trip to Moscow, where she wants to find her employer’s long-lost love. Mayhem ensues when she is thought to be Lady Char (the Russians not understanding what a ‘char lady’ is had converted it to ‘Lady Char’) and also a spy.

The setting of Moscow is also my link fourth in my chain in Private Moscow by James Patterson and Adam Hamdy, a conspiracy thriller novel. Jack Morgan, the head of Private, a detective agency with branches across the globe, sets out to hunt for the killer of his best friend and former marine, Karl Parker. There are spectacular car chases, with violent shoot-outs, miraculous escapes and fight scenes, and intense danger throughout as intrigues, conspiracies, old secrets and deep-cover agents are revealed.

My fifth link is Let it Bleed by Ian Rankin, which also features a dramatic car chase. Set in Edinburgh, this chase ends in a crash on the Forth Road Bridge. Rebus and his boss Chief Inspector Lauderdale are both injured, whilst the youths they were chasing stumble from their car and plunge from the Bridge embedding themselves in the metal deck of a Royal Navy frigate in the Firth of Forth hundreds of feet below.

My final link is The Burry Man’s Day by Catriona McPherson which is also set on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, part of the city of Edinburgh in South Queensferry. It’s the second in Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Gilver series. Dandy is a wealthy aristocrat who is also an amateur sleuth. In this book she investigates the death of the Burry Man. He is a local man dressed in a suit covered in sticky burdock burr seedheads who walks round Queensferry during the annual Ferry Fair. Dandy is there to present the prizes when he drops down dead.

The links in my chain are words in the titles, books I read in March 2013, books featuring car chases, and books set in Edinburgh.

Next month (September 6, 2026), we’ll start with start either with your book group’s current selection or if you’re not in a book group, start with the book that you’re currently reading.

Six Degrees of Separation from Yesteryear to Murder by Matchlight

Published on July 4, 2026 by Margaret26 Comments

This is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. This month we are starting with Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

According to the blurb this is A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. I think I may like to read this book.

My first link is The Year Without Summer by Guinevere Glasfurd, a novel that illustrates how the impact of the extreme weather conditions affected the lives of six people. They never meet, or know each other, but their stories are intertwined throughout the book in short chapters, giving what I think is a unique look at the events of 1816.

My second link is A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble, a novel about dissatisfaction and not knowing what you want, about family relationships (sisterly rivalry in particular), and the nature of marriage – the cages we live within. Whilst not a lot as regards plot happens in this short novel, it contains many ideas, attitudes and character studies. And it’s beautifully written.

My third link is Nothing To Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes, a family memoir in which he shares details about his family’s beliefs and the deaths of his parents and grandparents, of the rivalry between him and his brother, his mother’s solipsism and manipulative behaviour, his father’s seemingly passive approach to life and the difficulties of really knowing a person.

The fourth book in my chain is another book by Julian Barnes – The Sense of an Ending. It’s a novel about memory and the effect of time, about ageing, about the nature of history and literature, about nostalgia and the question of responsibility.

My fifth link is Playing With the Moon by Eliza Graham – historical fiction, capturing what life was like during the 1940s. The book deals with the power of memory, with loss, grief and bereavement. It’s also about war, the legacy of war, and of how to make sense of our lives.

My final link is also set in the 1940s – Murder by Matchlight by E C R Lorac. The setting is London in 1945, in the darkness of the blackout as the bombs are still falling. A murder takes place in almost complete darkness in Regent’s Park, witnessed by Bruce Mallaig who heard it happen and briefly saw both the victim and his assailant by the light of a struck match. It is not only darkness that shrouds the mystery – who is the victim?

The links in my chain are words in the titles, books about rivalry, books by the same author, about memory and books set in the 1940s.

Next month (August 1, 2026), we’ll start with Maggie O’Farrell’s new release, Land.

Six Degrees of Separation from to Wild Dark Shore to Dear Dodie

Published on May 2, 2026May 2, 2026 by Margaret30 Comments

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.

This month we are starting with Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. It was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026. As it’s a book I’ve not read this is the description from Goodreads:

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A storm gathering force.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain.

Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love.

I think I may like to read this book.

My first link is Wild Mary by Patrick Marnham, a biography of Mary Wesley, the author of The Camomile Lawn (I remember watching the TV adaptation) and other books. It’s based on her personal papers, and conversations between Mary and Patrick Marnham in 2002. One of the most fascinating things about Mary’s life for me was her wartime experiences, working for MI5 in the decoding unit.

My second link is another biography Daphne du Maurier by Margaret Forster, a candid account of her relationships, eg her troubled married life; wartime love affair; and friendships with Gertrude Lawrence and Ellen Doubleday, as well as an excellent source of information on Du Maurier’s method of writing and views on life.

My third link is The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, a novel about the end of the affair between Maurice Bendrix and his friend’s wife, Sarah. Their affair had begun in 1944 during the London Blitz. It’s a study of love and hate, of desire, of jealousy, of pain, of faithfulness, and of the interaction between God and people.

The fourth book in my chain is The Death of Shame by Ambrose Parry and another character called Sarah. It’s the 5th and final Raven and Fisher book, set in Edinburgh in 1854 . It’s a combination of historical fact and fiction, a tale of murder and medical matters, with the social scene, historical and medical facts slotting perfectly into an intricate murder mystery.

My fifth link is another book on the history of medicine. It’s the The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, a biography of Henrietta’s life and death. She died of cervical cancer in 1951. Her cancer cells became known as HeLa cells and have formed the basis for much medical research and drug development ever since. It is also a history of the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and considers the ethical issues around ownership of her cells and the distress, anger and confusion this caused her family.

My final link is linked by the title – Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith by Valerie Grove. Dodie wrote I Capture the Castle and The Hundred and One Dalmatians amongst many other books and plays. She was born in 1896 and died in 1990. During her lifetime the world went through enormous changes and numerous wars. This biography not only relates Dodie’s life, but is also a record of those years, containing so much about the changing society, culture, values and recalling an unknown (to me at any rate) theatrical age.

The links in my chain are words in the titles, biographies, books about love affairs, characters called Sarah, and books about the history of medicine. Four of the books are biographies and only one is crime fiction.

Next month (June 2, 2026) we’ll start with book by Austrian author Stefan Zweig – The Post Office Girl. Kate has chosen this book in honour of Eurovision being held in Vienna.