Library Books 19 February 2025

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted about the books I’ve borrowed from the mobile library van. It’s one of three mobiles in the County Library service that comes round once a month, visiting villages and remote rural areas. It parks near our house. This week I borrowed three books.

img_0909-2

The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson. I thought this looks promising. The Trial of the Lancashire Witches in 1612 was the first witch trial to be documented. Thomas Potts, a lawyer, wrote his account: The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the County of Lancashire. It’s supposedly an eyewitness verbatim account and Winterson follows the historical account and the religious background in telling her story. The places are real places and the characters were real people, although she has taken liberties with their motives and means. She states that the story of Alice Nutter (not the Alice Nutter of history) and Elizabeth Southern is her own creation and has no basis in fact. And she was pleased that there might have been a connection with Dr John Dee, and with Manchester, London as well as with Shakespeare himself. And she says: ‘Pendle Hill is still the enigma it ever was though the Malkin Tower is long gone.’

The Forest of Pendle used to be a hunting ground, but some say that the hill is the hunter – alive in its black-and-green coat cropped like an animal pelt.

Good Friday, 1612. Two notorious witches await trial and certain death in Lancaster Castle, whilst a small group gathers in secret protest. Into this group the self-made Alice Nutter stakes her claim and swears to fight against the rule of fear. But what is Alice’s connection to these witches? What is magic if not power, and what will happen to the women who possess it? (Amazon UK)

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger I took this off the shelf and flicked through the pages, wondering what to expect from this book, described as creative nonfiction. It recounts a storm in October 1991 that resulted in the fishing boat Andrea Gail going down off the coast of Nova Scotia with the loss of all six crew members.

In 2000, the book was adapted by Warner Brothers as a film of the same name, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.

It was the storm of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high—a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it “the perfect storm.” In a book that has become a classic, Sebastian Junger explores the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms, and the candid accounts of the people whose lives the storm touched. The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller that makes us feel like we’ve been caught, helpless, in the grip of a force of nature beyond our understanding or control. (Amazon UK)

Little Ern! the Authorized Biography of Ernie Wise by Robert Sellers and James Hogg. For years I loved watching comedians Morecambe and Wise, also known as Eric and Ernie, on TV. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe’s sudden death in 1984. And watching their shows years later they still make me laugh.

Even though they are the most famous comedy double act Britain has ever seen, until now there has never been a biography of Ernie Wise. Seen by some as just the straight man in the partnership, in fact ‘Little Ern’ was regarded by his peers as a great comedian in his own right. It took no ordinary talent to be the perfect foil for the genius of Eric Morecambe, and to be his friend, business partner and co-performer for nearly forty years. Morecambe’s personality flared with ego and insecurity, and theirs was a personal relationship that had to be nurtured as carefully as were their on-screen personas.

Nearly thirty years after their last appearances, the pair still dominate the landscape of British comedy, and are loved and revered as ever. With the cooperation of Ernie’s widow Doreen, and drawing on unpublished material from the family archive as well as interviews with friends, Robert Sellers and James Hogg have shifted the spotlight sideways to examine for the first time the true and patient genius of one of the greatest entertainers of his generation. (Goodreads)

Top Five Tuesday:Top 5 books I want to reread in 2025

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, and it is now being hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For details of all of the latest prompts for January to March, see Meeghan’s post here.

Today the topic is Top 5 books I want to reread in 2025. Are you planning to reread some favourites in 2025? Maybe that classic you read back in school. Or maybe there’s a new book coming out in a series, and you want to remind yourself what happened in the last book. Whatever it is, let’s share all of our reread plans!!

I don’t often reread books, with the exception of Pride and Prejudice and A Christmas Carol both of which have reread many times.

This year is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and I’ve joined Brona at This Reading Life in her Austen 2025 project to reread her books, along with the Classics Club’s Sync Read (or readalong), so two of these books are by Austen.

The descriptions are from LibraryThing:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I first read this when I was about 11 or 12 and have reread it many times since. It never fails to delight me. This time I’ll be reading The Annotated Pride and Prejudice edited by David M Shapard. In this classic 19th century story of love battling pride, we meet Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth is a smart, well-rounded woman, and she is one of five unmarried daughters of the country gentleman, Mr. Bennet, a country gentleman. Marriage is at the forefront Mrs. Bennet’s mind, especially since her elderly husband’s estate will not pass down to any of their daughters. The Bennets’ small town is in an uproar when two highborn, eligible gentlemen, Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, come to stay. Mr. Bingley takes and instant liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane. Elizabeth’s prideful self does not realize her life is about to change when she meets the intolerable Mr. Darcy, who will make her questions her sensibilities.

Emma by Jane Austen. I’ve only read this once. Emma is the story of a charmingly self-deluded heroine whose injudicious matchmaking schemes often lead to substantial mortification. Emma, “handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.” Her own great fortune has blinded Emma to the true feelings and motivations of others and leads her to some hilarious misjudgments. But it is through her mistakes that Emma finds humility, wisdom, and true love. Told with the shrewd wit and delicate irony which have made Jane Austen a master of the English novel, Emma is a comic masterpiece whose fanciful heroine has gained the affection of generations of readers.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I first read this after watching the 2005 BBC adaptation with Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock and Charles Dance as lawyer Mr Tulkinghorn. A enthralling story about the inequalities of the 19th-century English legal system Bleak House is one of Charles Dicken’s most multifaceted novels. Bleak House deals with a multiplicity of characters, plots and subplots that all weave in and around the true story of the famous case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a case of litigation in England’s Court of Chancery, which starts as a problem of legacy and wills, but soon raises the question of murder.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I can’t remember how old I was when I first read this, but I think I was about 10. It was a Christmas present. Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol under financial duress, but it became one of his most popular and enduring stories. The old miser Ebenezer Scrooge cares nothing for family, friends, love or Christmas. All he cares about is money. Then one Christmas Eve he is visited by three ghosts: Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet To Come. These encounters leave Scrooge deeply moved and forever changed. Historians believe that A Christmas Carol contributed greatly to the modern sentimental Christmas.

Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson. I first read this many years ago, whilst I was recovering from flu (years before Covid). I loved this book, beautifully written and capturing a vanishing way of life as countryside farming turns to Victorian towns An autobiography of “Laura” – as the author calls herself – which describes in detail her delightful life in a country village. Her self-sufficient world of farm labourers and craftsmen working to the rhythms of the seasons and enjoying their traditional festivities is preserved for readers in this interesting and entertaining narrative.

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on by Margaret10 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin is number …

Bleak House by Charles Dickens.

The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by 11 April 2025.

Synopsis from Goodreads

As the interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper. A savage, but often comic, indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, Bleak House is one of Dickens’s most ambitious novels, with a range that extends from the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to the poorest of London slums.


I first read Bleak House after watching the 2005 Andrew Davies’ adaptation of the novel on BBC1 with Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock and Charles Dance as lawyer, Mr Tulkinghorn, with many more well known actors in the cast. I’ve been meaning to re-read it sometime and so I am pleased to be reading it again.

Did you take part in the Classics Spin? What will you be reading?

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Published on by Margaret11 Comments

Summary from the Jane Austen shop:

It would be an excellent match for he was rich, and she was handsome” Sense & Sensibility, 1811

When Elinor and Marianne Dashwood’s father dies, they with their mother and younger sister are forced to leave their family home Norland Park and take up residence in a small rented cottage. There they experience love, romance, and heartbreak. Marianne falling madly in love with the dashing Mr. Willoughby while Elinor silently hides her own broken heart from those nearest to her. A story of very mixed fortunes in love.

Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors and I’ve read all of her novels, beginning with Pride and Prejudice, which I’ve reread over the years many times, and watched TV and film adaptations. This year is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, so this is an ideal time to reread some of her books and I’m joining Brona at This Reading Life in her Austen 2025 project to reread her books, along with the Classics Club’s Sync Read (or readalong).

I first read Sense and Sensibility when I was at school but have never reread it. This time I read the annotated edition, edited by David M Shapard that gives explanations of historical context, citations from Austen’s life, letters, and other writings, definitions and clarifications, literary comments and analysis. There are multiple maps of England and London, an introduction, a bibliography, and a detailed chronology of events with more than 100 informative illustrations. I found I already knew some of the information given in some of these notes but others enhanced my understanding of the period. I particularly liked all the illustrations and the details about the cultural context, the social customs and conventions of the period.

Sense and Sensibility was Jane Austen’s first published novel. There was an earlier version, called Elinor and Marianne, that Jane Austen wrote in the form of letters probably in 1795 when she was nineteen. She returned to it after she began First Impressions, which later became Pride and Prejudice. Towards the end of 1797 she returned to Elinor and Marianne, modifying it and changing its name to Sense and Sensibility. It wasn’t until 1810 that she finished the book and it was published in 1811.

It focuses on the two Dashwood sisters, Elinor (aged 19) and Marianne (aged 16), who have contrasting temperaments. On the surface Elinor, the older sister represents sense or reason while Marianne represents sensibility or emotion. However as the story develops they both exhibit varying aspects of each characteristic. Marianne comes over at first as a rather silly teenager, emotional and passionate, who openly expresses her likes and dislikes, letting everyone know how much she is grieving for her father and how much she loves her new friend she met whilst living at Barton Cottage, John Willoughby. Elinor, however, is more restrained and discrete, controlling her emotions and reactions, even though she has strong feelings for her sister-in-law’s brother, Edward. Later in the book, however, both sisters display both ‘sense’ and ‘sensibility’, which I think makes them more believable as characters.

I’m not going into any more detail about the plot. A lot happens, there are misunderstandings and many secrets are exposed. I liked the way the story moves between the two sisters switching from one to another. At first I did feel more sympathetic towards Elinor, but Marianne did grow on me by the end of the book. They both grew in complexity as Jane Austen developed their characters. There are many other characters, some foolish or absurd providing comic relief and others who are nasty and selfish and cause both Elinor and Marianne much anguish and heartache.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book!

And now I’m looking forward to re-reading Pride and Prejudice.

Classics Club Spin

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin.

Before next Sunday, 16 February 2025 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list. On that day the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by the 11 April 2025

Here’s my list:

  1. The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (a re-read)
  2. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
  3. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
  4. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
  5. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
  6. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
  7. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
  8. Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning
  9. The Birds and other short stories by Daphne du Maurier
  10. I’ll Never be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier
  11. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
  12. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
  13. The Go Between by L P Hartley
  14. The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
  15. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  16. Daisy Miller by Henry James
  17. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
  18. Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning
  19. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
  20. Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault

I’m happy to get any of these, but it would be great if it’s Pride and Prejudice as that is the book I’ll be (re)reading in March as part of the ReadingAusten25 project.

Which one/s would you recommend?

Only Murders in the Abbey by Beth Cowen-Erskine

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Hodder & Stoughton/ 13 February 2025/ 363 pages/e-book |Review copy| 5*

I read the first Loch Down Murder Mystery, Loch Down Abbey in 2021 and enjoyed it very much, so I was looking forward to reading Only Murders in the Abbey, set in 1930s Scotland . And I’m glad to say that I thought it was even better than the first one.

Description from the publishers:

Mrs MacBain, thank god it’s you.’ Without another word, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the room, locking the door behind them. Mrs MacBain turned around, clearly offended at being manhandled, but then gasped, ‘Is that blood?’

Loch Down Abbey is full of guests for a Highland Ball. Including several uninvited members of the Inverkillen clan, the Abbey’s former residents. Housekeeper Mrs MacBain thinks her biggest challenge will be finding suitable rooms for everyone and keeping the peace at cocktail hour.

Until the morning after the ball, when one of the guests is discovered inside the Abbey’s library – as dead as a doornail.

Who would have had motive to want them dead? And how did they manage to commit their crime and escape while keeping the door locked from the inside?

With an Abbey full of suspects and secrets, it is down to Mrs MacBain to catch the killer before they strike again…

The Abbey, formerly the ancestral home of the Ogilvy-Sinclair family is now an hotel, owned by several of the long-standing employees and staffed mainly by the former servants, led by Mrs Alice McBain as the Director of Operations. The manager of the hotel is The Honourable Fergus Ogilvy-Sinclair, the youngest grandson of Lady Georgina, the Dowager Countess of Inverkillen. Her eldest grandson is Lord Angus Inverkillen, the current Earl of Inverkillen.

There are so many characters in this book including family members, hotel staff and guests that I found it difficult to keep track of all of them. However the main characters are very clearly defined and there is a list of all the characters at the beginning of the book, which is a great help.

The book begins the morning after a Highland Ball as Hudson, one of the co-owners of the Abbey, is doing his rounds when he finds a dead body in the Small Library, which had been locked for the Ball. The name of the victim is not revealed. The narrative then goes back to the fortnight before the Ball, introducing the characters and their relationships and it is not until the second half of the book that the identity of the victim is revealed.

Detective Inspector Jarvis from the local constabulary is called in to investigate, but as Mrs McBain thinks he is not ‘the sharpest axe in the shed’. And it is mainly down to her to get to the bottom of the mystery – how a murder could take place in a locked room, who had the motive to commit murder and how was the opium trade in Shanghai involved. As the victim had been stabbed to death the number of suspects includes all the men at the ball who were in Highland dress which includes a sgian-dubh, (pronounced ‘skeen doo’), a small single-edged knife, worn as part of Highland dress in the sock of a kilted Scot. So, there are many suspects, making the investigation tremendously complicated and involving many red herrings, and twists and turns as several secrets and scandals are revealed.The Epilogue introduces yet another unexpected turn.

How on earth Beth Cowan-Erskine kept so many strands in play, set in a richly described location and with believable characters is totally beyond me. But she did, with immense skill making this a most enjoyable book. As she describes it it is ‘a lunatic world’ that she has created. I really hope there will be a third Lock Down Murder Mystery.

Many thanks to the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley.