I’ve read two books for this week’s 1949 Club, hosted by Simon of Stuck in a Book and Karen of Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings.
This is the first one – Brat Farrar, one of Josephine Tey’s standalone novels, first published in 1949. Josephine Tey was a pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh. Josephine was her mother’s first name and Tey the surname of an English Grandmother.
My copy is an e-book, published in 2023 by Evergreen Publishers, print length 157 pages.
I really enjoyed it. It’s a story about identity and family relationships, set in a post Second World War England reflecting the social attitudes of its time. Patrick Ashby is the heir to Latchetts, the Ashby family estate on the south coast of England. But, in despair after the death of his parents in a plane crash, at the age of thirteen he had disappeared, leaving a note that was interpreted as a suicide note found in his jacket near the seaside cliffs. That left Simon, his younger twin brother as the heir. Eight years later Simon is approaching his 21st birthday when he would inherit his mother’s fortune.
Then Brat Farrar who bears an uncanny resemblance to Patrick Ashby, appears claiming to be Patrick and the true heir. The family’s solicitors investigated and accepted his claim. The family accept him, with the exception of Simon, who is sceptical and suspicious. The reader knows from the beginning that Brat is an imposter, but I soon began to like him and dislike Simon. As events unfold Brat decides he really wants to discover the truth about Patrick’s disappearance.
Horses play an important role. The Ashbys had survived financially after the death of the children’s parents because of the profit from their stud. Brat loves horses and grew up working with them, breaking them for the Lazy Y ranch in America. Tey’s own love for horses shines throughout. I love Tey’s descriptive writing and I could easily visualise the locations and the characters, all of whom are clearly described and believable. It’s both crime fiction and a family story about what happened to Patrick intertwined with what will happen to Bret. I think it’s almost as good as The Daughter of Time, the fifth Inspector Grant novel in the six book series, which investigates Richard III’s role in the death of his nephews and his own death at the Battle of Bosworth.
