Happy Holidays

Well.... I am off to sunny Holland for a week or so so the Blog will have to survive on it's own... let's face it it's used to it!
I have done the impossible and got the various family members their Christmas presents in one ... yes ONE, shopping trip and all that remains is to wrap them.
I hope that the new year brings me many more interestingbooks to read, many more authors to discover and sees the further development of my local history project (which seems to have hit a little slump at the moment).
I am now going to spend about 5 minutes deciding what, if any book I am taking on my holidays as I still have some gifts to wrap, laundry to put away, dishes to do and a suitcase to pack. the final push to get the house and myself Holiday ready is on!!!

Hurrah

I am pleased to announce that my little blog is now officially one year and three days old, or new, whichever way you want to look at it. It has been a real labour of love for me to maintain this blog and although perhaps not many people read it, it is a way for me to express myself and to let the world know what I like to read and what I like or dislike about the books I read. I did not start the blog to become "world famous in the Blogosphere" but just to have some fun and to be able to talk about one of the things very close to my heart... books.
Oh, and of course one of my best friends now calling me Bloggy instead of Cloggy is just the BEST!

I look forward to putting up many more book reviews and general musings as well (I promise not all will be book related).

Hip hip Hurray for my blog

Karin

Local knowledge

My local history investigation has stumbled to a slight halt as I struggle to find the time to keep ploughing through the books. However, this week should be a bit quieter and after I have Christmas party nr 2 on Friday I should be able to get back to them.

So, what interesting facts have I uncovered so far:

• There was a village called Milton in which there was a family called Keynes. Hence the name of Milton Keynes.
• Apparently at one point in time there were castles in Newport (Pagnell), Lavendon and Wolverton - no trace remains of these now although most likely the stones were used to build other buildings in the area.
• In 1619 a body was found in a church in Newport Pagnell for some reason the bones were filled with lead.
• During the height of the plague in in 1625 a total number of 113 people died in Stony Stratford. During a second outbreak in 1640 another 102 people died. In Newport Pagnell in 1666 there were 40 people who died of the plague in one day!
• In 1795 there was an earthquake in the area.
• Old Stratford used to be called Stony Stratford but it declined in importance and the name was passed on to its younger brother just across the river and that is why we now have Old Stratford and Stony Stratford.
• Both Wolverton and Calverton are mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086.

It is quite interesting to read all these things that happened in the past, I do love history anyway and reading about a place where you now live is very interesting.
One thing that is quite funny is that the book about the History of Newport Pagnell actually dates from 1842. The historic updates stops around that year but for me reading it in the present that still leaves quite a few years to cover! I'll have to see if I can fill in some of those blank years with another trip back to the library.

Acid Tongued

My "Local History Project" is proving to be very interesting! I am finding out a lot more about the history of the town I live and some of the names of the estates of the town are not so random as they seem. Apparently there is evidence of people having lived and settled here back in Roman times. Here's me thinking that Milton Keynes was just this boom/commuter town that was created about40 years ago.. well hey, who knew. I've just finished one book on the history of Newport Pagnell - where they once found a body which had its bones filled with lead, and I have now moved on to the history of Stony Stratford - where Henry VIII stayed several times on his way to his hunting grounds.


#### SPOILER ALERT ####


Someone like You - Roald Dahl

Just before I started my project I did manage to complete a very nice one by Roald Dahl. It is a selection of 18 tales by Dahl according to the front you need a broad mind[s] and nerves of steel to read them. Whenever I read his work I am always struck by the characters he writes and the calculated-ness ad shrewdness they have in going about their business. The way that their minds work always seems perfectly acceptable in the framework of the story his characters are in but outside them they would probably all be locked up for thinking what they do and acting like they do. His tales always have a dark edge on them which to me seems to contrast with his easy going writing style as he merrily hops and skips his way through remorseless murder and twisted reasoning. A lot of the tales seems to end at a point where you can fill in the blanks and they tend to leave you feeling like the hammer is going to fall just as Dahl puts the final full stop at the end of his final sentence. And... they are perfect the way they are.

Taste
The famous gourmet Mr Pratt lives up to his name (I am guessing his name is not just chosen randomly!). The host of a dinner party makes a bet with the gourmet in question and almost loses his most prized possession. The host has found an obscure wine somewhere and the gourmet thinks he can name it. However, the gourmet turns out to be playing with loaded dice and I do not think he will be attending the next dinner party.

Lamb to the Slaughter
Prim housewife does not like the fact that her husband says she is leaving her (has she not always taken care of his every whim and fancy?!). She kills him with the leg of lamb and then quietly waits for events to run their course. The policemen that come to investigate try not to let the trail go too cold.

Man from the South
A gentleman makes a bet with a young lad. The lad stands to gain a car and lose a finger - easy choice some would say. Before things get out of hand (sorry could not resist) the game comes to an end.

The Soldier
A man slowly loses his senses. The world becomes a strange place to him as everything around him seems to change faster than he can keep track of. Even his wife is not what she seems any more.

My Lady Love, My Dove
A long suffering husband with an overbearing wife and a game of cards. The possibilities are endless and the fun lasts till long into the night. A couple invite some friends over for a game of cards even though they do not like them much. Turns out they have every reason not to.

Dip in the Pool
A gentleman tries to tip the odds on the ship's pool in his favour. There is a bet on how many miles the ship will travel over a certain time frame and the man is determined to win. He takes a giant leap of faith.

Galloping Foxley
A man set in his ways, used to order and discipline finds his routine disturbed by and unexpected fellow commuter. He thinks he knows exactly what this guy is like but is proven wrong.

Skin
A young artist paints but does not sell to many. His older friend does a lot better at tattoo work. They combine their talents and create a very special work of art. Years later the young painter's work is much more "appreciated" and to the enjoyment of many (but not the old friend) the special work of art is brought to the market.

Poison
A snake seems to have taken refuge in a man's bed but for all their efforts no one can find it. The doctor advises going on holiday to de-stress the mind.
I have to say this I did not quite get this one. I went back at the end of it thinking I had missed some important clue?

The Wish
A young boy's imagination makes everyday things the adventure of a life time. A brilliant example of how Dahl gets into the mindset of a young boy and creates a wonderful world of make believe.

Neck
Rich man marries silly woman. A newspaper man is invited to come and stay with them for a weekend and is witness to a very interesting event. The woman gets her head stuck inside a statue (I believe it is a Henry Moore) and there is some debate between the butler and the gentleman on what the best tool is to release her from her predicament. The way the rich man is described and the way he acts are absolutely delicious!

The Sound Machine
A man invents a machine that can do a Dr Doolittle on anything. Not sure why you would want to, but he seems to be happy enough with it.

Nunc Dimittis
A cruel joke is played on an innocent woman. Our gentleman in this story is a bit of a pompous idiot who is not very good at reading the true character of people. He finds out that a painter has a very special way of treating his subjects and gets a work commissioned for a lady friend in order to get back at her. However, the stunt backfires and he is the one left on his own.... feeling ever so slightly queasy... actually, he's not really feeling that well at all.

The Great Automatic Grammatizator
it has finally happened.... someone had invented a machine that can replace all human involvement in writing a story. Well, almost all human involvement. Honestly, all you have to do is set a few parameters and the machine will do the rest. But is all what it seems?

The last couple of stories are in a separate section called Claude's Dog. They have a set of characters that recur in each of the stories and so create a little world of their own.
The Ratcatcher - a man who has a very particular way of catching rats.
Rummins - the missing are found in unexpected places.
Mr Hoddy - first tip of the day: when going courting, keep your fancy ideas to yourself!
Mr Feasey - second tip of the day: if you have a plan, get on with it and do not hedge your bets.


I always love reading Dahl. His stories are always unexpected and have twists that you do not see coming. I like the way he surprises his readers. He creates situations that are completely normal and then at the last minute on little thing puts all of it on its head and you are left with this weird but wonderful story.


The copy I have was apparently a Christmas gift for Paul back in 1988. I hope Paul enjoyed it as much as I did before it went to the charity shop where I picked it up earlier this year, 2010.


Title: Someone Like You
Author: Roald Dahl
270 pages
Penguin Books
ISBN nr 0-14-003074-3


Books to be read: 69
Books bought: 0
Library books read: 1 out of 4

Split Loyalties

At the moment I am still reading my way through some short stories by Roald Dahl but my next project is waiting in the wings already and it might mean I have to divide and conquer.
In order to start up my new little project I did something quite extraordinary this weekend. I (re)joined the Library! Being a book buyer myself I always struggle with the concept of having to give books back once they have been in my possession so it will be interesting to see how I get on with returning books after three weeks. I had joined the library years ago but moved a few times, started buying books, found it a hassle to remember to renew library books and forgot about having a library card. Add to that, that the library where I lived at the time did not seem to have too many books published after 1980 (and no books about ghosts) and you can see why me and libraries did not get on. I thought that they would have removed me from their systems as I had not used my library privileges for years but it turned out I was still registered (one big Hurrah for bureaucracy). So.... my account was reactivated, I got a new library card and decided to put it to good use immediately by taking out some books. For years now now I have been meaning to find out more about the history of the place I live but until now I have never found the time. Most of where I live is "new" and "modern" but some of the estates have some history to them and there are even some Roman ruins in one of the parks. Milton Keynes was created when several small, separate villages were combined into one big town but not everything is boom town territory here. We do have some older estates and it is these I am interested in. I managed to find some books about the history Stony Stratford, Wolverton and Newport Pagnell and will be immersing myself in it over the next few weeks. I am not sure how this is going to affect my reading of my normal stock of books or much "other" reading I am going to be able to do but we'll see how it goes. Onwards to new discoveries!

Books borrowed from library: 4

Eeeww and oh my

Without further ado....


#### SPOILER ALERT ####


Nocturnes - John Connolly
The first time I met this author was when I read The book of Lost Things. It was kind of a weird, slightly scary book about a boy who get lost in this alternate reality. It showed great imagination although I found it a bit slow going to start with. The stories in Nocturnes are similarly weird, strange and spooky but flowed more and get to the point quicker. I guess that is due mainly to the fact that they are mostly short stories and as a writer you have to get to the point and the main action quickly before you run out of pages to round of the story neatly. Connolly has no issues doing that here. By the way the "recommendation" from the Radio Times on the back of my edition is slightly misleading. It says "Twists the classic ghost story in a modern macabre way" - well... I did not really find a lot of ghosts in the tales but what it lack in ghouls it makes for in macabreness... in spades! Don't buy it if you want to read about ghosts but if you have a brain that likes weird stuff you'll love it.

There are two stories in this volume that are classed as novellas and I will start with these.
The Cancer Cowboy Rides
Blood and guts galore! The beginning of the story is: a man wakes up in the desert and does not know who he is or where... could be the start of a joke... a very dark and bad joke in this case. He decides to call himself Buddy Carson.. it will become clear why soon enough. I guess the story can be described in a few words. Man has an urge that drives him on to do bad things to good people. People die and he gets a temporary reprieve. But as usual with these things it just wants more and more and before you know it entire populations are at risk. Buddy has this thing inside him that needs to be fed and he has found the perfect little place to do this. Whoever he touches gets infected and had better start thinking of investing in a cemetery plot. At first the story seems a bit bitty and disjointed - people die in one place from unknown causes, we meet Buddy "settled" in a new place with new people. However, soon the dots are connected and Buddy's Master Plan is revealed. As usual there is the Defender of Men who arrives at the scene when it matters and manages to stop mayhem in it's tracks, but a quite few people and some chickens die before this is accomplished. This thing inside Buddy is an eerie presence in the story and what it stands for is even eerier.. the sheer insatiability of the thing and its lust for destruction give the story a very dark edge... and the fat lady has not sung either!

The Reflecting Eye
A deserted house that used to be owned by a child murderer is the scene of this mystery. A private detective is hired to find a child in a photograph and he is not sure what might happen to her, if anything. The man who hires him has lost his daughter several years ago - she was taken and killed and he thinks that something bad will happen to the girl in the picture it was left in the post box at the house). He bought the house where his daughter was killed; maybe to keep a connection to her as it was the last place she was alive. It carries with it many bad memories and the ghost of a crazed killer who took the life of his little girl. The killer is dead, he took his own life inside the house but it seems that some ghosts are more difficult to lay than others. I can honestly say I had no idea who the bad guy was going to be in this one. We meet a few candidates but you kind of dismiss them because they are handed to you.
Then there is the thing about the mirrors. You get the idea that the mirrors are important but not sure how. In the end it is the detective's heavily pregnant "lover" who gives us a hint about what might be going on. It turns out that the mirrors show a perceived reality to the one looking in. It shows things as they should be, not as they are. In the mirrors the house looks beautifully decorated and homely but the reality is very different. The mirrors have managed to bewitch someone once more and they are after the girl in the picture. They get her but fortunately for her our hero is at hand to make sure things and well.....well for some of the characters in the story at least.
I liked the pace of the story and the humour in the dialogue. The characters have bee through a lot in each of their lives and that seems to load them up with a certain kind of heaviness or perhaps even darkness yet the dialogue between most of the sparkles.
What annoyed me a little bit is that our private detective who tells us the story keeps commenting on things that have not yet come to pass, usually bad things. He seems to be looking back on what happened to him in the past and how his life now has changed because of it. You get little hints of things to come but they are not in the scope of the story at hand so they are not expanded upon.. well... if they are obviously not of any influence over the present story why are you telling me about them? Hoping I'll buy the next book too?

The rest of the stories in this one are shorter ones and all of them are really good. They have the right mix of "could be true"-ism and "you've got to be kidding me"-ism in them and they often left me needing to put the book down for a few minutes between stories to let my mind relax a bit before starting the next one. This is what Connolly seems to be good at. There is truth in the characters of the stories, the things that happen can be explained in a normal way but then he takes it one step beyond that whilst still making you believe that what he suggest could be true and you go with him on that journey.. that's clever!
The stories have a great pace and they all have great humour, cynicism and fun in them. They are also quite dark and eerie. They do not really go into full horror but they do nibble on the toes of it at times.

Some words of advice from Mr Connolly to the reader:

• Don't go digging at church foundations - something might dig back.
• Don't leave your windows open at night - those few leaves on your window sill could be hiding god knows what.
• Keep your real children close -you don't want them getting lost.
• Do not trust bullies - if they are nice to you without a reason they must want something.... it could be more than you are willing to part with.
• What goes around comes around - evil works the night shift too.
• Don't mess with women - especially not if they come in threes.
• Don't let a monkey suck your thumb - monkey see, monkey do
• Sand is not just for building sand castles - it moves in mysterous ways.
• Never let a clown lick your face..... 'nuff said
• Never dive in anything you cannot see the bottom of - however tempting the offer.
• Never trust a friendly Vampire - leopards and spots!
• If it's hard to get to maybe there's a reason for it - some things are better left undiscovered.
• There are other instruments to play than just the piano - never heard a bad thing about playing a recorder.
• Don't leave your wife alone with a folly she does not like - unless you have a cement truck ready.
• Not all women are affected in the same way by the moon cycle - some of us go only slightly mad.
• Never make a promise you cannot keep, provoke an enemy you cannot see and make sure you travel with the latest version of the hotel guide.

One more thing that I have to mention is that Mr Connolly obviously knows his classics. In one of the stories he has a character that is called Lovecraft. That's not a name that you just conjure up out of thin air. Especially not writing the style and genre of stories that he does here. Some of the other names he uses sound familiar too but I have not investigated them further.


Title: Nocturnes
Author: John Connolly
486 pages
Hodder Headline
ISBN nr 978-0-340-93399-2

Books to be read: 70
Books bought: 0

On the go

After having several days without a bicycle I am now once again racing down the redways of Milton Keynes. One of my old work colleagues had a bike in his garage that had been left there by someone and he asked if I wanted it..... well YEAH! So since Monday I have been cycling to work again and enjoying every minute of it. Even if the weather has been a bit pants... it has been cold and it has rained on just about every day (except for yesterday but then it was quite cold) I have loved being outdoors and being able to make my own way home when I want to go home.
I have actually finished another book but I have not yet decided how to write up the review. There are quite a lot of short stories in it so I might just do the highlights.. but then again most of them were really good. Then perhaps a more general approach is better but then you lose the details of what was good about the individual stories. In short.. I am still mulling it over. Should be done milling in a few days.

Having finished this one now also means that the book count is dangerously close to hitting below 70!!!! Also I can reveal that I have not bought a book in at least 10 weeks!! Maybe I should cancel that trial membership to Book Buyers Anonymous?

Just in time for Halloween

First of all, I have some sad news to report. My bicycle got stolen yesterday!!!! I left it tied up to a bike rack at the train station in Milton Keynes at 7.00am and when I got back from a lovely day out in Liverpool much, much later that day (21.00pm) it was gone. So now I have to go and figure out where I am going to get a new bike and how much money I have to spend on it. I did just get some money back from the electricity company as they had overcharged me but I was kind of looking to spend that on something else than a new bike.

Anyway..... I did manage to finish a book as well. I wanted to get this one finished by Halloween and I just finished the last story a few minutes ago. So, hot from the presses....


##### SPOILER ALERT #####


The Virago Book of Victorian Ghost Stories - Richard Dalby (Ed.)
For this one I returned to one of my most favourite genres: the Ghost story.
This one has got a couple of real corkers in it but also some that did not really leave much of an impression at all. When I started reading the book I found that it contained a couple of tales that I had read recently so I kind of skipped through them. Fortunately there were only a few of them and it was definitely worth reading the rest of the book. Interesting to note that all the authors in this one are women, stories date from 1837-1900.

Here's the ones I liked best:
Margaret Oliphant - The Open Door
My favourite one in this selection of stories.
The story deals with a family that move into a house and for a change it is not the house itself that is haunted but a place outside the house. A little boy is the one who discovers the haunting and suffers by doing so. He becomes ill and dad is left to try and sort out the ghost. He gets several people involved (both believers and non-believers in ghosts) and they all testify to the same story there is a presence and a pleading voice. It is not until a local clergyman gets involved that we get to the bottom of the story and the whole ting is rounded up neatly.
What I liked about it was the set up the story and how it develops. The scene is set, the characters are established and you develop a bond with them before "it all kicks off". The haunting itself is a sad story of a son being scorned by his mother and pleading with her. Although the undertone is at times a bit religious (the ghost is set free once he gives himself over to God) the story is told with a great humanity and feeling that works and makes you care for the ghost and those trying to guide him back home.


Willa Cather - The Affair at Grover Station
My second favourite one!
A man's friend is killed by a jealous rival in love is the basic premise for this story. It is presented as a story being told by someone who has kept the truth of what happened to his friend to himself as the truth is so strange it would never be believed. I can tell you that about 99% of the story I would readily have readily believed but it is the final 1% that makes it ghostly.
There's a man wooing a woman and a second guy who thinks he has the right to claim her affections too. Then we have a party and one of them never turns up. Naturally the other is blamed for the disappearance but the way the thing plays out is great and a bit weird. Looking for his friend the main character goes out to investigate at his friend's place of work. Whilst spending the night there his friend appears to him and writes own a message on a blackboard. This then leads them to find the body that has been dead or a little while but has chalk on the fingers. Again the story takes it time in developing, we get to know the people and the world they live in a little, and then the weir stuff comes along. The setting of the atmosphere is really good in this one; the tension between the two love rivals is well written and their characterisation sets them up to fulfil their roles in the story.

Mary Cholmondeley - Let Loose
My third favourite one of the lot.
A story being told by some one's travel companion. It tells of how this gentleman heard about some frescoes in a little church. Him and his dog go down to a village to find them. (Naturally) the frescoes are in a crypt and he has to get the keys for it. He is refused at first but persuades the local cleric to allow him access in the end. He gets some precise instructions about opening and closing the two access doors to the crypt and is told to follow them to the letter. All seems well until someone dies. He is then denied again but pleads his way back in - he hears some noises, notices a hole in one of the coffins but thinks nothing much of it. Although by now the place actually creeps him out and he does what he has to and gets out. The really weird bit happens once he is back in hotel room - the dog goes mad, something comes for him and he passes out. A nice level of creepiness and you spend a lot of time thinking what could possibly be wrong in the crypt and when the weirdness is going to start but trust me, it does in the end. You'll sleep with the windows closed after reading this one.


And here's a brief summary of the rest of them:
Charlotte Bronte - Napoleon and the Spectre
weird little of Nappie going to sleep and ending up sleepwalking into some one's private drawing room. Not enough to it to make it interesting or scary. Not sure she would have had much of a career writing just ghost stories.

Elizabeth Gaskell - The Old Nurse's Story
read this one not too long ago. I thought it was okay but not spectacular then and it did not improve on second reading. The tale of a Nurse maid who tells the family history of a child in her care. Reclusive aunt, organ music at night, visions of family tragedy, the end

Dinah M Mulock - The Last House on C-- Street
The story is being told to an impatient listener who keeps trying to fill in the blank and making assumptions - it's a bit annoying. A girl and her first suitor do a bit of courting. Mum goes back to the house in the country, dad and girl stay behind for a few days and guess what... tapping sounds and vivid dreams aplenty and bad news follows. An okay tale but nothing to scary and a bit predictable.

Mary E Braddon - The Cold Embrace
A couple promise to be there for each other even after death... in a ghost story that is asking or trouble. She dies, he tries to get away and keep busy and always surrounded by people but she gets him in the end.

Rosa Mulholand - Not to be taken at Bed-time
Brute of a man falls in love, spurned by the daughter of the man who is his sworn enemy. He gets her in the end. Tries very hard to be very dark.

Amelia B Edwards - The story of Salome
There's a mysterious woman who becomes the obsession of a man and then of his friend. Some stuff about an island and a grave and her restless spirit.
This one would probably have been better if all the padding was taken out of it and the characters had been more defined.

Rhoda Broughton - The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth
The story is presented in the form of a correspondence between two women which is a nice touch. Woman 1 - the house is great, where did you find it, I cannot believe my luck. Woman 2 - I'm stuck out here with my sick son and wish I could be there with you. Woman 1 - we've left the house, the maid got spooked, weird stuff happened, people died. CU soon.

Mrs Henry Wood - Reality or Delusion
2 Women fight for their man but he turns out not to be a good apple but a bad one. The envy between the two women is well written and it is a nice enough tale it just does not pack much of a punch in the end.

Vernon Lee - Winthrop's Adventure
The music is doing the haunting is this tale. A man hears a tune he has not head in years and tells the story of how he came to know it. The story drags on a bit for me and I lost interest with it at some point. It makes one too many side steps and meanders off the main idea for my liking. The whole thing seems to lose focus from what the haunting is really about. There is too much fluff and not enough real body to the tale.

Charlotte Riddell - The Old House in Vauxhall Walk
A man down on his luck gets to stay in a friend's house for a few days. The house is haunted by the ghost of a miser and he re-discovers the lost fortune. Then goes back to dad and says he is a changed man.

Lanoe Falconer - Cecilia de Noel
This is more a story about religion and compassion than anything else. Various people see a ghost and tell their tale and what it means to them. It preaches too much the values of religion, or at least some kind of belief and the ghost is not really that important in the end... because guess what.. if you show it true compassion is disappears.

Louisa Baldwin - Many waters cannot quench Love
Man goes to stay in the countryside. Surly housekeeper warms to him. The family that left the house had a daughter who loved a local lad. Time passes and he has a vision of the daughter who perished on the seas, and then the lad turns up dead as well. Of course it was determined that they died about the same time... well, it would be.

Violet Hunt - The Prayer
A loving couple - he dies, she begs him not to leave her, maddened by grief and then he mysteriously comes back to life. However, he is not the same man she knew once. It seems the characters in this one are all just a tad too much. The family doctor is too much of a nice, understanding, basing his principles on science kind of guy. The wife is a bit too doting and a bit too lethargic and dramatic. The husband is a bit too remote and cool and creepy. I don't like any of them too much.
The end is nice though and does lift the story a bit - it's not too dramatic and overemphasised, you can draw whichever conclusion you want from it.

Ella D'Arcy - The Villa Lucienne
I did not really like this one. It's too flimsy and has no real scare. Only some posh people exploring a house and a whining kid. It tries to be scary and the author tries to set a moody atmosphere but fails to do so effectively.

Gertrude Atherton - The Striding Place
A man's friend disappears. He looks for him, finds a body without a face... ah well.
No good character setting and yet the story is based on a real place where real people died. You'd think the author could have come up with something better than she did.

Mary E Wilkins - The Vacant Lot
In any ghost story if it comes cheap, there's a reason for it! Here it is the vacant lot next door that is haunted. The visions the family see seem unconnected (someone hanging up laundry, the shape of a previous house, a group of men dressed in black) and dad is awfully keen not to lose his money by selling the house so soon, more than he is concerned for his family's welfare. Oh and in the last sentence we learn that someone was killed in his ancestor's hostelry and that that guy's family owned the vacant lot. So if you suggest the family link, why did other people unconnected to either family have issues living there then?

Isabella Banks - Haunted
A poem about haunting.
Nice but a strange addition to a collection of stories.


Title: The Virago Book of Victorian Ghost Stories
Author: Richard Dalby (Ed.), various authors
342 pages
Virago Press Ltd
ISBN n 0-86068-809-7


Books to be read 71

Brrrrrrrrrrr

All of a sudden it has gotten really cold. I still have to find my gloves somewhere. I think I know where they are but before the temperature drops any more I better go and check.
At least I am reading an appropriate book for the time of the year: a ghost story one. With the cold, the nights drawing in and of course Halloween coming up it's the perfect reading material.
To comfort myself tonight I will not only be turning the heating on but also making a fish pie - lost of fish and lots of cream for the sauce. Perfectly legitimate use of cream as I need the energy to stay warm when I cycle to work.

Good Charlotte

After basking in my genius-ness for a few days I have now safely landed planet earth again and managed to finish another book. This one not a detective or even ghost story one but more general fiction. Unfortunately having read this one I now may just have to go and increase the book count and find a few more... all will be revealed at the end of the review.

#### SPOILER ALERT ####


Charlotte Gray - Sebastian Faulks
In a way this one was a slow starter. I could tell from the start that Faulks was going to take his time in telling me who these people were that I was going to be reading about. I was also going to find out quite a bit about what made them tick before they were sent on their merry way to do what they had to. I liked that part of it. There was no rush to get the story going and you get now the characters, have an idea of who they are and what their outlook is on life. This approach shows the clear difference with someone like Dean Koontz - not only are they different genres (nothing spooky or supernatural in Charlotte Gray) but the approach to their characters is different as well. It's almost as if Koontz paint with broad brush strokes whereas Faulks fills in the details of his characters to almost photographic quality. I like Koontz' easily recognisable characters but you can tell that these characters are more developed, fleshed out, stronger, and therefore make a more lasting impression.
In essence the book is the story of a young woman, Charlotte who is recruited by some semi-shady government agency to become an agent in France. Just before she goes over she meets Peter Gregory who seems to have the luck of the Irish and some other nations to boot. He is one of the few pilots out of his initial band of friends that is still alive and he almost seems to go out of his way to find danger and see how far he can push his luck. Charlotte and Gregory become involved although they both seem unsure of why and how, or even if it is a good idea. He sees something in her fierce strong eyes that he fears and yet admires. She senses his feelings of discontent with his lot and his need to keep tempting fate. Peter is soon to go on a mission to France and Charlotte is training to become and agent for G-section (some kind of MI5 during war time).
Charlotte's first assignment is carried out whilst the Second World War is raging on the continent and France is having some issues deciding which side of the fence to fall down on so, to pass he time and keep their close neighbours/enemies sweet, have signed away half their country to the Nazi German invaders. Charlotte is recruited because she speaks French very well. She also seems to have some patriotic desire to do what is right for her country and a curiosity to see what is let of the France that she knew when she stayed that many years ago. She is supposed to go over and act as a chaperon to an English pilot. As soon as he gets to where he needs to be she is to return to England. She gets dropped in France in the Summer of 1942 and does not go back to England until the Winter of 1943.
Charlotte decides to stay behind because she thinks that she can be of help to the people in the village that she has settled. I guess she feels that she can do more where she is than by going back. Another factor is that Peter goes missing and she wants to see if she can find him. In a way it seems she does not make too much of an effort to do so. At one point she goes to where she thinks he was supposed to land and asks his contact if he has heard from him -the contact does not confirm this and Charlotte returns back to her little village.
To me it seems more the fact that Charlotte is being drawn into the lives of the people she meets that makes her stay than any sense of loyalty to the agency that sent her or even Peter. She soaks up the life she has created for herself and enjoys being on her own in a strange place. She has not contact with anyone from England (only once or twice does she get in touch with them via the wireless and even then via others). She seems perfectly willing to immerse herself in French Village life. There is not really that much resistance work to do for her where she is. I get the feeling that in this isolation it is more herself that she is working on and with. It seems that the isolation gives her the time to look at her own life. It makes her reflect what has happened in hers, how it has shaped her, affected her and those she loves. Everyone she meets and every place she goes shapes her and changes her outlook on life. She gets involved fully in the lives of many of the people in the village. She becomes a maid for the town eccentric, becomes friends with two Jewish boys and helps the local resistance group on a weapons drop.
On the sidelines is the story of Peter Gregory trying to make his way out of France. He really only pops up a few times. We get a status update on how he is, that he has realised he really loves Charlotte and how eager he is to get back to her. As far as he is concerned she finished her mission ages ago and is back in England waiting for him or maybe even on her next mission, or has perhaps even forgotten him already.
There is a happy ending of sorts to the book but there is a fair amount of tragedy as well. There are some that do not make it to the end of the book. There are vivid descriptions of the rounding up of Jewish people -old, young, women and children into camps and the uncertainty that they faced there. None of them really knew, or if the suspected they certainly did not want to believe the stories that came back from Poland. the fact that some if this is told through the eyes of the two young Jewish boys makes it so much more potent and emotional. Their complete innocence contracted with the ruthless efficiency of the German extermination machinery is beautifully moving to read... hard to read as well as you almost know as soon as they get taken that things will not end well.
Another thing that becomes clear is the effect of French apathy to the situation they manoeuvred themselves into. The majority seems to be perfectly happy to just play along and not make too many waves. Charlotte and others are convinced that surely people would spring into action and not agree to their country effectively being run by the Germans but there seems no urgency in the French bureaucracy until we get closer to the end of the book and the War.
There is a sense of some dark secret between her an her father but you never really get to the bottom of it when she is still in France. This issue does not get resolved until she gets back. It is like she is then finally able to understand her father and his experiences better and to see what happened between them in a new light. It's like her experiences in France mean that she is now grown up and mature enough to understand and appreciate some of what her father had to endure during the First World War.

In conclusion, it is a great book about the trials and lives of people in a country in a state of war and how it tries to come to terms with the situation it finds itself in. The characters are very well developed, very "alive" and very recognisable. Their emotional life is rich, the fabric of the book is rich in people's experiences and the events that unfold. I think it probably gives you a very good idea of what makes people join the resistance and fight for a cause they believe in.

NB: Apparently this one is the last book in the "French Trilogy" - it includes Birdsong and The Girl at the Lion d'Or and I will most definitely be hunting around for these two!!!


Title: Charlotte Gray
Author: Sebastian Faulks
496 pages
Vintage
ISBN nr 0 09 939431 6


Books to be read: 72

Genius

I just wanted to say that I am a genius!

I have just single candidly connected up my new wireless router and did not even go wrong once in the process. Trust me... for me that is quite an achievement. I usally get my slightly geeky mate to help with these kinds of things but decided that this time I was going to stand on my own two feet and sort it out myself.
Whereas before I was "chained" to the length of my cables, I am now a free spirit and can roam the house and go online wherever I please/choose... well.. until the battery on my laptop runs out at least.

Recovery

This weekend was a good one - I went to a Ruby Wedding Anniversary party. It was great to spend some time with one of my best friend, her parents and a lot of their family. It's always nice when you meet new people who have led interesting lives. So. I'm back home now and am spending the rest of this afternoon on the sofa with my book. It's not a detective story or a ghost one this time. I am feeling a bit tired so let's see if I can stay awake for the duration of at least on chapter.

Super Sleuths

After a little reading binge over the last few days I managed to finish another one. It's one filled with detective stories. Detectives are one of my favourite genres. I like being led by the hand (or up the garden path) by the author and taken through the circumstances of the case at hand, discovering things as you read on and then try to make sense of the clues. Often I fail in this attempt but it in no way takes the fun away from reading the book.
I like finding out about the different detectives as well. All of them have their own style in investigating a case. Each of them has a personality they take into a case and shows in the way they investigate a case. Most of them have their own set of issues to overcome; Rebus is insubordinate to his bosses and drinks, Scarpetta is constantly trying to figure out her relationship with Benton, Holmes is a loner and a genius yet keeps Watson around for company and never finds happiness in a relationship with any woman. All detectives live in their own worlds and have their own sets of characters around them. In a way the idea of writing a detective novel seems very formulaic - something has happened and someone has to go and find out the who-when-where-why-what, yet each is in its own way unique and worth the read.


#### SPOILER ALERT ####


The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes - Edited by Hugh Greene
First of, when I read the little intro on the author/editor I discovered that the editor of this book is actually the brother of Graham Greene - the guy who wrote the last book I read! The world is a small place at times.

The title of this one intrigued me when I bought it and I wondered if there really were any rivals of Sherlock Holmes out there as the title suggests. From the stories in this one it seems that Conan Doyle has some competition but for me he is still one of the best out there and some authors in this volume need to sit up and take notes. There are 13 stories in this book, some of them by the same author and I will go through them one by one.

The Ripening Rubies - Max Pemberton
In this tale we have someone at a party who is taken aside by the organiser of the party and is told that she is missing some jewels, as are many of her friends. The guy then observes a lady hiding some jewels in her clothes and from that deduces who he should go after.
I did not like this one very much. I never really got a good idea of who the guy was doing the"investigating". He seems to have a profession apart from investigating this jewel crime. He has some friends in the police force and they come to his rescue in the final confrontation but the whole things seems a bit flat to me. I did not get involved with the characters as they are not very developed or interesting.

The Case of Laker, Absconded - Arthur Morrison
A young lad working for a bank disappear and seems to have absconded with a lot of cash. The detective advisor Hewitt is called in to have a look at the circumstances in the case and does a bit of legwork, apparently there is something really important about a umbrella. He finds a bit of an advert from a newspaper and after that is seems to be all plain sailing.
There is a slight distraction when we find out that both the fiancee and mother of the lad Laker seem to be following the police and Hewitt around but they are up to no harm and just want to keep themselves up to date on what is going on in the investigation. In the end it seems that Laker was tricked into going in a building that had been set up as a decoy by the bad guys and they then separated him from his money. Laker had been held captive for several days but they had let a few clues that were enough to get Hewitt hot on their trail.

The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds - Guy Boothby
This one was a new one on me. A "detective" who is more out for himself than out to help his fellow man and/or solve a crime. Simon Carne/Klimo has a nice little set up going. As Simon he is a well know socialite and gets invited to parties and hang out with the rich and famous, nicking their jewelry. As Klimo he is the detective that finds the jewelry that he has nicked off them as Simon Carne. What a nice set up that is.
There is a rich lady that has some jewels that Carne would like and he devises a way to do so. there is a slightly interesting bit where he goes through a whole process of making a jewelry box with a mechanism that drops down the sides of the box and makes it look as if the jewels are gone when they are not but for me it cannot really save the story.
First of Carne/Klimo is not really a detective and he certainly not a rival of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes was never a criminal, he could have been with his brain but he decided to stay on the right side of the law and help people recover what they had lost. Holmes was never out for personal gain just personal satisfaction.

The Affair of the "Avalanche Bicycle and Tyre Co., Ltd" - Arthur Morrison
A story about bicycles which were at one time apparently a big booming business. One company gets Dorrington & Hicks to investigate some vague issue about a patent but the main story is more about how Dorrington then tries to get rich off the booming bicycle business. And we find out that he is not afraid to blackmail and injure people in the process. Dorrington is not really a detective, he does not go around staking out houses and/or tracing clues. he rides the waves of events and uses opportunism to get himself some more money than he was initially to be paid. He almost gets him comeuppance in the end, and I was almost grateful that he did. But he manges to get clear of the law and end up with a nice sum of money in the bank and not a blemish on his reputation. To me he is more of a rogue than a detective to be respected.
The story is too long winded and the characters are not well developed or that interesting. I found myself more amazed that the editor would think this another rival for Conan Doyle's Holmes than actually interested in the story or characters.

The Assyrian Rejuvenator - Clifford Ashdown
Then we have mr Romney Pringle. He just happens to be sitting in a restaurant and picks up a letter someone else drops. it is about a tonic that did not do what it was supposed to do. Pringle ends up getting himself access to the sellers offices and starts sending out orders himself and pocketing the money for it. Hardly any investigation has been done and nowhere do I really get the idea that he is supposed to be an investigator. To me Pringle is an opportunist who sees a way to make some money and is just good at tricking people. I cannot say that I like him or the story that much.

Madame Sara - LT Meade and Robert Eustace
Now we get Dixon Bruce. He meets an old friend who has recently married and his pretty wife and her sister are due a big inheritance if they can only find a long lost brother. Bruce gets involved in the search but to no avail at first. They do run into a mysterious lady who is a beautifier and becomes friend of them all. But..... all is not well. All of a sudden the sister dies and there are fears that the wife of Bruce's friend might be next. The strange thing about this one is that it is not really Bruce doing much of the investigating. It seems to be more the police surgeon Dr Vandeleur who figures out what is going on and who is after who, yet he remains mainly out of the story and on the sideline of events. It's kind of strange as he does seem to know what he is doing and able to get the bad guys but he is hardly involved in the tale. Shame really.

The Submarine Boat - Clifford Ashdown
Here we find mr Pringle again. This time he overhears a conversation about someone potentially selling some submarine plans to "the enemy". He then seems to want to foil this plan but not without trying to get some money out of it himself. The bad guys do turn the tables on him for a while by seeing through his disguises and following him wherever he goes, making it difficult for him to set his own plans in action. Pringle does not end up with the plans, but he does end up with the money and he seems to be perfectly happy with that.
Again, do not care for Pringle, do not get his morals , do not see him as a detective, did not really like the story that much and the set up of it is too similar to the other one in this edition.

The Secret of the Fox Hunter - William Le Queux
Lost of carry on in the diplomatic world, spies galore and some story about a document that is lost and will threaten the peace between two great nations. A lady dies on a hunting trip and no-one really knows why. We don't find out until the end how she was connected to the story and what her role was. Even though it is a bit of a long spun one, in essence the characters are okay and the story is entertaining enough with a little twist at the end. Although it a bit convenient that at the end of the story Le Queux brings in a new character to fill in the gaps and who just happens to be related to one of the main players.

The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway - Baroness Orczy
A woman is told a story about a murder and when you get a little clue from the final moments before the unfortunate lady's death you instantly know who killed her. At least, I figured it out. The whole ting then goes on for another few pages until the people in story are caught up as well and the whole thing is rounded up and he truth is forced out of the unfortunate criminal.
It makes it less interesting to me if I can reason out who did it that early on... and then turn out not to be wrong. There are a fair few characters in the story but none of them really engage you as the story is told to someone and you do not feel that connected to it.

The Moabite Cipher - R Austin Freeman
Arrogant detective Thorndyke deciphers a document and lords it over the other characters involved in finding out what is going on.
Someone is killed and he is the one carrying a document written in code. Thorndyke is then lured out of his house by some story about a person being poisoned. They almost get sidelined but outwit the bad guys and get even. Turns out that the note was about some loot that was hidden somewhere. Not sure what the main event was supposed to be in this tale as there seem to be some distractions on the way to the resolution of the story. So, even though the crimes are solved I did not really get a kick out of it. Thorndyke is a bit too arrogant and the story has a bulk deal on one dimensional characters - arrogant, super clever detective, copper - left in the dark, assistant - left running after the facts, criminals - super dastardly.

The Woman in the Big Hat - Baroness Orczy
Lady Molly does the legwork in this one. She gets involved in the case of a Mr Culloden who is killed having a nice civilised cup of tea with a lady with a big hat. Again, you know who has done it when you get to the description of the murder and then it is just watching the author pull it together. There is a nice little decoy suspect set up but the truth comes out. Lady Molly is not really fleshed out as a character and I was a bit put off by the very.... very dedicated assistant... slightly creepy. It would not surprise me if the next story in the Lady Molly saga is about the assistant murdering someone who dared to contradict Lady Molly.
It's a shame that this second story makes it look like the Baroness' stories are all sort of the same concept. The idea is the same in both stories - a murder takes place, the killer walks away from the scene saying something that in the end betrays them and then someone narrates the story of what happened. I think Conan Doyle's reputation is safe for now.

The Horse of the Invisible - William Hope Hodgson
Carnacki tells a ghostly detective story. I have to say that I know this character already and I like him. Carnacki seems to want to make sense of the mysteries he investigates and tries to not let the supernatural run away with. Whatever he investigates he looks for "normal" physical explanations for strange goings on he encounters but is willing to consider the supernatural as well.
Here we have a curse placed on girls in a family - they are doomed not to make it to their wedding days, not are their intended partners. There is a group of people in a house getting together and trying to work out what is going on with these noise of a horse running around the grounds. Cue electric pentagrams, some sleepless nights, swooning and the obligatory final reveal scene. The mystery ends up being a case of jealous relatives and a possible real haunting. Nice little story and told in a good style by both Carnacki and Hodgson.

The Game Played in the Dark - Ernest Bramah
For a change a blind detective, mr Carrados takes the lead in this one.
A criminal tries to stay one step ahead of the police and there are some rare coins that go missing as well. Then a mysterious lady calls to see Carrados and he ends up leaving with her and lands himself in a bit of trouble. The way he gets out of the sticky situation that arises is the real gem of this story! Carrados shows that his blindness is certainly not a handicap to him and uses it against the bad guys very cleverly. The story has a good pace and the characters are nice and interesting (although we do have the able assistant and the one step behind the detective copper). Actually would not mind reading another one of these.


All in all I think I can say that Conan Doyle does not need to worry about too many of the authors in this volume of collected tales. Some of the detectives portrayed are not even detectives. I find it slightly off putting that some of these guys are just blatently out for personal gain or even downright criminals themselves. I do not understand how Greene sees them as rivals for the skills and finesse of Holmes or how he see the authors as serious competitors of Conan Doyle. Many of the detectives are not well developed, or well rounded, some I don't even like at all. itis true that Conan Doylehad the chance to build up a character by serialising the Holmes stories but I think that evenin his first outing Holmes was a much stronger and multi dimensional character than most of the detectives portrayed in the mojarity of stories here. However, it was nice to read the different stories and meet some different detectives but my money is on Holmes for being remembered by generations to come.


Title: The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Hugh Greene (ed.)
330 pages
Penguin Books
ISBN nr 0 14 00 3311 4

Books to be read: 73

Home Comforts

The nights are drawing in, the cold is setting in and this can only mean one thing.... more time to read!!! It seems that the less daylight there is, the more reading I get done. I guess that as long as it is light outside I think I could go out and do things, it's kind of worth doing something active if it is still light. However, as soon as the dark dominates the evening I tend to want to stay indoors, preferably snuggled up with my fleece blanket (affectionately know as Blankie) and a cup of something nice and hot or a glass of something nice and alcoholic. Actually, that's the one thing missing now... a nice warm drink, maybe a nice decaff coffee, maybe even with a nice little shot of Baileys in there? Oooooh yes, the heart is warming at the thought of just that. I'm off to get me a heartwarming drink and cracking on with the detectives.

And.... no books bought!!

Travel Happy

The book I have just finished at times made me feel like packing a bag and just buying a ticket to somewhere and then just travel round wherever I go and see where I go from day to day. to have an adventure and explore the world. Unfortunately I do have a job, laundry to do and plants to water so I decided to just stay put for now.
The fact that the book got finished as soon as it did is kind of short of miraculous as I was "distracted" by some normal and not so normal stuff: there was the mountain of laundry patiently waiting to be done, cooking a nice soup and a lovely casserole with chicken and red wine. The not so regular stuff was my back pain (not normal and not really planned), slight addiction to new Nintendo DS game (I'm a little Ninja fighting my way through foreign lands) and the gift buying frenzy to get my oldest niece a birthday present (now I just have to remember to send it).


#### SPOILER ALERT ####


Travels with my Aunt - Graham Greene
I know GG from my Uni days and I remembered that I liked what books I read of his. I just did not exactly remember why I did. This book has brought it all back to me. GG writes in a lovely, skipping sort of way. He seems to wander happily through his story and brings his characters to life really well. He has a great sense of humour and even though it seems like he is just telling you a little story, there is some deeper human feeling and emotion in what he writes. the main characters have something to learn, go through a learning experience themselves or make you think about what they are going through.
In this one we have the main character Henry Pulling. He is a retired bank manager - he's sort of boring and bland, as is his life, and he does not even know it. He meets his Aunt Augusta for the first time at his mother's funeral and his life is a roller coaster ride of travel and intrigue after that. He not only learns that his mother is not his mother, but his mother's ashes gets replaced by pot by one of his Aunt's friends (the ever popping up where you least expect him, Wordsworth), he meets some of his Aunt's friends through her stories (mr Dambreuse, Mr Visconti, Curran) and befriends a young girl (Tooley) on the Orient Express. He even gets into a slight bit of trouble with the police. Although Henry is so innocent he probably was never in any real danger of being arrested or anything. They are more after his Aunt and her friends and contacts. The only ones to suffer are his beloved dahlia's. Well, they are his beloved ones at the start of the book. When we get to the end of the book he does not seem to have any fascination for them. He is more intoxicated by the smell of oranges.
Aunt Augusta is a lovely character, She is a formidable lady with enough life experience for 3 people. She has lived ad worked all over the world. Although it is never quite clear what she has been up to you can be sure not all of it was completely legal. She tells Henry her life story as they travel around. First they go to Brighton - this is when we learn about one of her loves, Curran. He apparently found a niche market in setting up a church for dogs. We also find out some more about one of Henry's uncles, Jo. He seems to have had the idea that by living somewhere only for a little while would make life seems longer. So he got a big house a lived in each from for a week. However, being ill he never made it to room 52.
The next trip they take is on the Orient Express. Here we learn a bit more about Aunt A through her love affair with mr Dambreuse. This little rascal had two mistresses set up in the same hotel, independent from one another. Only thing was, one time they ended up having lunch together when mr Dambreuse wandered in accompanied by his wife. Neither mistress was really intending to end the affair but as Aunt A stays, the mystery had gone for mr D and that was the end of that. It's also on of the first times she mentions a Mr Visconti and you know from the way she talks about him (and by the fact that you find out little a bit at the time about him throughout the book) that he is/was important in her life and means/t a lot to her. It is also clear the mr Visconti did what he had to do to stay alive in WW2 and cheated each side equally out of what they thought was theirs. We also meet Tooley on the train. She is a young girl traveling around, having some issues with her boyfriend and possibly pregnant. She is neglected by both her father and mother equally and seems quite happy to just sit and talk to Henry. You have no real idea why she is there but all will be revealed later one. There is a bit of police trouble at the hotel and Henry learns the reason why his Aunt's candle weighed almost as much as a ton of bricks.
Once Henry is home things no longer seem the same. He is a bit restless and I think he almost feels lonely without his travel and his travel companion. As it happens, he realises, it is the anniversary of his father's death so Henry and his Aunt set off for Boulogne where his father died. They meet a woman who was with him as he died and learn that dad had some intent of making her heaps a bit more than an acquaintance. unfortunately for him he died before he could put that plan into action. Aunt A does not like the woman at all. Henry and his Aunt part ways in Boulogne. His Aunt goes on to Paris to sort out something or other and Henry goes back to his home... well his house. It no longer really suits him as a home. His horizons seems to have been broadened by the travel and the mundane existence of Southwood does not suit him any longer. He seems restless, has lost interest in his dahlias an even throws away the urn without his mother's ashes... she was not really his mother anyway. I think Henry himself sums it up quite nicely:
"..., I was left with the sad impressions that my aunt might be dead and the most interesting part of my life might be over. I had waited a long time for it to arrive, and it had not lasted very long."

Then, a long time goes by before Henry hears from his Aunt again. when he does she is in South America, Buenos Aires. She has let him know she plans not to return to Europa and to sort her affairs out and then come over himself. Henry meets a guy on board the boat, James O'Toole (Tooley for short) who turns out to be the father of the girl Henry met on the Orient Express. Apart from being her father Mr O'Toole also turns out to be in the CIA. O'Toole ha the strange habit of writing down how much he pisses and when... good thing that that's not a running theme in the novel! One familiar face that turns up again is Wordsworth. He is helping out Aunt A while she gets a house in order for when Mr Visconti arrives. You feel that the guy is going to stand her up and leave her to foot the bill for the place and break her heart but true to his word the illusive mr Visconti does finally make an appearance. Only just though, he has managed to use Aunt A's money to persuade a local police officer that he needs to be a free man. Everyone is suspicious of everyone there in South America and ll the players are out to get something for themselves. mr Visconti buys his freedom, Aunt A buys furniture, Wordsworth wants Aunt to love him again, O'Toole wants a Da Vinci drawing and Henry..... well he just wants to stay with is Aunt and forget all about Southwood. I think he is a bit intoxicated by what life could be like for him if he stays and he ends up being a bookkeeper for mr Visconti. I think Henry knows fully the business he is getting into and yet he does not seem to hesitate. He is happy to leave his old, boring, sedate life behind. He is ready for a new adventure.
The fact that Aunt A turns out to be Henry's mother is really no surprise. The way she tells him about her life and the way they get along implies some deeper connection between them then just Aunt and Nephew meeting for travel. It's a great ending to a great story. Henry is where he belongs and although at the beginning of the book you would have never pictured him there he is exactly where he needs to be, and where he belongs.


Title: Travels with my Aunt
Author: Graham Greene
265 pages
Vintage
ISBN nr 0-09-928258-5

Books read: 1
Books to be read: 74

Carry on on the Coast

The one good thing to come out of the cold I had is that I actually had some time to read! I spent most of the weekend relaxing on the sofa, drinking cups of tea and finishing off my book. I even started a new one.


#### SPOILER ALERT ####


Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths on the the Yorkshire Coast - Alan Whitworth
I picked this one up on my visit to the wonderful Whitby. I thought that since I was visiting a seaside town it would be appropriate to buy a book about what goes on on the coast. Basically the book gives you a chronological overview of what kind of things have been happening on the various Yorkshire coastal town. There's murder, pirates, smugglers, even respected citizens turn out not to be exactly what they seem. Some examples and tales that stood out for me:

The Martyr of Egton Bridge
This story tells the tale of Father Nicholas Postgate who was Catholic priest during a time when being a Catholic was a dangerous thing to be. Father Postgate often had to perform his church services with one eye on the door and one eye on the congregation. Some old families were still employing Catholic priests to see to their religious needs but Postgate chose a different path for himself. He moved to a small cottage in the middle of moorland. He lived among the poor and did his best to tend to all their needs. Father Postgate also tried to spread the Catholic faith in the North East and became a sort of travelling priest. Anything with a roof on it was used as a church and he had a sort of travel kit that he used to set up in these impromptu locations. In 1678 he is apprehended and had to stand trial a York Assizes. Four months later, at his trial, he was sentenced to death being found guilty of being a Catholic priest. Another four months later his sentence was carried out. He was hung, then his entrails were cut out while he was still alive, and then his body was cut up into four pieces (Hung, drawn and quartered). At this time Father Postgate was about 82 years old!

'Til death us do Part
The story of Reverend Sinclair who was killed by his own servant who was actually his adopted/foster son. It seems that at one time a young babe was washed up on the shore and taken in by the local vicar (the aforementioned Reverend) and his nieces. The young babe was called Adam Alvin and grew up to be a sullen young man. He also ended up bidding for the affections of one of the nieces (Mary) that were living with the vicar. The vicar objected to Adam's attentions to his niece and tried to dissuade them from their alliance but to no avail. Strangely enough the vicar turns up dead a little while later and Adam gets accused of his murder. He did everything to convince people that he was not involved and throw off suspicion. He even married Mary. However it was the other niece Catherine that confesses to what Adam had done and both him and his wife Mary get arrested. Interestingly enough, Adam gets the death penalty and his wife is acquitted.

The Hand of Glory
In the 1800's these seems to have been a strange superstition that when you cut the hand of a hanged felon off the body (bodies were then often left hanging in gibbets in the open air), pickle it with salts and dry it in the oven and use it as a candle holder that it would render people motionless or stop them from waking when you were burgling their house. There are several stories of the hand being used in burglaries by crooks. They had to get the hand into the house, light the candle on the hand and then recite a rhyme. Apparently the rhyme stopped people in the house from waking up and stopped those who did wake up from being able to rouse the others and call for help. You had to put out the candle before you would have any success at rousing other inhabitants of the house that was being robbed.

Doctor Death
This tale proves that sometimes you cannot always trust your doctor to do what is best for you. Dr Pritchard has a surgery in Hunmanby, a wife and four kids. Yet he finds time to flirt with most of his female patients, manages to upset the locals by riding by the church during the service, write a few books and poison a few people.
He does not stop at his poisoning his patients either but ends up killing both his wife and mother in law. the good doctor was hanged for this in 1865 and his was the last public execution in Scotland.

A Poor Little Fisher Lad
This little story tells us of a ship's captain who came to land one day and told a father that his son had been thrown overboard and was dead. However, one of the other sailors on board confesses to what really went on on board. It turns out that the captain abused the poor lad that died day in day out. The young lad was smacked on the head, slapped with a rope with a knot in it, nearly throttled to death time after time and in the end the boy's death must have been almost a relief for him.

The Marske Murder
If you feel like getting your Sherlock Holmes on then this one might be one for you.
Back in 1963 the body of a young woman was found. She had been left on the side of a road somewhere, strangled and died from asphyxiation. There was a suggestion that she had been murdered in one place and then let at the location where she was found. The police managed to trace most of her movements on the day that she died, and even though she had lots of friends and knew lots of people the police were never able to fill in all the blanks. She had been seen leaving a local hotel in the afternoon, seen shopping afterwards and must have gone back to her apartment afterwards as she was found in different clothes than she was seen in. Strangely enough the police encountered "a determined reluctance" when they asked people to help them with their inquiries. Even Scotland Yard got involved but were not able to uncover much more. They never did find out why people were reluctant to come forward and were, consequently never able to solve the case. The case has been left open and classified as unsolved. So, if you feel up to the challenge I'm sure the police will welcome all the help they can get.

The above are just a few of the stories in the book and it is filled with lovely (though sometimes macabre) tales of the goings on is some of the most familiar Northern coastal towns. Some of the stories are a bit lengthy and rattle on a bit. Others are really moving and human and involve the reader in the drama that unfolded in these people's lives. It is a lovely little read and I love learning a bit more about a completely different side of life in the Northern towns and cities from very early on until the recent past. Usually when you pick up a tourist guide for a city they will tell you the nice and glossy bits it's history and people. This book has managed to compile the "less lovely" side of some of the most touristic, well know places and it is possibly as much if not more fun to read as the city guides!

Unfortunately there are some spelling errors in the book but not that many and not too intrusive.
By the way, still no news from my letter to the publisher of the Haunted Taverns book.


Title: Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths on the Yorkshire Coast
Author: Alan Whitworth
185 pages
Wharncliffe Books
ISBN nr 1-903425-01-8

Books to be read: 75

I have now started and Graham Green one.
I've already decided that if we look at how authors write then Dean Koontz runs, Raymond Chandler slowly wanders and Graham Greene skips.