Category Archives: Historical Fiction

November 29, 2023 · 4:31 pm

The Black Moth – Georgette Heyer

The Black Moth – Georgette Heyer

My summer of Heyer has begun. My plan is to read the novels (just the romance ones) in publication order. First up – The Black Moth (first published in 1921).

Am I the only one who thinks it’s weird that there is a still from an Emma adaptation on the cover?

Anyway, this novel is set in the 1750s, so Georgian and not regency. It has many of the characteristics that would later define a Heyer novel; attention to detail, impeccable research, witty dialogue and strong independent heroines. However, she definitely improved with time. This one feels a bit flabby and I think it could do with some editing. Also, I am probably not a fan of Georgian fashion – all of those wigs! Although I do like an embroidered waistcoat and stockings with clocks!

Stocking with clocks (it’s the decorative bit on the ankle)

Image from Fashion History Time Line.

Here is the blurb…

Diana Beauleigh is caught between two men.

Seven long years ago, Jack Carstares, the Earl of Wyncham, sacrificed his honour for his brother and has been in exile ever since.

Returning to England, Jack pretends to be a gentleman named Sir Anthony Ferndale but makes his living in a most ungentlemanly fashion, as a highwayman and a gambler.

When Jack encounters his nemesis, the Duke of Andover, in the midst of kidnapping Diana Beauleigh, the two old enemies come to blows.

Can Jack save the beautiful Diana from rakes, kidnap and ruin.?

This was lots of fun, probably not my favourite Heyer novel, but I am glad I read it. Next up Powder and Patch. I am looking forward to reading These Old Shades where ‘the black moth’is redeemed (although I think he is re-named).

A review.

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November 14, 2023 · 3:25 pm

Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau – Sheena Wilkinson

Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau – Sheena Wilkinson

This was a birthday present.

Here is the blurb …

April McVey hasn’t a romantic bone in her body. So how has she found herself at the door of Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau, job application in hand? Matchmaker Martha hopes the lively Irish girl will breathe fresh air into a business struggling to keep with the times amid the tumult of 1930s Britain. So when lonely widower Fabian arrives at the bureau, the pair’s matchmaking skills – and professionalism – meet their first true test. Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau is a charming and witty romantic comedy about friendship, loneliness, and the unexpected places where we find fulfilment

This novel had a lovely 1930s feel to it. It reminded me of novels like Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day or something by Dorothy Whipple (or any of the Persephone authors). April is a modern woman not interested in marriage, Mrs Hart is a war widow who wants to find veterans and other lonely people a suitable partner. Enter some clients (some nice some decidedly not nice) and we have a fun story. There are some dark patches – a man assuming April is a prostitute and Jewish refugees arriving from Germany, but mostly it is a light-hearted romantic comedy. It also touches on women’s role in society – what is expected of them, but also what they might want for themselves.

A review.

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November 4, 2023 · 2:24 pm

The Bookbinder of Jericho – Pip Williams

The Bookbinder of Jericho – Pip Williams

I read The Dictionary of Lost Words, and I liked it (I was a bit disappointed with the final third), so I thought I would give this one a go. Besides, Pip Williams was the third author interviewed on the Bookshelf (along with Geraldine Brooks and Sally Colin-James) and I was keen to read all of the novels after listening to the interview.

Here’s the blurb …

A young British woman working in a book bindery gets a chance to pursue knowledge and love when World War I upends her life in this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick The Dictionary of Lost Words.

“Williams spins an immersive and compelling tale, sweeping us back to the Oxford she painted so expertly in The Dictionary of Lost Words.”—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who live on a narrow boat in Oxford and work in the bindery at the university press.

Ambitious, intelligent Peggy has been told for most of her life that her job is to bind the books, not read them—but as she folds and gathers pages, her mind wanders to the opposite side of Walton Street, where the female students of Oxford’s Somerville College have a whole library at their fingertips. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has: to spend her days folding the pages of books in the company of the other bindery girls. She is extraordinary but vulnerable, and Peggy feels compelled to watch over her.

Then refugees arrive from the war-torn cities of Belgium, sending ripples through the Oxford community and the sisters’ lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can educate herself and use her intellect, not just her hands. But as war and illness reshape her world, her love for a Belgian soldier—and the responsibility that comes with it—threaten to hold her back.

The Bookbinder is a story about knowledge—who creates it, who can access it, and what truths get lost in the process. Much as she did in the international bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams thoughtfully explores another rarely seen slice of history through women’s eyes.

I listened to the audible version of this (narrated by Annabelle Tudor), it was very good. I liked this novel more than The Dictionary of Lost Words. It’s about reading, and self-educating and wanting more, but it is also about family (biological and the ones we make for ourselves), and feminism, and war (being part of it, being on the fringes, surviving it and thriving afterwards). There are some fabulous characters; Gwen, Maud, Bastian, and the setting is beautifully rendered. I enjoyed hearing about the bookbinding process (I have done a little myself), and Peggy’s love of reading. You could say this was a book about reading and how it can set you free.

A review

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October 30, 2023 · 12:58 pm

Weyward – Emilia Hart

Weyward – Emilia Hart

I can’t remember where I first heard about this novel. I reserved the audible version from the library – it took a while to be available, so it must be popular.

Here’s the blurb …

I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family’s grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart’s Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.

I enjoyed listening to this, it was narrated by three different actresses, portraying Altha, Violet and Kate. I enjoyed all of their stories. The settings and characters were well-written; particularly all of the nature (and insect) descriptions. I particularly enjoyed Violet’s revenge. It’s historical fiction with a bit of magical realism mixed in.

A review

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October 29, 2023 · 2:36 pm

The Offing – Benjamin Myers

The Offing – Benjamin Myers

I have heard quite a bit about Cuddy, but this was the only novel my library stocked.

Here’s the blurb …

After all, there are only a few things truly worth fighting for: freedom, of course, and all that it brings with it. Poetry, perhaps, and a good glass of wine. A nice meal. Nature. Love, if you’re lucky.

One summer following the Second World War, Robert Appleyard sets out on foot from his Durham village. Sixteen and the son of a coal miner, he makes his way across the northern countryside until he reaches the former smuggling village of Robin Hood’s Bay. There he meets Dulcie, an eccentric, worldly, older woman who lives in a ramshackle cottage facing out to sea.

Staying with Dulcie, Robert’s life opens into one of rich food, sea-swimming, sunburn and poetry. The two come from different worlds, yet as the summer months pass, they form an unlikely friendship that will profoundly alter their futures.

From the Walter Scott Prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole comes a powerful new novel about an unlikely friendship between a young man and an older woman, set in the former smuggling village of Robin Hood’s Bay in the aftermath of the Second World War.

This was lovely and it had beautiful descriptions of nature and food. It is a quiet story about human connection, coming of age, surviving (and thriving) after terrible loss and reading (and how reading can set you free).

A review

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October 28, 2023 · 5:12 pm

Homecoming – Kate Morton

Homecoming – Kate Morton

I have read The Forgotten Garden and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t think I would read any more of her work. However, a friend (with similar tastes to me) recommended it, so I reserved it at Borrowbox and listened to the audio version.

Here’s the blurb …

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.

Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.

Nora has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young despite her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital, she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused. It’s even more alarming to hear from Nora’s housekeeper that Nora had been distracted in the weeks before her accident and had fallen on the steps to the attic—the one place Jess was forbidden from playing in when she was small.

At loose ends in Nora’s house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Nora’s bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find…

An epic novel that spans generations, Homecoming asks what we would do for those we love, and how we protect the lies we tell. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly held secrets, and the healing nature of truth. Above all, it is a beguiling and immensely satisfying novel from one of the finest writers working today.

This novel was fascinating and there were enough twists and turns to keep me interested. I enjoyed all of the various settings and the characters were well-written and sympathetic.

A review.

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October 27, 2023 · 8:11 pm

Horse – Geraldine Brooks

Horse – Geraldine Brooks

I wasn’t all that keen to read this one and then a friend recommended it very highly and I listened to an interview with Geraldine Brooks, Pip Williams and Sally Colin-James, which made me keen to read all three of their novels. Plus I had recently listened to A Year of Wonders.

Here’s the blurb…

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse–one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.

This was fabulous, how can anyone be so talented? To write from so many different perspectives? From a young enslaved black man, a 21st century scientist, a 19th century painter, a 20th century art collector, etc. Extraordinary. I am not interested in horses at all, but I found this story compelling and I can now appreciate what other people see in horses.

A review

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October 3, 2023 · 12:30 pm

Once Upon A River – Dianne Setterfield

Once Upon a River – Dianne Setterfield

I have a kindle version of this novel, but in the end I listened to the Audible version (narrated by Juliet Stevens). I have read The Thirteenth Tale, which I really enjoyed, but I think this one might be my favourite.

Here’s the blurb …

On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed.

Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.

Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison, stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known.

Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling, transporting you through worlds both real and imagined, to the triumphant conclusion whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned.

I was very invested in all of the characters (maybe not Victor Nash), but all of the other characters; Rita and Mr Daunt, Mr Armstrong and Bess, Margo and Joe (and the little Margos), Helena, etc. The writing is lovely, the characters are generous and kind (most of them). It has the feel of a folk tale with Quietly punting on the river, the child that died and then lived, the magic lantern show and Robert Armstrong talking to his animals.

This is one of my favourite reads of the year.

A review

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October 2, 2023 · 8:38 pm

One Illumined Thread – Sally Colin-James

One Illumined Thread – Sally Colin-James

I listened to an interview on the Book Show (or the Book Shelf) with Sally Colin-James, Geraldine Brooks and Pip Williams, which made me super keen to read all three of their new novels (I have The Bookbinder of Jericho in my TBR.

Here’s the blurb …

In Judea, under the brutal rule of King Herod, a woman yearns for a child but is outcast when she does not fall pregnant. Against all convention, she masters the art of glassblowing, a creative act she believes will keep her dream of motherhood alive. In Renaissance Florence, a young wife is left penniless by her hopelessly unfaithful husband, and struggles to find a way to support herself and her young son. And in contemporary Australia, a talented textile conservator, devastated by loss, is desperate to regain control of her life. Each woman wants something that seems unattainable, and it will take all their courage, creativity and determination to achieve it.

A stunning, sweeping historical novel spanning two thousand years, One Illumined Thread celebrates the power and creative spirit of the female heart, as each woman finds freedom through an extraordinary connection.

I really enjoyed this novel; particularly the references to glass blowing, making paint and embroidering (or conserving embroidery). It is beautifully written, clearly a lot of care and attention went into the research and the writing.

I would have liked more of the contemporary story (perhaps that would have made the novel too long?).

It’s about women finding ways to do things in a patriarchal (and brutal) society, and it’s about mothers and daughters, female friendships, mothers and sons, female independence, and pursuing a craft or skill.

A review.

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September 21, 2023 · 5:43 pm

A Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks

A Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks

I read this years ago – probably when it was first released – and I know I enjoyed it and I consider it to be my favourite Geraldine Brooks novel. When I saw it as an audio book (read by the author) on Borrowbox, I had to re-visit it.

Here’s the blurb …

An unforgettable tale, set  in 17th century England,  of a village that quarantines itself to arrest the spread of the plague, from the author The Secret Chord  and of March , winner of the Pulitzer Prize 

When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna’s eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a “year of wonders.”

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England,  Year of Wonders  is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. Written with stunning emotional intelligence and introducing “an inspiring heroine” ( The Wall Street Journal ), Brooks blends love and learning, loss and renewal into a spellbinding and unforgettable read.

It’s extraordinary how little of this novel I remembered. It is also very interesting to read this in a Covid (post-covid) world. This village isolates itself so as not to spread the plague, they move church services to outside and stand at a distance from each other – that’s all very familiar.

It’s beautifully written with lots of lovely period detail (but blended into the story). I particularly enjoyed all of the domestic details and the herb remedies. There is also a lot of death (from the plague and otherwise), religion ( was the plague god’s judgement for their sins), selfishness and superstitions.

A review

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