My Brother Michael (1959) by Mary Stewart

 

‘The result of my own visit to Greece and the impact of that wonderful country on a mind steeped in the classics. ‘My Brother Michael’ was my love affair with Greece.’ - Mary Stewart

Camilla Haven had broken with Philip her fiancée of six years, and now at twenty-five years of age, she had come to Greece for a holiday. Elizabeth, the young woman who was to have been her companion had broken her leg and had to remain in England. The story opens in a cafe in Athens with Camilla writing to Elizabeth about her time in Greece up until then.

‘I’m told that Delphi really is something. So I’ve left it till last. The only trouble is, I’m getting a bit worried about the cash. I suppose I’m a bit of a fool where money is concerned. Philip ran all that, and how right he was…’

As Camilla reflected back on her time with Philip, she was sure now, that although it was fun while it lasted, it wouldn’t have worked out. But after six years of being swept up in Philip’s magnificent wake,’ she did feel life was a trifle dull at times.

‘This is the first time for years I’ve been away on my own - I was almost going to say ‘off the lead’ - and I’m really enjoying myself in a way I hadn’t thought possible before. You know, I don’t suppose he’d ever have come here all; I just can’t see Philip prowling around Mycaenae or Cnossos or Delos, can you? Or letting me prowl either… There’s no regret, only relief that perhaps, now, I’ll have time to be myself…Even if I am quite shatteringly incompetent when I am being myself…’

To miss Delphi was unthinkable but it seemed that her only option was a one-day bus tour. It was all she could afford but a case of mistaken identity and her limited knowledge of the Greek language changed her plans. A stranger had come up to her table in the cafe with the keys to a hire car saying that the car was wanted urgently by Monsieur Simon in Delphi - it was a matter of life and death. He was told to give the keys to a young girl sitting alone in the cafe and she would drive it to Simon in Delphi.
After an unfruitful conversation with the cafe owner and various customers and a wait to see if another young woman arrived to pick up the car, she decided she might as well turn the situation to her advantage and drive it to Delphi herself.

‘The thing was simple, obvious and a direct intervention of providence.’

Camilla differed from the other heroines I’ve come across in Mary Stewart’s novels. She was unsure of herself and described herself as incompetent and cowardly. As the story progressed, she encountered situations where her mettle was tested, and she proved to be stronger than she imagined.
There was the usual romantic interest, which also differed from that in other books. Simon, a young Englishman, was reserved and gentle - a counterpoise to the overbearing Philip. Compassionate and tolerant, he saw beneath Camilla’s lack of confidence and gave her credit for having a personality of her own. I liked this shift from the feisty, competent heroine to one who was unsure of herself and couldn’t reverse a car to save herself.

My Brother Michael is set about fourteen years after WWII. Simon’s older brother, Michael, had been with the Special Air Service when the Germans occupied Greece and had been doing undercover work as a British Liaison Officer attached to a guerrilla organisation. Michael had died on Mt Parnassus in 1944 and Simon had come to Greece to find out more about the circumstances surrounding his death.

There’s a bit of history in this story - ELAS, the Communist Resistance; EDES, the anti-Communist Resistance, and the failed Communist coup in 1944.

‘And when you think harshly of ELAS, remember two things. One is that the Greek is born a fighting animal. Doesn’t their magnificent and pathetic history show you that? If a Greek can’t find anyone else to fight, he’ll fight his neighbour. The other is the poverty of Greece, and to the very poor any creed that brings promise has a quick way to the heart.’

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you...?
- King Lear, Act 3; Scene 4

I was reminded of Helen MacInnes book, Decision in Delphi (1960), as it touches on the Greek Civil War and has its climax in Delphi. I linked to a few articles on the aftereffects of the civil war when I wrote it.

My Brother Michael has more violence than any of Stewart’s other books and there is one particularly nasty account of a s*xual nature and betrayal in Chapter 17 which was unexpected and jolting but not very explicit.

‘And that was how (…) was murdered with twenty yards of me, and I never lifted a finger to help…’

Some interesting links related to the content of this book:

The Charioteer of Delphi in the Clutches of WWII

Excavations at Delphi

Nine Coaches Waiting (1958) by Mary Stewart

 

Linda Martin was back in Paris after an absence of nine years. With an English father and a French mother, she had grown up in France during the Second World War. When she was fourteen both of her parents were killed in a plane crash and she was sent to an orphanage in England where she remained for seven years. When she was offered a position in France as governess to nine-year-old Philippe, Comte de Valmy, she jumped at the opportunity to go back to the country she loved.

'Those sweet, those stinging memories…things I had never before noticed, never missed, until now I saw them unchanged, part and parcel of that life that stopped nine years ago…I was back in France; that much of the dream of the past nine years had come true. However prosaic or dreary my new job might be, at least I had come back to the country I had persisted in regarding as my home.'

Arriving at the Château Valmy in Savoy, Linda found that her young charge was a reserved, lonely child, heir to a large estate kept in trust by his uncle after the boy's parents died. It didn’t take Linda long to warm to the young boy and to discern that he was afraid of his uncle. His uncle had no time for his nephew and was cold and harsh towards him.
A shooting which narrowly missed Philippe, another near fatal ‘accident,’ and an unlikely romance, sets the scene for adventure, danger and uncertainty as Linda commits herself to take care of Philippe while trying to work out who the potential murderer might be.

This is the second book that I’ve read by Mary Stewart (the other being, Madam, Will You Talk?) and it was every bit as good as the first. It took a little longer for the story in Nine Coaches Waiting to develop, but it was also longer than the first.
There were some similarities between the two - a vulnerable but strong young woman, a lonely child who needed protection, the French setting, and a romance.

‘An owl called below me, down in the woods; called again. Its muted melancholy found too ready an echo in me. I felt tired and depressed. Too much had happened today; and the pleasant things…had somehow faded back out of mind and left me with this queerly flattened feeling.
I know what it was, of course. I’d lived with loneliness a long time. That was something which was always there…one learns to keep it at bay…’

Again, Mary Stewart’s writing is just lovely and each chapter is introduced by a literary quotation, e.g.

‘I am two fools, I know,
For loving, and for saying so.
John Donne: The Triple Fool.'

And this on the ability of poetry to educate the mind:

'The cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land…yes, that was it. That was it. Not for the first time I was sharply grateful to Daddy for making poetry a habit with me. The best words in the best order…one always got the same shock of recognition and delight when someone's words swam up to meet a thought or name a picture. Daddy had been right. Poetry was awfully good material to think with.'

There are some allusions to Cinderella and Jane Eyre intermingled in the story which were nicely done, as were the revelations of what underpinned the actions or thoughts of various characters.

‘Wrapped up in my loneliness and danger I hadn’t even seen that his need was the same as my own. He and I had hoed the same row, and he for a more bitter harvest.’

A great book to curl up with a cup of tea and no interruptions, if possible, because Mary Stewart’s books are hard to put down - at least the two I’ve read so far have been.

 

Madam, Will You Talk? (1955) by Mary Stewart

 

Mary Stewart was a new author to me in 2022 when a friend recommended her books and what a delightful author she is! Madam, Will You Talk? was her first book and it is a cracker.

Set in Southern France, it is a suspenseful story that doesn’t waste any time in plunging the reader into murder and mystery.

When I wrote that summer, and asked my friend Louise if she would come with me on a car trip to Provence, I had no idea that I might be issuing an invitation to danger…though the part I was to play in the tragedy was to break and re-form the pattern of my whole life, yet it was a very minor part, little more than a walk-on in the last act…How was I to know, that lovely quiet afternoon, that most of the actors in the tragedy were at that moment assembled in this neat, unpretentious little Provençal hotel?

Charity Selbourne, a twenty-eight year old woman, and the book’s heroine, narrates the story. I warmed to her character immediately when she befriended a lonely and deeply unhappy twelve-year-old boy. It’s not the usual stuff of romantic suspense but in one of Mary Stewart’s other books (Nine Coaches Waiting) she sympathetically portrays another young boy. I read in her obituary that:

At the age of 30, she suffered an ectopic pregnancy, undiagnosed for several weeks. Peritonitis set in and she nearly died. It was a long time before she accepted childlessness.

Mary Stewart’s writing is beautiful and descriptive, and reflects not only her own personal experience but also her interests and educational background. There is an abundance of literary allusions, nods to the classics, and knowledge of theatre and art scattered throughout this book. Her rendering of place/setting, in this case the south of France, in particular Avignon and Marseille, play their role as characters in the story - as does a dog!

Then fate, in the shape of Nidhug, took a hand.
My cue had come. I had to enter the stage.

Avignon is a walled city, as I have said, a compact and lovely little town skirted to the north and west by the Rhone and circled completely by medieval ramparts, none the less lovely, to my inexpert eye, for having been heavily restored in the nineteenth century. The city us dominated from the north by the Rocher des Doms, a steep mass of white rock crowned by the cathedral of Notre Dame, and green with singing pines.

le Rocher des Doms à Avignon | Avignon et Provence (avignon-et-provence.com)

The deserted town of Les Baux, in medieval times a strong and terrible fortress, stands high over the southern plains. The streets of eyeless houses - little more than broken shells - the crumbling lines of the once mighty bastions, the occasional jewel of a carved Renaissance window, clothed with ferns, have an uncanny beauty of their own, while something of the fierce and terrible history of the ‘wolves of Les Baux,’ the lords of Orange and Kings of Arles, still seems to inhere in these broken fortifications.

Les Baux-de-Provence Travel Guide - France - Eupedia

I saw the first light, fore-running the sun, gather in a cup of the eastern cloud, gather and grow and brim, till at last it spilled like milk over the golden lip, to smear the dark face of heaven from end to end.

In addition to her quality writing is an exciting, convoluted plot with many twists, including a thrilling car chase through the Rhône-Alpes. I enjoyed the (highly improbable) romance and the old-fashioned feel which reminded me of Agatha Christies’ The Man in the Brown Suit and (just a little) of Helen MacInnes’ writing style.

A wonderful read on a rainy day for me, and best of all, I have two more of her books waiting for me.

Mary Stewart's legacy as an author is vast. She is considered by many to be the mother of the modern romantic suspense novel. She was among the first to integrate mystery and love story, seamlessly blending the two elements in such a way that each strengthens the other.

 

 

Spring Magic (1942) by D.E. Stevenson

 

In his Introduction to Spring Magic, Alexander McCall Smith writes that D. E. Stevenson’s books,

‘…eluded the sort of classification that reviewers and scholars like to engage in. They are not simple romances; nor are they anything that would today be recognised as thrillers. They are in a category of their own: clearly-written straightforward tales that take the reader through a clear plot and reach a recognisable and unambiguous ending. The appeal that they have for the contemporary reader lies in the fact that there is no artifice in these books…These are gentle books, very fitting for times of uncertainty and conflict. Some books can be prescribed for anxiety - these are in that category. And it is an honourable and important one.’

Spring Magic is a delightful story with likeable characters and a sprinkling of humour. It is gentle in that it isn’t a nail-biting thriller, but it does have a certain amount of tension that kept me turning the pages and staying up late to finish it. Set during the Second World War, the story takes place in both the Highlands of Scotland and later in London, and it doesn’t ignore the social upheaval and uncertainty of that time.

Twenty-five-year-old Frances Field had lost both her parents before she was four years of age and had gone to live with the Wheelers, her uncle and his wife, in London. They were old-fashioned, had no children of their own, and didn’t want a child in the house, but there was no one else to take her, so to them she went.
As Frances grew older, Mrs. Wheeler found her to be very useful and as she herself was very lazy and professed to be an invalid, Frances basically took on the running of their large house.
When the war started Frances was keen to help in some way but Mrs. Wheeler ‘couldn’t manage without her.’ One day Dr Digby came to attend the ‘invalid’ and as Frances saw him to the door, he told her that there was nothing the matter with her aunt except laziness. He suggested to Frances that she should take a holiday. She had slaved for her aunt for years and had been blind to the fact that her aunt was always well enough to do anything she wanted. It would do her aunt good if she had to hustle around a bit.

‘It was odd that she had reached the age of twenty-five without having decided what sort of a person she was - or wanted to be. It was because she had never had a chance to follow her own inclinations nor to develop her personality.’

Frances felt invisible. She had a yielding personality and as she did not like scenes, she allowed herself to be dominated and repressed by her aunt. Dr. Digby had planted a seed in her mind and when the bombs began to fall on London she made her decision to leave. She wanted to go somewhere where she could think. She had seen a picture of Cairn, a coastal village in Scotland, at the Academy in London and had made up her mind that someday she would go there. Now was her chance.

The beauty of the place, the eccentricity and charm of the local folk, the friendship of three army wives, and a potential romance help her get back her own soul. She had never had to make her own decisions and at first found choosing between even small things difficult to do, but in this new environment she found freedom and became accustomed to making her own decisions and knowing her own mind.
This is only the second book I’ve read by D. E. Stevenson. I think the first was Sarah’s Cottage but that was about twenty years ago and I can’t remember much of it but I liked this one so much that I’ll be looking out for more of her books. Her characters were interesting and explored more fully over the course of the story. She contrasted two particular characters by their attitude to work and how that attitude extended to their relationships - a careless, slack outlook wasn’t confined to just one area of life; it permeated across into other areas.

Some favourite bits:

‘An epidemic of whooping-cough which was racking the children and disturbing their parent’s nights seemed much more real than the war.’

‘Miss Stalker was a small woman with a large nose and thick black eyebrows - it was her nose and eyebrows that you saw first - the rest of Miss Stalker seemed to be attached to these striking features.’

‘I don’t know whether you have realised what an extremely altruistic person I am. I have always been renowned for the way in which I sacrifice my own interests to the interests of my friends. For instance, when I was six years old I was very ill after eating a whole box of chocolates which belonged to my sister - I did it merely to save her from a similar fate.’

'Several girls had fallen rather heavily for (him) - nice girls too - but he had not even noticed the fact; he had remained heart-whole.'

 'Heart-whole' is a description I hadn't heard of until recently and it has popped up in some other books of this vintage. 

 

High Wages by Dorothy Whipple (1930)

 

I’ve been slowly collecting Persephone Books and have been introduced to some new authors. One of these is Dorothy Whipple (1893-1966) and she is Persephone Book’s best-selling author. Hard Wages is the author's second book, and these are my thoughts on that.

‘Experience doth take dreadfully high wages, but she teacheth like none other.’ – Carlyle

Jane Carter, an eighteen year old girl, goes to Tidsley market-place in Lancashire on her half-day off. She sees the owner of Chadwick’s drapery put a wanted notice in his window for a young lady assistant. Fed up with her current job and tired of living with her stepmother and her children, she applies for the position.

The story begins in 1912 and describes Mr Chadwick’s store as typical of the drapery shops of that period. Class distinctions are reflected in the clothes that people wear but ready-made clothes and other recent developments means that this will all change.

Young single women often lived-in their employer’s homes. They were poorly paid with part of their wages taken by their employer for board and lodging. The hours were long, the food inadequate and Jane, like other young women in the industry, was always hungry.

Mrs Chadwick was rather mean. Not excessively so; but just mean enough to add interest to her days. She enjoyed exerting her ingenuity in the provision, for the girls, of suppers that did not cost more than threepence a head. She was adept at ringing the changes on cheap food. It was nice to think, too, that the tasty little suppers she took with Mr. Chadwick upstairs were justified by the economies she practised downstairs.

Mr Briggs was a man who had risen in society and was enjoying his elevated status. Known as a judge of cotton staple, he understood the trade thoroughly had been asked into partnership with Mr Greenwood. Mr Greenwood’s wife was the autocrat of Tidsley and Jane had the misfortune of getting on the wrong side of this woman. Mrs Briggs felt out of her league with the changes that her husband’s sudden rise in society brought. She had no confidence and the autocrat didn’t make life any easier for her. Mr Chadwick took his cues from Mrs Greenwood, pandered to her whims and went out of his way to try to please her. He had no time for Mrs Briggs as he toadied to Mrs Greenwood in everything. One day Mrs Briggs ventured into Chadwick’s drapery. She had no idea of what suited her, but Jane with her eye for style and her helpful and kind suggestions, impressed her. This was the beginning of a friendship that enabled Jane to open her own dress shop later on. 

One of Dorothy Whipple’s greatest strengths is that she was a supremely moral novelist. ‘She cared so much about people, about her characters, and this intense involvement, compassion and insight is what makes her writing so irresistible.’

Friendships play a large part in the story. Misunderstandings in relationships, jealousy and the effects of war (in this case, World War I) are explored. I loved that Jane was introduced to literature and stimulating discussions through a friendship. Whipple was a contemporary of H.G. Wells (1866-1946) and Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) and both authors were mentioned in the novel. Jane was introduced to Bennett’s Old Wives’ Tale by a friend.

The train came in, filling the station with clouds of white smoke of strange, tumultuous beauty.

Jane’s days were now like a succession of crammed cupboards that would not shut on their contents. Things fell out in miscellaneous confusion and had to be picked up and put into the next cupboard, from which they fell out again and so on until they positively had to be attended to.

A very enjoyable book that I think would have had a very different ending if a modern author had written it. It is realistic but hopeful and I agree with the observation above that Whipple was a supremely moral writer. Like her wonderful Someone at a Distance she provides a redemptive pathway while appreciating that actions do have consequences. I’ll certainly be looking for more of her books.

The Unfinished Clue by Georgette Heyer (1933)

 

In addition to her Regency and other historical fiction novels, Georgette Heyer wrote twelve mysteries. I’d read that they weren’t that good but when I found a copy of The Unfinished Clue for 50 cents while we were in Central Queensland, I grabbed it. Just in case. And just as well that I did because it was a delight from start to finish.

General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith belonged to that class of soldier who believed that much is accomplished by rudeness. He had been married to his much younger wife, Fay, for about five years and she had cowered under his bullish nature. The story begins with Fay’s younger sister, Dinah, coming to visit them at their country estate and being ungraciously greeted by Sir Arthur. A group of people which included the General’s son and nephew had also been invited to stay for the weekend. The General was clearly not happy about the presence of some of the visitors, especially when he found out that his son was bringing his Mexican dancer fiancée.

Two sisters couldn’t have been more different. Dinah was completely unfazed by Sir Arthur’s belligerence and baited him mercilessly. Fay tried to keep the peace but after five years of the General’s aggressive domination, she had been reduced to nervous exhaustion.

Between him and his sister-in-law there raged a guerrilla warfare which both enjoyed. They disliked one another with equal cordiality.

During the course of the weekend, Sir Arthur was stabbed to death in his study, and everyone was under suspicion. The local police knew that the General had many enemies. In fact, they believed that you would be hard put to find somebody who had a good word for the man. It was going to be a difficult investigation and Inspector Harding from Scotland Yard was brought in to help solve the crime. 

The Unfinished Clue is a solid mystery with a clever plot. With interesting and very likeable characters, plenty of humour and wit and topped off with a satisfying romance; this was a great read. 

Fay cast a startled glance at the clock, and sprang up.  ‘Heavens, it’s past four! I must fly or Arthur will have a fit. He can’t bear unpunctuality. Are you ready?’ ‘I’m ready,’ said Dinah, ‘but I shall dawdle for ten minutes for the good of Arthur’s soul.’

A description of Camilla Halliday, one of the weekend guests:

‘She had corn-coloured hair, shingled and perfectly waved, a pair of shallow blue eyes, and a predatory little mouth…’

I Will Repay - a Sequel to The Scarlet PimperneI

The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David (1793)

I Will Repay (1906) is one of the numerous sequels to Baroness Emmuska Orczy's famous book, The Scarlet Pimpernel. It's a stand alone book but you do need to read The Scarlet Pimpernel beforehand or you won't catch an important allusion that is referred to.

Paris, 1783, and the code of honour among the French aristocracy was rigid and without logic. When the wealthy bourgeois Paul Delourede blundered and inadvertently offended a young hot-headed aristocrat, Vicomte de Marny, the only acceptable outcome was a duel.
Delourede was a brilliant swordsman and having the advantage, his intention was to disarm the younger man, but the Vicomte became reckless and lunged at his opponent, falling upon the other's sword.

Vicomte de Marny had a younger sister, Juliette, fourteen years old at the time. Their invalid father, the Duc de Marny, had lost his wife ten years previously and his mind was fast losing its reason. Juliette was his joy but the Vicomte was his pride. On him the old man rested his hopes and in his future he saw the glory of the family name recreated.
On the evening of the fateful duel, the Victome's body was carried home. The old man, when left alone with his daughter, threw off the lethargy he had shown on first seeing his dead son, and feverishly seized his daughter's hand. Placing it upon her dead brother's breast, he made her swear an oath to avenge her brother's death.

Ten years later, Delourede was a well-known and respected citizen. Up until this time Juliette had nourished revenge in her heart but when circumstances placed her under Delourede's protection, she began to know the real character of the man and was torn between his kindness and growing love for her and the oath she'd made.

I mentioned that The Scarlet Pimpernel should be read prior to this book. He plays a short but important role in this story and a knowledge of the first book helps in appreciating the Pimpernel's comments to Delourede about love and idolatry which hearken back to his own painful experience.

 "And 'twill be when you understand that your idol has feet of clay that you'll learn the real lesson of love," said Blakeney earnestly.

"Is it love to worship a saint in heaven, whom you dare not touch, who hovers above you like a cloud, which floats away from you even as you gaze? To love is to feel one being in the world at one with us, our equal in sin as well as in virtue. To love, for us men, is to clasp one woman with our arms, feeling that she lives and breathes just as we do, suffers as we do, thinks with us, loves with us, and, above all, sins with us. Your mock saint who stands in a niche is not a woman if she have not suffered, still less a woman if she have not sinned. Fall at the feet of your idol an you wish, but drag her down to your level after that—the only level she should ever reach, that of your heart."

The author's sequels to The Scarlet Pimpernel retain the author's romantic, melodramatic tone and tend to have more mature themes than the original. I Will Repay, would suit readers about 13 years and up.

An excellent & comprehensive website containing information on all things Scarlet Pimpernel is Blakeney Manor. The books are available as e-texts on this site also.

Henrietta's House by Elizabeth Goudge (1942)

Henrietta’s House was written in 1942. I’m always amazed that there were so many women writing ‘domestic fiction’ during the war years. I read that the stubborn heroism of the civilian population was a necessary "military weapon" to stand against the demoralisation and capitulation of the British people, especially during the Blitz. 

Henrietta’s House is a children’s novel and wouldn't be classed as domestic fiction, but it was written in desperate times and so could be thought of as a stand against hopelessness and despair. Why write a children's novel if you succumbed to the idea that the world as you knew it wouldn't be around much longer? It feels like a fairy tale to a certain extent but in Goudge’s hands it becomes a decidedly moral tale - in the best sense. ❤️

Henrietta, with her brother, Hugh Anthony, aunt & uncle, grandparents & their elderly friends, as well as a couple of dogs, head off in horse-drawn vehicles and a new car for a picnic to celebrate Hugh’s birthday. Along the way the car breaks down & gets abandoned, and the whole company is swept into strange adventures in which some refining of character occurs. ❤️

There’s also humour throughout Henrietta’s House. One of the guests on the picnic was Mrs Jameson. She was a neighbour & the rich widow of a missionary ‘who had had the misfortune to be eaten by cannibals, had become a little peculiar in her ways after her sorrow and was rather an anxiety to take out.’ Grandfather had told Henrietta that ‘one must be very kind to people in this unfortunate condition.’

Kindness, respect for old age & deliverance from pride are themes throughout the story. 

‘Canon and Mrs Roderick in spite of having had many children of their own still adored the species.’

‘They hardly spoke, they were so busy absorbing the beauty into their very souls.’

‘When a man loses his pride he often finds his heart.’

A lovely story for the young and anyone else who appreciates good children’s literature. 

John Macnab by John Buchan (1925)

Two distinguished highflyers had separately been to see Dr. Acton Croke. Both were suffering from a common ailment - they had all grown too competent and comfortable and their doctor had given them both the same diagnosis and suggested treatment:

“You’ve got to rediscover the comforts of your life by losing them for a little…
You need to be made to struggle for your life again.”

The good doctor’s suggestions, as a friend and not a medical man, included dropping into another world, a harder one, for a month or two; stealing a horse in some part of the world where that crime was punishable by hanging, or to induce the newspapers to accuse them of something shady that would require a great effort to clear up.

Sir Edward Leithen, a barrister‘who had left forty behind him but was on the pleasant side of fifty,’ and John Palliser-Yeates, 45 years, an eminent banker known for his youthful athleticism, discovered their common complaint when they happened to dine at the same club that evening.

Lord Charles Lamancha, a cabinet minister in his early forties, was also there with a young friend, Archie Roylance, who was endeavouring to cheer him up. The three older men were close friends but were surprised to find they all suffered from the same ennui.

Archie Roylance stared blankly from one to the other, as if some new thing had broken in upon his simple philosophy of life.
“You fellows beat me,” he cried. “Here you are, every one of you a swell of sorts, with everything to make you cheerful, and you’re grousin’ like a labour battalion! You should be jolly well ashamed of yourselves.”

Archie’s advice was to go and do some hard exercise like sweating ten hours a day on a steep hill but he had a moment of illumination when the men responded that it would do no good. He recounted the story of Jim Tarras, a poacher on a grand scale, and the three men decided to take a leaf from that man’s book; to do something ‘devilish difficult, devilish pleasant, and calculated to make a man long for a dull life.’
Archie was staying at a lonely, isolated house in the Scottish Highlands and the three friends plotted to go there in secret and join him. Their plan was to inform three Scottish estates in writing that they would be poaching on their properties during a given time and would take two stags and a salmon from each estate.

‘The animal, of course, remains your property and will be duly delivered to you. It is a condition that it must be removed wholly outside your bounds. In the event of the undersigned failing to achieve his purpose he will pay as forfeit one hundred pounds, and if successful fifty pounds to any charity you may appoint.’

The letters were sent from London and signed with the nom de guerre, ‘John Macnab.’ It was imperative that whether they failed or succeeded, the trio must not be caught, but there were complications from the very start.

One of my favourite characters in this book is Sir Archie Roylance, who having implicated himself with ‘Macnab,’ is totally smitten by one of the Scottish laird’s daughters.

He was in the miserable position of having a leg in both camps, of having unhappily received the confidences of both sides, and whatever he did he must make a mess of it.

At the back of his head he had that fear of women as something mysterious and unintelligible which belongs to a motherless and sisterless childhood, and a youth spent almost wholly in the company of men. He had immense compassion for a s*x which seemed to him to have a hard patch to hoe in the world, and this pitifulness had always kept him from any conduct which might harm a woman. His numerous fancies had been light and transient like thistledown, and his heart had been wholly unscathed. Fear that he might stumble into marriage had made him as shy as a woodcock—a fear not without grounds, for a friend had once proposed to write a book called Lives of the Hunted, with a chapter on Archie.

John Macnab has been called ‘the sunniest of Buchan’s fictions’ and is his second most famous novel. It mixes comedy, adventure and friendship with an underlying attitude that life is what you make it.
Although more light-hearted than most of Buchan’s other novels, it is a great adventure story with a delightful romantic element.

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie (1936)

 

Murder in Mesopotamia is another book that came out of Christie's first-hand experience of working on archaeological sites with her husband. The setting of this book is the excavation a large Assyrian city about a day and a half’s journey from Baghdad. The book is narrated by Miss Amy Leatheran, a thirty-two-year-old nurse who had lately been employed by Dr. Leidner, the leader of the expedition.

Dr. Leidner had been worried for some time about his wife, Louise’s, health. She was suffering from ‘fancies’ as well as recurring nervous terrors and as a result the atmosphere at the dig was very tense. Nurse Leatheran was to keep an eye on Louise and help her to feel ‘safe.’
By the time Leatheran had been at the dig for about a week she had an uneasy sense that something really was wrong and that the sense of strain and constraint among the expedition team was genuine.
Hercule Poirot comes on the scene after a murder occurs. It looks like it must have been committed by a member of the expedition team and Poirot expects the murderer will strike again.
We find out much about the various characters’ backgrounds and their relationships with each other as Poirot conducts his investigations. A red herring is thrown in to confuse everything but eventually Poirot brings his investigation to a surprise conclusion.
Apart from the archaeological setting, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as some of her others, e.g. They Came to Baghdad. Nurse Leatheran was a pain, not to mention a lousy nurse - patronising and full of herself, with a bustling attitude of 'Come, come, that's enough of that.' Followed up by a slap on the face. That didn't endear me to her.
As usual, Christie included a nice little twist to reveal the suspect.

Even though this book is not one of my favourites, it held my interest throughout.

A good website for all things Agatha is https://www.agathachristie.com & if you haven't yet read any of her books here are some suggestions: Nine Christie Novels for Newcomers. I'm reading through her books that have a Middle East/Archaeological setting.

The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry (1990) – The William Monk Series #1

 

I’ve finished reading the first three books in Anne Perry’s William Monk series which are set in Victorian London. The first book is The Face of a Stranger.

William Monk is a police detective and the story begins with him waking up in a hospital. He’d been unconscious after a severe accident where he was a passenger in a carriage and the driver had been thrown off and killed. He has no memory of the accident and no idea of who he is. His memory is completely blank.  A clue to his identity comes when he is visited by a man named Runcorn. It happens that this man is his superior in the police force and his Nemesis, as he later discovers. 

When Monk recovers sufficiently, he goes back to work as a detective. He knows that if it is discovered that he has lost his memory, he will lose his job and would probably end up in a workhouse. So by deduction and some internal instinct, he pieces together who he is (or was), all the while terrified that his secret will be discovered.

When he first looks in the mirror he sees the ‘Face of a Stranger.’ In some ways the whole premise of Monk’s story is implausible but it is an interesting idea. As Monk meets people at the police department and on the case he is assigned to on his return to work, he has no idea if he has met them before, if they like or dislike him, or what his relationship to them has been in the past.

Monk is a brilliant, arrogant detective and he discovers that while he is respected, he is also feared and generally disliked. Did anyone care for him? Did anyone love him? He discovers from letters in his room where he lodged that he has a sister, Beth, in the country. She wrote to him often, but he hadn’t seen her for years and rarely wrote back to her. He visits Beth and her husband, who accept him readily and don’t expect much from him. This gives him pause – was he really so insular and uncaring? He kept his memory loss a secret but let them know that he had been in hospital and was not yet fully recovered. What kind of a man was he? Occasionally he has flashes of remembrance but the past is still dark. 

Runcorn obviously hates him and Monk suspects that he knows his memory is affected and if the opportunity came would be happy to get rid of his subordinate. Why was this man so antagonistic to him?

Runcorn assigns Monk to a difficult case involving the murder of Jocelyn Gray, son of Lord Shelburne.  Gray was celebrated as a hero of the Crimean War and returned home with a leg injury which left him with a limp. While pursuing his investigations, Monk meets Hester Latterly, who had worked as a nurse in Crimea and eventually she helps Monk solve the case. 

Monk is assigned John Evan, a young policeman, to assist in the case. Over time Evan proves to be a true friend who respects his senior officer and learns about his memory loss.

Perry captures Victorian London well. Sometimes she tends to be repetitive and ‘tells’ rather than ‘shows’ the attitudes of the time – class distinctions is an example. It seems that Monk had a chip on his shoulder about his origins and she labours that at times. The murder case involved a man of the upper classes and Runcorn didn’t want to upset anyone by Monk’s findings in the case. The three books that I’ve read so far contain quite a bit of social commentary which sometimes feels overdone. The Crimean War is referred to often which added some more layers to the story. This was interesting and inspired me to learn more about the subject. 

One of the things I liked most about this book was Monk’s objective discovering and examination of who he was. He didn’t like what he saw. It had a redemptive aspect in some ways. Here is a man given a second chance at making his soul.

As the first book in a series, The Face of a Stranger was excellent and I thought the best out of the first three. 

A Dangerous Mourning (1991) #2

Monk, still struggling with amnesia, is assigned to investigate the murder of Octavia Haslett, the daughter of the wealthy aristocrat, Sir Basil Moidore. Octavia is found stabbed to death in her bedroom and Monk insists that the murderer must be either a family member or a servant.

Hester Latterly features prominently in this book. She and Monk have similar reactive personalities and often clash with each other but in this book they start to understand one another more. When Monk refuses to arrest one of the servants for the murder he is fired by Runcorn and he has to give up the murder investigation. He asks Hester to get entry to the Moidore home by becoming a live in nurse to Octavia’s mother who is in a fragile state after her daughter’s murder.

Hester plays a major role in the solving of this murder and it is she who asks the brilliant barrister, Oliver Rathbone, to defend the charge against the accused servant. There’s a twist to the solution of this story which was cleverly done although once again, Perry tended to overplay the class consciousness theme.

Defend and Betray (1992) #3

There are some dark themes in this book, s*xual abuse being the major one. A courtroom drama towards the end deals with this. I was surprised and put off by the details that came out at the trial and questioned whether such things would have been made public in Victorian England. 

General Thaddeus Carlyon, a military hero, meets his death not on the battlefield but in a freak accident while attending a dinner party at the home of a friend. The freak accident turns out to be murder and the general’s wife confesses to it.

William Monk is really a background character to this story, which was disappointing. He goes off and investigates clues to his past in different places while playing a secondary role in the mystery. Oliver Rathbone’s performance at the trial was a highlight. In the days before the trial he and Monk try to break through the wall that the guilty woman erected to get to the truth. 

It appears that Oliver and Hester may have a relationship developing. But what about William Monk…?

Some thoughts generally:

I was pleased to find a modern author who could write a clean sort of mystery that didn’t feel anachronistic. Defend & Betray did deal with themes that were sordid, even though they were dealt with in the context of a courtroom trial. This is as far as I’ve read in the William Monk series so I can’t speak about the rest of them.

Having read three of Perry’s books, it seems that moral dilemmas are a focus in her writing. In Books #1 and #2, a murder was committed where the accused, although found guilty, was in a way justified in doing what they did or driven to it because of circumstances. 

I’m still interested in this series. Monk’s amnesia and search for his identity and past are drawing cards.

As a Blackwell’s Books affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie (1951)

 

‘Outside in Bank Street it was sunny and full of swirling dust and the noises were terrific and varied. There was the persistent honking of motor horns, the cries of vendors of various wares. There were hot disputes between small groups of people who seemed ready to murder each other but were really fast friends; boys and children were selling every type of tree, sweetmeats, oranges and bananas, bath towels, combs, razor blades and other assorted merchandise carried rapidly through the streets on trays. There was also a perpetual and ever renewed sound of throat clearing and spitting, and above it the thin melancholy wail of men conducting donkeys and horses amongst the stream of motors and pedestrians shouting, “Balek — Balek!”

It was eleven o’clock in the morning in the city of Baghdad.’

It is 1950 and everyone is coming to Baghdad.
Mr. Dakin, the undercover head of British Intelligence in Baghdad, is awaiting Henry Carmichael who is returning to Iraq with evidence to back up his fantastic story of an international plot involving a deadly weapon.

‘In substance, it is exactly like the Fifth Column activities at the beginning of the last war, only this time it is on a world-wide scale.’

Dakin’s best and most reliable man has either gone mad or his story is true. Four men with similar features to Carmichael have already been murdered in Persia and Iraq. He didn’t get away unsuspected and the enemy are on his trail. When he enters Baghdad the danger will be even greater.
World leaders hoping to promote peace are coming to Baghdad for a secret summit and Dakin is desperate to have Carmichael’s evidence to present to them.

Meanwhile in London, Victoria Jones, a young Cockney typist just fired from her job, is sitting in a park eating her lunch when Edward, a handsome young man, strikes up a conversation. Victoria, who considers herself an excellent judge of character, is immediately smitten, so much so that when she hears that he is heading to Baghdad the next day to work for a Dr. Rathbone, she decides that somehow, she would get herself to Baghdad.

They Came to Baghdad is one of the few Christie novels that is a spy/political thriller rather than her typical detective novel.
I think her detective novels are better than her spy thrillers but this book was a fun read with a complicated plot full of people who are not what they seem.
It took me a while to figure out that Victoria Jones was the main character. She didn’t seem very promising at first with her tendency to tell elaborate creative lies to make her life more interesting. Her sudden decision that she was in love with a man she’d barely talked to gave all the appearance of an airhead; but she was also generous, courageous and thoroughly optimistic, and she grew on me.

‘She, Victoria Jones, a little London typist, had arrived in Baghdad, had seen a man murdered almost before her eyes, had become a secret agent or something equally melodramatic, and had finally met the man she loved in a tropical garden with palms waving overhead, and in all probability not far from the spot where the original garden of Eden was said to be situated.’

Victoria’s quick wits and inventive qualities are given plenty of scope in Baghdad where she is caught up in a kidnapping and a murder and manages to talk her way into working at an archaeological dig by posing as an anthropologist. Through it all she matures and learns some truths about human nature while keeping her inherent optimism and revealing her true mettle.

‘Surely those were the things that mattered — the little every day things, the family to be cooked for, the four walls that enclosed the home, the one or two cherished possessions…
Humility is what keeps you sane and a human being…’

They Came to Baghdad was a good Christie book to follow on from her autobiographical, Come, Tell Me How You Live, where she recounts her time working and travelling with her archaeologist husband, Max Mallowan, in Syria and other parts of the Middle East.
It also captures a very different Baghdad to that of today, just over 70 years later.

Interesting links:

Mysteries and the Middle East

Agatha Christie in Egypt & the Near East

Love by Elizabeth von Arnim (1925)

Love was the second novel I’d read by Elizabeth von Arnim, and along with Edith Wharton, she shot up on my reading radar. Both authors have gotten under my skin with their beautiful literary writing and their sensitive treatment of women’s issues and sometimes difficult themes. In the context of the times in which they lived, they explored subjects that tended to be either avoided or were taboo.

Wharton and von Arnim’s lives overlapped; both were born in the 1860’s and died at age 75 years in 1937 and 1941 respectively. Both belonged to wealthy, upper-class families and spent a good portion of their lives in Europe.

Where Edith Wharton wrote with a good dose of realism, Elizabeth Von Arnim’s writing has a gentler, more subtle tone, almost whimsical at times, and in The Enchanted April and Love, she leaves the reader to imagine the long-term outcomes of her characters’ lives. I didn’t mind this with the first book but it left the ending of Love uncertain and therefore a little unsatisfying. However, it is a memorable story and has lingered with me.

I keep wondering how everything is working out for these fictional characters!

Publisher’s Summary

‘A gentle romance begins innocently enough in the stalls of a London theatre where Catherine is enjoying her ninth and Christopher his thirty-sixth visit to the same play. He is a magnificent young man with flame-coloured hair. She is the sweetest little thing in a hat. There is just one complication: Christopher is 25, while Catherine is just a little bit older. Flattered by the passionate attentions of youth, Catherine, with marriage and motherhood behind her, is at first circumspect, but finally succumbs to her lover’s charms.’

©1925 Elizabeth von Arnim (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Catherine Cumfrit had been married to a much older man and was a widow for twelve years after his death before she met Christopher. She had a 19-year-old daughter, Virginia, who married a man a little older than Catherine herself. He had been waiting for Virginia to come of age for years and snapped her up as soon as she did. They were quite happy together and Virginia was expecting their first child.

Von Arnim contrasts the societal attitudes to both couples and does so with perception and humour, highlighting the obvious hypocrisy where a man could marry a much younger woman and nobody thought twice about it whereas that wasn’t the case if the situation were reversed.

Virginia’s mother-in-law, who was in her 70’s, treated Catherine as if she were the same age as herself, forgetting the fact that Catherine was actually younger than her own middle-aged son.

Beginnings were not suitable, she felt, after a certain age, especially not for women. Mothers of the married, such as herself and Mrs. Cumfrit, should be concerned rather with endings than beginnings.

I enjoyed the ‘omniscient narrator’ aspect of this story where the reader is privy to each character’s thoughts and motives. This worked extremely well, especially in Christopher’s case, and added some very witty and humorous elements.

'The woman has a beak,’ he thought, standing red and tongue-tied before her. ‘She’s a bird of prey. She has got her talons into my Catherine.’

Love explores attitudes to marriage, ageing, and the complexity of family dynamics.

It is poignant in places, especially where Catherine begins to be anxious about looking older than her husband and being taken for his mother. Later in the story when she takes steps to try to regain her youth, I wondered how on earth Elizabeth Arnim would manage to bring the narrative to a conclusion. A novel twist did it.

The book is out of print but is available secondhand. I highly recommend the Audible version narrated flawlessly by Eleanor Bron if you don’t have a copy of the book.

Laughter – one of the most precious of God’s gifts; the very salt, the very light, the very fresh air of life; the divine disinfectant, the heavenly purge. Could one ever be real friends with somebody one didn’t laugh with? Of course one couldn’t.

Read Along: For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

I'll be hosting a read along of Susan Schaeffer Macaulay's book, For the Children's Sake on Substack. My first post will be in early June and will cover the Introduction and Chapter 1.

Whether you are a parent, home educator, a teacher, a grandparent, an aunty or uncle, or you have a heart for children, this book will show you how to extend learning to every facet of life. Good and true ideas may be found in many different contexts and this balanced and practical view of education and life will be beneficial whatever your background or beliefs.

For more details see here.