Double Vision by Pat Barker won the Booker Prize in 1995, it is undoubtedly well written but I’ve read a lot of Barker’s books and this one isn’t my favourite. I admit that I have been reading quite a lot of books for older children or YA at the moment, maybe that’s why I felt uneasy when the storyline took a rather creepy and violent turn.
Stephen Sharkey had been a war correspondent but the death of his friend Ben who had been a war photographer made Ben re-assess his life and he has given up on his old career while he still has the option.
Stephen’s older brother offers him the use of a cottage while he writes a book about his and Ben’s experiences, using some of Ben’s photographs. Ben’s widow Kate lives in the same village and she’s a sculptor, but early on in the book she’s involved in a car crash which leaves her temporarily unable to do the heavy work involved in her sculpting. She has a commission to sculpt a statue of Jesus for the local church and she has to hire a young man to help her. Peter has been recommended by the vicar, despite the fact that he had had a relationship with his 19 year old daughter and had dumped her recently.
You can see Jack’s thoughts on the book here.
Twice Round the Clock by Billie Houston was originally published in 1935 but it was reprinted by British Library in 2023. This one is my kind of murder mystery as Billie Houston gets to the murder immediately. By the time the reader gets to the bottom of page one a body has been glimpsed in a flash of lightning. It’s draped across a table and has something white and gleaming sticking out of its back! It’s Bill Brent who has made the discovery at 4 a.m. He had been one of several guests at the home of scientist Horace Manning. They had been celebrating the engagement of his daughter Helen to Anthony Fane. Surprisingly her father had agreed to the match.
The High House by Honor Arundel was published in 1967 and I suppose it was aimed at young teenage girls. Although Arundel was born in Wales she married a Scot and set a lot of her books in Scotland. In The High House she wastes absolutely no time in getting rid of those pesky parents, as all good children’s authors do. At the beginning we’re told that the parents have been killed in a car crash. Their children Emma and Richard have never even met their Aunt Patsy before as she lives in London and they live in Edinburgh. Then Aunt Laura and Uncle Edward arrive from Exeter. The aunts are very different from each other.
Sing Me Who You Are by Elizabeth Berridge was first published in 1967 but it has just been reprinted in the British Library Women Writers series. I was sent a copy of the book for review by British Library, for which many thanks.
The Women of the Cousins’ War is a non-fiction book which is written by three historians. The Cousins’ War is more commonly known as The Hundred Years War. Philippa Gregory has written the first section which is about the little known Jacquetta of Luxembourg who lived from 1415-16 to 1472. She became the Duchess of Bedford and would have had a high profile in royal circles. She was related to both royal houses, Lancaster and York, but there was no biography of her. Philippa Gregory trawled through many documents to fill in the gaps that had been left about Jacquetta’s life. She was around at the same time as Joan of Arc, and may have met her.
Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnett was first published in 1989 and it’s a while since I read it, it was way back in June in fact. It’s quite a difficult one to write about I think, especially from such a distance! It’s the third book in the Niccolo series.