Tag Archives: cosy read

A Country Christmas by Miss Read

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A Country Christmas by Miss Read is a compilation of short stories which have been published previously. The White Robin is the longest at around 140 pages , I suppose it would be called a novella.  It’s about the excitement in the village of Fairacre when an albino robin is sighted and makes its home close to the school playground. The children feed ‘Snowboy’  and look forward to the remote possibility of more albino robins next Spring.

Most of the stories are set in the village of Fairacre although there’s also an excerpt from one of the Caxley books.

The original publication dates range from 1951 to 1992, and those featuring the village school seem even older than the 1950s although I imagine that they are quite true to how things were in a rural school, probably more old-fashioned than a city school.  This is what makes the stories charming though, and the children’s behaviour and chat, and the teacher’s comments to them seem authentic, they’re certainly entertaining.

As ever there’s love, laughter, gossip and tragedy, but most of the stories have a Christmas or winter setting which I appreciated, despite our weather being freezing at the moment.

On a different subject, I was listening to BBC Radio 2 this morning, to a piece which is available to listen to in the BBC Sounds Archives. It dated from the 1950s and the interviewer was asking children what they wanted for Christmas. They hoped to get things like a sewing set, a doll and one wee lad wanted a pencil sharpener!!  How different from nowadays when kids expect to have things costing hundreds of pounds for Christmas!

BBC Archives  from 1966 can be seen below, children were asked to imagine life in the year 2000, but there are all sorts of things  available, although they might be blocked for people outside the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS8xX3usi4c

Green Park Terrace by Isabel Cameron

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Green Park Terrace cover

I haven’t been able to find out anything about Isabel Cameron but from her writing she was obviously Scottish. My copy of this book does have its dustjacket which has some information regarding her other books and the information that over 750,000 copies of Isabel Cameron’s books have been sold. And from the Glasgow Herald – “All Mrs Cameron’s work has that grace, humour and feeling that people love.”

Green Park Terrace by Isabel Cameron was published in 1949 but the setting is a town in Scotland during World War 2 and the Green Park which the terrace overlooks is rumoured to be taken over by the army, the Lovat Scouts to be precise. The news is not welcomed by Mrs Warren of No.1 Terrace Park, she thinks that the soldiers will be rowdy and drunken and will likely spend their time swearing and fighting. Her servant, a young woman from the Isle of Lewis is enthusiastic about the prospect though as you can imagine!

Each chapter deals with the attitudes of various neighbours at different Green Park Terrace house numbers. They’re a very mixed bunch, one house has been turned into a guest house. Another is inhabited by a very demanding woman who thinks she is an invalid and her poor downtrodden daughter. There’s a career woman in one house, determined that having a child isn’t going to change her life and her work in a frock shop, but when the nanny ends up in hospital everything begins to fall apart.

There’s many a mention of Lord Woolton who was appointed Minister of Food during the war, as ever, food and rationing feature. Actually I’ve made Woolton Pie and it wasn’t bad.

This is an enjoyable read and as it was published in 1949 it seems that writers, readers and publishers weren’t too keen to drop the subject of World War 2 on the home front. I suspect that a lot of people were hankering for ‘the good old days’ of war, when so many people, particularly women who had been kicking their heels and bored stiff at home found that they were happy and busy doing war work of some kind. The end of the war wasn’t welcomed by everyone.

I’d be interested to hear if any of you have read anything by Isabel Cameron

Enter Sir Robert by Angela Thirkell

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Enter Sir Robert cover

Where do I go when things like the weather and never ending house stuff are getting me down? To Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire of course! Her books never fail to cheer me up.

Whilst I was reading Enter Sir Robert I couldn’t help thinking that nothing much was happening really, there were no deaths, marriages or even romances going on but that didn’t detract from the entertainment.

The whole book is more or less about the Graham family. Agnes, Lady Graham is becoming more like her deceased mother (Lady Emily Leslie) every day, her children are all adults now – or nearly adults as the youngest, Edith, has finished school but is at a bit of a loose end.

Sir Robert Graham is about to retire, as his wife keeps reminding people all through the book, she sounded very like me at times actually as I have Jack’s retiral at the forefront of my mind so often.

However Sir Robert is never there, he’s always working elsewhere, mainly in London I think, and he doesn’t actually ‘enter’ until the very end of the book.

Otherwise the Hallidays feature quite a lot as the local bank has been renting an old house from them for years, as a bank branch and home for the bank manager. Things are changing though as a new housing estate has been built and they are going to relocate the bank there, so what will become of the Old Manor House now.

Lots of people have tea and look around houses that they’ve wanted to inspect the attics of for yonks, and Mrs Morland, that successful novelist (surely Angela Thirkell herself) plays quite a large part in this book.

If you visit Thirkell’s Barsetshire frequently, as I do, then reading one of her books is just like sitting down for a cosy chat and laugh with an old friend. When she wanders off at a tangent and has a bit of a moan about life in general, it always seems to be something which I absolutely agree with her about. It’s one of the reasons her books have been so popular over all these years, her observations on life and people are just perfect. If she had been alive now she could have had a good career as an observational stand-up comedienne.

Thirkell didn’t have a high opinion of herself as a writer though and as Mrs Morland she mentions that her readers wanted her to write a book each year – and didn’t seem to mind at all that she was really just writing the same book each year. Well, I see what she means, especially as for the first time ever I’ve read two of them in the correct order and one straight after the other, but it’s the slight repetition which gives them their cosiness, you’re safe in Barsetshire, and sometimes that’s just what you need.

Miss Buncle Married by D.E. Stevenson

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This is the sequel to Miss Buncle’s Book, which I really enjoyed reading so when I saw this at a library in the next town I snapped it off the shelf, even although it’s a large print book. I suspect that the powers that be in Fife libraries think that D.E. Stevenson’s books are only read by very elderly ladies in care homes, but I’m not quite of that generation.

Anyway, in this book Barbara Abbott nee Buncle is enjoying married life with her Arthur, she’s partial to large men you know, and he fits the bill perfectly. The only blot in their happiness is the fact that they have got into a social circle which means never ending dinner invitations and bridge parties. When they eventually realise that neither of them are keen on all the socialising, they plan their getaway.

So that they don’t upset their neighbours Barbara looks far afield for her dream home, and when she finds it it’s a wreck. She sets to work refurbishing the place and in time they make friends with all the neighbours, who are more to her liking, no bridge this time!

When I was about a third of the way through this book I thought to myself that I wasn’t enjoying it as much as Miss Buncle’s Book but by the time I got to the half way mark it had pepped up and I was happy eavesdropping on the inhabitants of the English village of Wandlebury. As you would expect from D.E.Stevenson, this is a cosy light read, which is sometimes just what I need.

D.E.Stevenson was Scottish and was related to R.L.Stevenson of Kidnapped/Treasure Island fame. You can read some more about her here.

Agatha Raisin As the Pig Turns

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This book was just published in 2011 but unfortunately I didn’t bother to check the publication date before I borrowed it from the library. So I read it way out of sequence and it would seem that I’ve missed quite a lot of important events in the life of Agatha. For one thing she’s now divorced – and I missed the marriage!

The biggest change though is that she has now set up her own private detective agency and is employing several people of varied ages and backgrounds so that they can be deployed in situations where they are most likely to be of use.

Apart from those differences I also felt that this book was quite a bit darker than the previous ones which I’ve read, the original murder was nastier, but having said that I still did enjoy it as MC Beaton doesn’t go in for supplying you with the gory details, which I’d really rather avoid.

For me the plot of this one wasn’t as predictable either, which is another plus. Agatha Raisin is a very human character, completely aware of her own flaws but she also has a conscience and she’s particularly worried that her habit of meddling in other people’s private lives (for their own good as far as she is concerned) could have dire consequences – but will she mend her ways? I doubt it and I hope not – because then she wouldn’t be Agatha – would she?