Tag Archives: Rosy Thornton

Thornyhold by Mary Stewart

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This book was first published in 1988 which is why I hadn’t read it before. Most of my Mary Stewart reading took place in the 1970s and really the only ones which I remember clearly are The Hollow Hills, The Crystal Cave and The Last Enchantment, in other words her Arthurian/Merlin trilogy, which I really enjoyed.

Thornyhold is different in that most of it is set just after World War II, so we’re back with rationing again. Geillis has had an unusual childhood as the only child of a vicar and a woman who had white witches in her family background. It was a lonely, poverty stricken time for Geillis but she had occasional visits from her mother’s cousin, another Geillis, the only bright spot in her childhood.

By page 39 both parents are dead and Geillis has inherited a house from her cousin Geillis who had been a bit of a herbalist.

Thornyhold cover

I’m trying to remember if herbalism and witchcraft are staple themes of Mary Stewart’s writing, I think probably they are and that would have been quite appealing to the younger me.

This is another cosy read in a similar vein to Rosy Thornton’s books. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t read much in the way of romance and they always run along these lines. I would call it a comfort read, something you want to consume now and again like Turkish Delight, but you wouldn’t want to live on it.

Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton

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School for Love cover

Published in 2008 this is the second book which I’ve read by Rosy Thornton. At first it seemed a bit strange to me and then I realised that it is the first contemporary book set in Britain which I’ve read for absolutely yonks. Tapestry of Love was set in France and I’ve been concentrating on vintage and classic books recently.

Anyway, I don’t make a habit of reading much in the way of romance, but I quite enjoyed this one even although it involves mundane aspects of family life and the soul destroying experience of call-centres. However I did find it to be very predictable, I wasn’t far into it when I thought to myself this is going to be ….. – I won’t say it because it turned out that what I thought were the very last words of the book! Possibly it was supposed to be so predictable as some people find that comforting.

Mina and Peter are both single parents of daughters but otherwise their family circumstances are quite different with Mina having a very bookish daughter and living in a down-at-heel housing estate, whilst Peter is living in the much more salubrious Cambridge with his twin daughters and just as much stress.

It’s another feel-good book, which is no disparagement because sometimes that’s just what you need and the characters are all fairly likeable and realistic. Mina’s daughter Sal will be especially recognisable to people who preferred to have their friends in book form when they were children. Her reading experiences certainly reminded me of myself as a youngster reading Jane Eyre and Romeo and Juliet when still at primary school.

As with Tapestry of Love I was happy that the storyline didn’t take the usual modern turn which seems always to be some tart running off with another woman’s husband, with no thought to the mayhem to other lives caused by it. That isn’t romance to my way of thinking anyway although it does seem to go by that name nowadays.

So if you’re looking for some light reading give Rosy Thornton a go.

Some 2010 Book Thoughts

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If my scribbled list is correct, I managed to read 81 books in 2010. Well, that might be me cheating a wee bit because I’ve still got about 100 pages of War and Peace to read, but the vast bulk of it has been read in 2010 and I’m giving myself loads of ‘Brownie points’ for getting around to reading it at last. Yes, I ended up being the Sixer of the Kelpies (Sprites) – if that means anything to anyone!

Authors whom I’ve enjoyed reading and were new to me this year are:
Willa Cather, Paul Auster, Annie Proulx, Barabara Kingsolver, Rosamunde Pilcher, Rosy Thornton, Zola – in fact there are too many to mention, so it’s been a really enjoyable reading year.

It’s all thanks to the recommendations of bloggers and commentators. I wouldn’t have got around to reading half of the new authors otherwise. I can hardly believe that I’ve actually read a book by Thomas Carlyle – Sartor Resartus, definitely different but surprisingly fairly readable.

This year I’m trying to read a lot of the books which I’ve had in the house waiting to be read for years. Then I can either pass them on or pack them away when I’ve finished with them with a view to clearing some book clutter prior to downsizing. I am actually tripping over books!

The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton

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Just after I read Stefanie’s (So Many Books) review of this book it appeared on the ‘new books’ shelf at my library, so I took it as a sign that I should read it. This is what I call a marshmallow book because it’s the sort of thing that’s lovely now and again – but you wouldn’t want to live on it. Perfect light holiday reading or for when you just want to escape somewhere different and dream.

It’s set in France, in the Cevennes mountains where Catherine, an English woman has bought a remote granite cottage with the intention of starting up a sewing business. She’s a divorcee with grown up children and at last it’s time for her to do her own thing. But she hadn’t bargained on the amount of red tape that she encounters in France nor the heavy rainfall that the area gets and she begins to wonder if she’s done the right thing in settling there.

This book is well written and has a lot of deja vu moments if you’re a certain age, with guilt about a sick/dying parent and having to clear out the family home featuring in it.

Catherine’s cottage is close to the road which Robert Louis Stevenson travelled and wrote about in his book Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes which was first published in 1878. I read it years ago and seem to remember that it’s quite funny. It’s a shame that hardly any of Stevenson’s books are read nowadays, except for Kidnapped of course.

Rosy Thornton has written into her book modern day tourists who pass by on their quest to replicate the 120 mile trek with their version of Modestine the donkey. It’s quite a touching nod towards Stevenson, I think.

This is a wish fulfilment book for a lot of English people who have a love/hate relationship with France. In general the English love France but don’t like all the French people in it and the French people hate the English – unless there is money involved. I’ve always taken the precaution to wear a Saltire (Scottish flag) brooch whenever I’m in France, but then you do run the risk of being kissed in the street by complete strangers, it’s a war thing.

Anyway, back to the book. Nit-picking alert! It isn’t terribly realistic as Catherine completes at least three large tapestries/needlepoints really quickly and if you’ve ever done any then you’ll know that it’s a slow process. The book has quite a lot of typos, downright mis-spellings and words completely missing but for me the most annoying one was the spelling of the town of St Andrews, in Fife, because all through the book it has an apostrophe s – which of course it shouldn’t have. I live nearby so I should know but so should a proof-reader.

On the other hand this was a pleasant change because I had given up on modern fiction as a succession of books that I read at one point all had the same story line and ended up with the main character, aka A Trollope, running off with another woman’s husband, in the guise of romance. It isn’t what I call romance, in fact, I can’t say what I do call it, apart from a diabolical liberty. And I cleaned that one up!