Funny how Caroline’s eyes betrayed her exasperation rather than her voice or manner. They were almost grey when she was pleased, but they turned a clear cold blue when she was annoyed or irritated. (ch 2) In Caroline and other novels, like Narcissa (1941), Richmal Crompton explores appalling, outrageous, even monstrous behaviour masquerading as normal; … Continue reading
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Sylvester (1957) by Georgette Heyer
By Val Hewson I have been a fan of Georgette Heyer since a teacher recommended her, in an attempt to get the class in the mood for our Year 10 set book, Pride and Prejudice. She is an under-rated writer, whose work has long been scorned. Romance? Historical fiction? Comedy? Written by a woman and … Continue reading
The Compulsory Husband (1928), by John Glyder
By Janice Maskort and Val Hewson ‘John who?’ we said at Reading 1900-1950, where we think we know our popular 20th century writers. John Glyder came to notice via Mary who features in our sister project, Reading Sheffield. Mary, whose interview is here, kept a record of what she read between the ages of 15 … Continue reading
Passing (1929), by Nella Larsen
For December 2018, we looked at novels by Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) writers working between 1900 and 1950. I read Passing by the American author Nella Larsen (1891-1964), who explored connections, and the lack of them, between black, mixed race and white communities in 1920s America. Nella Larsen deserves to be much better known … Continue reading
The Man in Grey – a Regency Romance (1941), by Eleanor Smith
It’s tosh and I loved it. Bath gentility, Almack’s assemblies, gauzy frocks, curricles and phaetons, two aristocrats in a marriage of convenience, her lover and his mistress. I can’t help feeling that Georgette Heyer would have arranged matters very differently. The cynical, bored Marquis of Rohan, the Man in Grey, would have met not the … Continue reading
Still She Wished for Company (1924), by Margaret Irwin
Still She Wished for Company is a timeslip story – a true one, the author suggests – about a psychic connection between two women living a hundred years apart. There is independent Jan, perhaps in her mid-20s and living in 1920s London; and innocent Juliana, in her late teens and living with her family in … Continue reading
Narcissa (1941), by Richmal Crompton
This month we read adult novels by authors better known as writers for children. In Greek myth, Narcissus was a beautiful but excessively proud youth. He was so enraptured by his reflection in water that he stared at it until he died and was transformed by the gods into the flower which bears his name. … Continue reading
Ann Veronica, by H G Wells (1909)
Spoiler alert. Oh, Ann Veronica, Ann Veronica! You had me, growing up in the 1970s, from the start. I sympathised with your yearning for independence and fulfilment. I felt your exasperation with your narrow-minded relatives. I wanted you to unwrap your ‘wrappered life’. And in a way you did, in spite of the society … Continue reading
The African Queen (1935), by C S Forester
The African Queen is a ripping yarn (one reason, by the way, for the success of the 1951 film). Two ill-suited people struggle against incredible odds on an impossible quest, striking a blow for the right against imperial might. But I think The African Queen, by C S Forester (1899-1966), is much more than a … Continue reading
Green for Danger (1945) by Christianna Brand
Seven letters. Old Mr Moon and young Dr Barnes, and Gervase Eden, surgeon, of Harley Street; Sister Marion Bates; Jane Woods and Esther Sanson and Frederica Linley, V.A.D.s. Higgins shuffled the envelopes together impatiently, and wrapped them round with a piece of grubby tape and thrust them into his pocket, plodding on, wheeling his bicycle … Continue reading
