Book Review by George Simmers: In 1937 Herman Cyril McNeile who, as ‘Sapper’ had written the Bulldog Drummond thrillers, died. His friend Gerard Fairlie, who had collaborated with him on the novelisation of a Drummond film script (The series of Drummond movies were very popular in the 1930s) took over the profitable franchise. Captain Bulldog … Continue reading
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Bulldog Drummond (1920) by ‘Sapper’
Book Review by Jane Varley: This is the novel in which Hugh Drummond D.S.O., M.C. demobbed British officer bored with peace – and the reader – first encounter the international collection of crooks who plan to stage a coup in Great Britain and other capitalist countries and install a Bolshevist regime in order to gain … Continue reading
Sad Cypress (1940) by Agatha Christie
Come away, come away, death, And in sad cypress let me be laid. Fly away, fly away, breath; I am slain by a fair cruel maid. My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, O, prepare it! My part of death, no one so true Did share it. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 2, Scene 4. … Continue reading
Taken at the Flood (1948) and After the Funeral (1952) by Agatha Christie
Book review by George S: These two novels were published when Agatha Christie’s was at the peak of her powers, and delivering at least one best-seller every year – two, most years. Both are about families where something has gone wrong in a way, she hints, that mirrors what is going wrong with the country. … Continue reading
The Razor’s Edge (1944) by Somerset Maugham
Book Review by George S: The Razor’s Edge was written during the Second World War, but its story begins at the end of the First one. In 1919 Larry Darrell is in Paris. He is an airman who after the Armistice is behaving oddly. As a character says: The war did something to Larry. He … Continue reading
Cherry Ames Cruise Nurse (1948) by Julie Tatham
By Val Hewson and Chris Hopkins Cherry Ames, for anyone unfamiliar with her – and I would be interested to hear who does remember her and the career novels written for girls in the mid-20th century – is a young American nurse. She qualifies in the early 1940s and takes various jobs, including wartime service … Continue reading
Now, Voyager (1941), by Olive Higgins Prouty
The classic movie Now, Voyager (1942), starring Bette Davis, is so familiar that I can pretty nearly play it in my head. Claude Rains as Dr Jaquith tapping his pipe against a valuable Chinese vase in the hall of a great Boston house. Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale walking nervously down the gangplank of the … Continue reading
The Shuttle (1907) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Book review by George Simmers: When my daughter was young I used to read to her regularly, and when she was ten or eleven we both greatly enjoyed the children’s books of Frances Hodgson Burnet. The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Editha’s Burglar. Wonderful stories. Frances Hodgson Burnet. was born in Manchester, … Continue reading
The Heat of the Day (1948) by Elizabeth Bowen
Book Review by George Simmers: The Heat of the Day is a novel set in 1942. The central character is Stella, whose lover, Robert had been wounded at Dunkirk. He now seems to be working in Whitehall. One day a mysterious man called Harrison comes to Stella’s flat and tells her that Robert is passing … Continue reading
Beau Brocade (1907) by Baroness Orczy
Book review by George Simmers. This month we are looking at books and writers connected with Derbyshire and Yorkshire, and this novel, despite being written by the Hungarian, Baroness Orczy, qualifies on both counts. It is set on the moors of Derbyshire, and Baroness Orczy, having married her theatrical collaborator, Montagu Barstow, lived with him … Continue reading
Reading 1900-1950 