The Castle on the Hill by Elizabeth Goudge (1942)

Review by Thecla W: It is early in the War. Miss Brown, aged around 40, has had her boarding house requisitioned by the Army and is in London, staying with a cousin and unsuccessfully looking for work. On her way to visit another relative, she is moved by the playing of a street violinist and … Continue reading →

Greenmantle by John Buchan (1916)

This month we have also read the Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan. Responses were very mixed! Some thought the later novels inferior to the first, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), others thought them a rollicking read! The five Hannay novels are: The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915); Greenmantle (1916); Mr Standfast (1919); The Three Hostages (1924); The … Continue reading →

Challenge to Sirius by Sheila Kaye Smith (1917)

Review by Thecla W: I found this novel hard-going but it has a certain dreary fascination for any fan of Cold Comfort Farm. The narrative is chronological and the novel is structured in episodes, each one set in a specific place: Sussex, London, Sussex, America, Yucatan, Sussex. Frank Rainger lives with his father at Luke … Continue reading →

The ‘Bartimeus’ Omnibus (1935)

Review by George Simmers – see his Great War Fiction blog here The author was born Lewis Anselm da Costa Ricci in 1886; he anglicised his name to Ritchie and trained to become a naval officer. While still young, he contracted Malta Fever (brucellosis); this cost him the sight of one eye and damaged the … Continue reading →

An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer (1937)

Review by George Simmers (see his Great War Fiction blog here) ‘No one could foretell what the future held; but everyone knew that these weeks might be the last of happiness. Except when news crept through of movement on the frontier, war was not much talked of. Talking of it could not stop its coming; it … Continue reading →