Over on Vulpes Libris I did a rapid round-up of nine Scottish novels for St Andrew's Night. Which is today, 30 November. Once you've read them, get yer kilt on, and get thee to a ceilidh.
Month: November 2016
Country journalism: Monica Dickens’ My Turn to Make the Tea
In this excellent newspaper memoir-novel from 1951, it is always Monica Dickens’ turn to make the tea. She is a posh girl, the youngest staff member on the Downingham Post, and the only woman on this very small, local daily paper. She isn’t a campaigning career journalist: she’s really a writer rather than a reporter … Continue reading Country journalism: Monica Dickens’ My Turn to Make the Tea
More magic in London: Ben Aaronovitch’s The Hanging Tree
The Hanging Tree is the sixth in the Peter Grant Rivers of London series – about a wizard’s apprentice in a special department of London’s Metropolitan Police, dedicated to sorting out the ‘weird bollocks’ that the regular Met don’t wish to have anything to do with. I think the best way to update other fans, … Continue reading More magic in London: Ben Aaronovitch’s The Hanging Tree
Romping through the heather: John Buchan’s Castle Gay
This fine novel from 1930 about newspaper proprietors and their unexpected influences has a title that hasn’t travelled well. Be it known that the 'Gay' of the title is an invented Scottish clan-type name that probably derives from the medieval ancestry of its Westwater owners, headed by Lord Rhynns. ‘Gay’ is a place-name. Let’s get on … Continue reading Romping through the heather: John Buchan’s Castle Gay
The Story of Maha, by Sumayya Lee
Orphaned Maha lives in her grandparents’ house in Durban, where she has everything she needs, except her parents, who died in anti-apartheid protests. She has a perfectly nice life in a strict but well-off Muslim household, though her great-aunt and cousins next door are uniformly vile. If she were living with them she’d be Cinderella. … Continue reading The Story of Maha, by Sumayya Lee
1915 New York newspapers: P G Wodehouse’s Psmith Journalist
Some years ago I wrote a scholarly investigation on the role of menswear in P G Wodehouse’s fiction (read about it on this page). As part of the background reading I waded my way through all his Psmith novels. They’re not my favourite Wodehouse stories, but I do have a fond appreciation for his cautionary … Continue reading 1915 New York newspapers: P G Wodehouse’s Psmith Journalist
Do you believe what the newspapers say? The Inheritors, by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Hueffer
This novel from 1901 is surprisingly easy to whip through, considering it was co-written by two heavyweights of English literature, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford (in his earlier guise as Hueffer). Their writing style does not usually allow a fast and snappy read. They were both masters of the elliptical and the oblique, circumlocuting their subject … Continue reading Do you believe what the newspapers say? The Inheritors, by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Hueffer
Bring on the beshi: C J Cherryh’s Hammerfall
This is the first C J Cherryh novel that I’ve read, and I’m aware that I’m about to step into a sinkhole of opinions about her works. She has published loads of novels, in a tremendous, productive lifetime of writing, and her fans are legion. I admired her story ‘Cassandra’ in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s anthology Women … Continue reading Bring on the beshi: C J Cherryh’s Hammerfall
Rachel Ferguson’s A Footman for the Peacock: a hatchet job
There is a good novel buried in this sprawling, self-indulgent fantasy of irony and class consciousness. Rachel Ferguson wrote A Footman for the Peacock (1940) right at the beginning of the Second World War: it was her eighth novel and fourteenth book. Comparing it to its immediate predecessor, Alas Poor Lady (1937), one can only assume … Continue reading Rachel Ferguson’s A Footman for the Peacock: a hatchet job
Kate Macdonald 