Recommendation: The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

English Bell Ringing, Stolen Emeralds and Murder

The Nine Tailors has a lot of detail about bell ringing as part of a beautifully crafted, richly timbred detective novel

My memories from my first reading of The Nine Tailors was that it was a bit slow and there was way too much detail about English change-ringing of church bells. I think that helpfully set me expectations for a recent rereading and this time I loved it. It does take a while for a corpse to be found and so the whole first section of the book is introducing setting and characters and there is a lot about ringing church bells. The body is found in the second section and from there things speed up. This second time I deeply appreciated the pacing and craftsmanship. I also found a better approach for dealing with the bell detail. Each section starts with excerpts from rather dry bell ringing manuals. The trick is just to let this roll over you and accept that there are clever bell jokes in the chapter headings that you cannot comprehend! All the info about bell-ringing that you need to follow the plot is in the main text. And you only need the vibe. So, expect a slow start, don’t get bogged down in the bell ringing and settle in to enjoy this exquisitely crafted detective novel.

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Recommendation: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers

PTSD and generational tensions regarding war service didn’t start with the Vietnam War. Both are explored in Sayer’s Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers is another delightful Lord Peter Wimsey novel. The discovery of the elderly General Fentiman, dead in his regular chair at the Bellona Club on Armistice Day, plunges the club into ‘unpleasantness’. Lord Peter Wimsey is asked by the relatives to attempt to establish the time of death, as the distribution of the General’s sister’s vast fortune depends on this. The case shows up Lord Peter’s humanity, tests his relationship with Detective Parker and explores some of the emotional and mental effects of WWI, as well as generational attitudes to these at the time.

All sorts of unpleasantness comes to light when an elderly man is found dead in the lounge of his returned servicemens club just after World War 1
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The Fourth Thursday Next Took Me a While to Appreciate: Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series. Thursday and her young son Friday leave their life in the Well of Lost Plots and return to Swindon where Thursday attempts to get her husband uneradicated and to neutralise a poorly realised fictional character who has entered the real world and become a far-right, anti-Danish politician. Thursday’s attempts to untangle the pieces of her old life are further complicated by the presence of an image-conscious Hamlet, some medieval prophecies about a mega-corporation and a croquet game, and the acquisition of both an assassin and a stalker.

An eradicated husband, Hamlet's self-image crisis, an unwinnable croquet game and a lack of reliable childcare are just a few of the dilemmas faced by Thursday Next in Something Rotten, the fourth book in Jasper Fforde's hilarious and imaginative series.

I reread Something Rotten a couple of times fairly close together recently and enjoyed it far more than I had on earlier readings. I think in the past I’ve felt the need to read this series in sequence and I think it tends to be around Something Rotten/First Among Sequels that it begins to feel a bit same-same before getting more varied again in the last few books. It definitely benefited from being read more on its own. Also, I often forget quite a bit of Fforde’s convoluted plots between reads so rereading it while it was fairly fresh in my memory allowed me to enjoy the careful trail of clues and gave me a new appreciation of this installment.

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Quintessential Diana Wynne Jones: Archer’s Goon is about a boy, a family, a town and a threatening goon who takes up residence in the kitchen

Seven sinister siblings control the town in Archer’s Goon, but why is Archer the scariest sibling, and what does he use Howard’s father’s words for?

Archer’s Goon is classic Diana Wynne Jones with various mysteries and characters gradually converging.

The arrival of the Goon in Howard and Awful’s kitchen, demanding mysterious payment in the form of written words from their author-father, leads them to the discovery that a family of seven siblings are ruling and controlling their town, ‘farming’ the various industries. But who is using their father’s writing and what are they using it for? How did Howard and Awful’s family somehow get caught up in their schemes?

Beautifully constructed, with enjoyable characters. I recently reread this out loud with a friend on a camping holiday and enjoyed it just as much or more on a second reading. It would also be a great place to start if you are keen to try out DWJ.

Posted in 10 years and up, 11 years and up, 13 years and up, 20th Century Children's, Adventure, British, Children's Classic, Comedy, Fantasy, Fiction, Novel, Speculative Fiction, YA Classic, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Comforting her father and organising the wellbeing of the town of Carlingford – whether they want it or not: Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant is a gently ironic novel of the Victorian era

To be a ‘comfort to her Papa’ Miss Marjoribanks insists on having the drawing room redecorated, choosing green because it is a colour that suits her complexion

Miss Marjoribanks (pronounced ‘MARCH-banks’) by Margaret Oliphant is a tongue-in-cheek Victorian novel about the eponymous heroine who, after the death of her mother, sets herself the task of ‘being a comfort to Papa’, the Carlingford doctor. She is also very committed to the good of ‘society’, seeking to bring together the well-to-do of the town in pleasant social intercourse and facing various challenges and setbacks. Miss Marjoribanks is perhaps Oliphant’s most famous novel, part of the Carlingford series. It is delightful, ironic and lighthearted, gently poking fun at most of the characters.

Miss Marjoribanks (pronounced ‘MARCH-banks’) by Margaret Oliphant is a tongue-in-cheek Victorian novel about the eponymous heroine who, after the death of her mother, sets herself the task of ‘being a comfort to Papa’, the Carlingford doctor. She is also very committed to the good of ‘society’, seeking to bring together the well-to-do of the town in pleasant social intercourse and facing various challenges and setbacks. Miss Marjoribanks is perhaps Oliphant’s most famous novel, part of the Carlingford series. It is delightful, ironic and lighthearted, gently poking fun at most of the characters.

Posted in 18th Century, British, Classic, Fiction, General adult audience, Novel, Novel of Manners, Victorian | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

My Favourite Thursday Next Novel: The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde

The Well of Lost Plots in the third installment of the speculative, absurdist Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde. It has long been my favourite, the book where Fforde’s world inside and behind books really comes alive.

Pursued by Goliath Corporation, Thursday takes up residence inside fiction in a poorly written and unpublishable novel in the Well of Lost Plots. Yet something is very suss in the fiction world. A number of jurisfiction agents meet unnatural deaths and it all seems to be linked to an upcoming upgrade to the book operating system, UltrawordTM. Meanwhile Thursday battles with a mindworm that is slowly erasing her memories of her husband, himself eradicated by Goliath.

Most of the action of the 3rd Thursday Next novel takes place in the place where books are constructed, the well of lost plots, where Thursday is living in an unpublished crime novel of dubious quality

This book in the series develops how fiction is created in the Well, interspersed with Jurisfiction assignments that range from anger management sessions with the characters of Wuthering Heights to feeding rogue mythical beasts and plot adjustments inside Enid Blyton. All the usual word-humour and hijinks are there. This book also forms the background to Fforde’s spin-off Nursery Crime series (which also stands alone).

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Small Steps by Louis Sachar: An engaging, amusing and compassionate sequel to Holes

Sachar's novel is a hilarious story about a teenage boy trying to hold down a life and lose a nickname.

When Theodore gets released from detention at Camp Greenlake he sets about taking small steps towards his goals of staying out of trouble, holding down a job and losing the nickname ‘Armpit’. But his steady progress is all thrown into jeopardy when X-Ray, another of the boys from Camp Greenlake reappears in his life.

This sequel to Holes is another enjoyable, hilarious and sympathetic tale of a teenage boy who somehow has to find a way out of a mess that is not entirely of his own making. It includes a diverse cast of characters who are engaging in their own right and the pace and storytelling are excellent.

Posted in 11 years and up, 13 years and up, 20th Century, 20th Century YA, Adventure, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Drama, Fiction, Novel, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The most enjoyable ‘collected letters’ I’ve ever read: 84, Charing Cross Road (and the Duchess of Bloomsbury street)

From 1950 to 1970, an American scriptwriter, Helene Hanff, embarked on self-education by book with the aid of some British secondhand booksellers. 84, Charing Cross Road is a collection of the letters which passed primarily between Hanff and the shop’s head buyer, Frank Doel. American candour and teasing on one side, British reserve and understatement on the other. Yet drawn into a mutually treasured friendship by their shared love of books. The second half, originally published as The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, contains Hanff’s diary of her visit to England following Doel’s death and the publication of 84, Charing Cross Road. In it she describes her visit, her encounters with her Charing Cross connections and other new and old friends and her experience of a country she had so long encountered only through books. Reading these letters and diary was like making several treasured new friends: books, authors and regular people. Thanks, Bron for the recommendation and loan!

84, Charing Cross Road is the collected correspondence of a woman and her bookseller but that doesn't convey the charm of this trans-Atlantic correspondence...
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A children’s series that ages with its audience: Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill captures 10 year old life well

The third Betsy-Tacy book takes our heroines on picnics over the big hill that has previously marked the edge of their world.

Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill is the third in Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series. The girls are now 10 years old and the largely standalone chapters of the first two books smoothly transition into larger story arcs involving a terrible fight with their older sisters and various encounters with the immigrants in the nearby New Syria community. The depiction of their cross-cultural encounters with the neighbouring Lebanese community are gently done, as is the fight with Julia and Katie and its various consequences.

Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, 7 years and up, American, Children's, Children's Classic, Children's Classics, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Would you like world-ending pink topping with that? Lost is a Good Book is a generous second helping of Thursday Next from Jasper Fforde

Improbable events and probability play a part in Jasper Fforde's improbably good sequel

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde is the second book in the Thursday Next series. Despite a sudden celebrity for saving Jane Eyre and improving the ending, not every one is happy with what Thursday has done. A series of extremely unlikely near death experiences seem like attempts to kill her. The Goliath Corporation are determined to get inside fiction and aren’t opposed to eradicating Thursday’s husband in an attempt to make her cooperate. As the plot thickens, Thursday finds another way into the world of fiction where she faces criminal charges for changing Jane Eyre and becomes part of Jurisfiction, the team of agents who protect and police inside of fiction. This paves the way for literary puns, humour, wordplay and adventures inside fiction as Thursday faces trial inside Kafka’s The Trial, fixes plot holes in Great Expectations and is solicited for real world luxury goods by everyone from the Cheshire Cat to Marianne Dashwood. This doesn’t even cover the major storylines! This book has an incredibly intricate and interconnected plot. It also manages to juggle two wonderfully realised worlds. It does all this with a lightness and humour that doesn’t feel bogged down in complexity and unnecessary detail (until you try to summarise it!).

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