Homecoming

Homecoming by Catrin Collier

My 12-year old bought this for me for my birthday. He was enticed by the cover, read the blurb and decided it was a Mum book.

It's the third in a series, which I didn't realise, though part way through I guessed it must be. The characters were related to each other in such complex ways - two friend married to two brothers, a third friend married to the father of the first, and a fourth friend whose mother is married to the uncle of the second. And they all live in each other's basement or attic flats. I was confused for a while, but now I realise it's part of a trilogy that explains it all!

It's set in the 1950s, and deals with the subject of pregancies, wanted and unwanted. Helen's husband is back from his National Service in Cyprus. While there, he had a brief fling with an officer's widow which has left her pregnant, while Helen can't have children. Two of Helen's friends are also pregnant. As is another girl, the flatmate of the fourth friend, out of wedlock. The plot rattles along at a fair old pace, much of the story being told via dialogue between the various characters. I didn't get much of a sense of place, though the book is set in South Wales. I also found the overuse of dialogue tags quite overbearing after a while - my personal preference is to stick to 'said' most of the time, use other tags sparingly.

The best thing about this book (apart from it being a thoughtful present from my darling!) is the depiction of 1950s attitudes towards pregnancy. The unwanted babies are born in a home for unmarried mothers, and reading about it made me very glad to have been a product of a different, more accepting era.

The Dog with Nine Lives

The Dog With Nine Lives by Della Galton

Lovely heart-warming true story of how Della rescues a dog and her puppies from a beach in Greece, then brings the mother home to England. The dog, Lindy, seems to have more than her fair share of luck and survives all sorts of near-death experiences, from being swept away in a river to cancer.

You definitely need a box of tissues to hand - Della is the queen of writing powerful emotional womag fiction and brings all her experience with her writing this non-fiction.

It's a short book, easily read in one or two evenings, and highly recommended.

Tipping the Velvet

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

I'm a fan of Sarah Waters and rate her book Nightwatch as one of my all-time favourites. It took me a long time to get around to Tipping the Velvet though - sounded too raunchy and lesbian for my tastes! But when I came across it in my local WHS and felt desperate for a book I knew would be brilliantly written, I decided to go for it.

Raunchy - yes, lesbian - yes, well-written - yes. Not as good as her other books though, but then it was written earlier and most writers improve over time!

It's 1895. Nancy Astley falls for a variety show star - Kitty Butler whose act is to dress up as a man and sing saucy songs. They meet, and Nan becomes Kitty's dresser and moves to London with her to play the bigger theatres. In time they become lovers, and partners on stage. But Kitty is ashamed of her sexuality and eventually drops Nan to marry her agent. Heartbroken Nan finds comfort in continuing to dress as a boy, and becomes a 'male' prostitute, providing hand & mouth jobs in back alleys. She then gets picked up by a rich sapphist, and spends a year or so as a live-in plaything, until after being caught with the maid she's thrown out. Finally she finds friendship which grows into love with another girl.

The novel is an enjoyable read, and as you'd expect, romps along. It's not without its flaws though - there's a scene near the end where all Nan's ex-lovers just happen to be all attending the same socialist rally, so Nan can meet with all of them and gain closure.

But for fans of Waters or anyone with an open mind and a love of Victorian-set fiction, read it and enjoy!

The Devil's Acre

The Devil's Acre by Matthew Plampin

Proof that Amazon's 'you might also like' strategy works - this was a recommendation via Amazon when I was buying something else, and it enticed me so I bought it. I've been reading lots of novels set in the nineteenth century lately. This one is set in the early 1850s in London. The Houses of Parliament are still being built, behind Westminster Abbey is a slum area known as the Devil's Acre.

The book is a fiction based on fact, and tells the tale of the short-lived Colt gun factory set on the banks of the Thames. There's lots of political manoevreing as the larger-than-life character of Samuel Colt attempts to get the government to buy his weapons for the forthcoming war with Russia. A group of disaffected Irish work in the factory and are trying to smuggle guns out for their own purposes. The novel is told mostly from the point of view of Colt's (fictional) secretary, an ambitious young man who falls in love with a factory girl who has been forced into helping the Irish mob. He (Lowry) is torn between wanting to improve his chances by working hard for Colt, his love for the girl, and his unease about the arms trade. It's a fascinating novel, covering a very interesting period of history, and is a good example of bringing actual historical figures to life.

The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

After a massive stroke, the author was left with movement only in one eyelid. By blinking as letters of the alphabet were read out, he dictated this book about what it's like living with locked-in syndrome. Sadly, he died just after the book was first published in France.

It's an amazing achievement, and is the sort of book which makes you realise how lucky you are and how wonderful life is. Bauby writes with eloquence, warmth and wry humour.

When writing about how he insisted on being dressed in his own clothes, not hospital gowns, he writes: I see in the clothes a symbol of continuing life. And proof that I still want to be myself. If I must drool, I may as well drool on cashmere. Attaboy.

EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK, and remind yourself of what it means to be alive.

The Colour

The Colour by Rose Tremain

This was a second-hand buy from the community centre. Set in the 1860s in New Zealand, it follows a couple who have emigrated from Norfolk to make a new life down under. Joseph is running from something, unknown to his wife Harriet. They start with a farm, then Joseph discovers 'the colour' in the creek running through their land. The colour means gold. Joseph then pans for gold on his land, abandoning the farming dream, then abandons Harriet to go to the wild west coast (of NZ south island) in search of wealth.

But it is really Harriet's story, for she is the one who learns to love the expanse of the country. She follows Joseph, and when she believes he has died, she embarks on another, physical love affair.

This is a great story - lots happening, beautiful description, a wonderful evocation of another time and place, more brutal than the one we know but with its own allure. Must read more by this author.

My So-called Haunting

My So-called Haunting by Tamsyn Murray

What's known chez womagwriter as a 'buddy book' - ie I know the author! Tam has built an incredible world of ghosts and psychics in this, and her previous book My So-called Afterlife. In this one, teenage Skye has a troubled teenage ghost who was killed in a gang shooting to help, and has her own troubles with her boyfriend, handsome bad boy Nico. A lively, humourous and warm book, and one that isn't scared to tackle big themes. The end, while satisfying, doesn't tie up all the strands of the novel and leaves you desperate for Tam's third novel, My So-called Phantom Lovelife which isn't yet published!
If you've got teenage girls in your house I'd say this series is a must.