Tag Archives: Susanna Bavin

SISTER SCRIBES’ READING ROUND UP: MARCH

Posted on by

Susanna:

A Cornish Inheritance is an excellent first book in a new saga series. Deceit, tragedy and emotion are the themes in Terri Nixon’s latest novel, set on the beautiful Cornish coast. The characters are drawn in depth and develop throughout the story as each one is tested to the limit. It’s a very twisty-turny plot and you definitely need to pay attention as you get towards the end, but, crikey, is it worth it. This is the first Terri Nixon book I’ve read and now I’m looking forward to reading her Oaklands Manor trilogy.

 

Kitty:

I have had a busy reading month, the perks of handing in one manuscript and having the luxury of a longer delivery date for the next so I’ve taken over almost all the reading round up this month.

I’ve been reading Christmas books to get me feeling Christmassy as I begin to write my next seasonal book. This has included re-reading the fabulous Jilly Cooper’s How to Survive Christmas. She can be relied upon to make me howl with laughter and certainly did so with this. This book was originally published in the seventies and updated in the eighties and made me realise how much society at large has changed – particularly as I was reading the tips on not getting too upset over your husband’s mistress – and how glad I am for it.

With the same aim, I raced through Sue Moorcrofts’s Let it Snow. This was a truly enjoyable Christmas read, and I loved reading about the choir as they headed to Switzerland, the country was beautifully described and created a detailed picture in my mind. I also really enjoyed the family dynamics within the story (a big plus for me to see ME mentioned empathetically) alongside the romance and this book gave me all the seasonal feels.

Finally, I have been so excited about talking about this book, I’ve been recommending it to anyone unfortunate enough to spend five minutes or more in my company.

You know how every now and again a book comes along and you fall utterly, utterly in love with it? That has happened to me this year with The Authenticity Project by Claire Pooley and I think it will remain on the top of my feelgood reads list for many years to come.

From the very first page the writing captivated me, and I knew this would be a book to steal my heart. It starts with Julian, an elderly gentlemen who is struggling with loneliness and the façade he uses to cover it. He writes his story in a notebook, leaving it for someone else to pick up and carry on.

The book gets passed from one person to the next and the truth is revealed about people’s real lives, their doubts and fears and how much they are at odds with the way others perceive them. It examines how people struggle regardless of age, class, lifestyle and that we all have burdens to carry. However, it also shows the power of positive human interaction and how small actions can mean so much. It is uplifting and rammed full of optimism, becoming a book about community and support, friendship and love and I defy anyone not to pick it up and be both transported and delighted.  If you get the chance to read it, then do. Feel free to shout at me if you don’t fall in love as much as I did.

Happy reading, Kitty x

 

 

SISTER SCRIBES: SUSANNA BAVIN ON WHY TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED ARE SO UNUSUAL AND SO SATISFYING

Posted on by

How many of you out there remember watching Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected back in the 1970s? Or, if you don’t remember any of the programmes themselves, I bet you remember the opening credits, with the silhouette of the girl dancing in front of what I imagine was a psychedelic background. I can’t be sure about the psychedelic bit, because our telly was black-and-white. I can recall only one of the stories, which featured Susan George as a housewife who cooked a joint of meat . . . and if you don’t know the significance of this, I’m not going to tell you. I’ll just say the story had a very clever twist at the end.

We all enjoy a good plot-twist, don’t we? One of the things about being an experienced reader is that it is rare to be truly surprised by something that happens in a book – though I want to make it clear that this in no way lessens the enjoyment of reading it. It is particularly true for readers of genre fiction, where certain conventions and expectations exist within whatever type of story it is. I once wrote a blog called A Promise Between Friends, which was about the ‘contract’ between the author of genre fiction and the reader. The author writes a stirring story within the conventions and the reader meets the writer halfway. Even so, a good plot-twist is always welcome.

Take Hope at Holly Cottage by saga writer Tania Crosse. The idea of the husband or father drinking his wages and then knocking his wife around is well-known to readers of sagas and historicals, but Tania Crosse takes this familiar idea and gives it a new lease of life. Yes, Anna’s dad has bouts of violence, but the reason behind them is one I haven’t come across in a saga before and it adds extra depth to the tragic dynamics of the family situation. After packing the opening chapters with drama and emotion, Tania Crosse then takes the heroine off into a completely new place for the next part of her story, changing not only the setting but also the atmosphere, and giving Anna something new to strive for.

And if you have read Lizzie of Langley Street by Carol Rivers, then you need look no further than its sequel, The Fight for Lizzie Flowers, for a truly unexpected beginning. The first book ends in just the way the reader hopes it will, but the expectations that this creates for what will happen in book 2 are decisively blown to bits in the very first chapter of The Fight for Lizzie Flowers, which opens the continuation of Lizzie’s story in a thoroughly unexpected manner, paving the way for a dramatic and compelling story in which Lizzie – and the reader – can take nothing for granted. As with every Carol Rivers saga, there is a pacey story with well-drawn characters and a strong sense of family feeling.

I was going to end this blog by saying something along the lines of how good it would be if we could have more breath-taking plot-twists, but now I’m wondering whether that might result in too much of a good thing. After all, one of the reasons we all admire a devious plot-twist is because it’s unusual. And perhaps that’s the way it should stay – as a special treat in the occasional book.

SISTER SCRIBES: SUSANNA BAVIN ON THE APPEAL OF THE SHORT STORY

Posted on by

Hands up everyone who remembers the First, Second, Third etc Pan Book of Horror Stories, Edited by Herbert Van Thal. I loved those scary stories when I was in my early teens. Looking back, some of them weren’t entirely suitable for a young reader, though that didn’t stop me lapping them up. My favourite was a ghost story by E F Benson (who wrote the Mapp and Lucia books), called The Confession of Charles Linkworth. I had a phase of reading it every Sunday afternoon before tea and, even though I ended up practically knowing it by heart, it frightened me silly every time. The hero of my newest book, The Surplus Girls, is named Gabriel Linkworth, as a nod to that story.

That was the second E F Benson short story I had come across. The first was The Room in the Tower, which featured in a book called Ghosts! An Anthology, which I received as a Christmas present. Unfortunately, the story was rather wasted on me because I didn’t altogether understand it. It is, in fact, a vampire story and I sort of knew that when I read it, but I was a very literal-minded child and this was in a book of ghost stories and therefore Julia Stone had to be a ghost… didn’t she?

I have always been a reader of short stories. In particular I love the collections that were put together in 1930s, with titles such as The Mammoth Book of Thrillers, Ghosts and Mysteries and A Century of Humour, which was one of a series of A Century of… books. What better way to be introduced to writers such as Wilkie Collins, Guy de Maupassant, O Henry and W W Jacobs? My first taste of G K Chesterton was the wonderfully funny The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown, which I re-read regularly. The Mammoth Book mentioned above even contained a ‘sealed section’ at the end, with stories to make you ‘glance over your shoulder and perhaps even start when there is a creak on the stair.’

A writer whom I came to love was A J Alan, whose wit and humour could find mystery in the most ordinary situations. It was often the style in these 1930s anthologies to top each story with a few sentences of author biography, beside which was a pencil sketch of the man (it was almost always a man) himself; but there was only ever a fancy question mark in the place where A J Alan’s portrait should be. He was famous for reading his stories on the wireless and his identity was a closely guarded secret, as befitted the mysterious nature of his tales.

And I adored Anthony Hope’s The Dolly Dialogues. I bought myself a first edition after enjoying the two chapters that featured in A Century of Humour. They are clever and teasingly romantic observations of life and love.

The most recent collection of short stories I’ve read is Jan Baynham’s Smashing the Mask and Other Stories. Although there isn’t an official theme to the book, a thread of the supernatural runs through several of the tales and in each one Jan creates a different sort of atmosphere, from the deep sorrow of a ghostly mother to the chilly horror of a long-ago murdered girl to the traditional creepiness of helping a stranger. She also uses painful directness to tackle the all too recognisable dilemmas of hoping against hope to meet a long-lost child and struggling to be brave in a situation of coercive control. Jan has produced an intriguing collection filled with insight, a variety of moods from the uplifting to the poignant, and more than one clever twist in the tale.

 

 

 

The Surplus Girls by Polly Heron

Posted on by

I’ve been excited about The Surplus Girls ever since fellow Sister Scribe Susanna Bavin (writing for Corvus as Polly Heron) told me about the concept over a year ago. It is just such a brilliant idea to write about the lives of these neglected women, living in the aftermath of the first world war, in the form of a series of sagas.

The surplus girls were, quite simply, the women who lost fiancés and boyfriends (or even just potential partners) in the war. Whatever their class they had been brought up to expect marriage and children, but now there were not enough men to go around and they were ill prepared for any other sort of life. Most would need to find gainful employment with little or no training, and all would have to look for other ways to make their lives as fulfilling as possible.

The Surplus Girls is set in the suburbs of Manchester in the early 1920s, with a cast of characters from both working and middle classes. Belinda Layton, a mill worker, lives with her late fiancé’s family and after four years of deep mourning is beginning to feel a little smothered by their kindness and intense grief. Belinda’s own family is even further down the social scale, living hand-to-mouth as her feckless father drinks away what little they have.

When Belinda bumps into her old teacher she hears the term ‘surplus girls’ for the first time and is forced to consider her future, beginning to dream of leaving the mill and working in an office. At first this seems hopeless, but then she is introduced to spinster sisters, Prudence and Patience Hesketh, who have their own reasons for opening a business school for young ladies.

Polly Heron has a rare talent for portraying the atmosphere of a setting with a few carefully selected sentences, which never detract from the pace of the plot. And pacey plot it is, making The Surplus Girls hard to put down.  The detail of the era is there, forming a rich background tapestry, but I never once felt I was bogged down by it. While I could see, hear and breathe the world the characters inhabited, as I reader I was free to enjoy being transported there and immerse myself in their story. And it takes a great deal of skill for an author to achieve that.

SISTER SCRIBES’ BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2019

Posted on by

 

Kitty: I knew when I was reading it that Circe would be a book that stayed with me for a long time and I’m happy to call it my book of the year. I’m already itching to re-read it, an absolutely wonderful read. 

I finished Circe by Madeline Miller this month and I cannot do justice to how much I loved it. The story of Circe, a woman locked in by her divinity whilst also dealing with the very female roles of mother, daughter, sister and lover. This retelling made Circe much more accessible and empathetic than the male-centric version that I grew up with. Full of self-discovery, courage and empowerment it turns the myth of vicious witch into a story of a true heroine. I loved it so much that having read it once I am going to store it, like a secret treasure, for a re-read in a few months so I can wallow in it slowly and feel the magic again.

Susanna:  I love Carol’s 20th century sagas, but this year she wrote her first Victorian story, which happens to be my favourite historical setting. Carol Rivers + Victorian = one very happy reader!

One of the things I love and admire about books by Carol Rivers is that, while some authors get a bit stale and produce books that feel samey, Carol always writes something fresh, using new ideas, at the same time as remaining true to the drama and strong sense of personal relationships that characterise her books. Christmas Child is a story for any time of year, not just for the festive season. An emotional and enthralling tale, it follows Ettie as she faces up to life’s dangers and challenges and learns the hard way that not everyone deserves to be trusted. I love stories set in Victorian times and I’m delighted that Carol Rivers has, for this book, left behind her customary 20th century setting and moved into the 19th century. I hope there will be more Victorian stories to come from this wonderful writer.

Cass: A hilarious yet poignant story of self discovery, where you are laughing out loud one moment and holding back tears the next.

“Everyone should be adopted, that way you can meet your birth parents when you’re old enough to cope with them.” So says Pippa Dunn, the eponymous heroine of Alison Larkin’s debut novel, The English American (which has its roots in her autobiographical one-woman comedy show of the same name). Adopted as an infant and raised terribly British (attending a posh boarding school, able to make a proper cup of tea and in the ‘love’ camp for Marmite on toast), Pippa – now 28 – discovers her birth parents are American. Finally, she begins to understand why she’s so different from everyone she knows. Pippa sets off for America, soon meeting her creative birth mother and her charismatic birth father. Moving to New York to be nearer to them, Pippa believes she’s found her ‘self’ and everything she thought she wanted. Or has she? This is a hilarious yet poignant story where you are laughing out loud one moment and holding back tears the next. Pippa’s journey is very funny, yet deeply moving, and I highly recommend The English American to anyone who loves to finish a book with a smile on their face and a warm feeling in their heart.

Jane: Elizabeth Buchan’s The Museum of Broken Promises is, like her other books, a slow starter. I have learnt to be patient while she creates a tapestry of detail so rich and wonderful, holding my breath until to story tips into second, third and fourth gears and becomes unputdownable.

The book is set in Paris in the present day and in Prague in the 1980s. The end of the Cold War was in touching distance, yet nobody knew it, and this adds an additional poignancy to the narrative. Laure, a young woman coming to terms with the death of her father is an au pair to a businessman and party insider, and while trying to make some sense of life behind the Iron Curtain, meets a dissident musician who steals her heart and soul. Years later in France, she sets up the Museum of Broken Promises, full of artefacts people donate in attempt to avenge or assuage the pain of betrayal – and some of them belong to her own past. Slowly the book teases out truths from a long ago Czechoslovakian summer. One moment achingly beautiful, the other shocking in its violence, the whole fits together like a handmade glove. It stayed with me, too – and it’s only now I’m writing this review I finally understand the most important promise. And who broke it. A must read. Honestly.

Kirsten: Beautifully written and no matter how grim the present times feel, at least we are not living in a plague village in 17th century Derbyshire!

I love historical fiction and I was late to the party with  Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. It was published in 2002 and was recommended to me several times before I finally grabbed myself a copy. The book is set in 1666 and it’s based on a true event. The Great Plague has reaches the quiet Derbyshire village of Eyam through a contaminated piece of cloth that has been sent to a tailor from London. It’s the only place in the region that’s been affected and the villagers make the extraordinary decision to isolate themselves totally so that the plague cannot spread further – so no one allowed in or out until the plague has run its course or everyone has died. This story is told through the eyes of 18-year-old Anna Frith as she confronts ‘the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love’. I loved it. It’s sad and interesting and touching and fascinating and I had no idea that anything like this had happened. I wonder how we’d have reacted in the same situation.

SISTER SCRIBES’ READING ROUND UP: NOVEMBER

Posted on by

Jane:

My first read of the month was The Daughter of the River Valley by Victoria Cornwall and I enjoyed this book so much. It drew me in from the beginning – it was so refreshing to read a story set in Victorian times with a fiery female working class character, and which wasn’t unrelenting doom and gloom. Well written and meticulously researched, I absolutely loved it.

I’ve had a real historical month and also adored Tracy Rees’ Darling Blue (now republished as The Love Note). Set in Richmond in the 1920s it charts the stories of three women, during a year when each of their worlds changes beyond recognition. The cast of characters is beautifully drawn, and rather than being a predictable flapper-fest, the novel addresses some of the important issues of the day, including the way the First World War changed both people and society. But for all that it isn’t a heavy read; it’s sensitive and joyful and at times impossible to put down.

Finally, in the name of research, I read Alice Chetwynd Ley’s A Reputation Dies. It’s a detective story set in London in 1815 and her use of period language is so rich it was a joy to read. I felt completely immersed in the period and enjoyed this historical cosy crime very much indeed.

 

 

Kirsten:

I love historical fiction and I was late to the party with  Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. It was published in 2002 and was recommended to me several times before I finally grabbed myself a copy. The book is set in 1666 and it’s based on a true event. The Great Plague has reaches the quiet Derbyshire village of Eyam through a contaminated piece of cloth that has been sent to a tailor from London. It’s the only place in the region that’s been affected and the villagers make the extraordinary decision to isolate themselves totally so that the plague cannot spread further – so no one allowed in or out until the plague has run its course or everyone has died. This story is told through the eyes of 18-year-old Anna Frith as she confronts ‘the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love’. I loved it. It’s sad and interesting and touching and fascinating and I had no idea that anything like this had happened. I wonder how we’d have reacted in the same situation.

 

Susanna:

The first two novels in Clare Chase’s Tara Thorpe series, Murder on the Marshes and Death on the River, are set in and around Cambridge and the Fens. In the first book, Tara is an investigative reporter, while in the second, time has moved on and she is now a police officer, which makes an interesting transition that adds depth to the story. The plots are clever, with twists, atmosphere, pace, a range of well-fleshed-out characters and plenty to make you think. The settings in the books are beautifully conveyed and show Clare Chase’s skill as a writer. I enjoyed the chemistry between Tara and Garstin Blake and when I read the second book, I longed all the way through for Tara’s nasty colleague to get his comeuppance. There are two more Tara Thorpe books (Murder Comes to Call and Death in the Fens) and I’m looking forward to reading those.

 

SISTER SCRIBES: SUSANNA BAVIN ON WHY WE NEED LIFE-AFFIRMING STORIES

Posted on by

Certain types of books have a way of touching readers on a very personal level. For example, starting-again stories are deservedly popular. Who hasn’t at some point said to themselves, “If I could go back and do it all again…” or words to that effect? Call it a natural thought process based on experience or disappointment; call it pure fantasy. The point is that wondering “What if…?” it is part of the human condition and starting-again novels speak to us in a direct way that we can all relate to. One such book is the wonderfully funny and fulfilling The Summer of Second Chances by Maddie Please. Written with a light touch and plenty of chuckles along the way, this is a witty romp that deals with serious themes that add depth to the story.

Another type of book that touches readers in a similar way if the life-affirming story, the sort of book that touches on the strength of the human heart, and encompasses the resilience of the individual and a basic belief in goodness and hope.

Take Minty by Christina Banach. This is a YA book, but, as an adult reader, I was completely drawn into it. It deals with the difficult subject of death and bereavement and is beautifully observed and deeply moving. As well as tragedy and grief, there is also humour and wit and both the characterisation and the depiction of relationships are both spot-on. The book’s ending is an extraordinary piece of writing, being both heartbreaking and uplifting, and it will take your breath away. In spite of Minty’s central topic, we are very much in life-affirming territory, thanks to Christina Banach’s skill and empathy as a writer. (If this blog makes you buy the book, I’ll know when you are all reading the ending, because shares in Kleenex will go through the roof.)

Recently I read Christmas at the Foyles Bookshop by Elaine Roberts. This is the last in a trilogy set in the early part of the 20th century, about three friends, Alice, Molly and Victoria, with each girl taking centre stage in one of the stories. Right from the beginning, the girl I most wanted to read about was Victoria, whose parents died tragically when she was just sixteen, at which point she had to assume responsibility for the younger children; but I had to wait until the final book to delve into her life and find out the answers to all those questions. Victoria has known her share of heartache and now she faces the challenge of a family mystery. Set against the backdrop of the First World War, Christmas at the Foyles Bookshop is an emotional story, filled with love and loss, friendship and family, mystery and duty, heartache and hope. Elaine Roberts has written a heart-warming and engrossing saga that rounds off the trilogy perfectly. It gradually builds up to a gloriously satisfying ending brimming with that special life-affirming quality that, put simply, makes the reader feel good about the world.

 

 

SISTER SCRIBES’ READING ROUND UP: OCTOBER

Posted on by

Kirsten:

I haven’t been reading very much lately – I’ve been wrestling with proposals and second drafts and teenagers – but one book I have read and very much enjoyed is Bonnie and Stan by Anna Stuart.  It’s a story of mature love and the premise is that after over 50 years together, Stan – who still adores his wife – starts dating again.

In a dual time-line. Bonnie and Stan met during the Swinging Sixties, to the soundtrack of The Beatles and the Merseybeat scene. Bonnie’s the only woman on her architecture course and Stan is in a band. This bit is great fun –music and fashion and energy and sex and working out which one of the band members will end being Stan because they all have nicknames.

In the present day, the two have grown old together, had children and grandchildren. This bit happens at the beginning so I’m not giving anything away but Stan has cancer and is running out of time, and can’t bear the thought of leaving Bonnie on her own so, with his teenage granddaughter Greya, he sets out find Bonnie a new love. And it must remain a secret …

I thought it was a fabulous book – ultimately uplifting but with moments of real terror and fury and vulnerability.

 

Susanna:

One of the things I love and admire about books by Carol Rivers is that, while some authors get a bit stale and produce books that feel samey, Carol always writes something fresh, using new ideas, at the same time as remaining true to the drama and strong sense of personal relationships that characterise her books. Christmas Child is a story for any time of year, not just for the festive season.

An emotional and enthralling tale, it follows Ettie as she faces up to life’s dangers and challenges and learns the hard way that not everyone deserves to be trusted. I love stories set in Victorian times and I’m delighted that Carol Rivers has, for this book, left behind her customary 20th century setting and moved into the 19th century. I hope there will be more Victorian stories to come from this wonderful writer.

 

 

Jane:

I went on holiday last month and as such had a little more time than usual to read, so a couple of books I’d been wanting to get my teeth into for a while came to the top of my TBR pile.

The first was Liz Fenwick’s The Path to the Sea, a truly absorbing book, well researched with the strands of the story pulled beautifully together. It is set in 1962 and 2018, with a clever structure that means the action is set over the same three days of both years, flipping between them, but taking events sequentially in both. It must have been an absolute sod to write, but it’s so beautifully managed it never feels contrived and I was caught up in the story rather than the way it was told, which is exactly how it should be.

Three generations of women come together at Boskenna for the last time, both bound together and torn apart by the secrets and lies between them. It’s a fabulous story, but what I loved the most was that important thing wasn’t what had happened, but why.

The second book was Jen Gilroy’s The Cottage at Firefly Lake. Far more of a traditional holiday read, it’s a heart-warming small town romance set in Vermont and featuring realistically scarred characters you want to alternately hug then knock their heads together. Two sisters return to Firefly Lake after eighteen years to sell their late mother’s cottage and more than just old passions are ignited in this beautiful place. The book’s just perfect for readers who love a truly emotional romance.