Castle Richmond (1960), one of Trollope’s standalone novels, is the story of two families―the Fitzgeralds of Castle Richmond of the title and the Desmonds of Desmond Court, set in the backdrop of the Irish famine. The story opens with Owen Fizgerald, a cousin of the Castle Richmond Fitzgeralds, falling in love with young Clara Desmond,…
Book Review: Snobs (2004) by Julian Fellowes
As busy days continue with little to no writing time, here's a review from the (not very old) archives. I read and reviewed Snobs by Julian Fellowes in 2018, but I'd posted this only on Goodreads. The review below is what I wrote back then! This is the first book I’ve read by Fellowes though…
Book Review: Greenwitch by Susan Cooper #TDiRS22
While I’ve given up any pretence of trying to catch up with the readalong of the wonderful Dark is Rising sequence hosted by Annabel at AnnaBookBel, I am of course continuing to read the books, which I am enjoying very much. This will however, be the last of the books I will be able to…
🎄🎄Christmas Read: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle🎄🎄
Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem ... With its wonderful Christmas atmosphere, Holmes' classic deduction skills, a unique puzzle, and a good dose of Christmas spirit, 'The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, first published in 1892, makes for an excellent read for this time…
Book Review: The Cat Who Caught a Killer by L. T. Shearer
My thanks to Pan Macmillan for a review copy of this book via NetGalley. The Cat Who Caught a Killer is a delightful, heart-warming and fun murder mystery (yes, I realise heart-warming and murder mystery don’t ordinarily go together) which just happens to feature not just a cat but a talking cat (and one who…
Book Review: Paying Guests by E. F. Benson #1929Club
Paying Guests by author, biographer, and memoirist E. F. Benson, first published in 1929, is a standalone novel, which appeared in publication order somewhere between his best-known Mapp and Lucia books. This story is set in the fictional Bolton Spa and around Wentworth, a boarding house which is far more elegant and luxurious than others,…
Book Review: The Half Sisters by Geraldine Jewsbury
The Half Sisters (1848) is a novel by lesser-known Victorian writer Geraldine Jewsbury whose books are described as feminist, and which often questioned the conventional norms and roles that women at the time were confined to. Jewbury who was a novelist, book reviewer (with around 2,000 reviews to her credit, many for the Athenaeum), and…
Book Review: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Many nursery rhymes, much like fairy tales, even though they are now largely read by children, have rather dark and sinister meanings and undertones, whether it is ‘Three Blind Mice’ or ‘Ring a Ring o Roses’ or ‘Mary Mary Quite Contrary’ dealing with themes like the plague or religious persecution. Agatha Christie is quite the…
Book Review: Murder at the Priory Hotel by Merryn Allingham
My thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for a review copy of this book. Murder at the Priory Hotel is the fourth entry in the Flora Steele series of mysteries by Merryn Allingham set in 1950s England, and one of the few series I’ve kept up with from the start. Flora is a young woman in…
Book Review: Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier #DDMReadingWeek
Frenchman’s Creek is a novel of romance, of adventure, of pirates and of Cornwall, and rather different from the gothic, suspense/thriller themes one usually associates with her. A novel I’d enjoyed very much on my first read years ago, this was a revisit for Ali’s #DDMReadingWeek for this year. In Frenchman’s Creek, we meet the…
Literary Potpourri 