Death In Ambush - Susan Gilruth

My first nomination for Crime Reprint of the year is this year's British Library Crime Classics Christmas special. I loved this. In my opinion, it's one of the best Christmas mysteries I've found. There's a quote from Francis Iles on the back that could feel like faint praise: "Susan Gilruth has a pleasant, light touch." but actually is the perfect descriptor. 

Published in 1952 and set presumably around the same time (the Korean War is mentioned) this is a very satisfying slice of nostalgia. Liane (Lee) Craford is married to a soldier, Bill, who features not at all for the rest of the book. She has been invited to stay with friends for Christmas in a quaint English village and sets off sometime surprisingly early in December (about the 10th, maybe? Tolerant friends, Bill has to stay behind for some sort of training).

Down in Staple Green the local Doctor, who will be hosting Lee, can afford to keep his wife, two children, a cook, and a nanny in some comfort. I wonder what contemporary GP's would make of this? Lee arrives in time for a very awkward drinks party with the local gentry where we meet a full cast of characters from horrible husband and retired judge Sir Henry Metcalfe, to mysterious Russian widow Sonia Phillips. Sir Henry is not long for this world, and we'll soon find more or less everyone feels the world would be better off without him, and quite a few of them have a reasonable motive for doing something about it. 

It is always satisfying when the victim is a thoroughly unpleasant character in a murder mystery. And by a pleasing coincidence, Sir Henry is disposed of on the 13th of December - today. At first it looks like a stroke, but soon, Doctor Howard has some suspicions and Scotland Yard is called in. When Scotland Yard arrives, it's in the form of Detective Inspector Hugh Gordon, and Lee already knows him...

Lee is a light-hearted sort of main character, and Gilruth (a pen name for Susannah Margaret Hornsby-Wright) makes her amusing. This is presumably the light touch that Francis Iles praised because she's never too jolly, and it never jars which feels like a neat trick to pull off in what was only a second novel. It's this tone that goes a long way to making it such a fun Christmas read - nothing too heavy to darken the festive mood. 

The other thing that feels unusual and is handled well is the ambiguous relationship between Lee and Hugh. They're flirtatious and there are hints that Hugh might have made romantic declarations in the past. Lee's friends seem to accept Hugh as a sort of boyfriend - but at the same time it's all very wholesome. The exact nature of their relationship is as big a mystery as whodunnit.

Beyond that, it's a well put together mystery with the right amount of clues (I did not work it out, but with hindsight the breadcrumbs were laid) lots of atmosphere, a sense of peril for characters you like, some good red herrings, snow, decorations, and all the other trimmings of a good old-fashioned Christmas. Susan Gilruth genuinely feels like a lost gem; she's perfect for Christie fans specifically, classic crime fans generally, and anyone who loves a Christmas crime. The British Library team are indicating they might reprint more which I'm excited about. I really want more Lee and Hugh, but even more than that - I see this book as that rare thing, a regular crime re-read that could easily become part of my own Christmas traditions. Vote for it!

The Christmas Clue - Nicola Upson

December is exhausting, work is crazy right now and any writing time has been exclusively reserved for Christmas cards - all the ones to post go tomorrow. This is a job that I mostly love and slightly hate - it's taken 2 nights (around 60 cards, and I realise how seldom I write by hand these days - how it aches!) but I love getting cards and I won't give up on sending them however much stamps cost.

                                                  

Meanwhile, I'm deep in seasonal reading - ghost stories (the mildly weird sort, not all out terrifying) and classic crime are my escape of choice at this time of the year, and as it was a big book for work I gave 'The Christmas Clue a go. It's not normally something I'd have picked up, with the exception of Martin Edwards books, because he really nails the style, cosy crime set in the past normally disappointsor annoys me. I liked the Christmas Clue though for a few reasons.

The first is that it's short - three and a bit hours of reading maybe - which makes it an excellent Christmas book to escape into between bouts of sociability, or just when you have a few lazy hours to fill. Short books are underrated; I find a good novella a real treat. 

The second thing is that using Anthony and Elva Pratt - the real life couple who invented Cluedo as sleuths, and setting the book up as an homage to the game is a really fun approach. I saw another game Anthony and Elva had invented -Toteopoly a racing game in a charity shop recently. Sadly it was £80 and looked like there might be bits missing. Otherwise I'd have had that - we had an old racing game called Mineroo or Little Rosy when I was a kid that was much loved even if half the lead horses had lost a leg. 

I've never actually played Cluedo, but this book really makes me want to, for the purposes of the book it cleverly plays into layers of nostalgia without feeling manipulative about it. War-time setting, white Christmas, murder mystery, board game - check all the boxes. 

And the third thing I liked - some decent twists and a suddenly much darker than expected turn towards the end so it kept me guessing. There's a lot to like here, and this is the ideal stocking filler if you're looking for some last-minute inspiration. 

Winter - Val McDermid

I didn't read Michael Morpurgo's Spring, partly because whilst it might be impossible to dislike spring, it really isn't my favourite season. It drags somewhat in my mind, and weather that veers between unseasonably hot to bloody freezing is just annoying (ditto autumn, and keep your mists and mellow fruitfulness).

Winter on the other hand I love. I like the dark nights, the cold, the wild weather. This time of year city and town centres all lit up for Christmas absolutely look their best, the gold and blue frosty days feel like a gift, and there's a much better chance of actually managing to catch up with friends in the process of actual gift swapping. The food is good, and if the stress of work is real it also comes with the buzz of being constantly busy.

Winter is also the time of year when I really read seasonally. I'm an absolute sucker for a Christmas themed murder mystery, book about Christmas traditions/folklore/ recipe books, wintery short stories - all and any of it. Films, not so much somehow - unless it's a classic black and white something, though they;re harder to find now.

With all this in mind Val McDermid's Winter has been an absolute treat. Short and sweet, with charming illustrations. She sees Winter as a time of rest, retreat, and above all else, creativity (hard agree, these long dark nights are perfect for thinking and making). She talks about all of these things here, and looks back with nostalgia on her own Scottish working class upbringing where Winter started with Halloween. 

My Childhood Winters followed the same path. I hadn't realised that Christmas wasn't really celebrated in Scotland until late in the 1950s - December 25th didn't become a public holiday until 1958 which is a little bit mind-boggling. New year was always a much bigger deal, and even in my 1970s childhood, the feeling was that Christmas was for the bairns, New Years for the real party. 

I don't really know how much more commercial Christmas has become. A childhood in a not particularly wealthy rural area where everyone's expectations were similar, followed by an adulthood working in retail, where expectations often seem to be off the scale, has skewed my perception, but I share the nostalgia here for a simpler celebration, although a younger reader might roll their eyes a bit at the poor but happy inference.

Altogether a charming book with much to offer fellow lovers of Winter.

Hemlock and Silver - T. Kingfisher

Yet again my fond belief that I'm ready for Christmas has hit the wall of it being a bare month away with a very busy work schedule between me and any sort of merrymaking or relaxing. I don't mind working in the run-up to the day itself, but every year I resent how busy it remains after Christmas, and the impossibility of taking time off over New Year a little bit more. 

In an effort to get in the right frame of mind I've come home today, made advocaat, filtered the Christmas Schnaps I started macerating last week, done a batch of mince pies, and drunk a little more wine than might be sensible on a school night. As soon as I've written this I'll be off to bed to Finish Val McDermid's Winter book (a delight so far).

It's a while now since I read Hemlock and Silver, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it ticks all the Kingfisher boxes, and I'll read whatever comes my way by her - but 3 fairy tale retellings in there's a business as usual feel about these books. A heroine verging on middle age, a little plain, but not too plain, she is an educated woman who has her share of self-doubt, and she'll find a hero who is every bit her match, whilst overcoming something really quite horrible.

It's a pretty good formula, the books are well-paced and witty, full of humour and creeping unease. I absolutely recommend any one of them (Nettle and Bone and A Sorceress Comes to Call are the other two I've read) but maybe the issue of changing the focus from whoever would normally be the focal point of the fairy tale to someone who is generally a side character is a feeling that I've already read it. That said, I do love a middle-aged woman overcoming aching joints to sort stuff out, so it isn't much of a complaint.

Hemlock and Silver is a skewed version of Snow White where the Evil Queen exists within a mirror world (lots of excellent and horrible details to be had out of this idea when Anja the healer finds her way between worlds) and is trying hard to find a way into our world. There's a huge amount to like here and Winter is the perfect season to be just a little unsettled whilst waiting for a happy ending so it's well worth picking up a Kingfisher and enjoying it. 

Uneasy Elixirs - Virginia Miller

I didn't mean to disappear again - or at least I did in so much as I'm on holiday and haven't managed to settle to much reading and thought a break from screens would be welcome - but I did bring my laptop and I am so excited about 'Uneasy Elixirs', which came back from Edinburgh with me yesterday, that I can't wait to share it with you.

I'd seen this around on chat groups through work as a possible wild card Christmas title, I love Edward Gorey's work, and so altogether I thought it would be worth a look, although I was prepared to be underwhelmed by the cocktail recipes.

I shouldn't have been. Virginia Miller isn't a name I'm hugely familier with, but a quick google suggests she's a fairly well known travel food and drink writer, possibly more in America than here in the UK. Not knowing this is a reminder that I've been out of the wine trade for 6 years now and not keeping up with the reading (or the drinking but peri menopause and alcohol are not working well together for me, so there's that).

Uneasy Elixirs contains 50 "Curious Cocktails Inspired by the Works of Edward Gorey" and there's lots of Gorey to celebrate in here with illustrations, quotes, biographical teasers, and more about his work. The cocktails themselves are classics (new as well as old) with clever twists along with nicely thought through links back to Gorey and his works. 

Absinthe features quite a bit, I'm not a fan, but it's certainly authentic for the older drinks, and the Gorey vibe. I'm likely to replace with Pernod if I make any of those at all, which shares the same anise flavour but not the ferocious abv. It's interesting to see Cynar used - I've actually seen this for sale locally which surprises me, it must be having a moment, however unlikely that seems for an artichoke-based aperitif (I am not sophisticated enough). Calling the drink The Unknown Vegetable is genius on every level though.

Easier to feel real enthusiasm for is Henry's Demise, which takes a classic Army and Navy gin cocktail and uses Aquavit instead - if you get a bottle of Aquavit, Miller suggests this as something you can do with a lot of cocktails which is the kind of handy tip I love finding. One bottle, a lot of possibilities, and a worthwhile festive investment. 

Overall, an excellent book for cocktail lovers looking to up their game, Gorey fans, or anyone wondering what they might do with some of the odder things you find in bottle shops. 

Tasting History - Max Miller

October is probably my favourite part of Christmas - so far I've made mincemeat, Christmas puddings, quince jelly, pickled quinces, Christmas cake, and mixed a batch of mixed spice. Oh, and bought some rum to make advocaat. I love the preparation, the smells, and the anticipation. I'm also casually browsing for pajamas and failing to resist some (any?) of the really pretty books that appear in the autumn. 

One of these is Tasting History. I've seen some of Max Miller's reels and enjoyed them, I knew there was a book coming but I assumed it would be a mostly American thing. I pounced on it when I saw it. The first recipe I opened it at was for Hard Tack/sea biscuits, and from that point on it was coming home with me. One day, when I have time and access to an AGA or similar, I'll try making them just for fun. The 7 hour 20 minute cooking time does not encourage me to try it in my fan oven. 

Tasting History is the perfect combination of readable and usable. It skips through 4000 years and continents' worth of food history with easily digestible chunks of information and recipes that you can make if you choose. It's good to have a cookbook that's as much about the reading as it is the making, I don't get to cook in quite the way I used to. Between us we have to think more about cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar... allergies are suddenly developing (who knew you could spend 50 years fine with fish and then suddenly be very much not okay with it?), and between vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free colleagues, I have fewer options there too. 

There's more and more that I can read about, but am unlikely to make - and that's fine. Collecting cookbooks is arguably a cheaper hobby than cooking is these days, and even if I never make anything I'm glad to have collected this one. It's a pleasure to spend time with and if you're beginning to think about Christmas presents for foodies in your life - well, you could definitely do worse. 

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Susan Stokes-Chapman

I have been excited about this book since early this year when Susan Stokes-Chapman made an unexpected visit to the shop. I loved 'Pandora', and really liked 'The Shadow Key', so there was a bit of a fan girl moment on my part (I think I more or less retained my cool). When she mentioned she was working on a set of short stories which made homage to Georgette Heyer it;s fair to say I was enthusiastic. Well now they're here, I've read them, and I'm still enthusiastic.

The Twelve Days of Christmas are 12 interconnected short stories that mirror the carol. I think on the whole it's a novel rather than a short story collection - it wouldn't make as much sense if you started in a middle chapter, but equally each chapter finishes with a satisfactory resolution so theoretically you could take them indeoendantly of one another. 

As well as Heyer there are references to Austen and Thackery, and very likely more - but those were the ones I picked up on this time around. I see from the afterword there are some odd little bits of real history in here as well, and generally you get the sense that Stokes-Chapman had a ball writing this. I have a quibble about a Duke being referred to Sir Robert throughout, I'm not convinced that's an accurate title, but apparently I've enjoyed reading this so much I can't find my normal pedentary about this sort of thing. 

It's a fun book. An excellent bit of historical fiction full of affection for it;s inspirartions but with a very definite voice of it's own. We get characters from all up and down the social scale, the human cost of the Napolionic wars is much in evidence, there is discussion about slavery, the likely fate of illegitamate children, the precarious social position of women, and the dangers of being homosexual. There's also romance, lost loves refound, unconventional families, heartbreak, christmas cake, plum pudding, mincepies, friendship, and more. 

I love a book that I can read in real time, I have a bit of a passion for Christmas books, I can imagine reading this year after year just because it's delightful and comforting. The Partridge in a Pear tree moment is possibly the highlight of the book for me, being both funny and sweet, but it's one of many clever vignettes. Altogether a book that more than lived up to my high expectations. I look forward to whatever Susan S-C does next.  

Simon The Coldheart - Georgette Heyer #1925Club

I can't quite believe that Simon and Kaggsy's book club has been running for a decade now. I'm obviously getting old. 

1925 turns out to be the year Simon the Coldheart was written, and by chance, I was already reading it for a book group -  nothing but peer pressure would have persuaded me to pick it up otherwise but it comes with a point worth discussing. 

'Simon' is a fairly early work for Heyer, and one that she ended up suppressing in her own lifetime. In 1977, 3 years after her death, her son decided it was worth reprinting. The dedication is 'To the memory of my father', I assume Heyer's father, this one having been published not long before he died. It's possible that the dedication is written by her son and references her husband, 1925 was also the year they married and the physical descriptions of Simon suggest a degree of infatuation that might indicate they are a description of her husband to be. Or not.

Briefly, Simon is an illegitimate orphan who decides to make his way in the world by becoming squire to someone who reads like a pen portrait of Brian Blessed, decades before Brian Blessed was born. This goes well and he rises through the ranks, does well in battle and then foils a plot against Henry IV, which gets him a knighthood. Then he goes off to more war, becomes best friends with his half-brother and Henry V, behaves in heroic fashion whilst being the perfect soldier, finally falls in love with a French countess, kills some people, gets his girl, and we can hope lives happily ever after.

My friend, who chose this one for our reading group loves this book. I think it's terrible and can absolutely see why Heyer didn't want it to see the light of day again. Imagine breathless Shakespeare fan fiction laced with a good bit of hero worship, and the kind of descriptions of a man's body that even Jilly Cooper might have drawn the line at. It's not the worst thing I've ever read, and it has a couple of moments that indicate the writer she will become, but overall, Heyer was right. 

This then is the question, and an apt one in a week when another cache of Harper Lee's works have been released to a public that seems underwhelmed by the opportunity to read her juvenilia. Do we respect an author's decision and leave well alone, or do we let curiosity get the better of us?

I don't have a clear answer for myself on this, but on balance, I land on the side of leaving well alone. At least as far as my own reading is concerned. I think an author has the right to say this book embarrasses me now (as well this one might with its mangling of the English language) and to have that respected, but then my friend loves this with a passion, and who am I to argue with the pleasure it brings her? 

I'm even less sure of this now that the internet is full of fan fiction of variable quality which nonetheless people are getting the joy of creating and reading from. Maybe now a 23 year old Heyer would have honed her craft on AO3 and left her experimental stuff under a pen name, available to anyone prepared to snoop hard enough to dig them out. I like to think she would have, her early books are full of homages to all the things that must have influenced her as her own style developed. 

In conclusion - read at your own risk, and preferably with a group of like-minded friends who do not mind poking fun at a book whilst still respecting the dignity and taste of those who do genuinely have a love for it. 

Brigands and Breadknives - Travis Baldree

I got a proof copy of this through work, and there's some demand for it amongst my colleagues, so before I forget any details and whilst I have the book to hand, I'm posting it up even if it is a month early. I really like Travis Baldree's books. I read Bookshops and Bonedust first, which is fine because it's a prequel to the earlier Legends and Lattes. They both serve equally well as prequels to Brigands and Breadknives - you could read this without having heard of Bookshops and Bonedust where we first meet Fern, it wouldn't make a significant difference.

The necessary information is that Fern has come to the city to catch up with her old friend Viv and to start a new bookselling business next to her cafe. But Fern is having something of a midlife crisis and whilst Viv the battle-weary Ork was ready to step back, put down roots, and open a coffee shop, Fern has had a life of roots and obligations. She wants adventure and maybe a new direction. This is covered with elegant economy in the first few chapters, and then the action moves on as Fern lets fate gather her up and put an end to her carefully ordered life. 

She finds herself travelling with a thousand-year-old elf - Astryx the Oathmaiden and a goblin force of chaos called Zyll who has an eyewateringly large bounty on her head and an even more eyewatering list of enemies after her. The three travel the country together, make friends, get into fights, and at least two of the characters reavalute who they are and what's important. 

It's still a cosy high fantasy, though with arguably higher stakes than in Legends and Lattes, life is like that sometimes. Baldree has the knack of spinning storytelling gold. He doesn't let it get too heavy; he brings the laughs, but Fern's dissatisfaction with her life is a darker thing than Viv's decision to hang up her sword in favour of making coffee, and for anyone thinking of making the uncertain choice so the slight change in tone is appropriate. 

It's cheesy to say Autumn is the right time for a book like this - it would be good in any season, but there's a sense of mists, colder nights, damp socks, and aches about it that does feel particularly well suited to be cosy, indoors, dry footed, and having a hot drink to hand. I don't know if there's further for this series to go - maybe not with these characters, but I do know that I'd read anything that Baldree writes at this point. He's had a lot of imitators, but I haven't found anyone doing exactly what he does nearly as well as he does it. 

The Christmas Companion - Skye McAlpine

It's been a while, and whilst I didn't plan a blogging break, it's been good to pause for a bit, not least because it's given me time to remember I enjoy doing this, which after 17 years I needed. 

I have a bit of a backlog of books to get through, but will start with something brand new that I bought this evening. I love a good book about Christmas - traditions, short stories, history of, meaning of, cookbooks, gift wrapping tips, the whole lot. Even though I will almost certainly never cook a Christmas dinner for more than a handful of people, should I be called on to cater a literal banquet I have all the advice I'm ever likely to need to do so on my shelves. 

Which is a very long way of saying I did not need this book, but I instantly wanted it. I opened at Gilded miniature baked potatoes with Creme Fraiche and Caviar. I used to have a stash of gold leaf, I used it on a Christmas cake. I now realise that the really stylish thing to do would have been to gild a potato - what could better encapsulate excessive consumption? I probably won't be trying this at home - though not from any particular moral objection on my part, but rather that I don't think the effort or expense would be particularly appreciated. 

Persimmon and pork loin on the other hand - that looks and sounds a winner, and despite the number of unashamedly luxury options there's a lot of practical stuff in here too. My main plan is to make the candy cane hot chocolate and enjoy a combination of browsing and daydreaming, for what is the point of Christmas planning if it's not to indulge in a bit of fantasy? 

On a more down to earth note, this is as beautifully produced as the other Skye McAlpine books have been, and as well thought through. Any one of them would be a brilliant gift for a keen cook and probably something they wouldn't already have as she's not quite a household name. There are lots of alternatives to Christmas cake, some excellent cocktail and mocktail recipes, and clever but easy things to do with Panettone and its several cousins, which will elevate them into something extra special. There's some good lists of edible gifts and thoughts on stocking fillers which I liked too. 

Cold Kitchen - Caroline Eden

Life has somewhat got in the way again with an exciting array of crises and much complaining about the damned humidity here in Leicestershire. I cannot cope with heat and humidity. I would very much like to be in a kitchen that's actually cold right now - I made Damson jelly in mine last week, which turned it into something like a sauna.

It's taken me a long time to get around to reading Cold Kitchens, probably because I bought it in hardback which means I don't carry it around with me, and then feel like I can;t buy the paperback which I would read because I already have the book, and this time I gave in and bought the paperback. 

I'm glad I did, I love Caroline Eden's writing and I really loved this book. Both for the sense of her Edinburgh basement kitchen and for her presence in the book which feels more personal than the trio of traveling food books she's done. Cold Kitchen still mixes genres; there's a recipe at the end of every chapter to evoke the place that she's been talking about.

The paperback edition of Cold Kitchens is an unassuming thing that it's easy to keep by a bed, in a bag, on a kitchen shelf, anywhere you might want a thoughtful essay that ties food, place, and memory together and a book that feels like a friend - Cold Kitchen's also serves as a sort of elegy for Eden's beloved dog who first enlivens the pages and then haunts them. I liked this too, though even prepared for his loss I still got ridiculously choked up when it happened. 

Altogether a book I highly recommend for the way it covers a life of adventure, travel, food and socialising, thought and memory. Caroline uses her Kitchen to revisit the memories of her travels, I haven't travelled as she does but the desire to remember and to explore drives my cooking just as much, and in lockdown, it offered much the same escape from the narrow confines of life in a small city centre flat. Reading recipes and wondering if I could source the ingredients in the prescribed outside time, cooking - this was something that gave my days structure and purpose. It's sometimes hard to grasp that we're five years down the line already and still coming to terms with the legacy of that strange year of limbo. 

Sour Cherries and Sunflowers - Anastasia Zolotarev

I bought this cookbook when I was in Edinburgh back in May, it looks beautiful and it passed the flick test (where the first few recipes you see are instantly appealing). Despite that I haven't cooked from it much yet - I haven't really been cooking very much at all this summer, husband has taken much of that side of our domestic lives over, and whilst he's away sailing, it's been too hot to view anything beyond chips and dips with much enthusiasm. 

Sour Cherries and Sunflowers has turned out to be mildly life changing in an unexpected way though, in an attempt to source some sour cherries for a Chocolate Buckwheat cake with sour cherry sauce, I asked my workmate with Polish family if they had any ideas where I could find some. She suggested an excellent Polish deli/supermarket conveniently close to work. They don't sell sour cherries fresh or frozen, though they did have heads of sunflowers full of seeds ready to eat when I popped in there on Saturday.

This shop (excellent air conditioning) has become something of an obsession in the last few weeks. Amazing filled rolls, excellent bread and pastries, beetroot in every iteration you could imagine, plus a few that I hadn't, and a ton of other tempting things. I keep trying to get the ladies to tell me what all the poppyseed cookies are called in Polish; they keep telling me poppyseed cookie, but I will learn. 

Despite the lack of sour cherries to make a sauce I made the chocolate part of the cake - the buckwheat makes it a very useful gluten free option to have. I tried using a jam instead which lead me to the conclusion that the cake works better without a topping.Certainly without a mix of sour cherry jam and sour cream, or yoghurt and sour cherry jam. Whipped cream with tart fresh fruit would be my preference for a topping if I wanted to make this something really special. 

Anastasia suggests this cake serves 6 to 8 - those would be extremely generous portions (I like her style), it will definitely go further, has the rich, damp loveliness of a good brownie whilst definitely being lighter, gluten free is a bonus, and there's all sorts of ways to dress it up so an all round winner in my opinion. 

You need 200g  of unslated butter, 200g of dark chocolate chopped into small chunks, 2 tbsp of espresso, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, and 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt. Melt these together in a heavy based saucepan or in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile take 5 eggs and 250g of brown sugar and whisk together (ideally in a stand mixer on a medium speed) for around 7 minutes until light and fluffy. Line and grease a 23 cm spring form tin. preheat a fan oven to 180 degrees. 

Now sieve 100g of buckwheat flour into the melted chocolate mixture, whisk in until thoroughly combined, and then stir in 125ml of soured cream. Blitz a 100g of walnuts in a food processor (or finely chop them).

Now fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture trying to keep as much air as possible into it, and finally add the walnuts and fold those through too. Then into the oven for 30-40 minutes or until cooked all the way through. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool. This cake keeps well for several days. 

Forgotten Churches - Luke Sherlock and Holy Trinity Church Rothwell, Northamptonshire

I have a bit of a mystery on my hands tonight. I got Forgotten Churches a month or two back, it's a charming book (with one really annoying typo in a small index that suggests Hexham is in Northamtonshire rather than Northumberland). I was certain it was where I read about Holy Trinity in Rothwell, but now I find it's not in there, although it seems to me it should be.

Forgotten Churches is a beautifully illustrated guide to Britains architectural history through a small collection of not particularly well known churches - though I have been to a handful of them in the past. A perk of having a partner who's an architectural historian is that we both really enjoy a good church and will stop at any we see even if access is impossible. There are a few in this book that aren't too far away that we'll make a point of going to.

So where did I read about Holy Trinity? It was reasonably recently, and then I saw a picture on either Blue Sky or Instagram that reminded me again about it. Rothwell is roughly 25 miles from Leicester, a charming town not far from Rushton Trianguler lodge - the whole area is associated with the Tresham family. Rothwell has a curious building adjacent to Holy Trinity called the Market House which was begun by Thomas Tresham and is as codedly catholic as Rushton, his son, Francis, was involved in the gunpowder plot.

Tresham seems to have run out of funds and left the market house without a roof - it was finally finished in the 1890s. Holy Trinity is one of only two churches that I can find in the UK that have ossuaries - the other is St Leanoard's in Hythe. You can book to go and see it on a Sunday afternoon through the summer months - admission is limited to around 6 people at a time and there are only 4 sessions per Sunday so booking is advised. I booked.

We weren't sure what to expect - I did wonder if it would be morbid, there are apparently the remains of over two thousand people in that small crypt, but whilst no, I wouldn't want to go down there on my own particularly, it was neither morbid nor especially creepy. It was surprisingly emotional, but the predominant emotion was one of calm in the face of so much mortality. It's likely it was a stopping point for pilgrims and may always have been intended to have visitors. 

The rest of the church is stunning with some fine 15th century misericords to look at along with the medieval stonework and later additions. It was an interesting day out, I'll go back to Rothwell to see more first opportunity I get, though perhaps not back to the crypt, a second visit might be morbid now I've seen it. 

Raising Hare - Chloe Dalton

When I first saw this in Hardback last year my initial reaction was that they'd made a lot of book out of relatively few words. I'd wait for the paperback. Well, better late than never, and the paperback has the advantage of being easier to carry around. 

Raising Hare is a beautiful book, Canongate have done it proud on the production front, it deserves every award and plaudit it's had, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. 

Chloe Dalton has an impressive CV and a job as a foreign policy advisor which pre lockdown kept her on the move and frequently out of the country. Covid took her to her home deep in the countryside, and there she comes across a probably more or less newborn leveret on a winter's day. It's sitting in the middle of a track, and is still there when she returns 4 hours later. The choices seem to be to leave it to die or take it in and see if it might not die. Hares aren't domesticated and are apparently notoriously difficult to hand raise. 

Long story short this one survives, possibly because it was so very newborn when she found it. Dalton doesn't name the leveret, her end goal is for it to thrive as a wild creature, and she tries to be as hands off as possible. There were two things that had made me wary of this book - one was that it would be sentimental, and the other was that the hare would die. Happily, the hare is still alive as she closes her narrative, and though she clearly deeply loves the creature she nurtured this isn't a sentimental story either. 

The experience does change Dalton, or at least it makes her more aware of the countryside around her and encourages her to re-evaluate her relationship with place, but lockdown did that for a lot of us anyway, and so does ageing in my experience. I don't doubt the hare changed Dalton but I think the point is you don't need the privilege of her particular position to be able to look around and think how can I make a little bit more space for nature, or to see what's in front of you.

I've thought a bit about Ring of Bright Water whilst I read this and how Gavin Maxwell took exactly the opposite approach in his efforts to make pets out of his otters, and also about the really beautiful film Billy and Molly where Molly the Otter becomes an almost surrogate child to the man who finds her - and maybe that happened to Dalton too, more than she lets on. Both stories are also deeply hopeful at a time when hope itself can feel like a luxury and a privilege.

So read this for its quiet charm, for the wealth of information about hares you will learn, and to really think about what each one f us can do to make a little more space for nature around us - because we will reap the benefits of that in a thousand small ways. 

Problematic Summer Romance - Ali Hazelwood

It's coming up for the second anniversary since I lost a very dear friend to cancer, she's a constant gap in my life and since she's gone I've found it hard to read anything particularly challenging or that would provoke any kind of complex emotions. Having spent quite a long time picking up and putting down 'Problematic Summer Romance' I feel that phase might be at an end.

Or it might just be that I'm not a fan of where Ali Hazelwood seems to be going with her writing, or it could be both things. I still think most of Hazelwood's books are a solid choice if you're looking for a fairly fun romance, but I didn't finish 'Deep End' - the kink element wasn't for me, it went to a charity shop, and Bride wasn't my think either (werewolves really not my thing either it turns out).

'Problematic Summer Romance' has a 23 year old main female character very much in love with the 38 year old best friend and super wealthy business partner of her older brother. The main problem seems to be the age difference between them and potential power imbalance that imples. The reason it's taken me a couple of weeks to actually finish this is that it never at any point felt like a massive problem, partly because the older brother and entire friendship group are all extremely supportive.

Plenty of romance writers keep on churning out essentially the same thing so kudos to Hazelwood for trying different things, but this book feels overworked to me - too much thought has gone into making things just problematic enough, but not so much as the reader might really take issue with any of it. Perhaps unfortunately Maya is a convincing 23 year old and a little bit annoying with it. The academic setting which bought the earlier books to life is missing as well, along with the close female friendships - and altogether it fell a little flat for me.

It's still a solid book - a definite three and a half stars, easy summer reading for lazy afternoons kind of thing. There are engaging characters, characters from earlier books that it's fun to catch up with, and the descriptions of Sicily are lush but whatever I pick up next is going to be very different. 

A Sorceress Comes to Call - T Kingfisher

The current phase of moving things around and making space is coming to an end - there will be another big push later this summer, but right now it's hot and I'm bothered by the heat so all the hard work of shifting things can pause for a bit. When it does start again, the main job will be to make some sense of the books that haven't gone into storage. Right now, they've been shoved into gaps as they've become available, and there's no sense to it all (but having floor space again is nice, so...).

There's also a certain amount of pressure to read some of the books that are hanging around and pass them on. When I started blogging a very long time ago books were an escape from work, or the lack of work, depending on circumstances. Now my work is books, it's very much not that and consequently a harder to motivate myself to sometimes. I also find that for work purposes, it's enough to read a bit of a lot of books that I wouldn't normally pick up to get a general sense of them - enough, at least, to know what people want when they're asking for more of the same. 

For someone who's never really had much love for contemporary fiction this is an odd place to be in, but sometimes a book surprises me, and so it was with A Sorceress Comes to Call. T Kingfisher's (a pen name for Ursual Vernon) back catalogue is popping up all over the place now in the UK, she's been on my radar for a while as a horror/fantasy writer that I'd heard good things about, I've even managed to collect a few of the more specifically fantasy titles - but this is the first one I've read.

I loved it, and those other books have moved right up the pile to be read. A Sorceress Comes To Call is inspired by the Brothers Grimm Goose Girl tale, the main protaganists are Cordelia, a 14 year old girl, and Hester, a woman in her early 50s with a bad knee. Cordelia's mother is the thoroughly wicked sorceress who sets out to marry a rich man so that she can trap an even richer man for her daughter. Hester as the rich man's sister is set on foiling her plans and rescuing the child. 

The genius of the book is that it manages to be simultaneously dark with a sense of real danger and a creeping bit of horror, and also really funny. Hester and Cordelia are perfectly flawed, human heroines, frightened and unsure as well as determined and capable of showing incredible fortitude and bravery. The Sorceresses powers fully underscore the banility of evil. All the characters are well drawn and convincing, but most of all I really appreciated the middle aged nature of so many of them. 

It was also thoroughly refreshing to read a fantasy that doesn't place romance at its centre. I'm not knocking romantasy, but it feels so ubiquitous right now that not encountering it here was something of a relief. T Kingfisher is not particularly like Terry Pratchett, but there's a comparison to be had in in the way they both lace together humour and an anger at injustice and abuse. The vibe is different, but I think if you were a Pratchett fan you would find much to enjoy here. 

A Forgery of Fate - Elizabeth Lim

After nearly three years of marriage, my husband is finally moving in with me. We've sold his house and are trying to breathe in enough to fit our lives into my 1-bedroom flat. A lot of my books have moved into my mothers garage. Packing them up has been both easy - the sheer quantity of them had become overwhelming, it's a relief to not have teetering piles of books everywhere (although more have to go) and really not easy. What should stay, what do I refer to regularly, what am I likely to want to read or re-read in the next couple of years, and what can go to the charity shop?

Answers to all those questions and more are slowly resolving themselves. The next steps are exciting ones, but oh, is the process ever hard on the back? And where do all the tiny cuts and bruises come from at the end of each day?

Meanwhile, I really need to round up on the proofs I've been reading and dispose of some of the work related books I'm unlikely to revisit. A Forgery of Fate is just such a book, although I absolutely will be revisiting Elizabeth Lim.

She's one of a growing number of authors who straddles the young adult and fantasy boundary. At work her hardbacks tend to be classified as Young Adult, which I think they are, but when they come out in paperback they get reclassified as SFF. I find this annoying. I'd like to live in an ideal world where the boundaries were more distinct. 

In this world I'd say A Forgery of Fate is definitely YA, but good writing is good writing and it cuts itself off from a sizable chunk of potential readers if you market purely as teen. Billed as Beauty and the Beast meets the Little Mermaid, and delivering on its promise, I really enjoyed this one. 

Truyan Saigas has a reasonably happy childhood until her father disappears on a sea voyage, her mother falls apart, and she and her sisters are forced to grow up fast. Truyan has a particular gift though, she is an artist, a gifted forger, and it's just possible that she can paint the future. Her gift bring her to the attention of the mysterious Lord Elang, who may be a demon or may be a dragon and that's when it gets really complicated for Tru.

The magic and mythology here is compelling, and the world building is truly fabulous. Tru negotiates helping her family, making new friends and enemies, overcoming her past, falling in love, and making some very hard decisions with grace. The peril, especially at the outset feels real, the resolution is deeply satisfying, and I never found her an annoying heroine to read - which I often do when young girls are chosen to save the world. 

In short, a satisfying and enjoyable book for anyone from 14 upwards (age classifications are hard, but there'a an emotional depth to this book that makes me think very young readers would miss a bit too much nuance). 

Julia Roseingrave - Marjorie Bowen writing as Robert Paye

I've been on holiday for a week and struggled to read much while I was away. That turned out to be partly because the prescription for my new glasses isn't very good - three times they've had to be sent back for re-adjustment, and they're still blurring things around the edges. It's headache inducing, and annoying because each set of adjustments seems to have made the issue worse and now I think I just need to go to another optician.

It's been a few weeks then since I read Julia Roseingrave - a deeply silly book that was tremendous fun. I think it's set some time in the reign of Charles II - or thereabouts but it doesn't matter very much. One moonlit night a traveler who appears to be the devil arrives at Holcot Grange claiming he is it's owner. The Grange is meant to have some sort of curse on it so the owners have been absent for some long time. The house keeper reluctantly admits the stranger and then seeks the advice of the nearest thing to an educated neighbour she has. 

Julia Roseingrave is a youngish woman (late 20s) very beautiful, who lives with her paralised mother and a sister with learning difficulties. She's a distant relative of the master of the Grange and agrees to come and see what's going on. She determines that the devil guise is nothing but fancy dress and hatches a plan to escape her life of rural seclusion by marrying the young man.

He's easily enthralled and makes even easier promises - but can he keep them? No, he can't, because he's already married, his wife turns up and Julia gets desperate. And this is where it gets interesting. She's been consorting with a  local wise woman and has plans to dispose of unwanted wives so we go from Julia being ambitious but sympathetic, to full on villainous mode, and then there's a final twist and nothing was clear anymore. 

I'd say this, and its accompanying short stories are more curiosity than anything else - the style is somewhat overblown, but both Julia Roseingrave as the main story and the other sorts included are worth the time to read and think about. there's some interesting messages there from the 1930s and if it's all a bit much at times, it's also always fun. 

The Crimson Road - A. G. Slatter

I seem to be in a fantasy sort of mood at the moment, maybe because I've had a run of pretty decent luck with fantasy novels that have been engaging to read and suitably distracting from real life. This is the first Slatter I've read but I'm quite tempted to try more.

The Crimson Road is a vampire novel with shades of Buffy about it. Violet Zennor has been trained to be fighter since childhood when her mother died giving birth to a still born son, her immensely rich father preparing her for something. 

The book opens with his death and Violet's hope that she can be free of the control he has exerted over her life to date. Unfortunately not. Hedrek Zennor made a particularly ill-judged bargain on the night his wife died and after a number of assassins come after her,, and her loved ones, Violet realises that she doesn't really have a choice when it comes to fixing the mess he made. 

If it wasn't for some fairly graphic violence and descriptions of abuse that Hedrek inflicted on Violet this could be a young adult novel - 20 year old girl sets out to save the world picking up found family on her quest. As it is, it's got genuinely dark moments that verge on horror and a convincingly gothic atmosphere to compliment the world building. 

If there's a fault it's that the timeline doesn't always make complete sense when it comes to the Vampires (called Leech lords here). There is a prophecy, and a lot seems to happen in a relatively short decade compared to the many hundreds of years that some of the Leech lords have been around for. This book takes place in the same world as Slatter's earlier novels - it works fine as a standalone, but possibly if I'd read them all my timeline niggles would be settled.

Overall I really enjoyed this, there were intriguing ideas in the lore building and Violet is a complex heroine who succeeds because of the help she finds along the way, mostly from other women. She stays alive because her enemies underestimate her and how much help she can muster, but it does feel that there's real jepordy along the way. I've been disappointed by books from bigger names (Alice Christina Henry and V E Schwab - but I've only tried one of each and might well be missing out on the really good stuff) working in the same sort of area - this book had whatever it was that I felt was missing for me in those. For good gothic times you could do a lot worse than The Crimson Road.

The Wycherleys - Annaliese Avery

 I've not given up on this little bit of the internet, but life does seem to have other plans for my time right now. Bear with.

I read The Wycherleys as it's the first teen/young adult book of the month work has showcased and I was curious to see what was going to set the tone. I'm mostly impressed with what I found. Billed as Bridgerton with witches - but honestly, better than that sounds. I'm not sure if it's strictly accurate to say it's aimed at the younger end of the age range, but it's absolutely fair to say it's age appropriate from 12 up, and younger if your reader doesn't mind a little bit of kissing. 

On the plus side, you get a sweet romance, likeable main characters, excellent friendships, nice sibling relationships, an intriguing set up for a continuing series, and an excellent adventure that feels complete enough in itself despite the plans for a series. 

On the downside, there's a lot of repetition, which I absolutely do not understand. You could cut 50 pages worth of the same couple of points being made over and over to end up with a standout introduction to historical fantasy, a genre that would work as well for an adult looking for some cosy fantasy as it would for a younger reader looking for romantic fantasy. The  plot is not particularly original (okay, it's very predictable) but it's handled more than well enough for that not to matter. 

The setting is a sort of alternative regency period, there are a couple of historical references, and a Princess regent Georgianna who is aware of the magical world - the state harnesses it, but not entirely approving of it. The action mostly takes place in magical areas of London where different customs and manners prevail - it nicely avoids the need to get bogged down in detail and makes potential anachronisms irrelevant. Fun details include the witching world being a matriarchy where children take their mothers names - and an interesting arrangement whereby witches need to be tethered to another witch, but that tether doesn't have to involve a romantic element, and it's frequently same sex.

This means lots of blended families, and an implicit acceptance of queer relationships even if they're not specifically explored. It's the kind of ambiguity I'd have liked to see more of in books when I was a teen, and like now - a space full of possibilities rather than certainties. 

Overall there's a lot to like here - and maybe the best thing I can say about it is that after reading Tik Tok phenomenon Fourth Wing in a similar spirit, I find I want to see what happens next to the Wycherleys, I have not read any more Rebecca Yarros.  

Why Shoot a Butler - Georgette Heyer

I know it;s been a while, the last month seems to have been a blur of working, sleeping, and appointments. Or hospital phone appointments not happening and the hours it takes to try and get through to the right department in an attempt to find out what happened. I don't know how the switchboard turned gynecology at the general to radiology at the royal but they did. The answer phone I landed with didn't state department, but I can testify to a very diligent radiologist who has followed up my message several times.

That wasn't the only wrong hospital or department I've been put through to, just the most helpful and possibly best staffed. It's all added to a feeling of despondency to match the fatigue which is probably related to the medical issue I'm trying to get an answer for and on it goes in an increasingly exhausting circle. 

I have at least managed a bit of reading even if it hasn't been in a very organised sort of way, but at the moment something feels better than nothing so... 

"Why Shoot a Butler" was a choice for an online Georgette Heyer reading group where we spend an hour or so on Sunday evening discussing 3 chapters of the chosen book a week via Signal. The group originated on twitter back in lock down, and whilst it's only a small core of what we once were the closed nature of the group and a now long standing acquaintance means we can be very open with opinions. 

I wanted to do a crime novel and hosted this readalong, "Why Shoot a Butler" was a popular choice of title, and it had been long enough since I read it for me to have forgotten it entirely. I read through once, quickly, to check for anything very old-fashioned and thought ot stood up well enough. 

Then we read slowly together, and the flaws really stood out. I'd never really accepted that Heyer's detective fiction just isn't as good as her romances, but this one just isn't as good. There are flashes of the things we all love about her, but the plotting and pacing is uneven, the characters often unconvincing, and in the case of the hero downright annoying most of the time. It's not a terrible book, and compares reasonably well enough with plenty of contemporary efforts, but it lacks whatever spark make her romances sparkle. 

Thank goodness then for a group who were kind enough to stick with it and share criticisms in a constructive way - if I didn't love the book I did at least love laughing about it with like minded readers. There's also a definite value to be had out of looking at a favourite author trying to do something different and only partially succeeding at it. For anyone who loves vintage crime this is enjoyable enough read at a gallop, which is presumably how it was intended to be consumed, but definitely not the best Heyer around. 

Pagans - James Alistair Henry

I haven't done as much reading as I mean to on holiday - I never do, but I have finished Pagans, which I really loved. It's a mash-up of alternative history, urban fantasy, and police procedural, so not my usual kind of book choice, though not entirely unusual either and it delivered on all levels. 

Britain is a global back water - I guess on a par with one of the less fortunate Balkan countries now, maybe a little bit more depressed. Christianity never got a strong hold on the west and the Norman conquest didn't happen. The global super power is a pan African alliance, much of Southern Europe is a caliphate, America was never colonised... Britain itself is still 3 countries - Scotland is an independent Nordic country, the east of England is ruled by the dominant and more wealthy Saxons, the west is tribal Celtic.

On the eve of another summit to unify the three nations, a Celtic diplomat is found nailed to a tree—crucified. Detective Inspector Drustan is sent from the west to work with Captain Aedith Mercia, a Saxon princess as well as policewoman (or reeve). Two cops. One Killer. Hundreds of Gods, as the strapline would have it. 

It's a brutal kind of world, though not precisely a dystopia (depending on your view of London, which might be considered dystopian at the best of times). The whodunnit element is decent if not spectacular, the relationships between the various characters are more interesting, with plenty of scope for more a series, the alternative history is really good fun. 

Henry has an excellent pedigree as a comedy writer, he uses it well here both in his world building and in the way relationship he forges between Aedith and Drustan who bounce off each other nicely. There are political parallels and points that can be drawn from this reimagined history if you want to, but expertly balanced against the comedic possibilities of the world building so I never felt it was heavy handed with the morals. 

There is quite a bit of violence or mention of violence, though it's seldom graphic in the details. If that doesn't bother you I highly recommend this. It's intriguing, provocative, and overall really good fun. 

The Shetland Way - Marianne Brown

March has been a month of recuperation and minor disaster - my purse was either lost or stolen, but either way, cards were used fraudulently and it;a been a massive pain to sort out, though god bless my bank who both alerted me to the issue and made it as easy as possible to fix. 

Meanwhile I haven't managed to finish many books, although I've started quantities of them. I'm struggling to stay awake in the evening and concentrate beyond work at all in the aftermath of whatever infection made the end of February so miserable. Things are starting to come together again though, and today I finished The Shetland Way which I have been reading for weeks. 

I enjoyed The Shetland Way but I also think it's a bit of a mess of a book, one that can't quite decide what it wants to be. Marianne Brown is the daughter of the late potter Bill Brown (I have one of his herring gull jugs and wish I'd bought a few more pieces whilst I could). Her parents split whilst she was quite young, and her relationship with her father was obviously not a straight forward one. In 2019 he became ill, his funeral was in Shetland not long before lockdown started, Marianne, her husband and young child ended up staying for 8 months rather than the few weeks they had planned. home is normally in Devon. 

During that period of grieving and lockdown Marianne is re-evaluating her father, reconnecting with family in Shetland and starts to learn more about the Viking Energy wind farm, a divisive project that continues to be a contentious issue in Shetland and is conveniently not much talked about elsewhere. Marrianne is an environmental journalist, pre publication at least this book was billed as being more about the effect the windfarm has had on the islands; in fact it's much more of a biography framed against the development of the islands, and this is where I think it falls down. It's trying very hard to do two different things, and the one that feels important - the discussion about how we produce energy in the future comes off second best. 

Marianne tries hard to be neutral and she's broadly sympathetic to the people who see the windfarm as a negative but it's also clear that she's broadly in favour. What could, and possibly should have been the central question of the book - if not here than where? is raised but not addressed. One of the final chapters touches on racism in the islands, my impression reading it was that it's a justification for change, but the experience of 1 person isn't enough to make a point. 

There is a growing body of evidence for the negative impacts that wind farms have on health, and this really is an issue in Shetland where inevitably given the long narrow nature of the islands the windfarm gets closer to houses than guidelines suggest. We need green energy, but if we're to change how we live we really need to live with the means of production and not ship it off somewhere out of sight and out of mind for the majority. Change won't happen whilst ot feels like business as usual.  

Bees & Honey - Steve Minshall and Rachel de Thample

Thank god for antibiotics - after almost 4 weeks of feeling like crap I'm sort of human again. I vaguely remember a time when cold and flu type bugs didn't floor me, and that however snotty I was, I could at least still read a book. I can't do that anymore. I sleep, and when I can stay awake long enough, I go back to work, come home, and sleep again, hence the lengthy absence from posting.

I saw this book at work yesterday and pounced on it with an enthusiasm and energy that definitely heralded a return to full health though. It's been a long wait for a new River Cottage handbook, the last one came out in 2020 (there has been the not quite a handbook guide to Christmas in between), and I'm wondering if Bees & Honey has had a considerable rewrite at some stage in the intervening years.

It differs from the previous books in that it does not assume you want to keep bees or even to eat honey if you're vegan (the chicken book definitely assumes you want chickens), and it strongly suggests that keeping bees might not be the best thing you can do to help them. What we can all do, even if a window box is the only option, is plant better and understand more. It might make sense to create bee friendly habitats for wild species that you wouldn't take honey from and instead buy good quality local honey, use less of it, and appreciate it more.

The recipe element of the book takes a less is more approach on how to use honey and honey products, which I like. Honey is a strong flavour that needs to be treated with respect and a light hand, and I will admit I'm particularly curious about the not quite a recipe that's a spoon of honey with black coffee. There could be a lot of fun to be had finding the perfect bean and blossom matches. 

Overall, it's the combination of information about bees, bee related products, and what's good to eat or should be left alone (pollen, bees need it more than we do) and how to make a better world for bees which makes this book so good. And if it's bee-keeping you really want there's all the information you could need to start down that road too. 

I have loved this series from the outset, Handbook number 2 (Preserves, Pam Corbin 2008) came in the first flush of my enthusiasm for making my own jam and Marmalade, Handbook number 3 (Bread by Daniel Stevens 2009) taught me how to make all sorts of breads and is still my go to guide. They are consistently useful and inspiring - I hope there will be more to come, or at least one more to round out the numbers at 20 volumes. I have a lot of cookbooks, but nothing else comes close to this series in looking at food holistically. 

Murder As A Fine Art - Carol Carnac

I absolutely loved this one from The British Library Crime Classics series - it speaks directly to several of my interests and turned out to be an excellent mystery with really delightful characters - so all boxes duly ticked. 

As a bonus, I learnt quite a bit about the architect Decimus Burton (I suppose if you have 10 children it's acceptable to start numbering them?). there were so many real artists names being thrown about that despite not initially believing in Decimus I looked him up, and not only real but prolific and important. The way the building feels like a living character in this book is very much one of its charms. 

That the victim is done to death by an outsize Canova bust of an extremely unattractive Earl is another winning point. The building and victim belong to the Ministry of Fine Arts, the Minister for Fine Arts is Humphry David and he's a delightful character too - one who does not believe in the use of his department or the validity of much of the art it holds. 

The mystery and its solution are fun as well as clever, but I'd suggest the best reason to read this is for its gentle arguments about modern art which run through the whole plot. There are characters who are pretentious about it; and ignorant in equal measure. Characters who admit they don't understand it but strive to, and characters who come to see something where previously they had not. It's an intelligent and thoughtful process that reveals an ingenious scam, enjoys a few jokes, and feels remarkably timeless. 

Bath Tangle - Georgette Heyer

I have a gross cold which has done nothing for my weekend plans (spend time with husband, catch a bunch of comedy festival gigs, finish some of the many books I've read 3/4s of and then abandoned). I think I might be in the process of finally learning the patience to sweat onions properly - I'm craving onion soup with lots of garlic, but it doesn't feel like much of an achievement when it;s as much as I can concentrate on. 

The Georgette Heyer Readalong that was such a lockdown lifeline has partly migrated to Signal as a chat group, but we have recently resurrected the group read with Bath Tangle - 3 chapters a week with an hour or so chatting on the night and then the odd opinion shared throughout the week. It's a really good format for a dozen or so people to slowly read and discuss a book. We know each other well enough to be open to a range of disagreements on characters. We also all love Georgette Heyer's books even if we don't love all of her books equally which helps keep things friendly. 

Bath Tangle was nobody's favourite going in and probably isn't going out either, but I enjoyed the slow read much more than I expected to and like the book more for it. It opens at a funeral with 2 young women waiting for the men to join them. The younger of the two turns out to be a late Earl's widow, the other his daughter. The Earl we swiftly concluded was a bit dodgy, first for marrying a woman younger than his daughter, and secondly for leaving his 25-year-old daughter's financial future tied up in the hands of her ex-fiance. 

What follows is a book that has a whole lot of characters trying their best not to hurt each other, financially controlled by one another, scared of various mothers, and overall demonstrating how vulnerable women's lives were to the men around them. It was written in 1955 when a woman wouldn't have been able to get a mortgage, or any kind of bank loan without a male guarantor and would still have been expected to leave work when she married. 

The emotional entanglements continue to complicate themselves (In Bath) very much in the manner of a drawing room comedy - and this would make an excellent stage play, before suddenly resolving in mostly satisfactory ways. We all agreed that we didn't think much of the main characters, but that their often appalling behavior was all too easy to believe in - and that's the genius of Heyer. Every character feels fleshed out and feasible. When they behave badly we understand why, we also get a fun dissection of how not everyone is suited - one woman's hero might be another villain.

Given the relatively limited education and employment options for a lot of girls even in the 1950s, as well as the social stigma of divorce it's interesting to see Heyer's evident distaste for marriage between very young women and much older, richer men. Yes, they offer financial and social security, but there's a cost. 

A Death In The Parish - The Reverend Richard Coles

My connectivity issues persist and as Norton has decided not to let my laptop connect to any open networks I can't even head out to a café to post which somewhat ups the pressure to get a new network provider. All very annoying.

Something I am looking forward to though is the next Richard Coles coming out in paperback next week. I'm late to Canon Daniel Clement - which is hardly a deterrent to enthusiasm. The mood of 'A Death in the Parish' is distinctly different to 'Murder Before Evensong' and I'm curious to see where Coles will take us next. 'A Death in the Parish' definitely feels more personal, impossible to say if Canon Clement is closer to Reverend Coles or not, but the murders here are both closer to home (Daniel's home) and less important to the heart of the book - it's characters.

I have read elsewhere that Audrey is closely based on Coles' own mother - impossible to doubt if you remember his tweets about her, and this has to be why Audrey is a creation of near genius. She is the perfect mix of impossibly frustrating and absolutely plausible. As a reader you have to love her, not least because her writer so clearly does and makes her irresistible in the process. 

The stakes between Daniel and Neil are raised by a growing friendship, something deeper, and then betrayal - and this also is beautifully handled. I loved the first book for the way it reminded me of E M Delafield's Diary of a Provincial Lady, I find more Barbara Pym here, and much more Richard Coles, he's definitely settling into his fiction style in this one. 

There's not much else I can say about a relatively high profile series that's still also relatively new - other than read it if you haven't already! 

The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch - Melinda Taub

I didn't mean to take such a long break but I lost wifi for a few days and then went to stay with mum, who has working wifi, but I forgot my laptop (and to bring a sample half dozen of the best sausages you could ever find - sold on Leicester market by a very nice butcher). We've been celebrating her 75th birthday. 

For my own sanity, I've not been paying much attention to what's happening in America and I'm very close to deleting twitter/x - the stumbling block is that I'm in charge of the work account so can't completely ignore it. This is part of a more general quandary regarding social media. Facebook is annoying but it's still the best way to keep in touch with older family members. I mostly like Insta but the adverts and rubbish are becoming overwhelming and the ethics of all of it are questionable. And yet, it's all such a part of modern life that cutting any of it off feels as difficult as getting rid of online banking, I would manage but it would be massively more complicated. 

All of this is feeding into a desire to read books that are essentially comforting. Lydia Bennet, Witch fitted the bill nicely. I do not as a rule like it when people mess around with Jane Austen, but this was very much the exception that worked for me. Melinda Taub obviously knows her Austen, she captures Lydias's voice perfectly - or maybe more precisely I could hear Julia Sawalha's voice from the 90s Pride and Prejudice, but I'll take it. 

The combination of affection for and knowledge of Austen along with taking minor characters and giving them a whole other magical life is a winning one in this instance. So is the minimum of smut - there's a smidgen of romance between Lydia and Whickham - a literal demon here, and Kitty who is really a cat, and Denny - but it's very much the sweet kind rather than the explicit kind. 

Picking out the bits that are Austen from the bits that are not is fun, there are a number of side characters from P&P plus one from Sanditon. There's enough consideration of slavery and women's position in society to give the plot a bit of weight, and Taub thinks Mr Bennet is a terrible father, on which point she's absolutely correct. 

This won't be for everyone, but if you like a little fantasy in the mix it's a good time. 

This Will Be Fun - E. B. Asher

One of the perks of my job is the number of review copies that come my way, and on Friday's there's the extra bonus of Publishers Weekly where we get sent an impressively long list of books to request from. It's not guaranteed that you'll actually get what you ask for, and it can be a long wait for something to appear (I got a Christmas related book I'd asked for in November 2023 in July 2024). It's entirely likely that by the time something comes through I've completely forgotten why I was attracted to it in the first place.

This is kind of what happened with 'This Will Be Fun' which sat around for a good few weeks before I picked it up a couple of days ago, finally in the mood for something light and fantasy-based again. E. B. Asher is in fact 3 people writing together, and what they've produced is fun cosy fantasy. If you like Travis Baldree and The Princess Bride this is worth a second look. 

Ten years ago The Four - best friends, Beatrice, Elowen, Clare, and Galwell saved the realm of Mythria from a terrible threat, and they haven't spoken since. The Queen of Mythria is about to marry though, their presence at her wedding is demanded, and then when her fiance is abducted they have little choice but to put their differences behind them and set off to the rescue again. However reluctantly it may be. 

In terms of world-building and plot it's not the best book you'll read but for quipping, silly jokes, a celebration of found family, a celebration of the value of therapy, and for asking the question of what happens at the end of the quest it does it all. I don't think the world building matters very much - we're all familiar with the tropes and this book is all about relationships and personal growth. I'm equally indifferent to the plot, evil is vanquished, good wins out, and true love prevails. 

A couple of years ago I would not have thought of myself as a cosy fantasy fan, but when it's done well it turns out I am, it's exactly what I want to wind down from the stress of the busiest time of year. The doing it well bit is the trick. I've come across a few attempts that feel cynical - to paint by numbers and lacking in the humour that makes the best of them work. You need to go light on the smut too - which this does. 

Murder before Evensong - Richard Coles

2025 will, if nothing else, be the year I caught up with Richard Coles and appreciated what the fuss is about. I remain skeptical about efforts to televise this book, for me the charm lies in the observations, turns of phrase, and mild obsession with stationary. I do not believe these will translate well to screen, but with luck something else good will emerge, sufficiently different to the books to be enjoyed in it's own right.

I'm not at al; comfortable with the description cosy crime for these books either - they might take second place to a frank delight in parish life, and the details are mercifully brief, but it does not change their brutality (a carotid artery severed with a pair of secateurs is not a cosy image at all). I've now read the first 2 Canon Clement mysteries, and the Christmas Novella. Book number 3 is out in paperback mid February. I am a committed fan. 

Anyone who followed Coles on social media over the last while (I can't remember when I started - before lockdown?) will recognise elements of the life he shared there, as well as his gift for sharp observation. It's a smart tactic, as is the 1980s setting. The 80s are safely pre DNA fingerprinting, mobile phones, and social media. Even if you don't really remember the era the films and music keep it close. It's an interesting time socially too - which Coles explores with delicacy.

My feeling after reading Murder Under the Mistletoe was that it had a lot in common with The Diary of a Provincial Lady, Murder Before Evensong confirms that, and earns comparisons to Barbara Pym, Murial Sharp, nods towards G K Chesterton, and maybe Molly Keane too, although Coles is kinder than either Keane, or Sharp, towards his characters. His observations might be forensic but they're not unkind - Audrey, Canon Daniel Clements's mother, is a creation of genius. It's a shame that Maggie Smith will never portray her. 

Meanwhile there's much about the workings of the church, village politics, faith, acceptance of human foibles, and dachshunds. It's delightful, and a very strong start to my reading year.