Monday, March 8, 2021

Tea is so Intoxicating - Mary Essex

‘Tea is so Intoxicating’ is the 4th book I’ve read from the British Library’s Women Writers series, and the 4th book I’ve really enjoyed from the series. International Women’s day was a prompt to clear another of these Women Writers titles from my to be read pile, but I only thought about it on Saturday when I was half way through something else, so I picked the Mary Essex because it was the shortest of the 3 I had to choose from. 

It was a happy choice - nothing wrong with a shorter book, and in this case it provided the perfect blend of  light hearted and acid humour, with just enough sympathy for the mostly awful characters to make them human, and correspondingly likeable, rather than caricature. She’s acerbic, but not unkind. 

Mary Essex is one of several pen names that Ursula Bloom used. At one point she was in the Guinness book of records as the most published author in the world - with something over 500 works to her credit. The afterword (by all round brilliant series advisor, Simon Thomas) tells me that Mary Essex titles are a departure from the majority of Bloom’s work, which are straight romance. It’s this that makes her feel like such a good accidental choice for international women’s day; to write so many books is impressively business like.


Every time I’ve looked up today it’s been to see another list or montage of inspirational women who have done incredible things - which I love, but I also love the idea of Ursula Bloom getting up each morning, and getting to work, doing it well, but maybe not worrying too much about it being art or genius or whatever. Which is relatable (even if writing over 500 books is absolutely over achieving). 

Even better, ‘Tea is so Intoxicating’ is a funny book about marriages not really working, people being stubborn and behaving badly, and devious Viennese cake cooks upsetting everything, as David, who does not know what he’s doing, wants to turn his cottage into a tea shop, much to his wife’s dismay. David is not the man to listen to advice or criticism, but he is the man to stir up feeling against them in the village. The lady of the manor is up in arms, the local publican is up in arms, the vicar is stuck in the middle, there are ex husbands getting in the way, and like the rest of the village, we as readers get to thoroughly enjoy the whole tangle.

This series is really shaping up to be something special, everything so far has been interesting, slightly unexpected, thoroughly enjoyable, and individual. It’s a remarkably high bar which the next two titles (Diana Tutton’s ‘Mamma’ and E. M. Delafield’s ‘Tension’) look set to meet with ease. 

6 comments:

  1. What a lovely piece - thanks for all the lovely things you say about the series, and for your nice words about me :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember when you first reviewed this, and not paying as much attention as I could have done to the book. When I'm fully caught up with the whole series I'll write more about it, but so far it's a really good list. I really like the variety of tone in it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm so glad you enjoyed this, Hayley. It's such an enjoyable read - and, as you say, there's just enough compassion to elicit the reader's sympathy. It reminded me a little of some of Barbara Pym's work, maybe with a touch of Penelope Fitzgerald for added piquancy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked it so much because it reminded me of me, or how I like to think I could write if I put in the sort of effort that Mary/Ursula did. I think Bloom understood her audience and how to give us what we want (so well that it's still what we want 70 years later) but it's not hard to see how she does it, whilst with Pym or Fitzgerald it sometimes is. She's a brilliant example of being able to do it if you can see it, and why genre writers deserve a whole lot more respect, and exactly the sort of woman I want to keep at the back of my head as a source of inspiration.

      Delete
  4. I just finished this and really enjoyed it -- thought I was aghast at some of the bad choices regarding the tea room! I literally had to stop reading a couple of times because I knew disaster was coming. Some good plot twists though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All of this! For me it was the right book at the right moment.

      Delete