The Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes

61%

26.12.23

Reviews want to categorise this as a romance but that wasn't really what is was about. The main story covered a surprisingly neglected historical moment that centralised books - and women. The details of the hard lives and harder climate of the area were pretty vivid, although the ramping up of the plot towards the end was probably unnecessary.
 

Gaudy Night - Dorothy L Sayers

53%

01.08.20

The interest of this lay in my own experience of an Oxford college, albeit one that seems to have been struck from the record in this story. Otherwise, it was all rather dated, wordy and confusing, and riddled with typos. And, disappointingly for a 'golden age' detective story, there wasn't even a murder!

There's Trouble Brewing - Nicholas Blake

48%
17.02.20

A Golden Age murder mystery by the poet laureate of the time, which I grabbed randomly from the shelf as the library was closing. Unfortunately, it did not result in a serendipitous passion for Golden Age murder mysteries by poet laureates. I didn't dislike it - it was just dated and forgettable.

Death of Anton - Alan Melville

63%
01.05.17

A rather delightful lost classic, set during a very specific period of time. Interesting protagonists and some striking turns of phrase make its obscurity rather unjust.