Back Trouble - Clare Chambers

59%

23.10.25

Wry humour, sharp observation and a strong sense of place and time - yes, it's a Clare Chambers novel. I have a few to read and this was engaging and interestingly structured, if not ultimately memorable or profound.

Death and the Harlot - Georgina Clarke

64%

24.06.25

I want to describe this as a Regency romp, but it's set too late to be Regency and is too serious in places to be a romp. But it's a fun read with well-drawn characters, good world-building and no embarrassing attempts at realistic period dialogue. Yes, the identity of the villain quickly becomes obvious but it's an entertaining journey to their unveiling.

The Frozen People - Elly Griffiths

59%

13.06.25

Griffiths' depictions of North Norfolk have always been fanciful, so perhaps it's no surprise that she's gone full sci fi with her new time-travel series. It made no sense, the characters were poorly developed and the plot full of unresolved (worm)holes but it was a lot of fun - the culture-clash scenes set in Victorian London were particularly engaging.

Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters

67%

06.03.25

Sarah Waters hasn't published a novel for more than 10 years so I was pleased to remember there was one I hadn't read. In her anniversary afterword, she's pretty critical of this, her debut novel,  but I think she's too harsh on herself. From the start, the reader is clearly in the hands of a confident and sophisticated storyteller, a late-20th-century Dickens. Yes, it was a bit messy, and the main character is self-serving to the end - and it wasn't quite as good as The Little Stranger, for example - but it's certainly a good read.

The Trouble With Mrs Montgomery Hurst - Katie Lumsden

 58%

02.12.24

The trouble with this novel was the uneasy mix of paying homage to Austen/Gaskell and the 21st-century turns of phrase and sensibilities of the characters. It worked best when it interrogated class assumptions, using a light yet skewering humour, and not always taking the easy way out. But the main character was unlikable (and not in the 'Emma' sense) and many conversations and actions were just unconvincing.

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.
 

Black Cake - Charmaine Wilkerson

57%

12.11.23

This was an engaging family saga, and the historical and cultural details gave it an extra layer of interest. It was a shame, then, that most of the characters seemed only to be there as cyphers, and that several elements of the plot were either unconvincing or just didn't make sense. And there was a weird sense of mythical history about events that only took place 50 years ago. So, as usual, more editing might have moved it towards the 'Masterful' promised on the cover but it remains a reasonable read.

The Drowned City - K J Maitland

Didn't finish

I'd never heard of the Severn Tsunami, but apparently it devastated the area in which I grew up 400 years ago. But that fascinating fact wasn't enough to keep me reading this gritty book - I couldn't cope with the graphic suffering and violence, and I didn't care about the bland protagonist. I also didn't care for the weird narrative jumps from third person to first and back again.

The Lamplighters - Emma Stonex

 

48%

09.10.22

Life on a lighthouse was dull and repetitive and a little dreamlike, just like this book. It was too lavishly descriptive for my taste, the characters too cold and similar, the magic realism and metaphorical flights of fancy too heavy handed. More 'hardgoing' than the 'gripping' and 'riveting' asserted on the cover.

The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams

 48%

20.08.21

You'd think I'm the ideal audience for this novel - I've studied, lived and worked in Oxford and work with words now. But the story was so dull, the characters so two-dimensional, the dialogue so unlikely, and the author so keen to show off her conscientious research and ruminations on the nature of words that I just didn't care.

Note: I'm might also start keeping count of books where women become pregnant after having sex once. Spoiler: It's most books with unmarried female protagonists, especially when they're set in the past.

New label: pregnant first time

Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers

 

60%
25.12.20

This was compared to Barbara Pym and Anne Tyler - well, it's a low-key story about women struggling through society but otherwise it was too heavy handed to reach those dizzy heights. Readable enough but from all the smog 'n' smoking (yes, we get it, it was the 50s) to the unnecessarily tragic or possibly open-ended ending (not a spoiler - the preface prefigured the probable death of a character), it just needed a lighter touch.

Elijah's Mermaid - Essie Fox

Didn't finish

I was hoping to have a short mermaid season (a short season of  mermaid book reviews, not a season of not-very-tall mermaids - how can you measure their height if they don't stand up?). But this was unreadable so never mind.

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock - Imogen Hermes Gowar

68%
27.06.19

I like a quirky, historical romp and this is indeed both quirky and rompy. What sets it apart, though, is the quality of the writing: lyrical, layered prose with few of the usual jarring cliches. Yes, some of the characters are a little sketchy, and it could have done with a little structural support for its meandering plot, but in general both fun and thought-provoking.

Crooked Heart - Lissa Evans

69%
15.06.19

Now, this is more like it. A sequel (prequel?) to the equally entertaining Old Baggage, juggling the same mix of humour, strong characters, social history and unusual take on a well-worn trope. And the unexpectedly sentimental last page floored me because I'm an old softy.

My Name is Leon - Kit de Waal

49%
24.02.19

Heavy-handed story of a deprived kid saved by foster mothers, substitute fathers and, er, the redemptive power of gardening.

Old Baggage - Lissa Evans

69%
14.02.19

Who cares if there's not much plot when there are so many strongly drawn characters, and such a vivid sense of place? It is indeed the 'delight' that the cover promises, at least when it's not bogged down in pathos and foreshadowing.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep - Joanna Cannon

59%
26.10.17

I found the first half in particular distractingly overwritten and a little slow. The 10-year-old narrator was unconvincing as a child, yet the narrative might have worked better if it had only been from her point of view. Otherwise, readable enough and gained some momentum towards the end.