Bookish thoughts on Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon

Three Things About Elsie is filled with some lovely touches of humour, poignancy, and perceptive observations on life.

As well as this, it invites the reader into a mystery regarding a man from our main character Florence's past.

Florence is in her eighties and living in managed accommodation for the elderly. Elsie is her best friend - this is the first of the three things about her. As the book commences, Florence has fallen in her flat, and she is thinking about recent events in her life, telling us about Elsie, and about another friend in the flats, Jack, and also about a new arrival, a man who brings back past memories for Florence and causes her to embark on solving a mystery buried in her past, if she can just reach within her mind and find the answers. 

Joanna Cannon writes with warmth and in a compassionate, honest way in dealing with dementia and ageing, as well as portraying the bonds of friendship and companionship. 

There are many beautiful observations and expressions once again in Joanna Cannon's writing, as I found there were in the author’s debut novel, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, but this time, for me, there is a stronger and more compelling story to go with it.

I enjoyed the stories woven in about the side characters of Miss Ambrose and Handy Simon, both with their issues of self-doubt and self-discovery, though I felt I would have liked to know a little more about Jack, for him to have felt just a little more fleshed out as a character. 

The book cover is a lovely appealing design of Battenberg cake which was very tempting every time I looked at the pattern, and the jigsaw pieces emblematic of Florence trying to piece together the past and find that missing piece in her present.

As I said, there were some lovely expressions and thoughts on life, many sentences and passages I marked as I read and which caused me to pause and think, some of which I've shared below.

__________

Some of my favourite pieces of writing from the book:

'She always wore cheerful clothes, it was just a shame her face never went along with it.'

'A small existence, disappeared. There was nothing left to say she'd even been there. Everything was exactly as it had been before. As if someone had put a bookmark in her life and slammed it shut.'

'We'd only been there ten minutes and my mind started to wander. It can't help itself. It very often goes for a walk without me, and before I've realised what's going on, it's miles away.'

'Elsie's father left for the war and returned as a telegram on the mantelpiece.'

'But sometimes life takes you along a path you only intended to glance down on your way to somewhere else, and when you look back, you realise the past wasn't the straight line you thought it might be. If you're lucky, you eventually move forward, but most of us cross from side to side, tripping up over our second thoughts as we walk through life.'

'It's strange, because you can put up with all manner of nonsense in your life, all sorts of sadness, and you manage to keep everything on board and march through it, then someone is kind to you and it's the kindness that makes you cry. It's the tiny act of goodness that opens a door somewhere and lets all the misery escape.'

'It didn't take them long to undo my life. I had spent eighty years building it, but within weeks, they made it small enough to fit into a manila envelope and take along to meetings.'

'...perhaps it's only in the silence that you're able to hear just how loud your own worrying is.'

'Nothing he had a go at seemed to fit. Life sometimes felt like trying on the entire contents of a shoe shop, but all of them pinched your toes.'

The Vanishing Witch - Karen Maitland - Guest Book Review

Published by Headline

Guest book review by Lisa Weir

Wow!  Just....WOW!!

A riveting, page-turning whopper of a book that had me captivated – in fact, positively bewitched – from the start.  Blending history, superstition, folklore, murder, mystery and witchcraft sublimely, this book is an absolute must-read for fans of historical fiction.

Set in Lincolnshire in 1380, we are swept away to the time of King Richard II, when, led by his advisor John of Gaunt, he raises taxes to an all time high; a price that the majority of peasants cannot pay leading to the infamous peasant’s revolt.

One such peasant is river boatman Gunter, struggling to pay not just the new taxes but the rents owed by him to rich landowner and wool merchant Robert of Bassingham.

Robert has his own problems with his cargoes going missing, losing him money but fortunately he has the friendship of a new widow to appease him; Mistress Catlin is as divine a specimen of womankind as ever there was and Robert becomes enchanted with the young widow, a welcome change from his scold of a wife but when his wife passes away and he takes Catlin to be his new bride, things don’t go as well as he would have wished in his new little family as jealousy and suspicion between servants and sons abound.

And who is the mysterious friar seen following the players of this novel?  What part has he to play in the bad luck and woes that befall Robert one after the other?

As the peasants struggle and eventually lead a rebellion that has seen no precedent and as Robert gradually loses control of all he holds dear, the reader becomes enmeshed in a world that comes alive in with the medieval superstition, the fear of witchcraft and the plain cruelty and greed that renders the rich richer and the poor poorer in these squalid and fearful times. 

I was utterly lost in this medieval world; each chapter is headed by a spell, charm or ancient lore which fascinated me; the author’s knowledge of the true facts of the Peasant’s Revolt and of ancient folklore are woven together so brilliantly they lend a magical and mysterious element to the story as the reader is tantalized by the puzzling events surrounding the characters and tries to work out whether witchcraft is indeed at work or if it is just the exaggerated workings of our brains throwing us off the real scent.....It might be a big read but it’s a read that will have you spellbound and leave you 100 per cent satisfied. 

Huge thanks to Lisa for reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library! Lisa blogs at The Book Addicted Housewife, do visit her fab book blog too!


Read an interview with the author on JaffaReadsToo blog.

Author Interview - Joanne Phillips

Today I am really pleased to feature an interview with author Joanne Phillips. Joanne's latest novel is Cupid's Way.

Welcome Joanne, and thank you for agreeing to answer my questions! 

Please could you tell us a bit about your new book, Cupid's Way?

Cupid's Way is a feel-good romantic comedy about a woman called Evie Stone, who finds herself in the middle of a battle to save a Victorian terrace: Cupid's Way. Her grandparents live there, along with a host of colourful characters, but Dynamite Construction are threatening to demolish the site in the name of development. Evie begins to fall for charismatic Michael Andrews at an eco conference, not realizing he is in fact the CEO of Dynamite Construction ...

I know you've started a series of mystery novels too, I'm looking forward to reading the first one when I get chance. How do you decide what you want to write about next?

I have a notebook full of ideas, some are pretty detailed novel outlines and others just brief sketches, but I need to feel fired up about an idea to begin writing. A novel, even if you write quickly, takes a big chunk out of your life, and you have to love the characters and feel totally immersed in the plot to live with it for so long.

Do you plan extensively in advance when you write, in terms of plot and character, or do you have just an outline/main idea and then see where the words take you?

I do both, depending on the type of book. For a mystery, plotting is essential. The latest Flora Lively mystery was carefully plotted, scene by scene, before I started writing. You don't have to do it this way, of course, but if you don't it definitely means more re-writing and editing later to make sure you've laid a trail of clues and made the final denouncement totally credible. But my usual way of writing is to take an idea or a character and just begin. When I get to chapter 3 or 4, if I'm happy and certain I'm heading in the right direction, I might stop and jot down some ideas about where I want it to go. But plotting too much can suck all the joy out of it, for sure.

How long do you spend writing a novel from start to finish, and does it vary depending on the subject matter?

It does vary. Now I'm on my fifth novel, I usually spend about 6 months writing and editing, but often the idea will have been working itself out in my head for far longer, or will be based on notes and character sketches I've developed over time. Writing a novel for me doesn't only include sitting down at my desk and typing out the words - much of it goes on in my head while I'm doing other things.

Do you find writing addictive - is it hard to stop once you get going?

It is addictive, and I would write all day, every day if I could!

I love your site offering advice on writing and publishing from your own experiences. I read that you have done different roles prior to writing, but did you always have that itch to write?

I've always written, no matter what job or role I've had. I can still remember the feel of my school exercise books: red, blue or green covers with lined paper inside. I still think in stories all the time, and my characters have conversations with each other in my head! I think the big moment came for me when I realised that you need to take your dreams seriously, and give yourself every chance to achieve what you want, which for me was to have my work in front of readers. I'm enjoying sharing my journey on my blog and I'll always continue to do that too. 

Many thanks for being my guest on the blog today, Joanne!

You can visit Joanne's website here, and find her on twitter @joannegphillips and visit her amazon page here.

The Silversmith’s Wife - Sophia Tobin - Guest Book Review

Published by Simon & Schuster

Guest book review by Josie Barton

In the winter of 1792, Pierre Renard, the eponymous silversmith, is found dead in London’s Berkeley Square. With his throat cut and his pocket watch stolen, his murder could have been the work of an opportunist pickpocket, but as the story progresses it becomes obvious that, whilst on the surface, Pierre Renard was a man of means and self importance, he had more than enough enemies who wished him dead. At the heart of the story is Mary, the silversmith’s wife, who is completely overshadowed by her erstwhile husband, and yet by necessity, must play a pivotal role in the evolution of events. It’s a time of great uncertainty, not just for Mary as she copes in the aftermath of her husband’s murder but also for the continuation of Mary’s silversmith business, when a woman alone and defenceless was seen as the ultimate weakness.

From the beginning, I was drawn into the dark and dismal world of Georgian London where the patrolling night watchmen sink their sorrow into the bottom of an ale cup and where the great and the good of the city divide their time between squandering their wealth and interfering in other people’s lives. The Silversmith’s Wife takes the reader on a journey into the complicated world of Georgian melodrama and into the hub of the silversmith trade in the very heart of Bond Street, a place where petty jealousies run rife, and where thwarted passions and long buried hostilities threaten to overshadow everything.

There is no doubt that the author has a real skill for storytelling and in The Silversmith’s Wife, she conveys an introspective story, which whilst keeping at its heart the mystery surrounding Renard’s untimely death, also looks at the minutiae of daily life and the sadness which pervades Mary’s role as the unhappy wife. Reminiscent at times of Michel Faber’s, The Crimson Petal and the White, this story oozes quiet elegance and a decadent charm, which lingers in the way the story, evolves at its own pace. I found much to enjoy in the story, the plot kept me guessing, and I was so sympathetically drawn to Mary’s character, that by the end of the novel I only wished for her a long and happy life.

I would definitely recommend The Silversmith’s Wife to those readers who enjoy well written historical fiction.

Huge thanks to Josie for reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library! Josie blogs at Jaffa Reads Too, do visit her wonderful book blog too!

Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey

'There's so much I can't remember, perhaps I have got it completely wrong,...'

Maud is 82 and has dementia, she forgets a lot of things, unable to recall what she's just done, what she was intending to do, which results in cups of tea left standing forgotten, trips to the shop that leave her baffled as to what she went for, and even more sadly, the inability at times to even recognise her daughter Helen or her granddaughter Katy. Maud keeps scribbled notes, crumpled in her pocket, lying around her house, or in her bag, but she can't even rely on these when she can't recall what they meant, or why she'd written them. 

Something that keeps recurring in her thoughts though, is the notion that her friend Elizabeth, who she worked with at the Oxfam shop and who she gets on well with, is missing. Her mind keeps returning to this thought, she is certain about it, and keeps mentioning it again and again, it's a mystery that keeps nagging at her mind, breaking through even when so much else cannot. And there's something else, something in the back of her mind, a deep sadness from her past, where another mystery hides, without an answer, unless Maud can manage to break through the confusion and uncover it. 

Elizabeth is Missing is cleverly written and poignant. It offers an unflinching, frank portrayal of a person with dementia and at the same time an engaging storyline. I loved how the narrative skipped between the present and the past, and sometimes they ran into each other, people or events were muddled just like in Maud's mind. It is moving and honest in its exploration of dementia, offering a powerful and frank depiction of the effects of this illness. 

It is so sad because there are moments when Maud has a self-awareness and is conscious of how she must come across, sad when even the most mundane of situations becomes very difficult and the times when the reader fears she may end up in danger, and so sad when she is unable to recognise her loved ones, her daughter Helen who does so much for her and endures so much. I felt as I read that I understood a little of how desperately difficult it was for Maud, and for Helen, Emma Healey has conveyed this vividly through her writing, by depicting a lot of everyday occurences and showing how they are affected or complicated by Maud's illness. 

Yet the story is not without humour, there are light touches and moments that made me smile; a moment I particularly liked was when Maud was at the library, uninterested in reading mystery novels, her thoughts are that 'I don't think I'm quite up to that. I have enough mystery in my life as it is.'

As to the mystery elements, there are clues that allow us to suppose we might know what could have happened, in the present and the past, and I was interested to read on and discover the resolution to both parts, though I had an idea of what the truth might be with regard to the past before it was revealed. I enjoyed revisiting the past with Maud, hearing about her in her younger days just after the Second World War and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of her sister Sukey. 

For me though the strongest part of the novel is the depiction of Maud herself, a memorable character who made me smile, made me feel very sad, whose determination I admired, whose memory loss I mourned. There are lovely, clever and relevant little illustrations heading up each chapter and are worth paying attention to as the thread of the mystery progresses. This is an insightful, moving, at times heartbreaking debut novel of memory, families, love and loss.  I didn't want to put it down and feel glad to have read it.

Thanks to the publisher for kindly sending me a review copy of this novel.

Published by Penguin
Author links - twitter @ECHealey | website |

There's a great post on JacquiWine's Journal about an evening at Waterstones Picadilly with the author discussing the novel. 

The Goddess and the Thief - Essie Fox - Author guest post & review

I am delighted to share a guest blog post by author Essie Fox today, writing about her novel The Goddess and the Thief.  

BLOG POST BY ESSIE FOX

The Goddess and the Thief is perhaps the most gothic of my three Victorian novels. It has ghosts, Hindu gods, a cursed diamond, and opiate-driven dreams – not to mention certain vampiric themes, some of which allude to stories in the original Penny Dreadfuls; such as that of Varney the Vampire, a rather a lurid precursor of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

But, as well as providing what I hope is an entertaining read, many of the novel’s dramatic scenes reference more serious issues by far – relating to loss and identity – to female subjugation – and also obsessive religious beliefs when (for whatever reasons), some people are driven to behave in ways that others would call insane. And yet, are they really deluded? Or, is it true, as Shakespeare wrote that, “There are more things in heaven and earth…than dreamt of in your philosophy.”

In The Goddess and The Thief, my narrator is Alice Willoughby, a young woman who is torn between two very different worlds – and very different philosophies – being born and raised in India for the first eight years of her life, and then coming to live in England.

In India, her beloved ayah fills her head with tales of the Hindu gods – particularly Shiva and Sati. Sati was the god’s first mortal wife, who died when she flung herself into the flames of a fire at a sacred festival to prove her devotion to the god. Sati is eventually reborn in the form of Parvati, the human child who later on becomes divine when Shiva takes her as his bride.

Alice never forgets these stories, and her opening words in the novel are: “Do you believe in other worlds, of lives ever after, of heavens on earth? My ayah did and from her lips there dripped such honeyed promises…”

But Mini’s ‘honeyed promises’ go on to become the foundation for many subsequent events that prove to be very far from sweet, when Alice’ is forced to leave her care – when her father, who is in the service of the British East India Company, fears for his daughter’s morality and travels with her to England, where he leaves her in the care of an aunt. But he could not be more mistaken. Aunt Mercy is not as respectable as Alice’s father believes her to be, but is actually involved in the trade of spiritualist mediums. And, whereas she is a fraud, Alice – though a reluctant recruit – proves to have genuine psychic skills. And then, when the two women are befriended by a man called Lucian Tilsbury (whose own experiences in India have led to certain obsessions that neither women at first perceives), the resulting affairs and deceptions lead Alice – and her jealous aunt – into a nightmare of abuse, and increasingly dangerous desires.

Alice is unwittingly involved in the theft of a diamond which has been brought to England as ransom at the end of the Second Anglo Sikh war. In reality this diamond is based upon the actual Koh-i-noor, still one of the crown jewels today and on view in the Tower of London.

In my novel, the Koh-i-noor appears as a symbol of mystical spiritualism, linked to magical events relating to the Hindu gods, being able to bless – or sometimes curse – all those who come into its light. And, on a more prosaic level, the diamond’s power also lies in the fact that it was once the sovereign symbol of Lahore, and all that has now been taken away from the glamorous Prince Duleep Singh – the boy maharajah who was deposed and whose story is absolutely true, and which, I have taken the liberty of weaving into my novel’s plot.

Duleep really did come to England where he lived a very privileged life as a favourite of Queen Victoria. And in later years he also wished to claim his diamond back again, and hoped to return to India to sit once again on his golden throne; only not in quite the dramatic way described in The Goddess and the Thief.

The novel is suffused in deceits and supernatural mysteries, amongst which the prince, and Alice too, must face the ghosts from their Indian pasts. And sometimes those ghosts are imaginary, and sometimes they are very real. But as one of the other characters says when she sees some broken shards of glass: ‘See the glisten of that…as bright as any precious jewel. You can never tell ...what’s true...what’s false.’

Well, I hope if you read The Goddess and the Thief that by the time the novel ends you will see what’s real and what is false concerning the tales of the diamond, and also regarding Alice’s past – and whether, as Tilsbury believes, her future lies in India, linked to those stories her Ayah once told about the sacred Hindu gods. And finally, with regard to Duleep, I hope you find some sympathy and see that the British Empire’s dream of conquest and trade in India could sometimes lead to sadness – when a boy torn between two different worlds might end up belonging nowhere.

* * *

Huge thanks to Essie for sharing her thoughts here!

 ***

My review

'Those years I lived in India, I think they were my paradise.'

As a little girl, Alice Willoughby lived with her father in India, raised by her dear ayah, Mini, who tells her stories about Hindu gods, in particular Shiva and Parvati. Alice is devastated when taken by her father from this home that she knows and loves, and brought to live in Windsor, supposedly for a moral upbringing, with her self-centred aunt Mercy, who unbeknownst to Alice's father is in fact a spiritualist medium. When she lived in India, Alice once saw the precious, priceless Koh-i-Noor diamond, which was taken from India and brought to England after the end of the second Anglo-Sikh war, and it is set to play a significant role in her life to come. One day a mysterious man named Lucian Tilsbury enters Alice and Mercy's lives, and a plot is put into motion regarding the diamond.

Alice finds herself under the control and whims of her aunt, made to play a role and not cared for lovingly as she had been in India: 'I was the puppet whose strings were pulled by the whims and desires of her aunt.'  She finds herself with little option but to help her Aunt with her activities as a medium despite her desire not to be a part of them. A moment I particularly enjoyed was when Mercy, who, despite her assertions, has no genuine abilities as a medium, witnesses the very real psychic abilities of Alice. 

The Goddess and the Thief is a beautifully written, intricate, gothic and dark Victorian novel weaving together so many intriguing layers, many that I knew little of before reading this story. I loved the descriptions of India and hearing the stories of the Hindu gods that Alice had been told, stories that I might have otherwise never come across. 

It feels as though Essie Fox writes with a real passion and fascination for her themes, and this comes across, it drew me in and aroused my interest. In fact, right from the first page, reading the letter from Alice's mother to her sister Mercy that was 'never sent', I was intrigued. I liked how Queen Victoria and her mourning were incorporated into the storyline. Another fascinating character brought into the tale is the Maharajah Duleep Singh, taken from his homeland to England, becoming Queen Victoria's 'beautiful boy'. The plot holds surprises and twists, and I found myself reading a little slower sometimes to make sure I fully digested what was happening, sometimes to pause and think about what had happened, and I had to ask myself sometimes if I things were real or imaginary. 

Alice's world whilst in India feels so rich and full of colour and joyous experiences, and her life in England seems by contrast to be constrained, bleak and grey, stifling her. At times I felt very sad for Alice at the situations she found herself in, very vulnerable, sometimes with little or no way out, being manipulated or controlled by others.

It's a read strong on atmosphere, plot, imagination and mystery, with characters driven by passion and obsession. I felt immersed in a different place, hearing tales of mysterious people, precious objects, of mythology, gods and spirits, and learning a little of colonialism. The story ended on a poignant note.  For me this was an unusual, clever and captivating tale by an author talented in successfully weaving so many facets of history and imagination together into her narratives. I don't know if I've done this story justice in my review but hopefully given a flavour of it and how I enjoyed it. Do read the afterword by the author that sheds more light on what you've just read.

I was lucky enough to read the lovely hardback edition of this novel, which is beautifully designed and textured. 

I received a copy of this novel for an honest review.

Author links - twitter @EssieFox | website | Virtual Victorian |

Published by Orion