The Woman in the Picture - Katharine McMahon

Set in London in 1926, this novel features Evelyn Gifford, who we first met in an earlier novel by Katharine McMahon, The Crimson Rooms. Now one of the first female qualified solicitors, Evelyn’s brother was killed in WWI and she is living with her young nephew and his mother Meredith. Two cases dominate the storyline; one regarding disputed paternity and another regarding union strikes. In her personal life, too, Evelyn faces challenges, decisions and conflicts, with the chance of happiness with a man who admires and loves her, and yet the lure of a past lover returned.

The Woman in the Picture is another beautifully written historical novel by Katharine McMahon, with super characterisation; it’s wonderful to revisit Evelyn and discover her current endeavours – though this novel can certainly be read without having read The Crimson Rooms. The narrative offers a compelling portrait of a time when a female lawyer was unusual and the preconceptions and judgements Evelyn therefore faces from others in the profession and from the general population.

The story moves along at a good pace, both the legal matters and the romantic aspects are intriguing and held my interest. The author has a skillful and elegant way with language and incorporates convincing authentic period detail. I think anyone who enjoys well-written historical fiction with an engaging, intelligent plot and an element of romance, and in particular if you like to read about a strong, independent female central character, will find a lot to love in this novel.

Reviewed for We Love This Book

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson

My review of Season of Light by Katharine McMahon

What makes a novel historical? - Jane MacKenzie - Author guest post

Today I'm delighted to share a guest post with you from author Jane MacKenzie. Jane's debut novel is Daughter of Catalonia, and is published by Allison and Busby on April 17th 2014. 

What makes a novel historical? by Jane MacKenzie

People are fascinated by the past. So, it’s understandable why so many good novels might be termed historical, including my own, Daughter of Catalonia. The period of my novel ranges from 1935 to 1958, before I was born. But it doesn’t feel like a historical novel to me, and when I look back on how the book was born it isn’t a period in history that I think about first, but a place.

I have a home in Collioure, surely one of the most beautiful places in France, just twenty kilometres from Spain, and full of Catalan influences. Matisse and Derain discovered colour here, and Picasso spent an important part of his life close by. With the Mediterranean on one side, and the Pyrenees on the other, the region grows peaches, and cherries, and apricots, and above all grapes, on the plains and on craggy hillsides where the sun bakes the ground hard and the vines cling like crow’s feet to the rocky soil. But this isn’t a region of grand wine chateaux, or indeed the glitzy Riviera. It is a place where fishermen and wine growers have always eked out a living a bit like the crofters in my native Scotland – small-scale and hardy, and keeping a lot of the good stuff for themselves!

So they made me want to write, but not the typical book by English settlers about how they converted a farmhouse, or the story of the holidaymaker who meets a romantic Frenchman. I wanted to write about the Catalans themselves.

It was a 91 year old ex-fisherman whose stories set me exploring the region’s past, and I ended up writing a novel which explores the war years, and the effect of the German occupation on ordinary lives in France. Setting the main action of the novel in 1958 allowed me to explore how people recovered and resumed their lives after the war, and I kept my promise to myself, so that my key characters are the fishermen, the schoolteacher  and the bar owner who make up the ordinary life blood of local villages.

But to me they don’t feel like historical characters. Perhaps a real historical novel is one set before living memory. The people who were falling in love and having babies in Collioure in 1958 are still alive today, and I know many of them. It is living history that I’ve written about, and the streets through which my own lovers walk, and the vineyards and the mountains which are their backdrop, are as real and unspoiled today as they were then. I imagine them now as elderly people, strolling down for a coffee or glass of wine in my favourite local café. They would be the age of my father, and he isn’t yet history!

But the research required to write the book was just as intensive as I imagine writing about the 15^th century must be, and it focuses the mind to know that if you get your facts wrong you’ll get your knuckles rapped by readers who remember the period perfectly! And my next novel is set in the 1960s, so the pressures can only increase. A recent BBC survey of eminent academics came to no firm conclusion about when history stops and the ‘current era’ begins. One said history began a second ago. Another said it ended in 1968. For me it will be when I start writing about years I remember myself, so that I’m not sent flying to reference books to research. But where would be the fun in that?

~~~~~

About the novel...

When charismatic Spaniard Luis elopes with high born Elise from Paris in 1935, and takes her to live in Catalan France, they little know that war is going to rip France apart, separate them, and ultimately destroy them both, sending Elise into unhappy exile in England, and Luis to his death in the French Resistance.

It is many years later, in 1958, that their daughter Madeleine escapes to France, to the beloved village of her childhood memory, to seek out her roots and the truth of her parents’ story. Her journey liberates her from a childhood of stifled gentility in her grandparents’ home, and takes her through glitzy Paris and on to the heat and passion of Catalonia. But her arrival in her childhood village unleashes more than she had bargained for, as Madeleine confronts the secrets of war and learns the shocking truth behind her father’s death. And as her own Catalan love story begins, she has to come to terms with her past, and learn to forgive and to believe in the legacy of love her parents left behind.

Daughter of Catalonia is a story about love and war, about rupture and healing, and about survival and ultimately hope. It is a love story born in the heat of the Mediterranean sun.

About the author...

Jane MacKenzie has lived and worked in many far flung corners of the world, including the Gambia and Switzerland. Having built her own business and enjoyed a spell working at CERN in Geneva, Jane realised her dream of writing. She splits her time between the Scottish Highlands and Roussillon in the South of France, the region which inspired Daughter of Catalonia.  

Follow her on twitter: @JaneFMackenzie 

Author's Website: www.janemackenzie.co.uk

Merivel: A Man of His Time - Rose Tremain - Guest review

Sir Robert Merivel is a deeply-flawed but loveable character, whose early life was chronicled in Tremain’s Booker short-listed novel Restoration. Born to an honest, God-fearing haberdasher, Merivel trains as a medic before becoming a favourite in the court of  King Charles. A life of debauchery and sexual excess is funded by the crown, Merivel’s reward for being a paper-groom to the king’s youngest mistress. But he makes a big mistake, and pays dearly for it; destitute, he is cast out of his beloved home Bidnold and is forced to beg his Quaker friend Pearce for shelter. And there is worse to come…

By the time we meet Merivel at the beginning of this sequel, his fortunes have once again changed. Restored to the King’s favour and to Bidnold, he is cared for by his devoted staff and adored by his beautiful daughter. Happy, but restless, he undertakes a journey to Versailles and the court of Louis, the Sun King.

I have had a copy of Restoration on my shelf for some years and it was only the arrival of a review copy of Merivel that made me lift it down. Although Merivel can be read as a stand-alone novel, it helps to have an understanding of the relationships that have evolved in the earlier novel. Although I’ve read a range of historical novels from Phillipa Gregory to Elizabeth Chadwick, from Georgette Heyer to Anya Seton, I’m not a great connoisseur of the genre. I enjoy some, but very often I find an author’s need to adhere to historical accuracy results in lacklustre storytelling and unimaginative characterisation.

Not so with Tremain. Sir Robert Merivel is a gem. His story is told in first person in a journal that he calls The Wedge. His observations on life are suffused with self-deprecating humour; even at his most debauched and reckless he maintains a comic and painful self-awareness. For all his faults, he is loyal to both his monarch and his staff, cares for his patients with tenderness and insight, and constantly strives to be a better man. It is easy to feel a certain fondness for Merivel, especially having followed his changing fortunes as a young man.

The settings are richly detailed, whether Tremain is describing the excesses of the English and French courts, the poverty of the Whittlesea Asylum or the steamy (in all senses!) laundry owned by the voluptuous Rosie Pierpoint. The language is sufficiently archaic to be credible as a Restoration text without being inaccessible to a modern reader. The supporting cast of characters is diverse and interesting: the lovers, the courtiers, the servants, the craftsmen, the Quakers and their insane patients – each has his or her own story, contributing to a densely textured evocation of the Restoration period.

Highly recommended – but if, like me, you have a copy of Restoration on a dusty shelf, do yourself a favour and read that first. 

Published by Chatto & Windus

Reviewed by Angi Holden - guest reviewer.

Many thanks to Angi for kindly reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library.

The Gilded Lily - Deborah Swift

Deborah Swift’s second novel, The Gilded Lily, tells the tale of two sisters, Ella and Sadie Appleby, who flee from Westmorland to London following the suspicious death of Ella’s employer. Once there they secure employment in a wigmaker’s workshop (a boom industry in the late 17^th century), but before long their past catches up with them and they are forced to go on the run once again.

Thanks to a fortuitous meeting with a rich young playboy, Ella lands a role in another growing new industry - the selling of beautifying lotions and potions to idle society ladies - in a shop called The Gilded Lily. However, Sadie finds survival less easy thanks to the port-wine birthmark which covers half her face and makes her an easy target for bounty hunters and busybodies eager to claim the reward offered for the capture of “The Savage Sisters”.

The sights and smells (particularly the smells!) of Restoration London are vividly described and the sisters’ exploits make for a fast-paced and exciting tale, rich in atmosphere and adventure. Ella is a bold and feisty young woman, making up for what she lacks in talent with a good dose of charm and naked ambition. Sadie is her polar opposite - bright but timid and sensitive. Although the main characters are fictional, the author has included enough actual events and cameos from real people of the time to give the story atmosphere and authenticity.

The storyline could lead to comparisons with Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue or Scapegallows by Carol Birch - I’d say it’s a lighter read than those two, but no less enjoyable, and in terms of period detail I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoyed The Apothecary’s Daughter by Charlotte Webb or The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell. I was really impressed by my first Deborah Swift novel and will be adding her to my list of ‘must read’ historical fiction authors. I’ve already ordered a copy of her first book, The Lady’s Slipper, from Amazon, and was pleased to see that it’s a sort of prequel, featuring some of the main characters from The Gilded Lily and a with a bit of 17^th century witch-hunting thrown in - sounds just my cup of tea.

Reviewed by Denise Powell.

Guest reviewer Denise Powell has kindly reviewed this novel for The Little Reader Library - many thanks to Denise for this lovely, insightful review. Denise is a very keen reader whose reviews I always enjoy reading and whose opinion I trust when choosing a book.

Published by Pan.

You can visit the author's site here and follow her on twitter @swiftstory

Thanks to the author and publisher for sending a copy of this novel to read and review.