Review - P. D. JAMES - "The Lighthouse"

Publ: 2005 Faber and Faber
Pensby Library
ISBN: 0 571 22918 2
Genre: Crime
Pages: 323p
Recommended by a Blogger
Rating: ***** ****



What led you to pick up this book?
It was recommended by a blogger faily recently but I regret I have not made of a note of who. Thanks to whoever it was!

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
P D James's well known poet detective, Adam Dalgliesh, is called to investigate a suspicious death on an island off the coast of Cornwall. The island is used by senior government and business folk to obtain peace and relaxation in seclusion. Taking with him Inspector Kate Miskin and Detective Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith who are in the process of feeling their way into a new working relationship. Predictably the island gets cut off and the three are left to establish the identity of the killer (for the suspicious death was undoubtedly a murder) from among the limited number of suspects (all of whom have reason to dislike the victim) without any aid from the mainland. As usual Dalgliesh solves the mystery with a thunderbolt of realisation as he reviews the clues in his head. An old, old story told in a new and credible fashion with the usual skill of P D James.

What did you think of the characters?
In addition to the underlying thread of Dalgliesh's romantic life and the working relationship of the three detectives there is excellent characterisation of all the staff and visitors to the island.

What did you think about the style?
P D James' usual easy-to-read style with her above average skill with the English language and its ability to evoke an atmosphere.

What did you like most about the book?
The clever way an old chestnut was made credible in the modern age.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
No.

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
A good enough picture but I do wish the artists who do book covers were adequately briefed / stuck to their brief / read the book. The lighthouse in the book has red on it.

Would I recommend it?
Yes, this is the 13th in the Dalgliesh series and one of the best books by her that I have read.


P D JAMES spent thirty years in various departments of the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law Divisions of the Home Office, and has served as a magistrate and as a governor of the BBC. In 1991, she was created Baroness James of Holland Park. P. D. James lives in London and Oxford.

Review – Bernard CORNWELL – “Sharpe’s Company”

Publ: 1982 Collins
Pensby Library
ISBN: 0 00 616573 7
Genre: Historical fiction
Pages: 343p
Continuing the series
Rating: ***** ***


What led you to pick up this book?
I am working my way through the Sharpe series.

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
Subtitled Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Badajoz, January to April 1812.
This is Bernard Cornwell's third novel and one of the author’s personal favourites. The story is where he had intended to start his "series of tales about the adventures of a British rifleman in the Napoleonic Wars" before realising he would need to write a couple of novels to warm-up for it first. Chronologically it is now the eleventh in the series of 21.
Sharpe, whose captaincy has not come through, is demoted back to a Lieutenant immediately prior to the siege of Badajoz in 1812. The book re-introduces the villainous Sgt. Obidiah Hakeswill as Wellington attempts to capture one of the immense fortresses on the Spanish Portuguese border.

What did you think of the characters?
Good as ever. The emotions of the various main characters are explored as well as ever.

What did you think about the style?
Good as ever.

What did you like most about the book?
Its realism.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
After ten previous Sharpe novels this was a bit predictable but then predictability is one of the assets of a comfortable read so it is only a ‘dislike’ if it makes the stories stale. The excitement of Sharpe’s adventures never get stale for me.


Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
The copy I had was from a different jacket series (above) and therefore not as good as usual. The one shown on the web (shown at top) seems more in keeping with the excellent ones I have seen to date.

Would I recommend it?
Yes, a must for Sharpe fans.


Quotations:

The meek, he had been told, would inherit the earth, but only when the last soldier left it to them in his will.

“I’m an American, with a French name, from a Royalist family, fighting for the English, for a German king, who’s mad.” (Leroy might well have added ‘against the Spanish who are our allies’!)

BERNARD CORNWELL see Sharpe’s Havoc

Review – "Academy Notes 1888-1891”

Publ: 1888-1892
Own
ISBN: -
Genre: Art
Pages: c500
Found by Serendipity
Rating: ***** *****


This ‘book’ was in a charity shop and any old binding in a charity is worth investigating. This is my best charity shop purchase for years, even if it was a cut above the usual charity shop price.

I put ‘book’ in inverted commas because it is actually four pamphlets by Chatto and Windus bound together post-publication.

Academy Notes was an annual publication designed to accompany the Royal Academy Exhibition and was published on the opening day in May. There are brief notes about a number of the more interesting works in each gallery and over a hundred accompanying pages of ‘facsimiles of sketches’ of many of the works. It first came to success in 1875 and was not designed as a catalogue but was intended for those who were unable to visit the Exhibition, ‘who, having visited it, desire some memento’, or for those who wished to save time and trouble in examining the contents of the Exhibition.

The illustrations were produced by ‘various new processes intended to give an idea of the composition of the pictures, and are not intended specially as works of art’. Nevertheless, they are works of art!

I have thoroughly enjoyed poring through this set of four volumes in one and then seeing if I can find some of the original pictures on-line.

This is one I found:-


The illustration in the book.


The on-line print – since that early exhibition Hubert Herkomer has become Hubert von Herkomer!


Some of the sketches are purely representational like this one by Joseph Clark, an example of whose work can be seen below.



This is one book that will enhance my shelves for ever and will undoubtedly provide many a happy hour of browsing.

Review – Conn IGGULDEN – “Bones of the Hills”

Publ: 2008 Harper Collins
Pensby Library
ISBN: 978 000 7201785
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 518p
Continuing the trilogy
Rating: ***** ***


What led you to pick up this book?
I have read the first two and wanted to finish the trilogy.

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
This is third novel in Conn Iggulden's No. 1 bestselling Conqueror series, following the life and adventures of Genghis Khan. The fatherless boy, exiled from his tribe, who featured in 'Wolf of the Plains' and 'Lords of the Bow', has grown into the great king, Genghis Khan. He has united the warring tribes and even taken his armies against the great cities of their oldest enemies, the Chin. Now he turns his attention westwards to the Russians and Moslems, ranging as far as modern Iran and Iraq. As well as discovering new territories, exacting tribute from conquered peoples and laying waste the cities which resist, Genghis Khan has to decide who will be his heir.

It takes books like this and Stephen Pressfield’s “The Afghan Campaign” to make one realise just how enormous were the achievements of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great.

What did you think of the characters?
Well portrayed without being exceptional.

What did you think about the style?
This is very much an adventure story with a historical background rather than a history with a flavour of fiction. Nevertheless it is well researched and in so far as I can tell, accurate.

What did you like most about the book?
Iggulden is simply a darned good storyteller.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
No.

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
Appropriate but not as good as the previous volume.

Would I recommend it?
Yes, as an adventure story.

CONN IGGULDEN – see The Gates of Rome.
http://bookeverysixdays.blogspot.com/2008/02/conn-iggulden-gates-of-rome.html

Review – Sue GEE – “The Mysteries of Glass”

Publ: 2004 Headline
Pensby Library
ISBN: 0 7533 0309 1
Genre: General, historical
Pages: 342p
Recommended by A Work in Progress
Rating: ***** ****


What led you to pick up this book?
It was reviewed by A Work in Progress

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
In the winter of 1860 young Richard Allen arrives at a small hamlet outside Hereford to take up his first position as a curate. It's in this quiet place of wind and trees, birds and water that Richard is to fall passionately in love. As Richard begins to be accepted into the community his feelings begin to challenge his very belief in God. Allen's relationship with the sick Rector and the various inhabitants of his parish are explored in depth and with meaning.

What did you think of the characters?
The whole book could well have been written in the year in which it is set and the characters act in accordance with their stations and the mores of the time.

What did you think about the style?
Classic. I say that in the sense that the style of writing is such as might well have been written by Anthony Trollope or the like. In each scene, the whole setting is described – not just the sights and the words that are spoken but the other sounds, the smells, the general feel of the day or moment.

What did you like most about the book?
The style.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
The ending.

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
A photo from the Hulton archive, the scene is a beautiful one and most appropriate to one of the major turning points in the book. (However, I do dislike it when a photo is reversed on the back cover, rather than repeated, so that it is the wrong way round - it is unnecessary and annoying.)

Would I recommend it?
Yes.

Totally irrelevant side note:
I sometimes think I am over-critical of authors – bearing in mind the fact that I could not write half as well as most of them. I could feel myself, for the first twenty pages of this book seeking some sort of chronological error – as if to show how clever I am. The book is set in 1860, a period about which I know a fair bit. Not that I’m quite old enough to have been there but I have read many diaries from the period. Because the style of Susan Gee is so detailed and she describes each setting so comprehensively there is much opportunity to make a mistake. It was only when I had got that out of my system that I could settle down and enjoy the book.
Even then, when the author mentioned Warsaw and Prague in a list of capitals on p125 my immediate reaction was to query it. Poland had disappeared into Russian rule at that time and was no longer an independent kingdom so should the teacher have been mentioning it as a capital... And Prague didn’t become a capital until after WWI. Damn, it’s awful being so pedantic.


SUE GEE is a British born author and associate lecturer in Writing and Publishing Studies at Middlesex University. She lives in London with her Polish partner and their son.

Review – “Conn IGGULDEN – “Lords of the Bow”

Publ: 2008 Harper Collins
Pensby Library
ISBN: 978 0 00 720176 1
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 451p
Searched for
Rating: ***** ***



What led you to pick up this book?
This is the follow up to Wolf of the Plains.

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
In the first volume Temujin of the Wolves became Genghis Khan. In this volume he takes the Mongol tribes over the border into the Chin lands and attempts the destruction of a whole nation whilst at the same time forging a new one from a host of small tribes. This book can be read as part of the trilogy or in isolation.

What did you think of the characters?
Well portrayed without being exceptional.

What did you think about the style?
This is very much an adventure story with a historical background rather than a history with a flavour of fiction. Nevertheless it is well researched and in so far as I can tell, accurate.

What did you like most about the book?
Iggulden is simply a darned good storyteller.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
No

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
Attractive and in keeping with the story.

Would I recommend it?
Yes, to any lover of adventure stories set in a historical context.

CONN IGGULDEN see The Gates of Rome

Review – m@tt beaumont – “e.”

Publ: 2000 Harper Collins
Own copy
ISBN: 0 00 710068 X
Genre: Humour
Pages: 342p
Recommended by a blogger but cannot recall who.
Rating: ***** ****


What led you to pick up this book?
Recommended by a blogger so I bought it second-hand.

Describe the plot without giving anything away.
The subtitle is a novel of ‘liars, lunch and lost knickers’. As an advertising agency seeks a major contract everyone within it has their own agenda – from getting into someone else’s knickers to pinching their desk. Half the cast end up in Mauritius shooting a film of topless models for the LOVE channel amidst exploding implants and typhoons while the other half beaver away trying to avoid being the next one to go and spend more time with their family as the Chief Executive’s e-mails mysteriously end up going to his fellow CEO in the Finnish office. A fun exercise would be to guess at the beginning who is still likely to be employed by the end of the book!

What did you think of the characters?
All office life is here – allegedly. In practice it’s not like any office I’ve ever worked in apart from the back-stabbing and the panics. Nevertheless some of the characters were instantly recognisable like the admin officer who saw it as his job to advise staff how to walk across the carpet tiles so as to prolong their life, the chap who couldn’t resist mentioning his title in every communication and the secretary who saw any job other than mollycoddling her boss as beneath her.

What did you think about the style?
The book is entirely in the form of e-mails. It was difficult to get into at first but after a chapter or so it became more familiar and by the middle of the book it was fairly easy to read. To some extent the style is the book.

What did you like most about the book?
The intricacies of the plot, the clever humour and, once I got used to it, the e-mail style.

Was there anything you didn't like about the book?
I do not like it when two characters have names beginning with the same letter. This may seem strange but folk who read rather quickly, as I tend to do, can find it difficult to cope with. One sees the first letter of the name and doesn’t properly read the rest of it. When two characters have the same initial letter it takes a while to discipline oneself to actually read the name.

Thoughts on the book jacket / cover.
Average.

Would I recommend it?
Difficult. I thoroughly enjoyed it once I got into it but I’m not sure everyone would consider it worthwhile.

MATT BEAUMONT “is a copywriter and has been fired by some of London's leading ad agencies. He lives in North London with his wife and children”.