General Chat

By the way Ann, I forgot to say have a good holiday ;-)))

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters [bit explicit apparently :-) ] Divided into three parts, the tale is narrated by two orphaned girls whose lives are inextricably linked. It begins in a grimy thieves kitchen in Borough, South London with 17-year-old orphan Susan Trinder. She has been raised by Mrs Sucksby, a cockney Ma Baker, in a household of fingersmiths (pickpockets), coiners and burglars. One evening Richard 'Gentleman' Rivers, a handsome confidence man, arrives. He has an elaborate scheme to defraud Maud Lilly, a wealthy heiress. If Sue will help him she'll get a share of the 'shine'. Duly installed in the Lillys' country house as Maud's maid, Sue finds that her mistress is virtually a prisoner. Maud's eccentric Uncle Christopher, an obsessive collector of erotica (loosely modelled on Henry Spenser Ashbee) controls every aspect of her life. Slowly a curious intimacy develops between the two girls and as Gentleman's plans take shape, Sue begins to have doubts. The scheme is finally hatched but as Maud commences her narrative it suddenly becomes more than a tad difficult to tell quite who has double-crossed who. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon George Hall doesn't understand the modern obsession with talking about everything. 'The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.' Some things in life, however, cannot be ignored. At fifty-seven, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels, listening to a bit of light jazz. Then Katle, his tempestuous daughter, announces that she is getting remarried, to Ray. Her family is not pleased - as her brother Jamie observes, Ray has 'strangler's hands'. Katie can't decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob, and her mother Jean is a bit put out by all the planning and arguing the wedding has occasioned, which get in the way of her quite fulfilling late-life affair with one of her husband's former colleagues. And the tidy and pleasant life Jamie has created crumbles when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to the dreaded nuptials. Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind. The way these damaged people fall apart - and come together - as a family is the true subject of Mark Haddon's disturbing yet very funny portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier When Mary Yellan, a farmer's daughter from Helford, obeyed her mother's dying wish and went to live with her aunt near Bodmin, she had no idea that her attractive, laughing relative was married to the landlord of Jamaica Inn, miles from anywhere on Bodmin Moor. As the coachman warned her: 'Respectable folk don't go to Jamaica any more'. And as her evil giant of an uncle soon told her, after a few glasses of brandy: 'I'm not drunk enough to tell you why I live in this God-forgotten spot, and why I'm the landlord of Jamaica Inn.' In her first famous novel Daphne du Maurier transferred the world of the Bronte's to Cornwall in the early nineteenth century. In the dark events along the Cornish coast, in the ugly brutality of Joss Merlyn, and in the enigmatic character of his brother Jem, the reader gets an exciting foretaste of her next novel, Rebecca.

Hi, Haven't got a classical one. Hope that's not a problem. Just read Peter Kay's autobiography The Sound of Laughter, very funny. Martina Cole's latest called The Close. Very good and gritty. Just started on James Patterson's non-fiction book The Innocent Man. Aileen xxx

Good evening Ann I have already chosen 3 for this month and here they are The Earl of Petticoat Lane – Andrew Miller When Henry Freedman met Miriam Claret in 1929, he was a barrow boy and she was a milliner’s apprentice. In 1953, they were presented to the Queen. A rags to riches story -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Small Island – Andrea Levy It is 1949, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh’s neighbours do not approve when she aggress to take in Jamaican lodgers, but with her husband, Bernard, not back from the war, what else can she do?? Andrea Levy handles the weighty themes of empire, prejudice, war and love, with a superb lightness of touch and generosity of spirit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adam Bede – George Elliot This book goes deep into the dark recesses of human nature and sets forth a coherent philosophy of conduct and inexorable retribution for wrongdoing. Set in the countryside of the English Midlands at the beginning of the 19th century, the book relates a passionate story of seduction, crime, remorse and suffering, but is also enlivened by the humorous rustic aphorist, Mrs Poyser, and the inspirational preacher, Dinah Morris

I seem to remember that I said this month i would put the book choice thread up early as I am going away next week and it will be easier to have the vote etc before I get involved with packing etc. The review will still not go up until Monday. Please choose two normal and one classical, vote to be on Sunday evening. Ann Glos