The history girls

   

     I'm never sure how best to categorise them, but I've got a pile of books from the period/historical shelves to introduce today, so let's start from the top and work down.

     "Better than Philippa Gregory" says The Bookseller of Anne O'Brien's work, and just out is her Virgin Widow, the story of Anne Neville, daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker, twice betrothed to the future Richard III. "A rich and compelling tale of love, ambition, lust and intrigue", and a chunky 600-pager at that.

     Next we go to pre-war Paris and Julie Orringer's novel The Invisible Bridge. This features a young Hungarian student who is given a mysterious letter to post on his arrival in the French capital - why it couldn't have been sent to Budapest from within Hungary is unclear. When Andras falls in love with Klara, another emigré, he discovers she is hiding a secret related to the letter. Then war looms closer ....

    Back in time to the Tudor court and The Confession of Katherine Howard by Suzannah Dunn. Interestingly, this is described as "a historical tale with a refreshingly contemporary feel - human drama, not costume drama", and it promises passionate love and betrayal a-plenty.

   I've slipped a male writer in among the girls with Robert Sackville-West's portrait of a house and its inhabitants, Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles. Childhood home to Vita Sackville-West and now owned by the National Trust, Knole is one of the largest houses in England, "all the rooms, and the objects that fill them, are freighted with an emotional significance that has been handed down from generation to generation."

   Last but by no means least, a novel set in the 1950s. The Eloquence of Desire by Amanda Sington-Williams "explores the conflicts in family relationships caused by obsessive love, the lost innocence of childhood and the terror of the Communist insurgency in Malaya", and is written in "haunting and rhythmical prose".

   Lots of good things there on the tbr pile, and a rich variety of styles as well as settings, by the look of it.

Comments

[Dark Puss]

Which war do you refer to when you say pre-war Paris in the Orringer synopsis?

[Margaret Powling]

The Knole book might interest me. I know of Vita's love of the place and disappointment (to say the least) in not inheriting (as a woman she wasn't able to) and, if it is your ancestral home I could imagine you would love it. However ... we visited several years ago and found it a most depressing place. Not the fault of the National Trust, or anything I can put my finger on, but it was all Very Brown, with dark furniture and wood panelling. But I've got away from the idea of the book, and I think it would be interesting, nonetheless, to learn more about this enormous house, more like a village than a home.

[Rhys]

Edinburgh was sunny and warm yesterday....and I saw a florist's van in Morningside marked "Cornflower Blue" (and I do think the word Morningside is a beautiful and interesting word)......but no more trips over the border for us now as we transfer our allegiance to Berlin.....

[LizF]

I've just collected the Knole book from the library and now it's a race to get it finished before they want it back!
I've read a couple of Suzannah Dunn's books before and enjoyed them so this looks interesting and I will be interested to know what you make of it.

[Cornflower]

Yes, I've seen that van, too, Rhys (nothing to do with me but what great taste in names!). Berlin is quite far afield - hope all goes well.