Cornflower Books

The Walter Scott Prize - the longlist

    I'm always keenly interested to see what's in the running for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and details of this year's longlisted books can be found here.

    I've yet to read any of the above, but Mr. C. speaks very highly of Colm Tóibín's The Magician.

January's books

    All good, but the top three on the pile were the highlights: The Armourer's House by Rosemary Sutcliff is pure delight, Juliet Nicolson's The Great Silence 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War, fascinating and moving in equal measure, and The Appeal by Janice Hallett is ingeniously, brilliantly done!

Riverside

    A second title* from new publisher Manderley Press: Rosemary Sutcliff's The Armourer's House. First published in 1951, this is a look at Tudor London through the eyes of young Tamsyn who leaves her Devon home on the coast for her uncle's house on the banks of the Thames. 

    "The ships and river traffic passing Dolphin House - including the royal barge carrying King Henry VIII and his new Queen Anne Boleyn - feed Tamsyn's imagination and her dreams of going to sea for a life of imagination and discovery. But as she soon finds out, adventure and excitement can also be found closer to home."

    The introduction is by Lara Maiklem, author of Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames, and the illustrations are by Isabel Greenberg. My copy - ordered directly from the publisher - came beautifully wrapped and beribboned.

    For more on Rosemary Sutcliff try this post and this (very short!) one.

*Stevenson's Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, their first book, is here

Recent acquisitions

    I bought these the other day, posted them on Instagram, and got so many comments raving about The Other Bennet Sister. Have you read it - or any of the others?

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2021

    Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light has this evening been announced winner of the 2021 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. 

    For a short video featuring the prize founder, the Duke of Buccleuch, and this year's shortlisted writers, click here.

Dangerous Women

    I've long been interested in the creative process, in any medium, but especially in the writing of fiction. I find the genesis of ideas fascinating, how a story grows from seed to full bloom, how it leans to the light, as it were, what determines its shifts and shapes. It's often the case that a writer can't clearly identify the source of their inspiration, but for Adèle Geras writing as Hope Adams in her new novel Dangerous Women, that starting point was a quilt.

    One of the exhibits in the V&A's hugely popular 2010 show Quilts: 1700-2010 was the Rajah quilt, now in the National Gallery of Australia. Made by a group of female convicts being transported from London to Van Diemen's Land aboard the Rajah from April to July 1841, it's a large coverlet of patchwork, appliqué and embroidery, and when Adèle saw it in the exhibition she knew it would be the basis for a novel.

    In Dangerous Women she uses the making of the quilt as the background to dramatic events on board the ship, constructing a 'locked room' mystery which brings out the past history of those involved in the quilt's creation, telling their story in scraps and snippets, piecing and stitching them together with different narrative threads and repeating patterns, as the women ply their needles and sew themselves into "a patchwork of souls".

    Superintending the making - having been sent out as matron to the women under the auspices of prison reformer Elizabeth Fry - is Kezia Hayter, generous, kindly, believing the best of her workforce even when this trust appears misplaced. For her the voyage will be a rite of passage in more ways than one. As to the women themselves, with respect to their descendants Adèle has given them all invented names and makes clear that while her story's framework is factual the events at its heart are entirely fictitious.

    Towards the end of the voyage Kezia considers the quilt, "... the design has come together but the true glory lies in the work," she thinks. "Every one of the women she'd chosen had stitched most diligently. The very act of coming together every single day, of sitting quietly, sewing, one next to another, of knowing that what they were achieving was something of beauty: ... that was what had transformed them into a sisterhood [and] each one would remember this spread of flowers and leaves, colours and stripes, dots, lozenges and her own broderie perse in the middle, with its bright birds and posies. They'd remember their contribution to its making."

    So it is that in a compellingly episodic narrative peopled with outcasts who are themselves often victims, a shared piece of handwork and the compassionate heart and creative mind behind it become the cohesive, redemptive embarkation point for a new life for all.

    Adèle has used her raw material with flair and skill, fashioning her story with respect for its unique origins and using its potential to the full.

Books in brief: The Eagle of the Ninth

    A quest, an adventure, a setting to rights ... a tale beautifully constructed and eloquently, intelligently told: Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth is one of the best novels I've read this year.

    You can find the handsome Slightly Foxed edition here.

She sees the garden as her terrain, her domain

    "[...] She plants a row of apple trees along the high brick wall. Two pairs of pear trees on either side of the main path, plums, elder, birch, gooseberry bushes, blush-stemmed rhubarb. She takes a cutting from a dog-rose growing by the river and cultivates it against the warm wall of the malthouse. She puts in a rowan sapling near the back door. She fills the soil with chamomile and marigold, with hyssop and sage, borage and angelica, with wormwort and feverfew. She installs seven skeps at the furthest edge of the garden; on warm July days it is possible to hear the restless rumble of the bees from the house.

    She turns the old brewhouse into a room where she dries her plants, where she mixes them, where people come, in through the side gate, to ask for cures. [...] She clears the old well in the courtyard. She makes a knot garden, with box hedges in an interlocking grid, their vacancies filled with purple-headed lavender."

From Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

                                                  ~~~~~~

Cover illustration by Cally Conway, design by Yeti Lambregts.

Purchases and presents

    Good reading ahead.

When life gets too fraught ...

... reach for pure romantic escapism.

    So says Dorothy Dunnett, born on this day in 1923 (and thanks to Alice for the reminder). No apologies for again posting this lovely interview by Jenny Brown which puts me in awe of Lady Dunnett's industry, her research skills, and of course her ability as writer and storyteller.

    Should you not know her work there's a short post on The Game of Kings, the first of the Lymond Chronicles, here, but Alice recommends the House of Niccolò series so to mark the writer's birthday I've ordered a copy of Niccolò Rising from Blackwell's.

    For more of the lady herself listen to her Desert Island Discs here.

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction - the shortlist

    I'm sorry Diane Setterfield's Once Upon a River and Niall Williams' This Is Happiness haven't made the shortlist, but very glad to see Tim Pears' The Redeemed there; James Meek's To Calais in Ordinary Time is a work of virtuosity but not the easiest read in these difficult days.

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction - the longlist

    So glad to see some very favourite novels from last year on the Walter Scott Prize longlist which was published this morning.

    Tim Pears' West Country Trilogy reached its fitting conclusion with The Redeemed, Diane Setterfield's Once Upon A River is utterly enchanting, and Niall Williams' This Is Happiness is Niall Williams at his best. James Meek's To Calais in Ordinary Time didn't get a post as such here on the blog, but I did write a piece on it for the Historical Novels Review.

    The shortlist will be announced next month and the winner in June.

I must just point you towards ...

 .... this post on Adèle's forthcoming book.

    Adèle came up to Edinburgh a few months ago to do research for another novel (which will be out after the Rajah quilt one) which is inspired by Phoebe Anna Traquair. We got together for dinner, and had a delightful evening with her and her friend the illustrator Helen Craig, and I heard all about both books then - naturally I can't wait to read them.

A book isn't complete 'til it's read

The nation's favourite historical novel

    You may remember that the Walter Scott Prize recently asked us all to nominate our favourite historical novel. From the titles submitted they compiled a poll, the results of which have been announced today, and the top three books are perhaps no surprise:

    Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall wins, Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth is second, and a close third comes The Game of Kings, the first of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles.

The Crown Agent

    Mr. C. writes - 

    The Crown Agent is a debut historical novel by Edinburgh QC Stephen O’Rourke, who among other accomplishments is a friend of mine, so I declare an interest here; I also confess that I opened it with a degree of trepidation, rather like watching one of the children perform - you want it to be at least competent so you can say “well done!” without perjuring yourself. In the event I needn’t have worried, because he tells the tale so well that I devoured the book in a day.

    It’s set in Scotland in 1829, and the hero is a young doctor Mungo Lyon, who is recruited by powerful Establishment figures to investigate murders and disappearances with political overtones. Mungo’s adventures take him though some very convincingly drawn locations - from the Grand Union Canal to Jamaica - and he is an engaging and sympathetic character. I thought the descriptions of place were particularly good - you can almost close your eyes and the smells and sounds of Greenock or Kingston are there - as were the action scenes. I look forward to hearing more from Dr Lyon and his creator.

Eyes of cornflower blue

    Thanks to everyone who over the last couple of weeks has nominated a favourite historical novel. I passed on our list to the Walter Scott Prize, and from the submissions received they have compiled a top ten on which everyone can vote (until 16th. December). The winner will be announced early next year.

    I've read five of the books on the list, and strong as the field is I'm in no doubt as to which I'll plump for: Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings comes top of the poll for me. It's brilliantly, exuberantly over-written, and a joy for that! It's dense in detail and rich in ornament but vital and vibrant in its colour; it's stocked full of references and quotations (and requiring more frequent resort to a dictionary than any novel I've read) but paced fast and furious, neat and deft in the running of its course. I loved its characters from wise, clever Sybilla and gentle, courageous Christian, to blustering Buccleuch (who has some of the best lines!), hot-headed Will, and Lymond himself - he of the cornflower blue eyes - what reader would not fall for him?

    In the final few pages the other day I went straight to Topping & Co. and bought Queens' Play, book 2 in the series, and I shall start it soon - a treat in store.

The list so far

    I've taken the comments on the last post together with contributions on Twitter and Instagram and listed the books/authors mentioned so that we have any easily viewable list which might guide our future historical fiction reading:

The Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett (3 votes)

The House of Niccolo series, Dorothy Dunnett

King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett

The White Company, Arthur Conan Doyle

The Aubrey/Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian (2 votes)

Hild, Nicola Griffiths

The Morland Dynasty series, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Wolf Hall & Bring up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel (4 votes)

A Place of Greater Safety, Hilary Mantel

The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff (3 votes)

The Silver Branch, Rosemary Sutcliff

The Lantern Bearers, Rosemary Sutcliff

The Woolpack, Cynthia Harnett

Stars of Fortune, Cynthia Harnett

Cue for Treason, Geoffrey Trease

Fire over England, AEW Mason

A Traveller in Time, Alison Uttley

The Norman Pretender, Valerie Anand

Heart of Midlothian, Walter Scott

Treasure Island, RL Stevenson

Georgette Heyer

Nicola Upson

Frances Brody

 

If any more nominations come in I'll add them here.

The nation's favourite historical novel

    The Walter Scott Prize, often mentioned here, is celebrating its 10th. birthday and is asking us all to nominate our favourite historical novels. We have until the end of November to suggest a book (which must be set 60 years prior to date of original publication and be written in English), and from those a shortlist of the ten novels with the most nominations will be published on the Prize's website in early December, and the poll will then open for voting. The novel with the most votes will be crowned ‘The Nation’s Favourite Historical Novel’ in January 2020.

    You can go straight to the nominations page if you wish and list your top books there, or you can leave a comment here and I'll collate them and forward a list of the titles mentioned to the prize administrators - sharing our favourites that way would give us a useful resource to broaden our reading.

    It so happens that my current read is a book which I shall certainly nominate: I'm only half way through Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings, the first of her Lymond Chronicles, but it's an astonishing piece. I'd had it for ages, unread, until an enormously enthusiastic message from Alice, who has just finished it, made me pick it up and begin. I'm so glad I did.

    I'm off to scan my shelves (and the Cornflower Blues archive) for my best historical fiction, but do please tell us your favourites, and may the best book win!

Now, where were we?

    Bit of an unplanned absence there - I was away for a few days (including a second literary pilgrimage here), and recent reads haven't felt terribly post-worthy, so the blog has been becalmed, but let's see if we can get some wind back in the sails.

    I popped into Topping & Co. yesterday to buy Andrew Whitley's book on sourdough (having made a loaf, following instructions in a general cookbook, which would not have looked out of place in the Ashmolean's Last Supper in Pompeii exhibit), and I picked up a copy of 4th Estate's free booklet The World of Wolf Hall: a reading guide to Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, to prime us for The Mirror and the Light (out in March and a wrist-breaking 864 pages, apparently). 

    A browse round Blackwell's Broad Street shop when I was in the south resulted in a couple of additions to my Christmas wish list: DJ Taylor's Lost Girls: Love, War and Literature 1939-1951 and Christina Hardyment's Novel Houses: Twenty Famous Fictional Dwellings, meanwhile the Persephone Biannually arrived and caused the placing of an order: a DE Stevenson, Stella Martin Currey's One Woman's Year (which I shall keep for January), and Milton Place by Elisabeth de Waal which has started very promisingly. 

    Elsewhere in the family, daughters have been reading Oscar Wilde and Donna Tartt, and Mr. C. is deep in the Mick Herron canon and promises a post "soon". It was Adèle who put him on to MH, and the baton has been duly passed to the Hussar who sped through the Jackson Lamb series in no time. Incidentally, I sent him this picture of the George Macdonald Fraser novels taken in Toppings, 

saying these shelves ought to have a warning affixed: "reads these books at your peril - a career in the military awaits". He replied, "excellent preparation for a life of adventure!"; he read them as a teenager and has ended up in the modern incarnation of Flashman's regiment, which says something, does it not, about the power of literature!

    Anyway, I'm glad to be back and I hope you are all well and thriving and finding good things to read.