Alverstone by Beatrice Knight

Alverstone by Beatrice Knight is a carefully plotted Regency saga by an author who is new to me. I ran into the author on Twitter one day during a discussion about writing animals into fiction and was fascinated when she mentioned that some French officers took War Poodles on campaign with them. Honestly. War Poodles are a thing. How fabulous.

Anyway, back to the novel. When I began reading Alverstone, I was expecting a traditional Regency romance in the style of Georgette Heyer and her more modern counterparts. It quickly became obvious this was so much more than that. Beatrice Knight has created an entertaining family saga set during the Regency period. In fact there’s so much to this book it’s hard to know where to start.

Let’s begin with the characters. Knight introduces a big cast of characters from both ends of the social scale and handles them with professional ease. Her hero and heroine, Jasper and Charlotte are well-written and believable with all the necessary virtues but also plenty of faults. It’s something of a problem to me when a character is too perfect and there were moments where I wanted to yell at both of these two. At the same time they are both very likeable. I enjoyed their interactions with the rest of the characters as well as the relationship between them. 

Beatrice Knight’s research is impressive.  I know a lot about the Regency period because of my own books, both on and off the battlefield. Alverstone is set primarily in the social milieu of the era but moves into the military and political from time to time and the author gives the impression of being very much at home there too. I can be picky about detail in books of this kind but I found it hard to find fault. There were a couple of minor things that made me flinch, but interestingly when I looked them up I found the author was right. A reticule (small evening type bag) was indeed, at the time, also called a ridicule. I still prefer the former because a lot of people are going to think that’s a typo, but it isn’t.

Beatrice Knight’s writing flows very well and I enjoyed her style. She keeps a good sense of period but doesn’t drown the reader in Regency slang or try to base her writing on other authors; her voice is distinctly her own. The book was well paced, which is quite an achievement given that it’s fairly long and she held my interest to the end.

The book is very funny in places. There are several eccentric characters but they’re kindly drawn. I enjoyed Sylvie’s burgeoning friendship with Violet. I rather imagine we’ll be seeing more of these two in future books and I can’t wait. I was also delighted to meet Brodie the War Poodle who seemed to have made the transition from battle dog to pampered pet without a hitch.

So are there any criticisms of this book? To be honest, from my perspective no. I read it over a couple of days and I’m looking forward to the sequels. I do think it’s difficult to place this book into a particular genre. The cover screams Regency and it’s definitely rooted firmly and accurately in that period but it’s not a Regency romance as such. I hope that doesn’t put readers off. It reminds me more of the family sagas which were popular when I was young, written by people like Brenda Jagger and perhaps it’s time for these to make a comeback.

Family is a major theme in Alverstone. This is not just a romance about two people. The ties that bind the two households run throughout the book and I suspect will run on into the future. I look forward to seeing more of Jasper and Charlotte as well as their siblings and various dependents. I hope readers do give this book a chance because it’s well-researched, well-written and a lot of fun.

Women of the American Revolution

Women of the American Revolution is a book it would never have occurred to me to pick up if I’d not heard of it through the Historical Writers Forum on Facebook. The author, Samantha Wilcoxson, mentioned that it had just come out on audiobook. 

I like audiobook as it adds to the amount of time I can spend reading for  enjoyment. I can listen while out for a walk, driving to the supermarket or doing housework. I’m often prepared to try something different when it’s an audiobook and occasionally, as in this case, I discover a real gem.

My lack of knowledge about the American Revolution is nothing short of embarrassing. I could give you a cautious summary of the political situation in England which led to it but the closest I’ve come to knowing anything more about it when when I read the Outlander series a few years back and I’ve given up on that now. I can remember watching the Patriot many years ago but I wouldn’t expect to get any actual history from that and it wasn’t even a good film. 

It has frequently occurred to me that I should learn more, especially as I have some ideas about writing the war of 1812 later on and could do with some background. This book felt like a good start. I began listening to it casually while cleaning the bathroom and ended up doing very little else until I got to the end. The house is surprisingly clean and the book was great.

Samantha Wilcoxson has chosen to explore the years of the American Revolution through the eyes of the women involved. Using their letters, diaries and a variety of secondary sources, she devotes each chapter to a different woman and examines the effects of war on their daily lives.

When writing about the women of past eras, the source material is often far less than is available for men. Women were probably given little choice in the side they took as it was assumed they would share their menfolk’s loyalties. They experienced hardship and tragedy without being able to control the course of events. They lost husbands and children and other family members. They suffered and grieved.

All these aspects of eighteenth century social history are fully explored in this book, but there is a lot more besides. Samantha Wilcoxson’s straightforward writing style makes the book an enjoyable read and the narrator makes a good job of the audiobook.  The author is also a popular writer of historical fiction which may explain the excellent pace and narrative style. I loved her genuine warmth for her subjects. The personality of each woman steps out of the pages in all their flawed humanity.

The author also handles the historiography of the period very well. She shows no particular bias for women on either side of the conflict and she is particularly good at weighing up some of the myths of the era, looking at how much is likely to be true and at why and how such stories developed.

I came away from this book with a genuine enthusiasm to learn more about this period and with a desire to read more of Samantha Wilcoxson’s books. She is a lovely writer with the ability to make her subjects feel like real people, even within the constraints of a single chapter. I’d like to see what she can do when she has a whole book to play with.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable book and highly recommended.

Tangled Spirits by Kate Shanahan: reviewed by Lynn Bryant

Tangled Spirits by Kate Shanahan: reviewed by Lynn Bryant

Tangled Spirits by Kate Shanahan is a historical time-travel novel set in tenth century Japan. It is utterly off the grid for me and turned out to be the best book I’ve read for ages.

I heard of this book through the Historical Writers Forum as it was about to be published and I’ve no idea what made me decide to try it, as I know very little about Japanese history. I’m really glad I did.

The plot revolves around two young women. Mina is an American student, currently studying in Japan while Masako is an aspiring shaman in the tenth century, dabbling in magic after the death of her mother. The result is that Mina is drawn into Masako’s body and the two girls have to find a way to co-exist while working out how to get Mina back home.

The plot is relatively simple but the world that Mina finds herself in is rich, complex and beautifully drawn. Fictional characters blend easily into a brilliantly researched historical landscape and rub shoulders effortlessly with real historical characters.

The author writes really well and has a talent for characterisation. She manages to convey the different personalities of the two girls. Mina and Masako both have strengths and faults and can both be exasperating at times, which makes them endearingly human.

The complicated world of the Japanese court and the unfamiliar culture are very well described but the author manages not to allow her deep knowledge of the history overwhelm the story. By the end of the book, I was rooting for Mina to get back home while at the same time saddened by the impending separation from her spiritual partner. Even the denouement back in the modern world, which could have been trite, worked really well.

The author provides a great deal of historical explanation at the end of the book which can be easily skipped but which is great for a nerd like me who always wants to know which bits were real. The answer was a surprising amount. I have huge admiration for the way Kate Shanahan has woven her fictional story into known history to create a fabulous tapestry of a novel.

Highly recommended.

Something Wicked by Tom Williams

Something Wicked by Tom Williams

Having really enjoyed Tom Williams previous foray into contemporary fantasy, ‘Dark Magic’, I was looking forward to the publication of ‘Something Wicked’ and I wasn’t disappointed. ‘Dark Magic’ was fun, although as a novella felt a bit rushed at times. ‘Something Wicked’ feels like a writer who has really got into his stride with this genre.

‘Something Wicked’ is set in London with Chief Inspector John Galbraith being called to the rather unusual murder scene of Lord Christopher Penrith. There are few leads apart from a link to a Tango club. So far the book looks like a standard, well-written police procedural.

Everything changes with the arrival of Chief Inspector Pole. Pole works for ‘Department S’ which Galbraith has never heard of. He also, it turns out, is a five hundred year old vampire, responsible for policing – and covering up for – the vampire community.

So begins a cleverly-conceived, well-written and excellently plotted novel about murder, policing, vampires, and Tango. There is a nod to various genres in this book, yet it manages to remain fresh, original, and hugely entertaining.

I particularly liked the two main characters in this book, with the difference between Galbraith’s down-to-earth copper and Pole’s more fantastical approach being well developed. Both characters were likeable and the development in their relationship was believable. Tom Williams’ descriptions of the London he knows and loves and the Tango community that he is an enthusiastic member of, help to bring the book alive.

Tom Williams is best known for his two historical series, the lively Burke novels about a Napoleonic agent and the more thoughtful Williamson books set in the days of Empire. I’m hoping we see more contemporary fiction as well from this author. An entertaining, clever piece of fiction.

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold: a review

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold is one of the most powerful books I’ve read in a very long time. It tells the stories of five women, Polly Nicholls, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary-Jane Kelly. The five came from a variety of backgrounds and places, and lived varied and often painful and difficult lives, but little is known of them now, other than the manner of their death. They were the five victims of a Victorian serial killer called Jack the Ripper, and that is how history has remembered them.

In this extraordinary piece of historical research, Hallie Rubenhold has given these five women back their identities, their stories and their dignity. She follows the lives, from birth to death, of each woman, as far as it has been possible to establish it, and tells stories of temporary happiness, unbearable hardship and final tragedy.

The book is very well-written and immaculately researched. The author makes no attempt to see her subjects or their lives through rose-coloured spectacles, and the details of poverty, addiction and miserable hardship can make for very difficult reading. As a piece of social history, it is a masterpiece, but it is a very sad book.

I grew up in the East End, and knew the stories of Jack the Ripper from childhood. As a girl, learning to be aware my own safety, I came to view the story of these women differently long before this book came out, and as a history student who spent some time studying poverty and the position of women in Victorian London, I’ve always been aware that whatever their situation at the time of their murder, these women were victims not just of a serial killer but of the society they lived in. What I’d never really thought much about, is how much attention has been given to the unknown man who killed and how little to the women whose lives he cut short.

Hallie Rubenhold has done a fabulous job of giving these women back their humanity, as well as holding up a slightly uncomfortable picture of the way their deaths have been trivialised over the years. This is an excellent book, very easy to read despite its difficult subject matter. We’re no closer to knowing the identity of Jack the Ripper, and Rubenhold doesn’t care. We are, however, a lot closer to knowing his victims.

A triumph of historical research and writing.

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