Cynthia Sally Haggard's Blog: Cynthia Sally's Blog, page 60

Even 30 years of boredom & suffocation is interesting in this wonderful novel (ILLUMINATIONS)

[image error]Mary Sharratt is such a talented author. I first “met” her between the pages of a book when I read THE VANISHING POINT, a poignant portrayal of an unwanted English girl sent to marry someone suitable in the 17th century American colonies, and of the sister who followed her.

This was followed by DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHES HILL, a sensitive portrayal of the various people put to death in 1612, during the Pendle Witches Trial.

And now we have ILLUMINATIONS, a fictionalized biography of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), the musician, poet and mystic, known during her lifetime as “The Sybil of the Rhine”.

Ms. Sharratt opens her tale when Hildegard is 8 years old, and is walled up in a cell as companion to 14-year-old Jutta who has taken vows an an anchorite. She spends the next 30 years imprisoned in this cell, only being let out after Jutta’s death.

A potential reader might now be wondering if this book is interesting. How can 30 years of boredom and suffocation in a cell be interesting to read about?

But it is.

It is fascinating, and this is what makes Mary Sharratt such a terrific author. In this book, she has outdone herself (and her other novels are very good).

If you have never read Mary’s novels before, or you want to know more about Hildegard von Bingen, BUY THIS BOOK! You won’t be sorry. Five stars.

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DARK TRACKS (ORDER OF DARKNESS #4) by Philippa Gregory

[image error]Like most others, I thought this volume would conclude the goings on of our party of quirky characters – ruthless Ishraq, horse whisperer & general factotum Freize, dispossessed noblewoman Isolde, Luca Vero (Luke Truth) who is the Inquirer for a shadowy order (Order of Darkness) run by a shadowy peron (Milord) and long-suffering priest Brother Peter.

But it does not. It leaves things hanging in the air, after our band of comrades has yet another adventure, this time in an Austrian village, seized by the “dancing sickness.”

I know this is hard to believe but it IS TRUE that people were seized by this strange malady to dance and dance until they fell down exhausted. It seemed to hit young people the most, but women were also very likely to fall into this malady. Once started, it was difficult to stop. For many years, people in Sicily believed it was caused by the bite of a malevolent spider. But investigating scientists have discovered no such animal. Perhaps it was psychological in origin. If so, the likely reason might well be the hopelessness that women felt in their dreary, hard lives, dominated by brutes of husbands who regularly beat and raped them. Perhaps young people were vulnerable because the prospect of a hard, miserable and short adult life was also too much to take.

Whatever the reason, this malady does seem to have come and gone across the years, starting in the middle ages and ending…in the 18th century?

After having let that adventure play out, Ms. Gregory abruptly ends the novel. As a writer myself, I cannot believe that an accomplished author like Philippa Gregory would simply stop. Like that. There has to be at least one (perhaps two) more volumes to read. It would be cruel not to find out which lady Luca will end up with. Or what will happen when Isolde finally gets to Wallachia. Or whether she is finally able to confront her brother and win back her estates. Most of all, we have to know who “Milord” is and whether he is the same person as Radu Bey. And where does Ishraq fit into this tale? Four stars.

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Readings Sundays: A SURPRISING CURE (Part 6) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard

[image error]“So you do not actually have a degree.”

He exhaled so that smoke curled out from his mouth and nostrils. “Not actually. No.”

I gazed at him for a long moment expecting more. But he continued to give me his half-lidded stare as he sat there smoking. I turned to Miriam. “We need to talk.”

“Not now. I’ve only just got here, I need to get settled.” She unpinned her hat.

“Miriam,” I said.

“Oh, all right.” She turned to her friend. “I won’t be long, dear.”

“Don’t mind me,” he remarked, fishing out another cigarette and lighting up. As he did so, he shifted position so that both long legs hung over the arm of the sofa. He gathered up a couple of plush cushions, put them against the other arm, leaned his long frame back against them, and closed his eyes.

Leaving him in that attitude, I followed my wife upstairs.

“Who is he?” I hissed as I shut the door of my room quietly behind me. Then I wondered why I was whispering. This was our home, after all. But there was something about having this alien presence downstairs that put me on edge, almost as if our words could permeate the thick brick walls and waft their way downstairs.

“His family are hatters from Dunfermiline.”

“Have you met them?”

She shook her head and turned away. For the rest of the conversation, I was talking to the back of her head.

“How did you meet him?”

“At the Women’s Liberal Association in Edinburgh. He was giving a speech. He’s so good with words.” There was a pause as she gazed out of the window for a moment. “Do you know,” she said softly, “I think he’s the most interesting person I’ve ever met.” [To be continued next week.]

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FOOL’S GOLD (ORDER OF DARKNESS #3) by Phillippa Gregory

[image error]Our cast of characters – Brother Peter the suspicious priest, Luca Vero the Inquirer for a shadowy order (Order of Darkness) headed by a shadowy individual (Milord), Isolde the dispossessed noblewoman, her companion Ishraq, and Freize the general factotum and horse whisperer – have now arrived in Venice, where they are charged (by Milord) to find out about counterfeit coins.

Naturally in this bustling metropolis there is a lot of con artistry, swindling, embezzlement and so forth, and of course our characters catch onto this as they begin their investigation.

But at the end we (and they) are left scratching our heads. Why did Milord instruct the counterfeiters to make false coins? Why did he send our cast of characters after them to find them out? Was he trying to ruin the Ottoman Empire? Or did he have other, nefarious purposes?

Again, this was an enjoyable read, with brilliant descriptions of Venice at Carnevale, suitable for tweens and teens, or anyone curious about what Venice was like at the height of its power in 1460s Europe. Five stars.

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Philippa Gregory’s THE STORM-BRINGERS (ORDER OF DARKNESS #2)

[image error]At the center of this tale, set in Italy in the mid-fifteenth century, a natural disaster sends the local people into a tizzy, and they blame the young women (whom we met before in Ms. Gregory’s THE CHANGELING) Isolde and Ishraq, accusing them of being witches.

Again these two teenaged girls find themselves on the wrong end of justice, in an era of misogyny and fear of women, in danger of their lives.

I find Ms. Gregory’s writing to be powerful and persuasive and she did not disappoint in this novel. What struck me the most was her description of Johann the Good, the charismatic young man, who has an uncanny knack for seeming to know what people want. As a result, the young people flock to him.

I won’t say any more, so as not to spoil this story for those of you who have not yet read it. Suffice it to say that if you want an entertaining read which teaches you a great deal about society in Medieval Europe, you should read this book. Five Stars.

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THE CHANGELING (ORDER OF DARKNESS #1) by Philippa Gregory

[image error]THE CHANGELING is the first of four novels in the ORDER OF DARKNESS series. It concerns a shadowy order of church authorities who are dedicated to finding the darkest most blasphemous things in the world, in order to report back to the church in Rome. Set in 1460s Italy, the quirky cast of characters includes a suspicious priest, a young man accused of heresy (forced into the inquirer role in order to redeem himself,) a clown of a squire, an outlawed noblewoman, and her friend, a saracen woman with formidable fighting abilities.

Naturally, they have adventures.  The first includes a chilling act of revenge when the women of the convent conspire to murder one of their own. The second includes an encounter with a mysterious creature, a werewolf, who turns out to be a child made savage by living in the wilderness for the past several years.

If you know of a young person interested in historical novels, you should definitely get this one as it is full of Philippa Gregory’s trademark atmospheric writing and meticulous research. Four stars.

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Reading Sundays: A SURPRISING CURE (Part 5) a short story by Cynthia Sally Haggard

[image error]Miriam exploded into a peal of laughter. “Robert!” She nudged him with her elbow, then turned to me. “We haven’t made plans yet.”

“We?” My eyebrows rose. But Miriam ignored me.

“I’m going to show Robert around. I want him to meet all of our friends and acquaintances.”

“Indeed,” I said again, wondering how I was going to explain this new enthusiasm of Miriam’s.

“You don’t mind, do you?” Miriam beamed at me. “Robert has a great future ahead of him, in politics. He is so concerned about the poor.”

“You have been to university, young man?”

“The University of Edinburgh. I was a medical student.”

A medical student. Was that how they had met? In a hospital? Surely he hadn’t been examining my wife. “Are you a qualified doctor?”

Mr. Nicol stared at me for a moment, as if trying to decide what further ways he could torment me. “No,” he said at last. “Not actually qualified.”

Miriam patted my hand. “He quit medicine after he fell in love with Socialism.”

“I see.” Through long practice, I kept my countenance under control.

“Edward,” said Miriam. “Don’t you remember how we collected all those boots and shoes to help the flood victims earlier this year? That’s the kind of thing Robert is passionate about—”

“So you do not actually have a degree.”

He exhaled so that smoke curled out from his mouth and nostrils. “Not actually. No.”

I gazed at him for a long moment expecting more. But he continued to give me his half-lidded stare as he sat there smoking. I turned to Miriam. “We need to talk.” [To be continued next week.]

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Elizabeth Gilbert’s CITY OF GIRLS narrated by Blair Brown

[image error]I know Elizabeth Gilbert as the author of EAT, PRAY, LOVE. This novel is completely different. Set in New York City in the 1940s, amongst flamboyant theatrical types, I honestly didn’t expect this book to hold my interest. Perhaps narrator Blair Brown helped me get over my initial skepticism. Whatever it was, something kept me going.

Of course, I loved unconventional Aunt Peg, the protagonist’s bad-girl best friend and the glamorous British actress (whose name I can’t remember.) Everything seems so glamorous, so perfect, so too-good-to-be-true to protagonist 19-year-old Vivian Morris…until she makes one stupid mistake and the bottom falls out of her world.

If you want a fun, light read about a bygone time, this is the book for you! Five stars.

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THE OTHER WINDSOR GIRL by Georgie Blalock, narrated by Anne-Marie Gideon

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started listening to this audiobook, but narrator Anne Marie Gideon helped to ensure a vivid experience with her command of suitably plummy accents. THE OTHER WINDOR GIRL is the story of Princess Margaret

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12th April 1951: HRH Princess Margaret (1930 – 2002) attending the premiere of the film ‘Captain Horatio Hornblower’ at the Warner Theatre Leicester Square. (Photo by Ron Burton/Keystone/Getty Images)

between the years 1949 to 1960, when she lived out her life, first as a fairy-tale princess, then as a much-criticized royal who shirked her royal duties.

It is impossible not to pity someone who for her entire twenties was forced to don matronly clothing and attend an endless round of charity teas & ribbon-cutting ceremonies. No wonder, she grew into the bitter & unpleasant person I remember coming of age in 1970s Britain.

If you want some insight into this princess, you could do worse that read this book. Although it is told through a fictional character (The Honorable Vera Strathmore) it is a highly empathic and true-to-life read of a much-troubled princess. Four stars.

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Philippa Gregory’s THE KING’S CURSE

[image error]Philippa Gregory has done it again, found a compelling, forgotten woman, in the shape of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, and woven a whole tale around this character.

Margaret of Salisbury had an impeccable pedigree. She was the elder child of George, Duke of Clarence, brother to both Edward IV and Richard the III. Her mother was Isabel Neville, daughter and co-heiress with her sister Anne, of Warwick the Kingmaker. Margaret was comfortable at court and knew most of its players. She was a cousin to Queen Elizabeth of York, wife to Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII. She became close friends with Henry VIII’s first wife Catherine of Aragon. So she is an excellent choice for the ending of Gregory’s series on the Cousin’s War (aka The Wars of the Roses).

Gregory is known for her unorthodox takes on history, and this novel is no exception. She found an eerie corollary between the actions of some of the characters in her previous novels (LADY OF THE RIVERS and THE WHITE QUEEN ) and modern-day science. I will let her explain it to you in the following, taken from her Author’s Note:

“There has been much work on the loss of Henry VIII’s babies. Current…research from Catrina Banks Whitley and Kyra Kramer suggests that Henry may have had the rare Kell positive blood type, which can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, and infant deaths when the mother has the more common Kell negative blood type. Whitley and Kramer also suggest that Henry’s later symptoms of paranoia and anger may have been caused by McLeod syndrome—a disease found only in Kell positive individuals. McLeod syndrome usually develops when sufferers are aged around forty and cause physical degeneration and personality changes resulting in paranoia, depression and irrational behavior.

“…Whitley and Kramer trace Kell syndrome back to Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, the suspected witch and mother of Elizabeth Woodville. Sometimes, uncannily, fiction creates a metaphor for an historical truth: in a fictional scene in the novel, Elizabeth, together with her daughter Elizabeth of York, curse the murderer of her sons, swearing that they shall lose their son and their grandsons, while in real life her genes—unknown and undetectable at the time—entered the Tudor line through her daughter and may have caused the deaths of four Tudor babies to Katherine of Aragon and three to Anne Boleyn.” (582)

Reading this gave me the shivers. Five stars.

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