Cynthia Sally Haggard's Blog: Cynthia Sally's Blog, page 7

THE LOOKING-GLASS WAR by John Le Carré ~ A Book Review

Although this novel is a masterpiece, it is not something you want to read unless you can handle something very dark.

Apparently John Le Carré was taken aback by the positive reception to his previous novel, The Spy that Came in from the Cold. He was dismayed that so many of his readers were devouring his in the mistaken belief that the Life of a Spy is glamorous and sexy. And so The Looking Glass War is his attempt to set the record straight, portraying a spy agency as morally bankrupt and incompetent.) (Which raises an interesting question ~ how on earth did he get this novel past the censors?)

In the early 1960s, British Intelligence is trying to get a beat on what is going on in East Germany. In particular, they are interested in whether the USSR is sending its soldiers into East Germany for training purposes, and if so, what matérial they are using in the shape of guns, tanks and other instruments of warfare.

And so they send Taylor to Berlin. This spy travels alone into dangerous territory, gets drunk at a bar while waiting for a commercial plane to arrive (it is late because it is doing a spot of surveillance for the British) and then, as he walks alone through a snowstorm to get to his lodgings and begin his work, he gets mown down by a car. Of course he leaves a wife and a young child. But Control (the chief spy) and The Circus (the spy agency, probably MI6) don’t seem interested in trying to find out who murdered him and why.

Avery is next. HIs task is to retrieve the photos of the surveillance and bring the body home. Pretending to be Taylor’s half-brother, his act is so unconvincing that the person in charge of releasing Taylor’s body laughs at him. The only good thing that happens  to emerge from this disastrous mess is that Avery manages to return home to his wife and child. But the photos have disappeared. And Taylor’s body has to be rescued by Control because Avery had the wrong passport. 

Then there is Fred Leiser, a Polish immigrant, who supposedly was a top-notch sender and receiver of morse code messages during the Second World War, which ended 20 years prior to the date of this novel. Wouldn’t it be just the ticket, think the heads of the spy agency, to send him to Berlin to continue Taylor’s work? But Leiser (his name sounds exactly like Liza, which gives him a confusing feminine identity if you are experiencing this as an audio book), is all-too-happy to help this mismatched bunch of mostly middle-aged men, who drink far too much and breathtakingly careless with other people’s lives. 

Despite his reputation, Fred Leiser is incompetent from the word go. He can’t fire his pistol properly. He gets mixed up when instructed to do something. And his morse code work is far too slow. Nevertheless, LeClerc and the others in charge tell him he is doing excellent stuff and that he is the best to do the job.

Of course, it all ends in heartbreaking disaster. Of course Leiser is caught. Of course he is going to be tried and executed. Meanwhile LeClerc, Avery and the rest of the spy agency bolt back to England, leaving Leiser to face the executioner, while they clap each other on the back for the supposedly terrific work they’ve done. And then, they pass the port.

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Disease D

People can sometimes be so strange.

I once knew a man who specialized in probabilities. He was especially interested in the background probabilities of certain phenomena, such as the background probability of getting a rare disease versus a much more common disease.

He was an expert on such matters.

And yet, when it came to his own health, he totally failed to put any of his expertise to work.

He had an internist that he really trusted, so when this doctor told him that he had a rare disease – let’s call it Disease D – he believed him. Despite the fact that he had not one, but two brothers-in-law who were doctors, despite his wife’s pleading and begging, he refused to get a second opinion.

On his doctor’s instructions, he had his spleen removed. This was because the doctor told my friend that it was the best way of treating Disease D.

My friend complied.

Now, as most of you know, the spleen is part of the immune system. You really don’t want to remove a perfectly healthy spleen unless you have a very good reason to do so. Again, my friend refused to get a second opinion before the operation was performed.

Unfortunately, my friend got sicker and sicker. Finally, he did go to see another doctor, who informed him that he had leukemia.

Of course, it was too late to do anything about it, and my friend died.

It was a tragedy for himself and his family.

I’ve never forgotten his untimely death, because it was so preventable.

Why would a person with his expertise not use it to help himself?

People can sometimes be so strange. 

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SUSAN by Alice McVeigh ~ A Book Review

How I loved Susan! In Alice McVeigh’s deft hands, she jumps of the pages and makes the novel glow in reflected glory.

When Jane Austen was in her late teens, she wrote a novel called LADY SUSAN, about a cold mother and her mistreated daughter. In the original novel, Lady Susan is 35 years old and she possesses a 16-year-old daughter, Frederica. Rather cruelly, she is determined to marry off her shy flower of a daughter to an unscrupulous gentleman several years her senior. But Frederica finds help, and in the end, Lady Susan marries the cad instead.

Roll backwards 19 years, and we have 16-year-old Susan Smithson, a young woman of great gentility and beauty, but no money to speak of. (Does this sound familiar?) But Susan possesses the great gift of reading people, and because the men hold all the cards in early 19th-century England, Susan becomes adept at using her charms and her intelligence to flatter the male ego (and Lady Catherine de Bough) for her own ends. 

So what does Susan want? She wants London with all its balls, parties and opportunities for flirtation. But other women take an instant dislike to her and spread gossip. And so poor Susan spends a great deal of time immured in the society of Hunsford in the County of Kent, at the beck and call of Lady Catherine.

Susan may sound cold and manipulative, but that is not true. The genius of her character is that she is kind-hearted and a loyal friend. Some of her ploys are not for herself at all, but for her best friend (and cousin) Alicia Collins. 

If you want to curl up by the fire on these chilly winter days, you could do worse than to immerse yourself in this novel. 

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Adventures in Norway in 2011

In 2011, my husband and I went to Norway for the first time, and discovered a magical land. Once you are out in the countryside, you literally cannot walk more than 100 yards before meeting a waterfall. 

One surprising thing about Norway is that it is strangely reminiscent of the United States. If you look at a map you will notice that the country is bisected by a range of mountains. That means that if you take the train from Oslo to Bergen (highly recommended) you are obliged to climb up a steep mountain range, all the way up to 1,222 meters or 4,000 feet, and come down again, as Bergen is at sea level. The fact that you have such high mountains (the highest peaks go up to 2469 meters or 8,000 feet) means that parts of Norway are cut off. It doesn’t help that there are various glaciers blocking any travel. So in some parts of Norway, you really are in the back of beyond, just as you are in parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and many many places in the interior US.

Of course, if you visit you should look out for the Viking Ships, which you can find in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. Then there are the Stave churches dotted all around, with their sinuous carvings. If you only have time to visit Oslo, you should make your way to Bygdoy Park, an outdoors museum of Norwegian history. 

But my husband and I found the countryside so compelling. We found ourselves somewhere (cant’ remember the name) with a thunderstorm going on, and it was so easy to imagine Thor with his hammer, and the other Norse gods battling each other as the lightning flared against lowering clouds. 

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CASE HISTORIES by Kate Atkinson ~ A Book Review

British writers are not the same as American writers. I know this is an obvious statement, but American readers who pick up Kate Atkinson’s CASE HISTORIES, the first in a series of six novels featuring PI Jackson Brodie, should be warned that this novel goes at a far slower clip, than its American cousin.

Set in 2004, CASE HISTORIES is about three cold cases that Jackson Brodie is investigating. The way this novel is structured, Ms. Atkinson introduces each one at the beginning of the novel. 

Chapter 1 ~ Family Plot, set in 1970, introduces the story of missing three-year-old Olivia Land, who disappeared one night from a tent in the back garden and is never seen again.

Chapter 2 ~ Just a Normal Day, set in 1994, is about the horrific murder of a young woman who is temping in her father’s office.

Chapter 3 ~ Everything from Duty, Nothing from Love, set in 1979, is about an overwhelmed young mother and what happens when she explodes.

After that, each chapter tells the story from a characters’s point of view, with the title listing the name ~ Jackson, Amelia, Theo and so on until the very end of the novel. What this means for the reader is that they are expected to do the hard work of remembering each of these stories, as well as each character throughout the rest of this novel. 

In my opinion, it would have been much better to have the book divided into three parts, with the details of each case plus Jackson Brodie’s response to them put into each part so that the reader has more time with these people before switching to the next case. Of course, the author would not want to give the endings away until the end, but that kind of structure would make it much easier for the reader to keep track of what is going on.

As I said above, this novel goes at a far slower clip than the typical US murder mystery. Again, I think this is a problem, and I really believe this book would have benefitted from both a faster pace and some trimming. I really don’t think we needed to spend quite so much time with sisters Julia and Amelia and their tiresome squabbles, which bogged down the action.

So I can only give a qualified recommendation for this one. If you are British, or an Anglophile American, you might enjoy this piece. Otherwise, I think you should give it a miss. 

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Mr. Darcy’s Pemberley

For those of you who are fans of Jane Austen ~ especially of the BBC’s 1995 production of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE with Colin Firth playing the handsome Mr. Darcy ~ you might want to know more about his house.

Jane Austen’s Pemberley is Mr. Darcy’s family seat in Derbyshire, which is known for its winding roads through high passes and consequent thick layer of snow in winter. As most of you know, the actual house used in the 1995 production is Lyme Park in nearby Cheshire which has the highest garden in England at 260 meters (853 feet), giving it a very short growing season. 

The family who owned Lyme Park before the Second World War were the Leghs, who distinguished themselves in the Middle Ages by retrieving the standard of the 16-year-old Black Prince in 1346. Their reward was a grant of land by his nephew Richard II of 550 hectares (1359 acres) in Cheshire. Over the years, the family built many houses on this land. Finally, in around 1720, Peter Legh (died 1744) employed Italian architect Giacomo (James) Leoni (1686-1746) to add a southern range to the L-shaped house.

And so we have this magnificent marble house with it allusions to Greek Mythology set on the edge of the Pennines, that range of high hills forming the spine of the England. 

In 1946, the Legh’s handed Lyme Park over to the National Trust. 

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THE MAPPING OF LOVE & DEATH ~ MAISIE DOBBS #7 ~ by Jacqueline Winspear

Jacqueline Winspear conveys perfectly, in THE MAPPING OF LOVE AND DEATH the tragic waste of young lives during the Great War of 1914-1918 (aka World War I.)

We learn about a young man Michael Clifton, an American from California, who changes his plans one day in August 1914, so that he can fight on the British side in the Great War. After all, his father is British, and all the papers say it will be over by Christmas. He can have an adventure, acquire some wonderful anecdotes to tell to his friends, before heading home to America.

Needless to say, things do not go as planned. The war lasts for over four years, and during that time young men had to climb out of their trenches into the hellish fire of rifles, machine guns, grenades, mortars, and poison gas. So it is no wonder that the British Army lost about 1 million young men, while the French Army lost around 1.34 million and the Germans (fighting on the other side) lost 1.6 million.

Such numbers are crazy, and caused an economic downturn in Europe during the early twentieth century. In Britain, around 1 million young women were forced to abandon their plans to marry, as their were not enough men. Instead they had to work. My mother (born in 1930) recalled her teachers fondly, saying that they were incredibly devoted to their pupils. Of course, these were the women who could not marry. 

In the case of Michael Clifton, his family believes that he died in 1915 as a result of fighting in the war. But Maisie Dobbs is not so sure, and thus the engine of the novel begins.

What makes this novel special is the way in which Jacqueline Winspear gives us glimpses into the heart and mind of this unfortunate young man via his journal and his letters. We learn about his love for an English nurse. We learn that he is very homesick, and that every time he goes to sleep he thinks about his valley, a piece of land that he owns in Arizona. It is these glimpses that bring home the truly horrific toll that this war wrought. For Michael was never able to marry his English nurse. Never able to see his close-knit family. And he was never able to see his beloved valley. 

Michael’s story is the story of millions of young men. I have been to the Somme and I have been to Gallipoli and in both places, I was shocked that so many of these young men were just boys, most not yet twenty-one years old. 

What a terrible, terrible waste.

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Happy 2025!

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The Tragedy of Montségur, 1244

It started with a murder. 

It ended with a massacre.

In 1208, the Papal Legate traveled from Rome to Southern France to meet Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, the powerful ruler of the area. His purpose, presumably, was to request that Count Raymond stop abetting the Cathars. Unfortunately, he seems to have overstepped his brief, and excommunicated the Count. Naturally, Raymond was furious, and in return, threatened violence. Unsurprisingly, this Papal Legate was murdered shortly thereafter, on his return to Rome. 

So, who were the Cathars? And why did they upset the Pope so much?

Modern scholars are somewhat skeptical of their existence. But it is safe to say, that many people – peasants and nobles – who lived in the south of France held beliefs that the Catholic Church frowned upon. One was their belief in two gods – one good, the other evil. Then there was the Endura, the practice of fasting to hasten the onset of death. Perhaps, most dangerous of all, the Cathar religious practices involved a horizontal structure in which people could perform their own rites without the need of bishops, deacons, or church authorities dictating to them what they could do. The Catholic Church did not like this at all.

As with so much else, greed played a role in this sorry story. When Pope Innocent III heard of the murder, he launched a cruscade against the Cathars, pitting the French nobles of Northern France against those of Southern France. The Pope sweetened the deal by declaring that those who vanquished the Cathars would be given the confiscated land of the Cathars and their supporters. 

Perhaps I should mention here that at this point in French history, the King of France actually ruled over very little of France.  He ruled over the Ile-de France, where Paris sits. But he did not rule over the Channel Islands, the Pale of Calais, or Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Poitou, or Aquitaine. These lands were held by the King of England. 

Or to put it shortly, the King of England ruled over vast amounts of France, while the King of France just had a teeny-tiny kingdom around Paris.

And so, it is not surprising that the King of France and his nobles would be interested in a land grab in the southern part of France.

More than thirty years later, on 16 March 1244, after the Catholics captured the fortress of Montségur, the Cathars were lead down the mountainside singing, before they walked into the waiting flames.

The Catholics seemed to have won. 

But when I traveled to Montségur in the summer of 2010, I found the local people very eager to talk about the Cathars, and proud to keep their memory alive.

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Adventures with Cecylee Part IV ~ Different Clocks

My first novel Thwarted Queen is a fictionalized autobiography told mostly in the voice of Lady Cecylee Neville, the youngest daughter of Ralph, Earl of Westmorland and his second wife Countess Joan.

We know only two facts about Cecylee’s youth. The first is that she was born in May 1415. The second is that on 18 October 1424, she was betrothed to Richard Duke of York.

This was a splendid match as, upon receiving his inheritance, Richard would be the richest peer in the realm. He was also the closest male relative of the King of England, and so was Heir Presumptive to the throne of England.

But this was an arranged marriage, so how did Cecylee herself feel about it? As historical records about medieval women are generally scant, it is no surprise that there is no evidence about Cecylee’s feelings towards Richard. However, from reading around my subject I was able to glean that Cecylee was willful (she called herself Queen by Right after her husband’s death) and that she had Richard wrapped around her little finger (he made great efforts to make her comfortable in his various residences, as well as on board the ships they took between England and France and England and Ireland.)

So I created characters who fit into this meager amount of evidence. The Cecylee who inhabits the pages of my novel starts out as a bubbly, mischievous, quick-silver girl. Richard, who is extremely intelligent, nevertheless runs at a slower pace. This difference in time-settings causes problems in their relationship, for while Cecylee dazzles Richard, he doesn’t interest her.

As this was an arranged marriage, neither Cecylee nor Richard had any choice in this matter. But there are many things that cause immediate sympathy between people, or not. Smell is a powerful element that can control how comfortable people feel with each other. But timing is another one. You may have noticed that some people are set on fast, while others are set on slow. It is my contention as a former cognitive scientist, that these subtle differences can make or break a relationship. Two people with a similar clock setting will have an immediate sympathy, that two people with disparate settings will not. In Thwarted Queen, Cecylee is set on fast while Richard is set on slow and this causes continual friction in their relationship. When Cecylee meets handsome archer Blaybourne, one of the things that draws her to him, is that he is as fast as she is. 

Of course the heartbreak that happens in Thwarted Queen is that Cecylee has to choose between her lover and her children. This means that she has to return to her marriage and act as if nothing happened. Naturally, Richard is very hurt by her behavior, and finds ways to punish her, including making a disastrous match for their eldest daughter Nan. And because Cecylee is so close to the throne, her actions have political ramifications that reverberate down the ages.

If this has whetted your appetite for Thwarted Queen, please click here.

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