Murder Must Advertise

 Peter enjoys working at copy writing which gives him a chance to use words, one of his favourite amusements has always been talking wittily.  He has been talking to Pamela Dean, the sister of the man who died, who had in the past year or so been mixing with an upper-class pleasure-loving set.  He and Pamela were not that well off, so he was "sinning above his station in life" and his mistress  - a member of the Bright Young Things set - was Dian De Momerie, who came from an aristocratic family.  
Peter gets taken to some of their parties, where he goes in fancy dress, as a Harlequin, and Dian takes a strange fancy to him.  He realises that the crowd are taking a lot of cocaine, and he wonders if there is a connection between drug trading and Victor's death.  The young man didn't like drug taking, but was mad about Dian and believed that he would marry her. 

Peter manages to stay under cover in the office, though Miss Meteyard, one of the female copy writers (said to be based on Dorothy herself) is suspicious of him.  He finally solves the case, finding that there is someone at the office who is using the advertisments that go in the paper, to send  messages to dealers throughout London, so that they will know what pub to go to, to pick up their dope. He learns that James Talboys, one of the copy writers, had for some time been doing this for the dope dealers, using the office as a signal depot.. and that Victor Dean had found out and was threatening to expose him.  He had killed Dean by firing a pebble at him from a catapult, while Dean was walking down the stairs. 
Peter feels very sorry for Talboys, who is not long married and has gotten into debt and has just had a baby.  He tells Peter he would give himself up but he doesn't want his wife and child to be pointed at...

Peter suggests that he "takes the gentleman's way out" by putting himself in the line of fire of the drug dealers, who will bump him off....

He is depressed by the ending of the case, though Parker has managed to catch a ring of drug dealers, and he has found out who the killer was.....

Murder Must Advertise By DL Sayers (Spoilers)

 This novel was written by Sayers while she was working on the Nine Tailors.  The bell ringing in that book took a long time to research and she had to produce another novel, in a hurry to fulfil her contract.  She knew about advertising, as she had worked for several years in an advertising office, after having trouble finding a job that suited her in teaching or publishing.  She had been a good copy writer and enjoyed the work, but had left the job to become a full-time writer.

She produced a plot about drugs and Bright Young Things, but admitted that while she knew about advertising, she did not know so much about dope....

In this novel Peter goes undercover as a copy writer in a firm in Bloomsbury, where someone died in an accident by falling down a staircase.  The management want to find out exactly what happened, and he agrees to send an agent along to work in the office, but decides to go himself, as it might be fun to try his hand at a job.  He takes a flat nearby, in a building where Parker lives with Mary, Peter's sister, and their 2 children... Mary has given up Bolshevism and is a busy housewife. 

Beds and blue Jeans Available on Amazon (Nadine Sutton)

 A story set in recent years in Nashville Tennessee- the home of country music.  It's the story of Sam, a young man, who has a small band that play in the bars for tips and makes a modest living.  He has a lot of women flirting with him and  he takes advantage of the fact.  But he also has a girlfriend and a baby.  Patti is a young woman who has no ambitions, and was drifting along, till she had her baby.   Now she is trying to find a new way of life......

Will she and Sam find a way of working out their relationship or will Sam drift away with other ladies? 

Beds and Blue Jeans: An everyday story of music and mayhem eBook : Sutton, Nadine, Waldock, Sarah: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Unnatural Death Part III

 Miss Climpson continues to keep an eye on Mary Whittaker, who has gone away from their  little town for a few weeks, looking at chicken farms, because she is thinking of buying one.  She takes a friend with her, Vera Findlater, a pleasant but not very clever young woman who has become her best friend.  Miss Climpson thinks that Mary is using the girl.

Peter has a sudden inspiration.  He remembers that several months earlier, there was an article in the paper about a change in the laws of inheritance, simplifying the rules of inheritance for people who died intestate.  He consults Murbles, the family lawyer, who consults a barrister, and it emerges that the law was due to change in 1926, and it might make it more difficult for Mary to inherit.  She was the great niece of Miss Dawson and it seems unclear whether the new law would allow great nieces to inherit whereas if someone died intestate and has lost their siblings, their nieces and nephews would definitely be next of kin.

Peter thinks that if Mary feared that she might lose her money, and Miss Dawson was very ill, she might have been tempted to kill off the old lady, in the autumn of 1925, to make sure that she died under the old law. 

Parker consults solicitors in the Holborn area, figuring that Mary would probably have sought legal advice.  He finds a man who tells him that he did receive a visit from a young woman, some months earlier, and he advised her that the law wasn't all that clear and that it would be advisable to make sure that a will was made, if the next heir was a great niece.  Soon after that, he himself was called out to see a dying woman, to make a will and when he got to the place, he found a very sick woman, who wanted her Will made, but who offered him a drink. He drank it, and decided to go back home, after making the will, but he felt very ill.  It emerged that he had been drugged with a sleeping potion but not enough to kill him. 

He tells Parker that he knew it was the same woman who had consulted him earlier about the new law, because she had a scar on her hand, and the whole incident scared him to death.  He went to the house later and found that it was all shut up, and it appears that Mary Whittaker broke in and made use of it. 

Parker is now taking the case seriously, but he keeps pointing out that they dont know how Mary has killed her victims.  Then Mary and Vera disappear, and their abandoned car is found, with a magazine called the Black Mask, in it with a mark under the title.  It seems as if suspicion is being cast on the Rev Mr Dawson.  

Then news arrives from a bank in town that Mr Dawson brought in a cheque for 10,000 pounds, which seems suspicious.  Wimsey believes that Mary has faked the kidnapping and is going to imply that the Rev Dawson did it or got some East End Villains to do it for him.  Miss Climpson is concerned at the disappearance of Vera, and then finds in her local church some notes for a confession (Miss Climpson being High Church).  She tries not to look but then looks at them and works out that Vera has been following Mary, when Mary went away, and that it seems as if Mary had left Vera alone to pursue a love affair with a man. 

Miss Climpson decides to go back to London to see if she can find Mary Whittaker at the street mentioned in Vera's notes, and disguises herself as a collector for her own local church, working her way along the street.  She finds Mary, dressed differently, because she is now playing her alter ego of Mrs Forrest, and  Mary attacks her. \

Meanwhile Vera Findlater's body has been found and she too has been murdered.  While talking to the doctor, Peter has a sudden inspiration as to how Mary could kill her victims without any signs.  He remembers helping a stranded motor cyclist who had an airbubble in his fuel feed, and asks the doctor if the same could apply to humans, that if there was a large syringe used, it could push air into the blood stream and cause death.  Parker has people watching Mrs Forrest's flat, and he and Peter hurry there just in time to find Mary trying to kill Miss Climpson with an empty syringe.

Mary is arrested but the detectives beleive that they cannot make a charge stick on the murder of Miss Dawson, but she can be accused of killing Vera and Bertha and attempting to kill Miss Climpson.   Hallelujah Dawson has the money she gave him and does not realise that it was done to try and implicate him in killing Vera. But the case goes wrong because Mary strangles herself in prison with a sheet. Peter feels depressed but tries to be cheered by the knowledge that she was caught and stopped from killing, and that the Rev Mr Dawson will now be comfortably off. 

Jerry Lee Lewis RIP

 Jerry Lee died today at the age of 87, after a long career of singing country, rock and roll and gospel.

Jerry Lee was born in Louisiana and was a cousin of the evangelist Jimmy Swaggart and another country singer and pianist, Mickey Gillis. As a child he used to sneak into clubs for black people, to listen to what was then called "race music".  He was torn between his love of rock and roll and his belief inculcated in childhood that rock and roll was the devil's music.. He went to Bible college as a young man. 

He was famous for his wild antics, such as setting a piano on fire, and he made several marriages, including one to his young cousin Myra, who was only 13 when he was around 21. He went on performing till old age. 

Unnatural Death Part II

 Peter and Parker discover a connection with a lady living in London, Mrs Forrest - and they suspect that she may have given a five-pound note to Bertha Gotobed.. so they question her.  She has a satisfactory explanation, but Peter still continues to believe that Mary Whittaker may have killed Miss Dawson and that she may be responsible for the death of Bertha.

Parker is not convinced, as the autopsy on Bertha shows a heart failure after  a heavy meal.  her body was found in Epping Forest, and it seems to be a natural death.  However, Peter points out that she was alone, and the food she had with her was quite expensive food, not the sort of picnic that would be brought by a waitress. 

Peter advises Evelyn, Bertha's sister, to leave the UK as soon as possible as he is not sure that she is safe. He thinks that there was something funny about the Will, which was never made, and he tries to find the solicitor who worked for Miss Dawson but finds that the man has retired to Italy. 

Miss Climpson finds that Miss Dawson had a West Indian relative, a black clergyman called Hallelujah Dawson.. and that he came to her house one day and had lunch.  Peter finds the man who is now living at a mission in the East end, and wonders if he could be a rival heir to Miss Whittaker.  He meets him and realises that the Rev Mr Dawson is a gentle naive soul, who did contact Miss Dawson, because he was in poor circumstances. He was descended from Simon Dawson, a relative of Agatha's, who went abroad in the previous century to escape from some trouble at home.  He ended up in the West indies, took a new name and managed to buy a small sugar plantation.  Hallelujah found some old papers which told him that the real family name was Dawson, and that he had cousins living in England.  But he then found that old Simon had taken his grandmother as a mistress but deceived her into thinking that they were legally married.... so his descent is illegitimate, and he could not be a rival heir. 

He tells Peter and Parker that Agatha was not prejudiced at all and was very kind to him and that hearing that he was not well off, the sugar plantation having failed, she made him an allowance and told him that Mary would continue to remember him after she was gone.  However, Mary did not do so but he has been managing to live modestly in the East End. 

Peter and Parker dont know what to make of all this, since Hallelujah cannot be an heir, and Mary has inherited Miss Dawson's fortune so she had no motive to murder her.  The only thing they can think of was that Miss Dawson might have tried to will the money to someone else but given her dislike of the idea of making a will, that seems unlikely. 

Unnatural Death by DL Sayers Part I

 Been re reading a favourite Sayers book Unnatural Death.  It starts with Peter and his friend Inspector Parker discussing murders at a restaurant and falling into conversation with a doctor, dining at another table.  He tells them that he had to leave his practice in a small town, because he asked for an autopsy on a cancer patient who had died unexpectedly.  He had believed that the old lady would live another 6 months, but she had died.  The local gossips took exception to his "practically accusing the old lady's niece of murder". 

However, the examination had showed natural death. Peter becomes interested in the case and decides to investigate further.  He uses Miss Climpson, a middle aged lady who has become an enquiry agent for him, because being a little old lady, she can ask things and gossip, whereas a policeman or male detective would be suspected. 

Miss Climpson goes to the little town and becomes friendly with Mary Whitaker who was the great niece of Miss Dawson, the old lady who died.  Then, a former servant of Miss Dawson's is killed, and Peter becomes scared that his investigations are setting off the crimes again. He meets Evelyn Cropper, the sister of the murdered servant, who has married and gone to Canada, and finds out that she and Bertha, her sister were asked by Mary Whitaker to witness a will signing by old Miss Dawson, but that the old lady had refused to sign the will as she had an aversion to the idea of making a will, believing that her property would go to her great niece anyway. 

Rough Music, story on Amazon by Nadine Sutton

 Rough Music is a story set in the US in the 1970s, about a country rock band.  It is not a love story with a happy ending, but more a story about life on the road, making music and trying to stay married while travelling.  The 2 lead singers Brandon and Jeff, are good friends, but find it hard to cope with the compromises of being in the music business, not seeing their wives and kids because they are away on tour so much, and putting up with conflicts in the Band. 

Toll Gate Part III

 Jack also learns that Jerry Chirke met Rose, Nell's nurse and chaperone, a pleasant looking middle aged woman, and fell in love with her and that is one reason why he wants to reform, and why he comes to the Toll House.  He stables his horse there when visiting Rose. Jack finds him a decent man in spite of his profession.  He was from a poor family and had to work in a factory as a child, and he's never forgotten it, which is why he is kind to Ben. 

Nell is increasingly worried that her grandfather is now very frail and dying and she cannot leave him, especially with Henry hanging around for no good reason.  However Sir Peter persuades her to marry Jack, privately by special licence, so that she will have someone to look after her when he dies.  

Eventually, Jack finds that the reason Henry is hanging around is that he has been involved with stealing a large load of the new sovereigns which are about to be issued soon as legal currency.  He learns that Henry and his accomplice, Nathan, and their men did the robbery and the coins are now hidden in a cave on Sir Peter Stornaway's property.  He also finds the body of Ned Brean there, Nathan having killed him to make sure he did not talk. 

Jack and Jerry become involve in a gunfight in the cave and Henry and Nathan are both killed.... but Jack allows Jerry to claim that he found the hoard of coins, as there will be a reward from the Government for finding them and he can use the money to buy a farm.  Jerry is delighted, and he and Jack return to the village to meet Nell and Rose, and he and Rose can now plan their wedding.  Jack has decided to tell Ben about the death of his father when he feels the time is right, and he plans to take the boy to his estate where he can be looked after, and train as a groom.  However, Jerry and Rose decide that they will take care of Ben and adopt  him.... 

Toll Gate Part II

 Next day, Jack talks a bit to Ben, who is still trying to convince himself that his father will return, but very afraid that if he does not, the factory awaits him.  He tells Jack that he works around the stables of the area and loves horses.  He also admits that he has a friend Mr  Chirke who has a mare who does tricks.  

Jack says he will stay for a day or 2 until Ned Brean turns up.  Later that day, however, he has a shock when he meets a young woman.  Nell is a very tall girl, not a beauty but striking looking and she is on her way to church.  She is plainly a lady and Ben tells Jack that her grandfather is the squire but that Nell now runs the estate as the old man is ill and frail. John is completely smitten with Nell, and decides that he will stay in the area, and try to court her.  

He and Ben agree that he will claim to be a cousin of the Breans, and that he used to be an officer's batman in the army, but now has  inherited a bit of money from his father's family.  He realises that there will be some discomfort, living in the Toll House, and pretending to be relatively poor but he is so taken by Nell that he is willing to do it.

Jack finds that there is a lot of mystery swirling around the Toll House. Ben admits that while his father rarely goes away, there is a man who comes to see him sometimes and he's afraid of him. Jack learns that Nell's grandfather is in very poor health and that his heir, Henry, who is a very unpleasant individual, has turned up at the manor house, recently and she is upset by this. 

He manages to spend some time with Nell, talking to her about her problems... and telling her about his own life.  He then meets Ben's friend Mr Chirke who is a highwayman... who tells him that he has enjoyed his career but would like to give up life on the road and become an honest farmer. 

The Toll Gate by Georgette Heyer Part I

 This is one of the novels by Heyer that I took some time to warm up to.  It is more of an adventure story than a love story.  

It starts with John Staple, who is heir to an earldom, visiting his cousin, the Earl of Saltash, who has just become engaged so that he can meet his future wife, Lady Charlotte Calne.  Jack as he  is called, is an adventurous young man of around 30 who has been a soldier most of his life and who fought in the Napoleonic wars.  His father died and left him a small estate and he gave up the army, but he finds civilian life rather dull at times.  He also finds his cousin, Bevis, very dull, and after a day or 2, he tells his mother and cousin that he has to go and visit a friend who lives not too far away, now that he is in the North. His mother is disappointed because she was hoping to get him to meet a young woman who might be a suitable wife, when they return from Bevis'  estate and now he wont be there.  However, she accepts that John wants to find a wife he really loves and that he may never marry unless he does find the right girl.

John sets out on his horse, Beau, sending his baggage on to his friend's house by carrier.  However, on the first night, he takes  a wrong road and ends up in a tiny village where there is a toll gate.  The toll keeper does not answer, and then, a young boy, very scared, comes out to take his money. 

John is inclined to be curious, and he feels sorry for the boy, Ben, who seems terrified of being left alone.  Ben tells him that his father, Ned, went away but he is sure that he will be back soon.  However if anything happens to his Dad, he is scared that he will be sent to a poorhouse or farmed out to work in a factory.  John decides to stay the night, as it is late and wet and he stables his horse and beds down for the night.  He feels sure that Ned will return, probably with a hangover the next day.....

Beds and Blue Jeans A story available on Amazon

 A story set in recent years in Nashville Tennessee- the home of country music.  It's the story of Sam, a young man, who has a small band that play in the bars for tips and makes a modest living.  He has a lot of women flirting with him and  he takes advantage of the fact.  But he also has a girlfriend and a baby.  Patti is a young woman who has no ambitions, and was drifting along, till she had her baby.   Now she is trying to find a new way of life......

Beds and Blue Jeans: An everyday story of music and mayhem eBook : Sutton, Nadine, Waldock, Sarah: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

The Foundling Part V

 Mrs Mudgeley tells Gilly that she will be glad to see Belinda return to the farm and that while the girl is foolish, she is good hearted and will probably learn to be a good farmer's wife.  Gilly persuades Jasper that he has looked after her and has not tried to seduce her.

However when he gets back to Bath, Belinda has vanished.  Lord Gaywood, Harriet's brother, has been flirting with her and she has apparently gone off with him.  However Tom rescues her, and Gilly asks her if she really likes Gaywood better than Mr Mudgeley.  She tells him no, she loves Jasper but she does not think that he will ever be found... and she naively tells him that she did not just go off with Gaywood, she asked him to buy her a purple silk dress, which she has always wanted, and he went off to do it, so she thinks that he is well meaning. 

He tells her that he has found Mr Mudgeley and he can take her to him.. and she is happy to go.  He and Harriet deliver her safely to the farm, and are glad to know that she will be cared for and looked after, with the one man who does love her. The couple return to Bath, with Gilly rejoicing that he has finally become tough enough to manage his own affairs and stand up to his uncles and other well meaning relatives and staff.  He and Harriet plan their wedding......

The book is well written, with a lot of humour coming from the antics of Tom and the silly ways of Belinda.  There is little romantic tension as Gilly is away from his fiancee most of the time, but Heyer manages to make it a charming love affair, with his realising that he does love her, in spite of her shyness and the interference of their families and the fact that he did not choose her himself.  The novel is more about the development of the gentle shy young man who hates hurting or disappointing people, into a young man who is capable of making his own decisions, putting up with the discomforts of posing as a not so rich person, and rescuing his lame ducks from their problems. 

Nine Tailors By DL Sayers

 Im re reading this book at the moment, and just wanted to mention how good it is.  Although a lot of the plot centres around bell ringing, in which I have no interest, the novel as a whole is very readable. 

It is set in the Fens, where Sayers grew up, in a small village, where the parson and squire are the leaders of the community.  Her parson, Rev Theodore Venables, is based on her own father, the Rev Henry Sayers.  Mr. Venables is a kind good, rather vague old chap who is devoted to his work and his people.  His wife is more practical but equally kindly.  

The Fenlands are wet, and drainage is a problem, with frequent floods and problems with building gates and sluices to hold the water back. 

Peter's car has a crash on New Years Eve, and he and Bunter seek a bed at the local inn.  Mr. Venables invites them to stay, because there is an outbreak of flu, and while they stay for the night, Peter takes part in a bell ringing event at the church.    They learn the story of a local drama, 20 years earlier, just before World War One when the butler at the house of Sir Henry Thorpe stole a valuable necklace belonging to one of the guests at Henry's wedding.  However, the jewels were never found, and the butler was sent to prison but escaped and was found dead.   Sir Henry paid the lady who owned the necklace its value, because she had not had it insured, and left himself very badly off. 

The story becomes very complicated with a body being found in the grave of Sir Henry's wife, who has recently died.  His face and hands have been mutilated so noone knows who he is, but Peter and the police wonder if the strange crime has any connection with the theft 20 years earlier. 
Peter solves the crime eventually, and is in the village a year later, when there is a massive flood, owing to the dam breaking and the water flooding the village.   Mr Venables gathers his parishioners into the church which is on high ground, and they stay there till the water recedes.  

Its not my favourite Wimsey novel because of the complex plot and the very involved details about bell ringing, but it is a warm picture of a rural community and Peter getting involved in it....

The Foundling Part IV

 Feeling triumphant, Gilly returns to Tom and the inn, but the following day, Belinda turns up and says that she has come to stay with him.  He realises how silly she is, and that she will inevitably say or do something disastrous, but he feels he cannot leave her to her own devices.

She tells him that she knows he was not Matthew, but if she argued with Liversedge, who had taken her in and told her that he would make her rich, he gets annoyed with her, so she said nothing. He finds that she was an apprentice dressmaker, and that she left her job, breaking her agreement with the business, to have an easier life, as she hoped, with Liversedge.   She is only 17, and is a foundling who has no relatives and no real friends. Gilly feels sorry for her but is not sure what he can do to help.  She then tells him that she had once met a nice young man, a farmer, called Mudgeley, who lived near Bath, and who had taken her home to meet his mother. 

Gilly wonders if he could reunite the couple; that would provide Belinda with a home and family.  However, the landlady of his inn is not pleased with the girl's arrival, regarding  her as probably a loose woman, because she is so pretty. Gilly tells her a fantastic story that Tom and Belinda are brother and sister and that he is in charge of them... and she allows them to stay for a couple of days.  However,  on their journey they stay overnight and go to a local fair, and Liversedge manages to kidnap Gilly again, and to lock him up in the cellar of the inn where he's staying.  He has worked out that Gilly is not Matthew Ware but the very wealthy Duke of Sale.  He reckons that the family would pay to get Gilly back again, or alternatively, if he removed Gilly, Lord Lionel and Gideon would become the Duke and heir to the Dukedom and they might be happy with such an outcome. 

Leaving Gilly locked up, he journeys to London to see Gideon. 

Gideon loses his temper violently with him, and forces him to take him back to the inn to rescue Gilly.   However by the time they get there, his cousin has managed to burn down the inn, using a little device that he had bought for lighting his cigar, and has escaped. 

Gilly is very pleased with himself, but less pleased to find that Mr Mamble, Tom's father, has managed to trace him.  He manages to soothe the irate businessman, who is half angry at Tom's running off and half thrilled that his son has become the protege of a very wealthy Duke.  Gilly suggests that Mr Mamble should send his son to school where he will meet other boys of his own age and kind and not be miserably isolated with a tutor and not allowed to mix with other businessmen's sons.  He also is trying, on his arrival in Bath, to find Mr Mudgely, in hopes that this honest farmer still wants to marry Belinda. 

He visits Harriet, who has heard gossip about his being seen with a very beautiful girl, but he assures her that she has nothing to fear from Belinda, and he asks her to take the girl in until he can continue his search for Mudgeley. Harriet, relieved and happy, and feeling sorry for Belinda,  agrees to give her a home for a few days, and tells him that her grandmother, Old Lady Ampleforth, with whom she is staying, will be quite pleased to learn that Gilly is capable of a bit of wild behaviour, because she thinks he is too prim and proper. 
Gilly realises that although he did not love Harriet when they got engaged, he has grown to love her, that she is kindly and helpful and they will make each other happy.  She suggests that she might be able to sort out the problem of Belinda's having broken her indentures, by going to her mistress and buying several hats from her. 

He then goes to Cheyneys -a house he owns near Bath and has to talk to his bailiff there, who tells him that he has a small problem to sort out. A young farmer who owns land near the estate wants to buy one of Gilly's fields, which he presently rents. But the trustees of the estate were reluctant to sell the land. Gilly finds that the man is called Mudgeley.  His agent takes him to Mudgely's farm and he talks to the young man's mother, and she tells him that her son Jasper was in love with a girl earlier that year, but she disappeared. She fears that her son wont ever love another girl the same way. 

Gilly explains to her that he has met Belinda and that although she is a very silly girl and has been drifting around the world, being used by a plausible rogue,  she is still an innocent girl and has a real affection for Jasper.  He agrees to talk to the young farmer and explain the situation to him...... 

Foundling Part III

 Gilly sets off to meet Liversedge, who is living in a small inn... On his way, he tells Gideon that he's leaving town and is going to have an adventure.  He gives him his favourite signet ring to keep while he is away as it is too recognisable, as he intends to pose as Matthew. 

He finds that travelling on the stage coach, is not that comfortable, especially when he is used to staying at good hotels and with his servants in attendance, but he also wishes to prove to himself that he can do something by himself, without his uncles or servants to look after him.  He finds a reasonably comfortable inn, with a kindly woman in charge, and decides to hire a gig and go to visit Liversedge, but on the way, he comes across a schoolboy, Tom Mamble, who has been robbed and left injured.  Tom is the son of a nouveau riche man who has a successful business, but who harasses his son by wanting him to learn to become a gentleman, and has given him a very tiresome tutor called Snape.  Tom runs off intending to go to London and have some fun, but gets robbed instead. Gilly feels sorry for him and takes him back to his inn, and intends to go and see the blackmailer the following day. 

When he finally meets Liversedge, he sees the lovely Belinda and is dazzled by her beauty.  She is a golden haired blue eyed girl of about 17, and she seems to accept that he is Matthew Ware.  Gilly gets hold of the love letters, but when he is expected to hand over the money, he suddenly rams a table into Liversedge's legs and knocks him down.  He then escapes. 

The Foundling Part II

 Harriet has always been a shy girl, and while she has accepted that it is her duty to marry Gilly, she feels nervous. She tells her mother that she knows Gilly is not in love with her, but Lady Ampleforth, her mother, tells her firmly that she is lucky that she has been allowed to get to know her future husband, over the years before marrying him. 

Meanwhile, Gilly is staying at one of his many homes in London, and goes to visit Gideon, who is in the army and based in London.  He is clearly rather depressed, in spite of his engagement.  Gideon jollies him along, but he also meets his cousin Matthew who is visiting London.  Matt is at Oxford and only 19, and his family are not that well off... He tells Gilly, while they are on their way home, that he is in a mess.  He fell in love with a beautiful girl, who seemed ladylike and innocent, but now, he finds that she has a guardian who is claiming that they are engaged and that if he does not marry Belinda, he will be sued for breach of promise.  Matt tells Gilly that while he might have promised marriage to Belinda in a moment of madness, she is not quite suitable to marry someone of his class and he does not want to go through with it.. besides he has no money to support a wife. 

Gilly talks it over with Matt and tells him that he believes that this man who is claiming to be Belinda's guardian is a con man, and that he is hoping to persuade Matt to go to his rich cousin, who is a Duke, and who will buy back his love letters and pay him off.  He tells Matt not to worry, he will see this man and sort him out.  He has never had an adventure of this sort before and he wants to try and see if he can manage to do something practical for once. 

Matthew is not sure if he should hand over the problem to Gilly but his cousin insists.. and tells Matt he will go to Oxford and confront the man Liversedge. 

The Foundling Georgette heyer Part I

 This is one of the first Heyer  novels I ever read, it is set after the Battle of Waterloo, and is a "road" book, like Sprig Muslin.  

The hero is one of Heyer's quiet gentle shy heroes, a little bit like Adam Deveril, who seems to be too nice for his own good.  Adolphus Gillespie Ware, Duke of Sale, is 24, when the story opens, and he is born to great wealth and high rank.  His father, the late Duke, died before he was born, and "Gilly" was a sickly child, whose infant brothers and sisters had all died.  His mother died at his birth, so he was in the care of his uncle, Lord Lionel Ware, who is a much more aggressive man than his nephew. 

Lionel worries about him and he and his wife who are in loco parentis, fuss over Gilly, refuse to send him to school and generally cosset him.  His best friend is Gideon, his cousin, who is aggressive and tougher than Gilly, but the 2 of them are fond of each other.

Gilly learns that Lord Lionel thinks that now, he is almost 25 and fully of age it is time for him to get married.  He knows that his uncle has had a young lady, Harriet Presteigne, in mind for him for quite a while, but he is surprised and shaken when he's told that he really must propose to the girl.. that she's been expecting it for a while.   He is fond of Harriet but has never been in love and wishes that he could choose a wife for himself. He realises though that he can't stand up to Lord Lionel and he sets out for London to see Harriet and propose. 

In London, Harriet says yes to him, and he feels a little trapped. 

Bella Poldark Graham's last novel (spoilers)

 Bella Poldark is the last novel in the Poldark series by Winston Graham, and was published when he was a very elderly gentleman, not that long before his death.  

It covers the years 1818-20, as the Poldark family are recovering from the death of Jeremy at Waterloo, and the death of Steven Carrington, Clowance's rakish and selfish husband.  Cuby, Jeremy's widow, has a young daughter, Noelle, born in the Christmas of 1815.  Clowance has no children and has learned that her late husband may not have been legally married to her, because he had been married and had a son by another woman in his earlier years.  She runs his small shipping firm, and has various suitors vying for her attention.  Bella the youngest daughter, is interested in a singing career and is studying Opera.  Her fiance Christopher Havergal, was a soldier at Waterloo and lost a foot but he is eager to support and manage Bella in her career. 

Ross and Demelza are now older, and saddened by the death of Jeremy, but they are content with their lives in Cornwall and Ross is less keen on going away.  They still have one young son, Harry who is now heir to the baronetcy which Ross has been given. 

Graham brings in a new character, Philip Prideaux who is also an ex soldier, and who is involved in trying to reform health and sanitary conditons in Cornwall.  The book also has a plot about a serial killer of young women.  Several young women are killed mysteriously, but it turns out that the killer is Jeremy's friend, Paul Kellow who has developed a hatred of women.  The serial killer plot seems  a litlte out of place but is explained partly by the fact that since the War's end, there is a lot of crime - with impoverished ex soldiers turned loose to try and make a living.  The death of Jeremy also meant that Graham dropped the interest in steam engines which was Jeremy's hobby and work prior to his joining the army. 

Bella trains as an opera singer but then loses her voice after an illness and becomes instead an actress, and we are told she becomes very famous. 

Ben Carter, the son of Ross's friend, James Carter, marries Demelzas niece, who had become a nursemaid to Geoffrey Charles' children.  He had been in love with Clowance but she refused him. Cuby also finds a new love with Philip Prideaux...

George Warleggan, Ross's ongoing enemy, does not change much.   He has married a second time but his new wife - the horsey, hunting loving upper class Lady Harriet, only produces twin daughters, and while he is fond of the children, he is not a very happy man. 

There are other sad parts of the novel, though it ends with Bella's acting career starting off and Clowance remarrying - to a young aristocrat who was courting her before she married Steven.   Valentine Warleggan, who may have been Ross' son died in a fire, after his marriage broke down.   Valentine had an affair with Agneta, the daughter of a local squire, who has learning difficulties, and when she disappeared and was found dead, it looked at first as if Valentine might have killed her. 
Its a fitting end to the Poldark story.....

Rough Music story on Amazon by Nadine Sutton

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=29YA75QCZNVT1&keywords=nadine+sutton&qid=1665059309&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjkxIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=nadine+sutton%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-1

Rough Music is a story set in the US in the 1970s, about a country rock band.  It is not a love story with a happy ending, but more a story about life on the road, making music and trying to stay married while travelling.

Beds and Blue Jeans a country story by Nadine Sutton

 

A story set in recent years in Nashville Tennessee- the home of country music.  It's the story of Sam, who has a small band that play in the bars for tips and makes a modest living.  He has a lot of women flirting with him and  he takes advantage of the fact.  But he also has a girlfriend and a baby.  Patti is a young woman who has no ambitions, and was drifting along, till she had her baby.   Now she is trying to find a new way of life......

Beds and Blue Jeans: An everyday story of music and mayhem eBook : Sutton, Nadine, Waldock, Sarah: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Sprig Muslin VI

 A loud scene erupts, where Lord Widmore, Hester's brother, and the family chaplain lecture Gary on compromising Hester, and Gen Summercourt tells him that he has to marry Amanda. In the end, all is sorted out.  Gary points out that noone thinks any ill of the 2 ladies, that they are seen as his sister and niece, and that he has no desire to marry Amanda.  Neil tells Gen Summercourt that he can take care of Amanda very well and that he can stop her from giving free rein to her imagination, while allowing her a role as a soldier's wife.  Reluctantly, the general gives his consent and he and Neil and Amanda leave the inn, to go off and arrange their marriage.

Hester tells Lord Widmore that she is staying at the inn, and that Hildebrand is there with them to play propriety, so she will not be compromised... Widmore is very angry with her and says that he washes his hands of her. 

After they have gone, Gary asks Hester to marry him, saying that while he had held her in affection for a long time, he had not been in love with her... now he knows her better and he is in love with her.   She feels now that she can accept him, since she has been in love with him for years, but has never felt that she could marry him when he did not care deeply for her.  They declare their love for each other and plan to marry as soon as he is fully recovered. 

Sprig Muslin is a short light novel but it has great charm.  It reminds me of Some Like it Hot, in the way the characters make up stories and act fantastically.  Hester is older than some heroines but a very sympathetic and likable character, who becomes more likable as she blossoms in the affection of Gary, Hildebrand and Amanda.  Amanda is silly at times but usually quite shrewd, and is devoted to Neil...

I've read it many times and will probably read it many more times.

Sprig Muslin V

 Hildebrand visits the old gentleman who takes in the quality papers and gets a bundle of them to take back to Amanda, but he discovers that old Mr. Vinehall knows Gary.  He is in poor health and does not often go out, but to Gary's surprise a few days later, he turns up at the inn. 

He has thought that Beatrix was looking after her brother but finds Hester there instead, and she cannot think of any explanation.  She rushes out, and Amanda comes to her rescue, by telling the old man that Hester is Gary's OTHER sister, born out of wedlock. Amanda further explains that Hildebrand is rather deaf, so he mistakenly gave the impression that it was Beatrix who was there. 

Hester has hidden in Gary's room while Vinehall visits and afterwards, tells Gary that while Amanda tells outrageous fibs, she is quick witted and never at a loss.  She thinks that Amanda should be allowed to marry her Neil.  Gary, amazed at Hester's growth as a person, tells her that he never knew her till they ended up in this situation. 

Shortly after this, the happy little party suffers from intrusion from the outside world. Neil convalescing in London, meets Warren Wetherby, who invites him to dinner.  Accidentally, Neil learns that Gary Ludlow has apparently gone off with a girl called Amanda, and disappeared from his home and usual activities.  He visits General Summercourt, Amanda's old grandfather who tells him that Amanda has run away from home.. and he advises him that he knows who Amanda is with.  They trace Gary and Amanda's travels and come to the inn.  Meanwhile Hester's family find out that she is not with her sister Susan and they too trace her from when she left the family home. 

Sprig Muslin IV

 Having escaped from Mr Theale, Amanda sets off for the farm.  Gareth follows after her and catches up with Fabian who is now staying at another inn.  By now, the elderly dandy has given up on Amanda and is wondering if perhaps he was mistaken in thinking her a lady of easy virtue.  He tried to find her but when he could not, he settled down for the night.  Gareth is furious with him but leaves him alone, knowing that its more important to find his runaway.  He goes to the inn where Amanda was last seen and makes enquiries, and then a local farmer comes in.  Mr Sheet tells the innkeeper that his son brought home a pretty genteel young lady, and she's staying at his farm. 
Gareth has told the innkeeper and his wife that Amanda is his ward and that she ran away from school with one of the masters. He wonders if he could leave her at the farm till he goes to London and finds Amanda's Neil at Army headquarters.

However the farmer tells him that Joe is falling in love with Amanda and it would be better if they were separated... so he goes to the farm to take her away.  She doesn't want to go with him, and is only distracted a little when Joe gives her a kitten to take with her.. 

They spend the night at another inn, where Amanda sees a new possible rescuer.  Hildebrand Ross is a young man who is on his way to join friends on a walking/riding tour. 

Gareth thinks that Hildebrand is a nice young well bred chap who will amuse Amanda but is not likely be seen by her as a rescuer.  He allows the 2 young people to chatter over dinner, but orders his "ward" off to bed early.  However, Amanda manages to get hold of Hildebrand and tells him that Sir Gareth is her guardian but that she is an heiress and he wants to marry her.   Hildebrand, who is of a literary turn of mind, agrees to help her by holding up their chaise the following day. 

Gary is shocked when the chaise is suddenly stopped by a young man on horseback brandishing a pistol, and the gun goes off, wounding him.  Amanda, horrified by what she has done, manages to tear off his coat and stop the bleeding, and they get to the nearest inn.  A doctor is called, Hildebrand is desperately upset by his accidental shooting and realises that Amanda has deceived him.

He is shocked that she is so good at making up tales, but knows he was foolish to take a pistol when all he really meant to do was to startle Gary and let Amanda escape.  She realises that she cant look after Gareth, when the bullet has been dug out, and hits on the idea of finding Hester and asking her to come and nurse him. 

Hildebrand takes the chaise on to Brancaster which is not too far away and meets Hester.  She wants to go, but wonders how she will escape her family.  she and Hildebrand finally hit on a story that her sister's children are ill and she has to go and nurse them, and they drive back to the inn where the party are now staying. 

Hester finds Gary in a fever and speaks to the doctor, in a flurry she tells him that she is Gary's sister, and he tells her that he will live but will  need careful nursing.   When he comes round after a couple of days, he finds that he now has Amanda and Hildebrand as niece and nephew, and Hester as his sister. 

While he is recovering, his new family enjoy life in the quiet inn, away from the social round.  Hildebrand is writing a play.  Amanda helps with the nursing and keeping Gary company and tries to find some way of finding out if her Grandfather is trying to locate her.  She discovers that a local gentleman takes the quality papers, and she wants to get hold of them so she can see if her grandfather has put an advertisement in them to let her know she can come home. Gary wonders if he should write to his brother-in-law to try and find Neil, who will be on the Army lists, but he is tired out from his wound and puts it off. 

Hester, for the first time able to escape from her unpleasant family, is happy looking after Gary and the young people. She looks prettier and becomes much more cheerful. 

Gary realises that she is capable of being funny and lively, and she's a very capable nurse. 

Sprig Muslin Part III

 Amanda likes Hester, who lends her a gown, because Amanda does not have many clothes with her.   She tells her some of the truth because she does not wish to lie, and Hester feels sure that she should marry her Neil because she seems too energetic for a life as a socialite in England. 

However, when Gareth manages to make his proposal, Hester turns him down.  She does not know if he is falling in love with Amanda but she knows he's not in love with her and she could not bear to marry him without having his love.  She knows that she has little chance of finding a husband, her only other suitor is the family chaplain, whom she does not much like.. but she doesn't want to marry a man she loves unless he loves her too. 

Fabian Theale is attracted to Amanda and begins to flirt with her. He convinces himself that he could easily seduce her and that it would be doing Hester a good turn to take away her suitors would be mistress.  Amanda sees Fabian as a way of getting out of the house and away from Gareth, meaning to run away from him once she is beyond the reach of Gary who is as she knows planning to take her to his sister in London.  She manages to flirt politely with the elderly letch and agrees to go away with him the next morning before anyone is up. 

Gary goes to bed, unsure what to do next about Hester, because she seems very firm in refusing him.  However, he has first to deal with Amanda.  The following day, when he gets up, Fabian has already left with Amanda and Lady Widmore says that he left a message that he has taken her to her relatives, to save Gary a trip.

Gary tells Hester what has happened and sets off after them.  Fabian is a bad traveller, and does not like to go fast... so Amanda, in order to fend off his amorous advances,  pretends that she also gets stomach upsets in carriages, and within a short while begins to feign sickness.  Theale hurries his carriage along to a nearby hamlet where there is a small inn and she is carried in, apparently very sick. 

Amandas quick wits are often on display making up fancy stories to get her out of trouble.... Mr. Theale tells the landlady that Amanda is his niece and they take her upstairs to rest till she is better, while Mr Theale tries to calm his nerves with a drink or 2. 

Amanda slips out and manages to get a ride in a farmer's wagon, with a young man called Joe who is going back to his father's farm.  He is taken aback by her beauty and willingly takes her on his cart. 

Sprig Muslin Part II

 Gary decides that he should help this girl who is of genteel birth, and clearly not experienced in the ways of the world.  He asks her history and while eating some food he has bought for her, she tells him a fanciful story which he recognises as a lie. He tells her so, and she tells him a more truthful version of her story.  She is called Amanda but won't tell him her full name.  She is not quite 17, but has been engaged secretly to a neighbour of her family's, who is in the Army.  Her family spoil her but regard her as far too young to marry and they think that Neil her beau is not well off enough either. 

Gary is touched by a certain resemblance to Clarissa, though she was fair and Amanda is dark.. He feels that he has to help her but she is mulishly obstinate in refusing to tell him who are her family, or to go back to them.  She insists that in running away and finding a job, she will show her grandfather that she is old enough to get married. Gary suggests that she waits till she has a year in Society but she says that she has been in Bath Society and been quite a hit, because she is very pretty, and she knows about fashionable life and would rather follow the army with Neil. 

Gareth insists on taking her with him to Brancaster, though it is difficult to do this when he is on a visit to propose to Hester, to turn up with a pretty girl.  He arrives with her, and Hester while polite is a little taken aback by Amanda's presence.  However she accepts the cover story that Gary was meant to be taking Amanda to relatives at Oundle but they had not turned up and he planned to take her on there when he has had his visit.  Lady Widmore, Hester's sister in law, and Fabian, her lecherous old uncle, both believe that Gary picked Amanda up on the way and that she is a "country bit of muslin" whom he means to make his mistress. 

Sprig Muslin part I

 This is one of my favourite Georgette Heyer Novels, one of her shorter ones.  It is a "road" book giving her upper-class characters a chance to travel around and escape normal life for a bit.  

The story begins with Sir Gareth Ludlow, a wealthy and charming man in his 30s visiting his sister Beatrix to tell her that he hopes to marry. Beatrix who is married with 5 children, is startled, for Gary lost his fiancee in a carriage accident 7 years earlier and has never shown any sign of interest in another woman since then. He tells Beatrix that he feels he will never get over Clarissa, but since their only sibling, their brother Arthur was killed in the war, a while ago, he has a duty to produce an heir.  Beatrix is shocked when he tells her that he intends to propose to Lady Hester Theale, a shy not very beautiful woman of almost 30, who keeps house for her selfish and extravagant father.  She thinks that he could do much better than Hester who is dull and not a beauty or   a charmer,  and is annoyed and depressed at his news.  

When he has gone, her husband Warren tells her that he thinks that Hester may well make Gary a good wife, and make him comfortable... and that he himself never thought that Clarissa was so perfect for Gary as others did.  She was lovely and charming but overly high spirited, and her accident resulted from her disobeying Gary when he told her not to drive his horses. 

Gary sets off for Brancaster Park where Hester lives. He is fond of her, but does not think her to be as charming as Clarissa was.  He can see she is not very happy living with her father who is very selfish, and her brother and sister-in-law who are selfish and vulgar.  On the way, he stops at an inn and is surprised to find a young girl there, who is arguing with the innkeeper.  She is only about 17 and very pretty, and clearly a lady.. and the landlord tells her that this young lady wants to become a maid at his inn.  

Vera Brittain novels

 Im reading a  novel by Vera Brittain, having not read any of her work for many years.  It reminded me what a tragic life she had.  I've never been a big fan but reading Honourable Estate made me remember her early life which had so much pain because of World War One.  

Vera was born in 1893 in Staffordshire, in the Midlands, and was the daughter of Arthur and Edith Brittain. Her family owned paper mills and were comfortably off middle class and very conventional. They moved to Cheshire, and then later to the Spa Town of Buxton in Derbyshire...   She was intelligent and very keen on learning and was sent to a boarding school, in Surrey.  When she left school, her father and mother expected her to do the social round and marry but she hated the idea and after 2 years, she persuaded her father to let her go to Oxford.  She had one brother Edward who was very close to her. 

She began her studies at Oxford in 1914 hoping to escape the boredom of provincial life.  However war had broken out and she felt that it was not right to be at college when the world was in such turmoil - her brother and other young men that she knew were all volunteering for the army, including Roland Leighton, a young writer who had become her fiance.  She wanted to be close to him so she joined the VADs, volunteer nurses who were working for the war effort. She nursed in London and then went to France, during which time she nursed German Prisoners of war.  Her fiance Roland and her brother were killed along with other male friends.  

Vera had begun the war feeling patriotic but as she lost loved ones and saw the horrors of the war, she began to veer towards socialism and pacifism.  She returned to England and then went back to Oxford in 1919.  She found it hard to fit in there, feeling that she had been marked forever by the pain and suffering she had witnessed and she did not get on with some of the other young women who seemed indifferent to it.  

She became friends with Winifred Holtby, another would be writer, who also favoured liberal causes but was less emotional and extreme than Brittain. They did not like each other at first but became friends, and then after college they decided to move to London and share a flat, earning a living by writing and working for the various good causes they supported. 

Both women found that their middle class families were not that keen on them abandoning their homes to work, and expected them to come home whenever there was a domestic problem or crisis. 

Vera began writing, but her novels were always rather too heavily based on her own real life.  She lacked the ability to stand outside herself... but she had some talent.....Honourable Estate is a novel based on her war experiences... However instead of a lover like Roland Leighton, she gives her heroine a love affair with American soldier Eugene Meury, which is based on her love for her American publisher.  The heroine Ruth Alleynedene, is like Vera the daughter of a well to do businessman in the Potteries, who is not happy with his daughter's going to college, nor taking up war work or socialism, but who accepts her independence, reluctantly.... 

Will write a bit more about  her and Holtby. 

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton

 This novella is available on Amazon.  It is another story about bands and music, set in Nashville in the 2010s, about a young man who has a small time band which plays in the bars. Sam has a girlfriend and a baby, but has a complicated love life.  He has other women, his girlfriend seems bored with him, and he is just about managing to make a living.  But things change.  He meets a girl he cares more about, but he feels responsible for his girl and baby. Are things going to work out? 

Beds and Blue Jeans: An everyday story of music and mayhem eBook : Sutton, Nadine, Waldock, Sarah: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Rough Music, Available on Amazon.

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=29YA75QCZNVT1&keywords=nadine+sutton&qid=1665059309&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjkxIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=nadine+sutton%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-1

This is one of my stories, about music and bands, in the USA.  It is set in the 1970s, when there were a lot of country and southern rock bands doing well in the US.  Their lives were spent travelling, as they had to tour and be seen by their fans.  It put a lot of strain on the marriages of the musicans and singers, who were away from home, living in hotels, and usually having to leave their wives behind.  It led to infidelity and a lot of drug use to keep on with the travelling and to come down after the excitement of performing and seeing fans.  The 2 lead characters are young men - both are married, and have children but neither is exactly faithful and their marriages are under strain.  They also have constant fights with managers and record companies over whether to do good music or to make money. This isn't a love story, but I hope some people will enjoy a realistic novella.

Loretta Lynn country singer

 Loretta's death at 90 takes away another of the great female country singers.  She was one of the first women to write a lot of her own material, and she was not just a girl singer who had a pretty face and pretty voice. Women singers in the earlier days of country music were often there just to add eye candy to an act, or to sing sentimental songs about motherhood.

Loretta was different.  She was born in Kentucky, in a poor area near the Van Lear Coal mine which was mentioned in her most famous hit.  Her father worked in the mine and was a subsistence farmer, and her mother raised 8 children. At 15 she married Oliver Lynn who whom she called Doolittle or Doo.  He had just come out of the army after World War Two and was several years her senior.  She claimed she was only 13 when she got married but she was in fact 15..  and within a few years she had had 4 children. 

Her life was very typical of young working class women at the time.  She looked after the children, her husband worked but was often rough and abusive.  He had alcohol problems. However he loved her and in spite of their fights he supported her when he believed that she had talent as a singer.  She wrote a song and went around radio stations trying to get it played.   Her work was based on her own life.  It was the 1960s and life was better for Americans and new ideas were in the air such as feminism.  But Loretta knew that there were plenty of working class women out there who were tied to the home because they had several children, who were not feeling sentimental about motherhood,  and who put up with their husbands rather than felt  romantic about them.  The husbands worked hard but were able to get away to bars or find an escape with other women and wives found ways of living with this sort of pressure. 

Many of Loretta's songs were about dealing with abusive or drunken or unfaithful husbands and her work spoke to women... 

She built up an impressive career with on and off support from her husband. Her hits included You aint woman enough to take my man, and Fist City.. and most shockingly of all, she sang about the Pill, which gave young women liberation from too many pregnancies.  It was a controversial song, but Loretta pushed it. Another song was "One's on the way", about a young married woman with a bunch of children and another one on the way.....

She lost her husband some years ago, since his alcohol problems caused ill health.  Her own health declined in recent years but she went on working as much as she could. 

Loretta Lynn

 just seen that Loretta has died, at the age of 90.  She was a talented song writer and performer.. her most famous song being Coal Miners Daughter.  

RIP

Civil Contract note

 Civil Contract is my favourite Heyer novel, being the nearest to a serious work that she wrote.  Her heroine is something of a novelty, being plain, rather shy and not charming and of a fairy like beauty.  She is also of humble origin, being the daughter of a man born in poverty, and a mother who was a farmer's daughter...  and for many in the upper-class world she will always be seen as a Cit's daughter. Heyer creates a heroine who is realistic in her lack of charm and beauty.  Jenny learns to fit in with Society but she is shy and gruff at times and dresses badly, till she realises that simple clothes and less jewelry suit her better.  She understands her husband and love him, and manages to conceal her feelings from him for a time.. knowing that for her to admit to love for him will only embarrass them both. 

Adam grows to love her but he does not fall romantically in love at any stage and while he realises that Julia is not the right woman for him, he probably will always admire her for her better qualities.  The book is warmly realistic in its depiction of a marriage which is probably more like many marriages at the time than romantic ones. The couple are awkward with each other, and dont understand things about the other's class, at first.  Adam is angered and embarrassed by Mr Chawleigh lavishing him with expensive gifts and suggesting modernising Fontley and making it more luxurious. 

Jenny, while not wanting to make Fontley luxurious, does want to make the house more comfortable and keep it in good order and can't understand why Adam is slow to accept this, or to realise that she is an excellent and active housewife who can assist him in his plans for the estate. She is bewildered when Charlotte says that the family all love the house even for its very shabbiness - she thinks if you love something you want to improve it and make it as good as possible.  

Adam is a charming figure but at times naive and slow to develop.  He undertakes a difficult marriage to save his estate and to keep it in his family and to provide dowries for his 2 sisters whose fortunes were lost.  He tries to shake off his love for Julia, but she finds it hard to keep a distance from him, and their social meetings are painful for both. He tells Julia that although its true that upper class couples often practice infidelity or romantic friendships outside their marriages, he does not believe that he can do so, however innocently.  He does not love Jenny but he will not expose her to the gossip of the Ton, by being seen with another woman.  He says that Jenny has few friends and no family apart from her father and she is too shy to make her own way in Society, and he will not allow himself to neglect her, even if he does not love her. 

The book is also realistic in the way the relationship between Adam and his father-in-law is portrayed.  He admires the man's shrewdness while often deprecating his vulgarity and domineering ways.  He grows to like him and Mr Chawleigh likes him while wishing that Adam would lead a more grandiose life and give up his interest in farming.  The 2 men are often at odds and have ambivalent feelings about each other, but they have a mutual respect.  Adam has hopes at the end that he and Mr Chawleigh can work together, him using his father in law's business skill and interest in engineering and him contributing to the partnership his knowledge of country life. 
I've loved this book for so many years, my partner read it but found it too unromantic, but it's the very realism that pleases me.  

Civil Contract Part X

 Adam soon realises that unlike his father he has no taste for gambling.  At first he was happy to buy the stock, believing firmly that Wellington was going to win, and that it was a gamble worth taking.  Before long he begins to feel uneasy.  Wellington is a fine general, but he cannot be completely sure that he will win.  He has to kick his heels in the clubs, keeping his distance from Mr Chawleigh, and finds that so many upper class people are wholly concerned with their own pleasures or are pretty much convinced that Napoleon can't be beaten.. and that Wellington's victories have never been against Napoleon himself. 

He finds it hard to keep calm, and to regain his feeling that he will win through.  He wonders if it was foolish to fly in the face of Mr Chawleigh's well-meant advice.  The man is a clever businessman and maybe he was right and now he will lose most of his private fortune.  He spends 2 days in this miserable frame of mind, and finally late in the evening, a chaise comes into town with news.. and Adam can see that it is flying Eagles.  Napoleon has been defeated and Wellington has won.

Exhausted and shaken, he can hardly take in the good news, but he goes to bed and sleeps intending to go home the next day. He realises when he wakes up that he will be missing Lydia's party but it cant be helped.  He pays a visit to Mr Chawleigh who is very upset because he gave Adam bad advice.  Adam tells him that he chose not to follow the advice and that he has increased his fortune substantially.  Mr. Chawleigh is somewhat relieved that he hasn't advised his son in law badly after all.  Then Adam tells him that he originally wanted to pay him back for all the money he had spent but now he thinks that it would be better to use his new fortune to improve Fontley and increase his prosperity that way, and to improve life for his tenants and labourers.  Mr Chawleigh is pleased that Adam is not flinging his money back in his face because he has grown fonder of his son in law as the year of Jenny's marriage progressed. 

Adam thinks that it might be an idea to build a canal at Fontley to drain the land and to improve transport and wonders if his father in law who is interested in engineering would come in with him on it.  He has to leave to go home, with the newspapers which have all the news on the Battle of Waterloo... and arrives very late that evening.  The following day, he finds that his absence was accepted because of the battle, but that Lydia's party had its problems... Charlotte's baby arrived a bit early, and she and her mother and husband were unable to attend. 

Adam tells Jenny his good news and she's delighted that he backed his instinct and has now improved their position and they will be able to reform the estate... and that Adam has regained some independence. He tells her and Lord Brough however that he will never do such a thing again, that he simply hasn't got the nerve for speculation, and that he went through such horrors when he had made his decision and was waiting for the outcome.

Julia comes downstairs, upset that the battle news has taken attention away from her.  She is weepy and emotional, and Adam finds himself for the first time getting very irritated with her.. realising that she must always be the centre of attention and that she is in today's language a drama queen.  He can see too that she was upset because the party had been Lydia's betrothal event and that she herself was not thought about, but rather Lydia.  Adam can see she is upset and tries to soothe her but feels silently rather sorry for Rockhill. She isn't even interested in his good news about making some money and realises fully that the 2 of them had nothing in common and it was good luck that they never married. 

Jenny comes in, then with news that Charlotte has a baby son, and is doing well.  She and Adam bid farewell to their various guests.  Lydia wants to go away with Lady Adversane who has a son in the Army, and her son and husband are going to London, to see if there is any news.. so she goes off and Adam and Jenny have the house to themselves.  But Jenny is worried that if Adam had made this money a year ago, he would have been able to marry Julia... Adam tells her that he would not have done so, that he knows now that Julia is not a suitable wife for him and that the 2 of them would have been unhappy.  He would have found her too emotional and she would have found him boring and not romantic enough.  He tells Jenny that he does love her, that she is a part of his life, and they will always be there to support each other.  Julia was just the object of a boyish dream love. 

Jenny thinks that he will still always have a fondness for Julia, even though he is now irritated by her, but she is glad that she and he have reached a realistic understanding and can make their marriage work.  They have their son Giles, they have their home and work, and life will be unromantic but good.... so she tells him the domestic news that Giles has cut his first tooth......

A Civil Contract Part IX

 Adam arrives in London and finds that the upper classes are still having fun and not paying much attention to the war.  He goes as instructed to Mr. Chawleigh who advises him to sell his shares in Government stocks because he has information that fighting has started in Belgium and that Wellington has been defeated.  This means that government stocks will go down and Adam's private fortune which is not large, will be decimated.

Adam is angry at being told what to do by his father-in-law, although he has come to like him very well over the past year.  But he is easily angered by the man's ordering him about.  He says that he does not believe that the war is lost, that there may have been a retreat but Wellington has never yet lost a battle.  Mr Chawleigh says, with more sensitivity than Adam has expected, that he knows that his son in law is proud and would hate to lose all his money and be totally dependent on his and Jenny's fortunes. He leaves him and goes off to think about it, but as he returns to his hotel, he decides to do the opposite.  Government stock prices are low at present and a victory in Belgium would raise them.. so he makes up his mind that he will invest in stock and hope for a victory to bring him back to wealth again. 

He believes strongly that this action wont fail.. and that it would be worth taking the risk to get out of the situation where Mr Chawleigh has so much power over him, albeit he is fond of the man. He wants to feel that he is master of Fontley again, and of his own destiny. The following day he visits his man of business, Wimmering in the City and tells him what he wants to do.  Wimmering is concerned.  He can understand how Adam is feeling but it is such a risk that he feels he must advise against it.  He remembers how often Bardoph, Adam's father, risked money in gambling and on the Stock Exchange and frequently lost. He had never imagined that Adam had that trait in him. 

Adam visits the family banker and he is more sympathetic, being willing to lend him money and in the end, Wimmering buys stock for him and Adam then settles down to wait for news to come from Brussels. 

Civil Contract Part VIII

 Jenny is recovering from her confinement when Julia and Lady Oversley pay a visit, to see the baby.  Julia is now a married lady with 2 young step daughters, and introduces them to Adam. They seem very fond of her, and Julia admits to Adam that she "can't live if she's not loved" and that the children's love and Rockhill's adoration are necessary to her.  He feels uneasy at this realization that Julia has feet of clay but is kept busy by his work and keeping an eye on Jenny and the European situation. 

Napoleon's return to France has caused uproar but many English Whigs do not want to fight him, having sympathized with his regime.  Also Britain has been at war for so long...Adam's family like many very rich noblemen, are Whigs but he has forsaken his heritage to support the Tories because of the war issue. He is sure that if Bonaparte is not stopped he will soon engage Europe in more wars of conquest. 

To Adam's irritation, Mr Chawleigh suggests that he should fund his son in law to have an experimental farm.  He is annoyed as he usually is when Chawleigh offers or all but forces expensive and luxurious gifts on him... but he laughs it off to Jenny.

Lydia is now having her first season in London and Adam realises that his little sister has attracted the attention of Lord Brough, his own best friend and they want to get married. Although she is very young, Adam can see the couple are in love and works on his mother to persuade her to agree to the marriage. 

Adam goes to London to take part in a debate on the War issue, and to cast his vote, and amazes Jenny by returning after only a couple of days, whereas before he often stayed away a bit longer when he went on a visit.  He is growing to depend more on her and on their life in Fontley.  

Charlotte is due to have her baby in June and Lady Lynton comes to stay with her to support her through the birth, and she consents to Lydia's marriage.  Lydia writes to Jenny telling her that she wants to have a small betrothal party at Fontley rather than a bigger one, and that she would like to invite Lord Rockhill and his wife, because Rockhill is related to Brough.  Jenny feels uneasy but agrees to this, because she is fond of Lydia. 

Adam agrees to the party but  as a former soldier, he feels a little depressed and annoyed at the idea of having a party, when the country is at war.. and resents the upper classes still partying and going on with the Season at such a time.  Lydia comes to stay, with her fiance and Lord and Lady Adversane, Brough's parents.  Then Adam receives a messenger sent by his father in law which throws him into turmoil.  Mr Chawleigh sends one of his clerks with a note, urgently ordering him to come to London though it is a Sunday, and to meet  him as soon as possible.  He doesn't want to go, but finally agrees and sets off for London. 

Civil Contract Part VII

 Adam is concerned about Jenny but welcomes Mr Chawleigh to Fontley to be there for the birth.  News from Europe is disquieting, since Napoleon escapes from Elba at the end of February not long before the Lynton baby is due. As a former soldier Adam wishes he could be with his regiment and preparing for a possible war, but he knows that he is now a farmer and a husband and can't do that. 

Mr Chawleigh believes that Napoleon will be restored to his throne and be a nuisance to the peace of Europe again, but Adam is confident that he can be stopped. Lady Lynton comes to the house as well, to welcome her grandchild, and Adam has to try and keep his mother and father-in-law at peace with each other.  Lydia is due to come out in Society and because Jenny is going to be confined, Lady Nassington has undertaken to be her chaperone.  Charlotte who lives nearby is also pregnant now but not due until the Summer. 

Jenny's baby takes a long time to be born, and during the labour, Mr Chawleigh, worrying, loses his temper with Adam and tells him that if anything goes wrong, it will be his doing for taking her away from London.  Adam manages to refrain from snarling back, because he knows that as she is his only child, he is really worried and afraid of losing her.  But he keeps his temper and Mr Chawleigh apologises. Finally, the 2 men reach an understanding, and the baby arrives, a boy.  Adam finds that he is only minimally interested in his son right then; he is more concerned about Jenny.. who has had a long labour but seems to have come through it well.  

He tells Jenny he would like to call the child Giles after his own grandfather who was more of a country squire than his father had ever been and Jonathan after her father.  Mr Chawleigh is delighted.....

A Civil Contract Part VI

 The Lyntons return to London in October, and consult Dr Croft, the doctor whom Mr Chawleigh has found for them. Croft was a real person, and later, he was doctor to Princess Charlotte when she had her one still born child.. and died.  Jenny does not take to him.  He is arrogant and tells her off for putting on weight....  She finds London increasingly depressing.  It is winter and cold, and she feels ill, and she has also been used to a different life now in Fontley.  She realises that before her marriage she had kept house for her father but found it rather dull, yet she had accepted boredom as the unlucky lot of women. In the country, there was more for her to do, and learn about, and she was much busier and stimulated. 
Mr Chawleigh thinks that she cant possibly be bored with London, the theatres, shops, entertainments and her social life with the upper classes.. but she is....

Jenny is shy and finds a life of pleasure seeking is not really to her taste but she tries to make the best of things.  Adam can see that she's ill and unhappy, and he consults Lady Oversley who is friendly with Jenny.  She supports Dr Crofts diet, beleiving that it is a good idea for pregnant women..and a new idea but she tells him that Jenny is probably depressed as she is alone a good deal.  She has no mother or sisters, and does not know her mother's family at all since there was a coolness when the late Mrs Chawleigh, daughter of a prosperous farmer, married Mr Chawleigh who was still trying to make his fortune.  Adam has an idea, and goes to Bath to fetch Lydia, to come and be company for Jenny. Lady Lynton has settled there, near to her widowed sister, Lady Bridestow, so she has a companion, and so can spare her daughter.  

Jenny perks up  with Lydia living with her, and Adam is relieved because he is growing fonder of his wife, but they then hear the news that Julia is engaged to Lord Rockhill. 

 Jenny visits Lady Oversley, who is pleased to have her daughter engaged and to such a rich man but worried that he is too old for her, and that she is not completely recovered from her love for Adam. 

Jenny can see that Adam is still carrying a torch for Julia, but they cannot talk of this matter.  Shortly afterwards, she faints one morning and Lady Nassington, Adam's aunt happens to be visiting.  She is a blunt lady who speaks her mind and tells Adam that Jenny should not be dieting and being bled; she should be living quietly in the country and keeping busy with her house there.  Adam consults another doctor, one of the Prince Regent's men and he advises that while Jenny should be careful, she is in good health and would probably be better not dieting and living at Fontley.  He suggests a local doctor who could attend the confinement, in case Jenny has a difficult time. 

Mr Chawleigh is furious at the idea, but he can see that Jenny is happy at the thought of going out of London, and while he still worries, he sees her off back to Fontley with Adam.  He comes to stay at Christmas, and Jenny is in better health by then and is so clearly happy in her new home that her father makes the best of it.

Julia marries in the New Year and goes on honeymoon to Paris. Jenny awaits the birth of her baby in March. 

Civil Contract Part V

 Adam takes Jenny to Fontley when the Season is over in August, and Lydia returns to Bath where her mother is leading her Dowager life.  

Jenny has been suffering a lot from morning sickness, but is pleased to get to Fontley, and begins to learn about life in the country.  She enjoys pottering round the garden but Adam seems reluctant to fully take her into partnership in his attempts to improve the estate. She feels depressed too when Julia appears with a party of friends to visit, as she feels that it is better for Adam if Julia would keep her distance until both of them have recovered from their feelings for each other.  Lord Rockhill comes with her, and he chats to Jenny hinting that he wants to marry Julia but is not really worried that she cares for Adam.. because he believes that it is all a silly infatuation, and that Julia will recover. Jenny agrees, in her matter-of-fact way that it is true that the over sensitive and impractical Julia really knows little about Adam and that she and he would never make a successful couple.. and that she would recover if she didnt see him for a while.  

Soon after the visit, Mr Chawleigh comes for a holiday, and he realises that Jenny is not that well.  She tells him of her pregnancy, and he is worried and angry.  He tells Adam that she should not be in a remote place like Fontley, when she's having a baby and that he worries for her, as he lost his wife through her giving birth to a stillborn son....

Adam can see his father in law's point of view but Jenny is upset and angry.  She likes Fontley, and she feels happier there keeping house and learning about country life. She thinks that her health is better in the country.. but in the end she and Adam agree to go to London and consult a top obstetrician.....

Civil Contract Part IV

 Adam is adjusting to married life, but he still feels love for Julia, and feels guilty that he had to leave her, because while Julia meets him at times at social gatherings, and acts with politeness, it is obvious to him that she still cares for him.  Even if she is over emotional, her love is genuine.  He notes that she has acquired a new suitor, the Marquis of Rockhill, who is many years her senior and a widower. 

Jenny hopes that Julia's romance with Lord Rockhill will come to fruition because she loves Adam and cant bear to see him being unhappy.  She is also still fond of Julia.  She is settling into married life, and has become friends with her 2 sisters in law, Lydia and Charlotte, especially the lively Lydia.  Mr Chawleigh is also fond of Lydia, who is still immature but has a zest for life that pleases him.  When she comes to stay with Jenny he takes her out, because she is not yet out in Society and can't go to parties.  Jenny is pleased that her father seems to be a favorite with Lydia... but she frets a little that Adam while kind and affectionate, still keeps her a little at a distance.  

During Lydia's visit, the couple and their friends go to see the Czar and other notables go in procession to the City for a lunch to celebrate the victory over Napoleon and Adam notices that his wife is looking ill.  He asks what's wrong and she tells him that she is pregnant.  However, she does not want to tell her father for a while because she knows that he will fuss, as her mother died in childbirth.  Adam thinks she is foolish to try and keep it a secret from someone as shrewd as Mr Chawleigh, but he can't persuade her... and she tells him that with the Season almost over, she would like to go to Fontley.  She has realized since her marriage that she likes country life;  her mother was a farmer's daughter, and she feels that she can learn about farming and country housekeeping and be more useful at Fontley than she can be in London.  However, Adam finds it hard to believe that she will like winter life in the country, and Mr Chawleigh sees country estates as status symbols for the upper classes and can't believe anyone would really choose to live outside London.