Nancy Mitford Part II

Fanny marries Alfred Winsham and they move to a small house in Oxford. Linda's marriage goes wrong almost immediately, she finds Tony's middle class ways irritating and he finds her frivolity annoying. She becomes pregnant, and has a daughter Moira, but she does not care for the child. Fanny is soon pregnant, and sees less of Linda, who is living in London and busy with a social life. Meanwhile, Polly's romantic life takes a strange twist. Her mother is a bossy domineering woman who has been having an affair with Boy Dougdale, a writer, who is married to Lord Montdore's sister. Boy is a writer about the upper classes and a snob. He also likes young girls. .

Nancy Mitford novels

Nancy's 2 best known novels are covering the same time period and some of the same characters. The chief character is Linda Radlett, and her cousin, Fanny Logan is the narrator of the book. Fanny is her cousin, mousier and duller than the lively eccentric Radletts. Linda believes in love and longs to be be grown up and to marry. When she comes out, she is not very successful at finding a husband. She has taken a certain interest in the arts, so as to fit in with the arty upper class set but her father is a backwoods peer who lives in the country and doesnt approve of education for girls. Fanny has had a better education, having been brought up by her spinster aunt, and is more modern minded than the Radletts. She falls in love with Alfred Winchman an Oxford don, who is intelliget and kind, and who has very little money. Polly Hampton is the only child of Lord and Lady Montdore, who have served the crown in India.... she is very beautiful, but seems rather dull and shy. Linda meets Tony Kroesig, the son of a wealthy banker, of German origin, and falls in love with him. Her parents dont like the marriage, neither do his and he is sent to America. However, in the end, the young couple are determined and get married.

Nancy Mitford

Nancy was a socialite who started writing in the 1920s and 30s and became famous for her books about her high society family, I hope to blog about Love in a Cold Climate and Pursuit of Love, shortly

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton

Beds and Blue Jeans is a story, novella length about a young bar singer in Nashville in the 2010s.. who has found himself being pursued by a lot of lady fans. He has a girlfriend who has just had his baby, but the relationship with Patty isn't going too well. Sam lets himself be caught by various pretty ladies but can he learn to appreciate Patty and settle down with her and their baby. On Amazon.

RIP Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe died in her home, 62 years ago today. She had taken an overdose of drugs. Her life had been difficult from birth, to a mentally disturbed mother and an absent father. She was reared in foster homes and orphanages and married young to find a home. She worked in a factory when her husband was away at the war, and began to get noticed for her good looks. She became ambitious to get on in films- and had genuine talent as well as beauty. But she became addicted to pills and had unhappy love affairs including one with President Kennedy.

Rough Music story

This is a story set in the 1970s about a country rock band in the US. The 2 lead singers are good friends, and both of them have difficulties in their marriages.. due to long tours and being away from home. They also want to do good music, and not simply try to make money but their manager pushes them to be more commercial. The story is available on Amazon, by Nadine Sutton

Beb Asquith Part II

Beb's marriage to Cynthia was a moderate success. He was quiet and gentle and Cynthia was more socially outgoing. They were not well off, and this led to quarrels as Beb was extravagant, and Cynthia tried to rein him in. They had 2 sons, at first, John who was probably autistic and ended by being institutionalised and Michael. Beb joined the army when War broke out and this inspired some of his poems. War affected him very much, he suffered from shell shock and his brother Raymond was killed and so were his wife's two brothers Hugo and Yvo. Cynthia was a flirtatious woman and had several male admirers all through her marriage. She kept a diary which gives a picture of London at war, and Beb arriving and departing. He told Cynthia that he wanted to give up the law and become a full time writer, which added to their financial problems. He took up writing after the war and one of his poem, the Volunteer, became famous. Cynthia realised that she would have to help support the family, so she took a part time job as secretary to JM Barrie, and began to look for writing projects. She had another son, Simon and Beb concentrated on his writing but was never a great success. Cynthia was more succeessful. Beb died in 1947- in Bath where he and Cynthia were living.

Beb Asquith

Herbert Asquith, called Beb, was the second son of Herbert Henry Asquith the Liberal Prime Minister. He was born in Hampstead in 1881. Asquith had 5 children, 4 sons and 1 daughter, by his first wife. He remarried after her death and had 2 children by the socialite, Margot Tennant. Helen Asquith was the daughter of a doctor and was not interested in social events. Margot was the daughter of a Scottish millionaire, and nouveau riche... who loved society. Violet, Beb's sister had a difficult relationship with her stepmother, and Margot was not easy to live with. Beb was highly intelligent, like his father, sister and brothers, and he studied law. In 1910, he married Cynthia Charteris, the daughter of the Earl of Wemyss... and due to the sharp division between Liberals and Tories at the time their families were uneasy about the match. Beb was not a Tory and he was young and not well off, but the marriage took place. Cynthia was literary minded too, and enjoyed reading and writing. She later became a succesful author.

Violet Part III

World War One affected the LIberals badly. Asquith was not the most effective wartime leader, and he was ousted by Lloyd George. At the end of the war the liberal party split, and Violet was loyal to her father. She never held a seat in Parliament herself but she was involved in politics all her life. She and her husband Maurice Bonham Carter had 2 sons and 2 daughters... VIolet was not unsympathetic to Labour but she remained a faithful liberal. She was anti appeasement.... and she and Winston Churchill were close friends..... She fought for many good causes, and was also interested in the arts; her brother Antony was a film director... and her sister Elizabeth was a novelist. Her grand daughter Helena Bonham Carter is a well known actress. She died in 1969 of heart trouble.

Violet Asquith

Violet was born in 1887, the 4th child of Henry Asquith and his first wife Helen. Her mother died when she was a child, and the 5 children were left motherless. Asquith had been devoted to his wife, but he was also busy with his political career. He fell in love soon after Helen's death with Margot Tennant, a socialite, and the daughter of a millionaire. Margot was flirtatious and attractive and had many suitors but she was reluctant at first to marry Asquith and take on his family. However she married him, and took pleasure in furthering his career. Violet did not get on well with her new stepmother who was jealous of Henry's affection for his daughter. Violet was educated privately by governesses, and then went to a finishing school in Dresden, to improve her languages. She came out in society, and had some offers of marriage. Her best friend was Venetia Stanley, who later would become a love of Asquith's. Violet was living in No 10 Downing St as her father had become Prime minister, and she was a keen supporter of the Liberals, though her friends included many Tories. Violet fell in love with Archie Gordon, son of the Liberal peer, Lord Aberdeen, but he was injured in a car accident. She became engaged to him but he died - and Violet was very depressed. However a little later, she married Maurice Bonham Carter, her fathers private secretary, and a Liberal.

Lady Violet Asquith

Violet Asquith (married name Bonham Carter) was the only daughter of Henry Asquith, Prime Minister, by his first wife Helen Melland. She was an activist in the Liberal Party, for most of her life though she never held a seat in Parliament. Im reading a book of her diary for the later years of her life and hope to blog about her soon. Asquith was a highly intelligent man, and a successful Prime Minister till the war broke out. He was unsuited to being a wartime Prime minister and ended up being replaced by Lloyd George. Violet took a keen interest in politics and was devoted to her father...

Jack Whyte

Jack Whyte was born in 1940 in Scotland. As a young man he emigrated to Canada where he worked as a teacher and an actor. He turned to writing and wrote a series of Arthurian novels. His novels are not about the magical aspects of the legend but based on Dark Ages history and are more about battles and politics of the time. He was very successful with his writing and he died in Canada in 2021.

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton. Available on Amazon

Beds and Blue Jeans is a story, of novella length about a young bar singer in Nashville in the 2010s.. who has found himself being pursued by a lot of lady fans. He has a girlfriend who has just had his baby, but the relationship with Patty isn't going too well. Sam lets himself be caught by various ladies but can he learn to appreciate Patty and settle down with her and their baby. It is available on Amazon.

Penelope Mortimer

She was a novelist and journalist, who wrote several autobiographical works, and a controversial biography of the queen Mother. She suffered from depression and mental health problems at times. She was married twice, and her second husband was John Mortimer, barrister and writer who created Rumpole of the Bailey. She had several children, but John was a very unfaithful husband and their marriage ended in divorce. In later life, she went to the USA to teach creative writing and took up gardening. One of her novels is Daddy's gone A Hunting... which is about a married, middle class woman, Ruth whose husband is selfish and unkind and unfaithful. Ruth has a breakdown, but she manages to help her 18 year old daughter, Angela, to end a pregnancy by her dull and selfish boyfriend... this was before abortion was legalised...... She thinks of leaving her husband but stays.... It is a rather bleak book.....with a very jaundiced view of men....

Harriet Martineau

Harriet was a Unitarian, a social activist.. and writer. She was born to a family of Unitarians who were well to do and used their position to do good. She supported herself as a writer, and bought a property in the North where she was visited by Charlotte Bronte who was a friend for a time, Charlotte noted that the local gentry did not like her because of her radical views, but the poor admired her. However, she was an atheist as well which shocked the religous Charlotte. She visited America, where she was critical of slavery. She and Charlotte had a dispute over her disliking Charlotte's novel Villette.

Rough Music, story on Amazon

This is a story set in the 1970s about a country rock band in the US. The 2 lead singers are good friends, and both of them have difficulties in their marriages.. due to long tours and being away from home. They also want to do good music, and not simply try to make money but their manager pushes them to be more commercial. The story is available on Amazon, by Nadine Sutton

Beds and Blue Jeans, a story by Nadine Sutton

Beds and Blue Jeans is a story, novella length about a young bar singer in Nashville in the 2010s.. who has found himself being pursued by a lot of lady fans. He has a girlfriend who has just had his baby, but the relationship with Patty isn't going too well. Sam lets himself be caught by various ladies but can he learn to appreciate Patty and settle down with her and their baby. It is available on Amazon.

Margot De Valois

Margot's life was overshadowed by the wars of religion in France. Her marriage to Henri de Bourbon was not happy; the couple were not compatible and Henri was repeatedly unfaithful. She lived apart from him for much of their married life, and occupied herself with holding court among intellectuals. She was also involved in gathering information and intriguing, in politics. She took lovers - but its not clear how many there were. She seems to have been infertile, and did not produce any children by her husband or any lover. Eventually, Henri became king after the deaths of Catherine's sons, Charles and Henry III. He became a Catholic. He sought an annulment of the marriage so that he could marry a fertile wife. Margot cooperated and they were set free of their difficult marriage. Margot got on well with Marie de Medici, his new queen. She often came to court and was friendly with Henri... and grew to love his children by his second marriage. She became more devout and helped the poor and died at the age of 61. She was famous for writing her autobiography......

Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615)

Im reading a biography of Marguerite, who was the daughter of Catherine de Medici and the wife of Henry IV of France. She was famous for her learning and her love affairs. I hope to blog about this later. She was known as Margot and was the youngest daughter of Catherine de Meidici and Henri II of France. She was a devout Catholic and quarrelled with her brother Henri III who tried to interest her in the new Huguenot Protestant faith. Her father was killed in a tournament when she was a child and when his eldest son, Francis II died too at a very young age, Catherine became Regent for her son Charles IX who was very young and who had a violent temper. Catherine married off her daughters Elisabeth to the King of Spain and Claude to a member of the Lorraine family. She then tried to keep the peace between the Huguenots and Catholics by marrying Margot to Henri de Bourbon, whose family were the next heirs after the De Valois family. He was the leader of the Huguenots and was reluctant to marry Margot, but did it for the sake of peace. Margot did not like him, and she was strongly Catholic and she was all but forced to the altar. Margot's marriage was the occasion of the massacre of Huguenots by the Catholic faction. Margot, in spite of her own religious faith and her dislike of Henri, managed to save him and other Protestant gentlemen when the massacre happened.

D Day

Today is the 80th anniversary of D Day, the massive invasion of Occupied Europe.... Eisenhower expected higher casualties, but they were still tragically high.

Grantchester novels by James Runcie

These are some light detective novels, set in the 1950s, about a detective clergyman, Sidney Chambers who is an Anglican priest who works in Grantchester, near Cambridge. He gets involved in detection and the novels are unusual in that the cases are quite short, and there are several in one book. James Runcie is the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and knows about clerical and academic life. Sidney solves murders and arson, and all sorts of crimes.

Rough Music, by Nadine Sutton

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=rough+music+nadine+sutton&qid=1627468036&sr=8-1 Rough Music is a novella about a country rock band, set in the late 1970s. It is more about their lifestyle than a romance, and does not have a traditional happy ending.

Beatrix Potter II

Beatrix gradually recovered from Norman's death and bought a farm in the north as a holiday home... she was interested in breeding sheep and in preserving the countryside. She grew fond of William Heelis, the local solicitor who gave legal advice to her about the farm. Her parents were not too happy about this love affair either as he was just a country solicitor. But Beatrix was independent financially and in 1913, she married William. Her father died and she persuaded her mother to come up to the Lake District. She became a founding member of the National Trust which existed to preserve buildings and areas of natural beauty. Beatrix was keen to improve the breed of sheep on her farm and she devoted herself to this and wrote rather less. She was admired as a successful farmer and a talented scientist, as well as for her writing. Her marriage was childless but they were a devoted and happy couple. Beatrix died in 1943, and William died a few years later.

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) I

Beatrix Potter was an author of children's books, who created numerous characters who are loved by children. She also illustrated her works, and designed merchandise for sale. She was born to a Unitarian couple who came from Manchester. The Unitarians were more radical in their beliefs than most Christian denominations and it was the religion of Elizabeth Gaskell. Mrs Gaskell's husband William was a family friend to the Potters. She was born in London, and her family was wealthy. Her father had had a good education and had become a lawyer. He also invested in the stock market which made him very rich. However Beatrix's mother was demanding and rather difficult... and she isolated her children because she feared them catching germs. Beatrix was educated by governesses, and early she acquired an interest in the natural science. She kept many animals as pets and observed their characteristic and habits. On summer holidays in Scotland she carefully learned about plants and the natural world. Being a girl, she had no chance to go to university, but writing and drawing were considered suitable female skills. She began to write for children, creating Peter Rabbit and other animal characters. her books were very successful and she began to make money, and she developed a friendship wtih Norman Warne, the son of her publisher. He worked with her on some of her books and they fell in love. Beatrix found that her parents were hostile to him as a suitor, because they regarded him as being in trade. After a while they agreed to a private engagement, but Beatrix feared that she would never get away from being obliged to help and look after her parents. THen suddenly Norman died of pernicious anaemia at the age of 37. Beatrix was devastated, but she did keep on with her work.

Beds and Blue Jeans, by Nadine Sutton. On Amazon

Beds and Blue Jeans is a story, novella length about a young bar singer in Nashville in the 2010s.. who has found himself being pursued by a lot of lady fans. He has a girlfriend who has just had his baby, but the relationship with Patty isn't going too well. Sam lets himself be caught by various ladies but can he learn to appreciate Patty and settle down with her and their baby.

Willow Cabin

This novel was published in the 1950s and is like some of Frankau's novels, autobiographical. Pamela had had an affair with a poet, her heroine Caroline has an affair with a married doctor. The novel opens with Caroline taking part in a play and being much admired by audience and critics. She is beautiful and talented. She meets Michael Knowle who is a surgeon, and who has a half American wife who does not usually live with him. Mercedes spends time abroad, in the US or France, and is a successful set designer. Michael is fond of Caroline, but she falls deeply in love with him and while she accepts the limitations of their affair, she really wants to be with him. She goes on holidays with him and they enjoy each other's company, but they are both aware that there will probably be a war before long. Caroline is illegitimate.. her father deserted her, and her mother married another man who is kind enough but Caroline does not really get on with him or her mother. She leaves home to be able to enjoy her life more, and to pursue the affair with Michael. War breaks out and Michael joins the army medical corps. Caroline has let her theatrical career lapse, because she was more interested in her love life.. but she now joins the women's services and devotes herself to her war work. She sees Michael when she can, and learns that Mercedes has been working with the Resistance in France. A couple of years into the war, Michael is discovered dead in his hotel in London. He took a lot of sleeping pills but there seems to be no note or evidence that it was suicide. He was a bad sleeper and probably took the pills to get some sleep. Caroline is devastated, but goes on with her war work. She learns that Mercedes has managed to escape from France and gone to Spain but she is very ill thanks to her ill treatment by the Germans. a few years after the war, Caroline has returned to acting. Some of her friends have told her that they think Michael could have gotten a divorce if he really wanted to but she still loves him. Then while touring in America, Caroline meets Mercedes who has moved there. SHe had a lot of money but has used it to buy a farm and help out immigrants. Mercedes produces evidence that Michael might have killed himself and Caroline feels more at peace and goes on with her life.....

Pamela Frankau

Pamela Frankau was a British novelist who came from an artistic and literary family. Her father, Gilbert Frankau was a novelist also, but he left his wife and daughters at an early age and Pamela did not have a close relationship with him. She was educated at a boarding school and when she left school, she started writing, and had a lot of success. She became the mistress of Humbert Wolfe, a poet who was married. They had an intense affair, in spite of his marriage and when he died in 1940 Pamela gave up writing for several years. She served in the women's services during the War, and during that time began a lesbian affair with a fellow officer. This lasted for a time and her lover influenced her towards becoming a Catholic. At the end of the War, she married an American naval officer and went to America with him; they had a son, who died at birth, and after a few years the marriage ended in divorce. Pamela returned to the UK, and went on writing. In 1953, she met the American British theatre Director, Margaret Webster and the 2 became a couple. They divirced their time between Hampstead and Martha's Vineyard where Webster had a home. They were happy and fulfilled and Pamela went on writing, one novel in particular, the Willow Cabin, was based on her affair with Wolfe. In the 1960s however she got breast cancer and died in 1967. A few of her books are still in print.

Northanger Abbey II

Catherine innocently beleives that Isabella really loves James. She then receives an invitation to Northanger abbey to stay with the Tilneys. It is a scary looking castle and when Catherine learns that General Tilney's wife has died, she begins to believe that he murdered her or is keeping her prisoner. She sneaks around fearfully looking for evidence, and then Henry finds out what she is thinking. He scolds her kindly, telling her that General Tilney is not a very nice man and was not the best of husbands but he certainly did not harm his wife, and that the General did genuinely grieve for her when she died. THen the General discovers that Catherine whom he thought an heiress is not rich, and he abruptly orders a chaise for her to go home. Catherine is very upset, but her parents welcome her home and she has now matured, thanks to Henry's talking to her about her silly fantasies. She then learns that Isabella has thrown over James, whom she was semi engaged to, because she has been having a flirtation with Frederick Tilney, Henry's older brother, who is much richer. So she realises that she made a mistake in being such good friends with Isabella, who is a scheming minx, and that Eleanor was a much nicer girl and a better friend. She is growing up. Henry calls on the Morlands and asks for Catherine's hand, when he find out how the General treated her. He realises he is in love with her, and she loves him. THe Morlands are pleased, though Henry as a younger son is not as rich as his brother will be. But he is a good young man with a jolly nature, and they agree to an engagment. However they stipulate that he must secure his father's consent as they dont want Catherine marrying into a family where she is not welcomed. Henry agrees and works on his father to get him to at least tolerate the idea of the marriage. He writes often to Catherine, and the Morlands turn a blind eye.... In about a year, the General gives way and the couple are married. Eleanor finds a husband as well which pleases the old tyrant. Henry and Catherine are set to live happy ever after.

Northanger Abbey

This is the Austen novel that I've read the least, as it is a parody of Gothic novels which were popular during Austen's lifetime. They were about wild and dangerous goings on, and usually set abroad. However, Catherine Morland, the heroine is a rather shy girl of 18, who lives with her mother and her clergyman father, and several siblings. Mr Morland is not rich nor is he poor. Catherine gets an invitation to go to Bath for a holiday with Mrs Allen a middle aged neighbour. She is very excited but Bath proves rather dull and there is no sign of having adventures. She meets a young clergyman called Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor. Henry is lively and witty and Catherine who is shy and naive, finds it hard to understand when he is joking. But she likes him and Eleanor. However she also meets a young lady called Isabella Thorpe who is an experienced flirt, not very well off but who shares her passion for adventurous sensation novels. THey become close friends and Catherine is very fond of her, but through Isabella, she meets her loutish brother John, who tries to pay court to Catherine in a clumsy unattractive way. James, Catherine's brother comes to Bath for a visit, and he becomes infatuated with Isabella, who thinking the Morlands are much richer than they are, encourages him.

Rough Music

This is one of my stories on Amazon, a long story about a country rock band in America in the 1970s. The band's 2 lead singers are good friends, and they love their work. But both of them have problems with their wives, with their manager and with touring. Jeff, the lead singer, has an unhappy marriage, and then he finds out that a one night stand is going to impinge on his life. Story is on Amazon... by Nadine Sutton

Beds and Blue Jeans, available on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=POWWOAX6F91J&keywords=beds+and+blue+jeans&qid=1648319614&s=books&sprefix=beds+and+blue+jeans%2Cstripbooks%2C59&sr=1-1# Beds and Blue Jeans is a story, novella length about a young bar singer in Nashville in the 2010s.. who has found himself being pursued by a lot of lady fans. He has a girlfriend who has just had his baby, but the relationship with Patty isn't going too well. Sam lets himself be caught by various ladies but can he learn to appreciate Patty and settle down with her and their baby.

Saints Names 2

As a cradle Catholic, I have lived with people who had saints names from babyhood. One which is very popular in Ireland is Patrick. The name means nobly born and is the name of the saint who evangelised Ireland. He came from Britain as a slave, and then escaped and later became a priest. but he returned to Ireland to bring the faith to the Irish people. His name has laways been well loved, and there is a feminine form, Patricia. The name can be abbreivated as Paddy, or Pat.

Wheel of Fortune VIII

Hal is sure that Kester would have found some way of protecting his works from Harry trying to destroy them. He searches the library at Oxmoon, and then hits on a notion. Harry never read fiction, but in the library there are lots of novels. He finds the novels in covers of the Forsyte saga. He discovers that Kester had the books self published, to make them more durable, and he reads the trilogy. He thinks they are very readable and goes to the US to try and market them. He does succeed in making money to do the renovations and the house is opened to the public.....Hal has fallen in love with Caitlin Gwyneth's sister and has become engaged to her. She is not ambitious particularly but she has done a business course to help her become useful in running Oxmoon and its land. Hal brings his father to the house, and it looks beautiful and he feels as if he can now be forgiven for his killing of Kester, and he finds that his ability to play music by ear has returned......

Wheel of Fortune VII

Hal talks to Pam, his pscyhatrist stepmother about the situation with Kester and Harry..... and She says that it was a case of sibling rivalry. Kester looked to his Uncle John as a father figure, but he felt he was never able to live up to John's strength and toughness and that Harry was a similar tough strong young man. The two boys competed for John's approval. Kester envied Harry having 4 sons in a few years of marriage.... but Harry was dissatisfied with his silly but kindly wife... and found his sons a burden. Harry also worried about John.. that he was dissatisfied with him for marrying a girl with no brains or personality, and for winding up living on a small estate in Penhale when he could have done better for himself financially. When Bella died, Harry slept around, while Kester remained faithful to Anna. BUt Pam says that probably Kester felt inadequate sexually, when compared to his womanising cousin. She points out to Hal that Harry did his best for his sons, though he was not finding it easy...and that it was easier for Kester to be a fun uncle..... Hal decides that he has to try and work out some way of saving Oxmoon and that will make up for the problems that were caused by Harry and Kester's feud. Oxmoon is an ordinary manor house, but Kester's collection of objets d'art had made it special for a few years. Harry had approached the National Trust to see if they would take over the house and make it a showplace again... and it could become self supporting. However the Trust had said that the house would need renovation and they would only take control of it, if Harry could supply money for the restoration. Hal decides that he is somehow going to raise the money, and that will be an act of atonement on his father's behalf. However his idea is, to market Kester's collection of novels, and make money out that. Pam tells him that unfortunately, the novels dont exist any more. They had never been published, but Kester kept on trying - and when Kester died, Harry was worried that there might be something in the novels that would give a clue as to Kester's frame of mind before he died.. and it might implicate Harry in his death. So he burned the novels. Hal is devastated.

Saints names

In the early years of Christendom, saints names were popular - but they went out of fashion in Protestant countries as they wanted to pick names which were mentioned in the Bible. So names like Sarah, Ruth, Rachel, Jacob, Joseph etc became common. However in Catholic countries the naming of children after saints went on. In Ireland, children were given saints names, well into the 20th century. Bernadette was a very popular one. It is the feminine version of Bernard... who was also a saint and the name means brave as a bear. Bernadette Soubirous was a French country girl who lived in the 19th century. She was a simple girl but she saw a vision of a lady at Lourdes whom she believed to be the Virgin Mary. The Virgin told her to build a church.. and a church was built there where people with illnesses go to bathe and hope for a cure. Bernadette became a nun and died young.. but she was a very popular saint and her name was well used. Abbreviations include Detta, Nadette and Bernie. St Valentine or Valentinus was a martyr during the Roman Empire. He was killed on 13 February.. and on 14 February the Romans celebrated love and marriage... so Valentine's feast day moved to 14 February and he became known as the patron saint of lovers. The name is usually a masculine on, and can be abbreviated to Val.. as with the Irish singer Val Doonican who died a few years ago. Valentine or Valentina can be given to girls.

Wheel of Fortune VI

Harry is a miserable man, by now... living as a recluse in a cottage near Oxmoon... with his second wife and step brother Daffyd Morgan as his only friends. He has developed a skin condition which makes his life a misery and suffers from depression and has tried suicide. However he married a pscyhiatrist, Pamela Mallinson who loves him and looks after him. Harry has generally refused help from his family and he also refuses to sell Kester's art and beautiful things, and the house is tumbling into ruin. He tries to discourage Hal from finding out what happened in the past. He and Kester both went out that night across a bridge of land which is daily covered by water....and only one of them came back. Hal talks to his various relatives in the area - including Bronwen's children who are now all grown up... and his cousins the Llewellyns who have a farm nearby. During his conversations with the Llewellyn girls, he has a brief romance with Gwyneth, who is a teacher. She tells him that she loved Kester but that he once kissed her and frightened her. Hal turns to a friendship with Caitlin her younger sister who is only 17. Eventually, Hal finds out what happened. Kester did write a note to Harry to lure him into meeting him on the Shipway. Harry however did not trust him and realises that Kester is going to kill him...so he strikes first and knocks Kester out. He throws him into the water and concocts a story which gets him off the hook though some people think he might have killed Kester. Hal is horrified by all this, as he loved both Kester and Harry. He had turned to Kester because Harry was a rather harsh father. But he's shocked to find that Kester killed Thomas, his uncle and that he also tried to kill Harry. And he is horrified to hear that his father DID indeed kill Kester. That's why he refuses to sell Kester's paintings and valuables, because if he does so, he fears that he will never recover from his illnesses... and he will never be able to play music again.

Rough Music by Nadine Sutton.. see Amazon

This is a long novella, about a country rock band - by Nadine SUtton. Its set in the late 1970s and is about a band who are on the way up. The 2 lead singers Jeff Randles and Brandon, are both unfaithful husbands, and they try to make compromises between doing good work and making money..They used to be a bar band but are now enjoying some success on TV and at the Opry but they are always trying to make real music and help people. But the price of success and fame is a lot of touring and it means that they seek solace in sleeping around and taking drugs

Wheel of Fortune Part V

Kester does return to Gower, as Harry feared, and moves into a cottage near the coast. He tells Harry that he wants Oxmoon back, that he was forced to give it up and he will go to the family and tell them how he was compelled. Harry has now sold his estate, Penhale Manor, and has sunk the capital into Oxmoon. He did not inherit the lands in England which were brought into the family by his mother, Blanche and apart from Oxmoon he is comparatively poor. Kester has inherited some of his grandfather's private fortune, which leaves him comfortably off but to him the estate of Oxmoon is a vital part of his identity. Harry has been getting on badly with his eldest son Hal, now around 12, because the boy loves Kester and sees him as more of a father figure than Harry could be. Soon after Kester's return however he is dead.. and it takes some years before the mystery is solved. The final part of the novel is set in the 1960s, some years after Kester's death. It is narrated by Harry's son Hal, who has dropped out to become a singer... He returns to Gower where his father now lives as a recluse, and says he wants to find out what happened to Kester.

Available on Amazon Novella by Nadine Sutton

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=POWWOAX6F91J&keywords=beds+and+blue+jeans&qid=1648319614&s=books&sprefix=beds+and+blue+jeans%2Cstripbooks%2C59&sr=1-1# Beds and Blue Jeans is a story, novella length about a young singer in Nashville in the 2010s.. who has found himself being pursued by a lot of lady fans. He has a girlfriend who has just had his baby, but the relationship with Patty isn't going too well. Sam lets himself be caught by various ladies but comes to appreciate Patty and settle down with her and their baby.

Wheel of Fortune Part IV

After the war, the tensions between the 2 cousins carry on, and then both of their wives die around the same time. Anna is killed in a car crash, and Bella gets pregnant and has a termination because she was injured in the same crash, and she dies too. Harry tries to cope with his 4 sons, and Kester is alone. He has a nervous breakdown, and a little later, he kills Thomas, his uncle, who had been rude to Anna because of her Jewishness. Panicking, he calls Harry for help. Harry realises that Kester is going to try and blame Tom's deaht on him, and he tells Kester that he will help him cover up the killing, as long as Kester does what he wants. He blackmails Kester into ceding Oxmoon to him, and saying he will go and live in Dublin with his Irish relatives. John dies, and Harry fears that some day, Kester will return to Gower to confront him.

Wheel of Fortune III

The rest of the book is about the rivalry between Kester and his cousin Harry Johns son. Harry is conventional and very unlike Kester who wants to be a writer. He marries young, to a girl from a gentry family who is not very intelligent, and starts to run his father's small Estate, Penhale Manor. Kester marries a Jewish girl Anna also at an early age. He is much richer than Harry. Kester decides after his marriage to take over running Oxmoon, but within a short time he makes a mess of it. He does the house up, but has no experience at managing the land, and he is obsssessed with his writing John loses Bronwen, who goes away to Canada because she worries about her children by John, who are suffering from being illegitmate. John later returns to his wife Constance. . Ginevra dies of a stroke and also Kester is close to Anna, he has noone to guide him. John and Harry have to intervene when Kester's folly almost causes bankruptcy and he has to submit to his cousin and uncle managing his estate and being cool to him. War Breaks out and Harry joins the army, but Kester is a pacifist. He does however work on the estate to provide food, and John begins to think better of him. Harry ends up in the SAS.. which he finds challenging and frightening but he has a reputation for being brave and a good soldier so he hides his fear. At the end of the War, he returns to his wife and their sons, but there are problems in his marriage. Bella, his wife, is far below him intellectually, and she also has an obsession with having a daughter. She and Harry had made love during their teen years, and she became pregnant wiht a daughter. It was all hushed up, and Bella was sent abroad, but her baby died... and she longs for a girl to replace the baby. Harry envies Kester, who is well to do, able to devote time to his writing and who has no noisy children and a charming intelligent wife.

Wheel of Fortune II

Robert's health declines and he ends up in a wheelchair. Ginevra has another son, Kester, and John one of the brothers starts to support his father and sick brother. However he too has problems. His first wife dies and he makes a hasty second marriage to an American Millionaire's daughter. This marriage produces a daughter, but proves to be a mistake. Constance, his wife is a dull chilly woman and he finds her exhausting.. and he realises that the woman he loves is Bronwen, a Welsh working class woman who has been living nearby with her 2 children. He sleeps with Bronwen and gets her pregnant.. and he asks Constance for a divorce, but she flatly refuses. John tries to manage the estate, Oxmoon, and help his aging, increasingly shaky father... who has taken up with his housekeeper as his mistress. But he is unpopular in the area, because of his broken marriage and the fact that he is living more or less openly with Bronwen. Robert's health declines and in the end he dies after several years of suffering leaving one son, Kester who is nervy, sensitive, artistic and very unlike most of the Godwins.

Wheel of Fortune

This is Howatch's fifth saga book, published in the mid 1980s, after her 2 American novels and before she took to writing about the Church of England. It starts in the Edwardian age, just before World War One... It is based on the history of Edward III, his sons the Black Prince and John of Gaunt, and his grandsons, Richard II and Henry IV. Robert Godwin (who represents the Black Prince) is the eldest son of Bobby Godwin, an Anglo Welsh squire; he has always been in love with his cousin Ginevra, who was reared with him, almost as a sister. Robert is a very difficult cold obessive man, and when Ginevra who was 2 years older than him, eloped with a young Irishman, some years previously, he never got over it. He concentrated on his work as a barrister and his ambitions to be an MP, and took a few mistresses but he rather dislikes women. Now in 1913, Ginevra suddenly returns from New York where she has been living, with her 2 young sons, and she has lost her husband Conor Kinsella in a shooting incident. Robert is determined to win her this time.. but he then learns that his father seduced Ginevra when she was only 16.. and it was because of that that she had run off and married anohter man. Ginevra is flighty and beautiful, and has not always been a faithful wife, but she and Robert have an affair and in the end he persuades her to marry him. They live in London, and there is no overt breach with his parents, but Robert hates his father for ruining Ginevra's youth. However before long, the marriage has its difficulties. Declan, her elder son goes to Ireland to live, because he hates his stepfather, and Rory stays with Ginevra. However war breaks out and Lionel, one of Robert's brothers is killed at the Somme. When the war ends, Robert and Ginevra have a small son but he tells her that he wants to give up the bar and politics and become a climber. Ginevra is horrified. She tries to persuade him that this is a crazy idea, but he tells her that he has put up with her wanting a Society lifestyle, for a few years and he has had enough. He thinks they will have to live in Wales, to save money, and she reminds him how difficult it will be for them to live near Bobby.. and he says he does not care if she finds it difficult. Ginevra is afraid that she cannot persuade him- he is so obsessive and selfish, and she herself is worried that she may be pregnant again. Then Robert has some health symptoms.. and finds that he has multiple sclerosis, which may mean that he winds up in a wheelchair. He offers her a divorce, because he feels that she would never be able to cope with an invalid husband... but she surprises him by telling him that she is his friend, even if their marriage has not worked out, and she will go back to Gower with him. .

Cashelmara IV

Ned has formed a circle of young friends, mostly tenants sons from the estate, and he uses them to seize Drummond, meaning to arrest him. However in the struggle Drummond is killed. Sarah admits to Ned that she killed Patrick but he was ill and dying anyway, and she was afraid that he would try and take the children from her. Ned tells her that he seized Drummond to protect her, and that the estate will be happier without his being manager, as he had been creaming off money and being harsh with tenants he did not like. Even his own 2 sons were against him because he had deserted their mother to live with Sarah. Sarah tells her son that she will not go to pieces over Maxwell's death, she loved him but she will recover and he suggests she goes to England to recuperate... He still loves her but his feelings are very complicated. But now he is master of Cashelmara and a husband and father and can get on with his new life. Cashelmara was Howatch's second long novel, covering 3 generations.... and with narrations by Edward De Salis's wife, Patrick's wife and Maxwell Drummond. She was sympahtetic to the Irish point of view, though her characters were mostly Anglo Irish. The novel covers the years from after teh Famine to the Fall of Parnell. However it is a rather depressing story with a lot of tragic deaths and violence and a muted ending. A few years later, she wrote Wheel of Fortune, which covered the mature years of Edward III, and his offspring. It is also a rather sad difficult novel. I hope to review it later

Cashelmara III

Howatch gives a good portrayal of the West of Ireland in the days of Parnell and the Land War. She writes of the terrible poverty of most of the farming folk -... and how the Famine drove millions out of Ireland to England or America. But Patrick is not well off. When his tenants start a rent strike, he loses most of his income. But he is far richer than the tenants. Sarah becomes somewhat embittered, as her upper class neighbours shun her because of her affair with Drummond. Patrick returns to Ireland, and asks to see his children. She becomes frightened that he might secure custody of them or have them taken from her, because of her affair. She goes to see Patrick but soon afterwards he dies. Ned has married Kelly Gallagher, an Irish American girl whose father paid Drummond a lot of money in the US, to get her an upper class husband. Kerry is in love with him but they are both very young to get married being only in their teens. Ned however did not want to wait any longer to marry her, nor to take a mistress until he was older. He realises that he is going to have to grow up fast, and to take on Drummond who is causing scandal with his mother and using his position as bailiff to help himself to his, Ned's money. Then, in conversation with his younger sisters, he learns that while he had believed that Drummond poisoned a drunken Patrick, it is much more likely that it was Sarah who gave him the rat poison in a bottle of whiskey. He and Kerry have their first child a son, and Ned decides that he has to make his move against Drummond now, to protect his mother and his son's inheritance.

Cashelmara II

The novel is set during the years of the Land War in Ireland, when the tenant farmers rose against their landlords and began to look for more rights, including the right to buy their farms. Patrick and Maxwell Drummond are on opposite sides, and in the ensuing violence, Drummond kills Hugh Mcgowan. He and Sarah live at Cashelmara, with the children of her marriage - and Sarah sues for divorce. She has to reveal Patrick's cruelty and his homosexuality but she gets free of her marriage. Patrick goes to England, to try and get over his drink problem and lives with his half brothers from his father's second marriage. Ned, Sarah's elder son, loves his mother and sympathises with her but he realises that Drummond will drag her down socially. He is helping himself to some of Ned's income, and he is also a married man and a Catholic who cannot be considered a suitable match for Sarah. As Ned gets older he can see that his mother's affair with Drummond has got to be stopped.

Cashelmara

This was Susan Howatch's second saga novel. It was based on the history of the Plantagenet kings, Edward I, Edward II and Edward III. Howatch lived in Ireland for some years and set her novel in Ireland after the Famine -. Edward De Salis is an older man who is a landlord... He owns land in England but also has an estate in Ireland. He tries to help his Irish tenants, in the aftermath of the Famine. He lost his wife, Eleanor, who had given him several daughters and a son, Patrick. Edward marries again at an elderly age, to a young American cousin, Marguerite. She and he have 3 more children...but Edward's son Patrick, who is his heir, is weak and rather foolish and he wonders if the boy will ever be able to manage his estates and fulfil his social duties. Edward dies, and Patrick (Edward II) inherits.. He marries a neice of Marguerites from America. Sarah is also rather extravagant and foolish, and before long, their marriage begins to go wrong. Patrick is basically homosexual and he finds it hard to be a husband to Sarah...although they do have 4 children. However Patrick ends up losing his English estate and the couple have to live in Cashelmara, where Patrick starts a close relationship with Hugh McGowan, his bailiff's son. Sarah is unhappy and angry that Patrick neglects her and has lost a lot of their fortune, and she turns to one of the tenant farmers, Maxwell Drummond, a young Irishman who is married with a family. She runs away back to America, with Maxwell, and seeks refuge with her brother, a wealthy WASP stockbroker. However he disapproves of her affair with Drummond, and she goes to live with her lover away from New York. M/F

Beds and Blue Jeans, story on Amazon by Nadine Sutton

This is a novella, set in Nashville, in the 2010s. Its about a young bar singer, Sam and his girlfriend Patty, who has become pregnant by him. Sam is a handsome young man, and has a lot of women on the side, but he tries to look after his girlfriend and baby. Over time, Patty begins to grow up a little and so does Sam.....

Ivor Brown's A Charm of Names

This is a short book about name by the writer, Ivor Brown. He was involved in journalism and in the theatre also. He loved words and names and the book is divided into short sections such as Virtue Names, Z names, Date Names etc. Hope to write about this again later.

Rough Music, a story on Amazon, by Nadine Sutton

Rough Music is a long novella, about a country rock band. Its set in the late 1970s and is about an American band who are on the way up. The 2 lead singers Jeff Randles and Brandon, are both unfaithful husbands, and they try to make compromises between doing good work and making money..They used to be a bar band but are now enjoying some success on TV and at the Opry but they are always trying to make real music and they also want to help people. But the price of success and fame is a lot of touring and it means that they seek solace in sleeping around and taking drugs. Jeff Randles then finds that a one night stand has consequences. He and Brandon do their best to cope with married life, and being music stars, and travelling all the time. The novella is available on Amazon

What Katy did Next

Katy is a bit unsure about going to Europe but her father insists and Clover takes over the housekeeping. She and Mrs Ashe and little Amy set off to sail to England, and thence to the continent. She is thrilled to get a chance to see all the places that she has read about in novels, and she and her friends explore London, first. They go on to France, and then to Italy. There they find the US Navy is offshore and Mrs Ashe meets her brother, Ned, who is a naval officer. He is a nice man, and he learns that Katy is the cousin of Mrs Page and Lilly who are also visiting Europe. Lilly regards the trip as a way of shopping and finding a husband. Ned has been flirting a bit with Lilly, but when he meets Katy he begins to lose interest in the other girl. Katy tells him she's having a good time though she does not go dancing like other girls, being too tall... and she dresses plainly. When they go on to Rome, Amy becomes ill, with a fever. She is seriously ill and almost dies, and Katy works hard at nursing her. Ned hurries to support his sister and Lilly is very peeved. When Amy recovers, Mrs Ashe tells Katy she wants to go home. Amy's illness has frightened her and she wants to get her back to America. Katy is disappointed as she knows she probably wont get another trip to Europe, but she can see Mrs Ashes point of view. So they plan to go home, as soon as Amy is fully better. Ned takes Katy out in a gondola, and when they get back home Clover tells her sister that it must be upsetting to have had to give up the trip before they had seen all the sights. Katy blushes and runs away. Clover realises that her sister is engaged.

Katy books III

Katy and Clover enjoy school up to a point but find the cold weather in New England hard to cope with. Then, the headmistress finds a letter to Berry, the son of the president of the nearby college, signed by Katy. She tells the girls that she would expel them but because they are so fara from home, she will excuse the fault. Katy is horrified as she has always been against flirting, and Lilly Page is maliciously amused. However Katy decides to stay on and fight and to live down the accusation. For some time, its hard but after a while Miss Jane, the mistress tells her that she no longer believes that Katy did something so unladylike. Katy has looked after her when she was ill and it makes Miss Jane re evaluate her. Then Bella one of the younger girls confesses to Katy that she wrote the note - and Katy feeling sorry for the girl, forgives her. Rose Redding and Clover tell Katy she should tell the teachers but she decides not to. At the end of the year, the girls go back home... In the next Book, What Katy Did Next, we see Katy as a young lady. She is keeping house but she befriends a lady who lives nearby, who is a widow with a small daughter. Mrs Ashe asks her to come on a trip to Europe with her.

Names from places Part I

There are quite a few names which were originally place names and have come to be used for children. Sometimes parents name their children after the place where they have been born or conceived. To name but a few. THe Beckhams called one of their sons Brooklyn after the New York district. Paris has become popular now, due to the fame of the socialite Paris Hilton, and it is of course the name of the French capital. Roma or Romola is given to girls after the city of Rome. Lincoln is sometimes given to boys in honour of Abraham Lincoln but it is also a place in England. Troy has become a popular name in recent years, and is the name of an ancient city in Greece. Florence Nightingale was so named because she was born in Florence. Another Italian city which is used as a name is Venice. Venetia has become quite a popular name. More follows:

Date names

There are quite a few names (usually female ones) that are related to a particular date. For example there are some names that are often given to babies born around Christmas. Christina is one, and there is also Noel or Noelle for girls, which is the French name for Christmas. Carol is sometimes given because of Christmas carols. Holly, a plant name is sometimes used for Christmas babies becuase of the association of holly iwth the feast. Christmas is sometimes used as a name, there was a famous barrister called Christmas Humphries in the 1950s who was born on Christmas day. Natalie or Natalia is sometimes given to girls, after a saint Natalia, and becuase it refers to a birthday. Other date names refer to the month of birth. April is quite popular, and so is May. May used to be an abbreviation of Mary, (It was the usual name used by Queen Mary) but now its become a name that is used in its own right. The Month of May was named after a roman goddess called Maia. June is a popular name for girls born in June.. one famous one was June Carter Cash wife of the country singer Johnny Cash who was born in June. June was named after the goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter. Other names are those related to Seasons. Spring and Summer are used at times, and Autumn is quite popular in the USA. I've never heard of a Winter. With regard to the Easter season Pascal is sometimes used for boys born around Easter. There is also the name Tiffany which was given to girls born around the feast of the Ephiphany, 6th January. It was originally Theophania but the modern version is Tiffany. Hope to write another name blog soon

Katy Books II

Dr Carr says they will have to get a housekeeper but Katy persuades him to change his mind. She says that they have good servants and she could learn to keep house and manage things, from her bed and it would give her something to think of. Although she is very young, she learns how to manage the house, and becomes a closer friend to her siblings. Four years pass from Katy's accident and she is now 16... when she suddeny finds she can walk. Her spine has healed. She is thrilled and delighted at the improvement in her health. A few months afer her recovery, Mrs Page a cousin of Mrs Carr's pays a visit... and upset Dr Carr by saying that Katy looks so serious and old for her age. He decides that she and Clover should go to school, for a year and tells Katy he's going to send them to a school in New England, which has a bracing climate. Katy is very upset, but she and Clover decide they must make the best of it... they find a new housekeeper, and she and her sister start to buy things for their trip. Lilly Page, Mrs Page's daughter is a pupil at the school and the Carrs are to stay with her on the journey. Katy who is very naive, is shocked when she meets Lilly, who is pretty but very flirty and foolish and rather snobbish. THey learn that there is a college nearby, and Lilly tells them that the older girls like to try and meet the young men there. Katy and Clover settle into the school, where they meet a lively girl called Rosamund Redding who is a senator's daughter and who gets into mischief a lot.

Katy books

Im reading some of the Katy books by Susan Coolidge. They are set in the USA, about a widowed doctor who has 6 children, in a small town in the West. Katy is the eldest, rather harum scarum and thoughtless but warm hearted. She has 3 sisters, Clover, Elsie and the boyish Johnnie (Johanna). There are 2 brothers. Katy and the children are looked after by Aunt Izzie, the doctor's sister who is kind but strict... Katy has a fall one day from a swing, having been told not to play on it. She did not know that it needed mending and was not safe and she has a bad fall that jars her spine, and she is told that she may never walk again and that to have some chance of recovery, she will have to lie in bed and rest. She is utterly miserable, but receives a visit from a cousin, Cousin Helen, who also has a back injury that has left her crippled. Helen persuades her that she may recover if she does what the doctor tells her and tries to make a life for herself. She is only 12, and Helen tells her to keep up with her school work, and not neglect her education. Katy tries to follow Helen's advice.... but then Aunt Izzie dies.

Sylvia's Lovers Part III

Sylvia becomes pregnant and has a daughter, whom she calls Isabella after her mother. But soon after she learns that Philip lied to her about Charlie, letting her think he had left her, when he had been press ganged. She reacts violently and cannot forgive her husband, somewhat like Cathy in Wuthering Heights, and tells him she will never live as his wife again. Philip is overcome by remorse and leaves the town, ending up joining the army. Sylvia is relieved in some ways, but she gradually realises that while Philip was very much in the wrong, she should try and forgive him. Her impassioned emotions become calmer and she tries to accep the limitations of being a town based wife. Philip makes the best of Army life, though he is not naturally cut out for it. He is injured and sent home and manages to get a place in a charity for old soldiers. However in a short time he decides he must go back home and ask forgiveness of his wife. Sylvia by now is moderately prosperous and busy with looking after her daughter Bella. She is startled when one day a young well to do woman comes into the shop and she finds that this lady is the wife of Charlie Kincaid, who has become an officer in the military and married a girl with some money. She thinks that Philip while he had his faults, would not have found consolation and married another woman in the way that Charlie did. Philip having been lucky enough to get a place in an almshouse, throws it up to go to Monkshaven. He rescues Bella, his daugther from a drowning accident and Sylvia goes to see him and forgives him. He dies, impoverished and lonely but he has put things right as best he could. Sylvia rears her daughter but she dies young. Bella goes to America. the story ends sadly, but both Phillip and Sylvia have grown and matured. However, Sylvia has never quite adjusted to the constraints of living in a town as a woman after the busier healthier more active life she had lived on the farm. Gaskell noted this, that as women rose in the world they often found that their activities were more limited, especially during the Victorian era.

Beds and Blue Jeans, story on Amazon

This is a long novella, avaiable on Amazon. It is set in the early 2000s' a few years ago, and its about the music business in Nashville. Sam is a bar singer, who makes a living just about, singing in the bars. He has a girlfriend, Pattie who has moved in with him when she became pregnant, but their relationship is not working out too well. Over time, Pattie grows up a bit, and Sam who has been unfaithful to her and irritated by her, comes to understand her better.

Sylvia's Lovers Part II

Bell Robson, who is a sensible quiet woman, very unlike her violently emotional husband, leans on Sylvia. Daniel is hanged for his part in the riot and Bell is changed by the experience and becomes ill and mentally damaged. Philip wants to marry Sylvia, but she knows she does not love him. However, Charlie Kincaid has disappeared. Philip knows that he's been taken by the Press gang, but he does not tell Sylvia. She decides to marry her cousin to have some security and help looking after her mother. Sylvia's marriage does not go well from the start. He finds her very emotional; she is angry with the people who betrayed her father, and cannot find it in her heart to forgive them whereas Philip is shocked at this unchristian attitude. She also finds living in a town frustrating. She is used to a more outdoors life, where she was kept busy with dairy work, spinning, and housework and now she has little to do and has to dress up formally to go outside. Hester, a relative of Philip's is in love with him but she is kind to Sylvia and Bell... she works in the shop as well. Sylvia tries to adjust to married life but she and Philip find it hard to have any common ground.

Sylvia's Lovers Part I

Sylvia's Lovers is Elizabeth Gaskell's fifth novel and she said it was a very sad story. It is unusual in that it is about working people rather than the gentry or middle class like most novels up to that time. It also has some characters who are very passionate and emotional, something akin to the characters in Wuthering Heights. Sylvia Robson, the heroine is the daughter of a farmer, who is semi literate and hot tempered. She herself has had almost no education, but is happy with the work of the home and farm. Her mother Bell tries to persuade her to learn a little more, but she is not interested in books. She is unusual for a Victorian heroine in her class position and lack of the ladylike refinements. The book is set in the Napoleonic Wars and Sylvia falls in love with a young man who works on a whaling ship. Her father had a similar job before he gave up the sea and became a farmer. Sylvia has a cousin, Philip, who works in a cloth selling business in the town, (based on Whitby). He is a prim and proper young man, he works for a Quaker family, and is more like Edgar Linton. Sylvia finds him rather dull and is irritated when her mother persuades her to learn reading and writing properly, being taught by Philip. Sylvia meets Charlie Kincaid, the whaler, and is attracted to him and does not notice that Philip is falling deeply in love with her. The story was originally called Philip's Idol as the theme is about making an idol of a person. THe press gang come to the town in search of men to work in the Navy and take in some men who have just come off a whaling ship. Daniel Robson leads a riot to try and free the men, and he is arrested.

Poldark Novels XII

By now, in 1820, the news is out that the old mad King is dying, and can't last much longer. The Prince Regent is also ill and its not clear if he will outlive his father. Clowance and Edward plan a quiet wedding, she is not as much in love with him as she was with Stephen but she knows he is an honest decent man and he loves her. They think of building a house in Cornwall. She has been managing Stephen's small shipping line in Penryn but she will now be more comfortable financially. Bella slowly recovers from her illness but she begins to realise that her voice is much weaker and she fears that she cannot sing opera any more. Christopher tries to reassure her but she is very upset because she has come to love the life of the theatre. She has just had one success and now it seems to be over. Christopher is now working for Rothschild's bank, after a few years in the army, but he keeps up his interest in the theatre and wants to nurture Bella's talent. Ross tries to make peace with George Warleggan who has been injured in an accident but George refuses to accept his overtures. Selina visits Cornwall and Valentine snatches his son away from her, but George Senior is on Selina's side. Valentine believes he will be able to get custody of the boy, and he has cut down his drinking and wenching but his ape Butto, accidentally sets fire to his quarters and the house goes up. Ross who lives nearby, goes to the rescue and he and the servants get little George out, but Valentine insists on going back after Butto. Ross goes back into the house, but Valentine is dead, and Ross himself suffers from smoke inhalation. Ross feels some grief about Valentine's death and wishes he could have saved him, and Demelza tries to accept that he has these feelings, and that although he loves young Harry, he will always feel something for Valentine. Bella gets an offer to play Romeo in a production of Romeo and Juliet, and she is a success. We learn that although she never sings opera any more, she can still sing and her acting will in the future be a geat success. She and the family go home to Cornwall to prepare for her wedding.

Rough Music By Nadine Sutton

Rough Music is a long novella, about a country rock band. Its based loosely on the history of several country acts back in the 1960s and 70s. Its set in the late 1970s and is about an American band who are on the way up. The 2 lead singers Jeff Randles and Brandon, are both unfaithful husbands, and they try to make compromises between doing good work and making money..They used to be a bar band but are now enjoying some success on TV and at the Opry but they are always trying to make real music and they also want to help people. But the price of success and fame is a lot of touring and it means that they seek solace in sleeping around and taking drugs. Jeff Randles then finds that a one night stand has consequences and that his marriage is on the rocks. He and Brandon do their best to cope with married life, and being music stars, and travelling all the time. The novella is available on Amazon

Poldark novels Part XI

Selina is angry that Valentine has been unfaithful and that he's spending her fortune foolishly. She leaves him after Agneta disappears and takes their son young George. Valentine is angry and determined to get the child back, he lives wildly with male friends and invites whores to the house. Isabella goes on with her singing studies and goes to France to take part in an opera. While she is away, the serial killers comes to Nampara where Demelza is alone, and confesses to her. It is Paul Kellow, a local gentleman who was with Jeremy and Stephen Carrington when they robbed the bank property. He hates women and he killed Agneta and the other girls. Ross returns unexpectedly, in time to save his wife. Valentine is increasingly depressed and buys a large ape from a man in a sea port, and takes him home. The servants are terrified of the animal but he is a companion to Valentine. Ross continues to feel a bit sorry for Valentine in spite of his disapproval of the young man's whoring, but the locals still are angry with him because of his arrogance and his wild living. Ben Carter son of Ross's old friend, Jim Carter, is helping to manage the mine since Jeremy's death. He has always been in love with Clowance but she did not return his feelings. However Ben has now met Esther Carne, the daughter of one of Demelza's miner brothers, who has taken up a post as a nursemaid to Geoffrey Poldark's baby at Trenwith. Geoffrey has returned from the wars, after several years and is now managing his estate and studying law, and he has brought home a Spanish wife Amadora. Ben falls in love with Esther and they become engaged with Demelza's encouragement. Esther upsets Jinny, Ben's Methodist mother by getting interested in Amadora's religon and going to a Catholic church with her but the couple get married. Isabella returns from France where she has performed in an opera, and comes home to Cornwall for a holiday, but she becomes ill. She has diptheria which killed her sister Julia many years before and her illness is very serious. Dwight Enys nurses her with help from Clowance. While Bella is recovering, Edward Fitzmaurice proposes to Clowance and she decides to accept him.

Poldark Novels X

Cuby Poldark, Jeremy's widow, meets a young man, Philip Prideaux who has left the army... Clowance meets a former suitor of hers, Lord Edward Fitzmaurice, who is a younger son of a duke. He had asked her to marry him a few years earlier and now he renews his courtship. Clowance is unsure of her feelings having been so deceived by Stephen.... but she begins to consider him as a husband. He is well off enough to support her but he's not the heir to a title. Philip Prideaux secures a goverment job and begins to investigate the deaths of the young women. They were all working class, but then Agneta Treneglos goes missing. She has been acting more strangely than usual in the past months, since Valentine broke off their affair. She keeps going to see him or to call on his wife, and Selina, who has now had a son by Valentine is furious. Valentine gets more angry with Agneta, and when she disappears he is aware that people are talking and saying that he is the killer of the poor handicapped girl and the other women. Her body is found and Valentine's guilt is freely talked about although he was in Ireland. He has bought some ships and is tyring to make a living but he is losing money and only makes a little money, smuggling.

Poldark Novels Part IX

Clowance is ambivalent about her husband's death. She feels some love for him, but she is shocked by his deceptions and lies, and tells Demelza that if she ever marries again, it will be for convenience and status. Demelza still grieves for Jeremy, and is glad that Ross stays home more nowadays, and she has her young son Harry who is still a baby. Valentine now married to Selina Pope is living nearby, and he is a little bored with his wife who is pregnant. Ross meets him one night, sneaking out of the house of John Treneglos, a local squire who has several daughters. He realises that Valentine is having an affair with Agneta, who has learning difficulties. He fears it will lead to problems, he is a little sorry for Valentine who has never had a happy home and he blames himself for raping Elizabeth, and causing the rift in her marriage. Demelza is a little jealous of his sympathy for Valentine but she believes it is because Harry is so young. By now, Dwight and Caroline have had 2 daughters who survived infancy, Sophie and Meliora and are happy. Drake having married Morwenna, has moved to Looe, to manage a boat building yard, and they have one daughter, Loveday. Isabella, the youngest Poldark daughter, has turned out to have a powerful voice and she meets a young man Christopher Havergal, who wants to marry her and to help her to a stage career. In the final Poldark novel, Bella Poldark we learn of her musical studies and life in Cornwall between 1818 and 1820. There is something of a crime wave in the country and more than 1 young woman is murdered. It looks like a serial killer....... M/F

Poldark VIII

George is furious when he learns of Valentine's marriage. Clowance marries Stephen Carrington, but she has doubts about his character at times. They move to Penryn where he begins a small shipping business. Jeremy tries to court Cuby but she is reluctant to marry him and he decides to join the army though he is not a militaristic young man. He keeps up his interest in engineering. He persuades Cuby to elope with him and they marry and he returns to his army posting. However, when Napoleon escapes from Elba, Jeremy is killed at Waterloo. Ross and Demelza are devastated, but slowly recover, and Cuby has a daughter, Noelle. Around the same time, Harriet, George's upper class wife, has twin daughters. George is shaken up as he knows he has little chance of having another son who will be more reliable than Valentine. Clowance finds that Stephen has kept secrets from her... that he was married and had a son as a young lad, and that his wife only died recently so its dubious if their marriage is legal. George learns that it is possible that Jeremy, Stephen and another local man, Paul Kellow, stole some money and valuables from his bank. He wants to take Stephen to court, but Harriet dissuades him. Stephen and Clowance have been friendly with Harriet, and one day, he engages in a riding contest with her and he is killed in a fall from his horse.

Poldark Novels Part VII

The next Poldark novel after THE ANGRY TIDE is set several years after Elizabeth's death and Ross and Demelza's children are now almost grown up. A young man is washed ashore near Nampara, and he turns out to be a sailor. He becomes friendly with the Poldarks and falls in love with Clowance. He comes from a poor background, and was reared by a foster family, before he went to sea. George Warleggan has grieved for a long time about Elizabeth, but he is now beginning to think of remarriage. Ross still feels guilty over his forcing Elizabeth to have sex, which caused the problems in her marriage and led to her death. but he and Demelza have grown closer over the years, and she has come to accept that he had a lingering love for Elizabeth but that she is his wife and love. Their 2 elder children Jeremy and Clowance are in their teens and they have another daughter Isabella. Demelza has grown and developed and is able to fit in with county society. Isabella has a talent for music, which she wants to develop. Geoffrey, Elizabeth's son by Francis Poldark, has joined the army and is fighting in the Peninsula. Valentine his half brother is a rather sinsister young man who does not get on with his possible father George. George wants to marry Valentine off to a gentry family, but the boy is difficult and reluctant to obey him. George is resentful that he has tried to secure a genteel wife and connexion with the upper classes for his son, yet Valentine barely shows him any respect. George courts an aristocratic widow, Lady Harriet Carter, and she agreeds to marry him because she is not very well off. Jeremy, the eldest surviving child, is now a young man who is interested in engineering and in developing machinery for use in the mine, and he wants to experiment with using machinery to travel on the roads. He falls in love with Cuby Trevanion, the daughter of a grand family, who have over extended themselves building a large castle... Cuby is devoted to her family and has agreed to marry a rich man if they want her to do so, so although she is attracted to Jeremy she snubs him. Demelza becomes pregnant again and has another son, Harry. However, George has been making plans for Valentine to marry Cuby, and to bring genteel Cornish blood into the family, but his rakish son has been having an affair with Selina Pope, the wife of an elderly businessman. Mr Pope catches him in bed with Selina and he collapses and dies. Soon after the old man's death, Valentine secretly marries Selina who has a fortune. So he tells George that he can't marry Cuby.. he's married already and his new wife will be able to support him.

Poldark VI

Elizabeth is unsure if she wants to take the risk of bringing on her labour prematurely, but George is being very unpleasant and she decides to do it. Meanwhile, Demelza goes home to Cornwall after the duel, because she is shocked coming from a working class background, at Ross's upper class code that believes that duelling is a necessary way of defending his wife's honour. Caroline defends Demelza to Ross and reminds him of his wife's different code of morals. When he returns to Cornwall, Elizabeth after a quarrel with George, takes the medicine to bring on her labour. Arthur, Rowella's husband becomes suspicious of her behaviour and finds that she is sleeping with Ossie, and he attacks the clergyman at night. Ossies' horse bolts and he is killed. Morwenna is free of her awful marriage, but when Drake Carne comes to see her, she tells him that she cannot marry him, because she is now repelled by sex. He tells her that he loves her, and he has broken off his engagement to a country girl, becuase he wants to marry her even if they do not have a sex life. Elizabeth goes into labour early, and has a daughter, Ursula. George is now convinced that she has a tendency to have her babies prematurely, and he welcomes his new child.. but the medicine she took causes gangrene. Her circulation is impaired and she is in pain. Dwight Enys is called to see her and he asks if she took any drugs before giving birth but she is so ill, he can't do anything for her. She dies soon after having the baby. George tells Ross that the 2 of them have brought her to a painful horrible death, by their jealousy.

Poldark novels Part V

Morwenna is aware of Rowella's affair with Ossie and it disgusts her, but it at least keep him from trying to have sex with her. Rowella marries the young librarian after Ossie has paid him some money, but as he is from a very poor family, her marriage pushes her out of county society. However, after a while Ossie toys with the idea of trying to force Morwenna again, but instead renews his affair with Rowella who has written to him. SHe is bored with her life in a small town and relative poverty, and she hopes Ossie will pay her something for her sexual services. Caroline's baby has been born with a heart defect and dies within a few months, and she goes to London to recover. Ross has become an MP though he is sceptical about politics but he hopes to do some good as a reformer. He takes Demelza with him to London on his next visit and she and Caroline enjoy the social life there. But Ross grows jealous when his pretty wife attracts the attention of a rakish MP, Monk Adderly and he ends up having a duel with him and killing him. Elizabeth has been worried because a chance jokey remark by her son Geoffrey has led to George's suspicions that Valentine is not his child being aroused again. She has become pregnant again. She had told Ross that George was very difficult when he had the idea in his head that Valenetine was not his son, and he suggests that if she gets pregnant again, she should make it appear that the baby comes prematurely so that George will think that she is susceptible to premature births. Elizabeth goes to an illegal doctor in London, and asks him for some medicine to bring on the birth a bit early. He warns her that it can be dangerous to do this but gives her the medicine.

Poldark Novels IV

Ross and Demelza have difficulties in their marriage, but they have another child, Clowance. Then Demelza, depressed at Ross' continuing feelings for Elizabeth, becomes infatuated with Hugh Armitage, a young Navy officer, and they have a brief affair. But Hugh dies and Ross tries to forgive his wife and tolerate her one infidelity. Meantime Dwight Enys, the doctor and Ross's close friend, has found a wife, the aristocratic and horsey Caroline Penvenen, and they have a daughter, Sarah. Morwenna tries to get over her feelings for Drake Carne but she grows to hate Osborne, her husband, who is unkind and bullying and who forces her to have sex which she hates. She and Ossie have a son, Conan and in desperation, Morwenna tells him that if he continues to force his sexual attentions on her, she will kill his son. He tries to see if he could put her away as a madwoman but as a clergyman, he cannot get a divorce. He is afraid of Morwenna's threat but he finds a temporary solution in an affair with her sister, Rowella who has moved in to help with the children. However Rowella then tells him she's pregnant and that if he pays her off, she will marry a young man, Arthur who has a post as a librarian but not much money.. and he will take the child off Ossie's hands.

Patrick Hamilton

Patrick Hamilton was a British writer who produced several novels which were turned into films. One of them was the Hitchcock thriller Rope and the Victorian thriller, Gaslight. He also wrote a trilogy of books about a serial killer, based loosely on Neville Heath, the protagonist is called Gorse.. and he likes to strangle women. THis was televised in the 1980s as The Charmer. He was born in Sussex in 1904, his parents were both writers, but not very successful. They were pretentious and snobbish, giving him a dislike of "proper" society. His father was an alcoholic and because of this, the family were not well off, and he had to leave his public school, giving him a sketchy education. He himself became an alcoholic in later life. One of his novels, Hangover Square, published in 1941, was about an alcoholic man George Bone and his hopeless love. He liked London and most of his works are set there, Dickens was an influence on him. He was part of the literary pub scene, and was more successful as a writer than his father had been though he has never achieved much critical sucess. Another novel is Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, which is set in London, and covers three characters whose lives are intertwined.. Bob is a barman in a pub. He falls in love with Jenny a young prostitute who sometimes visits the pub, and Ella, the barmaid who is rather plain and is in love with Bob but is courted by a fussy difficult older man. Hamilton's works are increasingly bleak as he grew older and drinking became more of a problem for him. The Charmer novels are about a very unattractive character and his vision of life seemed to become more unhappy and depressing which may account for his lack of success. He was sympathetic to Marxism as a younger man but became more sceptical of it as he grew older. He felt sympathy for the poor and hostility towards capitalism, but he began to dislike modern life more and more. Dickens was a big influence on him but he lacked Dickens' vitality as a writer. He died in his 50s, having been married twice. More to follow-

Poldark novels Part III

Ross is tried but vindicated, and he and Demelza have another baby, Jeremy. George and Elizabeth get married but before they marry, Ross visits Elizabeth and forces himself on her, to try and dissuade her from marrying George. He and Demelza come close to separation but Elizabeth goes ahead with the marriage and has a son Valentine who may be Ross's son. Elizabeth gets a cousin of hers, Morwenna to become governess to Geoffrey her son by Francis, and this girl and Drake Carne, Demelza's brother fall in love. However, George arranges a marriage for her to Osborne Whitworth, a local clergyman who has lost his wife and want another one to satisfy his carnal needs and look after his other children. Then George irritates the elderly Poldark aunt, Agatha who lives with him and Elizabeth. She is a cranky old lady who is fond of Ross, and she has been looking forward to her 100th birthday, but George who has always disliked her, find out that a mistake has been made and she is only 98. He tells her and tells her that they will have to cancel the party as she is not 100. In a rage, she tells him that Valentine is not his son, that he was not born prematurely - as George believed. She works herself up and dies. George is angry and upset. He has always been jealous of Ross and disliked the Poldarks, and he begins to ignore Valentine and to be unkind to Elizabeth.

Rough Music, a band story set in the USA

Rough Music is a long novella, about a country rock band. Its set in the late 1970s and is about an American band who are on the way up. The 2 lead singers Jeff Randles and Brandon, are both unfaithful husbands, and they try to make compromises between doing good work and making money..They used to be a bar band but are now enjoying some success on TV and at the Opry but they are always trying to make real music and they also want to help people. But the price of success and fame is a lot of touring and it means that they seek solace in sleeping around and taking drugs. Jeff Randles then finds that a one night stand has consequences. He and Brandon do their best to cope with married life, and being music stars, and travelling all the time. The novella is available on Amazon

Poldark Novels 2

Elizabeths marriage to Francis becomes unhappy- they have a son but Francis drinks and gambles and they are short of money. She begins to regret her marriage and there is still a bond between her and Ross. He is however increasingly drawn to Demelza and when she is 17, they sleep together. He marries her, in spite of their class differences. Demelza is pretty and lively and is gradually accepted by some of the local gentry, but Ross is often at odds with the Warleggans and he is not doing too well financially. He and Demelza have a daughter Julia, but there is tension at times between them because of Ross's lingering feelings for Elizabeth. The early Poldark novels detail Ross's quarrels with George Warleggan and his jealousy when Francis dies and George begins to pay court to Elizabeth. Julia, the baby dies of diptheria and Ross is arrested for alleged wrecking of a ship in the bay.

Poldark novels

I hope to blog about the Poldark novels, by Winston Graham. They cover Cornish history from the late 18th century to the end of George III's reign in 1820. Ross Poldark is a small squire whose father is a younger son. His father owns a small estate with a couple of mines on it, and he lost his wife as a young woman. He took to leading a wild drunken life, and Ross, his only surviving son ended up by joining the army. He has some of his fathers wild streak but he has a social conscience. He went to school with his cousin Francis a more gentle boy who is the heir to the family's bigger estate, Trenwith. The Poldarks dont get on with the Warleggans, who live nearby, and who are nouveau riche, having made a fortune in banking and business. George Warleggan feels uneasy with the Cornish gentry, as he is conscious of his lower origins. He is not popular in county society because he is a ruthless businessman. Ross returns to Nampara from the American wars, and learns that his father has died and his house is being run by the Paynters,a drunken pair of servants who have neglected it. He also learns that his fiancee, Elizabeth, a beautiful girl from a very genteel family, thought that he was dead and has now become engaged to his cousin Francis. Francis has some of the family failings, he is careless with money and he drinks, but he's not as wild as Ross was, and Elizabeth finds him more congenial. She is upset to find that Ross is back and he is jealous and angry, but she tells him she is going to marry his cousin. Ross thinks of throwing out Jud and Prudie, the servants but keeps them, and begins to try to bring his estate into order, but he also becomes embroiled in arguments with the Warleggans, who are harsh employers and who are determined to become the richest family in the area. He meets a new friend, Dwight Enys, a young newly trained doctor who wants to work for the poor, and he employs him to look after the miners. He then rescues a girl whon he meets at a local fair, she is running away from her drunken violent father, and has been looking after her younger brothers from childhood. He takes her in as a servant and begins to care for her.

Rough Music By Nadine Sutton, Novella on Amazon

Rough Music is a long novella, about a country rock band. Its set in the late 1970s and is about an American band who are on the way up. The 2 lead singers Jeff Randles and Brandon, are both unfaithful husbands, and they try to make compromises between doing good work and making money..They used to be a bar band but are now enjoying some success on TV and at the Opry but they are always trying to make real music and they also want to help people. But the price of success and fame is a lot of touring and it means that they seek solace in sleeping around and taking drugs. Jeff Randles then finds that a one night stand has consequences. He and Brandon do their best to cope with married life, and being music stars, and travelling all the time. The novella is available on Amazon

Murder most Royal

I am reading Murder Most Royal by Jean Plaidy, a novel about Anne Boleyn and her cousin Catherine Howard. It is based on older research so it is not as accurate as it might be and Plaidy is inclined to over praise both Anne and Catherine. She wrote a later work called the Lady in the Tower, which was based on recent books on Boleyn and its more realistic. Hope to blog about these books later on.

Maura Laverty

Maura wrote several books and was a journalist. She was also famous for writing Tolka Row, the first soap opera on Irish Televsion, about a working class family. She was an agony aunt and was the chief breadwinner in her household, since her husband James Laverty, was not good at making money. Her marriage to him ended in separation but she continued to earn a living with her writing. Like Delia Scully she wss one of a large family, and was brought up partly by her grandmother. The earlier novel, Never No More, is about Delia's life in the Bog of Allen, in the care of her grandmother. The book is rather sentimental, its about Ireland in the 1910s and 20s, and Delia's grandmother is a rather idealised figure. But its a warm memoir of a past time. Afterwards Maura went to Spain as a governess but like Delia she gave it up and became a secretary to the socialite and writer Princess Bibesco. Then she married and had children. She was distressed when some of her works were banned in Ireland by a rigid censorship. She was a conventional woman and while not a rigid Catholic, she found it upsetting that books which were admired by Catholic associations in America, were banned in her own country. I prefer No More than Human about the young adult Delia, to the more sentimental Never No More.

No More than Human Part III

Delia enjoys office work much more than governess or teaching English, and when she has had a few months experience, she gets better paid jobs. She begins to go out with Siemen, who is very interested in her and somewhat jealous. She gets a job in a bank but changes because he fears her boss is trying to make love to her, and she goes on with her writing. She moves into a new home with a kindly Spanish couple who run a shop but while she is there, she gets ill. She is very ill and when she recovers, Siemen suggests they get married and have a holiday, but Delia says she would like too go home to Ireland. She has several siblings but has not seen much of them because her mother was unable to look after them all when she was widowed, and Delia went to her grandmother who adored her. She goes back to Ireland, but meets Michael, her pen friend and they realise that they are in love. She never goes back to Spain, but Siemen Marries Romana, one of their Spanish friends.

No More than Human By Maura Laverty Part II

Delia, like Maura Laverty, was a budding writer and began to write poems and stories which she sent to Irish magazines. She got a fan letter from an Irish man who worked as a horse trainer and she and he began to write to each other. Through her Spanish friends she meets Siemen a young Hungarian, who asks her out, but at the same time she meets up again with Rafael, a young Spanihs man who is very good looking and charming. She starts to go out with him, though her friends warns her that a well to do Spanish man wont marry a penniless Irish girl. However Delia is in love and happy and Rafael keeps taking her out and talking about them having a little house. Then after some time, they are in a restaurant and he has to hurry her out because he sees his mother and sister there. He tells her that he cannot marry her, its understood that he will marry another girl....Delia is shocked and upset and angry, and tells him she will not be his mistress, and she walks out. She recovers from her unhappiness, but she is worried about money and realises that she needs to get a new job. She gets an offer of a governess job, and travels for the interview, however she finds when she gets there that her new employer is a midlde aged married man who wants a mistress cum secretary, not a governess. She refuses but he tells her callously that she should have known what he was offering, and refuses to pay her expenses. She meets his boss, an Irish American, who also tells her that she should not have been so foolish and she lashes out at him, telling him that she did not know what she was being expected to do. Embarrassed, he apologises and asks her what she really would like to do, and she says she has been studying book keeping and typing and shorthand, but she has no experience in office jobs. He suggests that he gives her a job for a few months, which will give her the experience but warns her he can't pay much. Delighted, she accepts.

No More than Human by Maura Laverty Part 1

No more Than Human is a novel by Maura Laverty, set in Spain, in the 1920s. Delia Scully, the heroine is based on Maura herself who also went to Spain as a girl to be a governess. It was quite common for middle class Irish girls at that time, to go to Spain which was a Catholic country, and they could earn a living. Delias grandmother, who brought her up, tried to give her a good education but Delia was not academic, and when her grandmother died she was only 17 and there was no money. Her friends arranged a job in Spain and she set out looking for adventure. Delia is a warm friendly girl who throws herself into life but she soon finds that being a governess in Spain is not much fun. SHe likes the children and gets on with the servants but realises that governesses are usually looked down on by their Spanish employers and also by the English colony who have jobs in Spain. There were many English engineers and the like in the country, but they and their wives looked down on Irish girls and they were Protestants. Delia soon made friends with other women in similar jobs but she soon became fed up with her domineering employer and then she moved to another job. However, that job ended when she dressed in a flamboyant bathing suit. Delia realises that she hates the servitude of governessing, and decides to hire herself out as a part time chaperone and English tutor. However, she finds it very hard to make even a bare living at this job. She likes living in lodgings and makes friends with various English and Spanish people including Luis, a Theosophist and Liberal.

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton

This is a long story available on Amazon. It is set in Nashville in the recent Past, just a few years ago. Its a tale of a young singer who is trying to make it in the music business, in Nashville and how he moves from bed to bed and bar to bar, looking for love. Sam is living with a girl who has had his baby, but he is an attractive young man who appeals to women. He finds his girlfriend boring but tries to keep up their relationship, for the sake of their baby. He loves his work, and in time he and his lady start to build up a stable marriage. His girlfriend matures and they reach a muted happy ending. Read it on Amazon.

Beloved Exile By Parke Godwiin

This is the second novel in the Arthurian trilogy by Park Godwin. It tells the story of Guenevere after the death of Arthur. She tries to rule as Empress but is captured in war and ends up as a slave in a Saxon household. She learns about the Saxons and their more democratic farming based culture, and learns to appreciate their good qualities. Later, she is rescued and goes to the Eastern Empire in Constantinople, returning to Britian in old age.

Novella by Nadine Sutton, Beds and Blue Jeans

This is a long story available on Amazon. It is set in Nashville a few years ago. Its a tale of a young singer who is trying to make it in the music business, in Nashville and how he moves from bed to bed and bar to bar, looking for love. Sam is living with a girl who has had his baby, but he is an attractive young man who appeals to women. He finds his girlfriend boring but tries to keep up their relationship, for the sake of their baby. He loves his work, and in time he and his lady start to build up a stable marriage.

Rough Music, a story set in America by Nadine Sutton

Rough Music is a long novella, about a country rock band. Its set in the late 1970s and is about an American band who are on the way up. The 2 lead singers Jeff Randles and Brandon, are both unfaithful husbands, and they try to make compromises between doing good work and making money..They used to be a bar band but are now enjoying some success on TV and at the Opry but they are always trying to make real music and they also want to help people. But the price of success and fame is a lot of touring and it means that they seek solace in sleeping around and taking drugs. Jeff Randles then finds that a one night stand has consequences. He and Brandon do their best to cope with married life, and being music stars, and travelling all the time. The novella is available on Amazon

Ann Granger Victorian novels

Been reading a few of Ann Granger's recent novels which are set in the Victorian ago. There are occasional times when I think the historical attitudes are not quite right but overall I enjoy them. The series starts with Elizabeth Martin, a doctors daughter, taking a post as companion to a distant relative, the rich Mrs Parry. Elizabeth gets involved in investigating a murder and meets Ben Ross, a police inspector. She gets involved in other mysteries in Victorian London, and then marries Ben and they set up in a small house with just one maid, Bessie. Lizzie often helps her husband with investigations, she can talk to people at different levels of society and it is easier for her to win the confidence of other women. THe latest book is about a fence called Jacobus, who is killed brutally in his house which he rarely leaves. Ben uses him as an informant and can never prove that he receives stolen goods. At the same time he is involved in investigating a jewel theft - the stealing of a valuable necklace from a well to do family. It is the London Season and there are many such thefts when the upper classes are wearing their jewels. It turns out that the death of Jacobus is connected to the disappearancee of the necklace. Its a good read

Elizabeth Von Arnim

Elizabeth Von Arnim was a writer and socialite of the early 20th Century. She was born in Australia, and was a cousin of the well known writer Katherine Mansfield. She was born Mary Annette Beauchamp, in 1866. Her family were well to do and moved to England when she was a child. They also spent time in Switzerland. her father was a shipping merchant and the family were socially prominent. She studied music as a girl, but in 1891 she married a German aristocrat, Count Henning August Von Arnim, and moved to Germany for some time. She had several children but her marriage was not all that happy. The Count was unfaithful and she began to spend more time in London with her children. She engaged tutors for her children, including EM Forster and Hugh Walpole. She had found her husband somwwhat bullying and did not fit in that well too the rigid German upper class society, but in 1898 she began to write novels, her first one was published anonymously, Elizabeth and her German Garden. It was a big success and she wrote more novels, using the name Elizabeth. In 1910, her husband died, and she embarked on an affair with the writer HG Wells. Later, she married Francis Russell, Earl Russell but the marriage was a failure and ended in separation. She wrote several novels which were a big success. The Enchanted April, a story about English women who take a holiday in Italy, was a successful film. Her books were largely about society people, and there was a feminist slant to most of them.

Rough Music by Nadine Sutton

Rough Music is a long novella, about a country rock band. Its set in the late 1970s and is about an American band who are on the way up. The 2 lead singers Jeff Randles and Brandon, are both unfaithful husbands, and they try to make compromises between doing good work and making money..They used to be a bar band but are now enjoying some success on TV and at the Opry but they are always trying to make real music and they also want to help people. But the price of success and fame is a lot of touring and it means that they seek solace in sleeping around and taking drugs. Jeff Randles then finds that a one night stand has consequences. He and Brandon do their best to cope with married life, and being music stars, and travelling all the time. The novella is available on Amazon