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