Raj Quartet summary

Its some time since I watched Jewel in the Crown or re read the Raj books, but I remember it well. It has echoes of EM Forster's Novel, Passage to India where a young English lady accuses an Indian man of molesting her and the trial starts off bitter anger between the British and the Indians. Then the trial collapses because Ada, the young woman, withdraws her claim of sexual assault. The Raj Quartet begins with a similar situation, in that Daphne Manners is actually raped by Indian men. However she does not accuse her Indian boyfriend Hari Kumar of doing anything to her. She and he made love but then they were attacked by a gang of peasants who were excited by the situation of a white girl making love with an Indian man. Daphne tries to protect Hari but she dies in childbirth. Hari is sent to jail, and Ronald Merrick who investigated the case continues to show his bigotry and violent streak in his police work. He is a self hating homosexual, who hates Hari for being better educated than he is, and he has to believe that Indians are inferior beings. Scott himself had a drink problem and could be violent at times and while Merrick is an unsympathetic character Scott could see bits of himself in the man he created. He found India dirty and overwhelming when he first went there, but grew to love it. The character Guy Perron also has some echoes of Scott. Like Scott he went into the army as a private at the start of the War. Scott was commissioned as an officer and worked in Army intelligence. Guy becomes a sargeant. He is a liberal, supporting Indian independence as Paul Scott was. The tension between Scott's "Merrick side" and his more liberal side makes the books what they are. Merrick is not likable, but as we understand his problems, his hatred of his sexual feelings, and his anger that he, a white man, is less well spoken and well educated than the young Hari Kumar, we can see that he is both twisted and vulnerable. He resents the British army officers and political officers who have a public school education and who have the security of a comfortable life in England when they retire while he had to work his way up from a lower middle class childhood to the Indian police and then the Army. The Raj quartet has many women characters who are vital and interesting even though they are limited by their sex. Sarah is intelligent and tempted to show more liberal beliefs than the usual army daughter, but she does good work supporting her family and she tries to protect Susan against Merrick. Mabel Layton, Col Layton's elderly step mother, is not approved of because at the time of the Amritsar massacre, she gave money to a fund to help the Indian victims, while most of the army wives supported General Dyer who had caused the massacre.

Raj quartet IX

Guy is shocked but not really surprised. He always thought Merrick was sinister and he attracted trouble. His involvement in the Kumar case has angered Indian nationalists who have been trying to get at hime for years. And he was idealistic about the Raj, believing that the British would avenge him, whereas they were just keen to get out of India and leave it to its own devices. He came from a relatively poor family, and for him, the Raj was a family, whereas the other members of the colony were better off and had connextions in England to go back to. THe Laytons are planning to go back to England very soon and buy a small country home. Bronowski is pleased that the Prince's daughter Shiraz has become more westernised under Sarah's influence and that she has attracted a suitor Ahmed Kasim. Kasim is the son of a well known Indian politican who has been fighting for Indian independence all his life. Ahmed was something of a playboy and a bit of a disappointment to his father but in recent years, he has developed a sense of responsibility and is working with the Prince and Bronowski. He looks like a suitable husband for Shiraz, and his father is very pleased that he is making a success of his life now. Guy notices that Sarah seems very close to Ahmed, but she too plans to go home to England, so he presumes it is not a serious love affair. He hopes that she may turn to him when they go home. Indian independence is now very close, but the partition of the country is in Guy's view a disaster which will lead to hatred and violence. He blames the British rulers for encouraging divisions between Muslims and Hindus - feeling that they used this to weaken the Indian independence movement, but now are making a fast getaway and leaving the problems to be solved by the Indians. The Laytons are due to leave. Susan has her Ayah to look after her son, and she is carrying Ronald's ashes in an urn. Col and Mrs Layton have gone on ahead to find a house. Ahmed is escorting them and he gets on the train into their carriage (which does not please the other British) . However the compartment that he is travelling in has been marked, and Hindu activists are aware of where this prominent Muslim is sitting. After a time, the train is held up and a gang call for Ahmed to come out. Everyone is bewildered as they have not yet formed a strategy for dealing with these attacks. Ahmed goes out and is killed. So are many others. Sarah tries to nurse the injured and she feel angry and helpless that she is reduced to this feeble English memsahib role of trying unsucessfully to help when she knows it is useless. She and Guy go home to England, and she tells him that she loved Ahmed but she wasn't in love with him. But she is angry that he has died and she could not do anything to prevent it. Her country caused the trouble and divisions and they then leave it to the Indians to suffer the consequences. They get married and Guy becomes a well known academic historian - and India is just a part of their past.

Rough Music By Nadine Sutton

This is a long story, available on Amazon. It is set in the 1970s and based on the lives of country and country rock musicians of that era. Its about 2 men who are good friends, and are trying to get their band from the small time to the big time. The constant touring and hard work puts strain on both of their marriages and annoys the other members of the band. Its not a Happy ever after story, but I hope people will like it.

Raj Quartet VIII

Bronowski tells Guy that they had to cover up about Merrick's death, since it would lead to dangerous riots. He has often been taunted by Indian nationalist activists who have followed him about, because of his part in the tormenting and abuse and imprisonment of Hari Kumar. Hari is not interested in any of this, he has become a fairly reclusive man, making a living teaching. But Merrick has had people drawing pictures of bicycles (A bicycle was involved in the Kumar case) or attacking his car. He became rather paranoid about this in recent months, and threw himself into his police work. Susan was away for a time with the child, and Ronald was alone. He had a fall from a horse, and claimed that a man had startled his mount and caused the fall. Bronowski goes on that he beleives Merrick was a self hating homosexual (He himself being gay) and that he was attracted to young Indian men but his racism and self hatred made him angry and unhappy because he wanted what he could not have. He abused Hari Kumar because he was attracted to this young man whom he thought of as inferior. Guy has talked to "Sophie" Dixon about Merrick earlier and he'd worked out that he had homosexual feelings but could not tolerate them in himself. He also learns from what he has found out that Merrick was snooping in the army psychiatrist's office, to look at his files, because the psychiatrist was seeing Susan about her nervous problems. He read the confidential data, and was able to give Susan the impression that he understood her very well instinctively, and she was so fragile that it made her fall for him. Susan has told Guy that Merrick used to have to go in disguise into the bazaars to find out what was happening among the Indians and that there were a lot of young men coming to the house looking for a job, but Merrick did not usually offer any work to them. Guy is sceptical about this, and Bronowski tells him that there were boys who came, who might have been activists who were planning to punish Merrick for his part in the Kumar Rape case - but that he doubted if Merrick really went about in disguise to hear what was being said in the town. It seems that Merrick did finally allow a boy who had come looking for work to stay, and Bronowski believes that he finally gave way to his own homosexual urges and slept with him, and the whole experience upset him, because he could not admit that he was attracted to boys and to Indians whom he considered inferior. He was found dead in his bed and Bronowski and the police covered it up, saying that he had been injured in the riding accident and that he died from those injuries a little later. Bronowski says that he felt sure Merrick hoped that the British would avenge his death and kill Indians, and generally make him a hero in death, but the Raj were eager to cover it up and for the British to get out of India without too much trouble.

Raj Quartet Part VII

Susan and Merrick get married... He is a good stepfather to her son, young Edward, and he seems to keep Susan calm. The Laytons are close to retirement and thinking of going home to England. Then Merrick is offered a job as police chief in the Princely state where Susan was married. The Princes advisor is a Russian emigre, Count Bronowky, who tries to help the prince to modernise the state, but who worries about unrest and violence which is beginning to happen all over India, as the state prepares to become Independent of British rule. He admires Merrick and thinks he can do a good job of controlling riots and violence. A couple of years after the war, Guy Perron goes to India to cover the granting of independence..and he finds to his surprise that Merrick has just died after a riding accident. Sarah is staying at his house, and she has become friends with the princes daughter Shiraz. Guy is pleased to see her again, but when he asks her what happened to Merrick, she is reluctant to talk about it. He learns the story from Count Bronowski.

Raj Quartet VI

THe war is close to an end by now and Susan has been released from her hospital but she's still nervy and not very stable and she is seeing a psychiatrist. Sarah finds that by now Merrick has weaseled his way into their family circle and she's afraid of him. In the course of his work, he drives an Indian soldier to suicide, taunting him that he had abandoned his oath to the King, when captured, and shamed himself and his regiment. Sarah meets another young officer, Guy Perron who went to the same school as Hari Kumar, and joined up as a private soldier. He has now become a sargent in Army intelligence, and he comes into contact with Merrick. He too dislikes Merrick and thinks he is sinister. Barbie has had a breakdown, and is now in a hospital. Sarah likes Guy Perron and wonders if someone like him could tell her something to Merrick's discredit, so that she could use it against Merrick. She can see he's courting Susan and its scary that she seems to be taken with him and may well marry him for security. Guy and Sarah spend time together and he tries to wriggle out of having Merrick as his boss. Through family influence, he manages to get an early discharge and he's soon to go home to England, where he hopes to become a historian. He and Sarah make love, but she is committed to looking after her family. Her father is released from his POW camp and returns to India, and Mildred and Susan both need her help.

Raj quartet V

Merrick recovers from his injuries, but he has to have an artificial arm. He gets a desk posting where he can use his police training to investigate Indian Prisoners of War who were captured in Burma and who were persuaded by their captors to renounce their allegiance to the British empire and join the Japanese. He has a natural taste for bullying and questioning. Meanwhile Hari has been questioned by the British, as he is detained indefinitely under a wartime Security act. He tells them that he was sexually assaulted by Merrick. Horrified, they cover this up but it takes time before Hari is finally released. He is alienated now from the British and his fellow Indians and expects to lead a lonely life, with the loss of Daphne and his child being reared by Lady Manners. Ronald spends some time in hospital having treatment, and there he meets a British OR soldier called "Sophie" Dixon, a gay man who likes joking and camping, but is a kindly nurse to the soldiers in hospital. He likes Merrick at first, but finds out that he ill treated a young homosexual soldier, who has just been coming to terms with his sexuality.

Raj quartet IV

Ronald's injuries cement the friendly relations between him and the Laytons. Susan asks him to become godfather to her baby when it is born and Sarah feels obliged to keep seeing him when he recovers. There is tension between Old Mrs Mabel Layton and Mildred. Mildred has become a drinker, feeling lost without her husband, and she turns to a young officer and has an affair. Susan's baby is born, and it is a boy. She seems odd and withdrawn and Sarah worries about her. Then she wraps the baby in a lace cloth and sets fire to it. The baby is not harmed but she is clearly having a breakdown and is taken to a hospital. Mildred seems detached from her daughter. When visiting Merrick, Sarah stayed with Fenny Grace, her mother's sister and met some British officers. Fenny worries that Sarah does not get much of a social life so she is keen to offer her niece a bit of fun and encourages her to go out with one of the officers, James Clark. However Sarah also rather fed up with her limited life, decides to lose her virginity to him. Mildred discovers that her daughter is pregnant. She is furious with her sister for not watching over her better. She tells her to sort out the problem and arrange an abortion for Sarah. Sarah has the operation and finds herself being entangled between her mother and old Mrs Layton and Barbie. When Mrs Layton dies, Barbie is more or less thrown out of Mabel's house, Rose Cottage, by Mildred. She tells Mildred that Mabel had wanted to be buried next to her husband. Mildred ignores her pleas about this, as it is very hot and she wants the old lady buried as quickly as possible and she resents the lower class Barbie interfering.

Raj quartet III

Ronald tries to get in with the Laytons and pay court to Sarah as she is single. She is uneasy with him. After the marriage Teddy and Ronald are posted to Burma, and Susan becomes pregnant. She lazes around, while Sarah does war work. The Laytons are on uneasy terms with Col Layton's stepmother, who lives in Rose Cottage, an attractive house, which Mildred hopes to inherit some day. Old Mrs Layton does not much like her stepson's wife. She takes in a paying guest to keep them a bit at a distance. Its an elderly lady called Barbie Bachelor, who used to be a missionary teacher. She is retired and considered not quite a lady by the Laytons and their friends. Barbie is lonely and fond of old Mrs Layton, and she's aware that Mildred does not like her. Several months after the wedding, the Laytons are told that Teddy has been killed in action and that Merrick who was with him, was badly wounded. Susan is very upset and he family are nerous that she is showing signs of instability. She never seemed that fond of Teddy, but now she persuades Sarah to go and visit Merrick in hospital. Sarah agrees to go and finds that Merrick is very badly injured. His face has been burned and his arm has to be amputated. She wishes she could feel more sympathy for him but she finds him unnerving.

Raj Quartet II

Daphne and Hari have a row, but then they make up, late at night and make love in a darkened garden. After their lovemaking, they are attacked by a gang of Indians and Daphne is raped. Hari is considered the chief suspect since he is Indian and he's arrested by Merrick. Daphne says that she knows the rapist gang were Indian peasants... and it was not Hari. However the local British are outraged that an English woman should be raped by Indians, and she knows there is very little hope for Hari. She finds she is pregnant after the rape and she decides to keep the child. Hari is tortured by Ronald Merrick and sexually abused. He is imprisoned and Daphne has the baby. It is a girl, whom she calls Parvati, but she dies in childbirth. Lady Manners, Daphne's aunt who brought her out to India takes care of the baby, and is snubbed by the British. Lady Manners takes a holiday in the hills with the baby, and to her surprise she has a visit from Sarah Layton, an army officer's daughter who is also holidaying nearby. Sarah's father is a prisoner in Germany and his wife Mildred is a rather snobbish, unemotional woman, is on holiday with her 2 daughters, Sarah who is intelligent and a little unconventional and Susan who is younger and more willing to fit in with the prejudices of the Raj colony. Susan is engaged and Sarah does not seem to attract many men. Sarah sees the baby, and talks to Lady Manners, who is amazed that anyone should visit her now that she is rearing a half Indian child. Soon afterwards, Sarah and her family go to one of the Princely states, where Teddy Bingham Susan's fiance is stationed for their wedding. The best man is ill and unable to do his role, so Teddy invites another officer to stand in. The officer is Ronald Merrick. He has managed to get into the army and is trying to weasel his way into the upper crust Army set.

Paul Scott and the Raj quartet.

The 4 novels of this series cover the British in India during the War and afterwards. Daphne Manners is an English girl, rather plain and a bit clumsy, who goes to India during the war and takes up volunteer work. She lives with an Indian lady, Lady Chatterji, and meets a woman who takes in the sick and dying and nurses them. Sister Ludmilla is reckoned to be mad by the British colony, and they are snobbish about Indians. Daphne becomes friendly with Hari Kumar, who works on a local newspaper. He has been brought up in England and finds the Indians so different that he cannot get on with them.. but he is looked down on by the British. Daphne goes out with him but it is difficult. She is also courted by Ronald Merrick, an Englishman who is in the Police service but who comes from a relatively poor background. He too is looked down on by the wealthier British, but he is still treated as one of the elite. Daphne does not like him much but feels sorry for him. He is arrogant and likes being in the police, but he wants to get into the army which is of higher status.

Available on Amazon

I have 2 stories which are available on Amazon. Both are set in the country music world. Beds and Blue Jeans is a story set a few years ago, about a bar singer in Nashville... who has a girlfriend and a baby, and is trying to make his way in the music world. Rough Music is set in America around the late 70s, about a country rock band who are beginning to have some success and do a lot of touring. The 2 lead singers are both married and find that the music life affects their marriages. These are not happy ever after stories, but I hope they are a good read. Look on Amazon.

North and South Part III

Margaret's mother dies and her father dies soon after. She leaves Milton and goes to live with her godfather, who is reasonably well off. She also visits her cousin Edith in London. She has begun to develop feelings for John Thornton. On a visit back to her parents' old home, she realises how hard poverty is for farm labourers and the like and becomes less romantic about the countryside. In London, she goes about socially but she also does social work. She receives a proposal from Henry Lennox, a relative of Edith's but she does not love him. In Milton, John has financial troubles. The strike and variations in trade leaves him losing money. Margaret hears of his troubles and since she has now inherited her godfather's fortune, she offers to buy up the mill and he can rent it from her and manage it. She finds that he has become friendly with Nicholas Higgins, although they disagree about politics. John proposes to her and she accepts him.

KITTEN LADY

I'd like to mention the American Kitten Lady, Hannah Shaw and her work for animals. She has several rescue animals in her home, including pigs and goats. She works at TNR (Trap Neuter Return), taking in cats who live rough and neutering them and sending them back, safe from having more and more kittens. She recently rescued 3 kittens who were very tiny and weak and they are now growing strong.

Rector's Daughter IV

Mary finds that her friendship with Kathy cools a bit, and then she has an operation to fix her mouth, which works, restoring her good looks. Kathy is well meaning, but she finds her other friends more fun than Mary. Mary's father dies, and she is deeply upset. She goes to live with an aunt, in a suburban part of London and has a more fulfilling life, seeing some writers whom she finds too Bohemian.. and getting involved in a local church. She rarely sees Herbert and Kathy, who now have another son. He loves his wife, but accepts that she is silly at times and can't live up to his intellectual level.. but she is devoted to him and tolerates his seeing old college friends for more interesting conversation. Some time passes and Mary becomes ill. She dies only in her 50s. Her life has been lived for others, and she is worn out. After the funeral, Mr Herbert confesses to Kathy that he kissed Mary once and that he loved her, but that he loves Kathy as his wife. She is upset but decides not to be resentful of her memory.

Rector's daughter III

Kathy decides to go for a holiday in France with her sister in law, and she meets a young man there who flirts with her. She is getting more and more fed up with her husband and she toys with the idea of running off with her admirer. Herbert is not very sorry to have a break from his wife. Kathy goes on with her flirtation, and then finds that she has an abscess on her mouth. She is told she will need an operation. In England, Mr Herbert spends more time with Mary, and one day kisses her. She feels guilty for loving a married man but she still can't help herself. Kathy has her operation and to her horror it goes wrong. Her mouth's nerves are damaged and it leaves her with a distorted face which mars her looks. She is desperately upset as she knows that her beauty is the only thing that makes her interesting. She wants to die, and finds that her friends on the Riviera are embarrassed and avoid her. Mary does not know what to expect when she hears that Kathy is coming home. When she gets home Herbert pities her because she is being very brave about her disfigured face. He tells her that they can try another doctor and try to put it right. THen she finds she is pregnant. She feels a bit better because she hopes that even if she has disappointed Herbert by her lack of brains, she can give him a son. Mary feels pity for Kathy and since Kathy begs her to visit, she comes to see her often. THey become more friendly and Kathy gets through her pregnancy and has twin boys.

Rector's Daughter Part II

Mary has a passionate nature, in spite of her being dismissed as dull and churchy by many people and she is falling deeply in love with Mr Herbert. Then he writes to her to tell her that he has become engaged to a young upper class girl called Kathy Hollings, who is beautiful and charming. However she is not very clever and she dimisses people who are below her in class. Mary can't believe that Herbert has fallen in love with Kathy and abandoned her when she was hoping he would propose. She does not exactly dislike Kathy but she thinks that she is silly and vulgar and not up to Herbert's intellectual level. He marries quickly and for a year he is infatuated with his wife. She tries to adjust to life as a clergyman's wife, but she loves hunting and social events and horses, and still hangs around with some of her society friends, including her sister in law who are spoiled and selfish and who dimiss country clergy as nobodies. Soon Herbert finds himself getting very dissatisfied with his bride, she irritates him by her vulgar silliness, her slangy conversation and her habit of singing saucy songs at village concerts and sniggering in church. Herbert and Kathy begin to quarrel. She feels irritated at his condescending ways and he feels foolish for having fallen in love with her.

Rector's Daughter

this is the story of Mary Jocelyn, a clergyman's daughter who lives in a dull fading little village called Deadmayne. Her mother is dead, her older sister, who had mental difficulties, dies young and her older brothers all fall out with their father and go to live abroad, so she is very lonely. She has one or 2 friends of her own class but she is very painfully shy, and her father who is elderly and a very clever man, puts her down all the time. Her best friends are the village people and the servants at the vicarage who are very fond of her. Mary loves to read and does some writing, but her father criticises her work and only wants her to do the traditional work of the Vicar's wife or daughter, teaching Sunday school etc. When she is in her 30s, a clergyman, WIlliam Herbert comes to work in the parish and as his father was a friend of her father's, she grows friendly with him. He seems to like her and she begins to believe that she has found a man who might love her.

FM Mayor

Flora Mayor was a not very prolific writer who lived in the UK. She was born in Surrey in 1872 - her father was a professor of classics and an Anglican clergyman. She had a twin sister Alice who was very dear to her. She was intelligent and her father gave her a good education, sending her to college which was unusual at the time. However she did not do very well at college - spending a lot of her time enjoying herself. Her family were not too well off, and she tried to earn her own living. She was interested in the stage and tried to get into acting. However she did not have any success though she took classes and joined shaky touring companies. She found the actors were rough and not very refined, and began to give up hope of succeeding on the stage. She started to write stories and began to have some small success. She had an admirer, Ernest Shepherd, who wanted to marry her but it took him some time to get a job in India, which meant that he could support her. Alice was rather jealous of losing her sister. Then in 1903 Ernest died of typhoid while they were planning their wedding. Flora did not have any more chances of marriage. She lived with Alice for the rest of her life. Her health was not very good and while she wrote a couple of successful novels, she did not write a lot. She died in 1932 and Alice survived her for many years. Her best known novel is the Rector's Daughter which is about a very shy Victorian girl who lives with her elderly and difficult father in a village in the country. He is a scholar and a clergyman and he seems indifferent or hyper critical to all his children. I'll blog about her novels soon.

North and South Part II

Margaret does her best to like Milton Northern... but she finds it difficult. She meets some of the mill owners at a dinner and finds the women are very boastful. She tries to like John Thorton her father's pupil but she does not like his arrogance and hard hearted demeanour. He does not like his workers to oppose him and claims that he made his way up from poverty so they should be able to do the same. She is cool with him but he finds her attractive. She meets some of the mill workers, and finds it hard to understand them. She is shocked by their organising themselves to strike and not work, and she finds she is snubbed by Higgins, one of the more intelligent workers, when she offers to visit his 2 daughters. She does not seem to have a role as the vicar's daughter, visiting and helping the poor. The Northern folk are too independent for that. Margaret becomes friendly with Nicolas Higgins and his daughters and begins to understand why they have to organise a union and strike... When a strike happens, Margaret protects Thornton from the milling crowd, and he thinks that that means she is in love with him. Then he sees her at the railway station one night with a young man and begins to think she is in love with someone else and seeing him secretly. The truth is that Margaret's brother, Frederick who was in the Navy, led a mutiny because of ill treatment on his ship and he has now had to live abroad and she has to keep his visit to England secret. He comes back to see his mother who is increasingly ill and then goes back to his new home. During his brief visit, he knocks down a man who has gone to the police about him, and Margaret tells lies to cover this up. John knows she is lying but he backs her up.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

This is one of Gaskell's earlier social problem novels. It is set in Manchester though the name is not used. Margaret Hale, the pretty cultivated daughter of a vicar, finds that her father has begun to have doubts about his religious beliefs, and feels he cannot go on as a Church of England priest. (Mrs Gaskell's father, a Unitarian minister resigned from his position because of religious doubts). He has to give up his living and find another job. Mrs Hale is a nervous sensitive woman who is upset by this development. Margaret is also distressed at her father giving up his work and even more so to learn that the family are going to have to move from their pretty parish in Southern England, to move up North and live in an industrial city. When she sees Milton Northern she is depressed at how ugly it is, and worries that it will be difficult to live there. Mr Hale finds that some manufacturers who have worked their way up from poverty to wealth, are keen to get some of the education they missed out on as boys. THe finds a pupil, John Thornton, who has a mill and who wants to study the classics.

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton

This is a long novella, available 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 basic living, 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.

Rough Music by Nadine Sutton

This story is set in America in the late 1970s and is about a country rock band. The two lead singers are friends who want to make good music, and not just to make money. But they are touring all the time and it takes its toll on their marriages. The story is available on Amazon.

The Concubine V

This part of the story is almost certainly not accurate. Anne would never have taken the risk of being unfaithful to Henry. In real life, her pregnancy went on till the end of January 1536 and then she lost the baby, after hearing that Henry had had a fall out jousting. In the book, she also loses the child, and Henry now decides he has to get rid of her. He does not want another drawn out divorce. So his ministers seek for an excuse to end the marriage. Anne has been flirtatious with other men, playing the game of Courtly love. And Mark Smeaton, her musician, is infatuated with her and he is questioned and tortured till he agrees that he had an affair with her. Anne is taken to the Tower and has ladies in waiting who spy on her. Emma manages to get permission to go to the Tower and stay with Anne. She finally realises that while she had a sincere interest in the new religion, she stayed as Anne's maid because she loved her. Anne and the men accused with her are tried and found guilty, and all are executed. No arrangements are made for her to be buried. Emma persuades Anne's cousins to help her to take the body to Norfolk where Anne was born and they make a plan to bring her to Norfolk to be buried under the name of Arnett. Emma begins to feel a revival of her religious beliefs as she makes the preparations.

The Concubine IV

Anne's baby is born in September 1533, after her marriage and coronation. ANd it is a girl. Emma is shaken. Her faith in God had convinced her that it was her duty to help the reform of the church and because of that she had encouraged Anne's relationship with Henry. She believed that it would lead to a Protestant male heir being born, and she is shocked to find that Anne has only produced another girl. She has connived at wrong doing, but she convinces herself that now that Anne is queen, she will have a male heir and she will have done the right thing in helping the marriage to go ahead. Anne becomes tense and often hysterical. She and Henry dont get on so well now and she realises that he has lost the intense love he had for her. He realises however that he has to grit his teeth and put up with Anne, as nobody wants another divorce. Emma tries to encourage Anne to be calmer and more pleasant, and she and Anne's ladies conceal from her the fact that the King is now flirting with Jane Seymour, another lady who is a Catholic. However Anne accidentally walks in on Henry kissing Jane and is furious. After a quarrel, they make up and he makes love to Anne again. She gets pregnant, but within a short time she has a miscarriage. Emma puts an idea in her head, that Henry might not be very good at breeding children.. and Anne decides to conceal the miscarriage, and to try to find another man to father a child on her. She arranges masked balls and has a few encounters with anonymous members of the court, but she still has the problem of how to conceal the fact that she is not as far along in pregnancy as she should be.

The Concubine III

Emma supports Anne when she goes back to court, and then realises that Anne is actually planning to become the kings wife, not his mistress. SHe is pleased because it may well mean that the Church in England will become Protestant and the foreign Catholic queen will be put aside. She continues to encourage Anne to support the Protestant cause. Anne becomes depressed that the divorce from Katherine is taking so long and that Henry seems unwilling to take the step of breaking with the Catholic church. She almost leaves him. Emma persuades her to stay. Eventually Henry gives Anne a title, Marquise of Pembroke, and takes her to France to meet the French King. They become lovers and Henry is disappointed. After all the years of waiting and expecting ecstasy, he finds that Anne is just another woman who shares his bed. He is frightened by his disillusioned feeling. Then a short while afterwards Anne tells him she is pregnant. His disappointment vanishes. She is going to provide him with a son as he has hoped. He decides to go through a marriage ceremony with her, and they are married. He knows that this will end in a separation from the Roman church but he is willing to accept this and his more Protestant advisers are pleased that the monasteries can be closed and the land will come to the Crown.

The Concubine Part II

Anne continues to keep her distance from the king, and stays at Hever. Lady Boleyn is relieved that her step child does not seem interested in becoming his mistress. Emma stays at Hever, and meets a shopkeepers wife, who lives in the local village. The woman and her husband have some education and they take an interest, discreetly in the new Protestant religion. Emma has met reformers before, and she finds herself getting interested too and she is pleased to make new friends as she has a lonely life. She meets the shopkeeper and his wife and their circle and they read the Bible. She disapproves of the worldly ways of the Catholic bishops and cardinals, and wants a simpler less superstitious relilion. Anne too is a little interested in the new ideas. Eventually, Anne does meet the king and he pays court to her. She refuses to become his mistress, but he begins to win her over by suggesting that his marriage to Katherine of Aragon is not valid and that he wants to get it annulled and then he would be free to marry her. M/F

The Concubine by Norah Lofts

This is a novel based on the life of Anne Boleyn, by Norah Lofts, who wrote numerous historical novels. Her style was more earthy than some writers, and she brought in a lot of social history. The main character in the novel is a poor servant woman, Emma Arnett, who is from Norfolk. When Anne is dimissed from court after her love affair with Henry Percy, the queen asks one of her ladies to send one of her serving women to escort Anne back home. Emma is rather resentful of how she can be ordered around but she starts to like Anne on the journey, and stays in her service after she is returned to her family home. Lofts does get a few things wrong historically, one of them being that Anne's mother is dead and her father's second wife is a woman from a farming family, who is kind to her three step children but who is ill at ease in court situations. Lady Boleyn is shocked that her elder step Daughter Mary has been the kings mistress and that soon after Anne's return home, Henry comes to Hever to see Sir Thomas Boleyn, and Anne refuses to join the family for dinner, because she is angry with the King for separating her from the man she loved. M/F

Villette III

Lucy is disappointed to find that Dr John is infatuated with the flirtatious Ginevra.. and she has a fondness for herself but she knows that he sees her as an older not very attractive woman. However Lucy's social life improves and she goes about with the Brettons and gets friendly again with Paulina. She learns that M Paul was in love with a girl when he was younger, and she died, and he seems to have no interest in women ever since. She dislikes Madame Beck more and more. The older woman seems hostile to her. Dr John comes to realise that Ginevra is a silly worthless girl and switches his affections towards Paulina, and they fall in love. Lucy continues to spar with M Paul, and in the end, he tells her he loves her and they get engaged. She sets up her own school, and is prepared to wait for 3 years while he goes to a post in South America - she becomes reasonably prosperous and is prepared to be happy for the first time in her life. HOwever, there is a report of a shipwreck and Paul drowns. Charlotte wanted a sad ending because she did not believe that Lucy was destined for happiness but Mr Bronte was upset by the ending and wanted a happier one. So she made the ending vague, but still its implied that Paul dies and leaves Lucy a spinster. Ginevra marries a vain dandy Alfred De Hamal whom she has been flirting with and who used to sneak into the school gardens to see her. John and Paulina marry. The novel is deeper and more serious than Jane Eyre, or her other novels, but the anti Catholic, anti foreign prejudice makes it somewhat uneven. Lucy is a more cynical sharp tongued character than Jane Eyre and less virtuous than Caroline Helston in Shirley.

Villette II

Lucy has always been rather sharp tongued and not someone who makes friends easily. She does however become friendly with one of the English girls at the school, Ginevra Fanshawe. She doesn't approve of her though. Ginevra is silly, flirtatious and vain and selfish and Lucy continually shows her disapproval. One of the masters, M Paul Emmanuel, is hostile to the English, yet Lucy finds herself being drawn to him. He is bad tempered, melodramatic, and middle aged, but she finds him more honest and likable than the rest of the Catholics at the school. She and he dispute and quarrel but there is a liking between them. A new English doctor becomes the medical attendant for the school, and when Lucy is taken ill during the summer vacation, she collapses and is taken to his house. She finds that she is in the home of her godmother Mrs Bretton, and that Doctor John is her son, now grown up. While staying there she meets Paulina de Bassompierre again, now a young lady, and her father, who has inherited a foreign title.

Villette

Villette is probably Charlotte Bronte's most serious novel. It is set in a fictional country in Europe, based on Belgium. The heroine is Lucy Snowe, an impoverished girl of good birth, who spends her young days being passed around relatives. Lucy lives for a time with Mrs Bretton, a relative who has a charming, good hearted son, John Graham. Mrs Bretton also takes in a little girl, Paulina De Bassompierre, whose father has to go abroad. The child is very sensitive, and grows fond of Graham. After a time, Lucy moves on and loses touch with the Brettons. She get a job as a companion but her employer dies. She has led a very sheltered life but she decides to go abroad and seek a job at a foreign school. However in spite of her apparent desire for adventure, Lucy finds she does not take to foreign life, remaining very much the kind of Briton who thinks themselves superior to foreigners. She is a staunch Protestant. She does not like Madame Beck, who runs the school, believing that she spies of her pupils, and that this is a fault of all Catholics. M/F

The Eustace Diamonds

The Eustace Diamonds is the third novel in the Pallisers series. It is not really about the Pallisers, but it leads into the action of Phineas Redux. Lizzie Eustace is the widow of a baronet, who married Sir Florian Eustace, a dissipated rake, for his money. She has a son by him, and when he dies she inherits his fortune. She becomes well known in London society when she makes a claim to a diamond necklace, stating that Florian gave it to her, while his family claim that it is an heirloom and belongs to the family estate. She is pretty and charming but dishonest and selfish.. She attracts admirers but it seems unlikely that she will find a decent second husband. Then her necklace is stolen. Lizzie is suspected of stealing it for herself. She attracts a lot of notice, and the old Duke of Omnium, now confined to bed and slowly dying, is entertained by the stories about her in the newspaper. Glencora pays her a visit, since she too is inclined to be amused by scandals. Lizzie manages to avoid trouble with the police but the diamonds are gone. She is left alone, and then marries a Mr Emilius, a clergyman who wants her for her money. Lizzie soon realises that he is already married and that he is a scoundrel. This leads up to the plot of Phineas Redux, where Mr Bonteen a Liberal politican, and his wife sympathise briefly with her, and take her into their house. Phineas is at odds with Bonteen so when he is murdered, Finn is the chief suspect. However it is Emilius who has a grudge against Bonteen.

The Duke's Children

Silverbridge has been engaged in a flirtation with Lady Mabel Grex, who is a cousin of Tregear's. She is an earls daughter but does not have much of a dowry. She loves Frank Tregear, but she tries to lure Silverbridge into a proposal, because he is rich and she wants to get married. However while he likes her, he is now in love with Isabel and decides to marry her. Plantagenet gets to know her, and Isabel says that she is in love with Silverbridge, but she does not want to marry him if his father wont accept the marriage. However, Plantagenet's feelings are softening as he gets over his grief, and he finally accepts the 2 love matches that his children want to make and accepts Isabel as his daughter in law. Silverbridge returns to the Liberal party and marries his American bride. Mary marries Tregear. But Plantagenet knows he will never get over Glencora's death.

Palliser novels

When Plantagenet finds out that Glencora had been encouraging Mary's romance he gets angry and keeps his daughter at home and away from her suitor. He feels hurt as it reminds him of how his wife had been in love with another man when they married. He cannot accept that Frank is a decent respectable man, and not a rake like Burgo. He also has quarrels with his 2 sons. Lord Silverbridge, his heir has begun to take an interest in Tory politics, and to consider deserting the Liberal party and becoming a Conservative. Plantagenet is horrified by this, as the Pallisers have been Liberals for generations and he genuinely believes in Liberal ideals, of wanting to help the poorer classes. The 2 boys are young and selfish, enjoying gambling and racing and he worries that they are not taking life seriously, as he always did. He is even more annoyed when Lord Silverbridge meets an American girl who is visiting London and falls in love with her. Isabel Boncassen's father is wealthy but her mother is not a sophistcated woman. Plantagenet feels that she would not fit in as the wife of a future Duke. M/F

Later Palliser novels

The last 2 novels in the Palliser series are the Prime Minister and the Duke's Children. The Prime Minister covers the years when Glencora's children are becoming adults, and Plantagenet becomes Prime minister. He is not really suited to the job, has little ambition and dislikes the socialising and grandeur that goes with it. Glencora enjoys it, she opens up their castle home which is rarely used, holds huge house parties and interferes with politics. The chief character of the novel is Ferdinand Lopez, an ambitious young financier, who wants to get into politics. Glencora, out of boredom, takes a fancy to him and intrigues for him to win an election. This causes a scandal and Plantagenet is angry with his wife but forgives her. Lopez gets into trouble with his investments and kills himself.. and Plantagenet resigns. He and Glencora go abroad, for a long trip and take the children. However soon after they come home, Glencora dies, in her 40s after taking a chill. Plantagenet is distraught as she was almost the only person he could talk to.. He finds that true to her nature she has been plotting on behalf of the children.. doing things he might not approve of. She knows that her only daughter, Mary, is in love with a young man called Frank Tregear, who does not have much money, and she wants to be sure that if Mary's romance with him lasts, she will be able to marry him... Her own early life was blighted by her not being allowed to marry Burgo Fitzgerald.. and she knows that Frank is a decent young man and would make Mary happy. M/F

They Knew Mr Knight Part V

While Thomas is awaiting trial, Douglas goes back to college and says he will try to help his mother financially until his father is out of jail. Ruth gets a job as a secretary and goes on writing a novel in her spare time. Then they learn that Mr Knight has been arrested for fraud.. and shortly after being bailed he goes to his office and shoots himself. Their incubus is gone, albeit without standing trial. Celia and Ruth go back to their old home in the town, and she takes in a lodger to provide a little more money. Then Thomas is tried and gets a one year sentence. Mrs Knight has very little money and is lost without her husband - she never understood his business...However Thomas' sister, Isabel, who has been friendly with her, suggests that she and Mrs Knight sell up her valuables and set up a tea shop in Brighton. Celia feels sorry for Mrs Knight who is not a bad woman, and throws herself into managing her life while waiting for Thomas to get out of jail. She keeps house and Ruth helps, and they are pleased when Ruth's novel is accepted... Just before Thomas' release from prison, Celia has a religious experience, where she realises that material things dont matter, and that she will survive. Thomas is released and they go to the nearby Cathedral... and vow to support and love each other....

They Knew Mr KNight Part IV

Celia starts to feel more and more resentment against Knight, since he seems to be breaking up her family. Freda has become an aimless socialite. Douglas is unhappy because of the loss of his girl, and only Ruth seems happy and not seeking for more. Knight suggests that the Blakes buy out his country house, and Celia is tempted by this. She does not want material possessions but she is happy to get out of the town and to have more space and a more active country life. She enjoys gardening and the women's insititute and is happy for a time, but Thomas is always worrying about money, and he is eager to make more. Knight is launching a new business called Kosmos, and Thomas buys in. The shares go up and up and he is delighted but then abruptly the business crashes. Thomas seeks out Knight for advice and the older man tells him that he has finished wet nursing him and that he wants Blake to repay the money he owes him, immediately or he will sue. Thomas is horrified and realises that Knight is a fraudster who has probalby managed to get out of the business before it collapsed. But he does not know how he is going to pay back his many debts. Celia asks if he can get a loan from the bank, but he will still be in debt. Freda is very upset that she has had a few years of a social life and now she will have to support herself, and she walks out of the house one day and marries Coggy, almost in secret. She does not love him but he is a good natured man and she hopes he will look after her a bit. Celia thinks he is a nice man but weak and foolish, and she hopes her daughter wont regret the hasty marriage. Thomas is desperate and in a wild attempt to borrow enough money to sort himself out, he alters papers in his company's accounts, and then feels guilty and gives himself up to the police. It looks pretty certain that he will go to jail, for fraud.

They Knew Mr Knight Part III

As the children grow up, Celia continues to be uneasy about Wright. She finds that Thomas spends less time at home with his family and more time in the masculine world of business, playing golf with Mr Wright and discussing making money with him. Edward, his younger brother, keeps on losing jobs and infuriates Thomas, and the final straw happens when Freda finds him working at a charity ball as a cloakroom attendant. She is horribly embarrassed and Thomas tells Edward off. He washes his hands of his brother, and Edward, depressed goes to the pub as he often does. He is friendly with the landlady's daughter Carrie and she looks up to him as a gentleman. They become closer and he asks her to marry him. He knows his family will look down on him even more for marrying a pub keeper's daughter and maybe working in the pub himself, but he has reached a point of not caring. Meanwhile, Douglas is leaving school and gets into college, but he decides to study Science instead of engineering...He doesnt tell his parents. Douglas then has a nasty shock when he becomes infatuated with one of the young women who visit Mr Knight's house. She is a model and very beautiful and Douglas is smitten. Then he finds out that she is not an innocent young woman, but she's been Wright's mistress for some time, because he has money. Douglas is disgusted and devotes himself to his studies. Freda continues to be friendly with Mrs Knight and to go to her parties and go around with the aimless but good natured Coggy.

They knew Mr Knight Part II

Celia is not really happy about the friendship that begins to grow between Knight and Thomas. She feels that such a rich successful man can't be relied on. Thomas tells her that she does not understand how much financial worry he has. He has an elderly mother whom he helps out, and a brother, Edward who cant hold down a job. He has his own children to provide for. Mr Knight invites the family to meet his wife... Maud who turns out to be a rather common but good natured woman. She used to be in Music hall and Knight is soemtimes a bit embarrassed by her. She tells Celia and Freda that she does not really want to live outside London and there is nothing to do in their country house. Mr Knight invites friends to stay and Mrs Knight tries to put a brave face on the fact that he is often having an affair with a young woman friend. Over a few years, Thomas's business does fairly well and he gets tips from Mr Knight to increase his wealth by buying shares. Celia still feels uneasy, but Thomas continues to work with Knight, to try and make himself richer. Freda leaves school and she has no real ambitions other than to enjoy herself at social events. Mrs Knight invites her to parties and dances, and Freda makes some upper class friends...However, she had fallen in love with a young man, who married another girl. She goes around with one of his relatives, Coggy, an older man who has no occupation but is at least likable and good natured. Because the family are now better off, Douglas is sent to boarding school. M/F

They Knew Mr Knight By Dorothy Whipple.

This is a novel by Whipple which covers some of her favourite themes. There are 2 families who have little in common, and they become involved. Then the father of one family reveals himself to be a fraudster. Thomas Blake lives with his wife Celia and their 3 children, in a provincial town, where he manages an engineering works. He is a skilled engineer but his father, who owned the business before him, was not a successful businessman and he lost money and had to sell the business to his partner. Thomas was kept on as manager but his salary is moderate and he is worried about money. He also feels that he has been let down, by the fact that he no longer owns the family business. Celia is happy enough with being a housewife with a small house and only one servant. They have 2 daughters, Freda, who is rather vain, and Ruth who wants to be a writer... and a son Douglas who is interested in science. Thomas wants Douglas to become an engineer and succeed him as manager, at least but he knows its very unlikely that he will have the money to buy back the firm. Mr Knight is from the town, and he has gone up in the world to own several businesses and lead a gay social life. He has recently bought a house near the town, Field End. One morning, Thomas is on his way to work by train when he sees Mr Knight also catching a train. Mr Knight slips and almost falls badly and Thomas manages to rescue him. Knight thanks him and they fall into conversation on their train journey. He tells Knight about his work and the problems he has, and on an impulse, Mr Knight offers to help him. He suggests a plan for Thomas to borrow enough money with his backing, to buy out the man who owns the works.

Can you Forgive Her Part III

Glencora keeps meeting Burgo at parties and Lady Monk encourages the romance.. but she feels guilty. However, Burgo asks her to run away with him and they could live as a couple abroad.. Eventually she tells Plantagenet that if they divorced, he could marry someone who might give him a son and who might make him happier than she has done. Plantagenet tells her that he has grown to love her, and that he would rather have her for his wife, even if they had no children, than another woman. She is touched and agrees to try and give their marriage another chance. Plantagenet is then offered a place in Government, but he chooses to give it up, so that he can take Glencora away on a trip to try and get to know each other better. He even agrees to take Alice with them. They go away and travel in Europe for some time, and Glencora grows fonder of him. In Germany however they meet Burgo, who has gone on a gambling trip through the continent, and has lost a lot of money in a casino. Plantagenet goes and talks to him and helps him out, offering to make him a small allowance. Glencora realises that while she will always have feelings for Burgo, Plantagenet is a good man and she has grown to love him... She thanks him for helping her former love, and then she discovers that she is pregnant. They go back to England and Alice marries John Grey, and Glencora has a son, who will be heir to the Dukedom.

Sayers' Later life.

Dorothy's later life was busy but rather lonely. She and Mac did not get along so well, as his drinking and ill health made him bad tempered. Her son got a scholarship to Oxford and she was very proud of him but she could not talk about him to her friends. She was involved with the Church, and wrote several plays for stage and radio, including a life of Jesus cyle of plays, for children, which was well thought of. She liked to eat well and put on more weight, which began to affect her health. Then she found a project which she enjoyed very much, which was to occupy her for the rest of her life. She began a translaton of Dante's Inferno. She became friends with Barbara Reynolds, a lecturer at Oxford who later wrote her biography. She loved the Dante work, and was absorbed in it. She started to read it during the war and it kept her busy for the rest of her life. In 1950, Mac's health became much worse and he died in their home in Witham. She missed him, but it had not been a very happy marriage over all. But he had given her a home and adopted her son...and helped her in her writing career for many years. For 7 years after Mac's death, Dorothy worked on the Dante translation, was involved with St Anne's Church Soho, and kept up with many friends by letter and visits, especially CS Lewis, though she felt he didn't understand women. She and Antony, her son were not close but they kept in touch. She was godmother to her friend Barbara Reynolds, when the latter became a Christian. Then in 1957, she went to town to do some Christmas shopping. On her return to Witham, she collapsed and died, inside her house. Her life was relatively short, she had neglected her health and over worked. But her achievements were extraordinary....

Can you forgive her part II

Glencora submits to her family's pressure but she knows it is wrong for her. She continues to love Burgo and finds it hard to avoid seeing him at social events. She and Plantagenet have little in common and he is dull and shy, and not able to express his emotions easily. Glencora respects him, because he is essentially a good man but she and he are always at odds. Plantagenet works very hard, at his political career and hopes that his wife will produce an heir, but there is no sign of a baby and Glencora has no outlet for her feelings. She asks him to let her invite her distant cousin, Alice to stay.. and he agrees. She feels a little better when she has a confidante but Alice is prudish and awkward and does not understand her cousin very well. Burgo has an aunt, Lady Monk who sympathises with her attractive nephew and feels that he and Glencora should have been allowed to marry...so she offers him help. Burgo begins to make vague plans for running off with her - and living in Europe. Alice starts to see her cousin George again, but she is scared by his violent streak, and knows that John Grey, even if he is quiet and dull, would be a better husband.

Can You Forgive her? A Trollope novel

This is the first of the Palliser novels, and concentrates on the marriage of Glencora M'Cluskie, a very wealthy heiress and Plantagent Palliser a rather dull young man who is heir to the duke of Omnium and who is devoted to a political career. There are also 2 other romances in the book, one about a widow who has 2 suitors, and another about Alice Vavasor, a distant relation of Glencora's. Alice has also got 2 suitors and she is a rather serious dull girl, who leads a very quiet life, rarely going into society. She had been in love with her cousin George Vavasor, a wild young man who has a violent streak and who has political ambitions. However she broke off her relationship with him and for some reason, Trollope feels that this makes her ineligible to marry anyone else. But she has another admirer, John Grey, who like Plantagenet, is dull and leads a very quiet life. ALthough he is clearly a more suitable husband than George, Alice shies away from marrying him. (Even in Victorian times, a broken engagement did not bar a woman from society, so its difficult to know why Trollope made this a plot point). THe book is liked because of the Glencora story. She is young and naive, and she has fallen in love with Burgo Fitzgerald, a rake and gambler. He also cared for her as much as he was capable of caring for anyone.. and wanted to marry her. But her family completely forbade the marriage and to stop her from making a bad match, they pressured her into a marriage with Plantagenet. M/F

Phineas Redux II

Phineas gets into a quarrel with a Mr Bonteen, one of his rivals in the party. Glencora takes up his cause and tries to persuade her husband to support Phineas and not Bonteen. The two men are antagonistic when they meet, and Bonteen snubs Phineas when they meet a gentlemen's club. The Prince of Wales is there so the row is curbed, but soon afterwards, Phineas leaves the club and makes a joke of how much he dislikes Bonteen. He walks part of his way home with his friend Mr Monk, and then goes on alone to his lodgings. The following day, the police arrive, and Phineas is accused of murdering Bonteen who has been discovered dead in an alleyway. He is horrified but he's taken into custody. The bad feeling between the men and the fact that he does not have an alibi means he goes to trial. Phineas has support from his society friends but he fears that some may believe him guilty. He finds that Laura's husband has died, and she comes to visit him in prison. She tries to support him but she is emotional and weepy. Meanwhile, Marie Goesler and Glencora have been doing some detective work. Bonteen and his wife had supported Lizzie Eustace who has (after a scandal of her diamonds being stolen) married a foreign clergyman, Mr Emilius. He treated her cruelly and she left him. Mrs Bonteen had some sympathy for her and because of this Emilius was known to have a grudge against him. Marie goes to Prague, where its believed that Emilius has a wife whom he has deserted, and she finds a locksmith who made a key for him, so that he could get in and out of his lodging house. Armed with this evidence, she brings it back to London where Phineas' trial is not going well. Mme Goesler's evidence about the latch key however clears him and he is pronounced not guilty. Emilius is to be arrested. Phineas is badly shaken by his ordeal, and he goes home to his lodgings, to the kindly woman who has been his housekeeper, Mrs Bunce. He is hurt that he could not be sure if his friends really believed in him, and he feels badly about his anger at Bonteen. He does not want to go into society, but after a while, he accepts an invitation to Matching, where Glencora lives. She has now become Duchess of Omnium as the old Duke has died. Mme Goesler is staying there as she often does, and on an impulse, Phineas proposes to her. She accepts him, and they begin to make plans for marriage. She tells him that she was proposed to by the old Duke and refused him. He and she happily look forward to a successful political career.

Phineas Redux

Phineas Redux is set a couple of years after the time of Phineas Finn, when Finn goes back to Ireland and marries Mary Flood Jones. He is not that happy in Ireland after a few years living in London society and the London political world. But he loves Mary... and she becomes pregnant. However she dies in childbirth, and he is alone again. His father also dies, leaving him with a little money, and he decides to try his luck again in England. Things have changed since he left. Laura Kennedy's marriage has become increasingly unhappy and it seems that Robert has suffered a mental breakdown... and his religious mania has increased. In desperation, Laura leaves him and goes abroad to Germany with her father, where he cannot easily pursue her. Violet Effingham has married Chiltern, who has settled down and become a Master of Foxhounds, a job that gives him an outlet for his energy. Phineas feels more cheerful at the prospect of moving back to England and his old friends seem pleased to see him. He goes to Germany to visit Laura, and Lord Brentford asks his advice for her situation. Phineas says that she would problaby be better to go to the Divorce Court in England and get a legal separation - however he has visited Kennedy, who is clearly quite mad, and Laura does not want to go back -. Then Kennedy's mother takes him back to Scotland and looks after him and Laura begins to feel that she could face going home again. But her position as a runaway wife means that she will not be able to enter into society. Phineas stands for election, and wins his seat but his problem of needing a job is still there. He finds that he is quite popular iwith the ladies of the Liberal set, including Glencora Palliser but it rather annoys him as he knows that being the "Ladies' pet" is going to make male Liberals hostile to him.

Phineas Finn Part II

Phineas is a Roman Catholic which makes him unusual in Victorian upper class England. He is hard working and intelligent - but his lack of money means he has to rely on influential friends to give him a start in politics. He is upset when Laura turns him down and tells him she's going to marry Robert Kennedy. However, soon after they marry, she begins to realise she has made a mistake. Kennedy is very puritanical and a Presbyterian, and he is a strict husband. He is suspicious of Phineas and does not like his wife being friendly with him. He also grows resentful of Laura's wanting a role as a political hostess, and tries to curb her, and she becomes angrier with him. Phineas is not quite forbidden the house but he has a stroke of luck when Kennedy is attacked by garotters in the street one night, and he happens to be around and is able to rescue the older man. Kennedy feels he owes Phineas some gratitude so he allows the friendship with Laura to continue. Phineas then meets Violet Effingham, a cousin of Laura's, who is very pretty and charming and he begins to pay court to her. However Violet has always been in love with Lord Chiltern, but has not pursued the relationship because she is afraid of him. He is wild and selfish and she is quiet and shy. She likes Phineas and is a little tempted by him. Chiltern does not take this well and he challenges his friend to a duel. After the duel, they get over their differences and remain friends. Phineas still has problems since he is an MP but he needs a government job to support him, as MPs were not paid then. He also has become friendly with Marie Goesler, a wealthy Viennese widow who has become part of the upper crust circle in recent months. She has attracted the attention of the old Duke of Omnium, who wants to marry her. However she ends by promising Glencora Palliser that she will not marry him, as Glencora's son is his heir. But she has been attracted to Phineas, and offers him herself and her fortune in order to help him with his political career. He is attracted to her, but is still loosely involved with Mary Jones, and in the end decides to go back to Ireland and marry her. He turns down Mme Goesler. Through his connextions in England he gets a job in Ireland which will provide him with a thousand a year and that's enough for him to marry on. He returns to Ireland and marries Mary.

Phineas Finn and Phineas Redux

Its many years since I read the Trollope Palliser series, but I still remember the books. The second book is about Phineas Finn, an Irishman who decides to try his fortune in England and becomes an MP. However he is not from a rich family. His father is a country doctor and Phineas has trained as a lawyer but has not much prospect of inheriting any money. He has good looks and charm however and is a nice natured young man.. and he soon attracts ladies in his new circle in London. Laura Standish is the daughter of an earl, and her brother, Lord Chiltern is a wild young man who has a bad reputation but he and Phineas become friendly. Phineas falls in love with Laura, and manages to forget that there was a pretty girl in Ireland that he had been flirting with... Mary Flood Jones. However Laura decides that she cannot get involved with Phineas, because he has no money, and she has given up her dowry to pay off her brother's debts. So she accepts a proposal from Robert Kennedy, a Scottish MP, who is very wealthy, but puritanical and gloomy.

2 novellas

There are 2 novellas available on Amazon... Rough Music, a story about a band and Beds and Blue Jeans, a story about a Nashville Bar singer.

Jilly Cooper

Jilly was born Jilly Sallitt, in Yorkshire in 1937. Her parents were middle class, and gave her a good education. After school, she got a job as a junior reporter and also worked at other writing type jobs like publishing. She loved puns and humour and soon got a column in a paper where she wrote about sex marriage, class and housework. She married in 1962 to a Yorkshire man, Leo Cooper who was a publisher of military books and history. He was divorced. They lived in Putney and Wimbledon, and after some years they moved out to the country. She and Leo adopted a son and a daughter. She had begun to write short romantic novels, which were sexier than had been common, at that stage. In the early 80s she began to write longer books, which she called bonk busters. They were set in glamorous worlds like show jumping, opera and the like, and were about the messy personal lives of the characters. She also compiled books about poetry and literature about love and marriage. She and Leo lived in Gloucestershire, and became friends with the horsey set there, including Camilla Parker Bowles. Jilly was a supporter of the Conservative Party in the 80s. Her marriage had its ups and downs. Leo was revealed as having had a long affair with another publisher and Jilly split up with him, but after a time they reconciled. Her books sold well and some were made into TV serials. She was warm hearted and kindly, and well liked. She loved animals and country life and some of her books were about her dogs and living near Wimbledon common where she walked them. Her husband died in 2013 and Jilly herself died a few weeks ago, after a fall, at the age of 88

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 This is a story about a country rock band in the USA set in the 1970s. It is not a love story, but a story about music, and compromise and real life. The band has 2 lead singers, who are good friends. Both of them want to do good music as well as make money, and they are in constant dispute with their manager. They are just getting away from their start as a bar band, beginning to do well, appearing on the Grand Old Opry and on TV, and touring a lot. The touring cements their friendship, but it doesn't do much good for their marriages, as they party a lot and are frequently unfaithful. Then Jeff, the leader, finds out that one of his affairs has had consequences.

Gay Byrne

Gay and his wife adopted 2 daughters, and a few years after the Late Late started, he also undertook a radio programme, called the Gay Byrne Hour, which broadcast in the middle of the morning, Monday to Friday. Again it was light entertainment, music, jokes, lively news stories.. but again it became more serious and became a focus for Irish people to write in and discuss issues. Gay got a letter from a woman listener (most of the audience were stay at home wives) describing her silent marriage, where she and her husband did not speak to each other and communicated via their children. He said how sad it was, and then was inundated with letters describing the same problem, a silent marriage where 2 people had grown to dislike or hate each other but had no prospect of divorce. Another issue, even more tragic, came along in the early 80s where a young girl in a country village gave birth to her baby alone, in a field, and both of them died. Gay again found that he got hundreds of letters about this, about the shame that an illegitimate birth still caused in rural Ireland, and about young girls some under age, had pregnancies and attempted to abort themselves or were forced to give the child up or to bear the child in secret. People who had had nowhere to turn, in the secretive society of Ireland were able to write in and pour out their woes to Gay.. and it sparked off discussion. The Late Late Show, while still being a fun to watch chat show, discussed issues like homosexuality, contraception, AIDS, sexual molestation and rape, women's issues and the like. There were also unusual shows where all the audience were priests. Gay was not really a card carrying liberal.. he tended towards middle class conservatism in many ways but he had an instinct for what people wanted to see and how Ireland was changing... He was also willing to be critical of the Catholic church when it still held a lot of sway over the people. In the 1980s Gay had a major disaster when he found that his accountant had been stealing from him and he had lost a lot of money. He considered leaving Ireland, when he was offered a talk show job in the US which would pay much better. However in the end he felt he was happiest in Dublin where he was well known and had a close circle of friends who were loyal to him.. and he did not go to America. He retired from the Late Late show eventually and it was taken over by other presenters. He continued to work in broadcasting, doing a music programme and being involved in various projects. He had a tv show where people talked about their religious beliefs... which was much admired. He gave up the radio show as well, but he continued to work. In 2019, he died of cancer, much admired and loved...

Gay Byrne and Irish history

I hope to write a blog about the late broadcaster Gay Byrne, who was one of the best known hosts of a talk show and was an important figure in Irish life for decades. Gay was from a modest background, his father worked in Guinness's brewery, and he was one of 6 children. He was bright but not academic and there were no opportunities for him to go to University at the time. He was born in 1934 and was educated at the Christian brothers' school, in Synge St. He was turned down for a job in Guinness, and went into insurance to earn a living. However he was friendly with another broadcaster Eamon Andrews, and he went to work for Granada TV in England. He then spent some time in the BBC and was offered a position as host of a chat show, which was meant as a summer filler for RTE the new Irish TV service. He still had a contract with British TV and spent some time commuting between the 2 countries on a weekly basis. The Late Late Show was meant to be light entertainment, with music, chat, and light hearted debates. However it did not stay that way and began to cover more serious issues. Gay married Kathleen Watkins, a continuity announcer and after a time he settled in Dublin, and his show became increasingly popular. M/F

God Rest Ye Royal Gentlemen, By Rhys Bowen

This is one of the more recent books in the Royal Spyness mysteries, featuring upper class girl Georgiana Rannoch, a relative of the Royal Family... and her husband Darcy OMara. Georgie's mother is a former actress who has been married several times and her maternal Grandfather is a retired policeman. But on her father's side, she is a cousin to the King. It is 1935 and the King, George V, is in very poor health. Georgie wonders what will happen when his son David inherits, as he is still in love with Mrs Simpson. It is her first Christmas after her marriage and she and Darcy plan to spend it quietly in the house given to her by her mother's ex husband. But Fate intervenes. She is asked by Darcy's elderly aunt, Lady Aysgarth to visit her - she has been widowed and has recently gone to live in a house on the Sandringham estate, as she used to be a lady in waiting to the queen, Mary. She and Darcy have invited a few people to share their Christmas, including her mother, Claire, and her brother and sister in law, Binky and Hilda (known as Fig) and their 2 children. Georgie's grandfather decides not to go, as he is awkward with upper class people, so he stays in her new home, where he will enjoy himself more. When they get to Lady Aysgarth's house, Wymondham, she welcomes them and they meet her other guests. She is an eccentric lady who fancies herself as an artist. She had an unhappy marriage, and lived for years in isolation in Yorkshire; she and her husband had no children and then he died. They learn that David, the king's eldest son was away skiing with Mrs Simpson, and that he has grudgingly come home because his mother is worried about the state of the Kings health. The holiday starts well but the King is clearly very ill, and the queen wants him to enjoy himself at Sandringham, as he may not have much longer. Then incidents start to happen and Georgie learns that someone was killed at a shoot the previous Christmas. People are now being injured or killed and it is looking like the attacks are directed at the Prince of Wales. Darcy takes it seriously and wonders if it is a terrorist attack on the future king or something more personal. Then evidence begins to point to his Aunt Ermintrude, their hostess and his mother's sister. Darcy adored his mother who died young and he can't quite make himself believe that his aunt could kill anyone or make an attack on the heir to the throne. Georgie wonders if it could be Lady Aygarth's companion, who is a mousy shy little woman.. but she and Darcy go out to the lake which is frozen and find that Ermintrude has come after them and she admits that she was the one who killed people, in her attempts to kill the Prince and Mrs Simpson. She had a horrible unfaithful husband and she is out to get other selfish unfaithful men and to stop the scandal of the Prince marrying his divorced mistress. Darcy, attempting to take her in, falls into the lake and she says she will finish him off. Georgie manages to rescue her husband but cannot save Ermintrude. However she thinks that perhaps it is for the best, as she had become completely unhinged and was facing either life in an institution or hanging. Georgie speaks to Queen Mary, who tells her that she was worried about Ermintrude who had an unhappy life and it clearly drove her mad. She agrees to try and find a job for her companion and says that she is giving the Wymondham house to her youngest son George, so the servants can be kept on. Georgie returns home with Darcy. She has been married now for several months and has been a bit worried that she has no sign of a baby yet. Then she feels ill, calls a doctor and finds out she is pregnant. They are very happy... then news comes that the King has died. So David is now the King. They wonder what the future will bring.

Gaudy Night Finale Part II

Peter is summoned back to a diplomatic mission, but before he goes Harriet goes to the room of Miss De VIne, the history tutor. She finds the room in darkness, and suddenly is attacked. Having the collar on protects her but she is knocked out and has to go to hospital. Peter has to leave soon but he tells Harriet that he can explain the mystery now and they have a meeting with the Dons. He reveals that the poison pen writer is Annie, one of the Scouts. He has found out her history, how she was married to a young academic, of a better class. She was his land lady's daughter. He was called Arthur Robinson. He had submitted an MA thesis to his college, and Miss De Vine was the examiner. The dons are astonished because Annie seemed a quiet refined little woman, a widow with 2 children who are boarded out. The head of college says that she wants Annie to be called in to hear the accusations against her. It turns out that Robinson cheated on his thesis, finding some evidence that contradicted it, and hiding it because he didn't want to have to write it all again. Miss De Vine exposed him and he lost his chance to be an MA. He went downhill, and lost his job and killed himself, leaving Annie very poor. In anger she clearly decided to pursue the woman who had as she saw it hounded him to death and she hated all academic women. She tells Peter that she did it and she'd do it again. That she despises middle class women like the dons who neglect their husbands and take on men's work... and who dont know what real hard work is. She breaks down, and is led away, and Peter is shaken. He wishes he had been able to stop the scene. Afterwards, Harriet apologises to Peter for getting upset and angry, and they go to a concert together. She tells him that the dons have decided not to prosecute Annie who was clearly a highly nervous case and could not understand why the academics reacted as they did. They will treat it as a medical case. Peter tells her that he is sorry for his behaviour over the last 5 years, of chasing her when she kept telling him she did not want to marry him. He was selfish and unkind. She says that she was sick of herself and could not respond to loving advances. But being at Oxford has given her back her self respect. He tells her that he will propose once more and whatever she says he will respect it. He asks her to marry him, in Latin and she says yes. But Peter has to go abroad on his diplomatic business, leaving her iwith his signet ring.....

Gaudy Night Final

I started to blog about Gaudy Night some time ago but lost track of it. The action of the novel is largely set in Oxford, where Harriet Vane goes to her old college to investigate an outbreak of poison pen letters. She collects some information and meets a young student several years her junior, who starts to pay court to her. She writes to Peter and tells him she is doing a private investigation.. and he seems interested but he has to go abroad. She wonders what he is up to but begins to be increasingly worried about the incidents at the college. She keeps trying to urge the dons to let her hire a professional detective, but they refuse. Then one of the more nervous students tries to commit suicide and she persuades them to let her call in Peter.. who is back from his trip abroad. He comes to see her and reads her documentation of the goings on at college. They get on much better than they had done before and she is surprised to find that he does odd jobs for the Foreign office, and realises that she had never cared enough to take any interest in what he did when he was not detecting. Peter is concerned about her safety and suggests that when she is patrolling the college at night, she wears a protective collar.

Steven Saylor Detective writer

Steven Saylor is an American author who was educated at the University of Texas. He writes historical novels about ancient Rome and a series of detective novels set in the time of Julius Caesar. The detective is Gordianus the Finder. Steven is gay and married. He has also written a couple of modern novels.

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton

This story is available on Amazon. It is a modern story of country music life in Nashville, about a young bar singer called Sam who plays for tips and makes a living at it. He and his girlfriend have had a baby, and their relationship is not going well. Sam finds himself tempted by fans in the bars, but he feels a bit guilty about it, and wonders if he can make his relationship work.

Mystical Paths VI

Perry reveals that he has a gun and tells Rachel and Nick that he had been in love with Christian but that Christian had rejected him. But before he can shoot them Rachel hits him on the head and klls him. She is horrified by what she has done, and Lewis turns up to save the day. He is angry with Nick for getting her involved in this situation and decides to cover up the crime for her sake. Nick goes along with it and they get away with it. Its adjudged that Perry was killed by a hitchhiker. However Rachel is traumatised by the horrible experience and does not want to see Nick ever again. Chastened, Nicholas accepts that he's made a lot of dreadful mistakes, and he accepts Lewis as his mentor. He marries Rosalind but the marriage has its ups and downs. He looks after Jon till his death and goes on with the ministry of healing.

Mystical Paths Part V

Nick realises that Lewis is an expert on the paranormal and that he can help him to cope with his problems... just as Cuthbert Darcy was a mentor to Jon. He and Lewis have long talks and Nick begins to understand that while his father is a wonderful man in many ways, he has his faults, and one of them is that he cannot really cope with family life. Lewis advises him that he may well be suited to a ministry of healing.. that just because Jon did not make a success of it does not mean that he will be a failure at it. Nicholas also has to admit that his sexual relationships have been very selfish and wrong minded, using working class girls to satisfy his needs while dating posh girls. He begins to wonder if his decision to investigate Christian's death was to try and avoid his own doubts about whether he should be ordained or not, and what field to work in. However he and Lewis still decide to look into his death. They visit London and see Perry Palmer, Christian's best friend who had taken him sailing and was on the boat when he was washed overboard. Perry is a quiet rather dull man who works in the Foreign office and there are rumours that he might have an intelligence job. When they call on him, Perry seems very stressed out. Lewis tries to approach him tactfully but Nick pushes him and tries to persuade him to talk to Lewis. This puts Perry on his guard. Annoyed, Lewis takes Nick back to his own home in Starmouth, to keep him quiet, and he introduces him to his daughter Rachel who is a beautiful languages student. Nick is very attracted to her. He persuades Rachel to work with him to catch a murderer. Perry arrives in Starmouth and makes it clear that he was involved in Christian's death, and Nick guesses that the body is hidden in the coal cellar of Perry's flat.

Mystical Paths Part IV

Nicholas then starts to think about how Christian might have gotten out of the life he was leading... and comes up with the idea that (given his religious background) he could have decided to join the Fordite Monks, under an assumed name. He had studied theology, and although he had earlier professed to be an agnostic, Nick thinks that he might have changed his mind as he found that his worldly success did not satisfy him. He could have become a monk, gotten away from the cloying attentions of women, and led a life of scholarship in a monastery. Nick goes back to his father's monastery to pursue the investigation but then he has a weird experience, believing that he saw a monk in the garden who resembled Christian.. who then disappeared. He gets frightened by this apparent supernatural experience and the Prior sends for a local expert in the paranormal, to help calm him down. He meets Lewis Hall.

Mystical Paths Part III

Nick talks to Katie alone and she tells him that the marriage was not that happy. Christian found her boring after the initial romance had faded, and he became involved with Marina Markhampton. He was not having sex with her because Marina did not like sex, but she kept him amused and happy and she and Katie were fond of each other. Katie can't bear to think that Christian might have committed suicide but she does not quite believe he died in an accident. In their emotional conversation, Nick finds himself trying to console Katie by making love to her. Afterwards he feels disgusted with himself and leaves. Marina takes Katie home and gets her into a nursing home. Nick goes on with his investigation, talking to Christian's brothers, James and Norman. He also talks to Charley Ashworth, Charles' son who is now a curate in a rural parish, and finds to his shock that Christian had had a brief affair with Nick's own half brother Martin, who is a gay actor. He pursues his brother who does not want to talk about it but eventually admits that he was in love for a time with Christian but that Christian ended the affair brutally. He thinks that Christian was a self hating homosexual. Nick is not so sure but as they discuss things, he begins to wonder if Christian had indeed faked his own death, with the help of his boating friend Perry, who worked in the Civil service... This begins to seem plausible that Christian, bored with his life and his marriage but lacking the courage to make an open break, had decided to get out of the rat race by disappearing.

Mystical Paths Part II

Nick is at a loose end. He had decided to go on a gap year before Theological College. So he went off to Africa to work for a Christian organisation. That did not work out and he came home to work in a charity in Starmouth. That too did not work out and Nick went on to Theological college and is now waiting to be ordained. He is a bit bored, and although he feels guilty about it, he engages in a sex life.. though he knows his father would disapprove strongly. He goes on dates with nice upper class girls, but have his flings with working class girls. In hopes of making himself more respectable, prior to ordination he gets engaged to Rosalind Maitland, a nice upper class girl, who does flower arranging. He is very unsure about her and this is why when Marina tells him about Katie, he decides to try and help her. He talks to Katie and finds that she is doing heroin, and that she's a complete mess, and perhaps the only way to bring her closure is by finding out whether CHristian died by accident or might have committed suicide.

Mystical Paths part I.

This is the 5th Novel in the Starbridge series and like Glamorous Powers its not one of my favourites. Im uneasy with the supernatural tendency. It is set in the 1960s, and it follows the early life of Nicholas Darrow, Jon Darrow's son by his second marriage. Nick has some of his father's psychic gifts.. He has visions, and finds conventional religion dry and boring. His father has always wanted him to go into the church, but because he himself made a mess of his ministry of healing, he feels that Nick should not go in for that area of work. Nick's mother, Anne, an upper class girl many years Jon's junior, died in middle age, and that removed her robust common sense from the family. Nick feels her loss. He is like his father in being a loner, and he's annoyed when he gets pushed into the set of socialites headed by Marina Markhampton, a beautiful upper class girl who has been living temporarily in the Cathedral Close. He does like Venetia Flaxton who is at that time, Marina's flatmate. Then a tragedy occurs in the group. Christian Aysgarth Neville's eldest son, takes up sailing and is drowned. Marina comes to visit Nicholas and tells him that Katie, Christian's wife, is a total mess and she thinks that Katie needs to find out exactly what happened to her husband or she will never recover.

Constance Markievicz Part II

Constance continued to balance between Dublin society and her new nationalist friends. She tended at times to irritate both sides of the divide. Casimir visited his home in Poland and pursued his artistic interests. Gradually the couple grew apart. Maeve, their daughter was brought up by the Gore Booth family and rather resented her mother's involvement in her own pursuits. She felt that Con saw her once a year, and was fun to be with but then she was off about her own life. Con felt that the children of the poor needed her more than her own daughter. In 1916, she was one of the women who were involved in the Rising, some worked as couriers, or nurses. But Con was used to handling guns and she took a more active part. She led a troop and fought in the Rising. She was sentenced to death, but was reprieved because of her sex. After a period in prison she went on with her fight for Irish freedom, but when the Treaty was debated she took the Anti Treaty side with Eamon De Valera.. and went on opposing the Treaty. THis led to the Irish Civil war which caused a bitter divide in the Irish political nation. Constance was much loved by the Irish poor, because she gave up such wealth as she had to support the Republican cause and to help the poverty stricken. For some time she contintued to oppose the Treaty and like the other TDs in De Valera's party she refused to take her seat in the Dail. However it was an unrealistic position, and could not go on indefinitely. In 1927, Kevin O'Higgins, a prominent minister in the Free State Government, was shot on his way from Mass, and WT Cosgrave, the Prime Minister, brought in a bill that stated that all TD's must take their seats and that meant taking an Oath to the British King. Constance was very reluctant to do this, but De Valera was more hard headed and decided that now the oath was merely "an empty formula" and that he and his TDs would take it. He found a way of wriggling round his conscience.. and led his party into the Dail. However Constance died before she had to face this dilemma. She had had health problems and had 2 operations for appendicitis and she died in a ward for the poor, on 15th July. Less than a month Later, Fianna Fail entered the Dail. Constance was often naive and foolish, but she had a warm heart and devoted herself to the cause she had chosen... and gave away most of her possessions to die with the poor. Her husband had gone back to the Ukraine but he came to see her before she died.

Glamorous Powers Part IV

Jon begins to get on better in the church, and he then finds that his children both turn up for a visit. He tells Martin that he is aware that he has many faults and he'll try and be a better father.. and the 2 of them begin a better relationship. Martin likes Anne as she likes literature and plays and he's an actor. Ruth visits and tells her father that her husband has been having an affair but she is trying to make the marriage work. Jon begins to feel closer to his children and to Ruth's 2 young children. After a few months, he is offered a job at the Theological college and he decides that in spite of his previously shying away from teaching because his father wanted him to be a teacher, he will take on the job. He begins to enjoy the job, but then Anne tells him she is pregnant again. Their baby will be born at Christmas. Jon finds that he feels very ambivalent. He wants another child, and hopes that if they have a son, it will make up a bit for the loss of their first child Gerald.. and make Anne happy. But he's scared. He wonders if this child will be the one in the vision.. but resolves to do his best.

Glamorous Powers III

Jon is shaken and embarrassed by his breakdown, in front of a crowd, but he tells Francis he must go to Anne at once. He Meets Alan Romaine at the hospital, the doctor who is Charles Ashworth's natural father. Anne has her baby, a boy, but the child is premature and having breathing difficulties. Jon baptises him and realises that he is going to die. He is shaken and grieved by the infant's short life. He talks to Alan and Francis, and tells Francis that he never got on with his own father. His father was a schoolteacher and wanted him to teach and he resented being pressured. Also his father did not send for him in time when his beloved mother died. when he sees Anne, he and she come to an understanding. She tells him she loves him - and he has always been scared that any woman he loved would leave him, like his mother did. Francis is sympathetic to Jon now, and tries to help him cope with the loss of the baby and his breakdown, but he advises his friend that he should go back to his role as parish priest and try and do better this time. Jon feels at first he cannot face the humiliation of having to admit his own folly and mistakes but Francis is insistent. He starts to try again to be a good husband to his wife and not to treat her like a child bride, and he returns to the parish work. He realises that he made mistakes in pursuing the healing services, that they were a boost for his ego but not really good for him. He also understands that he was wrong in trying to push his congregation into Anglo Catholic practices and he begins to adopt the Middle of the Road services that were more popular in the church of England.

Glamorous Powers Part II

Francis has taken on the role of mentor to Jon.. and tells him that he was sure that he would fall in love - albeit he had led a celibate life for many years and seemed fulfilled by it. Jon feels however that he cannot propose to Anne unless he has some kind of job and an income. He manages to get a position as clergyman of the Starbridge Parish where Anne lives as the previous clergyman had joined the army. However being used to worshipping in a monastery he finds parish life difficult. People disagree with him, especially with his Anglo Catholic views.. and he finds that many of the parish ladies seem to take a fancy to him and pester him with their innocent but tiresome attentions. Francis not being mystic minded, finds Jon's claims to have visions somewhat off putting.. and he thinks that Jon should have looked for a job teaching, rather than becoming a parish priest. However Jon dislikes the idea of teaching, since his own father, with whom he had a difficult relationship was a teacher. There is a theological college in Starbridge but Jon shies away from it. He believes that he has a gift for healing, but he knows that Cuthbert Darcy and Francis Ingram feel that healing is a very difficult calling and that the healer needs to be very humble and Jon is a proud and arrogant man by nature. Jon finds that his children are not too happy with the idea of his getting married again. Ruth resents him marrying an upper class woman. But he and Anne marry and for a short time they are happy enough. But Anne begins to resent Jon's dislike of socialising and she finds that his Anglo Catholic views are causing dissension in the parish, of which she is an active member. She becomes pregnant and Jon feels very ambivalent, as he knows he was not a good father to his children, and he's not sure if he can do better now. He has a vision of a child, called Nicholas, and wonders if this is a sign from God that he will have a son who will make him happy. Accidentally he gets involved in a healing situation again... He helps a cleaning lady in the church who has a bad back.. and he begins to hold healing services. This gives his ego a boost but again it causes dissension. He is under a lot of strain and then collapses at a healing service in front of everyone, and in the ensuing crush to get out, Anne falls and starts in premature labour.

Glamorous Powers by Susan Howatch

Glamorous Powers is the 2nd novel in the Starbridge series...It is set during World War II, and the narrator is Jon Darrow, an Anglo Catholic priest who has counselled Charles Ashworth during his breakdown. Jon has a mystical streak and he sometimes has visions, and concentrates on the supernatural side of religion. At the start of the novel, he is the Abbot of the Fordite monks, but he had been married in his young days, and produced 2 children, Ruth and Martin. He is now 60 and has just lost his mentor, the arrogant Fr Cuthbert Darcy... and then he has a vision which makes him believe that God wants him to give up his monk's life and become a priest in the world again. He has to go to London to see the head of the order, Fr Francis Ingram, who has been a rival of his for many years, with both of them vying for senior posts. Francis is upper class and Jon who comes from a humble background, has a bit of a chip on his shoulder about his fellow monk's superiority in class.. Francis talks to him about his past and his religious life and he learns that Jon's marriage was not a happy one. He married largely to have a permitted sex life, and married a girl whose father kept a small shop. Betty was a rather silly woman and she and Jon did not get on well, and she died when her children were young. Jon waited till they were grown up and then went into the Fordites, and he doesnt get on too well with his children... Martin his son is homosexual and has a drink problem. He became an actor, and he and Jon rarely meet. After some in depth conversations Francis tells Jon that he thinks the vision is indeed a sign that he's meant to leave the order. Jon visits his daughter for a few weeks and does not get on too well with her either. He then goes to a hotel which caters to clerical people and students and tries to adjust to the world outside and the war. In the hotel he meets a young woman, 20 years his junior, who is plain but interesting. She owns a small estate and manages it herself, and she and Jon fall in love.