Little Women Part II

Jo is rather jealous when Laurie tells her that John Brooke, his tutor seems to be falling in love with Meg. Her older sister likes John, but feels she is too young to marry. Then bad news comes from the South, Mr March is very ill and Mrs March has to go to him in hospital. Mr Lawrence sends John Brooke with her, as an escort, and Hannah, the maid is to look after the girls. Beth has been the one who most visited the Hummel family. When she visits, she finds that their baby is very ill and the child dies. The doctor tells Mrs Hummel that all the children have scarlet fever and that Beth might well get it too. The March girls all feel guilty that none of them visited the Hummels on a regular basis. Beth, who is delicate, has been exposed to infection. Meg and Jo have had the fever earlier, so Amy is sent away to Aunt March, to keep her safe. Beth becomes ill and Hannah and her older sisters nurse her. She worsens and Laurie decides to send for Mrs March. Jo realises that Beth may be close to dying. Then he tells her that he has sent for her mother and she will be there soon... Beth survives the crisis, and Mrs March comes home, and looks after her daughter. Beth recovers, and at Christmas, shortly afterwards, Mr March is able to come home. Mr Brooke proposes to Meg who accepts him.

Little Women By Louisa May Alcott

Little Women is the most famous novel by Alcott, based on her own family life. It is a coming of age story about 4 sisters and begins during the Civil War. Louisa's family were poor, because her father, Bronson Alcott was very bad at making a living. He had high ideals but was not practical at all. The family had to depend on help from outside and the girls and Mrs Alcott working. Louisa wrote wild improbable stories, and made a little money with them, but her simple moral tale of the Marches was her big success. The story of the March family is set during the Civil War. It starts with their father being in the army as a chaplain and away from home. He was a well to do man but lost his money, when the children were small and now, the 2 older daughters Meg and Josephine or Jo, have had to get jobs. Upper and middle class women did not work as a rule, but Meg has become a governess to some rich children and Jo acts as companion to her rich but cranky Aunt March. Amy, the youngest is rather spoiled and has some talent for art, and goes to school while Beth is very shy and studies at home as she hates to go to school. It is Christmas, and Mrs March, who does a lot of work for soldiers' charities,tells them that she has found a family starving and cold. She asks them to give up their Christmas breakfasts to the children. They agree, as they are very good hearted and they form a relationship with the poor immigrant family. Nearby, there is a rich old man, Mr Lawrence, who lives with his grandson, Laurie. He is an India merchant and wants his grandson to go into the business. Laurie is not keen and wants to be a musician. The March girls have few male relations so they are a little wary of Laurie, but Jo who is boyish, feels sorry for him being lonely. A friendship begins and Laurie visits the Marches. Since Jo encourages him, he tries to apply himself to his studies and agrees to go to college when he is older. Meg gets occasional invitations to mix in local society, but she finds it difficult as she is poor and can't afford dresses. She knows too that her mother also disapproves of flirting or dressing too fashionably so she does not fit in well. Jo has her trials. She loves to write and to take an interest in boyish sports, and her family disapprove of the boyishness. She has a quick temper and is often sharp with people. She also disapproves of "society people" who lead a frivolous life. The girls all have burdens to deal with. Beth has to overcome her shyness a little to visit Mr Lawrence and play his piano, she is rewarded when he gives her a small piano of her own. Amy gets into trouble at school for disobedience and is punished, but she leaves school and studies at home. She and Jo have a terrible row when Jo refuses to take her young sister to a play - she burns one of Jo's stories in a temper. Jo becomes angry as well, and fails to tell her that the ice on the pond is not safe for skating when she goes with Laurie. Amy falls in and Laurie rescues her and Jo realises that she has to control her temper better and not bear grudges.

Novella by Nadine Sutton, Rough Music

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=18GXCTQGW919B&keywords=nadine+sutton+rough+music&qid=1693668929&sprefix=nadine+sutton+rough+music%2Caps%2C329&sr=8-1 This is a long novella, about a country rock band. It's set in the late 1970s and is about a band who are on the way up. The 2 lead singers Jeff Randles and Brandon, are both unfaithful husbands, and they try to make compromises between doing good work and making money..They used to be a bar band but are now enjoying some success on TV and at the Opry but they are always trying to make real music and help people. But the price of success and fame is a lot of touring and it means that they seek solace in sleeping around and taking drugs.

Moors Murders - Beyond Belief and other books

I have been re reading a book about the Moors murders, by Emlyn Williams. It came out many years ago, soon after the couple were tried and imprisoned. Williams wrote in novelistic fashion, rather than in a non fiction format, and he has been criticised for this. But much of what he wrote seems to be correct. He interviewed many people who were involved with Brady and Hindley. New information has come to light but overall he seems to have gotten things right. He got to know David Smith, who was Myra's brother in law, and he also interviewed other people. David was the one who betrayed the couple to the police. Hindley and Brady killed 5 children and teenagers, but Brady lured Smith to his house to help with the murder of the last victim. David Smith, while he helped to clean up after the murder, was shaken to his core. He played along but when he got out of the house, he ran home to his own flat, terrified. He was sick. He and his wife Maureen decided that they had to go to the police. He was a tough lad, who had a temper and had been in trouble often with the law, but the barbaric killing horrified him. Brady attacked the boy, Edward Evans with an axe. In spite of the style, it is an interesting book. David and Maureen went to the police at first light, calling from a coin box. The young couple who were only 16 and 18 years old, were so terrified that they hurried into the police car and could hardly speak. Then the police raided Myra's house before she and Ian were due to leave for work in the morning. They found the dead body of Evans, a young apprentice whom they had brought to their house and slaughtered. Ian had boasted to David about having killed other kids. He told the lad that he had stood on the grave of one of them, on the moors. David had thought it was just a drunken joke on Brady's part. However, after seeing murder committed before his eyes, he took it seriously and told the police that other bodies might well be buried on the moor. He added that Brady had guns, so they had to be careful going into the house. So the police officer borrowed a bread man's white coat, to ring the doorbell. The police used photographs that Myra and Ian had taken, to try and locate the areas on the moor where the bodies might be. After a long search, they found the pathetic bodies of John Kilbride and Lesley Ann Downey, both of whom had been sexually abused and killed by Ian with Myra's help. Myra and Ian had been a couple for a few years. He was a clerk and she was a typist in a small firm in Manchester. Myra's younger sister, Maureen, became pregnant by David Smith, when they were both in their teens. The couple got married, and had their baby. They became good friends with Myra and Ian. But their little daughter, Angela Dawn, died at 6 months of a cot death. Ian's first kill was Pauline Reade, a young neighbour who knew David Smith and the Hindleys. She was on her way to a dance, and he and Myra concealed the murder. He went on to kill 3 young children, and the bodies were buried on the moors. Then they killed the 17 year old Edward Evans, inside their house and in David Smith's presence.. Williams' book ended with the imprisonment of Brady and Hindley and the birth of a son to David and Maureen. Later books on the Moors murders have followed Ian and Myra's lives in Prison and their eventual deaths in captivity. David Smith and Maureen had 3 sons, but their marriage was under tremendous strain. Maureen had been very close to her sister, and she had ambivalent feelings about having turned her in to the police. David found it hard to get a job. Many people believed that he had been involved in the killings. Myra's mother turned on her daughter for handing her sister over to the police. David got in a fight in a pub, then wound up in prison for a time. Maureen could not cope. She left and the children were taken into care. She and David divorced. He came out of prison and took on looking after his sons. He fell in love with a young girl, Mary, whom he later married and they had another child. He and his wife moved to Ireland, where they found some peace. Sadly Maureen, who remarried, died of a brain haemorrhage when only in her 30's. David ran a small business in Ireland and he and his wife led a quiet life. He died some years ago. I've been reading another book on the Moors murders, recently... It was only written a few years ago. It covers Brady's life from his childhood as an illegitimate child in Glasgow, reared by a foster family, and Myra's life in Manchester where she was reared by a doting grandmother, an over stressed mother and an often violent father. The author notes that Brady grew up in the Gorbals a slum part of Glasgow and that might have sparked off his violent tendencies. He was not really part of his foster family, though they were kind to him. He was intelligent but was not willing to work at school.. and he made no real friends. He got into trouble with the law, and finally, the courts ordered him to move to Manchester where his mother was living, and he went, but did not improve. His mother and step father did their best for him, but he still got into trouble. He got interested in Nazi ideology and collected memorabilia... He then tried to get a better job, and was employed as a stock clerk in a small firm. His boss, Tom, said he was so bad tempered that if there had not been a shortage of staff, he would probably have lost his job. But that was where he met Myra and the two of them became lovers. And they realised that they both had violent tendencies, and that they were "turned on" by the idea of killing and torture.

Rough Music by Nadine Sutton, Available on Amazon

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

Pamela Belle

Pamela is a talented writer who has written several novels about the English Civil War period. One is about a young woman called Silence, from a Puritan family, who married to an older man, who is away fighting for Parliament. When a royalist troop comes to her house, she falls in love with one of the officers and has an affair with him. Later her husband dies and she is a widow, and free to marry Nick Hellier. A later novel in this series is about Louise, Silence's granddaughter, whose husband becomes involved in plotting with the Dutch heir to the throne, William and helping him to become king and remove James II.

Beds and Blue Jeans, novella by Nadine Sutton

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