Of course the lousy weather for my holiday meant that I couldn’t get into the garden to read, but I did manage to snatch a few hours in between catastrophes to read the following:
The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
This novel is set in Tuscany in the 1950s. A young English student is tasked with uncovering the mysteries of a 400 year old memorial garden at a castle owned by a friend of his Cambridge tutor. As the mystery is uncovered – details matching with various classical texts – our student hero Adam discovers that the present day family have their own secrets. He starts to unravel those secrets, discovering what really happened when the castle was occupied by the Germans in the war.
The writing is well researched and very intelligent. Mills creates an air of menace that gets stronger as the novel progresses. But his forte is in creating believable characters with shades of light and dark. As the finger of suspicion is pointed, the suspects don’t panic and wave guns around, they don’t seek confrontation. Arguments are avoided, issues skirted. This lack of action then adds to the suspense and intrigue.
It is not a quick page-turner kind of thriller book but I enjoyed it all the same, not least because it is set in one of my most favourite parts of the world.
Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier
I have been a huge fan of TC and have loved all of her books, esp Girl with a Pearl Earring. This one is set in late 18th century and revolves around the Kellaway family who leave Dorset and set up home in London working in a circus. Their neighbour is William Blake, radical and poet.
This is not one of her best books, it has to be said. It was okay but a little predictable and the encounters with Blake didn’t leave me feeling that I had learned much about him.
If you haven’t read any of TC, don’t start with this one.
The distance between us by Maggie O’Farrell
Now, this one I loved. I have only read one other of hers – The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – but suspect I will now look out all of her others.
It tells the story of the relationship between 2 sisters: Stella and Nina, who are Italian-Scottish brought up in Musselburgh in an ice-cream shop. Alongside their story we have the story of Jake, British but brought up in Hong Kong.
MO’F seems to enjoy writing backwards and forwards in little bits so it can be a bit confusing until you tune in. However I ended up liking the way it fed me the story bit by bit. There are lots of believable characters, although I could have done with some more development on some of them.
I couldn’t put it down and stayed up late trying to finish it, failed, and got up early to get the last few chapters done before breakfast. I loved the connections with Musselburgh, Edinburgh and Portie, of course.
I also managed a couple of movies, the best of which was:
The Bucket List starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman
Two men, one rich and one poor, meet in a hospital ward where they are told they only have a few months left to live. The poor one (Morgan Freeman) has made a list of things he wants to do before he kicks the bucket, hence the title. The rich one has a much more selfish list and the money to make it happen so they get together to fulfil their last wishes.
The film is funny and full of pathos, if a little unbelievable at times. I mean, would you go off with a man you’d barely met for your last few months on this earth, leaving your family behind? But of course, this is a film about people changing and the value of friendship.
