Happy New Year to everyone reading the blog. Thank you for all your kind comments and feedback during the past year.
2018 on the whole, was a year of comfort reading. It has been three years since we moved back to India after spending many years abroad. Slowly but surely, we are easing in to a pattern of life here. Perhaps I will be ready for darker, more complex books next year? 🙂
A major highlight of my reading year has been reading all 12 books in Miss Read’s ‘Thrush Green’ series. Though none of the books made their way into my Top 10, they provided much needed comfort and reflected a way of life that I would at least love to emulate (although not remotely possible under the circumstances).
I ended up reading a total of 45 books during the year. Although not a large number, I enjoyed my reading year at large and can’t wait to jump in to a fresh new year of enhanced reading.
Return of the Soldier’ by Rebecca West is about a Great War veteran who has returned from the trenches suffering from shell-shock.
His amnesia prevents him from remembering his wife of ten years, with whom he has loved and lost a small child. His cousin Jenny, who lives with them, he can recollect, but only as a young woman, fifteen years younger.
To the dismay and disgust of his wife Kitty, the one person he can remember is his sweetheart from fifteen years ago- Margaret, with whom he has a very romantic history. She was then, a young, simple girl, a poor inn-keeper’s daughter, of little sophistication.
Christopher and Margaret meet again and rekindle their relationship at Christopher’s behest but Kitty is anxious for her husband to meet a doctor and be treated for his lapse of memory.
It is left to Margaret, with her superior understanding of Christopher’s mind (in-fact the perfect soul mate) to trigger an emotion that will bring about the return of the soldier in both the physical and emotional states. This is a story about love and sacrifice and is also an exploration of the relative strengths of different human relationships.
Can You Forgive Her by Anthony Trollope
Trollope’s entree novel in to his ‘Palliser series’ is a novel dealing heavily with political power and personal ambition.
Political ambition, certainly seems to be one of the main motivating factors behind male actions in this book.
However, the women in this novel show a great deal of indecision in the course of the novel.
Why is Alice- the lead female protagonist, such a dithering fool? Can we forgive Alice for her lack of decisiveness. And as Alice is not the only dithering lady in the book, are we more inclined to forgive the other ladies in question (Lady Glencora and Mrs Greenow)?
As with all Trollope novels, there is much food for thought about the cause and effect of human actions.
Young Anne by Dorothy Whipple
‘Young Anne’ is the eighth and final Dorothy Whipple novel to be published by Persephone Books but in the grand chronology of things, is Whipple’s first and most autobiographical novel.
It is set in the years leading up to the First World War and follows the life and growth of Anne Pritchard, youngest child of a middle-class, Lancastrian family. The ‘Young’ in ‘Young Anne’ not only refers to the tender age of the female protagonist, it also helps to emphasize the extreme naïveté of Anne Pritchard, the mistakes that youth often make and the consequences of immature decision making on adult life.
The Lark by Edith Nesbit
This is the first time that I’ve ever read any adult literature by Nesbit and I couldn’t be more in love with this little gem of a novel.
The writing is airy and light, full of childlike whimsy and delight and the plot is delightful.
Two young women, upon coming of age discover that their inheritance has been misspent. They have no relatives to call their own, they are alone in the world – all they have been left as an endowment is a small country cottage and a trunkful of vintage clothing in the attic. Rather than get upset with this unfortunate turn of events, the two young women try their hand at a number of money-making ventures. They treat the whole situation as a ‘Lark’ and their attitude is so positive and cheery that they win a lot of friends along the way.
It is also a remarkable example of female determination and independence, much in keeping with the decision to publish this novel as part of a series dedicated to celebrating Penguin Women Writers and the centenary of women getting the vote in 1918.
Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
Guard Your Daughters deals with the unconventional upbringing of five daughters. Five daughters, who despite a lack of formal education, shine in different ways. This is the story of their unusual way of life, sequestered from mainstream society due to the neuroses of an over protective mother.
I must admit that ‘Guard Your Daughters’ was one of those books, where one paragraph in, I just knew that this was going to be one of my most favourite books.
One can’t but help draw a comparison between Dodie Smith’s voice in ‘I Capture the Castle’ and Diana Tutton’s in this particular novel. Highly recommend this coming of age novel that deals with important issues of mental health.
The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham
This is the rather unlikely story of a small group of children, whose parents unexpectedly travel to Europe to attend to the needs of an ailing relative. The children are left unattended, without an adult to take care of them and when their parents don’t return or send word of their whereabouts – they are left in the strange
predicament of having to fend for themselves.
The landlord of the house where the family lived suddenly decides to evict them due to a sudden whim and the children have no recourse but to live in a nearby farmer’s barn.
The entire village is up in arms against the children and want them to separate and go to different homes. The children decide to fight all odds, stick together and eke out an existence in the barn.
Though the story is an unlikely one, the determination and initiative taken by the children is truly remarkable. I think it is a fascinating read for children and adults alike.
After all, how many of us as children have dreamt of being self sufficient and resourceful enough to have a small house/tree-house of our own- a private sanctuary where we act as independently and responsibly as grown ups?
The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
This brilliant Victorian epistolary novel – ‘Diary of a Nobody’ comes highly recommended if in need of comic relief on topics related to the absurdities of daily life.
If you loved ‘Diary of a Provincial Lady’ you will certainly enjoy this novel.
The difference is that the tone of the provincial lady is self deprecating, whereas is this case Mr Pooter is bursting with self importance and a sad need of demanding respect from society.
The term ‘pooterish’ – is winsomely derived from the character of the lead protagonist in this book.
Fair Stood the Wind for France by HE Bates
Fair Stood the Wind for France’ by H E Bates is a war time work of fiction that deals with the story of a group of British airmen, who are compelled to make a forced landing in occupied France and have to take refuge in the home of a kind French family, who risk all they hold dear to help the men.
In particular it is the beautiful story of the love and trust that grows between the injured head flight pilot and the daughter of the French family.
Fair Stood the Wind for France was poignant, a World War Two story about love and trust and loss on an epic scale.
The Lark in the Morn by Elfrida Vipont
This lesser known but critically acclaimed children’s book author (winner of the Carnegie Medal in 1950) penned a series of books about the lives of a Quaker family living in England.
At times the mode of writing can seem a bit archaic but the beautiful plot of this, the first book, will have you grabbing the second book (Lark on the Wing) in no time at all.
A young, rather forlorn, motherless child realises her vocation in life – that of being a singer. Lark in the Morn charters her realisation of this process and Lark on the Wing – outlines her struggle to establish herself as a singer.
The storytelling in both books is very compelling. If you enjoy music and the arts, this is a particularly uplifting read.
Which was your favourite book of 2018? If I had to pick just one – I would say ‘Guard Your Daughters’.
Bag Full Of Books 