Review ~ The Flower Reader by Elizabeth Loupas

Preface June 2012

Rinette Leslie has the gift of floramancy, and it is this ability to interpret the language of flowers and predict the future which form the basis of this cleverly constructed historical novel which is set in Scotland during the tumultuous first years of the reign of Mary Queen of Scots.

When the dying queen regent, Mary of Guise entrusts the mysterious contents of an elaborate silver casket into Rinette's safe keeping, it throws open up a whole maze of conspiracies and lets loose a series of events which not only endanger Rinette and all those she loves, but also threatens the very monarchy.

A little slow at the start but once the story gets underway it really captures your attention and becomes a riveting look at monarchy, conspiracy and the unrelenting danger that comes from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The clever interweaving of historical figures alongside fictional characters really make this an interesting and colourful look at Scottish monarchy.

I enjoyed it.

Author Spotlight ~ Jasper Barry

I am delighted to introduce 

Jasper Barry

Author 

of 

The Second Footman

Matador (1 Feb 2013)

Jasper ~ welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thank you for sharing your thoughts about the writing of your debut book - The Second Footman.

Where did you get the inspiration for The Second Footman?

I love the complexity of the nineteenth-century novel and the way its characters can't escape the demands of a society that has rigid rules about class, money, morality and etiquette. There's usually a frustrated love affair and an element of mystery too. It's a long, highly textured, satisfying read. So I decided to write one, but with a contemporary twist.

The central love affair is between two men - Max, who at nineteen already has a chequered past and is keen to better his current lot as the duchesse de Claireville's second footman, and Armand, marquis de Miremont, who is struggling in middle-age to accept his newly awakened sexuality. This adds a further dimension to the challenge presented by strict social codes. To be true to their inclinations, Max and Armand must live their 'real' life within society, yet outside it.

I've also always been fascinated by the power-dynamics in relationships. In a conventional nineteenth-century novel where the love affair is between an upper-class man and a younger woman of lower social standing, the man, by virtue of his age, rank, wealth and gender, traditionally has the power (think Mr. Rochester) - will he marry her or won't he? But with Max and Armand, the situation is obviously rather different: as a man, Max doesn't have any 'virtue' to protect and he's not looking for commitment; he certainly hopes to use Armand to improve his social status, but by entirely different means. And, if it doesn't work out, well, youth is on his side, he can always leave. Max has the power. Or so he thinks.

What is it about your book that will pique the reader’s interest?

There's the mystery surrounding Max. Exactly what happened to him before he ended up in the orphan's dormitorium of a Normandy monastery? Who is The Other? And what is the fraud Max hopes to commit? But I hope the reader will be intrigued by both the two main characters. In another deviation from my nineteenth-century template, I don't do 'good' or 'bad' characters, because we're all more complex than that. So central to the novel is the idea that, unless you're a psychopath, it's actually just as difficult to be consistently ruthless as it is to be consistently virtuous.

I also hope the reader will be drawn in by 1880s' France. I set the novel in France rather than England because, while homosexuality was thoroughly disapproved of by French society, it was not a criminal offence in private between consenting adults (I wanted to avoid the threat of an Oscar-Wilde-type martyrdom hanging over my characters as that would have made for a very different novel). And I chose the 1880s because, in a welcome period of peace after a century of conflict, Paris is once again the most glamorous city in Europe and France is enjoying a flowering of creativity in the arts and fashion that will reach full bloom in the Belle Époque of the 1890s.

The novel unpeels various layers of this society. There's the world of Armand de Miremont and Catherine de Claireville: opulent society salons in aristocratic Parisian hôtel particuliers and indolent summer house parties in country châteaux, where the air is thick with back-biting and sexual intrigue. Then there's the world below stairs: the contrasting squalor of the footmen's dormitory, the rivalries, the rigid routine, the hierarchy that mimics the salons' strict order of precedence. There are glimpses of bohemian life when Max visits his best friend, the violinist Zhukovsky, on his Sundays off. And beneath society's well-regulated surface, like a deeper current in a river, there's an alternative society, shadowy but with rules of its own - a gay world that celebrates its existence at Max's other Sunday haunt, The Green Monkey. 

How long did it take you to write The Second Footman

Eight years. I'm a very slow writer and although I believed at the start I knew enough from other projects not to need detailed research, you never know enough - I even had to relearn Latin, so I could translate the Catullus poems that feature in the novel. And then life got in the way too - sick partner, sick me, the illness and death of my mother. The result is that one novel has grown into a trilogy taking the characters through to 1892. I'm working on the second novel now. A bit faster, I hope.


Do you have a special place to do your writing?

A narrow little room like an old-fashioned railway compartment. I sit with my back to a wall of research books, facing a set of framed costume designs by an old friend who's a theatre designer. There is a window, but the view isn't great, so there ought to be no distractions. But of course there's the terrible lure of the internet - ordering washing-machine descaler seems irresistibly exciting when you're stuck for the right word. And then, when I'm motoring at last, I look up and see three pairs of aggrieved eyes - hungry cats, mobbing my computer. If I don't pack up and serve dinner they throw pens, eat post-it notes and chew books until I do.


Are you inspired by any particular era, author or book?

I like the English nineteenth-century novel, particularly Trollope, whose characterisations seem to me psychologically acute. But nowadays I much prefer the French and Russian writers of the period. Beside them, the English novel, where evil is usually punished and good prevails, appears rather safe. Balzac was a revelation to me. The first novel of his I read was Père Goriot: by the end his bourgeois hero Rastignac has seen beneath the glitter of Parisian high society and he climbs a hill where he can look down bitterly on the city and reflect. If this were Dickens, Rastignac would have been taught to know his place and would return to his former existence, where he would find a nice wife and settle down the pleasures of ordinary middle-class life. But he does no such thing. He vows to take Paris society on at its own game. "It's war between us now," he declares. Dangerous. Open-ended. Exciting. You long for the sequel.

And finally a fun question....

If The Second Footman was optioned for a movie, who would you like to play Max and Armand?

Oh dear! You know, I really hate it when I adore a character in a novel and can see him in my mind's eye - and then Hollywood goes and casts some actor who is absolutely nothing like my vision. I do give quite detailed descriptions of Max and Armand, but I'd like readers to be free to do what I do when I'm reading and fill in the gaps with their own imaginations. So forgive me but I'm going to leave the casting up to them.



http://www.jasperbarry.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/19thcenturynovels?ref=hl
twitter: Jasper Barry @JasperBarry2

My Review of The  Second Footman

Set against the glamorous background of nineteenth century France, and with the capriciousness of the Parisian elite opened up to scrutiny, the story of The Second Footman flutters between the grand salons of the aristocracy, and the squalid intimacy of shared servant accommodation. Nineteen year old Max, is the second footman of Catherine, duchesse de Claireville whose predilection for handsome male servants is widely acknowledged. With no assets other than his charismatic personality, Max devises a plan to help him escape his life of servitude. When he encounters the naive and wealthy Armand de Miremont at the duchesse de Claireville’s summer retreat, Max realises that he has a talent to seduce, and as the first quiver of desire strikes, Armand is powerless to resist.

Whilst The Second Footman it is a substantial read, the plot never falters or loses focus. The writing is good, and the overall professional quality of the story is reminiscent at times of classic nineteenth century literature. I found that I was beguiled by both Max and Armand; their story of burgeoning homosexuality, with the hint of dark secrets, is expertly controlled within the boundaries of nineteenth century class structure. There is no doubt that the beautiful youth on the cover of the book is quite striking; his enigmatic gaze and grave composure captures not just the beauty of the man, but also highlights the captivating pull of the narrative.

This story of classic ambition, combined with the hedonistic arrogance of youth, and the frailty of hidden desire is perfectly presented. I have no hesitation in recommending The Second Footman as a fascinating and captivating read.

5*****

I originally reviewed The Second Footman for the Historical Novel Society  in March 2013.

My thanks to Historical Novel Society  for my review copy of this book.

Jasper - thank you so much for giving such insightful answers to our questions. Jaffa and I are will be following your career with great interest.

***

Review ~ Sword and Scimitar by Simon Scarrow

Headline
25 April 2013

It is 1565, and Sir Thomas Barrett is haunted by the memories which have forced him into exile, and so with nothing to lose he takes up arms in defence of Malta. Although he is a disgraced Knight of St. John, Barrett is sworn to defend the Christian faith against the might of the vast Ottoman army. What then follows is the story of the Great Siege of Malta and the ensuing battles of both on land and at sea are recounted in great detail. Barrett must seek to restore his own good name, whilst at the same time he must also discover the hidden secrets which seek to threaten the very throne of Elizabeth I.

Overall, the story is a historically accurate version of this troubled period in history. The battles are well explained and often quite brutally depicted, but if I'm honest I found the book to be quite lacklustre and only really persevered with it because I was given the book to review. It’s not that the writing is bad, it’s more that the characters lack any real depth and so I had no emotional involvement in the story, nor did I really care about what happened. The book is also over long and could have been cut back to a more reasonable length which may have gone some way to making the story rather less one dimensional.

My thanks to Real Readers for the opportunity to read and review this book

Friday Recommends ~ A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee

Published 23 May Corsair

In A Thousand Pardons, Jonathan Dee gets into the very heart and soul of marital discord and with great skill he manipulates a story of how two ordinary people cope with devastating matrimonial disharmony.

Ben and Helen Armstead appear to have everything that middle class America can offer and yet all it takes is one afternoon of recklessness and the whole thing falls apart. Ben, a successful lawyer commits professional suicide in an unprecedented act of foolishness, forcing Helen into making some difficult lifestyle decisions. Whilst Ben and Helen stumble around in improbable situations, caught in the middle is their adopted teenage daughter Sara, who is an unpleasant child, but given the emotional upheaval in her life, it's not difficult to imagine why she is so troubled.

However good the narrative is, and believe me, there are moments of sheer brilliance, there are also times when I had to suspend belief, specifically the implausibility of Helen’s meteoric rise to success in the competitive world of damage limitation, and the inclusion into the story of a debauched Hollywood movie star, whose tenuous link to Helen’s past was rather bizarre. And yet, despite the moral righteousness of the story, I found I empathized more with Ben, whose very personal disintegration was handled with sensitivity and compassion.

Whilst A Thousand Pardons is a very modern story about the breakdown of a marriage, it is also the story of the minutiae of daily life and the seemingly mindless boredom which all too easily invades hopes and dreams.

My thanks to the Lovereading Review Panel for my review copy of A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee

 

Lovereading

 Amazon

Author Spotlight ~ Jean Fullerton

I am thrilled to have the author

Jean Fullerton 

here to talk about her latest book

Call Nurse Millie

Published by
The Orion Publishing Group
23 May 2013

What makes you want to write historical fiction?

My life-long love of all things historical started when I was about 5 or 6 and a very young Roger Moore rode on to our 10 inch black and white TV screen as Ivanhoe. This love grew to fruition when I read Katherine by Anna Seton as a teenager. I love all areas of European history and before settling on East London as my place to weave stories I wrote books set in 10th century Wales, 13th century Scotland, during Hereward the Wake’s rebellion in the Fenlands, one set in Boston just before the American War of Independence and in the Caribbean during the ages of piracy.


I’m still an avid historical reader and as long as the story is historically accurate and pulls me in I’m happy to read any period. I’m also very fond of alternative histories i.e. what would have happened if Harold had won the Battle of Hastings?


Do you write stories for yourself, or other people?
I have to write stories I love as I don’t think I would be able to bring the characters and situation to life if I didn't believe in the story but sagas, like all other fiction genre, has its traditions. My books are marketed as sagas so I have to keep in mind my audience when I’m writing. My readers are pretty broad and like plenty of grit but they read to identify with the heroine as she overcomes adversities. They wouldn’t be too impressed if they turned the page and found lots of swearing, explicit sex and violence so I have to keep that in mind as I write.


Where did you get the inspiration for Call Nurse Millie?

Susan Lamb, the Head of Fiction in Orion books asked me to write it. Orion publishes Call the Midwife along with Jennifer Worth’s other three books. Susan thought as I’m a District and Queen’s Nurse and an East Ender I would be the perfect person to write a fictitious account of a District Nurse and Midwife’s life and work in post-war East London.

I was apprehensive at first but my wonderful editorial team were so sure I could bring the duel strands of my background and profession together in Millie’s story I decided to give it a go. I’m so glad I did because I had a wonderful time researching my own profession and creating Millie’s family, friends and patients.


I started Millie’s story on VE day May 1945. As the troops begin to return home we see the inhabitants of London attempt to put their lives back together.

For 25-year-old Millie, a qualified nurse and midwife, the jubilation at the end of the war is short-lived as she tends to the needs of the East End community around her. But while Millie witnesses tragedy and brutality in her job, she also finds strength and kindness. And when misfortune befalls her own family, it is the enduring spirit of the community that shows Millie that even the toughest of circumstances can be overcome.

Through Millie's eyes, we see the harsh realities and unexpected joys in the lives of the patients she treats, as well as the camaraderie that is forged with the fellow nurses that she lives with. Filled with unforgettable characters and moving personal stories, this vividly brings to life the colourful world of post-war East London.


Do you ever base your characters on people you know?


I get asked this question all the time and up until now – except for a former boss who I wrote up as an evil, blond Trollope – I've always said no but in Call Nurse Millie a number of my relatives have crept on stage.

In the first instance my father’s 8th Army experience in North Africa during WW2 was the basis of Millie’s love Alex Nolan’s back story. The funny incidence of the boiled underwear and the purple stew were things that happened to my father when he was part of a gun crew in the desert and Alex’s description of the battle of Monte Casino against the AXIS forced in Italy was in fact just how my father told the story.

Millie’s friend Connie’s story of getting a wedding set up ready for when her finance Charlie returned is in fact exactly what my Aunt Martha did.

But my family member who features most prominently in Millie’s story is my Aunt Nell. From the Co-op divi number, the terrace house in Ilford with china ducks on the wall to the way she dominated the family Millie’s Aunt Ruby is in truth my father’s eldest sister, Aunt Nell.


Do you have a special place to do your writing?


I do. I’m very lucky to have the fourth bedroom as my own office with book shelves full of research material on three walls, a full-size desk with my PC and a printer under the window. I have lots of little quirky historical keepsakes scattered over it like a Braveheart Winnie the Pooh, a glass coaster from the Tower of London and a 1953 Coronation Mug, which holds my editing pens. Unfortunately, I have to share my space with Fudge and Tilly, my two cats who seem to think it’s their recreation room and drape themselves under the computer screen and curl around the keyboard.


Can you tell us what are you writing next?

I’ve just sent the second part of Millie’s story into my publishers so after I’ve done the edits I’ll be starting Millie’s friend and fellow nurse, Connie Byrne’s story at the beginning of May. We shift north a bit for Connie’s story as it is set in and around Spitalfields and Shoreditch again in the immediate post- war period. Then who knows? I have dozens of stories in my head that I’d like to write so that should keep me out of trouble for a good while yet.

And finally for fun....


If you could invite three people from history to your dinner table, who would you choose and why?

I’d have a bit of a girls’ night in and invite:

Mary Magdelane - so I can find out what really happened to the Jesus’s women disciples after the boys took over.

Eleanor of Aquitaine to hear the sort of wisdom only the wife and mother of two kings could have acquired over eighty years.


Florence Nightingale so I can update her on what’s happened in nursing since she shuffled off.

Thanks for such very good questions, Jo, and giving me the chance to tell people about my writing life.

Jaffa and I have loved having you in our author spotlight , we wish you continued success with your writing career.

You can purchase a paperback or ebook copy of Call Nurse Millie most easily from Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Call-Nurse-Millie-ebook/dp/B00BMUVRT0/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363121249&sr=1-1

Book details

Publisher: Orion Fiction

Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 978-1409137405

Book Description 

An absorbing and richly detailed novel following the life and work of a young nurse in post-war

East London - perfect for anyone who loved CALL THE MIDWIFE.

Chapter One

Millie Sullivan pushed an escaped curl of auburn hair from her eyes with the back of her hand. She wished she’d put on her cotton petticoat under her navy blue uniform instead of the rayon one.
Although the milk float was only just rolling along the street, it was already sweltering hot.
With a practised hand Millie wrapped the newborn infant in a warm towel. ‘There we go, young lady, say hello to your ma.’
She handed the child to the woman propped up in the bed. Mo Driscoll, already mother to four lively boys, took the baby.
‘Thank you, Sister,’ she said, tucking her daughter into the crook of her arm and gazing down at the baby. ‘Isn’t she beautiful?’
‘She’s an angel,’ Mo’s mother, standing on the other side of the bed, replied. ‘And a welcome change.’ She looked at Millie. ‘I’ll clear up, Sister. You look done in.’
‘I am, but thankfully it’s my last night on call.’ Millie handed a parcel of newspaper containing soiled gauze to the older woman. ‘Could you pop these on the fire?’
‘To be sure.’ She took the packet and threw it in the zinc bucket alongside the dirty linen. ‘That superintendent works you nurses too hard. You should try and put your feet up when you get back.’
Millie smiled.
Chance would be a fine thing. She plopped her instruments into the small gallipot half-filled with Dettol, took off her gloves and glanced at her watch.
Eight-thirty a.m.!
Thank goodness.
She’d be back by the time Miss Summers gave out the day’s work. Also, as Annie Fletcher, the trainee Queen’s Nurse student assigned to Millie, was laid up with tonsillitis, Millie had given a couple of Annie’s morning insulin injection visits to Gladys to do, and she wanted to make sure she’d done them.
‘Do you know what you’re going to call her?’ Millie asked Mo, washing her hands in the bowl balanced on the rickety bedside table.
‘Colleen, after me mum,’ she replied.
Mother and daughter exchanged an affectionate look and Millie glanced at her watch again.
She ought to get on, as she’d promised her own mum that she’d pop home in time for Churchill’s announcement at three p.m.
Her parents, Doris and Arthur, only lived a short bus ride away in Bow but, as Millie had two newborns to check plus a handful of pregnant women to see before she swapped her midwifery bag for her district one for her afternoon visits, it would be a close-run thing.
Millie packed the four small enamel dressing-bowls inside each other, then stowed them in her case between her scissors and the bottle of Dettol. She snapped the clasp shut.
‘I’ll call back tomorrow, but if there’s any problem just ring Munroe House to get the on-call nurse,’ Millie said, squeezing down the side of the bed towards the door.
Like so many others in East London, the Driscolls’ home was just the two downstairs rooms in an old terraced house that Hitler’s bombs had somehow missed.
Colleen took the manila envelope tucked into side of the dressing-table mirror and passed it to Millie.
She opened it and taking out two crumpled ten-shilling notes, popped them into the side pocket of her bag. ‘I’ll write it in when I get back to the clinic.’

©Excerpt by kind permission of the author

About the author

Jean Fullerton is the author of four previous historical novels. She is a qualified District and Queen's nurse who has spent most of her working life in the East End of London, first as a Sister in charge of a team, and then as a District Nurse tutor. She is also a qualified teacher and now lectures on community nursing studies in a London university.She has three grown-up daughters and now lives just outside her native City with her husband, an eight stone Bernese Mountain Dog, called Molly, and two cats.

And you can connect to me on my website at www.jeanfullerton.com to find out about me, my previousbooks, and my East London heritage along with pictures of the actual East London locations I use in my books.
You can also find me on Facebook as Jean Fullerton and follow me on Twitter as @EastLondonGirly

Review ~ Call Nurse Millie by Jean Fullerton

Published 23 May 2013
The Orion Publishing Group

It’s 1945, and the Second World War is over, but for 25 year old Millie Sullivan, her life as a qualified nurse and midwife in the East End of London is as busy as ever. Together with her nurse colleagues at Munroe House Nurse’s Home, Millie witnesses her share of tragedy and yet her determined spirit sees her though the harsh reality of living through some tough circumstances. The indomitable spirit of the people who inhabit the overcrowded streets and the bomb damaged buildings of the East End, come gloriously alive in this wonderful historical saga.

This is the first of Jean Fullerton’s books I have read, but I am impressed with the way she controls the narrative and allows the characters to develop, so that by the end of the book you really care about what happens to them. Millie in particular is a feisty heroine who encapsulates the spirit of the time in her no nonsense approach and down to earth way of dealing with whatever life throws at her. By using her undoubted skill as qualified nurse, the author has used her medical knowledge to good effect, and has written a story which pulls you in from the very beginning.  The individual stories really tug at your heart strings, and yet beyond the heartbreak and tragedy, there is always hope for a better future.

 Overall, this is a really lovely story, which will appeal to anyone who enjoys post-war social history. I really enjoyed it, and have no hesitation in recommending it to my blog readers.

My thanks to Jean Fullerton and The Orion Publishing Group for my copy of this book.

Author Spotlight ~ Tina Seskis

I am delighted to introduce

Tina Seskis

photo by kind permission of the author

Author 

of

One Step Too Far

Published Kirk Parolles; 1 edition (15 April 2013)

Tina, it's a real pleasure to welcome you to Jaffareadstoo, we are delighted that you have visited us to talk about your novel ~ One Step Too Far

Where did you get the inspiration for One Step Too Far?

It came to me out of the blue, when I was on holiday in Venice.  I literally got the idea for the twist and thought, that would make a great book.  When I got home I started writing it down on my laptop.

What was the writing process like, and how long did it take you to write the first draft ?

It was very organic - I had a few vague ideas of what would happen, for example I knew Emily would run away and of course I knew why, but the rest seemed to write itself.  It was a very strange time for me, as my mother was becoming unwell, so I'd send her chapters to try to keep her going, and as I was working during the day I mostly wrote at night, either in front of the telly or propped up in bed.

Did you base any of your characters on people you know?

Hmm, there are certainly aspects of people I knew, especially in the more peripheral characters, and Emily's husband is sort of my husband, and the philandering father is a mix of quite a few people I've worked with, and some of Caroline's less attractive traits are exaggerations of my own past bad behaviour.  But no, there is no-one that is entirely based on someone I know.

Do you have a special place to do your writing?

No.  These days I do all my "work" at my Mac, which is on a shelf in our dining room, but I do my writing using an ipad and wireless keyboard and I take that wherever I fancy, usually following the sun (when we get it) around the house.  When I'm in full flow I write wherever I am, whether it's in the garden, on the bus, waiting for doctor's appointments, that kind of thing.

Which writers have inspired you?

My great love as a teenager was Agatha Christie, for her plot twists, and then I got into massive page-turners like Jackie Collins and Jilly Cooper.  But my favourite books are some of the classics - anything beautifully written mainly.  I hugely admire Shakespeare, some of Keats, Thomas Hardy and Salman Rushdie.

And finally for fun:

If you could pick a musical soundtrack to accompany a film version of One Step Too far, what would you choose and why?

Well there is a song by Dido of the same name, but I must confess I've never listened to it.  One of my most memorable musical moments was taking the train from Liverpool to London, looking out the window at the backs of houses and snippets of other people's lives listening to U2's The Unforgettable Fire.  So I think it would be that.

What books are on your bedside table?

The Hunger Games, my notebook and Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

http://tinaseskis.com/

Amazon

My review of One Step Too Far

Tina, thank you so much for giving such insightful answers to our questions and for taking

 the time  to chat about One Step Too Far 

Jaffa and I wish you continued success in your writing career

***