November 4

Decades – Compiling the Ultimate Library with Judith O’Reilly

Welcome back to the Decades Library. It’s an ongoing quest to curate the ultimate collection of “unmissable” books and each week I invite a guest to join me and nominate some of their favouite books to my Decades Library.

The Library came into being back in January 2021 when I challenged debut author Sharon Bairden to put five of her favourite books into my new library. The shelves were bare and she could select ANY five books but she could only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades. Sharon made five brilliant selections (you can make use of the search function on the right of the page to check them out). The Decades Library was up and running. Next up was Dr Heather Martin (author of the definitive biography on Lee Child) who picked her five favourite books from a different five decades than Sharon used. That was 22 months ago and we haven’t looked back.

This week I am delighted to welcome Judith O’Reilly to the Decades Library. I am currently reading Sleep When You’re Dead which is the third in Judith’s excellent Michael North series (written under the name Jude O’Reilly). I have reviewed the first two books here on Grab This Book and you can expect a review of Sleep in due course (mini-spoiler…I am loving it).

Check out all Judith’s books here and if you haven’t encountered the Michael North books yet then you need to get onto Killing State immediately!

Time to pass the Decades Curator Hat to Judith and let her introduce her five recommended reads…

 

Judith O’Reilly is the author of Wife in the North and A Year of Doing Good (both published by Viking Penguin, 2008 and 2013 respectively). Wife in the North reached number three in the UK bestsellers’ chart and was in the top ten for five weeks. It was also a top ten bestseller in Germany. It sold into ten countries, was serialised by The Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and was based on Judith’s eponymous blog which was named as one of the top 100 blogs in the world by The Sunday Times. Judith’s blog is credited with kicking off the popularity of domestic blogging in the UK.

Wife in the North and A Year of Doing Good were both non-fiction. Killing State is a commercial political thriller and Judith’s first novel. At least the first one she’s allowed to leave the house without her.

Judith is a former political producer with BBC 2’s Newsnight and ITN’s Channel 4 News, and a former education correspondent with The Sunday Times where she also covered politics, undercover reporting and general news.  She still occasionally writes for The Sunday Times.

 

DECADES

 

1930s

Rebecca (1938) by Daphne Du Maurier

The pull of Rebecca is a strange one I always think. I remember reading it as a teenager waiting desperately to meet the elusive, charismatic and dead Rebecca. And, of course, you never do. Even though the book is named for her. I remember not being able to drag myself away from it, but also the intense frustration as I closed the covers and put it down.  It may be the first novel that made me go back and re-read it – questioning exactly what it was I was reading. But that’s part of the genius. We feel the same fascination with this dead wife as our poor narrator. A narrator who doesn’t even get a name, poor dear. (I’m not counting Mrs de Winter. We all know there was only one Mrs de Winter!) It’s a book that’s never been out of print. For a reason. It’s brilliant. Even now when we read it knowing what Maxim did – the murder, what he did with the body, the fact in the long run he got away with it. I mean, what’s that about? A man murders his wife and we’re okay with that because she was a bitch? There is so much wrong with this picture. But nonetheless, we allow ourselves to be swept up in the gothic romance of it all. And such a simple premise – a dead wife, a new wife, a tragic accident that turns out to be a cover for murder. You make the dead wife compelling and the new wife obsessed. You set it an old house by the sea. Which allows for shipwrecks. There’s a costume ball. Mix in a little romance and a lot of guilt and jealousy and the desire for revenge. Ramp up the sinister and set it against a frisson of unspoken desires. Talking of which – enter Mrs Danvers! Even writing about ‘Danny’ makes me question whether I will ever manage to create any character as sinister as the housekeeper from Hell.

 

 

1940s

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell

I always associate Animal Farm with being 11 and in the first year of grammar school. We studied it. We took it apart and looked at it from every angle. It was a revelation for me. That you didn’t just read a book on your own in your bedroom, and enjoy the story. It was more than that. It was magic. Because the book meant something. It didn’t merely entertain you. It educated you. The writer had a purpose in the story telling. A political purpose moreover. Yes, it’s about animals who take over the farm, but it’s also  about the Russian revolution and power. It’s a political allegory. It blew my mind. And you know what – I studied politics at university and then became a political correspondent and a political producer with Channel 4 News and Newsnight. I’m still a Labour party member today and track politics as if my life depended on it. (By the way, your life does depend on politics.)  Is the book I read at 11 the reason why? I’d say it is undoubtedly part of it.

At 11 then, courtesy of George Orwell, I woke up to the realities of the haves and have nots, of revolution, of the totalitarian regime, of suffering. I wasn’t from a political family.  But we listened to the news every day on the radio when my grocer dad came home from work and we sat down to a tea of Findus savoury mince pancakes and chips. I wasn’t from a political family but my dad got made redundant – twice. I wasn’t from a political family, but everything – as Orwell would tell you himself – is political.

 

 

1950s

Madame Serpent (1951) by Jean Plaidy

In Madame Serpent, Catherine de Medici is 14 and about to marry Henry of Orleans, second son of the King of France. Her husband however is in love with another woman. Catherine is humiliated and embittered by Henry’s treatment of her in favour of his mistress Diane de Poitiers. The stage is set for revenge.

I didn’t have books in my house aside from the Bible and the odd condensed Readers’ Digest passed on by an aunt. But I did go to the local library every fortnight and the school library. I also bought graphic novels the size of my hand from a kiosk in the bus station, and I bought second hand books from the bookstall in Leeds market which I passed through on my way home from school. For an avid reader who went through her library books faster than she could change them, it was a great system. Every time you brought the book back to the stall, you got half what you paid for it in exchange, which you promptly spent on books, which you’d return and get back half the money, and so it went on. It was this bookstall that introduced me to Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt and  Philippa Carr – all noms de plumes of Eleanor Hibbert. Madame Serpent is the first in a trilogy about Catherine de Medici. All of Plaidy’s works were rigorously researched and introduced the readers to history in an accessible and real way. I’ve always enjoyed history and the Jean Plaidy novels brought it alive. Not least in how they put women at the centre of history in a way I didn’t see reflected in the textbooks I studied at school.

 

 

1960s

 Master and Commander (1969) Patrick O’Brian

There are two types of people in this world. Those who have read Patrick O’Brian and those who don’t know what they’re missing and should stop what they are doing immediately and go buy a copy. It doesn’t sound like a book that anyone other than a nautical history buff would love, but in Captain Jack Aubrey and ship’s doctor Stephen Maturin, we have one of the best tag teams in literature. Master and Commander is set during the Napoleonic wars and by the time you’ve read your way through the 20-strong series of Aubrey-Maturin books, you too could sale a sloop-of-war into battle against the damnable French. Aubrey is brave, Maturin is brilliant. Both men are honorable to the core and make my cut of guests I would most like to have to an imaginary dinner party (which also includes Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe by the way). Their vividness is due in part to O’Brian’s research into original sources such as official letters and logbooks from the time. Their humanity, intelligence and charm down to O’Brian himself.

 

 

1970s

A Woman of Substance (1979) Barbara Taylor Bradford.

I first read this book when I was 15 and was gripped by the grit, resilience and ambition of its feisty Yorkshire heroine. The tale of Emma Harte, a housemaid turned millionaire retail entrepreneur. A wronged woman who refused to be defined and judged by society. Emma Harte told a generation of women it was okay to want something better and to work to get it. The book is sweeping and glorious, and as her own website describes it, is “a triumphant novel of an unforgettable woman.” It’s a multi million pound juggernaut for a reason, involving illegitimacy, betrayal, great love, suicide, money, more betrayal, and revenge. Love it. I had tea with Taylor Bradford years ago in the Dorchester, having bid for the privilege in a literary auction. You know they say never meet your heroes. Totally not true. She was glorious. I said it was lonely being a writer. She corrected me and said it was a ‘solitary’ occupation. She was interested in all of us (I took two mates along) and when she inscribed a book for me wrote: “Judith, wishing you the best of luck with your writing career, Barbara T. Bradford.” I am 100% being buried with it. She’s 89, every now and then she auctions off her jewellery or Hermes handbags, if she ever auctions off her typewriters or pen collection, I am so in.

 

I have read Judith’s thoughts on Animal Farm three or four times over the last half hour. I loved reading the impact this book had – this is why I want people to read Decades each week. The thought of someone picking up a book they may not have read and having an experience akin to Judith’s is the dream.

I’d like to thank Judith again for taking time to make her selections. Five big, big books which I am delighted to add to the Decades Library shelves for others to enjoy.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

 

 

 

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October 21

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Peter Laws

Imagine you are asked to assemble a brand new library. You have dozens of empty bookshelves waiting to be filled and you want to ensure the visitors to your library only have the very best books to choose from. The classics, the most popular, the much loved books but also the books which readers love – the story which made them want to write too, a childhood comfort read or the book which brings them most joy on the darkest days. Where do you start if you have to bring all those titles together in one place?

Well I decided to do just that – I imagined the Decades Library. But I knew I didn’t have the reading knowledge to fill the shelves with all those reading treasures so each week I invite a guest curator to join me here at Grab This Book and I ask them to nominate their recommended reading for my Library shelves.

When I ask my guest to nominate the books they feel should belong in the Ultimate Library (my Decades Library) I ask them to follow two simple rules:

1 – You Can Choose ANY Five Books

2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

Simple. Or so I thought – but I get grumbled at on a fairly regular basis.

No grumbles this week as Peter Laws grasped the challenge and hit me up with five brand new titles which I shall add to the Library shelves.

 

Peter Laws is an author, journalist and podcaster. He wrote the acclaimed non-fiction book ‘The Frighteners: Why We Love Monsters, Ghosts, Death and Gore’ (Icon Books, 2018). This is a globe-trotting explanation (and defence) of the human morbid streak.

He has also written the Matt Hunter series of scary crime fiction novels (Allison and Busby, 2017 – 2020). He is the writer and host of the popular, scary true stories podcast ‘Frightful’. He is the creator of ‘Creepy Cove Community Church’. A podcast which offers full and immersive church services broadcast from a mysterious haunted fishing town – where all horror movies actually happened. This inventive mix of comedy, horror, music and wellbeing support, has been described as ‘Stephen King meets Songs of Praise.’

Peter is an ordained church minister and has worked in various Churches, though he now focuses on writing and podcasting. He is a popular speaker at festivals and conferences, and he writes a monthly column in the print magazine, ‘The Fortean Times.’ He is also a featured ‘expert’ BBC show, Uncanny, with Danny Robins.

 

 

DECADES

1970s: 1978 – The Spiders by Richard Lewis

Whenever I read fiction, my genre of choice is usually horror – and in particular, pulpy horror novels from the 1970s and 1980s. Affectionately known as ‘Paperbacks from Hell’, these mass-produced shockers seemed throwaway at the time. Yet they have a wonderful mix of charm, nostalgia, edgy content and gross-out shock. As an example, I submit Spiders by Richard Lewis. It’s a skin crawling tale of a village attacked by millions of flesh eating spiders. His descriptions of people waking up at night (to find their carpets swamped with spiders) is terrifying, but the grim detail in the death scenes made me want to applaud and vomit, all at the same time. At a mere 153 pages long, Siders is a short, sharp, tightly written hit of really horrible horror. You should probably avoid it if you have arachnophobia. And if you haven’t got it, congratulations. You will by the last page.

 

 

 

1980s: 1987 –  Strangers by Taichi Yamada

I stumbled across this book in my thirties, and I’ve never forgotten it. It’s about a recently divorced man call Hideo. He’s a successful TV scriptwriter but he has few friends and no family – his parents were killed in a hit and tun accident, when he was 12. He’s lonely, and it doesn’t help that he lives in a Tokyo office building with a very small number of apartments. It’s so deserted at night that he feels a compulsion to walk back to his childhood neighbourhood to feel connected. While there he’s astonished to meet a couple who look remarkably like his parents. They are ten years younger than he is, so it couldn’t possibly be them…could it? It’s a clever, beautiful, and really quite moving book, with a shivery thread of the supernatural throughout. I loved it.

 

 

 

 

1990s: 1998 – 99  – Uzumaki by Junji Ito

If Strangers was beautiful, this next book (a graphic novel from Japan) is it’s direct opposite. Sure, the artwork is amazing and rich, but this is absolutely rammed with bizarre, horrific and genuinely frightening images. It’s set in Kurozo-cho, a small foggy town where the locals a starting to be haunted. Not by a ghost or a demon…but by a pattern. They keep seeing spirals everywhere. In the clouds, in seashells, in whirlpools. This spiral madness spreads throughout the town with truly nightmarish results. I read this book last year. I’d dip in a bit just before drifting off to sleep. There were several times when I woke up in the deepest ditch of the night, and I questioned my life choices. Try it.

 

 

 

 

2000s: 2009 – Shatnerquake by Jeff Burke

I figured there was space for a totally insane and ridiculous self-published book from Jeff Burk. Simply because I thought it was a blast. ‘Shatnerquake’ takes place at Shatnercon: the world’s biggest convention for William Shatner fans. Shatner is there in attendance, but he deeply wishes he wasn’t. That’s because a ‘reality bomb’ gets detonated and it somehow brings every character that Shatner has ever played, to life! Their mission: to hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner. I’m a big William Shatner fan and I do not make any apology for that. So I found the idea of a homicidal Captain Kirk and murderous TJ Hooker trying to kill their creator, to be irresistible. A glance at the opening quote ought to tell you that this book is not officially endorsed by the Shat: ‘How do I stay so healthy and boyishly handsome? It’s simple. I drink the blood of young runaways’. – William Shatner.

 

 

2010s – 2011: Falling Upward by Fr. Richard Rohr

Finally I offer a non-fiction book with a concept that really touched me. Father Richard Rohr is an intelligent, open-hearted and engaging Franciscan monk, who makes the case that our lives are split into two halves. The first half feels more simplistic, where our opinions and ideas are often clear and in black and white. Yet the second half of life can become confusing or contradictory, where ideas we thought were solid are challenged and where we see a catalogue of our own failures and mistakes building. This loss of foundation and confidence can seem like a disorientating loss, but Rohr persuasively argues that it is an essential gain – a fall, upward. Being a Christian myself, I found Rohr’s open minded faith to be invigorating, and it’s an important reminder that what can feel like spiritual confusion, might actually be spiritual maturity.

 

 

 

Sometimes I share a new selection of recommendations and I am frantically trying to remember if any of the five have featured recently. As I put together Peter’s selections I was quite confident none of his selections have featured in the 21 months of Decades. There have been very few non-fiction selections, fewer graphic novels and horror (beyond Mr King) is scarce too. Shockingly this is also the first mention of William Shatner. Some real variety to get your teeth into – thanks Peter!

 

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

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October 14

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Trevor Wood

Every Friday I welcome a guest to Grab This Book and I ask them to help me add new books to my Decades Library. It’s a project I started back in January 2021 and over the last 20 months my Library has grown beyond my wildest dreams.

If you haven’t encountred by Decades Library in the past then let me quickly explain what’s happening. I imagined a brand new library, a vast space filled with empy book shelves waiting for the books to be added. But which books? If you had to curate a brand new library and only wanted the very best books to be available for readers which books would you choose?

I knew this was not a task I could complete on my own so I invite guests to join me each week and I ask them to nominate five books which they believe should be added to my libary shelves. But why is it a “Decades” Library? Well there are two rules which govern the selections my guests can make:

1 – Pick ANY Five Books
2 – You Can Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

 

This week I am delighted to welcome CWA Dagger winner Trevor Wood to the Library. Trevor is the third member of the Northern Crime Writing Syndicate who has made their Decades selections (and a fourth syndicate member will soon make an appearance).

But enough explanations, you’re here for Trevor’s choices so it’s time to hand over control of the Library to Mr Wood…


Trevor Wood has lived in Newcastle for 30 years and considers himself an adopted Geordie, though he still can’t speak the language. He’s a successful playwright who has also worked as a journalist and spin-doctor for the City Council. Prior to that he served in the Royal Navy for 16 years. Trevor holds an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) from UEA.  

His first novel The Man on the Street, which is set in his home city and features the homeless protagonist, Jimmy Mullen, won the Crime Writers’ Association’s John Creasey New Blood Dagger for best debut and the Crimefest Specsavers Debut Novel of the Year. It was also shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and has been optioned for television by World Productions, the makers of Line of Duty. It was followed by the highly-acclaimed sequel, One Way Street and the final book in the trilogy, Dead End Street was released in January. His next book, You Can Run, a standalone thriller set in rural Northumberland is out in March 2023. 

Trevor is one of the founder members of the Northern Crime Syndicate and is a volunteer chef at the People’s Kitchen in Newcastle, a charity that provides hot meals for around 250 people every day. 

@TrevorWoodWrite 

www.trevorwoodauthor.co.uk 

 

DECADES

 

Whenever I’m making any kind of list about books that inspired me to want to write I always start with A Clockwork Orange and build around that so the 1960s had to be on my list. I couldn’t leave Dennis Lehane off either so my fifty-year period was almost inevitable. It’s a lot darker than I would have anticipated but I used to be a comedy writer so when I decided to turn myself into a ‘gritty’ crime writer I devoured a ton of dark stuff, especially James Ellroy and David Peace and have clearly developed a taste for it. Though I first read A Clockwork Orange when I was about 14 so maybe it’s always been there! 

 

The River of Adventure Enid Blyton 1955 

 

I know she had her faults but Enid Blyton was my gateway drug into crime fiction. The Secret Seven and The Famous Five were great but my favourites were always the Adventure gang, Jack, Lucy-Ann, Philip, Dinah and Kiki. How could you not love a gang of crime-solving kids with a pet parrot?  

 

 

 

 

 

A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 

 

The first ‘grown-up’ book that really spoke to me. Alex was the first cool anti-hero I’d ever come across and the made-up Nadsat language was like a secret code that kept the grown-ups at a distance, a lot of kids at my school started using it to wind up the teachers. It’s a great shame that the terrible Kubrick film concentrated so much on the violence and ultimately led to Burgess dismissing his own work as the book is about much more than that. Dark, challenging and, for me, at times, profound. 

 

 

 

 

The Dice Man 1971 Luke Rhinehart 

 

Another pitch black, cool book, dangerous almost. The bored protagonist, Luke, starts to make all his decisions on the throw of a dice which leads him into some very nihilistic territory. Many thought it was autobiographical when it first came out, probably because the author used a pseudonym and legend has it that a lot of readers copied Luke’s approach in real life. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Black Dahlia 1987 James Ellroy 

 

No one else does it quite like Ellroy. The Black Dahlia was the first book in an outstanding quartet which also featured, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz. It portrayed a post-war Los Angeles peppered with violence, corruption, and voyeurism and was described by one critic as ‘the most ambitious and accomplished crime fiction in the history of American literature.’ They were spot on. 

 

 

 

 

A Drink Before The War 1990 Dennis Lehane 

 

The first in my favourite crime series, introducing Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, a beautifully realised pair of private detectives whose on-off relationship adds an extra dimension to some brilliant thrillers, including Gone Baby Gone which was made into an equally wonderful film by Ben Affleck. Lehane is a master of his craft – he was also one of the team of writers on the brilliant TV series, The Wire. 

 

 

 

 

 

Decades always brings gems but sometimes one of my guests brings one of my favouite books to the Decades Library. Trevor has done just that today. Although I have likely read The River of Adventure a dozen times or more I have so much more love for the Kenzie and Gennaro books. A Drink Before the War wasn’t the first story I read in this brilliant series by Dennis Lehane but I remember when I did finally read it – it blew me away.

My thanks to Trevor for five storming selections – all to be added to the Decades Library.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

 

 

 

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October 7

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Decima Blake

Time to add some new books to the Decades Library. I’ve had a sneaky look at the titles Decima has selected and you’re in for a real treat.

First up I will do the weekly recap…I am assembling the Ultimate Library. I started this project back in January 2021 and since then over fifty authors, bloggers, publishers and journalists have each nominated books which they believe should be added to a library which contains nothing but the very best books.

I call this project my Decades Library because of the second rule I impose upon my guest curators when they select the books they want to add to the library.

1 – You Can Select ANY Five Books
2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

Five Books, Five Decades – a Decades Library.

Making their selections this week is Decima Blake. I read Decima’s latest thriller Hingston: Smoke and Mispers earlier this year. I loved the blend of modern detective fiction with links to an ancient Egyptian story and I was delighted when Decima agreed to take part in Decades. What books would have helped influence that creepy mystery?

 

In order to find out I will pass control of Decades to Decima Blake and let her whisk you back to 1908.

 

Decima Blake writes the genre-bending DS Hingston series, which blends modern day police procedure with historical fiction and a touch of spookiness. She conducts extensive research to bring realism and less common themes into her work. In Hingston: Smoke and Mispers, published in January 2022,  Ancient Egyptian history becomes integral to the plot, taking Hingston and the Murder Squad into uncharted territory where warped interpretations and dark practices lead to a series of deaths. With a professional background in safeguarding and investigation, Decima’s fascination with detective fiction has extended to children’s literature. Quite the opposite of Hingston, Detective Dachshund of Battersea Police is not only a dog – he has a reputation for trying hard, but not being particularly effective. This determined wire-haired dachshund made his debut in April 2022 in Detective Dachshund and the Fluffy Thief, a slapstick story with a twist, written in rhyme and hand illustrated. Examples of Decima’s artwork can be seen on her gallery page of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators website, and on Instagram @detectivedachs. For all things Hingston related, including photography of the locations that feature in the series, head over to @decimablake on Instagram and Twitter.

 

DECADES

1908: The Roly-Poly Pudding by Beatrix Potter

 

An attempted child murder under the floorboards of the family home. This was my first introduction to crime fiction, aged three. Naughty Tom Kitten is only just saved from the clutches of two villainous squatters, Samuel Whiskers and his wife, Anna Maria. These two large rats sought to eat him as the furry filling of a roly-poly pudding. Without a shred of morality, they went so far as to steal the very ingredients and rolling pin from Tom Kitten’s mother, Tabitha Twitchit. The negative impact on Tom Kitten is revealed to be life-changing (he should otherwise have benefited from a very good living as a rat-catcher, like his sisters), whilst the two offenders escape justice. A beautifully illustrated, memorable short story that warns of the potential pitfalls of childhood disobedience, and most importantly, the dangers that can be very close to home in the form of both male and female offenders. Revisiting this story now, having since worked in child safeguarding, I consider Beatrix Potter’s wisdom and method of delivery to be commendable.

 

 

1915: The Pavilion by E. Nesbit

 

A few years ago, whilst browsing in Waterstones, I spotted “E. Nesbit Horror Stories”. The name felt oddly out of place to me who knew no better. To my surprise and delight, this was a collection of short stories written for adults by the author of Five Children and It. I am a fan of M. R. James and his short stories (as you will read shortly), and for me, The Pavilion by E. Nesbit is on a par with the best of his. As such, it’s amongst my all-time favourites for its power to draw the reader into a vivid, unsettling tale. E. Nesbit’s summertime story entertains with the romance and bravado of young adulthood as enjoyed by the gentry of the 1860s, amongst which murderous intent lurks and a dark legend involving the estate’s pavilion is put to the test. The dreadful outcome delivered to Amelia, Ernestine, Eugene and Frederick should entertain any avid reader of spooky, gothic tales. First published in 1915 in The Strand Magazine, this short story reached the format of a book many decades later, and so I openly acknowledge my rule flexing.

The Pavilion is available to read through the online archive:

https://archive.org/details/1915thepavilionenesbitinstrandmagnov/page/n9/mode/2up

 

 

1925: The Haunted Dolls’ House by M. R. James

 

As those familiar with M. R. James’ short stories will know, many feature a bachelor whose scholarly wits and firmly-held beliefs are tested by a threatening supernatural entity in an isolated, unwelcoming location. I love M. R. James’ depictions of historic buildings and remote landscapes, and how he builds suspense by introducing doubts into the mind of the victim, notching up the anxiety level before something terrible strikes. There is an intimacy to his stories which absorbs me in the unnerving experiences of complete strangers, as my mind too, runs away with itself. The Haunted Dolls’ House, which was first published in A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories, is noticeably different. A married antiques dealer sells the dolls’ house to another dealer. “Thank God for that!”, says the first dealer’s wife, and the story begins. I like the way M. R. James chose to haunt the antique dolls’ house with a miniature tale that could have made a story in its own right, so that it is instead viewed remotely, from the ‘modern’ day. I do wonder whether the concept of a time capsule was M. R. James’ inspiration, used to acknowledge the thirty years that had passed since he published his first ghost story in The National Review in 1895. Certainly, I believe The Haunted Dolls’ House draws attention to the change of the times and you might find yourself contemplating, which is more disturbing, the supernatural or the natural?

 

1939: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

 

One of my two favourite Agatha Christie novels is And Then There Were None. It is likely that the fantastic 1980s film, Clue, had primed me to enjoy this story. Both involve a group of strangers brought together by the organiser of an exclusive event. Quite soon, the guests find themselves trapped within the confines of the estate, but only after they realise someone is systematically bumping them off. Personal secrets, suspicion and fear all come into play. Unlike the black comedy that is Clue, And Then There Were None is a serious whodunnit, famous for both its timelessly appealing storyline and its elegant, isolated setting that was inspired by the stunning Burgh Island in South Devon. I believe this particular Agatha Christie mystery gives readers a superb thrill in trying to fathom out who’s the murderer and who will be the next victim. Agatha Christie’s masterful words really do get you thinking. So, however many dramatised versions you may have watched, you must read the book!

 

 

1946: Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson

 

Beautiful scenery, exploration and adventure! If Moominland existed, I probably would be writing this from the beach where Moomintroll collected pearls. When you read the Moomins stories as a child, it feels like you are witnessing an excitingly dangerous form of homeschooling. There’s so much time to appreciate the world around you, your family and friends. Tove Jansson’s Comet in Moominland was the first book I chose from a school library that had a spine thick enough to display its title. I was eight-years-old at the time, and my new school in a new county was more stress-inducing than the fear of an impending comet strike. The escapism this book gave me was perfect because it was also educational. I love this book even more today for its character depth, captivating imagery and the seemingly effortless way in which Tove Jansson packages up the challenges life may throw at you and makes them both understandable and, most importantly, conquerable.

 

From Beatrix Potter to M.R. James and then to Tove Jansson, this is a sweeping run through wonderful books – but the opportunity to add And Then There Were None to the Decades Library was special. If nobody had added it then I would have had to use one of my own selections to get it in the mix. Thanks Decima.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

 

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September 23

Decades – Compiling the Ultimate Library with Chris Curran

Imagine you had a brand new library but you didn’t have any books yet. Rows and rows of empty shelves all demanding books to fill them. But which books?  This was the question I first asked back in January 2021. If you could assemble a new library of nothing but the very best books where would you start?

I knew I could not answer that question alone so each week I invite a booklover (authors, publishers, journalists or bloggers) to add new books to my Ultimate Library. I call it my Decades Library for reasons I shall soon explain.

Each week my guest is asked to nominate five books which I will then add to my Decades Library. There are just two rules which govern their choices but it can apparently cause a bit of head scratching…

1 – You Can Choose ANY Five Books
2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

This is why my collection is called the Decades Library.

 

This week I am thrilled to be able to pass the Decades curator hat to Chris Curran. Chris has selected five brand new reading recommendations for the Decades Library and I know you’re going to love them as much as I do.

Chris Curran’s sixth psychological suspense novel, When the Lights Go Out, publishes on December 2nd . Chris also writes as Abbie Frost and her latest under that name is The Guesthouse. Her books have been praised in the media as: truly gripping (Sunday Express), dark, claustrophobic and full of suspense (The Courier) addictive and fun (Daily Mail), addictive (The Sun), chilling (Waitrose Magazine) thrilling (Sublime Horror)

Best selling author, Alex Lake, describes The Guesthouse as a: full of suspense…gripping mystery. And Edgar Award winner Alex Marwood calls When the Lights Go Out: wonderfully mystifying and claustrophobic; and sad and thoughtful to boot.

Chris also writes short stories and has twice been shortlisted for the CWA Margery Allingham award.

Find out more about Chris/Abbie and all her writing:

on Twitter: @FrostyAbbie

Instagram: Chris Curran (@chriscurranwriter) • Instagram photos and videos

Website: https://chriscurranauthor.com/

 

DECADES

 

1950s

Tom’s Midnight Garden – Philippa Pearce

I had to start with the 1950s in order to mention this one because it could well be my favourite book of all, surpassing even Rebecca which I adore. I taught young children and when people discovered that I also wrote stories, they always  assumed these were for children. The truth is that, while I love children’s books, I have never tried to write one because the best of them are just so good! And the best are definitely not only for children.

I’ve read Tom’s Midnight Garden many times and it never fails to enthral me and to leave me thinking, smiling and crying all at the same time. As I grow older the tears flow more easily and I find more and more things in the story that speak to me. Like all great children’s books, it is both simple and profound. In a tale of two lonely children, playing together in a garden, Pearce manages to illuminate some of the great mysteries of life and living. She capitalises the word Time throughout the book, as well as Past, Present and Future because at its heart the story is about the passage of time. About childhood and aging, love and loss and how time alters us completely and yet leaves us the same.

Tom Long is forced to spend the summer with an aunt and uncle he barely knows in a flat, that, although part of a once grand house, has no garden. Banished from home because his brother is ill with measles, Tom is distraught at the loss of his playmate and of all the adventures they had planned together for the school holidays. But when the clock down in the entrance hall strikes thirteen one night he discovers a door to the wonderful midnight garden. Here he meets another lonely child, an orphan called Hatty. They spend nights exploring the garden and its surroundings as Time behaves as mysteriously as the appearing and disappearing garden.

Tom gradually comes to believe that Hatty must be a ghost, but is surprised to find that to her it’s he who is the phantom. They discover the truth during a resolution that is poignant perfection.

 

1960s

The Ivy Tree – Mary Stewart

Mary Stewart had huge success in the ‘50s and ‘60s, with her sparkling thrillers, but seems to have been forgotten by many readers today. I could choose any of her novels as a favourite, and her first, Madam Will You Talk? encapsulates everything I love about her books. But that was written in the 1950s so I’ve gone for The Ivy Tree from 1961. The books are often called romantic thrillers, but I think this is misleading. Whilst they all contain at least a hint of romance, along with beautiful settings, what matters is the adventure. And it’s always the heroine who pushes the story onward, not in pursuit of a man, but in her determination to solve the mystery. She faces the dangers independently, relying on her own courage and ingenuity.

The Ivy Tree is darker than many of its predecessors and, instead of the exotic locations (for the time) that Stewart often used, it’s set in the Northumberland countryside, which was deeply familiar to Stewart. The book is in the tradition of Josephine Tey’s Brat Farrar (and Stewart acknowledges her debt) and Du Maurier’s The Scapegoat, where a lookalike is persuaded to take the place of a missing person from a wealthy family.

Annabel was the much-loved granddaughter and heir of Matthew Winslow and, with Matthew close to death, Annabel’s cousin, Connor, persuades Mary Grey, a Canadian visiting England, to impersonate Annabel and claim the inheritance. But can Mary convince those who loved Anabel that she has indeed returned?

When it becomes clear that Connor and his loyal sister, Lisa, who have trained Mary to mimic Annabel, are ignorant of important aspects of Annabel’s life, Mary realises their plan is in jeopardy. Anabel’s  other young cousin, Julie, reveals that Anabel had an adulterous affair with local landowner, Adam Forrest. Both Julie and Adam loved Annabel so will they, or her grandfather, see through the subterfuge?

As Mary’s suspicions about what actually happened to Annabel grow more disturbing, she fears there is no one she can trust. But can any of them trust her? Stewart keeps us guessing until the thrilling ending.

 

1970s

The Walking Stick – Winston Graham.

Most well-known nowadays for his Poldark series, Graham also wrote amazing psychological suspense and The Walking Stick, is a twisted love story. Deborah Dainton has a withered leg as a result of childhood polio and, as the daughter of two high-powered doctors, she fears her parents see her as their failure. She is attractive, but her lack of confidence means she can only watch as the men swarm around her two beautiful sisters.

On the surface she is resigned to a life without romance and focused on her job in a renowned auction house. But in reality Deborah longs for love and begins to believe she has found it with unsuccessful artist, Leigh Hartley. He’s a bit rough around the edges for her family and even Deborah can see that he has some dubious friends, but she warms to his vulnerability and his tenderness towards her is irresistible.

Leigh lives in a bohemian warehouse apartment in London’s Docklands (a great portrait of that area before gentrification) and when they are there the fairy tale feels utterly real for Deborah. So real that she is willing to compromise all her principles to keep it alive. This is no murder mystery, but the crime scenes, when they come, are nail-biting.

 

1980s

A Dark Adapted Eye – Barbara Vine

How could I leave out Ruth Rendell’s brilliant alter ego? The title is inspired, but I have to wonder if modern algorithms would warn publishers against it!

The book begins on the morning of an execution before moving back to explore the events that led to the murder. It’s the story of an intense, and in the end unhealthy, relationship between two sisters – staid Vera and glamourous, flighty Eden. Over the years romances, marriages and children, as well as WW2, intervene to complicate their lives and their powerful bond sours. When they get into a fight for the custody of young Jamie, each claiming to be his birth mother, the stage is set for tragedy.

Years later their niece, Faith, tries to unravel the complexities of their relationship and discover the truth about Jamie’s parentage.

 

1990s

Affinity – Sarah Waters

There seems to be a theme developing here, because Sarah Waters Affinity also deals with misguided love and betrayal. Waters third novel, Fingersmith, reveals her as the mistress of the OMG twist that is nevertheless totally convincing. In her second, Affinity, the twist is more subtle, but the book is a masterpiece of suspense.

The setting is a Victorian women’s prison, where inmates are kept in almost total isolation, seeing only their warders and occasional lady visitors. Unhappy spinster, Margaret Prior, is one such visitor. She becomes fascinated by disgraced medium, Selina Dawes, who was sentenced for apparently bringing about the death of a woman attending one of her seances.

As the women grow closer, the tension tightens so much that it becomes almost impossible to breathe as you wait and hope for the ending they both long for. When it finally comes the devastating twist is gasp-inducing, but almost a relief after the nerve-jangling wait.

 

I am extremely grateful to Chris for taking time to make these fantastic selections. I am even more grateful for her patience while we experienced repeated and frustrating tech issues – these selections arrived in the third email account I use. It makes me worry I may have missed other messages and be oblivious to the fact they have been sent.

One thought did strike me about Chris’s choices – in 18 months of Decades there has not been a Ruth Rendall book yet. Still many big name authors awaiting their Decades debut. It is a good job I can promise

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

Category: Decades, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off on Decades – Compiling the Ultimate Library with Chris Curran
September 2

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with George Paterson

The Decades Library continues to grow and it is scaling up beyond anything I could ever have imagined. I started this project back in January 2021 when it was dark outside and the rain was lashing against my windows. Now here we are in September 2022 and, despite being in Scotland, the sun is shining and this is the 20th consecutive month where a guest curator is adding new books to my Library.

What is the Decades Library? It is the collection of the very best books as recommended by authors, bloggers, publishers and journalists – booklovers all. I want my Decades Library to represent the stories my guests loved – childhood favourites, memorable reads or just the stories which blew them away.

My guests are all given the same two rules: Nominate five books to my Decades Library. But they can only pick one book per decade over five consecutive decades – a fifty year publication span. Easy?  Have a go and see if you can pick your own favourites.

As September is Bloody Scotland month it is my absolute pleasure to welcome George Paterson – author of The Girl, The Crow, The Writer and the Fighter – shortlisted for the 2022 Bloody Scotland Debut Prize.

George is a writer, DJ and musician who, as a member of the bands White and DMP, released a number of well received albums on the Poco Alto Label. His work can be found in a number of independent feature length and short films as well as providing the musical backdrop to the London stage production of the play, ‘ISM’.

Since returning to Scotland in 2017, his focus has been split between the spoken word – his popular weekly ‘Lost in Music’ radio show – and the written, with articles appearing in a number of online publications before finding a home as a regular features writer and reviewer for INTO Creative.

In addition, he has written two screenplays and one feature length ‘coming of age’ story, serialised on INTO, called ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’.

 

 

DECADES

1930’s – The Conjure-Man Dies  by Rudolph Fisher

Coming two years after Dashiel Hammett’s no-nonsense game-changer ‘The Maltese Falcon’, Ivy League educated doctor and musician Rudolph Fisher delivered his own murder mystery, the thoroughly entertaining The Conjure-Man Dies. Written and set during Harlem’s 1930’s renaissance, it starts as many great tales do, with a mysterious death in the dark of night, in this instance, Frimbo, the titular ‘Conjure-Man’.

When 7th Avenue physician John Archer is called to the scene of the crime by a pair of local rascals named Jinx and Bubber, Perry Dart of the Harlem PD arrives to investigate the who do – and the voodoo – of this particular unusual case.

I came to this book relatively late – and too late for it to be influential in my own period piece – but I often ponder how ‘The Girl, The Crow, The Writer and The Fighter’ might have worked had I found Fisher’s expertly written piece before I did Hammett’s. Nevertheless, for New Yorkophiles (is that a word?) such as I, The Conjure-Man Dies puts flesh on the bones of a complex but fascinating era and a genre that until Chester Himes in the late 50’s was almost extinct.

Sadly, Rudolph Fisher died shortly after publication which meant that we never got a chance to find out whether Dr Archer and Perry Dart had the ‘legs’ that Nick and Nora and Sam Spade had.

1940’s – The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

Back in the early 80’s, I was a smart but aimless student at a crumbling state school on Glasgow’s southside. The interest in fiction that I had from primary had not followed me to secondary school. And when it came to my English teachers, they tended to fall into one of two categories; youngish educators who wanted to be your pal or bitter careerists who loved nothing more than to belt out their frustrations onto your hands. By the time I’d reached fifth year, I was pretty much killing time until I was forced out into the workplace. That’s when I met Mr O’Hagan. He didn’t want to be my pal nor did he want to thrash the shite out of me. Curt and precise, he was all business. To his eternal credit, he saw something in me that his predecessors didn’t and that came about after he handed the class battered copies of Evelyn Waugh’s 1948 novel, The Loved One. Oh no, we all thought. I knew he’d written Brideshead Revisited, the recently aired (and very foppish) TV adaptation was so detached from my damp tenement reality that the august realm of the Ryder’s Brideshead estate might as well have been on the fucking moon. However, The Loved One was a short book – 125 pages in the Penguin edition – so it wouldn’t take us long to rattle through it and move onto something less boring. However, by the time Baby Aaronson had been sliced into shape and turned into Juanita del Pablo on page ten, I was already sold. When Mr O’Hagan started asking us what we’d thought of the book, he received the usual shrugs and mumbled ‘Ah dunno’s from most of my fellow pupils. But I got it. And he got that I got it, which must have been a rare mark in the win column for him.

I found The Loved One immoral and unashamedly godless but more importantly for teenaged me, it was incredibly funny. Waugh’s matter-of-fact characterisations coupled with his savage twin takedown of Golden era Hollywood and the industries of death and perennial beauty lit a fire (or a pyre) in me that will never be extinguished. I strolled through my English exam that year and it was all down to Mr O’Hagan and Evelyn Waugh.

1950’s  – To The End of the World by Blaise Cendrars

A friend to Modigliani, Chagall and Cocteau, Blaise Cendrars was one of the most effervescent, vital artists of the 20th century. Part poet and part warrior – he lost an arm in battle during the Great War  – Cendrars squeezed the juices from life and it’s reflected in his work. A hugely influential and encouraging figure, not just in the pre war literary scene in Paris, but in the nascent careers of writers such as Henry Miller, who venerated the Swiss/Scot as his ‘greatest idol’, Cendrars wrote the riotous ‘To The End of the World’ in 1956.  He may have been coming to the end of his own journey but as a writer, he remained full of muscle and cheek, daring his contemporaries to have a go. During the writing of my debut novel – which you can find here…shameless plug…intocreative.co.uk/shop – this book, along with Miller’s own ‘Quiet Days in Clichy’, remains as vivid and descriptive a portrayal of the Parisienne underbelly as anything I’ve ever read. As invaluable as a ream of red-marked treasure maps.

An elderly actress, a young legionnaire on the run, murder, sex, laughs. Madmen on every floor. Even in his latter years – and he would only complete two more works after this – Cendrars has a lust for …well, lust that would shame writers a quarter his age.

I can think of precious few modern writers who would dare pick up the cudgels and follow Cendrars and the literary world is poorer for it.

1960’s – Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

Stephen King said that Ira Levin was ‘The Swiss Watchmaker of the suspense novel; he makes what the rest of us do look like those five-dollar watches you can buy in a discount drug store.’

A million selling book in 1967 which became an Oscar winning film the following year, Rosemary’s Baby, is in my opinion, a masterclass in pacing, plot, dialogue and black, black humour. Set in an exclusive New York apartment block, young, aspirational couple Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse find that the whispers of malevolent behavior at their new residence are based in a terrible reality. As Guy’s acting career begins to take off, Rosemary descends into a satanic fever dream with heinous consequences.

Levin’s economy of language and his ability to conjure up a sense of the deepest dread from the seemingly mundane has stayed with me since I first read the book, four decades ago. And his fingerprints (or should that be claw marks?) are all over my current work-in-progress; a gothic thriller set in our own Upper West Side, Glasgow’s West End. Aiming for Levin is what I intend to do with ‘Westerwick’. It’s a very tall order but at worst, it’ll have its father’s eyes.

1970’s – The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark

Unflinching, uncompromising and unlike anything I’ve ever read.

Muriel Spark is one of my go-to writers. If you’re after the florid, you won’t find it here. As with her note perfect, ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ there is no other writer who can simultaneously cleave fat from the flesh like a butcher yet trace a narrative as precisely as a neurosurgeon. Not only is it her most stark, brutal story, Spark herself considered it one of her own favourite works.

Set in the late 1960’s, an era of female emancipation, it tells of Lise, an office worker from Northern Europe who decides, without wishing to spoil the story, that she will be the captain of her own fate. I don’t wish to say anymore about this disconcerting book other than, just go read it. Today.

It might not be to everyone’s tastes but for me ‘The Driver’s Seat’ remains a work of immense artistic bravery.

And that’s it! Quite tough calls to be made but I guess that as a writer, I’ve gone for books that continually push their way into my work space rather than those which I might return to purely for entertainment.  I’ll continue to use all of those influences and distill the essence of their work and with any luck, I’ll concoct my own heady brew.

If I’m invited back onto Decades further down the line, I’ll change course around 1980 and head for home!

 

 

Spectacular mix of books, thanks to George for these fascinating selections. This is the second week in a row where there have been five entirely new novels nominated – it swells the total books offered to Library visitors and I hope it swells your TBR piles too.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades | Comments Off on Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with George Paterson
August 26

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Michael J Malone

It has been a busy old time here at Chez Grab and reviews have been scarce. Even more frustrating is that Decades has not been updating each week as I would like. Time to put that to right – a return of Decades and a return to Friday too. But before we get to my guest curator I feel it is time to recap what the Decades Library is all about.

In January 2021 I began a mission. I had a virtual library. Empty shelves and the goal I set myself was to find the very best books to put onto those empty shelves. Where to start?  My limited field of reading meant I was not the best person to decide which books were “the best” so I decided to ask booklovers to help me fill the shelves of my Ultimate Library. Over the last 20 months I have been joined by authors, bloggers, publishers and journalists who have all selected their favourite books which they want to add to my Decades Library.

Why did an Ultimate Library become a Decades Library? That is down to the two rules I ask each of my guests to follow when they make their selections:

1 – Select ANY five books
2 – Each Guest May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

Sounds easy! I am told choosing just five books is tricky – I am also told that narrowing down five books from a fifty year publication span is even more tricky.

Taking on the challenge this week is my friend Michael Malone (with a J). Michael is the reason Grab This Book came into being back in 2014, it was his influence which led me to my first ever author event (the guest speaker was Jenny Colgan) and he also gave me the first opportunity to read a book which wasn’t a shop bought copy – it was actually one of his novels on a CD-ROM if you remember them?

It is with great pleasure that I pass the Decades Curator hat to Michael J Malone…

 

Michael J Malone is the author of over 200 published poems, two poetry collections, four novels, countless articles and one work of non-fiction.

Formerly a Faber and Faber Regional Sales Manager (Scotland and North England), he has judged and critiqued many poetry, short story and novel competitions for a variety of organisations and was the Scottish correspondent for Writers’ Forum.

Michael is an experienced workshop leader/ creative writing lecturer to writers’ groups, schools and colleges as well as a personal coach and mentor. He has a Certificate in Life Coaching and studied as a facilitator with The Pacific Institute.

He is a regular speaker and chair at book festivals throughout the country – including Aye Write, Bloody Scotland, Crimefest and Wigtown.

Michael can found online at: https://mjmink.wordpress.com

and his books can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-J-Malone/e/B009WV9V4Y/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1

 

DECADES

 

It’s a near impossible task to pick not only five favourite books, but five from different decades – indeed, on any other day I sat down to compile this I might have chosen another five. What has surprised me as I read over my compilation is the number of historical books I’ve chosen. What doesn’t surprise me is that each of these books affected me deeply as I read them – an impact that has lasted to this day.

 

1970’s – Roots – Alex Haley

I remember walking to school reading this book as I walked: I literally could not put it down. As anyone who was alive during this period can testify, Roots was a social and cultural phenomenon.

It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent, sold into slavery in Africa, and transported to North America; it follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the United States down to Haley, the author. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to it being a sensation in the United States. The novel spent forty-six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, including twenty-two weeks at number one.

Haley acknowledged that the book was a work of “faction” with many of the detailed incidents in the book being works of the imagination, but the main facts of the story were based on his research. An approach I copied when I wrote my 2014 novel The Guillotine Choice.

 

 

1980’s – The Lost Get Back Boogie – James Lee Burke

It was while in the audience listening to John Connolly talk at Harrogate Crime Fiction Festival that I first heard of JLB. Mr Connolly said, talking about the man’s greatness – when James Lee Burke dies, the rest of us move up one.

This is JLB’s fourth published novel – and it was rejected 111 times over a nine year period before going on to be published – only to be subsequently nominated for The Pulitzer. (There’s a morale here for any aspiring authors reading this.)

But the book. Recently paroled from prison, Iry Paret, a young Louisiana blues musician, settles in with fellow ex-convict Buddy Riordan and Riordan’s family on a sprawling Montana ranch and becomes drawn into a tragic conflict involving the family and their neighbours.

No one writes about nature like JLB. And few people write about the darkness in the human heart like him either. There is a layer of melancholy running throughout the narrative – a contemplation on loss – the loss of roots (as Paret moves from Louisiana to Montana), loss of innocence, loss of opportunities and loss of time. The hills of Montana are given the same lush and lyrical treatment that Burke would later provide to the bayous of Louisiana in the Robicheaux series.

 

1990’s The Power of One – Bryce Courteney

Set in South Africa in the 1930s and 40s , The Power of One is a coming-of-age story of “Peekay”, an innocent English boy who very early in his life realizes that there are greater things at stake than the hatred between the Dutch Afrikaners and the English – the Second World War in Europe, the growing racial tensions and the beginning of apartheid will influence his world and challenge his spiritual strength.

Even though the odds are stacked against Peekay from the start, he never loses faith in the goodness of people and following the advice of several memorable mentors, he sets out to work towards his dream of becoming a boxing world champion.

This was one of those “lucky” finds I came across in my local library – a debut novel, by an unknown (to me anyway) and one that I went on to recommend to everyone I met. Chances are if I met you around this time I would have frog-marched you to the nearest bookshop to buy yourself a copy.  I found Peekay to be such an inspirational character that I even read the book in the week preceeding a job interview I was going for – if Peekay could survive everything he faced then I could deal with my nerves over the presentation I had to give for this job. (I didn’t get the job, btw – but I did manage to control my nervousness.)

 

2000’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell

Set between the 1930s,and the present, Maggie O’Farrell’s novel is the story of Esme, a woman removed from her family’s history, and of the secrets that come to light when, sixty years later, she is released from an asylum, and a young woman, Iris, discovers the great aunt no one in the family knew even existed. The mystery that unfolds is the heart-rending tale of two sisters in India and 1930s Edinburgh – of the loneliness that connects them and the rivalries that drive them apart – and towards a terrible betrayal.

Beautiful writing, characters to fall in love with and insight into (recent) historical attitudes towards women this is a book that deeply affected me and made me a huge fan of the author – as soon as her latest book is published it goes to the top of my TBR pile. (Hamnet, for example is A-MAY-ZING.)

 

 

 

 

2010’s The Orenda – Joseph Boyden

I heard the author being interviewed about this book on Radio Scotland while I was travelling between bookshops (I was a sales manager for Faber at the time) and I just had to buy the book from the next bookshop I went into. (You could be forgiven for thinking that my connection with Orenda Books was what made me seek this novel out, but if memory serves it was a few months after this when I heard Karen Sullivan was setting up a new publishing house, and calling it Orenda. Btw – according to the book, this is the name that the Iroquois gave to a spiritual energy that they say connects all living things.)

This historical epic is set in the mid-1600s in Huronia (part of Canada) at a time when the Hurons and the Iroquois are involved in skirmishes – just as the Jesuits arrive and begin their attempts to convert the natives to Christianity. A member of each of these three groups serves as a narrator: Bird is the warrior leader of the Wendat (Huron) nation; Snow Falls is a young Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) girl whom Bird captures and adopts in retaliation for the Iroquois killing his wife and daughters; and Christophe is a priest, whom the Hurons call Crow, who has come to convert the “sauvages” to Catholicism.

What follows is a gripping and at times brutal tale with rich and fascinating detail about the lives of the natives of this ancient land. Boyden has written a balanced narrative between the indigene and the coloniser – no one is guilty, no is innocent – they simply act in accordance with their beliefs and the habits of their people – leaving you, the reader to be the judge (please take note current crop of TV and film writers – let the characters demonstrate the unfairness of a thing rather than wagging your finger at us.)

The times in which this book is set are carefully and convincingly detailed. This is a book of love of family and friends, full of captivating descriptions of the beauty of the natural world they inhabit, acts of kindness and sacrifice, and vivid descriptions of torture and death – all the extremes of human nature are here. It’s a book that portrays the beginning of the end of a way of life, while another form of civilisation works at taking over. It is sobering, and powerful.

 

 

Thanks Michael. Every review on this blog can be traced back to the days we worked in Bellshill and the event in Ayr where your invitation to attend the writing group event opened my eyes to a side of books I had never known. All the books I have been trusted to read by publishers and authors, all the events I attend (and blog or tweet about) and all the opportunities I have been offered to participate in (reading groups, podcast guest, a Nibbies Judge, interviewing authors at their book launch) all thanks to that early support and encouragement. Thank you.

 

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

Category: Decades, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off on Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Michael J Malone
August 8

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Susan Grossey

In January 2021 I first introduced the Decades Library. It’s an ongoing challenge to curate the very best collection of books, chosen by booklovers, so that any reader who selects a book from the Library will know they are reading a book someone else loved and felt was worthy of a place in the Ultimate Library.

Each week (usually) a new guest curator joins me to add new titles to the Decades Library. My guests have been authors, bloggers, publishers, journalists and podcasters but they all are asked to follow just two rules when they select the books they want to add to my Library.

1 – You Can Select ANY Five Books
2 – You Can Only Select One Book Per Decade Over Five Consecutive Decades

Easy?  Well it does seem so – until you start trying to pin down five favourite books from a fifty-year publication span. There is often a great deal of rule “flexing” to be found when a curator makes their selections. This week, however, I am delighted to confirm my guest this week very much kept on the right side of the rules and when you read Susan Grossey’s bio you may understand why this is the case! Name dropping other books also crops up on a regular basis so see if you can spot the “honourable mentions”.

So without further delay I shall pass you over to Susan:

 

My name is Susan Grossey, and I have made my living from crime.  For nearly three decades I worked as an anti-money laundering consultant, advising banks, law firms, casinos and others on how to avoid criminal money – yes, I am almost certainly to blame when an estate agent impertinently asks you to bring in your passport and bank statement when you want to spend squillions on a new mansion.  My obsession with financial crime has spilled over into my personal life, and for ten years I have been writing a series of historical financial crime novels, set in London in the 1820s and narrated by a magistrates’ constable called Sam Plank.  (The 1820s was fascinating in terms of policing history – after the Bow Street Runners and before the Metropolitan Police.)  I have just published the seventh and final book in the Sam Plank series: taking place in 1829, “Notes of Change” has Sam looking in inheritance fraud, gambling and murder, while considering his future in the face of the “new police” – the Met.  I am now researching a new five-part series, again taking place in the irresistible 1820s, but this time in Cambridge (my home town) and narrated by university constable Gregory Hardiman.  (And if, like me, you can’t get enough of Regency history, you can sign up to my monthly e-newsletter which gives a bit more detail on the research I have been doing, which may or may not make it into the books.  Here’s the link: https://wordpress.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=793a391cd9d51c99540eb5099&id=d302de6b99 )

Any my website and blog are here: https://susangrossey.wordpress.com/

DECADES

“Scoop” by Evelyn Waugh (1938)


My father handed me this book when I was a teenager, and as he read only two or three novels a year (contending that real life was much more exciting and interesting than made up stuff) I knew it was important.  The story of hapless nature columnist William Boot being accidentally sent to cover a war in East Africa is a hoot, while cleverly skewering the nastiness of the world of newspapers (the owner of the newspaper is keen for coverage of “a very promising little war”).  And some of the phrases in it – “Up to a point, Lord Copper” – have entered our family vocabulary.  When I read more about Waugh, I learned that you can often love the book and dislike the author – a handy life lesson.

 

 

 

“Ross Poldark” by Winston Graham (1945)


I make no apology for including this in my library – it may not be high art, but I can think of few other books that have given me as much pleasure or that have influenced me more.  I first met “Poldy” through the BBC television series broadcast in the mid-1970s and dashed to the library for the books.  Imagine the glee I felt, as a fast and insatiable reader, on discovering that there were twelve books in the series.  And ever since, I have loved the twin disciplines of historical accuracy and maintaining character development and story arcs across several books – my own incarnation as an author of historical series was almost certainly set by “Poldy”.

 

 

 

 

“A Bear Called Paddington” by Michael Bond (1958)


Despite having no children of my own, I am a great reader of children’s books and still re-read favourites from my own childhood.  (I wanted to include “The Little White Horse” by Elizabeth Goudge in this list, but that was published in 1946 and I’ve already had that decade…)  I have chosen “A Bear Called Paddington” as it is the first Paddington book, but you could choose any one of the twenty-six Paddington books written by Michael Bond and you would not go wrong.  They are beautifully written, with neat plots and vocabulary that does not talk down to children, and the central messages of acceptance, kindness and a desire to help others deserve as much publicity as they can get.

 

 

 

“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” by Muriel Spark (1961)


This is a double win for me, as both the book and the film would make it into any “desert island” lists I might be invited to make.  What I admire about Spark is her sparseness and hidden cruelty – you are reading along merrily and suddenly catch yourself thinking, “No!  They can’t really just have said or done that!”  This slim volume – telling the story of the seemingly positive but ultimately fatal influence of an Edinburgh schoolmistress over her favoured girls (“you, girls, are the crème de la crème”) – fascinates and horrifies me every time I read it.  And as for Dame Maggie Smith on her bicycle in the 1969 film, well, it’s among the greatest film openings in history.

 

 

 

“The World According to Garp” by John Irving (1978)


This is one of those instances where I couldn’t believe my luck: an author whose book I just couldn’t put down, and who then went on to write so many more crackers.  He is one of the few whose new book I will buy in hardback on day of publication because I Just Can’t Wait.  Irving’s best, in my view, is “A Prayer for Owen Meany”, but that came out in 1989 (and would take me into a forbidden sixth decade.)  This one is about a boy who grows up with his single feminist mother and becomes a writer and teacher – much of it is semi-autobiographical, and all of it is gripping.  And as a teenager, reading the infamous car crash scene certainly put me off doing anything daring with my boyfriend in his car…

 

 

 

 

Where else but the Decades Library will you find Paddington Bear nestled beside Miss Jean Brodie? My thanks to Susan for five stellar choices. I am a big fan of Susan’s Sam Plank books and I was absolutely delighted when Susan agreed to make her Decades choices – honestly the beam on my face when I spotted Paddington in her choices!

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

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July 25

Decades: Compiling The Ultimate Library with Helen FitzGerald

My Decades Library grows. Each week I am joined by a booklover (authors, pubishers, bloggers or journalists) and I ask them to nominate five new books which they think should be included in my Ultimate Library. I started this challenge back in January 2021 and since then over 70 guest curators have joined me and selected some of their favourite reads which they feel the very best library should have available for readers to enjoy.

My guests don’t quite get to choose their five “favourite” books as I impose a couple of rules on their selections which means some books just don’t get to be included – I am told this can cause a bit of heartache and I do sometimes feel bad about this.

The reason I describe my Library as the Decades Library is beacuse of the rules governing selections:

1 – Choose Any Five Books
2 – You May Only Choose One Book Per Decade from Five Consecutive Decades.

So it’s selections from a fifty year publication span and means the fans of Tom Clancy can’t just pick all the Jack Ryan books – I initially hoped these rules would bring a broader range of reads to choose from and this seems to have been the case.  Incidentally – in 18 months of Decades selections I haven’t had a single Tom Clancy book nominated.

Today I am delighted to be joined by Helen FitzGerald. Helen’s latest book, Keep Her Sweet, is published by Orenda Books (who also made five Decades selections). You can order a copy of Keep Her Sweet here:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Keep-Her-Sweet-Helen-FitzGerald/dp/1914585100/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1650564375&sr=8-1

 

 

Helen FitzGerald is the bestselling author of ten adult and young adult thrillers, including The Donor (2011) and The Cry (2013), which was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and adapted for a major BBC drama. Her 2019 dark-comedy thriller Worst Case Scenario was a Book of the Year in the Literary Review, Herald Scotland, Guardian and Daily Telegraph, shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and won the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award. Helen worked as a criminal justice social worker for over fifteen years. She grew up in Victoria, Australia, and now lives in Glasgow with her husband. Follow Helen on Twitter @FitzHelen

 

DECADES

Published 1979 – Flowers in the Attic, V.C Andrews (smuggled this into the house!)

Up in the attic, four secrets are hidden. Four blonde, beautiful, innocent little secrets, struggling to stay alive…

Chris, Cathy, Cory and Carrie have perfect lives – until a tragic accident changes everything. Now they must wait, hidden from view in their grandparents’ attic, as their mother tries to figure out what to do next. But as days turn into weeks and weeks into months, the siblings endure unspeakable horrors and face the terrifying realisation that they might not be let out of the attic after all.

 

Helen shared with me that she read this when she was 13 (which may explain why she smuggled the book into the house). It’s definately a book which resonates with Decades Curators, Susi Holliday also made this choice when she picked her five and also suggested that she read it at an impressionable age.

Twice adapted for film, Flowers in the Attic was the first in a series which saw seven sequels follow over the years.

 

Published 1980 – The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco

The year is 1327.

Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate.

When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extraordinary things are happening under the over of night.

A spectacular popular and critical success, The Name of the Rose is not only a narrative of a murder investigation but an astonishing chronicle of the Middle Ages.

 

Selling over 50 million copies worldwide, no doubt boosted by the film of the same name which starred Sean Connery and Christian Slater, this biblical crime thriller was ranked 14 in Le Monde’s top 100 books of the century.

 

 

Published 1997 – Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey

 

Peter Carey’s novel of the undeclared love between clergyman Oscar Hopkins and the heiress Lucinda Leplastrier is both a moving and beautiful love story and a historical tour de force set in Victorian times.

Made for each other, the two are gamblers – one obsessive, the other compulsive – incapable of winning at the game of love.

 

Winner of the 1998 Booker Prize the book was also adapted into a film which starred Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett.

 

 

Published 2008 – The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas

At a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly boy.

The boy is not his son.

It is a single act of violence, but the slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen.

Christos Tsiolkas presents the impact of this apparently minor domestic incident through the eyes of eight of those who witness it. The result is an unflinching interrogation of the life of the modern family, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limits…

 

The story is told through the voices of eight characters, in third person and each in a chapter of their own. Events after the incident are outlined chronologically through each character’s story.

The Slap won the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2009 and has twice been adapted into a mini-series.

 

 

 

Published 2016 –  A Dark Matter (The Skelfs), Doug Johnstone

Three generations of women from the Skelfs family take over the family funeral home and PI businesses in the first book of a taut, gripping page-turning and darkly funny new series.

Meet the Skelfs: well-known Edinburgh family, proprietors of a long-established funeral-home business, and private investigators…

When patriarch Jim dies, it’s left to his wife Dorothy, daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah to take charge of both businesses, kicking off an unexpected series of events. Dorothy discovers mysterious payments to another woman, suggesting that Jim wasn’t the husband she thought he was. Hannah’s best friend Mel has vanished from university, and the simple adultery case that Jenny takes on leads to something stranger and far darker than any of them could have imagined.

As the women struggle to come to terms with their grief, and the demands of the business threaten to overwhelm them, secrets from the past emerge, which change everything…

 

Shotlisted for the 2020 McIlvanney Prize (Scottish Crime Book of the Year) A Dark Matter introduced readers to The Skelfs – a much loved Edinburgh Family who have subsequently appeared in two further novels and will return later this year for a fourth outing in Black Hearts.

 

 

HONORARY MENTION: Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner (1894, watched on TV 1973). I was the second youngest of 13; Mum was step-mum to the older eight children; dad was a strict ex military man; we lived in rural Victoria – so this really hit home. The only time we were ever allowed to miss mass was to watch the final episode when it was adapted for television.
My thanks to Helen for these wonderful selections. I can only include the five official selections in the Library but I do love an honorary mention as it lets me see which books almost made the cut.

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

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July 11

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Lesley Kelly

Welcome to the Decades It’s my ongoing challenge to assemble a Library of nothing but the very best books as selected by booklovers. This challenge began in January 2021 and each week a new guest curator joins me and they add some of their favourite reads to the Library shelves.

Choosing five favourite books seemed far too straightforward a challenge though so I decided to throw in a random element to the selection process. This random element is why my Library is a Decades Library.  When making their selections my guests are asked to follow just two rules:

1 – Select Any Five Books

2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

 

The rules are often flexed and I am often cursed as my guests turn to Google to find that elusive fifth book which was published in decade which allows them to complete the challenge of finding five books from a fifty year publication span. The winner at the end of this challenge are the readers who will have a Library full of highly recommended reads.

This week it is my pleasure to welcome Lesley Kelly to Grab This Book. You may spot a bit of a theme running through some of Lesley’s selected titles but if you have already discovered the fantastic Health Of Strangers series you will understand why that theme is there.

 

DECADES

I spent the years 2016-2020 writing the Health of Strangers crime series, set in Edinburgh against the background of a (fictional) killer pandemic. In a daring act of plagiarism, Real Life took this idea and ran with it. I’m currently working on Book 5 in the series, having had more than a little inspiration on everything viral over the past two years; we’ll soon know if the world has an appetite for any more plague literature! There’s info on the books here: https://www.lesleykelly.co.uk/

Here are my choices, more than a little influenced by recent events…

 

 

 

Noah’s Castle, John Rowe Townsend, 1975

 

I grew up in the 70s and 80s, worrying about the threat of nuclear war, fuel shortages, and rampaging inflation. Thank God times have changed. These troubles were obviously playing on the minds of the nation’s young adult authors, which resulted in some very dark teenage novels. This book, along with Z for Zachariah by Robert C O’Brien, was my absolute favourite piece of youth-orientated apocalyptic writing. I re-read it recently and it has definitely stood the test of time.

 

 

 

 

A is for Alibi, Sue Grafton, 1982

 

This series could not be more 1980s if it had backcombed hair and was wearing a neon pink ra ra skirt. I love the Californian setting, and Kinsey Millhone is as kickass a heroine as anyone could wish for. However, Ms Grafton had it easy as a crime writer – no mobile phones to get Kinsey out of her scrapes!

 

 

 

 

 

What a Carve Up!, Jonathan Coe, 1994

 

There’s no easy way to sum up this book. It’s a satire, it references the film of the same name, it has a country house, a failing novelist given a mysterious task, and an aristocratic family whose siblings just happen to be a tabloid journalist, a politician, a farmer, an art gallery owner, an investment banker, and an arms dealer. Told you it was satirical. Anyway, it’s hilarious, so go read it.

 

 

 

 

The Cutting Room, Louise Welsh, 2002

 

This was the book that really opened my eyes to the variety of crime writing that exists beyond the police procedural. This book has everything: a compelling (anti) hero in Rilke, an intriguing setting in the world of Glasgow auctioneers, a plot that draws you right in, and a smattering of very dark humour. Oh, and it’s beautifully written too.

 

 

 

 

Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel, 2014

 

And we’re back with the apocalypse… in this case a flu pandemic which kills most of the world’s population. The book focuses on several individuals who were in some way connected to a performance of King Lear on the night that the pandemic starts and charts their progress over the years. Much of the action revolves around the Travelling Symphony, which moves around the United States entertaining the survivors. For a book with such a dark theme, it is surprisingly hopeful. Given the events of the past couple of years, this is surely a must for the Decades Library!

 

 

 

My thanks to Lesley for five terrific selections. I know there’s a lot of love for Kinsey out there and I am delighted that The Cutting Room has found its way into the Library. All five books are officially included in the Decades Library and I can’t wait to see what may follow next.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

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