Pewsey's Divine Comedy

 

Divine Comedy / Elizabeth Pewsey
London: Trafalgar Square, c1995.
295 p.

This is the second book in Pewsey's Mountjoy series; I had to skip the first one as I can't find it anywhere online or in real life. So here is the second entry in the series. However, as I mentioned in my review of Unaccustomed Spirits, these really can be read as standalones so it's not too much of a problem.

In this volume, we focus on Quinta, a young teen who makes her way to Eyot while in some distress. She's taken in by a woman who comes across her as she is standing near the great Eyot Cathedral, and then we jump ahead nearly a decade for the rest of the story. 

Quinta is now working as a housekeeper for a composer (many of the characters in these books are musicians) and also working part time in a music store. She's coming into her own as an instrument builder (mostly violins/cellos and the like) but is still balancing her relationship with her composer as well as managing her young and feisty daughter.

As in all the books in the series, the social circles meld and overlap, and Quinta's friend Louisa and her messy breakup become part of the story, as do the stories of Louisa's ex, his strange twin sibling friends, various musicians, and the new Bishop. There are some difficult parts in this one, and reading from a perspective 20 years down the line, people don't seem to take the key plot point seriously enough. 

However, Quinta meets an chaos theorist who is the antimatter to her very ordered life, and things change for everyone. Finding out people's secrets, which aren't so bad once they're shared, is a repeated element of this book and it's very engaging.I really liked Quinta and her determination, and was glad to see that once again, the deserving characters find happiness and the nasty ones get a comeuppance. It makes a nice change ;) 

I enjoyed this book and it's always entertaining when you read a series like this to see other side characters and places pop up from the other books. Even though it's only the second one in the series that I read, there were already recognizable bits that enhanced the reading experience.

One thing to note about this series and this book in particular is that the originals were published under the name Elizabeth Pewsey, all by Sceptre books. When the series was republished in and around 2011, it was republished under her other name, Elizabeth Aston, and this book's title was changed to "The World, the Flesh, & the Bishop", which perhaps gives a better sense of the story! So if you can't find the Pewsey edition, look for the more recent Aston set, even if their covers are extremely unappealing, nothing like the charm of the originals. 

Unholy Harmonies

 

Unholy Harmonies / Elizabeth Pewsey
London: Sceptre, c1997
336 p.

Book Three in the Mountjoy series by Elizabeth Pewsey (aka Elizabeth Aston), this one is a little stranger than the last. We see many of the same characters, but there is also a bit of a sharper edge to this. 

Sylvester, a cellist who appears in each book, has moved into the small town of Unthrang in Eyotshire while his house in a nearby village is having some extensive repairs done. This means he comes into closer daily contact with a variety of characters, and he is, as always, one of the change elements in all the stories. His housekeeper Lily is a bit of a witch in her own right, always knowing what's about to happen and who is doing what. 

And there is a lot to keep track of in this village! We have Roxane, who rents out her big house and lives in a renovated stableyard behind it; where does she get all her money? People wonder, but the reader knows. And we have a number of unsettled marriages - Justinia, married to the controlling Digby; Lucius, married to a woman who desperately wants to get back to London from this provincial hole he's landed them in; and middle-aged Sadie, who is reshaping her life after her husband ran away with the milkman and now wants her house as well. And in the big house in the middle of town, a recluse named Zephania stirs up interest as a previously unknown nephew comes to stay with her while he's at college. 

This one is really all about the trials of romantic and familial relationships of all kinds -- there's lots of sex, lots of change and resettling of connections, and as always lots of music. There is also, here, a stranger who rides into Unthrang on his motorcycle as a kind of Dionysius figure who shakes up the normal course of life for everyone. Unfortunately, he's described as a Russian dancer, which in current circumstances I found hard to be amused by. Still, he appears, leaves, and then reappears just in time for spooky season. 

There's a lot to like in this book, with a variety of characters to follow. I liked Zephania's character, especially once you learn her backstory. And Sylvester and Lily are always great to have as acting characters in this series. So another enjoyable entry into this set of books. 

Volcanic Airs

 

Volcanic Airs / Elizabeth Pewsey
London: Sceptre, 1996.
336 p.

In this fourth book in the Mountjoy series, Pewsey takes the now familiar Eyotshire characters out of their usual surroundings - and it all starts with Thomas, one of the younger Mountjoys who is running away from his dreadful boarding school. He flees England with his little bit of money, heading toward the Sicilian home of a pianist who he'd met briefly in the past who had kindly invited the family to stay 'someday'. 

When his flight is discovered, it throws his family into an upset, and it's his stepmother who tracks him down and heads to Sicily to fetch him. She ends up staying for a while, amongst the many characters who follow. It's not a great escape from the Eyotshire troubles, as more of those involved in the drama trickle south and wash up alongside them. 

It's a great setting, with some new and fresh characters (one particularly funny portrait is drawn of a composer known as 'Discordant Mordaunt', who insists that melody is passé and only noise is music - with surprising secrets, of course). I was reading this in June, and found it interesting that one of the characters remarked that the volcano (Etna) was steaming but of course no chance of eruptions from that one. Timely commentary! 

As usual, a lot of the story revolves around romantic pairings and preferences, as well as family dynamics. The most grounded character is the nanny Dido, who previously worked in the sex trade but has gravitas, sense, and great rapport with children. The most high-strung, on the other hand, are the rich and educated musicians and eccentrics in the narrative.

Some of the commentary feels quite old-fashioned now, especially the portrayal of Valdemar Mountjoy (a real bully but one of the main characters) who is a womanizer and a terrible father. We are apparently supposed to feel some sympathy for him in the end. 

In any case, there is much to amuse in this one, with both pointed satire and some warmer, kinder scenes, in which a change of locale from the misty north to Sicily seems to bring on some self-reflection. I liked the setting and the varied characters, all with different personalities and responses to their adventure. Definitely a great summer read. 

Best of 2023!

 

Already time for the yearly roundup of some of my best reads this year. I always wait until the very last possible moment to post my list; you never know what you'll come across around Christmas! I like to give every book I've read this year a chance to appear on my favourites list, no matter if I read it in the first week of January or the last few days of December. 

I also create a statistical summary each year, for my own geekish pleasure. As I've said before, I don't think of reading as a competition -- I keep track of numbers and various stats for my own interest, not to prove anything or compare myself to anyone. 

Here are my reading stats for 2023:

Total Reading: 158

Authors

Female: 147
Male: 7
Both/Neither: 4

Genre 

Fiction: 112

Non Fiction: 46

Poetry: 0

In Translation: 41

Japanese: 10

Ukrainian: 8

French: 4

Spanish: 3

Korean: 3

Quebecois French: 2

Norwegian: 2

German: 2

Montenegrin: 1

Afrikaans: 1

Danish: 1

Icelandic: 1

Catalan: 1

Italian: 1

Romanian: 1

My Own Books: 33
Library Books: 121

Review Copies: 4

Rereads: 5
E-reads: 40

Author who I read the most from: 

Elizabeth Pewsey - 5 (plus 1 reread of this series of 5)

(also one book each by her, under varied pseudonyms, Elizabeth Edmonston & Gally Marchmont)

2023's Weird Random Stat: 

Books with Personal Names in the title: 15

I seem to have picked up my reading slightly over last year, although not in the areas of poetry or audiobooks.

Like always, I read a big majority of women authors, and quite a few more library books than my own this year. But I am happy with all the great books I am able to find through the library!

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And now for the Best of 2023!

These are titles that were memorable, unusual, or caught me with their great storytelling or rich characters. Just books that hit the right note with me when I picked them up! I read a lot of good books this year -- it was hard to pick out the great ones. 

1. Best Book of the Year! 

The Museum of Abandoned Secrets by Oksana Zabuzhko was the most absorbing, memorable book of the year for me. The writing style was fresh and engaging, and the content was timely. Ranging between WWII era Ukraine and today -- well, it was originally published in 2009, so just before the Russians invaded again. But it covers so much history, and family drama, with energy and pathos and vitality. Loved this one. 

2 & 3. Two more Ukrainian books made it to my top ten reads this year. Episodic Memory by Liubov Holota was a slower paced read, with history, family, and politics all wrapped up in a more lyrical prose style and philosophy. Lots to it, although the ending still puzzles me. Ivan & Phoebe by Oksana Lutsyshyna was a new translation this year, and it's full of energy and historical truths. Through this story, not only do we encounter families and relationships but also the larger story of history and politics, and how they are all enmeshed. Very timely and compelling reading. 

4. I just finished this one a few weeks ago but it jumped to the top of my favourite reading of the year. Cross Stitch by Jazmina Barrera is a translation of a novel by a Mexican writer, which explores the role of female friendship, interspersed with the history of embroidery, to create a resonant feminist narrative. Three girls develop a strong school friendship, and the book looks back from their adult viewpoint at their past together, when one of them dies.

5. Another book with sewing content, The Seamstress of Sardinia by Bianca Pitzorno was also a really engaging historical novel starting in Sardinia in 1900 and following the century alongside a young sartina (household seamstress). It was dramatic, a bit soapy, and enjoyable both for the historical/feminist content, and for the great descriptions of sewing and the main character's occupation. 

6. I really enjoyed the random discovery of Elizabeth Pewsey's Mountjoy series this summer. I found Unaccustomed Spirits at a thrift store, and loved it, so much that I searched out the rest of the series online (though couldn't find #1) This one is my favourite of the series, and I reread it over the holidays, as it is set during the Christmas season and it seemed suitable!

7. Father by Elizabeth von Arnim was a book that I ordered for myself as soon as I saw it was being issued by the British Library Women Writers series. I have nearly all of her books that are in print, and will read anything she wrote. So this was a welcome addition, and it was as arch and amusing and trenchant about the plight of women and marriage as ever. 

8. Business as Usual by Jane Oliver & Ann Stafford was a lucky find, a store novel, in epistolary format, from 1933 -- all things I love! Hilary is determined to make her way in the world and spends a year working in the book/lending library area of a large department store in London. Her eyes are opened to a world beyond her middle class upbringing. It was charming but not twee.

9. These last two were just enjoyable stories. I liked the characters and the concepts and found them easy but memorable. What You Can See From Here by Mariana Leky is set in a small German town where the residents are closely enmeshed, and the main character has to eventually make her way into the wider world. Some dark bits, but overall a read that isn't too challenging. 

10. Last pick is a recent read, Connie Willis' The Road to Roswell. I find Willis hugely entertaining, and this one has aliens, casinos, Men in Black and unexpected romance. Very fun & imaginative. 

Besides these 10 novels, I also read two non-fiction books in particular that are worth mentioning as outstanding reads. These were both fashion/textile related. Worn by Sofi Thanhauser is a history of clothing from around the world - it covers a lot more than European history, and was fascinating. The other one is Willi Smith: Street Couture, an exhibition catalogue for a show highlighting Willi Smith, fabulous designer from the 70s & 80s. It's a series of essays by various academics and people who worked with him, and it's a social history of his times as well as the story of his career. Plus so many fantastic images!

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So there's another yearly roundup of my reading. There were more books that were great reads that just missed this list of top tens, and lots of authors that I'd like to read more of. Wishing us all a new year of fabulous finds in 2024! 

12 Days of Christmas Book Cover Scavenger Hunt

 

I've been loving the #bookscavengerhunt posts over on Instagram this year -- I think I found them all thanks to @barbaras.book.obsession ! This is a festive themed one to round out the year, started by @wendyreadwhat I shared it over there this week but thought I would also share it here, as it is a fun challenge to look through your shelves and see what you have to meet the prompts -- and I know bookish readers here might enjoy. 

It's the 12 Days of Christmas & the prompts are:

12 Drummers drumming, 11 Pipers piping
📚 A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
A cello on Elizabeth Pewsey's Unaccustomed Spirits (set around Christmastime)

10 Lords A Leaping, 9 Ladies Dancing
📚 SPORT OR DANCING
Ice skating on the cover of Jenny Diski's Skating to Antarctica

8 Maids a Milking
📚 A DRINK
Martini on Beggar's Choice by Patricia Wentworth

7 Swans a swimming, 6 Geese a laying, 4 Calling birds, 3 french hens
📚 A BIRD
Book of Wings by Tawhida Tanya Evanson

5 Golden rings
📚 GOLD FOIL DECORATION
The Fairy Doll by Rumer Godden (7 stories, some of them Christmas stories)

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!
📚 A TREE
Not a pear but a flowering tree on Elizabeth Jane Howard's Mr. Wrong

Have fun if you want to try this yourself! Merry Christmas!

Unaccustomed Spirits

 

Unaccustomed Spirits / Elizabeth Pewsey
London: Sceptre, c1997.
336 p.

This is a book that I found by chance, at a massive book sale at my regular thrift store, after a church sale donated all their leavings. There were so many books that they were all priced at .50 a piece, to clear out the backlog. I got a boxful, and this one was one I added last minute, thinking that it was only 50 cents, I could take a chance on the cover. 

I'm so glad I did, as I so enjoyed it. In fact, so much that I quickly searched out the rest of the series to read them as well. This book is #5 in the Mountjoy series, but as I found out, can easily stand alone. And I'm glad that it was this one that I discovered first, as it was my favourite in the series, in the end.

It caught my attention because of the cover, which is a very particular kind of British book cover for women's fiction in the 1990s. There are SO many books from that era with this style of white cover with a painting and the author's name writ large. It's also set over Christmas in a crumbling manor house, with resident ghosts. All just my thing! 

Cleo Byng is a young woman who is engaged to a much older man, but has postponed her wedding due to coming down with shingles. Her distant relative has a country house that he needs a housesitter for, so she takes up the post, leaving her intense city job and fiance, and decamping to Haphazard House. 

This house is in Eyotshire, the location for the whole series. And Cleo starts to settle in, finding an old schoolfriend working as a seamstress in town who then moves in with her since Haphazard House is so large and rambling with so many rooms. 

There are various characters who show up in the house, including an extremely handsome ghost hunter who has heard that the house is haunted -- and both Cleo and her friend have their eye on him. And so do the resident ghosts. 

Yes, this house is indeed haunted, by an Elizabethan courtier, Giles, and a Cromwell era officer, Lambert. These two are very different in outlook but have been there together long enough to have a bit of an Odd Couple relationship. They were a delight, and their lute playing and fascination with modern technology (tv and telephones in particular) amused me. 

The tone of the book is a bit arch, a bit romantic comedy but with music, academia, fashion, and plenty of eccentric characters. It's clever and down to earth at the same time, with culture right up against more earthy concerns. I really enjoyed this introduction to the Mountjoys and the whole series, any of which can be read as a standalone. But I'm glad I found this one with the two charming ghosts in it to start with. It got me out of a reading slump with its purely entertaining storytelling. 

The Villa in Italy

 

The Villa in Italy / Elizabeth Edmondson
London: HarperCollins, c2006.
426 p.

I picked this book off the shelves of my library, after discovering that this author is another pseudonym for the author also known as Elizabeth Pewsey (and Elizabeth Aston, and Gally Marchmont) who I recently discovered. And more on her later! 

This is the only copy of one of her books, under any name, in my library's collection. So I read it. I enjoyed it - it's set in the 50s, obviously mostly in Italy! A woman named Beatrice Malaspina has died and left legacies to four strangers, who are all summoned to the Villa Dante. The conditions for receiving their legacy is that all four will arrive at the Villa and stay there for 33 days together, looking for the codicil that will explain everything. 

We meet Delia, a British opera singer who is suffering from bronchitis which is obviously pretty detrimental to her career - she brings along her friend Jessica, who is eager to get out of London and the scandal of her separation from her war hero husband. 

They arrive first, but shortly after two other Brits arrive together, although by chance - they don't each other or Delia either. Marjorie is a prickly and private woman, a detective writer who comes from the lower classes and resents Delia and Jessica for their rich lady airs. She's suffering from writer's block, which is her burden. But she also senses more than what is obvious to the eye, and comes out with sudden insights that make the others a bit uncomfortable. 

George is the third person there; he's a quiet scientist who carries the heavy guilt of having worked on the development of the atom bomb during the war. While he's a man with a rigorous scientific mind, he also has another side, having been brought up in a Jesuit school.

And finally, days after all the Brits arrive, Lucius rolls up. He's an American, more casual and authoritative than they are, a banker in the family tradition although he'd rather be an artist. He also carries psychological burdens from his war experiences in Italy, which turn out to be more connected to the other people at the Villa Dante than he'd known. 

So you have all four of these troubled strangers gathering in a villa owned by someone none of them had ever met (to their knowledge), and a puzzle set for them to solve. But unlike a Christie novel, there's no murder and mayhem among the small group, rather, they start to build tentative friendships and confess their longings for their lives to one another. 

There's enough plot and development to keep the story moving -- uninvited and unwelcome guests at the end, a McCarthy-like goverment offical interrupting their idyll -- but the heart of the book lies with the characters. These four (plus the fifth wheel, Jessica) are all very different but their unhappinesses are rather the same. 

There are interesting twists and the conclusion is not the easy one - there is no Noah's Ark style pairing off of all concerned. I appreciated that there was more complexity to the storyline in this way, and the story left me with a satisfied feeling. Lots about music and art in this story, as seems to be common in this author's work, and questions of responsibility and human feeling, as well as various family struggles. Really great summer read, with a little more heft than a beach read but also a lovely Italian setting to relax into as a holiday of sorts. Quite enjoyable & I wouldn't hesitate to read another by this author. 

Brotherly Love

 

Brotherly Love / Elizabeth Pewsey
London: Sceptre, c1998.
261 p.

This is the final book in the Mountjoy series, and I feel like it is only marginally connected to the rest of the books. Some of the recurring characters do appear, but the main characters are all new, and some of them are downright nasty. I'm glad I didn't start the series with this one, as I might not have picked up all the others afterward! 

Mimi is married to a Mountjoy, a relation of the ones we've already met in the earlier books. She's living in a comfortable small house, working as a fountain designer. She's solidly successful, which is good as her husband is a writer who is struggling with his latest work. His earlier travel books were a hit, but this one is coming out dull and academic and he's getting nowhere with it. And this is where the ghostly elements of the series comes out again; he somehow conjures up a Templar knight who then haunts their house, and it's not until a young tween girl who's staying with them sees him that they figure this out. 

Meanwhile, Mimi's family causes multiple disasters (hence the title). She has 3 brothers, all spoiled louts who live off her mother, another successful writer. But her mother doesn't want to deal with fixing the situation, so sells her house and disappears, meaning that the 3 brothers need to find another free place to mooch off...Mimi's of course. Her husband Edmund is not impressed, especially as the eldest brother is truly awful, trying to undermine Mimi at every turn, and actively trying to sabotage her marriage and career. 

So Edmund and Mimi head off to France to get some peace and quiet, for him to finish his book, and for her to get a break from her awful brothers -- who of course follow them once they realize nobody is there to pay the bills and buy the food for them in England. Mimi's mother is pretty selfish also, which Mimi realizes at one point, but that element is dropped and never really dealt with again.  

Anyhow, there are lots of hijinks in France but this one feels harsher and crueler than all the others in the series - the eldest brother is so awful, it feels like he needs to be in a literary novel in which he pays for his misdeeds. There isn't much amusing about him or his actions which drive a lot of the plot. 

So, not one I'd say is necessary to the series; as the last, it's unlikely that I'll read this one again. The parts with Edmund and his Templar ghost were a delight, and the inclusion of young Phoebe from earlier books was also charming. But take out the "Brotherly" in this one and I'd have enjoyed it a lot more. 

Wild Grapes by Gally Marchmont

 

Wild Grapes / Gally Marchmont
London: Orion, c1997.
288 p.

This is another novel by Elizabeth Aston (aka Elizabeth Pewsey), first published under the pseudonym Gally Marchmont, which is how I read it. It's slightly more satiric and contemporary than the Mountjoy series I've just been sharing, but highly entertaining as well. 

Gina Heartwell is an American student at Oxford; she loves England with all her heart. But she's just discovered that her visa has expired, unknown to her, and now she's being chased down by the dreary Mr. Popplewell from the Home Office. 

To get away from him for a while, she agrees to a wild scheme proposed by the obnoxious upper class acquaintance Georgie Hartwell. Georgie wants to get to New York, but isn't welcome in the US. So she wants to switch identities, and send Gina to Heartsease House in the West Country, where she's supposed to be staying with distant cousins with an eye to marrying one of them. Gina, in desperation, agrees. 

There are plenty of hijinks and shenanigans here, with crossed identities, secret agreements, unrequited loves, and more. It's a delight, even with the slightly outdated sexual mores that are on full display. There are sibling rivalries among the adult children of the Cordovans (many half siblings) as well as business propositions that need help. Gina, a dreamy academic, finds herself thrown into the dramatic milieu and isn't sure she can keep up the pretense, and soon isn't sure she wants to -- not because she doesn't like it, but because she loves it and doesn't want to lie to the family. 

Into the mix come Gina's college flatmates (accidentally), her estranged father (also accidentally), village residents determined to stir up the complacent Cordovans, and of course Mr. Popplewell. 

The many subplots and romantic threads all come together on Midsummer, as Heartsease House hosts a large solstice party. Everyone mentioned in the story shows up there, with identities unveiled, and true love sorted out. It's a real Shakespearean revel, with a touch of Deus ex Machina making the plot work out. I couldn't help but think of the Shakespeare plays in which these themes are explored; this felt like a rollicking modern day interpretation of some of them. 

It was unrealistic, a bit over the top, and thoroughly enjoyable. I'd reread this one - a perfect holiday entertainment.