Saint Peter’s Fair (The Cadfael Chronicles IV): Ellis Peters

Good stuff! I’m a big Ellis Peters and Brother Cadfael fan. The books are much better than the ITV series (although Derek Jacobi is excellent) because Peters is such a great writer, paying attention to historical detail, character development, and plot. This Brother Cadfael mystery is set in midsummer in 1139, during a large annual fair that brought merchants (and spies) from far and wide. The battle between King Stephen and Empress Maude for the English crown is gearing up; the Empress, with her half-brother Earl Robert of Gloucester, is in Normandy working to enlist allies in the west of England; different members of the nobility are declaring themselves on the side of one or the other. On the eve of St Peter’s fair in Shrewsbury an important merchant is killed, presumably in connection with a dispute between the town and the abbey. But after his barge is searched and his niece, Emma, appears unconcerned about the loss of some of her belongings, Cadfael becomes suspicious. Two young men, one from the town and one outsider, are also strongly attracted to the beautiful young Emma. Before long a second merchant is found murdered; Cadfael becomes concerned for Emma’s own safety, and it’s clear that this is about more than a mere dispute between merchants. The plot builds to an exciting climax with an audacious rescue amid flames; true love wins the day. Two months after the fair the Empress Maude and Robert of Gloucester land near Arundel.

Big Chief Elizabeth – How England’s Adventurers Gambled and Won the New World: Giles Milton

I’m so glad that the writing of history has improved over the years, and a good history book can be just as exciting to read as any novel. Details linking past and present add colour and interest to what is already a fascinating topic – how Sir Walter Raleigh set out on the task of settling English men and women in the New World. Covering the period from 1582 until 1616 by which time the colony of Jamestown had become self-sufficient, the tremendous challenges facing the would-be colonists are described in detail.

The first few attempts at colonization ran into tremendous difficulties for a variety of reasons: incredibly poor planning, horrendously bad leadership, extreme bad luck in terms of the weather (hurricanes did enormous damage to the ships), and time after time the failure to choose the right people to send: the failure to send women, the failure to send anyone who knew how to cultivate crops, the failure to send people who knew anything about basic survival under tough conditions, and so on. It seems that city men in Elizabethan times were just as (or possibly more than) addicted to gluttony and the easy life as men today - it was the women who did all the work and who finally enabled a colony to survive, once someone had the foresight to send them along.

Here you will find details of the relationship between Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth, the true story of Pocahontas (not the Disney version), and the prescience of King James who wrote that tobacco made “a kitchin of the inward parts of man, soiling and infecting them with an unctuous and oily kinde of soote”. Upon his succession to the throne he quickly imposed heavy taxes on the importation of tobacco. But it was the growing of tobacco that made the colony of Virginia (named after the Virgin Queen) a viable enterprise.

I am forced to admit a terrible ignorance of American history, having always imagined that the “Pilgrim Fathers” were the founders of the English colony. Fortunately Milton has corrected my misperceptions, and I now know that the Pilgrims were only the second colony, founded almost twenty years after Jamestown. An excellent read, and I look forward to correcting misperceptions on other matters of historical interest thanks to Milton.

The Shield and the Sword: Ernle Bradford

This is the history of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, from its origins as a hospice for pilgrims established in Jerusalem around 1080 up to the present day – the book was published in 1972, but the order is still in existence and operates around the world today. It is, indeed, the oldest international NGO (non-government organisation) in existence; present day descendants include the St Johns Ambulance Brigade in the UK and Malteser International (www.malteser-international.org/), a German NGO providing emergency medical assistance in places like DR Congo, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.

The Knights of St John was always an international organisation with members from across Europe. It soon developed from the provision of hospice and hospital services to pilgrims to their protection on the journey to the Holy Land. The early history of the Knights is also the history of the Crusades – the attempts by western Europeans to take over and control the Holy Land, Syria and the Levant. The first crusade began in 1097, and the Christians were finally driven out of the Holy Land in 1291, although Pope Eugenius IV preached a new crusade as late as 1440, but by that time his call was barely heeded. The story of the Crusades is a sorry one, and Bradford does not hesitate to delineate the atrocities and mistakes made by the ruthless and poorly led Europeans.

After their expulsion from the Holy Land, the Knights took over the island of Rhodes and remained there until defeated by the Turks, under the leadership of Suleiman the Magnificent, in 1522. After a period of homelessness, the Knights moved on to Malta, which many found a poor substitute for Rhodes. It was in Malta that the famous Great Siege of 1565 took place, again against the Turks. This time, however, the Knights and the people of Malta held out against the Turks – though only just. Over time the role of the Knights changed and by the time Napoleon laid claim to Malta the Knights proved indecisive and unable to mount an adequate defence. But the Maltese themselves soon got rid of the French, liking them even less than the Knights, and asked the British to take control of the island. Malta gained independence in 1964.

Their expulsion from Malta could well have been the end of the Order, however it miraculously survived, and the final chapter of the book explains how the Order reinvented itself and continues its existence up until today. This book will be of immense delight to anyone interested in the history of the Crusades, of Rhodes and of Malta. The author provides plenty of fascinating detail while maintaining the reader’s interest throughout – the book is a compact and readable 227 pages long. Highly recommended!

Ode to a Banker: Lindsey Davis

I thoroughly enjoy all the Falco mysteries by Davis, and this one is the twelfth in the series. She writes with a wonderful sense of humour and a great eye for detail. Even though the story is set in Rome AD74 it’s as if she had recently visited and learned the daily habits of people – what they ate, what they wore, how they decorated their homes, how fires were put out, how the subtle relationships between men and women were handled, and much more.

Marcus Didius Falco is a private informer who has somehow managed to marry well above his station in life, which keeps him on his toes and provides a constant source of mystery and amusement for the reader trying to figure out the relationship between husband and wife. In this particular story the exact nature of the relationships between a wealthy banker and his first and second wives also contributes to the mystery. The banker is also an arts patron and publisher, and there is much insight into the world of publishing before the days of printing and paper. And even though this book was published in 2000, her insights and parallels between the world of banking in ancient Rome and the scams and hedge funds leading to the banking meltdown of 2008 are quite eerie. The banker is murdered, and Falco has to figure out if this was the result of a banking deal gone wrong, or an angry writer feeling cheated, or a wife becoming overly jealous. A great read!

Past Secrets: Cathy Kelly

A chick-lit romantic novel with pretensions to be something grander – but organisation and plot lets it down. An undemanding read with good characterization, but there are problems. The author allows the story to become confusing and disjointed when she attempts to make a ‘mystery’ out of whether or not one of the main characters actually had an affair with a well-known artist some years before the start of the novel. This leads to some frustration for the reader. Another trip-up is when another main character talks about walking past customs officers after coming off the Galway to Dublin shuttle flight. Excuse me? Going through customs after an internal flight? Otherwise the plot is entirely predictable. We know it will all work out well in the end; the devoted couple will overcome difficulties and stay together; the woman whose lover cheated on her will find a much more worthwhile man; the daughter who ran off to L.A. with her musician boyfriend will realise the error of her ways and return home to mother. What’s disappointing is that although the novel is set in Ireland, there’s very little to give an Irish feeling to it – yes, the street they all live on is given some character, but it could have been any street almost anywhere in the English-speaking world.

Size 12 is not Fat: Meg Cabot

A delightfully entertaining and easy read – a chick-lit mystery novel at its best, without pretensions to be anything else. Heather Wells is a former teen pop star fallen on hard times and has decided to go back to college. To earn her keep she takes a job as assistant residence hall director in New York City. A couple of undergrad female students die, supposedly ‘elevator surfing’. Heather decides there must be something else going on, and risks her own life to find out exactly what.

Cabot has an ear for language and gets it right, giving the story and setting an authentic feel. The plot moves along at a good pace and there’s plenty of humour involving all those little problems that women have to put up with: men who cheat, dress manufacturers who mislabel the dress size, and the impossible boss.

Things My Mother Never Told Me: Blake Morrison

I read this book, which for the most part also covers the same period of time, soon after reading To War With Whitaker, so comparison is inevitable. Both books are about strong women, one told in her own voice, this one written by her son, who also uses wartime letters between his parents to help tell the story of their courtship and eventual marriage after the war.

Morrison’s mother comes from a large Irish family – just how large only becomes known to him after his mother’s death. She had kept many details of her early life hidden from her English husband and children due to the discrimination experienced by Irish Catholics in England during her lifetime. She came to England soon after qualifying as a doctor, and worked in a string of hospitals throughout the war. Her work is difficult and demanding, and she’s frequently exhausted, often getting ill. At the same time, the courtship is carried on through letters and infrequent meetings, as Arthur Morrison, also a doctor, is serving overseas for most of the war.

It is Arthur Morrison who comes off least well in this narrative. His letters show him to be stubborn, insensitive, petulant, easily bored, and sexist. It grates that Kim (her real name is Agnes, but he gradually forces her to change it) is doing more interesting and demanding work than he is. He berates her for being a Catholic and refuses to get married in a Catholic church. Eventually he has a long-term relationship with another woman, for which he never apologises; nor does he ever acknowledge the hurt he causes his wife. The author repeatedly steps in, as if he could warn his mother against marrying his father, but I found this device tiresome and it does little to add any interest to the history of his parents’ relationship. In the end, for me, this is the story of a very ordinary man who ruins the life of a woman who might have gone on to achieve a more rewarding life had she grown up in different conditions and at a time when it was more acceptable for a woman to have a career. Directly following the war there was a lot of pressure on women to return to what was considered their proper domain in the home. Blake Morrison also wrote And When Did You Last See Your Father? but following what I’ve learned about his father in this book I feel no urge to read it.