Along a Storied Trail - Ann H Gabhart

Kentucky packhorse librarian Tansy Calhoun doesn't mind the rough trails and long hours as she serves her Appalachian mountain community during the Great Depression. Yet she longs to find love like the heroines in her books. When a charming writer comes to town, she thinks she might have found it - is is the perfect man actually closer than she thinks?

I must admit that as well as the fact of the heroine being a packhorse librarian I was also drawn to this book by the simply beautiful cover.  As it happens, there really were packhorse librarians in the Appalachian mountains in the 1930s, and they must’ve been pretty determined and resolute people, because they were far from fair weather riders.

 

This is a refreshing read with a feisty heroine in Tansy, and some other love stories along the way.  One of which unexpectedly concerns the wonderfully irritable character of ‘Aunt Perdie’, whose solitary and spartan existence is suddenly shattered by the arrival on her doorstop of the young, desperate and pregnant Coralee.

 

Ann Gabhart writes fantastic characters.  Visiting writer Damien has just the right balance of charm and unpleasantness (is that a word?).  Caleb is loyal but hesitant, maybe to his cost.  Caleb’s ma, determined to have her own way, made me want to grind my teeth, and the transformations of Aunt Perdie and others in the story are perfectly written.  As well as the people I also liked the wonderfully-named Shadrach – Tansy’s horse.

 

The faith elements are woven through the story in a way that feels real to the people and the time period, and this faith is honed through tough times and heartaches, as well as joy.

 

An engrossing story, told believably with very well described settings and lots of interesting historical details about the work of the Pack Horse Library Initiative whose riders covered 100-120 miles per week even in winter when their boots froze to their stirrups. A fascinating insight into a part of American history I’d never heard of before.

9780800737214, Revell, Jul21 (UK)

75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know - Terry Glaspey

My first conscious connection with ‘Art’ was standing in awe as a child before the immense painting The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  The Night Watch isn’t included in 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know, but Handel’s Messiah, my first introduction to the power of classical music as I sat enthralled in the Royal Albert Hall, is.  

 

Also included in the ‘75’ are C S Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, books I devoured as a child without realising their Christian foundations and symbolism until much later.  It’s this spread of medium and level which is one of the great charms of this book, in which The Lord of the Rings sits alongside The Book of Kells, It’s a Wonderful Life, and the painting The Resurrection at Cookham among many (69!) others.  The book begins with the oldest of all Christian art, the paintings in the Roman Catacombs, of which Glaspey writes ‘The earliest Christian art, however, with its greater simplicity and obvious devotion, remains a powerful testimony to the way that art could reflect deep faith and trust in God.’

 

About The Chronicles of Narnia, created one and a half millennia after the paintings in the Catacombs, Glaspey writes, ‘Lewis had the ability in his writing to capture those transcendent moments that can occur when we come face-to-face with something bigger than ourselves, the hint of a realm beyond our ordinary lives’.  Glaspey himself, in his own writing about his chosen 75 Masterpieces, opens them up to the reader of all levels, whether the simply curious or the art scholar, and his passion for each subject shines through.  This is a treasure trove of a book with a multitude of fascinating short essays on art of all kinds.  Beautifully illustrated, it’s easy to dip in and out of, and a colourful exploration of art in place and time through history.  With its mix of the familiar and the less – to me at least – well known, it is an excellent tool to encourage the reader to broaden their interest in the arts, whether that be through books, films, paintings or cathedrals.

8670802420879, Moody Publishers, February 2021

Tales from Lindford - Catherine Fox

January 2020. Freddie, Father Dominic, Jane and all the other residents of Lindfordshire are celebrating the New Year with parties and resolutions. None of them is aware of the trails and tribulations the coming months will bring - not least the horseman of the Apocalypse who has set out quietly, with barely a jingle of harness, in a distant province of China...

Catherine Fox's novel Acts and Omissions, the first of The Lindchester Chronicles was named as one of The Guardian's books of 2014 and was followed by two more.  The Chronicles were intended to be a trilogy, but the events of 2020 gave Catherine the perfect opportunity to revisit Lindford's residents once more.  Tales From Lindford was originally written in real time as a series of blog posts and this makes it very 'of the moment' as you read.  

Perhaps this original blog style is also what made me find it a perfect book for picking up and putting down. The dramatic personae at the start does help a bit if, like me, you get a bit muddled as to who's who from time to time.  I suspect this was mainly necessary due to the fact I've not (yet!) read the earlier volumes.

There's a bit of something for most people in this book with its wide cast of characters.  I loved meeting Fr Dominic who worries for his elderly mother; Jack-in-the-greenhouse and Miss Sherratt who watches for the green card he places in the window each day; various clergy and lay people and their respective families; and my favourites - youngsters Leah and Jess.  Honestly, I promise that's not just because we share a surname!  Jess's diary is a highlight of the book for me, with her wonderfully pithy commentary on growing up and her tolerant affection for fiery older sister Leah who has strong views and expresses them forcibly. (Small spoiler: Covid comes very close to the Rogers family.) We also see how the ebb and flow of the pandemic affects everyone, with the resulting impact on family life and friendships, some of which show more obvious strain than others.  

The overriding reason this all works so enjoyably as a novel is Catherine's brilliant use of prose and the underlying wit which often appears. Early in the book, commenting on Brexit, she writes: 'But whichever way we voted back in June of 2016, the end has manifestly not come with the decisive bang of a Hazard Type 1 professional-only firework. It was more your back garden Catherine Wheel nailed to the clothes prop.' There's lots of political commentary throughout, told from various character's perspectives, and it's likely you'll find something with which you don't agree.  (You'll also find strong language from time to time, fyi.) But that's one of the factors which makes this book such a compelling read, and there are plenty of 'day to day' elements which are just fun (maybe even when they aren't funny, strictly speaking). You'll have to read the book to find out the amazing reason why, for example, Mrs Logan wants Turkish Delight. Go to pages 444-446 if you can't bear the anticipation for the entire book! The story (stories?) itself is sometimes 'stoppy-starty' by the very nature of writing about the lives and Time of a village and its surrounds, but anyone who lived in semi-rural England during 2020 will recognise elements of their own lives in its pages.

Halfway through the book, in June, Lindford is waiting eagerly for Lockdown to Lift.  'The pale horse is currently quietly cropping grass in an English meadow, but the horseman will ride again.' Reading this with hindsight, the author was clearly accurate in her expectation. Nearly a year on as I write this review, the pale horse is galloping hard across India even as we are waiting to see, here in the UK, whether all restrictions will be lifted soon. Yet even if they are for many of us 'normal' will be a long time coming. Tales from Lindford is a reminder that across communities people are coping with Covid and other things day to day in many and varied ways, with many and varied influencing pressures apart from The Pandemic itself. It's a clever, witty, engaging, sad, joyous and challenging read which I highly recommend. 

About the author: Catherine Fox is Academic Director of the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her debut novel Angels and Men was a Sunday Times Pick of the Year, and the first book in the Lindchester Chronicles, Acts and Omissions, was chosen as a Guardian Book of 2014. Catherine is married to the Bishop of Sheffield and is a judo black belt.

9781910674659, Marylebone House, UK publication May 21

Note: for transparency, I was sent an advance copy of this book, but I was not required to write any specific or favourable review. All views herein are my own.

  

The Abbey Mystery: Jane Austen Investigates - Julia Golding

‘It had to be acknowledged that the life of a clergyman’s daughter in deepest rural Hampshire was disappointingly full of duties. There were few things for an adventurous girl to do. That was why Jane always considered it fortunate to be in the carriage accident. Without that disaster, she would never have met the Abbey ghost.’

It’s 1789, and 13-year-old Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra are involved in an accident which results in Jane being sent in her sister’s place as companion to the wealthy Lady Cromwell while the household at Southmoor Abbey prepares for the elder son’s coming of age party.  She’s sent with a challenge from her brother Henry – to prove that the rumoured ghost which is said to haunt the ruins on the estate doesn't exist. But what initially seems to be an easily dismissed nonsense soon turns into a dangerous investigation with a lot more at stake than winning her brother's half a crown wager.  

 

There’s a lot of fun to be had in this novel, which – aside from the carriage accident in the first few pages – starts a little slowly but ramps up the pace and action briskly as the story progresses.  Jane is well aware that she is seen as the ‘lesser Austen sister’, but she is sharp, intelligent, and quick to pick up on things.  This lands her in trouble more than once but she is not easily dissuaded from the tasks she sets herself to, and along with her friends Luke the stable boy and Indian girl Deepti she sets out to find out the truth about more than one mystery, and save the life of an innocent man.  

 

I finished reading this at 1.30 am, which is a big ‘thumbs up’ to what a great read it is.  I couldn’t put it down!  Jane is an interestingly written and complex character and her relationship with her sister through Jane’s letters is lovely to read.  Her little comments such as her ‘(un)invitation’ to the coming of age ball make for some amusing interjections here and there.  Luke the stable boy and Deepti and her father are characters with their own passions and pains, and Grandison the dog is wonderful! 

 

A highly enjoyable story with an excellent plot, wonderful cast of well-described characters, plenty of action, a good dose of mystery and some satisfying plot twists.  I'm glad to see we won’t have to wait too long for young Jane’s next mystery.

9781782643340, Lion Fiction, Ages 9+, UK publication April 21

Note: for transparency, I was sent an advance copy of this book, but I was not required to write any specific or favourable review. All views herein are my own.