Red Herrings for Breakfast by Annabet Ousback

 

Sounds magical, doesn’t it? Growing up in the boathouse on Balmoral Beach. But in the words of Philip Larkin, the late Poet Laureate: ‘They f—k you up, your mum and dad...’. This lovely woman, Annabet Ousback, and her brother, Anders, were denied what every child is entitled to and needs, the love of their parents. A cold, cruel father is a bad thing, but an unloving mother, no matter which way you look at it in modern terms, is an unforgivable thing.

A large portion of this memoir is taken up with Annabet’s childhood years which she presents in a straight down the line narrative. Annabet’s parents didn’t like her but they were openly contemptuous of Anders who, when he grew up to be a successful, well known and much admired restaurateur and caterer, finally became the light of his mother’s life. Anders was a troubled, complicated man and Annabet loved him unconditionally. That Annabet even knew how to love is, I suppose, a testament to the indomitability  of the human spirit. The latter part of the story with all its ups and downs is told with more emotion than the earlier and quite beautifully done. Although Annabet says she wasn’t sure what secret Anders had been keeping in relation to their father I think it is quite clear from Anders’ writings.

Annabet’s story is quite remarkable in that she also carved out a successful career for herself. She had a lot of hiccups along the way but I won’t spoil it by saying how her story has eventuated. I wish Annabet and her family every happiness.

It’s every child’s right to feel loved and wanted.

5 out of 5

Published by Bad Apple Press

The Survivors by Jane Harper

 

Jane Harper’s latest novel is set in Evelyn Bay, a fictional small beachside community in Tasmania. As usual, the descriptive writing is brilliant. As a native of a Sydney northern beach town I felt cold every time someone went into the water down there to swim or dive!

There are a lot of characters in this story and at first I found it hard to keep up with the relationships each had with the others. I wouldn’t have minded a cast of characters at the front of the book but that being said  by the time I eventually had them sorted I was good to go and I could picture them all.

Evelyn Bay had suffered a triple tragedy some twelve years before the story begins but now the shocking discovery of a dead girl on the beach at the same spot where another girl had disappeared all those years ago has stunned the residents and sent their local on-line news page into overdrive. Kieran, the lead character, has returned to Evelyn Bay from Sydney with his partner, Mia, and baby, Audrey, to help his mother move herself and her husband who is suffering from dementia out of their house. They were all closely connected to the events of twelve years ago, as were their friends who are still residents of the town.

As I have found previously with Jane Harper’s books, I could not guess the ending and that was a huge bonus for me!

Jane Harper deserves all the accolades that have been bestowed on her. She is one of the best! 5 out of 5.

Published by Macmillan

The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: a Memoir by Justine Cowan

 

Justine Cowan set out to trace her mother’s history and in the process discovered some answers for her mother’s frankly horrible treatment of her and, consequently, Justine’s own difficulties in forming meaningful relationships with other people.

In 1932 Eileen Weston was born to Vera, a single girl from a farm in Shropshire. Although Vera and her brother owned the farm equally, having inherited it from their parents, her brother banished her when she told him she was pregnant. She never revealed the father’s name and was, therefore, left to fend for herself. The Foundling Hospital had been established in London in 1732. Foundlings were classified as children born out of wedlock who had inherited immorality from their parents and who must be kept apart from the children of good, law-abiding citizens. In order for a baby to be accepted into the Foundling Hospital the mother had to prove, basically, that she understood that she had ‘sinned’ and that she intended to sin no more. By 1932 not much had changed at the Foundling Hospital but Vera knew that the only way for her baby to survive was to try to have her accepted by them.

The philosophy of the Foundling Hospital was to show the children no affection and not even to touch them (except for horrendous, regular beatings). The foundlings were not allowed to keep their own names and Eileen was given the name Dorothy Soames.

All of these practices have been abandoned now and the Foundling Hospital is a museum where Justine was able to obtain a file relating to Dorothy Soames, her mother, and this, along with a manuscript left by her mother formed the basis of her research. She thus gained insight into her mother’s state of mind and  how it had affected Justine throughout her own lifetime.

My great-great grandfather was a foundling in Whitby, Yorkshire and I must ask the historian in my family if she has any clues about how he came to be living on the Clarence River in northern New South Wales in (I guess) the middle of the nineteenth century.

This was not an easy read but it was an intensely interesting, thought provoking one. 5 out of 5.

Published by Virago.

I Follow You by Peter James

 

WARNING: Do not take this book to bed with you if you have to get up and go to work next day. Once the story gets rolling the suspense becomes unbearable and you have to see it through to its final nail biting conclusion.

When I started reading I Follow You I had to make a rapid gear change from Maggie O’Farrell’s exquisite prose in Hamnet to Peter James’s no-nonsense story telling. They are both masters of their respective styles so the shift from one to the other is an easy one.

 I’m a huge fan of the Roy Grace series and Peter James says in his afterword that he debated whether to make this a Roy Grace story but felt he “could write a more claustrophobic story just keeping the focus entirely on the principal characters  themselves”. Georgie and Roger are living happily on the island of Jersey and ecstatic that Georgie, at 41, has finally become pregnant. Georgie has a successful business as a personal trainer and Roger is a flying instructor who is aiming to extend his air taxi business. Marcus Valentine is a handsome, confident consultant  gynae-oncologist with a loving, beautiful wife and three small children. One of these people is the product of an extremely unhappy childhood resulting in the kind of obsessive behaviour which could end up ruining all of their lives.

This is a ripper yarn and Peter James at his most superb! 5 out of 5.

Published by Macmillan

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

 

It takes a while to get into the rhythm of this novel.  Scenes from past and present are interspersed so the characters keep appearing at different stages of their lives, and without prior knowledge that it was to be an imagined story of the lives of two famous historical people I wonder how long it would have taken me to work it out. 

Maggie O’Farrell’s imagination is a thing of wonder.  She brings sixteenth century England to  life vividly and the reader easily and quickly becomes immersed in all of its sights, sounds and smells. Agnes is a fabulous creature with her kestrel on her shoulder, her long braided hair falling below her waist and her healing powers through her knowledge of herbal medicines, and I particularly loved the portrayal of her (unnamed) husband; he is a real person to me now and that is how I will think of him from now on.

We visited the ‘plague village’ in England years ago which was a fascinating history lesson and to me it is very clever how Maggie O’Farrell puts a flea on a ship in Alexandria and follows its path of destruction all the way to England. She really is a brilliant writer.

And then there is Hamnet, a beautiful little boy around whom the story revolves.

This is a fascinating, immensely satisfying book. Maggie O’Farrell is a genius! 5 out of 5.

Published by Tinder Press.

The Autumn of the Ace by Louis de Bernieres

 

I love family sagas and the Daniel Pitt trilogy culminating with The Autumn of the Ace by Louis de Bernieres is up there with one of my all-time favourite series, The Cazalet  Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. The first two books of the trilogy, The Dust That Falls From Dreams and So Much Life Left Over, should be read before The Autumn of the Ace to fully appreciate the story of Daniel Pitt and the many friends and relatives who inhabited his life.

Daniel was a flying ace in the First World War and a spy in the Second. This book now tells the rest of his story as well as the stories of his family, friends and lovers. His passion for all things mechanical began with the planes he flew in both world wars and carried through to cars and, most importantly, motor bikes which led to his partnership and long lasting friendship with his old mate, ‘Oily’ Wragge, another beautifully drawn character throughout the three books. Daniel indulges his love of flying with his friend, Gaskell, and has an unconventional relationship with her and his sister-in-law, Christabel. Although his marriage to Rosie broke down after they returned from Ceylon his abiding love all through his life is for his children.

Daniel Pitt is an officer and a gentleman, brave, daring, warm and witty. Louis de Bernieres has written an absorbing, wonderful story in three volumes and I would love to follow the lives of Daniel’s descendants any time he wants to write some more. My only criticism of this book is that it ended.

5 out of 5, of course!

Published by Harvill Secker, London

Penguin Random House UK