Harriet Devine's Blog

Recent Reading

Of course I haven't stopped reading, though it's over three weeks since I put a review on here. I have written three but they are forthcoming on Shiny New Books- I'll post links when they appear on there. My other reading, though, has been less than inspiring, which is partly why I've kept quiet. But it's not just that. You'd think being in strict French lockdown would leave more time for writing, but I've felt strangely blocked, and so absorbed in keeping in touch online with friends and family that the days seem to whizz by without much being achieved. A week ago I also lost a very dear friend, someone I'd known since I was thirteen. He had been ill for some weeks, so it wasn't unexpected, but it's strange how ill-prepared you can turn out to be in this situation. And how much it does your head in.

Anyway I thought I'd just tell you about the three non-Shiny books I've read in the past couple of weeks.

Our House by Louise Candish was a Book Club choice. One of our members had read and enjoyed it, and wanted to share it with the rest of us. There are six of us in the group, and five of us managed to meet on Messenger video. It was good to see everyone's faces! I would say the book met with a mixed reception. It's a psychological thriller and the main driving force of the plot is an extraordinary scam. A woman comes home after a weekend away to her attractive, valuable London house, to find it occupied by a couple of total strangers. All her furniture and belongings have been replaced by those of the new family, and what's more they prove to have perfectly valid legal documents to prove that they have bought the house. What's even more, they tell her that she has signed the contract, as had her rather dodgy ex-husband, though this is the first she's heard of it. Apparently this very complex fictional scam was actually based on a real event. It sounded intriguing and I was looking forward to reading it, but somehow it didn't really grab me, partly because I didn't find any of the characters interesting enough to be sympathetic or even delightfully wicked. 

This one must have been a 99p Kindle buy. I've read and reviewed a couple of Christabel Kent's earlier novels - one of them here - so was looking forward to this one which I think came out last year. She too specialises in psychological thrillers, and What We Did is no exception. The central character here is Bridget. She's in her forties, runs a successful couturier shop and has a happy home life with her devoted husband and son. But one day, into the shop comes her old violin teacher, Andrew Carmichael, bringing with him a teenage girl he is clearly grooming. All the memories of her own terrible teenage years come to the surface, and before much time has passed something takes place which will have huge repercussions for Bridget and her whole family. This was a well told story, and wholly credible, but I found the high level of tension and the disturbing revelations a bit hard to take.

I'd heard of the redoubtable Victorian novelist Mrs Humphrey (Mary Augusta) Ward but never read any of her books. I saw a review on a blog I read regularly and was intrigued. I got a free edition in 2 vols on Kindle. This is a serious novel. Set in a remote house in the Lake District, it concerns the relationship between Alan Helbeck, the forty-year-old owner, and a young woman. Laura Fountain, who is twenty years younger. A powerful attraction develops between the two, but there's a problem. Helbeck is a devout Catholic who has a chapel in the house, supports the local nunnery, and is on friendly terms with a two local priests. Laura on the other hand is a convinced anti-Catholic. Despite their differences they become engaged, but all does not run smoothly and there's a rather shockingly unhappy ending. I was rather enjoying this throughout volume one but it became too tortured and sad in the second volume and I ended up skimming. Not sorry I read it but I won't be returning to Mrs HW any time soon.

Girl in Book

Here's a book illustration by the French/British-naturalised artist Edmund Dulac (1882-1953). If you're a lover of old books you will have seen some of his many beautiful colour illustrations. When the market for lavishly illustrated books dried up after WW1, he went on to design stamps and produce illustrations for magazines. This picture appeared in Fairies I Have Met (1910) by Mrs. (Maud Margaret) Rodolph Stawell.

Cat and Lockdown

I've been away from home and posted nothing on here for some time. I'm back now, in France, on lockdown, which is fine. Weather is lovely and I've got plenty to do. Everything here closed apart from food shops and pharmacies, and you have to have a downloadable government form to visit those, or even go for a walk. So here's a picture of a very relaxed cat. It's by an Australian painter called Vanessa Stockard.

All Done by Kindness by Doris Langley Moore

It was on the 10th of February 1946 that Dr George Sandilands all innocently did the deed which was to result, a few years later, in one of the most vigorous controversies and gravest scandals that ever shook the art world of Europe and America.

In my last review I was raving about Doris Langley Moore's My Caravaggio Style, and as I said, I couldn't resist buying another of her recent Dean Street Press reprints. It turned out to be another great success.

In the previous novel we were in the world of literary forgery. Forgery, or the suspicion of it, is also a theme in All Done by Kindness - but this time it's paintings which are the focus. As the novel starts, a kindly country doctor, Dr George Sandilands, gives some much needed help to an elderly patient - she's run into debt and he makes out a cheque for the £50 needed to clear it. Although this is money he can barely afford, he insists that he doesn't need any repayment, but the old lady absolutely insists that he get some recompense. Much to her regret, she has already sold all the valuable furniture and ornaments in the house, but she remembers that there are some old trunks in the attic with various items in them, which she insists on giving him.  He tries hard to refuse, but when she says there is some old linen in one of the trunks, he agrees to take them - the vicarage is in dire needs of some good sheets.

The old lady tells him there are some old paintings in another trunk, and looking round her house at the very inferior artworks on the walls, his heart sinks. But she absolutely insists he takes all the trunks, so very unwillingly he gets them transported to his home. His older daughter, the very bossy Beatrix, is absolutely appalled. The promised linen is not bed sheets but some ancient and moth-eaten underwear, probably several centuries old, and there are tapestries and embroideries in similarly poor condition which she declare to be not even good enough to donate to the next jumble sale. As for the paintings, her scorn knows no bounds. There are fifteen of them, painted on wood, all very ancient and filthy dirty, some actually broken in half. As far as Beatrix is concerned, the sooner they are put out in the rubbish the better.

This could very well have happened, but the doctor's younger daughter Linda, who works at the local library, has recently made friends with a young woman colleague named Stephanie du Plessis. Stephanie's consuming passion is Renaissance art, of which she has made a considerable study. She is intrigued to hear about the paintings and wildly excited when she sees them. She is certain that they are all very important lost masterpieces. But when she manages to contact a well-known expert, Sir Harry Maximer, he pours cold water on all her ideas. Not originals at all, he tells her - he assumes they must be late 18th-century copies or forgeries, and assesses the value of the entire collection at £100.

But Sir Harry is not all he seems. Despite being a bona fide expert and celebrated collector, he seems to have been involved with some slightly suspicious deals in the past. Luckily Stephanie's new boyfriend, the curator of the local art gallery, is very astute at following up clues and uncovering evidence. Will his discoveries come in time for the paintings to be recognised for what Stephanie is still convinced they really are?

This is another totally delightful novel. Doris Langley Moore writes extraordinarily well, with great wit and obvious intelligence. Wonderful characters, an exciting plot and a very satisfactory resolution. Highly recommended.