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The first of Paul Cornell’s Lychford novellas, re-read in audio format. When a supermarket chain wants to disrupt the small town of Lychford residents are split in their like and dislike for the plan. Elderly witch, Judith, knows, however that the new build will break down the walls between worlds and let in malevolent beings from the faery world. Used to going it alone, she knows she needs allies. The new vicar, herself on the verge of losing her faith, and the airy-fairy owner of the magic shop seem unlikely heroines at forst, but Judith has chosen wisely. The Lychford novellas are now all available in one collected volume.
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I read this when it first came out, so this is a re-revisit via Audible, decently read by Gerri Halligan. Jilly Cooper is one of those writers I class as a guilty pleasure. This stuff might have been OK in the 1980s, but it contains a lot of casual misogyny, sexism and racism, which gives pause today. But there are parts of this book (previous notwithstanding) that I simply lap up. It’s like Josephine Pullein-Thompson* but for grownups. Cooper is light and frothy and includes a lot of gratuitous sex, which was quite racy for the time these books were written. For all that there are plenty of females in this book it’s the men who have the agency. Set against the background of the world of international show-jumping in the 1970s this is essentially the story of heated rivalry between the rich and sophisticated Rupert Campbell-Black and half-Romany Jake Lovell, who marries for money in order to set himself up on the show-jumping circuit. Jake is something of a horse-whisperer, while Rupert, through brave and talented has a cruel streak a mile wide. There are interesting side-characters: Fen, Jake’s sister in law, whom he trains to world-class standard (though even she needs validating by a man eventually); Malise Gordon, Chef d’equippe of the British show-jumping team; Billy Lloyd-Foxe and his somewhat unsuitable wife, Janey. And then there are the two main wives. Rupert’s mistreated (physically and mentally) and neurotic wife, Helen, and Jake’s efficient and hard-working wife, Tory, who believes herself to be little more than a convenience, though she loves Jake with all her heart. It’s hard to review this without being spoilerish, but all the way through, Jake comes good and Rupert is an utter bastard, then close to the end something happens that puts Rupert in a new light and causes Jake to act completely out of character. I think it’s supposed to be a redemption for Rupert (because he becomes the reformed hero in some of the future books) but we already know he's physically courageous, so what he does doesn’t constitute redemption for me. I still enjoyed revisiting this book, but this time around I saw more flaws.
An Audible re-read of the short story in which we see Dr Bairstow travelling back from the future to set up St Mary’s Institute for Historical Research, getting the funding and acquiring the core staff, Major Guthrie, Markham, Dr Helen, Mrs Mack, Dr Dowson and Professor Rhapson etc. and finally Leon. It raises as many questions as it answers. How much of what’s about to happen does Dr Bairstow already know? Does he know who lives and who dies? Which timeline/parallel universe are we in?
I love all things Jodi Taylor and her annual Christmas short story is a highlight. Instead of the traditional St Mary's illegal Christmas jump, we get the Time Police on their scariest mission yet, organising a Christmas party for a bunch of orphans to show the softer side (yes, that's right) of the bastard law enforcers. A Christmas party, an orphanage boy waiting for his mother. The taciturn Lt Grint finally has a glimmer of sympathy, but it could get him into deep trouble and he might drag others down with him - if they survive.
I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time, but it’s not available on Kindle in the UK. I bought the real book, but the print is small. I begged a copy on pdf from DAW (who are my publishers as well) but it came up too small on my Kindle. Finally I figured I could read it on my 10 inch Kindle Fire because of the bigger screen. Whew! It was worth the wait. Highly recommended. I’ve read a couple of Maradaine books before (the police ones) but this starts a new sequence featuring Asti and Verci Rynax, who have decided to forego their larcenous ways and go straight – by opening a gadget shop selling Verci’s little inventions. It’s all going according to plan until all one side of Holver Alley burns down one terrible night, Asti, Verci and his family barely get out alive. Some of the other residents are not so lucky. The soon-to-be-opened shop is gone and along with it all the Rynax's money, leaving them with a debt. Having been brought up by a criminal father, the Rynax brothers have talents that they can use, so despite Verci’s disapproving wife, they set up a well-paying job, bringing in other Holver Alley residents as crew on the heist. It turns into something bigger when Asti discovers that the Alley didn’t burn by accident and the crew sets about making the perpetrator pay. Though this is the beginning of a new sequence and there’s a dangling thread for the second book to pick up on, this has a satisfying ending. The two main characters, Asti and Verci, are as close as brothers can be, but are also very different from each other. Verci
I must confess this book almost hit the wall a number of times, but, somehow, I kept on reading. Isa is a Germanic princess who runs away from her English boarding school when she’s informed that her brother is dead. She’s sure he’s not and sets off to find him. She’s completely naive, has her horse stolen and is cheated out of her money on the first day. She has no idea of manners or what things cost, and she’s thoroughly irritating. She’s led a life of papmered luxury, has never had to do anything for herself and still tries to order people about imperiously. She’s trying to blag her way on to the mail coach to Margate (her brother’s last known whereabouts) when Sam, newly come into his title and (impoverished) estate and trying to turn over a new leaf, comes to the rescue and instead of continuing on his errand he tells the chit (going under the name of Miss Gunter) he’ll take her to Margate. Shortly thereafter they acquire a recently retired lady’s maid as a chaperone. Sam makes it seem that Margate is only a couple of days travel away (and it probably is by mail coach) but over thirty days later they are still on their way, having tried to avoid men who seem to either want to take Isa back to school, or kill her. The villains are never more than cardboard cut-outs. Yes, if this seems improbably, it is. Isa does gradually learn to say thank you, and of course the pair begin to fall in love. I’m not sure whey. If I’d been Sam I’d have bought her a coach ticket and sent her on her way. It takes 35 days to reach Margate from Reading, and not much happens on the journey. Sheesh! I wanted to like this, I really did, but Isa was so damned irritating.