Penny Reads

Step inside a world of books. Vintage and modern. Children's and Adult.

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Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story – J. Jefferson-Farjeon

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As the subtitle A Christmas Crime Story may reveal, I actually started reading Mystery in White towards the tail end of last year. Over the last year or so I’ve become quite fascinated by the British Library Crime Classics series. Not only do they look lovely and uniform on a bookshelf, but they all also lovely “cosy crime” books, coming from a different age of crime writing. Mostly written by contemporaries of crime legend Agatha Christie, they are a time when without modern technology, crimes had to be solved by old fashioned sleuthing by detectives, police officers, or sometimes just those affected by the crimes. In short, they are the perfect distraction from modern day life. I’m n a quest to pick up as many of the titles in the series as I can from charity shops, and so far I seem to be doing rather well.

Mystery in White tells the story of a group of people who met when they shared a train carriage on a service out of London that ended up stuck in the snow on Christmas Eve. They leave the train and walk a way across fields to find a house. But the house they find appears to be empty. There are roaring fires and tea ready to serve, but no sign of anyone there. Whose house is it? Where have they gone? And what connection is there to an incident that happened in the next train carriage?

Now, being a train obsessive there were a few little details about the train in the story that I wanted to know more about. We know it was travelling out of London, but there seems to be a possible bit of confusion about where exactly it started. In the introduction, written by Martin Edwards, the train is described as “the 11.37 from St Pancras (or should that be Euston? both of those great stations are mentioned in the very first chapter)”. Now. I’ve read the first chapter several times now and I can only find mention of Euston station in it. In fact, two specific mentions of the train specifically being the 11.37 from Euston. The fact that the chorus girl in the carriage is trying to get to Manchester initially backs up the likelihood of the train having left from Euston based on modern-day running routes, but back in 1937 (when Mystery in White was published) trains ran from St Pancras to Manchester. Were both location mentioned in the first chapter and someone has edited St Pancras out? I’m intrigued and feel a need to dig a bit deeper to find out what went on here.

The train’s original departure point doesn’t really make any difference to the rest of the story though. It’s just a niggle for train geeks. What goes on at the house and how the main characters deal with it makes a lovely, gentle story. There is a point where it starts talking about ghosts, and I have to be honest and say that I nearly lost interest then, but it was as if someone then saw sense and brought it back to trying to solve a crime.

If you’re looking for a book to read when snowed in somewhere remote then this is either the perfect read, or will produce sleepless nights. The UK’s winters being somewhat milder than they used to be probably makes that quite unlikely, but then after the last couple of years who knows what is possible!

There are several more titles in the British Library Crime Classics series that I plan to share with you over the next few month. I’m also starting a little pet project about railways in fiction. I’m fascinated to look in more detail at how they feature in stories, in particular crime fiction, and how accurately they are portrayed. As anyone familiar with Agatha Christie’s work will know they feature in several of her books (…) but a quick look at the cover art for the BLCC series also shows trains make a regular appearance. Obviously in this book the train journey is only the start of the adventure, but I’m keen to see if that is true for other books in the series. I will report back.

Mystery in White is available to buy online here. If you want to find out more information about the British Library Crime Classics series then there is an excellent page on the British Library website here that lists all titles. All my reviews of titles from the series are here.

This Much is True – Miriam Margolyes

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It is literally years since I received a book for Christmas and was able to actually read it between Christmas and New Year – although in this case I actually finished it a couple of days into 2022, making it my first finished read of the year.

Miriam Margolyes is one of those national institutions that pretty much everyone knows from something she’s done, but I don’t think many of us actually realise just how much she has packed into her lifetime. She’s told some wonderful tales on the Graham Norton show, I’ve seen her in documentaries about exploring Australia and tracing some of her roots in Scotland, and she’s also famous for breaking wind in an ad break on ITV’s This Morning, but that really is just scratching the surface.

Written in Miriam’s unique, straight to the point style, This Much is True gives a wonderful insight into her early life in London and Oxford before Miriam takes us to Cambridge with her where she feels her life gained much of the direction and shape it has since followed.

There is no doubt that Miriam Margolyes was destined to be a performer, but This Much is True really shows all the hard work that has gone in over the years to make her the household name that she is today. I knew she’s done a fair bit of theatre work before, but I had no idea about the amount of radio and voice-over work that filled her early working years. I’m also intrigued to see if I can find some of her appearances in old BBC radio dramas as delving into YouTube for some of the old adverts that she voiced is fascinating, especially as on some you simply wouldn’t recognise her voice at all. I hadn’t realised that she was Dolly one of the PG Tips chimps, or the Cadbury Caramel Bunny.

With Jewish parents, Miriam now describes herself as a non-religious Jew, but it’s very clear that the Jewish faith is a huge part of who she is, and as you read about her life you can see where it has influenced many of the decisions she’s taken in life. Reading this in parallel with watching the BBC’s excellent dramatisation Ridley Road has made me realise just how little I know about Judaism, and that’s something that I feel I need to rectify.

Anyone who is familiar with Miriam on TV chat shows or in print interviews will know that she is a woman who can shock, and it’s no surprise that her autobiography shocks some more, although nearly always in a way that makes you laugh too. She is downright crude in parts, and that may not be some people’s cup if tea, but that’s just part of who Miriam Margolyes is, and she’s very unapologetic about it.

This Much is True is quite simply one of the best autobiographies I’ve read in a long time, and sadly it makes Grace Dent’s Hungry look rather pedestrian in comparison. If you’ve ever chuckled along with Miriam when you’ve seen her interviewed then I definitely recommend you read it.

This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes is available to buy online here. At the time of writing (January 2022) it is only available in hardcover (or on Kindle), but if you have audible (or a free trial for audible) then you can listen to it for free as your book of the month, and as an added bonus you get Miriam herself reading it to you too.

Disclaimer: The above contains some affiliate links. It costs you no more than usual if you follow them and buy or download something, but I receive a small kick-back for which I am very grateful.

Hungry – Grace Dent

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A photograph of the cover of Hungry by Grace Dent.

Nearly eight years ago I was lucky enough to hear Grace Dent speak at a Woman’s World of Whiskey event that I attended in London – back in the days when I used to get invited to blogger events, and before anyone had invented the term influencer. I’ll be honest and say that before I went I wasn’t really that fussed about hearing her speak. I’d seen her pop up in various places on TV, but had never been that impressed with her. How that changed when I heard her speak in person.

Nowadays, as well as being a respected and well-known restaurant critic, she is also all over TV and radio. I don’t really watch Masterchef, but do love catching her on a variety of Radio 4 programmes, and also am totally in love with her new Guardian podcast, Comfort Eating. The episode with Rosie Jones is particularly laugh out loud funny, but also need to come with a very large explicit content warning.

A recent visit to the local library with my youngest had me walk past the biography section and Hungry caught my attention from one of the displays. It made me realise that I actually knew very little about Grace Dent. I’d detected an obvious northern accent, but that really was about as far as it went.

Hungry fills in all the blanks nicely. Grace is just a few years older than me and so much of her childhood food habits were quite relatable, along with the stories of working towards her hostess badge at Brownies. Where I went though I don’t think we were posh enough to serve tea and cake, just biscuits!

What I wasn’t expecting was just how touching I would find Hungry. The parts of the book that cover her adult life feature her father’s dementia, and also her mother’s cancer. Both are written about so poignantly, with her also clearly explaining the very real pull between needing to be with family up north, but also having to balance that with work in London. Earlier in the book she writes about how her working class roots taught her never to turn down a job, as you simply never know if it might be the last one you’re offered. I’m not sure how exactly she does it (the sign of a great writer I guess) but you can really feel that tension between the family and work sides of her life in this difficult time.

Anyway – that’s me coming clean. Now a Grace Dent super fan. And I defy anyone to listen to her voice and not be swept away somewhat by the way in which she seems to purr somewhat when she speaks. Well, purrs until she cackles with laughter in a wonderful northern way!

Hungry by Grace Dent is available to buy online here.

The Amber Shadows – Lucy Ribchester

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A mystery novel set in wartime Bletchley Park. My idea of a perfect book. A £1 charity shop find made it even more so. But then I read it…

I’m really sorry to say that The Amber Shadows just didn’t quite hit the spot. But I’m also thinking that it might have been me, rather than the book at fault. Let me explain.

I have a fascination with Bletchely Park and have visited numerous times, amazingly even before it was officially opened as an amazing visitor attraction. I wouldn’t say that I am an expert, but I certainly know more than many about what went on there in war time and having visited and watched films like Enigma and The Imitation Game I guess I visualise the place in glorious technicolour.

In The Amber Shadows though one of the main things I took away was everything being dark, and in shadows. The work there was secretive. There were blackouts. It’s obvious really as to why things were all dark and mysterious, and the author has done a fantastic job of making it so, but it just didn’t really work with my image of everything. Like I say, it was me rather than the book at fault here I think.

The story tells of a young woman, Honey Deschamps, who works in Hut 6 at Bletcheley. One night a strange man steps out of the shadows near her billet and hands her a package containing pieces of Amber, The package carries a Russian postmark. We follow Honey as she tries to discover why she has been sent the amber, and who has sent it. In doing so there is a delve into various bits of wartime related history which were fascinating, but not so much about what life was really like working at Bletchely which is what I was hoping for more of.

I guess what I’m saying with all this is that it wasn’t quite the book I was looking for, and I was just after something else. The Amber Shadows is still a good book, but I feel like I’m still after a good bit of non-war related crime fiction that just happens to be set at Bletchely. Does such a thing exist?

The Amber Shadows by Lucy Ribchester is available to buy online here.

Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart

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I’m not normally a reader who pays much attention to prize winners, but when several members of my knitting group separately told me about how Shuggie Bain was a must read title, it quickly made its way on to my to read list.

Since Covid hit I’ve generally been reading more and more as a form of escapism. There are times when you just want to disappear into a book, and whilst Shuggie Bain is the sort of book that you can lose yourself in, it’s also not the sort of book you want to lose yourself in. It is a disturbing tale of young Shuggie and his mother Agnes who live in 1980s Glasgow. Agnes’ way of coping with everything that life throws (and it throws a lot in her direction) at her is drink. Yet, as Agnes falls deeper and deeper into drink her children (Shuggie has an older brother and sister) try to save her without much success. As Shuggie ends up saying goodbye to his siblings as they accept their mother will never change, he is determined not to give up hope.

Shuggie’s love for his mother and his dedication to her is utterly heartbreaking. There were several points in the book when I just wanted to jump in the car and drive up to Scotland to help Agnes and her son. The idea that the book reflects real life for some children makes it even more tragic. The only omission from the plot was social services. With modern safeguarding practices you would sincerely hope that they would have been alerted to the situation through Shuggie’s absences from school, but back in the 1980s processes admittedly were not as robust as they are today.

I would challenge anyone who has ever simply said that a parent should “stop drinking” to read Shuggie Bain and then say the same again. Every family and every individual is different, but what this book does is make it crystal clear just how complicated situations can be and also how easy downfall into drink can be. The impact of external factors can be huge, even if the links are not obvious.

I don’t think “enjoyed” is the right word to use when referring to a book that is frankly, uncomfortable and heartbreakingly tragic, but Shuggie Bain is a book that I’m glad I read. It’s a good reminder and insight into a life that might not be like your own, but is just as important. A life that is complicated and full of challenges. One that shows what some children have to deal with from a very young age.

Child poverty has scared me for a long time, and Covid and more recent pressures of lorry driver shortages, rising gas prices and threats of food shortages are only going to make the situation more difficult. We owe it to children like Shuggie to understand what their lives are like and speak up for them. They not only need support in their communities, but also people who represent and campaign for them at the highest levels. Let’s not let them down.

A painful read, but also a must read.

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart is available to buy online here.

The Windsor Knot – S. J. Bennett

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As I stood in the local library, waiting for the kids to finally choose which books and audio books were coming home with us, the red cover of The Windsor knot caught my attention from a display stand. I’m not sure where I’d heard about this book, but I immediately knew the basic premise – the Queen turns amateur detective.

It’s a simple idea, but also one that weirdly seems highly likely. HM The Queen has always struck me as having an eye for detail and not missing anything that is going on around her and so I can actually quite believe that she would be very capable of solving a crime if called up on to do so.

I’m a bit of a fan of slightly comedic fiction about The Queen, with one of my favourite books of all time being Sue Townsend’s The Queen and I. After reading that and Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader The Windsor knot seemed a natural progression. And for anyone wondering I like did – SJ Bennett and Alan Bennett don’t appear to be related!

The Windsor Knot is a lovely light read. A sort of modern day Agatha Christie, with the Queen taking over Miss Marple’s role. Her assistant Private Secretary Rozie is also a fantastic character that I really enjoyed meeting in the book.

As someone who is a bit behind the curve and only just working my way through series 2 of The Crown on Netflix my brain kept flipping between the younger Queen in that and the Queen as she would have been in 2016 when The Windsor Knot was set.

It was interesting seeing some the spy theories in the book, especially surrounding the Russians, as they fit in really well with Vigil which I have just finished watching on BBC iPlayer. It’s strange how everything can sort of fit together like that.

Amazon’s listing for The Windsor knot talks about it being the perfect read for people who also enjoyed Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club and I would definitely agree with that. It sort of fits into a modern “cosy crime” genre.

The Windsor Knot is available to buy online here. RRP £8.99, but at the time of writing Amazon appear to be selling it in paperback fro just £2.

Disclaimer: All books mentioned in this post are ones that I have bought myself or borrowed from the local library. Some links are affiliate links. If you happen to buy anything having clicked on one of them I receive a small commission, but it will cost you no more than normal. Thank you for any purchases that you make. All are very much appreciated.