Tag: historical fiction

Book Review – Absolutely & Forever by Rose Tremain

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About the Book

Book cover of Absolutely & Forever by Rose Tremain

Marianne Clifford, 15, only child of a peppery army colonel and his vain wife, Lal, falls helplessly and absolutely for Simon Hurst, 18, whose cleverness and physical beauty suggest that he will go forward into a successful and monied future, helped on by doting parents. But fate intervenes. Simon’s plans are blown off course, and Marianne is forced to bury her dreams of a future together.

Narrating her own story, characterising herself as ignorant and unworthy, Marianne’s telling use of irony and smart thinking gradually suggest to us that she has underestimated her own worth. We begin to believe that―in the end, supported by her courageous Scottish friend, Petronella―she will find the life she never stops craving. But what we can’t envisage is that beneath his blithe exterior, Simon Hurst has been nursing a secret which will alter everything.

Format: Hardback (192 pages) Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Publication date: 21st September 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Absolutely & Forever is one of the six books on the shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2024. (You can find a list of all the shortlisted books here along with information about previous shortlisted books and prize winners.)

I have read several of Rose Tremain’s previous books, including The Colour, The Gustav Sonata (shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2017) and more recently Lily. I really enjoyed Lily but, although I loved the first two thirds of The Gustav Sonata, it wasn’t my favourite of that year’s shortlisted books. Unfortunately I feel pretty much the same way about Absolutely & Forever; for me, there are better, far more enjoyable, books on the list.

Absolutely & Forever is described as ‘a piercing short novel of thwarted love and true friendship’ which is right on all three counts. It is a relatively short novel – less than 200 pages – and Marianne’s friendship with Petronella is an engaging element of the book. And it certainly is a story about thwarted love, at least on the part of Marianne who, at the age of fifteen, falls passionately in love with Simon, a boy a few years her senior. It’s an obsession that lasts a lifetime despite mounting evidence that Simon does not feel the same way about her, or at least not sufficiently to overcome the difficulties that stand in the way of a relationship with her.

What does unite them is that, although supposedly the start of the ‘swinging 60s’, they both find themselves in a position where social pressures demand they take a conventional path in life: marriage and family. Marianne’s life is marked by tragedy but also by bad choices. However her eventual realisation that the life she has imagined for herself for so long will never be realised, and that along the way she has missed out on many things, is heartbreaking. I felt sorry for Marianne but it was the devoted Hugo who really captured my heart.

I think my main problem with the book was that I never really understood why Simon should dominate Marianne’s thoughts to such an extent and have such an influence on her life choices. Okay, he is her first love and the person with whom she first explores her sexuality but it’s Marianne who does all the running once he goes off to Oxford and then to Paris. I think Marianne herself sums up my reservations when, responding to a critique of the book she’s writing, she says, ‘If you don’t describe the lost thing to the readers, it’s impossible for them to care about it one way or another’. In this case, I knew what the lost thing was it’s just that the loss of it didn’t break my heart.

Although beautifully written, Absolutely & Forever didn’t enthrall me like it clearly has other readers. This makes it almost certain to win the prize!

In three words: Insightful, emotional, assured
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About the Author

Author Rose Tremain

Rose Tremain’s novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Prize (The Colonel’s Daughter and Other Stories), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music and Silence), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Femina in France (Sacred Country), and the South Bank Sky Arts Award (The Gustav Sonata). Her most recent novel is Lily, a Richard and Judy Book Club selection. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and a Dame in 2020. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer Richard Holmes.

Connect with Rose
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Book Review – A Plague of Serpents by K. J. Maitland

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About the Book

Book cover of A Plague of Serpents by K. J. Maitland

London, 1608. Three years after the Gunpowder Treason, the King’s enemies prepare to strike again.

Daniel Pursglove is tasked by royal command with one final mission: he must infiltrate the Serpents – a secret group of Catholics plotting to kill the King – or risk his own execution. But other conspirators are circling, men who would blackmail Daniel for their own dark ends.

In the Serpents’ den, nothing is quite as it seems. And when Daniel spies a familiar face among their number, the game takes a dangerous turn.

As plague returns to London, tensions reach breaking point. Can Daniel escape the web of treason in which he finds himself ensnared – or has his luck finally run out?

Format: eARC (432 pages) Publisher: Headline
Publication date: 25th April 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

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My Review

A Plague of Serpents is the fourth and final book in the author’s Daniel Pursglove series comprising The Drowned City, Traitor in the Ice and Rivers of Treason. (Links from each title will take you to my reviews.) The author is renowned for constructing complex plots and this book is no exception. In addition there are many characters to get to know, not all of whom may be what they profess to be, and the true identity of others remains shrouded in mystery. For these reasons I think it would be a struggle to fully enjoy the book without having read the previous three. To be honest, I struggled a bit for a time and I have read all three! (If you don’t have the time or inclination to read the series from the beginning but would like to experience the author’s work then I’d suggest trying one of her standalone historical novels such as The Plague Charmer set in the time of the Black Death.)

The thread that runs through all the Daniel Pursglove books is the search for Spero Pettingar, the only conspirator involved in the Gunpowder Plot who is still at large. As I mentioned in my review of the first book in the series, it wasn’t until I read the historical notes at the end of the book that I realised Spero Pettingar was a real historical figure. For much of the book, I was convinced his name was an anagram! Although having said that, perhaps there is some significance to his peculiar name after all…

King James remains conscious of the continued threat to his life, taking elaborate precautions to prevent being poisioned. He’s right to be vigilant because there are at least two groups who would like to see him dead, either to put their own choice of successor on the throne or to have no monarch at all. And if one group does the job for the other, all well and good.

It’s not just in the Royal court that there exists an atmosphere of mistrust. It’s the same in wider society as well, especially if you’re secretly practising the Catholic faith. ‘Friends, neighbours, brothers, servants, even your own children were not to be trusted. Anyone could be bribed or threatened.’

Daniel makes a spirited hero who’s handy with a dagger, able to blend into the shadows and an expert at ‘charming’ locks. Although the master of narrow escapes, even he makes the odd mistake with the result that he finds himself in some dangerous situations. There are lots of people who want to find out exactly what he knows and don’t have any compunction in using force to do so.

Natural phenomena have provided the background to all the books. In The Drowned City it was a devastating wave in the Bristol Channel, in Traitor in the Ice it was the Great Frost of 1607 and in Rivers of Treason it was the impact of the previous two on the livelihoods of the population: farmland ruined by salt from the flood, cattle and sheep drowned or frozen and winter wheat wiped out by frost. This time the Black Death is making a stealthy return and no-one is safe from that.

As always, the author conjures up the sights, sounds and smells of London – the latter being invariably unpleasant. We’re taken to familiar places like taverns and markets, but also introduced to occupations such as palterer, gong farmer and clank napper. If you’ve no idea what the last three are, check out the Glossary in which you’ll find the answers along with definitions of things such as ‘stool ducketts’, ‘muggets’ and ‘furuncles’. Oh, and whether you should take offence if you’re called a ‘snoutband’ or a ‘princock’.

As the book moves towards its close, we finally learn more about the events in Daniel’s past that have haunted his dreams and left him with an overwhelming sense of guilt for so long. There is also a final reckoning involving two key figures in Daniel’s life. However, the author resists the temptation to tie everything up leaving the reader to imagine for themselves what the future holds for some of the characters we’ve got to know.

I received a review copy courtesy of Headline via NetGalley.

In three words: Intricate, immersive, suspenseful
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About the Author

Author Karen Maitland aka K. J. Maitland

Karen Maitland is an historical novelist, lecturer and teacher of Creative Writing, with over twenty books to her name. She grew up in Malta, which inspired her passion for history, and travelled and worked all over the world before settling in the United Kingdom. She has a doctorate in psycholinguistics, and now lives on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon. (Photo/bio credit: Author website)

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