Tag: Review

#BlogTour #BookReview The Woman With Wings by James MacManus @EndeavourQuill

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TWWW bannerWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Woman With Wings by James MacManus. Thanks to Hannah at Endeavour Media for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy via NetGalley.

The Woman With WingsAbout the Book

Alison Spedding is a loner; no real friends, no boyfriend and a job in which she goes unnoticed. At thirty-two, her only passion is birdwatching.

One afternoon, high on a Scottish mountain, earnestly waiting for the rarest of sights – a white tailed eagle returning to its nest – she slips, falling silently. In shock, her fellow twitchers return to the hostel to raise the alarm, heavy with the realisation that she must be dead. What they find shocks them even more. Alison is already there, alive and unscathed…

Further similar episodes cause Alison’s grip on reality to slip, her mind spiralling towards breaking point. In her dreams she sees a huge shadow on the ground, as if there was a creature above her, a creature with huge wings…

Her infatuated colleague Jed is concerned. Can he intervene before Alison finally loses control?

This is an extraordinary novel, exploring one woman’s identity whilst posing universal questions: Who is she? Where does she belong? And must she accept her fate, or can she spread her wings and be free at last?

Format: ebook, paperback (280 pages) Publisher: Endeavour Quill
Publication date: 7th November 2019 Genre: Contemporary fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Hive
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Woman with Wings on Goodreads

My Review

I really enjoyed Ike and Kay, the author’s previous book (read my review here) so was keen to read his latest novel. I have to say The Woman With Wings could not be more different from Ike and Kay which I think goes to demonstrate the author’s creativity and versatility.

How Alison reacts to the seemingly improbable realisation that she possesses the ability to fly can be read as an allegory of her journey to empowerment and independence or as a genuine questioning of accepted reality. After all, there are many things in this world and in the universe we cannot explain.

Alongside the main storyline is a forensic dissection of corporate culture, ‘the executive game’ where the the personal and the professional often collide, and the advertising industry in particular. This is personified in Kennedy ‘Call me Ken’ Doxat, the idiosyncratic Creative Director of Foxglove, the advertising agency in whose IT department Alison works. Doxat, described as ‘a purveyor of dreams to gullible clients and creator of his own fantastic image’ becomes strangely drawn to Alison whether out of fascination, genuine affection or his controlling instincts.

Given Alison’s love of birds, I liked how certain characters are the subject of avian comparisons. For example, Alison’s IT colleague Jed is described at one point as a magpie because he’s always on the lookout for shiny nuggets of information about fellow employees. Later he’s compared to a gull, although his scavenging is through ‘digital data dumps’ rather than seaside rubbish bins.

As well as fascinating insights into the nesting and migratory habits of birds, woven into the story are subjects such as the evolutionary process (‘To fly was to survive’) and theories about the possibility of time travel. Is Alison’s belief she can fly merely a flight of fancy or is it evidence that things we think are impossible may actually not be? The reader is left to decide.

The Woman With Wings is an unusual, intriguing character driven novel with elements of magical realism which also incorporates a curious but ultimately heart-warming love story.

In three words: Strange, magical, thought-provoking

Try something similar: The Crows of Beara by Julie Christine Johnson (read my review here)

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MacManusAbout the Author

James MacManus is the managing director of The Times Literary Supplement. After studying at St Andrews University he began his career in journalism at the Daily Express in Manchester. Joining The Guardian in 1972, he later became Paris, and then Africa and Middle East Correspondent. He is the author of several novels including On the Broken Shore, Black Venus, Sleep in Peace Tonight and Midnight in Berlin. James MacManus has three children and lives in Dulwich, London.

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#BlogTour #BookReview There’s Something About Darcy by Gabrielle Malcolm @EndeavourQuill

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for There’s Something About Darcy by Gabrielle Malcolm. Thanks to Hannah at Endeavour Media for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.

9781911445562About the Book

For some, Colin Firth emerging from a lake in that clinging wet shirt is one of the most iconic moments in television. What is it about the two-hundred-year-old hero that we so ardently admire and love?

Dr Malcolm examines Jane Austen’s influences in creating Darcy’s potent mix of brooding Gothic hero, aristocratic elitist and romantic Regency man of action. She investigates how he paved the way for later characters like Heathcliff, Rochester and even Dracula, and what his impact has been on popular culture over the past two centuries. For twenty-first century readers the world over have their idea of the ‘perfect’ Darcy in mind when they read the novel and will defend their choice passionately.

In this insightful and entertaining study, every variety of Darcy jostles for attention: vampire Darcy, digital Darcy, Mormon Darcy and gay Darcy. Who does it best and how did a clergyman’s daughter from Hampshire create such an enduring character?

Format: Paperback, ebook                        Publisher: Endeavour Quill
Publication date: 11th November 2019 Genre: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find There’s Something About Darcy on Goodreads

My Review

There were many elements I enjoyed in this exploration of the continuing literary and cultural influence of the hero of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. For instance, Gabrielle Malcolm traces the influence of earlier authors – Samuel Richardson, Ann Radcliffe and others – on the creation of the character of Darcy. I also liked the way the author examined the growth of Darcy’s character throughout the novel. I wouldn’t have minded more of this type of close reading and textual analysis, although perhaps that’s the former Open University MA English student coming out in me!

The sections where the author explores contemporary reaction to Pride and Prejudice were fascinating. Charlotte Bronte had mixed feelings apparently although Dr. Malcolm argues Edward Rochester, the hero of Jane Eyre, and Darcy have much in common.  However, she also goes on to point out key differences between them.

I confess I found some of the detours into figures like Beau Brummell and Sir Henry Irving less interesting and the plot summaries of novels such as The Scarlet Pimpernel and the works of Georgette Heyer a little too detailed. However, I enjoyed the author’s analysis of Pride and Prejudice sequels such as the highly-regarded Longbourn by Jo Baker, the definitely less well-regarded (by Austen fans at least) Pemberley by Emma Tennant, and of the various TV/film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, including of course the one with ‘that scene’.

In support of the numerous sequels, spin-offs and retellings of Pride and Prejudice, many of which the author explores in some detail, Gabrielle Malcolm makes the persuasive argument that Austen’s own letters reveal she imagined a future for Darcy and Elizabeth. I think we can safely assume that had she written her own sequel it would not have involved zombies…

Along the way, Gabrielle Malcolm addresses what she terms ‘the Darcy problem’, namely why would a young woman as intelligent as Elizabeth be attracted to such a proud, arrogant man? She concludes that Darcy symbolises ‘an ideal of authority, honesty and protection’ and argues he will endure for years to come because readers are drawn to the idea of a hero who shows ‘his inner sensitivity beneath the tough, proud, awkward, sometimes cruel, exterior’.

The publishers describe There’s Something About Darcy as ‘a must-read for every Darcy and Jane Austen fan’. The final chapters of the book in which the author explores the rise of fan fiction and its various manifestations are likely to appeal to those looking for recommendations to satisfy their appetite for new twists on Pride and Prejudice and Darcy in particular.

Although for me there were a few too many detours from the main subject, There’s Something About Darcy is an interesting, in-depth look at the appeal and afterlife of Austen’s most well-known fictional hero.

In three words: Detailed, informative, insightful

Try something simgailar: The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things
by Paula Byrne

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Gaby Malcolm 3About the Author

Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm lectures and writes about Jane Austen in popular culture and the global fan phenomena surrounding Austen’s work.

She is the author of Fan Phenomena: Jane Austen and is a regular speaker at the annual Jane Austen Festival in Bath, and the Jane Austen Regency Week in Chawton. She lives in Bath.

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