Tag: Reviews

#BookReview The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys by Jack Jewers

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Samuel Pepys Paperback Cover copyAbout the Book

It is the summer of 1669 and England is in dire straits.

The treasury’s coffers are bare and tensions with the powerful Dutch Republic are boiling over. And now, an investigator sent by the King to look into corruption at the Royal Navy has been brutally murdered. Loathe to leave the pleasures of London, Samuel Pepys is sent dragging his feet to Portsmouth to find the truth about what happened.

Aided by his faithful assistant, Will Hewer, he soon exposes the killer. But has he got the right person? The truth may be much more sinister. And if the mystery isn’t solved in time, then England could be thrown into a war that would have devastating consequences . . .

Format: Hardback (360 pages)       Publisher: Moonflower Publishing
Publication date: 4th August 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

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My Review

As the author explains in the Historical Notes, Samuel Pepys kept a diary for almost ten years but then suddenly stopped for reasons that can only be speculated upon. The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys imagines what events in Pepys’ life he might have recorded in his diaries had he continued. As a result we have the author to thank for giving us an insight into an unsettled period in English history following the Restoration of Charles II, a time when war with the Dutch was a real fear and whose side you had been on in the Civil War still mattered. The author cleverly incorporates elements of this into a plot that involves murder, conspiracy, treachery and political intrigue whilst at the same time being a rip-roaring adventure.

As imagined by the author, Samuel Pepys is not only a diligent diarist but an intrepid investigator, a faithful friend and someone who, in the course of the book, discovers a perhaps surprising taste for adventure. He also has a high pain threshold. If you don’t believe me, look up the word ‘lithotomy’ and then think ‘without anaesthetic’. He’s a less than faithful husband unfortunately with the result that his relationship with his wife Elisabeth is fraught, at least when the book opens.

The book immerses the reader in the London and Portsmouth of the period in all their grimy and fetid detail. The streets and alleyways are a place of danger and poverty is rife. For many it’s a miserable existence, enlivened only by attending cock-fights or watching a hanging.  Or in Pepys’ case frequenting whorehouses, which gives rise to a terrific scene at the start of the book.  There are plenty of action scenes as well depicted in a way which perhaps reflect the author’s experience as a filmmaker. Pepys ascending the stern of a ship via a rope ladder or the tactical use of a trail of gunpowder are scenes that spring to mind.

The book includes some great characters, some of whom are based on real individuals, such as Pepys’ longtime assistant Will Hewer. There are some fantastically feisty female characters, notably a sisterhood who in their resistance to a male hegemony in which ‘the law is an instrument of men’ prove themselves able to give just as good as they get, if not better. The plot has plenty of twists and turns leaving Pepys to observe ruefully at one point that ‘for every answer, another question’.

By the end of the book, it’s clear that not everything was as it seemed, things that seemed connected were perhaps not and that, for reasons of state, there are things that must be kept under wraps. With still some time to go between the end of the book and our hero’s demise in 1703, perhaps Jack Jewers may treat us to further adventures for Samuel and Will?

With its combination of intriguing plot, interesting characters and great period atmosphere, The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys will definitely appeal to fans of historical crime mysteries.

My thanks to Funmi at Midas PR and Moonflower Publishing for my digital proof copy.

In three words: Entertaining, inventive, intriguing

Try something similar: Rags of Time by Michael Ward

Jack JewersAbout the Author

Jack Jewers is a filmmaker and writer, passionate about history. His career has been spent telling stories in all media, and his body of work includes film, TV, and digital media. His films have been shown at dozens of international film festivals, including Cannes, New York, Marseille, Dublin, and London’s FrightFest, garnering multiple accolades, including an award from the Royal Television Society and a nomination for Best Short Film by BAFTA Wales. The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys is his first novel.

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#BookReview Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

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Sorrow and BlissAbout the Book

Everyone tells Martha Friel she is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick.

So why is everything broken?

Maybe Martha is just someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. Or maybe – as she has long believed – there is something wrong with her.

Forced to return to childhood home to live with her dysfunctional, bohemian parents (but without the help of her devoted, foul-mouthed sister Ingrid), Martha has one last chance to find out whether a life is ever too broken to fix – or whether, maybe, by starting over, she will get to write a better ending for herself.

Format: Paperback (347 pages)     Publisher: Wieldenfeld & Nicolson
Publication date: 28th April 2022 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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My Review

This was the July pick for the book club run by Waterstones in Reading. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the meeting but I suspect I may have been in the minority in finding myself rather underwhelmed by Sorrow and Bliss despite the many plaudits it has received, including being shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022.

There were elements I did enjoy such as the witty turns of phrase and Martha’s deadpan humour. ‘On holiday one year, I read Money, thirty pages of it until I remembered that I do not understand Martin Amis.’   I also enjoyed the cast of quirky characters. For example, Martha’s lovely father, an aspiring poet described as ‘a male Sylvia Plath’, Martha’s eccentric mother, Celia, ‘a ‘minorly important sculptor’ who makes art out of found objects or Martha’s sister, Ingrid, whose anecdotes are ‘a three-way combination of hyperbole, lies and factual inaccuracy’ but which are often outrageously funny albeit peppered with swear words. I also loved Martha’s friend Peregrine who treats her to lavish lunches.

So if I enjoyed all these things, why didn’t the book work for me? Mainly it was Martha herself. I tried, I really tried to like her or at least empathise with her mental turmoil but I never fully succeeded. Although she’s often funny, she makes consistently bad choices and comes across as needy, peevish and even cruel at times, alienating those close to her. I felt sorry for her husband Patrick the whole way through and found it hard to forgive the way she treats him. He demonstrates the patience of a saint, putting up with her erratic behaviour for longer than seems humanly possible. And what does he get in return? Accusations of passivity, dishonesty and betrayal.

However probably my biggest frustration with the book is that Martha is diagnosed with a mental condition that is never identified, just indicated by a series of dashes. The first time I came across it, I was just confused; then I became frustrated. Are we supposed to guess what it is or conclude the specifics don’t matter? What’s more this unnamed condition seems to be ‘cured’ in short order by a single medication. In the afterword, the author writes ‘The medical symptoms described in the novel are not consistent with a genuine mental illness. The portrayal of treatment, medication and doctors’ advice is wholly fictional’. Cop out or attempt not to get bogged down in trying to portray a specific mental condition?

There were moments in Sorrow and Bliss where I laughed out loud and I have to admit that, in Martha, the author has created a distinctive and memorable character, but there was just something missing for me. Perhaps if I’d been able to go to that book club meeting I might have discovered what it was and been able to look at the book in a new light.

In three words: Witty, dark, poignant

Meg MasonAbout the Author

Meg Mason began her journalism career at the Financial Times and The Times. Her work has since appeared in Vogue, Grazia, the Sunday Times, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sunday Telegraph. She has written humour for the New Yorker, been a monthly columnist for GQ, a regular contributor to Vogue and Marie Claire, and a contributing editor at Elle. She lives in Sydney with her husband and two daughters. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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