Literary Ramblings

More bits & bobs of news about reprints & books in general. Scott has announced the third author to be reprinted later this year with his new imprint, Furrowed Middlebrow Books, & I'm very excited. Frances Faviell's A Chelsea Concerto is Scott's favourite WWII memoir & I've wanted to read it for ages. It's mentioned or quoted in many books about the Home Front & I love a Home Front memoir so this will be a real treat, especially with an Introduction by Virginia Nicholson, author of Millions Like Us. Scott will also be reprinting Faviell's other memoir about life in Berlin after the War, The Dancing Bear, as well as her three novels.

It's sad that a reappraisal of an author's work often has to wait until after their death. Anita Brookner has always been appreciated by a discerning audience (I have a friend who has read them all) but her reputation had declined a little. I think only her most famous novel, the Booker Prize winning Hotel du Lac, was in print when she died in March. Penguin had announced plans to reprint all her books & have now brought the program forward so all her books will be back in print in the UK by the end of the year. The covers are just gorgeous, so elegant, very Anita Brookner, I think. Here is a lovely tribute to Brookner by Julian Barnes & if you'd like to know which Brookner to read first, Thomas at Hogglestock, currently rereading all her novels, will guide you.

Fans of the British Library reprints of the novels of J Jefferson Farjeon will be pleased to hear that Harper Collins are planning to reprint his Ben the Tramp novels later this year. I think it's encouraging that other publishers are jumping on the Golden Age bandwagon & resurrecting more writers of that era.

In October, Random House are publishing Georgette Heyer's short stories in Snowdrift and other stories. This is a reprint of the collection Pistols for Two with the addition of three newly discovered stories. As I haven't read any of Heyer's short stories, I'm looking forward to this.

Finally, Kathryn Hughes has inspired me to think that George Eliot's novel, Felix Holt, might be a fascinating read after all! I love Eliot & Middlemarch is one of my favourite books but Felix & Romola have never appealed to me very much. I have this ancient copy on the tbr shelves so I may read it this year to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its publication.

Mystery in White : a Christmas Crime Story - J Jefferson Farjeon

Mystery in White is another in the terrific series of Golden Age mysteries that the British Library are reprinting. Appropriately for the time of year, it's set at Christmas & is a very clever variation on the locked room mystery.

A group of travelers are caught on a snowbound train on Christmas Eve. Lydia Carrington & her brother David are on their way to stay with friends, Jessie Noyes is a chorus girl going to Manchester for a job, elderly Mr Edward Maltby is a psychic researcher investigating a possible sighting of the ghost of Charles I. There's also a timid clerk, Thomson, who likes to fantasise about rescuing maidens in distress & a bore (later we discover his name is Hopkins) who has a story for every occasion, always with himself as hero.

As the storm worsens & there seems no likelihood of the train moving, the group discuss their options - to stay put or to try to reach another station & take a train from there. Suddenly Mr Maltby takes off after seeing a man running from the train. eventually, the others, except Hopkins, decide to follow him, concerned for his welfare & also hoping to complete their journeys. After losing their way & Jessie twisting her ankle, they stumble upon a house. The door is unlocked, fires are lit, the kettle's boiling & tea has been set. However, there's no one home.

Hopkins, who brings news of the murder of a man in the next compartment to theirs on the train & Maltby, who has lost sight of the man he was pursuing, soon join the group. They decide to make the best of it & hope the owners of the house will be understanding when they return. However, the empty house has an uncanny atmosphere & the arrival of a menacing Cockney who says his name is Smith, doesn't exactly lighten the mood. Jessie seems to be receptive to the strange atmosphere of the house & is frightened by a chair in the dining room & the bed she is put into. David & Mr Maltby try to find some clue to the disappearance of the owners but everything they discover only deepens the mystery.

"Nothing explains anything! If it were a fine day it might be quite natural to run out of a house for a few moments while a kettle's boiling, but in this weather - can you explain that? Where have they gone? Not to post a letter or to cut a lettuce! Why don't they come back? I didn't tell you, the kettle wasn't boiling in a nice respectable manner, it was boiling over. Oh, and there was a bread-knife on the floor."

Mystery in White is an atmospheric mystery that is very hard to put down once started. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the house with the snow falling & the menace within is exceptionally well done. I don't find it at all hard to believe that it's been a surprise bestseller. The mystery is ingenious, reaching back twenty years into the past & involves several murders & family secrets. The characters are interestingly varied & there are moments of real tension as David & Maltby test their theories about the mystery of the abandoned house.