Books, life the universe

Saturday 23 April 2011

Happy St George's Day; and books

Why can't we have a Bank Holiday for St George's Day? We're falling over Bank Holidays this Easter but I still think we should have one for our national saint.

Books read:


  • Death in the Physic Garden by Karen Lowe - murder and garden design. I first read this a few years ago and enjoyed it but thought I would re-read it before I read the next one featuring Fern Green - Death in the Winter Garden.

  • Gently Down the Stream by Alan Hunter - murder and family secrets set in the Norfolk Broads with lots of Norfolk dialect - though nothing too incomprehensible for those not familiar with it!

  • Summer of Love by Katie Fforde - good light reading. I haven't enjoyed her later books but in this one she is back on form.

  • Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer - Regency with a Gothic theme. This is the only Heyer which has ever reduced me to tears.

  • The Missing Marriage by Sarah May - man goes missing off the Northumbrian coast in a kayak - but is he really dead? I found it a very confusing story with some relatively unsympathetic characters.

  • The Body on the Beach by Simon Brett - the first in the Fethering series. I read it some years ago but it was still enjoyable the second time around. Touches of delicious humour and a pair of mismatched sleuths - what's not to like?

Currently reading



  • The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer - one of her most interesting heroines in my opinion

  • Death in the Winter Garden by Karen Lowe - Fern is asked to resurrect an overgrown art deco garden but the skeleton of a baby is found when the digging starts

  • Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon - the first in her Guido Brunetti series set in Venice - worth more than one reading as her style is understated and I'm seeing things I missed first time round.

Happy Easter people!

3 comments:

Keith (kcm) said...

I agree with you about St George's Day. It should be a bank holiday. We could then move one of the May Bank Holidays to the autumn to relieve the congestion and provide something between August and Christmas.
Happy Easter from both of us, Jilly! xx

NAM said...

And time spent with Sophy Stanton- Lacy should be most enjoyable - that book is so full of good moments I'm hard put to pick a favourite, even if I am aware of bearing some resemblence to the dreaded Miss Wraxton!

Jilly said...

But Miss Wraxton was simply obnoxious because she imposed her views on everyone else and assumed everyone thought like she did. She had loads of knowledge but didn't know when it was appropriate to display it! No sense of humour either!

I liked Lord Charlbury and the way Sophy engineered his romance with Cecilia.

I haven't re-read the Grand Sophy for about 30 years and had totally forgotten most of it so it was like reading a new Heyer novel almost.