End of year reading
The last books of December!
Field Work: What Land Does to People and What People Do to Land by Bella Bathurst (2021). Found while browsing the shelves at the library, where I thought, ooh, a book all about modern farming, that's something I should know more about. Bathurst intersperses memoir-ish sections about the farm where she has lived (as tenant of the farm cottage) for some years and the family who own it with chapters describing her investigations into various aspects of farming and related business—visiting and interviewing a range of people involved in agriculture and describing their work. It's interesting stuff, and there's some really fascinating detail about things as varied as the day-to-day work of knackers, the complex psychology of family farms and the ways in which farmers are changing and diversifying their businesses to remain viable in the modern economy. But, given that subtitle, I was hoping for a bit more about the actual ecological detail of the processes of farming, of which there is not much. Also Bathurst's prose is sort of slick in a way I find unpleasant and untrustworthy (a complaint I have about a lot of modern non-fiction), and she has an irritating habit of bringing up controversial topics like anti-TB badger culls with an air of going 'look, I am not afraid to tackle controversial topics!' and then not actually saying anything about why there's a controversy or what she thinks the correct view of the issue is anyway.
Re-read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (2004), which is just about my favourite book ever. While I think I would have liked it less if I'd first read it more recently and with more experience of old books, it remains an excellent example of modern historical fiction as well as the best fantasy book there is. This time I appreciated Stephen's character even more, was intrigued by the ambiguity of his ending (good thing there was so much good Yuletide fic exploring what happens to him afterwards :D ) and apart from that just had a few random lingering questions, like why on earth does Lascelles—totally groundlessly, incorrectly and without any actual consequences—try to accuse Henry Woodhope of being in love with Strange in chapter 57???
Sixpenny Octavo by Annick Trent (2022). Disclaimer that the author is someone I know :) I was excited to see this appear! It's an f/f historical romance novel set in/around London in the 1790s, a time of political upheaval and repression by the British Government as the effects of the French Revolution are felt across the Channel. One of the main characters, Hannah Croft, is a clockmender whose best friend and business partner is arrested and imprisoned—erroneously but implacably—for sedition after the reading club they attend is raided by the authorities; the other, Lucy Boone, a servant recently out of work after her employer was also arrested for sedition and transported, may be able to give evidence that could help free Molly, Hannah's BFF. Working together, Lucy and Hannah fall in love... In case that summary didn't make it clear, there is a world of fascinating historical detail in this book: about the political atmosphere; about the jobs Lucy and Hannah do (Lucy decides to leave service and ends up making a living through more uncertain, specific and interesting work; meanwhile we hear a lot about Hannah's and Molly's clockmending), the places they go and their and their friends' lives in general; about reading and literacy and their place in eighteenth-century working-class life (Lucy learns to read over the course of the book, and the reading club where she becomes a regular attendee is an important setting throughout). I absolutely loved all that; and like Beck and Call, the other book of Trent's I have read and enjoyed, there's a lovely sense of the social-historical atmosphere, of the tasks that fill the characters' days and the places and social circles they inhabit. I was not so keen on the romance: the characters confess their feelings and begin their relationship long before they really trust or understand each other, which is not my thing, and there's some jealousy around Hannah/Lucy vs. Hannah's friendship with Molly which I did not like (really I think I dislike relationship jealousy in fiction generally, unless it's the sort resolved by the character deciding to remove themselves from the situation causing it). Also the prose style is more modern than I like (including in the made-up contemporary Gothic novel read by the reading club from which we get several excerpts, which was disappointing). There's some good exciting plot stuff, especially towards the end when the reading club identify the informer who was responsible for that raid in the first place—when the informer is unmasked they start complaining about how it's not fair, the Government don't even pay them, which made me laugh as I immediately thought of Pickle :D Oh, and I liked Lucy's friendship with her new employer Mr Raeburn, and the various ways they help each other. On the whole, the book is a very good one! Lots to like, and most of what I didn't like was a matter of taste—highly recommended.
Lochiel of the '45: The Jacobite Chief and the Prince by John Sibbald Gibson (1994). More Jacobite history reading, and more relevant material for my WIP! This book opens with a brief survey of Lochiel's family background and early life, but it's mostly about the '45: from Lochiel's agonising and historically pivotal decision to bring Clan Cameron to join Charles when he landed in Scotland, through the various parts played by Lochiel and the Camerons in the Rising itself, Lochiel's movements and plans in the months after Culloden and finally his unsuccessful Jacobite plotting in France in the last two years of his life. All fascinating stuff and highly relevant to Flight of the Heron! Some particularly interesting and noteworthy details:( Jacobite details! )
Field Work: What Land Does to People and What People Do to Land by Bella Bathurst (2021). Found while browsing the shelves at the library, where I thought, ooh, a book all about modern farming, that's something I should know more about. Bathurst intersperses memoir-ish sections about the farm where she has lived (as tenant of the farm cottage) for some years and the family who own it with chapters describing her investigations into various aspects of farming and related business—visiting and interviewing a range of people involved in agriculture and describing their work. It's interesting stuff, and there's some really fascinating detail about things as varied as the day-to-day work of knackers, the complex psychology of family farms and the ways in which farmers are changing and diversifying their businesses to remain viable in the modern economy. But, given that subtitle, I was hoping for a bit more about the actual ecological detail of the processes of farming, of which there is not much. Also Bathurst's prose is sort of slick in a way I find unpleasant and untrustworthy (a complaint I have about a lot of modern non-fiction), and she has an irritating habit of bringing up controversial topics like anti-TB badger culls with an air of going 'look, I am not afraid to tackle controversial topics!' and then not actually saying anything about why there's a controversy or what she thinks the correct view of the issue is anyway.
Re-read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (2004), which is just about my favourite book ever. While I think I would have liked it less if I'd first read it more recently and with more experience of old books, it remains an excellent example of modern historical fiction as well as the best fantasy book there is. This time I appreciated Stephen's character even more, was intrigued by the ambiguity of his ending (good thing there was so much good Yuletide fic exploring what happens to him afterwards :D ) and apart from that just had a few random lingering questions, like why on earth does Lascelles—totally groundlessly, incorrectly and without any actual consequences—try to accuse Henry Woodhope of being in love with Strange in chapter 57???
Sixpenny Octavo by Annick Trent (2022). Disclaimer that the author is someone I know :) I was excited to see this appear! It's an f/f historical romance novel set in/around London in the 1790s, a time of political upheaval and repression by the British Government as the effects of the French Revolution are felt across the Channel. One of the main characters, Hannah Croft, is a clockmender whose best friend and business partner is arrested and imprisoned—erroneously but implacably—for sedition after the reading club they attend is raided by the authorities; the other, Lucy Boone, a servant recently out of work after her employer was also arrested for sedition and transported, may be able to give evidence that could help free Molly, Hannah's BFF. Working together, Lucy and Hannah fall in love... In case that summary didn't make it clear, there is a world of fascinating historical detail in this book: about the political atmosphere; about the jobs Lucy and Hannah do (Lucy decides to leave service and ends up making a living through more uncertain, specific and interesting work; meanwhile we hear a lot about Hannah's and Molly's clockmending), the places they go and their and their friends' lives in general; about reading and literacy and their place in eighteenth-century working-class life (Lucy learns to read over the course of the book, and the reading club where she becomes a regular attendee is an important setting throughout). I absolutely loved all that; and like Beck and Call, the other book of Trent's I have read and enjoyed, there's a lovely sense of the social-historical atmosphere, of the tasks that fill the characters' days and the places and social circles they inhabit. I was not so keen on the romance: the characters confess their feelings and begin their relationship long before they really trust or understand each other, which is not my thing, and there's some jealousy around Hannah/Lucy vs. Hannah's friendship with Molly which I did not like (really I think I dislike relationship jealousy in fiction generally, unless it's the sort resolved by the character deciding to remove themselves from the situation causing it). Also the prose style is more modern than I like (including in the made-up contemporary Gothic novel read by the reading club from which we get several excerpts, which was disappointing). There's some good exciting plot stuff, especially towards the end when the reading club identify the informer who was responsible for that raid in the first place—when the informer is unmasked they start complaining about how it's not fair, the Government don't even pay them, which made me laugh as I immediately thought of Pickle :D Oh, and I liked Lucy's friendship with her new employer Mr Raeburn, and the various ways they help each other. On the whole, the book is a very good one! Lots to like, and most of what I didn't like was a matter of taste—highly recommended.
Lochiel of the '45: The Jacobite Chief and the Prince by John Sibbald Gibson (1994). More Jacobite history reading, and more relevant material for my WIP! This book opens with a brief survey of Lochiel's family background and early life, but it's mostly about the '45: from Lochiel's agonising and historically pivotal decision to bring Clan Cameron to join Charles when he landed in Scotland, through the various parts played by Lochiel and the Camerons in the Rising itself, Lochiel's movements and plans in the months after Culloden and finally his unsuccessful Jacobite plotting in France in the last two years of his life. All fascinating stuff and highly relevant to Flight of the Heron! Some particularly interesting and noteworthy details:( Jacobite details! )