Staff Picks Category: England

Widowland by C. J. Carey [Book]

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In this alternate history, Germany and Great Britain are thirteen years into an alliance that began with the 1940 murder of George VI and his family in favor of the rule of Edward VIII, remorseless pawn of The Leader. Women are classified into six categories based on their usefulness to men and, by extension, the empire. Any sign of rebellion or resistance is punishable by interrogation, torture, and death. Rose Ransom is a Geli, the most elite class of women, and has a job with the culture ministry editing literature of the past to match the current values of the regime. When inflammatory quotes from forbidden texts begin to appear as graffiti, she is asked to infiltrate a Widowland community, where childless women over 50 are relegated and the insurgent messages appear to originate. The subversion must be stopped before The Leader arrives for the coronation of King Edward and Queen Wallis, and Rose is expected to act in the best interests of the Protectorate. Carey builds a chillingly believable setting and society that feels relevant now.

For fans of historical fiction, women’s stories, alternate history (it’s all three!) and readers looking for The Handmaid’s Tale by way of Fatherland.

For Those Who Are Lost by Julia Bryan Thomas [Book]

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In the chaos of evacuating children from Guernsey to England in 1940, Lily Carre switches places with her sister Helen, undertaking the care of a pair of children–Henry and Catherine Simon–who are being reluctantly sent away by their mother Ava. Lily wants to escape an unhappy marriage, and Helen wants to remain on Guernsey with their aging parents. Once in England, Lily puts nine-year-old Henry on a train bound for Manchester, where he starts out in a dormitory of evacuees and is eventually sent to a Yorkshire farm for the rest of the war. Lily takes four-year-old Catherine with her to Cornwall, which she arbitrarily chose based on its proximity to the sea and distance from the continent. They find refuge with the assistance of local vicar Peter Ashby and embed themselves in village life, Lily posing as a widow and Catherine’s mother. Following the stories of Lily, Ava, Henry, and Peter during the war, and checking in with Catherine thirty years later, the reader sees several aspects of life during wartime and long term consequences of impulsive decisions.

A sure bet for readers of personal war stories and those who want to know, “What about the women and children?”

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams [Book]

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Words matter. Williams’ romantic novel places several imaginary characters inside the very real creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. The women who were really involved in that enterprise have left little historical record. The novel’s focus is the lost words: the words of women and the poor that are not recorded in history and the lives of women that go unrecorded and disregarded by academia. The protagonist experiences a series of losses, yet the book is overwhelmingly positive in outlook. A strong sense of place takes the reader to England at the turn of the last century and at the beginnings of World War I.

Bleak House [Book]

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Though the title, age, and overall length (almost 1000 pages!) of this book may turn some readers away, this classic is well worth a read! Dickens’ writing style is evident in full force here and his lengthy descriptions of everything from fog to court judges contain beautiful insights and nuanced observations. It is the characters of this book that really shine though; fans of everything from Anna Karenina to Bridgerton will love the wide array of expertly named characters. From the somber and mysterious Lady Deadlock, to the cold and calculating Tulkinghorn, readers are pulled into the drama of the court case that the whole story centers around. There are twists and turns, triumphs and tragedies; a perfect book for a rainy day and an intrepid reader!

Brontë’s Mistress by Finola Austin [Book]

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Austin’s debut novel expands on scholarly speculation that Branwell Brontë (brother to authors Anne, Charlotte, and Emily) had a passionate affair with Lydia Robinson, a married lady whose son Branwell tutored while Anne was governess to her daughters. Lydia is vain, aging, and longs for excitement. Branwell is young, passionate, and misguided. The story is told from Lydia’s viewpoint; we learn she grieves the recent losses of her mother and her youngest daughter, and is challenged by the management of her living children, interference from her mother-in-law, and her disinterested husband. We are privy to her flights of fancy as she imagines becoming involved with the much-younger Branwell and resists her urges, until she doesn’t. They begin an affair, communicating through a servant and meeting in an abandoned cottage to indulge their attraction. The scandal that follows exacerbates Branwell’s mental fragility and changes the lives of both families.

Offer this to fans of Victorian literature, readers who like their historical fiction populated with real people, and those who prefer their romances without happy endings.

That Churchill Woman [Book]

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Stephanie Barron (Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, etc.) turns her able hand to biographical fiction in this absorbing volume that captures the life and charm of one of the American heiresses who crossed the Atlantic to catch a titled English husband in the late 19th century.

Lady Randolph Churchill, neé Jennie Jerome, was a wealthy and privileged American, her father’s indulged favorite, when she married the second son of a duke with a brilliant political career ahead of him. She went on to rise in aristocratic Victorian society, to the delight of some and horror of others, and give birth to future prime minister Winston Churchill, maintaining appearances as a society matron while living a modern and independent life of her own making, complete with passionate liaisons and artistic pursuits. She wrote speeches for her husband, entertained his parliament colleagues in her home, and parented his sons while he shaped England and traveled for his health after his political career ended.

Recommended for fans of Victorian England, Gilded Age New York, historical fiction populated with real people, and high society.

Vox Tox by Sandi Toksvig [Online Resource]

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On March 21, 2020, Sandi Toksvig posted a video on a new YouTube, Vox Tox. It opens with the calming sound of a slow piano rag and a view of Sandi Toksvig in a rocking chair, a book in her lap, a dog at her feet, a fireplace to her side, and bookcases full of books behind. The camera pans over some of Sandi’s books before cutting back to Sandi, who looks into the camera and begins, “Hello there. Come have a sit down.” She continues:

You know we’re in strange times and I do know that there are some people are feeling a tad isolated, so I thought we could just have a bit of a chat. When I’m at home, I’ll be honest with you, I’m quite quiet, and a bit private, but I would like to invite you into my favorite room in our house: it’s one, as you can see, with all the books. When things are taking a bit of a low turn, which they do for everybody at some point, this is the place I come to find a bit of calm. I think we all need to find the positive in this enforced separation from the world and the bit I’m finding is how lovely to have the time to dip in and out of some ancient volume I haven’t looked at for ages. I struggled a great deal with loneliness when I was a child and it was always books which kept me company.

Vox Tox is “a daily amble through the library of Sandi Toksvig”. It’s also a wonderful amble through the mind of Sandi Toksvig, whose interests are wide ranging. The bulk of each episode, which is just under ten minutes long, consist of various historical stories with an emphasis on the stories of women, and no fear of digression. Sandi’s style is wonderfully conversational, and her manner wonderfully calming, like a Mr. Rodgers for gown ups. There has been a new Vox Tox each day, and I highly recommend subscribing to the channel.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell [Book]

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Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On reads like a compact and quirky alternative Harry Potter. The parallels are impossible to miss. Our protagonist had no knowledge of the magical world until he was discovered and brought to a magic school where he quickly makes friends and begins a series of fantastic adventures. We have characters who clearly have analogs in Harry, Hermione, Draco, Hagrid, and Voldemort, and there are more subtle references as well. Carry On is more than an homage, however. It is an engaging fantasy with good world building and a satisfying plot. Many aspects of the book simply seem better than they have to be, which is delightful. The story is told from a number of viewpoints, each of which satisfyingly reveals something different about the characters. (The everchanging dynamic between our protagonist Simon and his rival Baz is a driving force in the book, and the contrast between their individual perspectives is part of what makes the book work so well.) The world is well thought out with complex politics and an intriguing, novel, and entertaining magic system. And Carry On is compact—it is as if Rowling had decided to tell the entire Harry Potter story in a single Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone sized volume that concentrated mainly on Harry’s last year, only touchiching upon earlier adventures in brief flashbacks.

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson [Book]

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Bill Bryson is at his sincerely sardonic best as he roams his adopted country in search of what he loves best: quaint villages, good hiking, exquisite views, mysterious ancient sites, and odd people to make fun of–including himself. It’s just as unputdownable as all his other travel memoirs.

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens [Book]

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This was the first novel by Charles Dickens and really a pleasure to read. It tells the story of Mr. Pickwick and his fellow Pickwick Club members as they travel the English countryside and describes their adventures in a very humorous manner but also with a keen eye into the social and political landscape of the time. It was a great re-introduction to Dickens for me and I am looking forward to reading many of his other works.

A Book of Secrets by Michael Holroyd [Book]

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A fascinating combined biography of a place, the Villa Cimbrone on a hill above the Italian village of Ravello, and the people connected to it throughout different time periods. The work of biographer Michael Holyrod reads like a detective story and features such characters as Alice Keppel, the mistress of both the second Lord Grimthorpe and the Prince of Wales; to Eve Fairfax, a muse of Auguste Rodin; to the novelist Violet Trefusis, the lover of Vita Sackville-West and daughter of Alice Keppel. Having read extensively about some of these people already because of my interest in Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, this book was a wonderful way to fill in some of the missing gaps and to add to my interest of this subject.

Anthem for Doomed Youth by Carola Dunn [Book]

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The 19th Daisy Dalrymple mystery was my introduction to this cozy murder series. Daisy is an aristocratic young mother whose husband is a Detective Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard. Set in 1920s London, the mystery revolves around some veterans of the ‘Great War’ whose bodies were found secretly buried in Epping Forest. The heroine possesses curiosity, common sense, intuition and a sly sense of humor. The period setting is engaging and the unraveling of the plot complicated enough to keep turning the pages. With the lead character’s appeal and just the right amount of Anglophilia, this was fun enough for me to borrow another one.