Welcome to 2020 - and THE BRITANNIA MYSTERIES by LYNNE BENTON: Review by Penny Dolan

HAPPY NEW YEAR for 2020 . . . and SALUTE!  

 

Yesterday I saw that an area of land beside Hadrian's Wall, containing a Roman site, had been donated by private landowners to English Heritage. 

Consequently, today feels like the right moment to update a past Awfully Big Reviews post, and show how a couple of historic titles had now grown into a complete Britannia Mysteries Trilogy.

A book arrrived through my letterbox a while ago. It was a copy of DANGER AT HADRIAN’S WALL by Lynne Benton, the second in her Britannia series; set in Roman Britain, these are exactly the kind of stories that many KS2 readers would enjoy.

The first, THE CENTURION’S SON, (set in 312 AD) takes place in Isca, in what’s now known as South Wales. 

Felix - the hero and twelve year-old son of the title – is anxious: Gaius the Senior Centurion, his trusted father, has been missing for days.

But Gaius has disappeared without telling Felix where he is going, or making any of his usual preparations for a journey, nor leaving any money for Felix to buy food while he was gone.

Felix had hoped that Commander Octavius had sent his father on a secret mission, but then soldiers arrive, claiming his father is a runaway traitor and Felix is thrown in prison himself.  Who will believe or help him? Even if he escapes, what can he do next? Fortunately, his long-time friend Catrin, a Silesian slave-girl with second sight, is ready to help. Despite ill-treatment, cruel treachery and life-threatening dangers, the two determined friends use their wits and their keen, watchful eyes to untangle the mystery.

In DANGER AT HADRIAN’S WALL, Lynne Benton’s second book,  Felix and Catrin have been now adopted by Commander Quintus Maximus and his wife Drusilla. When reports arrive of trouble with the Barbarians, the 2^nd Augustan Legion is ordered north to Hadrian’s Wall, Felix is left behind. Desperate to prove his own bravery, Felix hatches a plan that soon has Catrin, himself and others following the footsteps of the legion. The journey is long and hard.

Unfortunately, when the band of travellers finally reach the camp at Hadrian’s Wall, the Commander is not pleased. Felix and Catrin find there are worrying signs of treachery and suspicion around the camp too, and trouble with the local Caledonian tribes. 

In addition, not only does Catrin become annoyingly jealous of Mina, the new slave girl that Felix has befriended, but she has started dreaming of flames and danger.

Then, to Felix’s horror, Catrin disappears. How can he find what has happened? He will find her, he will and, luckily, the friendly soldier Tullio is there to help and guide him on his quest beyond the Wall . . .

The third book of the trilogy, THE LOST TREASURE OF AQUA SULIS is set in Bath. This novel continues the story of Felix and Catrin as they travel with Drusilla their foster mother to the great city. 

Drusilla is there to visit the magical healing waters and make offerings to the Goddess for the safety and health of her young child and her family. Soon enough, Felix and Catrin find themselves caught up in a mystery filled with stolen treasures, false accusations, crimes and secrets.  

At the same time, they are both concerned for themselves. Now that Quintus Maximus and Drusilla have a child of their own, what will happen to tCatrin and Felix, especially as they have such an awkward way of finding trouble wherever they go?


 
Lynne Benton’s writing reflects her knowledge of children, These books in this trilogy, at around a hundred and fifty pages, are not overlong and are easy and pleasing to read.. The short, neatly-plotted chapters make the books very suitable for 7 to 9 year old readers and the author adds just as much incidental historical information as the plots require. 

These books are a good choice for children who have Roman Britain as a topic on their school curriculum. 

Even though the plots and characters are fictional, the three historical settings - Carleon Roman Fortress in Wales, Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, and the reconstructed Bath House at Bath - are all there in the real world and available for interesting historical visits, with added inspiration from the BRITANNIA MYSTERIES inspiration.

All three books, published by Coppertree Press, are available through Amazon.

Penny Dolan.

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LIFE AFTER LIFE by Kate Atkinson, reviewed by Penny Dolan

I’ve chosen a grown-up book - Kate Atkinson’s latest novel LIFE AFTER LIFE - for this January review. The novel is currently in hardback (or as a kindle edition) but the paperback is due out soon.

First of all, for all Jackson Brodie enthusiasts, LIFE AFTER LIFE is not another in the Atkinson crime series. The novel spans the first half of 20^th century, so it could possibly be described as historical fiction. Certainly, I felt,  it is the popular “historical” knowledge of the World Wars and surrounding decades that helps to hold this unusual book together.

In the very first chapter, Atkinson introduces the idea that this is a differently constructed novel: in 1930, a young English girl enters a café in Germany and attempts to shoot Hitler. Then, in the next wintry chapters, each dated 11^th February 1910, we find three alternative versions of the birth of a baby girl, Ursula, including as a stillbirth. So the book continues.

 

All through this novel, Atkinson offers alternative versions of the Ursula who survived. We see her through family childhood, during girlhood, as a young woman and wife and aunt, as an early professional career woman, as a firewatcher in the 1940’s - and on into her eventual retirement in the 60’s. 

The “plot” of the novel loops back time and again, retelling and revising incidents, revealing different versions of Ursula’s life and the altered relationships between the characters. Often her stories end badly, with the refrain "Darkness fell".

I admit that, at the beginning, I noted down the dates and years used like chapter headings to get some hold on when we were, as well as where. The places and the people are strongly and clearly written. Atkinson writes some harsh and shocking scenes but never wallows in the awfulness. 

The book has moments of quiet humour. I enjoyed the way that Maurice, the older brother, is continually an unpleasant character, and the times when already known characters such as Renee, reappear as  strangers.  Death is sometimes a surprise but rarely a dreadful experience for Ursula. There's a feeling of relief when, after another story “goes wrong”, the novel shifts and a younger Ursula appearing, with another chance of happiness.

The poignant sadness of one tale is balanced by hopeful moments in another. For example, Ursula's vindictive husband is not married on her second trip through time. Several themes re-appear, structuring the book: Atkinson writes of loneliness and deprivation; of innocence, ignorance and deceit; of childhood abuse, domestic violence and the brutality of war.

In all her alternative selves, Ursula remains a constant, brave and likeable character for the reader. The book gains pace through the reader’s curiosity. How will this current loop work out? What the next story will be? LIFE AFTER LIFE is a hard style of book to conclude: Atkinson offers variations of the ending, suggesting the differences between what happens and what you would want to happen - which is, I suppose, what fiction is all about.

You might be thinking, as I once did, that this book sounds a bit too bothersome to read among so many other things to do. All I can say is that LIFE AFTER LIFE works. The book is "believable" and, possibly against the odds, some of the moments stay with you.  There should be hardback copies in your local library, if you don’t want to wait for the paperback - and it is available as a kindle e-book too.

Penny Dolan

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BELLMAN AND BLACK by DIANE SETTERFIELD, reviewed by Adele Geras.

Happy New Year, and welcome back to the Awfully Big Blog Adventure Review page.


We're welcoming in 2014 with another review by Adele Geras. This time the book is BELLMAN AND BLACK by Diane Setterfield, a historical novel for adults. 

The review first appeared in THE VIRTUAL VICTORIAN, author Essie Fox's fascinating history blog, which is well worth a visit .


 A dramatised version of Diane Setterfield's first novel, THE THIRTEENTH TALE, was shown on tv over the Christmas period, and might be ideal catch-up-tv for grown-up viewing on a lazy grey day like today, the first of January. 

Adele Geras writes:

This novel, the second from the writer of the thrilling and very popular THE THIRTEENTH TALE is shorter, less thrilling but oh, how much more haunting and moving and altogether more memorable than its predecessor.

 I have been haunted by it since I read it for the first time some weeks ago.  I don't often reread books. There are too many new and exciting things being published all the time for me to want to go back to something I already know.

I made an exception for this book, because I was reviewing it. I must try and convey what it is about B&B that has so got under my skin without giving away too much of the plot. Although it's fair to say that the twists of the plot, on the face of it, are not Setterfield's main concern. 

This is  the story of a man, William Bellman, who succeeds in all his does in life, and who even though he loses much, is also a provider of work for his fellow man, a devoted father, a very diligent and obsessive worker who stops at nothing to perfect whatever enterprise he is engaged in. He also becomes extremely rich. There are tragedies in his life. There are shimmering triumphs. And there is also something that infects his every thought and deed.

In a short first chapter, which is easily the match of Ian McEwan's famous ballooning scene at the beginning of ENDURING LOVE, William kills a rook with a catapult. He is ten years old. This murder...because that's how he feels it and so how we do too...threads its way through the whole narrative. The dead rook is like  black ink dropped into clear water. It colours every page.

On a plot level, the dead rook haunts Will as first as a figure dressed in black on the edge of any funeral he attends. Later,  a man dressed in black makes a kind of Faustian pact with him and Will recognises this person from glimpses he's had of him before. He calls him Black and agrees to open a Mourning Emporium at his suggestion. This is a second business enterprise for Will. He'd already turned a  mill where he worked into a real success, creating colours that sang, and fabrics that were greatly in demand. Now, to save the life of his beloved daughter Dora, he goes to London and a shop called Bellman &Black is born.

Detail. That's what marks this novel out as unusual. We learn everything about both the mill and the shop. We have Will's life itemised and inventoried.  Will lives and dies. Dora lives.  The rooks go on and on forever and the last few pages of the book are simply beautiful: a description of the birds gathering and swirling through the sky and then settling on branches, seen by Dora, the artist, who will then, we know, always see them and always try to convey the beauty and terror of that moment. The book ends with a monologue from the rook-voice which has accompanied us through the story. I haven't mentioned that before now, fearing that a novel in which  one of the points of view is that of a rook, might not be everyone's cup of tea. Please don't be put off. You will be enchanted by the rook-lore and feel yourself initiated into a secret world that other people don't know about.

This isn't, in spite of what it says on the very beautiful cover, a Ghost Story.  You will find no revenants, or at least, none of the kind you might expect. No rattling chains. No headless horsemen. It's much more about psychology; about what goes on in Will's mind, and yet of course in many ways, the Mourning Emporium is by definition a haunted house

The prose feels Victorian. It's plain, elegant and pared down.  The accumulation of detail about processes, fabrics, landscape and buildings is very powerful and creates a world that stays with you long after you've finished the book. There are people, characters, interactions between them (the relationship between Will and his wife is particularly tenderly drawn as is the parallel relationship between Will and one of the seamstresses in the shop) but this isn't a novel about people's feelings and romances and disappointments. It's about the soaring parabola of a very simple story: the consequences of the single, dreadful act we witness  in the first few pages. That slingshot starts Will on a journey through life that he can neither avoid nor alter. We follow him. We listen to the rook.  It's a stunning novel and  perfect for this time of year. It's one that I am sure will haunt you as it haunts me. And you won't look at rooks again without a shiver going up your spine.

 
http://www.adelegeras.com/

I blog at History Girls (http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com) , a joint blog written by authors of historical fiction and fantasy history for Junior (middle Grade), YA and adult readers.
 

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