Book 8 - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Book 8
Originally uploaded by JuliaCroyden

Hmmm. This is a bit "Major Pettigrew Lives for a Year", and is full of stereotypes and very weak characters. It's also very much "I went to a creative writing class because I was bored and look at my influences". I liked it though, it was a light read.

Re-reading my reviews, I think you'd have to file my tastes under "Likes Most Things".

On top of things?

I've been worrying a lot recently that I'm not on top of things. Having two children is fun but very exhausting, and I'm sort of still recovering from my c-section. It was over two months ago now but every now and then something sort of *pulls* and I get a real pain across my tummy. I got it today; I took Lucy to Sainsburys in West Ealing and walked over the railway bridge and now my scar hurts a bit and I'm shattered. That could also have something to do with having visitors this afternoon - two toddlers and their mums - and a bit of a meltdown from Lucy over eating her supper. She gets so tired in the early evening, but, of course, big girls do not sleep in the afternoon, and when we try to force the issue we get tantrums like you wouldn't believe, so we just have to put up with it. It's becoming easier as she grows up, and doesn't really need the sleep as much. Hopefully she'll be able to cope with a whole day soon. I went in to check on her last night and she was absolutely crashed out and looked so furious at being asleep.

I suppose I am on top of everything - when I start to look into it a bit more closely it turns out that the things I'm not doing are writing in the blog, knitting jumpers, printing out photos, taking photos of Harriet using the camera and reviewing books. So not a lot to worry about really.

Book 7 - Ticky by Stella Gibbons

Book 7
Originally uploaded by JuliaCroyden
Oh I loved this book! Stella Gibbons is delightfully funny and has such a light touch when she writes. It's not as good as Cold Comfort Farm, but has many of the same elements - a world within the world that has its own rules and traditions. It is a charming story about a regiment in Hyde Park that is run by a meglomaniac general and looked after by a tribe of servants who live near to the main camp. They have a Charter which gives them ownership of a Pleasure ground, and the General decides that he needs to expand his rifle range into this area. The servants are furious and decide to fight back. Ticky, the title character, is an officer in the regiment, and a friend to the servants, and he encourages the rebellion.

It's a very easy read again - most of the books I'm reading at the moment can be characterised by their simplicity - and a very quick one. I do love Stella Gibbons, and am looking forward to her books being reprinted later this year.

Book 6

Book 6
Originally uploaded by JuliaCroyden
Another author who has fallen out of fashion, and again, I can see why. It's really quite sentimental stuff, a bit "Duty first Drusilla darling" po-face, but enjoyable enough in a "it's 4 in the morning, I need something that isn't too complicated" way.

The subject matter, a man who is in love in with his uncle's ex-wife, is very modern, and it's interesting - the woman sends her three children to live with their grandmother, and David lives there too, and is friends with the children as quasi contemporaries, not realising that if he marries their mother, he'll become their step-father. All fraught with passion and misunderstanding and sensitivity.