HISTORICAL READING CHALLENGE APRIL

 

Lucifer's Harvest by Mel Starr

1300s Oxford, England

#9 The Chronicles of Hugh de Singleton, surgeon

This medieval series would be great for people who have read Brother Cadfael and have run out of books. Set in the 1300s of England near Oxford, Hugh has studied as a surgeon, and is now the bailiff for a local lord, charged with investigating crimes that occur under his region. Time passes in the series, so we see Hugh court, marry, have children. It's plague times, so there is lots of death, and lots of medieval deaths due to, well, anything. Life is tough.

This wasn't my favourite in the series as Lord Gilbert has packed up the men in his employ to head to France to support Prince Edward in his fight in Aquatine, and Hugh has to go along to look after injuries. So it's all the lords and upper class men 'fighting' and getting into trouble, and no random village people or Hugh's family to watch. I'll keep reading though - I've got the next two books out from the library (because the library is closing, to move in June, so not due til July)

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

1970s America

I guess the 1970s are now historical fiction as 1972 is now fifty years ago, sheesh! Opal and Nev reminds me a lot of Daisy Jones and the Six. Both are told as a bio-pic type story, with interviews from all the relevent characters. It took me a while to get into the book, and keep all the characteres straight which considering it was an audio with full cast, shouldn't have. But I did eventually get involved in the story, and enjoyed the look at race relations, and music history. The idea is that the editor of a magazine is looking into the concert/turned riot that killed her drummer father just before her birth. The musical duo Opal and Nev, a young black girl and a white man, played their last show at the riot. The editor looks into what exactly happened that night, and interviews all the players, and of course has her own vested interest in it all, as Opal and Nev begin plans for a reunion tour. 

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

1950s England

Sweet find of the month which hit my literary sweet spots - a quiet look at a 'spinster' woman in late 1950s England. Jean works at a local paper, looking after her widowed, cranky mother. Her boring life takes a turn to the interesting when she receives a letter from a woman who claims that her daughter was born of a virgin birth. Jean investigates for the paper but gets entangled in the family, befriending the mother, becoming an aunt-like friend to the ten year old daughter, and especially attached to the doting husband. Quiet but insightful, looking at balance between duty and self-interest. Delightful!

Turns out this is based on two stories that Chambers read in an old newpaper and turned into one story. I like getting to hear about the inspiration that may have been behind a story. This is also described as for fans of Kazou Ishiguro, Ann Patchett, and Tessa Hadley.