Christmas Presents

Christmas has resulted in an embarrassment of riches. I now have books piled up on every available surface in my bedroom, as well as some hidden behind various articles of furniture so that my parents don’t trip over them and demand another book cull. The memories of the last one are still too fresh.

On the list of new acquisitions are several novels by David Lodge, the new Cassandra Clare book (which I can’t even start as I haven’t finished the first book in the series yet), two books by Nancy Mitford and oodles more.

I made steady progress. Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I finished How Far Can You Go by David Lodge, and The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble. The Lodge book was brilliant; as a bit of a lapsed Catholic myself I could identify somewhat with the sense of Catholic guilt that pervades the whole novel. I’ve also had many conversations with my Nana about the revelation that was Vatican II, so those sections raised many a chuckle. The Drabble was also a good read, but I found Candida, the narrator, very difficult to warm to. I think that’s supposed to be the point though; you empathise with this cold, bitter woman in spite of her flaws.

I was also on the receiving end of some teeny-bopper novels, for which I have a great fondness. The best of these was Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey, which I read in one sitting and loved to bits and pieces. The eponymous Violet lives in Victorian London and is the daughter of a sham medium. Her mother is an absolute weapon, as my Nana would say. She uses her daughters’ beauty to further her phony career, wrangling an invitation to perform a séance at the house of a landed gentleman in the country. Violet, her mother and Colin, the Irish manservant, depart to the manner where Violet quickly makes three discoveries; she really can see ghosts, the daughter of the neighbouring manor house has been murdered and she may or may not be in love with Colin.

This was a lovely little book. I’ve been having a love affair with period drama novels of late and this was right up my alley. I imagine anyone who has read Cassandra Clares’ Clockwork Angel would enjoy Violets’ story, as I’m told they are in much the same vein. Sadly, the aforementioned Clare novel is still in my to-be-read stack and probably won’t be touched this side of Uni exams.  Oh well. I have a week of before the second semester starts in February…we’ll see about it then.