Rebecca Stott

Setting is a couple hundred years after the departure of the Romans from Britain and Londinium in particular where some Saxons have a toehold. They avoid the ruins of the old city as haunted but there are people living there, almost all women, refugees from the harshness of the collapsed and changing situation. Stott does an amazing job at creating characters--two sisters, orphaned when their father, a rare and revered blacksmith dies--and a story that grips while also evoking how unsettling show more and yet providential the abrupt abandonment of Britain was for all those left behind. They left EVERYTHING they could not take in a trunk or two (or less, were they slaves) tools, weapons, gold, silver, iron, glass, fabrics, bronzes, the very stones of their buildings . . . . the list is endless and of the people remaining few have the skills to fabricate any of these things. Secondly Stott does a fine job at convincingly showing what it was like to live in a society that truly believes in haunts, curses, monsters and the like. Her goal was to bring into the light what life for women during this time of turmoil might have been like and I think she succeeds. A fine book! ***** show less

Circa 500 AD, the Romans left Londinium generations ago and it is a Ghost City. Sisters Isla and Blue live nearby in exile on an island with their father, a master smith who makes swords for the local lord, Osric. When their father suddenly dies, the sisters' lives are upended. Osric might recognize kin law and take care of them, but that depends highly on Isla's skill in the forge never being found out.

Stott vibrantly imagines a time period where very little is known, taking a small piece show more of archaeology as a jumping off point for her story. The writing is stylized and told in present tense, a method I've noticed a lot in historical fiction in particular but which I find rather awkward. Despite this, Isla and her journey eventually won me over, and I cared enough to know what would happen to her, and her sister, and the other characters whose paths they cross. There is an immersive and mystical feel to the story, where as a reader you're feeling like events are described in a way the people of that time period might have understood it (the ideas of fate and making choices, the gods and the auguries). Was the ending a bit of wish fulfillment? Maybe so, but it was an enjoyable read and a satisfying resolution. show less

Daniel Connor, an Englishman studying medicine in Edinburgh, is travelling to Paris to take up a position with the renowned naturalist Georges Cuvier at the Jardin des Plantes. On the mail coach to Paris a mysterious beautiful woman sits next to him and through her talk of natural history she introduces him to a new way of seeing the world. When Daniel wakes up, she is gone, and with her his bag of precious specimens and letters of introduction. When he reports the theft he learns that she show more is a notorious thief called Lucienne Bernard and the chief of police, Jagot, enlists Daniel to act as his eyes and ears in case she reappears. When she finally does, Daniel is drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse ...

The subject matter at the heart of the book is intriguing to say the least, and reading the book proved both thought-provoking and stimulating; however, the execution leaves more to be desired as there are several aspects that are less than convincing (the love affair and the jewel theft, for example). Despite the beautiful and almost lyrical prose in places, there's no getting away from the fact that Daniel is a weak character, letting himself be manipulated by others, especially Lucienne, and the plot plods along for the majority of the novel, only to pick up pace right at the end. Early nineteenth-century Paris is painted in a palette of colours and the book is rich in atmosphere, evoking a city picking itself up after the terrors of the Revolution, with painful memories lingering just under the surface of everyday life, the scars barely healed. Apart from the prose I mostly enjoyed the debates, usually initiated and led by Lucienne, about the impending revolution in scientific thought, foreshadowed here by Lamarck's theory of transformism (also known as transmutation) and continued almost half a century later by Charles Darwin.

Accompanying the narrative centred on Daniel is an account of Napoleon's journey to St Helena after the defeat at Waterloo, throwing up some interesting aspects about the man, not the emperor, general and statesman. show less

I received a copy of this memoir from the publisher via NetGalley. I requested it after reading a review in the Guardian and am glad I did so.

The author tells the story of her childhood growing up in the Exclusive Brethren church, where her father (and her grandfather) was a preacher and a priest. As a result of the increasingly extreme teachings of the leader of the worldwide Exclusive Brethren during the 1960s, the denomination became more or less a cult. Then, after scandalous sexual show more behaviour and alcoholism on the part of the leader, the church imploded and Rebecca's father took them out of the Brethren church altogether.

The memoir is written after the death of Rebecca's father. He has been unable to finish his planned memoir and Rebecca has felt obliged to take over the task. For the most part I found this an interesting read, and at times it was fascinating. The author manages to portray her father with affection, but without glossing over his (sometimes appalling) behaviour.

I learnt a lot about Brethren theology and the position of women in the church. It is astonishing to me that, even when more or less everything was forbidden, alcohol was still allowed. The author was very good at describing how confused and adrift she felt after the adults in her life turned away from what she had been told was absolute truth.

On the other hand, I was frustrated by the limits of what the memoir revealed. I really wanted to hear Rebecca's mother's side of the story and how what happened affected her siblings. What was the stepmother's story? What had her father truly believed? Had he never believed? If so, what about the "Mere Christianity" conversion experience? If he had once believed, was it merely in the specific teachings of the leader? Why did he never join another church, as Rebecca's mother did?

The section dealing with the downfall of the church leader was told partly in a transcript of a portion of a mad drunken speech and partly by witness statements. Although I had no sympathy for him or his behaviour, including the transcript seemed underhand in some way - it made me feel uneasy. The witness accounts about Mrs Ker, on the other hand were so sterile as to be unenlightening. What were the witnesses thinking? What was their plan?

My ARC has several typos etc, which I hope will be picked up. show less