Michelle Cooper

As the title to this sequel to A Brief History of Montmaray suggests, the FitzOsbornes - the royal family of the tiny kingdom of Montmaray, an island lying midway between Britain and Iberia, in the Bay of Biscay - had gone into exile in Britain, driven from their ancestral home by a Nazi invasion. Living in the lap of luxury provided by their Aunt Charlotte, whose marriage to a wealthy Englishman had established her in that nation's high society, our narrator Sophie, her brilliant cousin show more Veronica, tomboyish younger sister Henry (Henriette), flippant older brother Toby (now King Tobias!), and (unacknowledged) cousin and friend, Simon Chester, all struggle in their separate ways to adjust to the dramatic turn that events have taken. As Sophie and Veronica endure the "Season," during which Aunt Charlotte attempts to fix their matrimonial prospects, Toby struggles at Oxford, and Simon undertakes a number of projects of his own, they must all of them grapple with the fact that Montmaray has been lost, and, coming together again, begin to plan how best to retake it. Quarreling as much amongst themselves as ever, the FitzOsbornes in exile, whether confronting deranged assassins or evading Nazi agents, are still a force to be reckoned with...

After my somewhat ambivalent feelings regarding Michelle Cooper's first foray into the world of Montmaray's royal family - I enjoyed A Brief History of Montmaray, but not quite as much as I'd expected - I wasn't sure how I would like this second installment. I'd hoped, given the fact that I found the conclusion of the first book stronger than the beginning, that I would like this sequel even more, and I was not disappointed. I raced through The FitzOsbornes in Exile, and enjoyed every minute of it! Yes, Cooper does sometimes feel as if she's doing a bit of an info-dump for the benefit of her readers - "see children? this is why fascism might have appealed to people..." - but it is never so pronounced that it takes away from the excitement of the story, or my involvement with the characters. And it is the characters - from Sophie herself, who suddenly seems so much more mature, to Simon and Toby, whose relationship is anything but simple - that really make this book worthwhile. I felt, in the first book, curiously distant from FitzOsbornes, and I struggled to work up much interest in their lives. Here, by contrast, I was completely wrapped up in their story, and dead to the world, while reading. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the third and final installment, The FitzOsbornes at War! show less

A Brief History of Montmaray and The FitzOsbornes in Exile are lovely... but it's hard to say that about a book set during WWII.
Heartbreaking is more appropriate. If I was the sort of person who cried over books, I would have sobbed my way through sections of The FitzOsbornes at War. As it was, I was just numb.

Sophie's journal is evocative; a perfect balance between personal and global, domestic and political, humorous incidents and horrible realities. Her portrayal of war-torn English is show more vivid and insightful. Her own emotional growth is subtle but convincing; it was lovely to see her grow up into an independent young woman.

And then there's the growth the rest of her family go through. Because the FitzOsbornes are passionate, unconventional, occasionally infuriating and delightful. They're determined to do all they can for the war... but their wartime experiences drag them in different directions (and generally try to put a damper on the the FitzOsborne wonderful-ness). It is impossible for them to be unchanged and unscathed by their experiences.
However, they haven't forgotten Montmaray...

One of the things which really impressed me is that this is one woman's journal covering years of war, and so it tends to be episodic (Also, as Sophie says: The trouble with keeping a record of the war is that either nothing whatsoever is happening in the world, which makes one's journal entries very boring, or else so much is going on that one doesn't have time to comprehend it, let alone write it down.) and yet it manages to be, very successfully, the final book of a trilogy.

I heart The FitzOsbornes at War so much and forgive it for breaking my heart.

Veronica is quite wrong when she claims there is no value in reading novels such as Pride and Prejudice. Of course there is. They provide one with the exact words one needs when one is speechless in the face of extreme provocation. show less

A Brief History of Montmaray is the diary of sixteen year old Sophia FitzOsborne, a princess of the (sadly fictional) island kingdom of Montmaray.
It has an I Capture the Castle feel to it - a coming-of-age story, a delightful narrator, an impoverished, eccentric family and a crumbling castle. It's 1936 and the island's population consists of Sophie, her uncle - the mad King John, her cousin Veronica, her younger sister Henry, their housekeeper, and four villagers. Sophie's older brother, the show more king's heir, is at school in England and the housekeeper's son, who spends most of his time in London, appears occasionally.

Sophie's account of life on Montmaray is charming and compelling, making growing up in a cold castle on a small island seem wonderful somehow despite the impoverished circumstances, absence of reliable parents, challenges of running a household, loneliness and isolation. The FitzOsbornes' indifference to certain social conventions is delightful, and the girls are independent and resourceful; their passion for their home and homeland readily apparent.
A Brief History of Montmaray has a bittersweet quality, because this existence is precarious. Princesses inevitably leave Montmaray upon marriage, and while Sophie dreams of being presented to Society in London, she's reluctant to go without Veronica, and Veronica is determined never to leave Montmaray at all. Montmaray's isolation also makes it vulnerable - it's difficult to seek help when there are accidents, crises or German trespassers...

This wonderful story left me quite impatient to read the sequel, The FitzOsbornes in Exile (which in turn has left me waiting eagerly for The FitzOsbornes at War. I'm terrified about what World War II will do to these characters - but I also think it would more than a war to stop them from being wonderful and individual.) I'm very glad to have made the acquaintance of the FitzOsbornes!

"[we're] quite alone on a small island [...] two hundred miles of storm-tossed sea between us and civilisation, a house-hold that consists of:
1. One middle-aged man of indifferent health and intermittent sanity
2. One middle-aged housekeeper, who prefers not to housekeep too much as it interferes with her worship of the man previously mentioned
3. Two girls, neither of whom can cook very well, although between them they have adequate skills in the areas of book-keeping, plumbing, dusting, historical research, laundering and story-telling
4. One ten-year-old tomboy, able to fish, swear and trap rabbits, but unable to write, make her own bed or remember to brush her teeth
5. One dog, several mad cats, numerous chickens, a dozen pigeons and far too many rats." show less

{First of 3 of Montmaray Journals; fiction, historic fiction, WWII} (2010)

Another book bullet, but I didn't realise that it is the first of a trilogy.

Sophia FitzOsborne, a princess of the royal family of Montmaray, starts a journal which she was given for her sixteenth birthday in October 1936 so each chapter heading is a date. It sounds grand but Montmaray is a rocky, weather-challenged island in the Bay of Biscay which, for those as geographically er... knowledgeable as me, is off the west show more coast of France. This fictional island was claimed by an earl escaping Henry VIII's wrath and did well from whaling, as a waypoint between France and England and negotiating treaties. In modern times, living there is a struggle and they barely have enough to eat. Most of the male population was lead to their deaths in WWI by the current king, now a broken man who keeps mainly to his room. The other eight inhabitants (three of whom are also part of the royal family) are his daughter Veronica and his nieces Sophia and tomboy Henry as well as their housekeeper Rebecca (who seems to be exceptionally bad at housekeeping) and, in the village, Alice, Mary, elderly George and young Jimmy. Sophia's brother, Toby, and Rebecca's son, Simon, are away in England at school and work respectively.

This was a gentle story, told from the point of a girl on the verge of adulthood and on the eve, more or less, of World War II. Though she is not interested in politics, Veronica and Simon are and so she is not unaware of events in Europe especially since they are connected to European nobility, especially from Spain. And those events - such as the Spanish civil war and the rise of Naziism in Germany - do affect them personally, even though they are isolated, when people come to or leave the island. Although it is Sophia's journal that we read, Veronica is working on writing a history of Montmaray.

Essentially, the island kingdom with its decrepit castle is managed by the three teenaged girls, which is to say Veronica deals with the practicalities while Sophia helps her though they haven't managed to teach Henry how to read. I enjoyed Sophia's narration of their everyday lives with their unusual lifestyle. It was, necessarily, gently paced; when they had to deal with crises (such as finding a room for guests with a bed and a roof that didn't leak or splinting a broken bone), they got on and dealt with them because there was no other option and they were used to doing so. The pace picks up a bit towards the end as the war and its fallout comes closer but I found the whole book very readable.

(April 2022)
3.5 stars show less