The Chainmakers by Helen Spring - A Review by Judith Arnopp

If you want to be totally absorbed into the past, experience the joys, sorrows and hardships of the late 19th - early 20th century then this is the book for you. I bought the kindle edition on Thursday lunchtime and completely lost the next 24 hours while I read it.
The Chainmakers is an experience rather than just a 'read', you follow Anna on her life journey, from childhood, through the pangs of first love, through marriage and childbirth to late middle age. Her story takes you across the Atlantic from England to New York and shows you the difficulties that ordinary, law abiding people suffered, both in the manufacturing towns of the UK and under prohibition and mob law in the U.S.A.
Ms Spring's competent narrative sweeps the reader effortlessly from the filth of the 19th century factory floor to the elegant drawing rooms of New York. Her characters sing, the settings are masterfully drawn and the plot intriging. I can not imagine why this is not on the best seller list. Very highly recommended.

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber : A Review by Judith Arnopp

Don’t read this book if you are offended by disagreeable truths. It contains explicit, unpleasant sexual content and is not for the faint hearted. It is a stark view of Victorian London– a stark-naked view that is very different to the image that Victorian London wished to project. The author rips away the pretty drapes and shows us, not just the legs of the table but the filth that lies hidden beneath.

The narrator takes the reader by the hand and leads you through dark alleyways to the places where only the destitute or the criminal live. Here you become so involved in the lives of the people you meet that you will be implicit in the crimes witnessed.

This is not a pretty story of simpering Victorian girls who lift their petticoats for a penny; it is an honest, unflinching, often brutal perspective of the darker side of human nature. As others have said before me, Faber takes his reader to the places that Dickens and Wilkie Collins could only hint at.

Every character is superbly drawn, warts and all, twisted, tortured, selfish and very, uncomfortably human. You will meet rich punters and the poorest of working girls and they are so convincing that you might think you have met them somewhere before.

Sugar is not a stereotypical tart with a heart, she is an enigma, from her curious skin condition to her traumatised mind. One minute you will think she loves William, the next that she despises him and this keeps the reader hanging, on the edge of his seat, wondering what jaw dropping surprise she will reveal next.

Is she a champion of women or an anti-heroine? As a prostitute she is an object for the use of all men but she only really loses control of her own destiny when she ties herself to just one man – William Rackham; then her choices are taken out of her hands.

Sugar takes all her frustration and contempt for men and pours it into a hastily scrawled novel that is so overflowing with hatred, disgust and perversion that she knows she can never allow the world to see it, for they wouldn’t care to look.

Whether you want to or not, when reading this novel you will require all your senses. You will smell the shit, feel the cold; taste the hunger, hear the weeping of the destitute and scream with them, frustrated by the ignorance.

You will share the degradation that women like Sugar were subjected to and try as you might you will not be able to comprehend why so many prostitutes clung to their way of life. It is not possible for us to understand why they considered work in the factories to be so much worse. The choice was between a fast, gay life of sin and an early grave, or a life of drudgery and hunger that would end just as prematurely. For some women, things are not so different today.

Victorian London tried to conceal its darker nature beneath a façade of respectability just as Agnes Rackham’s delicate beauty conceals a voracious tumour that is eating away at her brain. Sugar’s sexual allure conceals a deep, twisting loathing for the male species and everyone else is hiding something, pretending to be what they are not. Just as the broad leafy streets of the rich are a veneer on the crumbling tenements of the poor, so do the human residents of nineteenth century Notting Hill project a decent Christian face as they button their expensive waistcoats very tightly over soiled undergarments.

It is not exaggerating to say that Mr Faber takes all this ugliness and wraps it in the most beautiful prose I have ever read, and I have read many books. This novel is one to keep. It rests easily among the greatest novels of all time and will, without doubt, come to be a classic. The Crimson Petal and the White is not just a story, it is something real and that is why it makes such uncomfortable reading.

Back in the Driver Seat

You’ve probably been wondering where I’ve been or maybe it's been so long you’ve forgotten all about me but, whichever camp you fall into, I am back ... for good.

For the past year my blogs have been sporadic to say the least and that is because I have had nothing much to say – and I am one of those people who aren’t given to idle gossip; small talk just isn’t my thing.

The followers of my blog may remember that about a year ago I acquired the services of an agent. BRILLIANT!! I thought, at last my career will take off big time but, for once, the oracle was wrong and it didn’t.

It is easy for an un-agented author to think that the services of an expert from the publishing world is the one thing that your career lacks. But this isn’t always so. It wasn’t long before I found I didn’t like it, nothing was happening, things were too slow. I wanted action. Patience isn't my thing either :)

There isn’t much point being a novelist if it doesn't make you happy. I am not in it for a big pay out (although of course that would be nice). I write because I have stories in my head that need to be heard. I’ve written since I was eight years old and I need to do something with it.

The first thing the agent suggested (suggested not demanded) was that I remove Peaceweaver from the shelves as a self-published tag might put off serious publishers. I did so because I thought she must know best; I placed all my eggs in her basket, so to speak.

Of course, without Peaceweaver I was left with nothing to market, nothing to blog about, nothing to peddle. So I sat at home, quickly completed the final edits of The Forest Dwellers and finished the first draft of The Song of Heledd.

Then I twiddled my thumbs, made a lot of phone calls, drank alot of coffee and watched enviously as my peers happily continued to produce and market their own excellent novels without recourse to expert help.

I began to write short stories and, as my poetry and shorts were not in the agent’s hands, had a few published. Things were a bit better but still things felt wrong somehow. It took me a while to realise I was no longer happy.

In the end it was my lovely old fella that pointed out what was wrong and suggested I terminate the agreement which, after much deliberation, I did!

I don’t know why the agent failed to sell my work, perhaps my novels are unmarketable, although my readers don’t seem to think so and I get emails every week asking when The Forest Dwellers will be published. I don’t think she fully understood the genre or where I was coming from. I felt she tried to twee my writing up, make it like other big name authors who shall remain nameless. ‘Write a Tudor novel,’ she suggested more than once but I don’t want to write Tudor novels.....

I’ve been agent free for a whole week now and already I feel so relieved, as if I’ve put down a bag of very heavy shopping. In that short time I have put the wheels in motion for a re-edition of Peaceweaver with a prettier cover and complete interior reformat. The Forest Dwellers should be issued at the same time with The Song of Heledd following shortly afterwards in (2012). Then I had better write some more.

It feels good to be in control of my own work again. My kids always accuse me of being a control freak and perhaps they are right. All I know for sure is that I’ve been reformatting, editing, looking at book cover designs and feel involved and a totally happy bunny again. And once the manuscripts are off to the publishers I will have a look and see how easy it is to get them onto Kindle.

So, it’s onwards and upwards! Watch this space!

Re-emerging from the Gloom

I know you haven't heard from me for a while and I'm not really sure why. I suppose I have been having one of those periods when you think you might as well jack it all in and get a proper job. After the exciting involvement with the Waterloo Collection anthology that I bored you all with last time, I was devastated to hear of the death of Proffessor Richard Holmes who was also involved with it. I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person but I loved him on screen, his passion for his subject was so close to the surface and infected everyone he met; he was a proper gentle man. One of the last things he did was to sign the author copies of the anthology and I shall keep mine close to my heart.

So, the news about Richard's passing took the shine from the pleasure of having three of my Waterloo stories included in his project - I like to think he might have read and enjoyed them. Since t hen I have been writing and writing, keeping my head down, not hearing anything from my agent, often wondering if it is really worth all the sweat and tears I shed over my work; when out of the blue, another publication appears.

I am getting quite a list now. I had forgotten I had submitted a few stories to Vintage Script; a magazine offering short historical stories and articles, so when I heard one of mine was included in the first issue, it picked me up no end. Vintage Script will fill a gap in the market for people like me, mad on history. I don't buy any magazine's apart from BBC's History, Myslexia and the Historical Review, oh and the Richard the Third Society Review because other magazine's dont seem to cater for me. I will buy and enjoy this one though and will be submitting more stories and articles to it too. So good luck to Vintage Script and thank you to Emma for selecting my story, you have providied the fillip I needed.

The Waterloo Project

In June 1815 The Battle of Waterloo brought to an end almost twenty-three years of European conflict. Of the four battles that made up this campaign Waterloo is the most famous and has become iconic with the Anglo/French wars. It was Napoleon’s first personal defeat marking the end of his bid for power.

The battle took place just south of the town of Waterloo on the ridge of Mont St Jean, in and around three farms, Hougoumont, La Haye Sainte and Papelotte. It was a hard fought, bloody battle that resulted in massive casualties on both sides.

Hougoumont Farm was placed under the charge of Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonell. Wellington’s instructions being that he should "defend the post to the last extremity." Macdonell certainly followed this command and repelled the French assault for an exhausting nine hours.

During the maelstrom the main building was destroyed, as was the tower, cowshed, coach house and stables. Otherwise, the farm remains intact However, almost two hundred years of neglect have taken their toll and the buildings are now very much dilapidated. The walls of the great barn are bulging and despite recent attempts at repair, the farm is vulnerable to vandalism and the detrimental effects of the weather.

In recent years historians and conservationists have banded together to form The Hougoumont Project to raise funds for the farm’s restoration. Professor Richard Holmes is chairman of the project. He says ‘My own visits to Hougoumont left me increasingly worried about its condition, and a number of other visitors – from professional battlefield guides to enthusiastic amateurs – wrote, telephoned, or emailed to suggest that something should to be done as a matter of urgency. A small group of us met (fittingly enough in a Berkshire pub), and Project Hougoumont was formally launched in June 2008.’

The project intends to sympathetically restore the existing buildings, and develop the wider site providing educational facilities and enabling living history events to be held. The chapel has been restored and some of the breaches in the walls repaired but there still remains much to do. Professor Holmes goes on to say, “In my long experience of historical battlefields, few spots have the haunting appeal of the farm complex of Hougoumont on the field of Waterloo. In seeking to preserve this iconic spot we do not simply remember the British troops who held it. We also applaud the courage of the German infantry who fought for the wood in front of it, of the brave Frenchmen who came so close to taking it and turning the fortune of the day, and of the cavalry whose charges swirled up and down the slopes within sight of its ancient walls, now in such acute peril.’

Several fund raising schemes are being set up by The Hougoumont Project to coincide with the forthcoming bicentenary celebrations in 2015. One of these schemes is an anthology of short stories set in and around the battle.

This book, The Waterloo Collection – an anthology of short stories is available for pre-order on Amazon, priced £11.99 with proceeds going to this worthy cause. (Yes, some of mine are in it.) Professor Holmes, who has written the foreword, has kindly agreed to sign copies at Bookstop during the Tavistock Music and Arts Festival on April 23rd 2011. We hope to see you there.

Link to The Waterloo Collection on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-WaterlooCollection/dp/0956765424/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301493520&sr=1-1

Also available are some brilliant art prints by renowned military artists who are very generously donating 25% of sales to the Hougoumont Project. You can find details on the website http://www.waterloo-collection.com/index.html

Short Story Competition

The Cwrtnewydd Scribblers writing group, of whom I am a proud member, have launched a short story competition.
It has been a long hard winter in the UK this year and summer still seems a long way off so, to bring the warm weather a little closer, the theme of the competition is to be Summer Sun, Summer Fun. Your story can be in the genre of your choice (but keep it clean please). The winner will receive £40, the second prize is £20 and the runner up will win £10. All winning entries will be offered inclusion in The Cwrtnewydd Scribblers’ Annual Anthology due to be published in time for Christmas.




For further details and rules of entry please see our website: http://www.cwrtnnewyddscribblers.webs.com/

Sultana: New release from Lisa Yarde

Sultana
by
Lisa Yarde

A review by Judith Arnopp



Fatima is the granddaughter of the Sultan of Granada and as such has lived a life of luxury, safe from dangers, her future secure. But there are underlying political currents and intrigues that she knows nothing about.
When she is married off to the Sultan’s nephew, Faraj, a man governed by resentment and insecurity, neither party is pleased at the match. His determination to seek vengeance for the murder of his family and his struggle to regain his rightful inheritance results in bitter civil war. The marriage between Fatima and Faraj, two strong willed characters, could go either way and the novel tracks the progress of both their personal relationship and the war.

***

Thirteenth century Moorish Spain is a new world to me. At first I found the place and character names confusing but a short while into the story it all became clear.
Sultana is superbly written. Lisa Yarde lifts the reader from the ennui of the twenty-first century and thrusts them into the turmoil of medieval Spain. Each page is eagerly turned as she deftly details every aspect of Granadian life, the clothes, the food and the riches. Lisa penetrates the mind of Fatima to illustrate the unfolding war through her eyes and allow the reader to experience both her insecurity and her pain. The story moves through war, treason, murder and despair but, despite that, it remains a romance, a heavenly blend of sorrow and joy, just like life.
This book was a whole new experience for me. I know next to nothing about the days of the last Moorish dynasty but Lisa writes with the confidence that only thorough research can provide. Sultana is a worthy addition to any book shelf, this is one to keep.

Both paperback and kindle editions of Sultana are available on Amazon.