I started reading Reminiscences Of Jane Austen’s Niece Caroline Austen yesterday. It’s a short book published by the Jane Austen Society, a collection of diary/records by Caroline that expands upon notes her mother kept. I was, in fact, originally looking for Caroline’s memoir of her famous aunt but Chawton Cottage, which sells the Society’s books, didn’t have it in stock. (I didn’t realise until yesterday’s reading that you can in fact find the memoir within the larger A Memoir Of Jane Austen that James Edward Austen-Leigh compiled.)

Anyway, the reminiscences are actually just a diary of family’s and friends’ events and it’s proving to be an appealing short read. It’s organised by year with the various events of said year written as paragraphs. This paragraph is so like a Jane Austen novel I may have laughed out loud:

It was from Sennington that my grandmother’s adventures began. She and her other sisters, when young women, were left there for some months, whilst their mother was making visits in Berkshire, staying chiefly at Barton Court – Mr Raymond’s. She was accustomed to take with her one daughter when she went from home – to wait upon her, as was said and at the time to which I refer, she had taken Jane, afterwards Mrs Fowle. At Sennington there lived a family named Hinxman, not in the ranks of gentility, well-to-do yeomen farming their own small property. Mr Hinxman aspired to the hand of one of the Miss Cravens, and obtained it. They were married during her mother’s absence in Berkshire; and still worse, a friend of his, Mr Bishop, a horse-dealer, as I have heard, with no money and no character, prevailed on another daughter, Mary, to marry him. Where Governor Craven was all this time, I do not know; but apparently not with his wife, nor at home with his daughters (Austen, 2004, p.7).

Although it is an expanded diary, as you can see from that quote, there’s just something about the way that Caroline writes. Sadly, as Deirdre Le Faye recounts in her introduction to the book, Caroline wrote quite a lot of fiction as a child but found herself mocked by those around her – likely not including her aunt Jane – and destroyed them (Le Faye, 2004, p.VII). According to record, her stories had their characters meet violent ends as young Caroline felt it imperative to do so. In later life, she destroyed the remainder of the work left (Le Faye, 2004, p.IX) so sadly we will never see them. It’s good, I think, that we at least have this diary, her memories of her aunt, a couple of pictures (including a photo in later life), and mentions of Caroline’s work in Jane’s letters.

(I decided after writing the above to go and have a look at Jane letters and found that not only did she correspond with Caroline a lot – I love Deirdre Le Faye’s comprehensive indexes! – but she made a good few comments on Caroline’s writing that combine measured criticism with a positive outlook. And here I was surprised – aunt Jane suggests that a male character in one story is not being treated badly enough and suggests Caroline has him… off himself (Le Faye (ed.), 2011, p.300). I’m still getting over the shock of that one. She also says he could change his surname instead – something that would punish him more than Caroline already had, essentially – but, clearly, Caroline’s ideas of violence didn’t stem from nowhere unless Jane was in fact mocking her and… I agree with Le Faye that, all of the references combined point to Jane being sincere in her encouragement. Jane’s letter is dated December 1814, when Caroline was nine years old, and the suggestion by Jane to have the male character off himself matches the young age Le Faye discusses in Caroline’s book’s Introduction.)

Having written more than I’d thought I would about a rather obscure book, two remain. I recently finished Emma Cowell’s fourth book, the contemporary romance Under The Lemon Tree which I’d been reading slowly over the course of a month. After having spent the previous six years mostly at home due to ill rabbits, when Liz Fenwick invited me to her Penzance-based book launch I jumped at the chance for a long weekend away and it culminated in a podcast recording with Liz and Emma at Liz’s lovely house, often seen in her TikTok videos. Obligatory photograph:

Thereby I received Emma’s book. Key to Emma’s writing, to me, is the way she takes a or some topic(s) that may or may not be well-covered in society, and delves into it or them from her specific angle or way of seeing things – I’m not really sure exactly how to describe it, it’s easiest to describe it as her Unique Selling Point. In her third book, the topics were songwriting and early onset dementia; in her first book, it was IVF and lost love; and now, in her fourth (I haven’t read the second), it’s grief. Right time, right place, perhaps – I’m still very much missing my rabbits – but Cowell’s focus on grief lasting as long as it needs to, so to speak, and letting oneself work through it, are lovely, and it’s rounded off by the following at the bottom of the penultimate page: ‘grief is simply love that is missing its target’. I took a few moments for that one.

Lastly, I’m currently reading Liz Fenwick’s (surprise, surprise) The Secrets Of Harbour House. This is Liz’s 13th book, and I say that because I’m a bit in awe, not because she’s written so many books (I mean, that is awesome but not what I’m talking about) but because whilst Liz’s books were already very good reads, she’s kind of levelled up again. I am very aware that I can picture the location pretty well thanks to Liz’s invitation to her launch but there is a quality of immersion and world building in this new book that surpasses her others. I’ve read three of her other books – her previous (12th), her eighth (I believe), and her very first – so I’ve read from a range of ‘eras’, but the effective levelling here is a massive leap from her entirely respectable previous book. Needless to say I’m enjoying it – at 50 pages in we’re about to move from what’s so far been a contemporary story to a historical thread – and finding myself extremely excited about where she might go with her next.

References

Austen, Caroline (2004) Reminiscences Of Jane Austen’s Niece Caroline Austen, revised edition, The Jane Austen Society
Le Faye, Deirdre (1986) Introduction, in Austen, Caroline, Reminiscences Of Jane Austen’s Niece Caroline Austen, The Jane Austen Society, pp. VII-IX
Le Faye, Deirdre (ed.) (2011) Jane Austen’s Letters, 4th edition, Oxford University Press

Last Wednesday 26th February, I (though arguably ‘we’) hosted the first Author’s Afterword Live! event. Alex Hay of The Queen of Fives and The Housekeepers, Lucy Barker of The Other Side of Mrs Wood, and Stacey Thomas of The Revels very kindly came down to Hampshire from London and Bath for a real life effective sequel to our previous podcast episode together. We were hosted by the wonderful and relatively new independent bookshop, Goldfinch Books in Alton which is one of those bookshops that has a real vision and as a result a thriving community.

We had a good-sized audience and great support from Louise Morrish, Goldfinch Books’ writer in residence and all-round busy literary person (her book club has 80 members!) Bookshop owner Gary set us up on a small stage with wonderful lighting and incidently saved the day with his video recording of the event when I realised my own had shut off early (I have since bought an SD card that will run to 5 hours…)

The conversation was a real deep dive into writing – I had planned some questions, but Alex, Lucy, and Stacey love talking about the writing and research process and know each other well so we went even further into topics than I’d thought possible. Among other subjects we covered Stacey’s use of language given that The Revels is set in the Jacobean period and book two will be about the 1950s (and an audience member’s question later took us back to that subject for more which was awesome); Alex dived into the need to carefully decide when to reveal aspects of a story; Lucy brought up deadlines and discussed questions of character, and later supported Alex in discussing setting and research in that vein.

There were cheers for books published, laughter at Alex’s use of reality television in a Victorian con novel, and the audience questions caused so much fantastic back and forth conversation that I’m happy to say that section of the evening overran to good effect.

I’m excited to say that I’ll be hosting a second live show on Friday 4th April at P&G Wells in Winchester; it’s the oldest bookshop in England and my long-time favourite. The authors will be Jessica Bull of Miss Austen Investigates, Flora Carr of The Tower, and Sarah Marsh of A Sign Of Her Own. Doors open at 19:00 and tickets can be purchased from P&G.

For the Goldfinch event, my thanks goes to Alex, Lucy, and Stacey, as well as Gary, Louise, Adrian, Caitlin, and Johnny. Thank you all! The video of event one will be available in the next couple of weeks – it’s going to take some time to put together.

This list is missing only Amy Jordan’s The Dark Hours as I included it in my January round up.

Carmel Harrington: The Stolen Child – From the publisher for interview which has since gone ahead. (It was one of the most comprehensive interviews I’ve had!) The book is out on 27th February and its core strength, I’d argue, lies in two places – firstly the fact that Harrington provides answers up front so that you know a lot of the book will be about character development and the ‘how’ (though it’s not quite that simple), and, secondly, the twist is phenomenal.

Jennifer L Armentrout: From Blood And Ash – I’ve seen this book in various places, of course I have, but it was the twin recommendation from a close friend and Booktok that made me take the leap.

Kate Packman: You Can See The End Of The World From Here – From the author for review/coverage. I met Kate at a book launch and she reached out to me about a month ago in regards to her debut novel. I’ve recently finished it – it’s literary, has The Bell Jar vibes, and a moody atmosphere but very welcome ending.

Molly X Chang: To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods – I’d seen this but then saw the ‘middle grade’ target audience. I later found out that the book has been continually wrongly categorised – it’s actually for adults, very much so. This is a book that has become controversial for what some reviewers deem a colonial romance however it has a blurb, in pride of place, by Xiran Jay Zhao that suggests it may be a case of things not being that straight forward. Having wanted to read it before finding out about the controversy I have got a copy – the author has a new book coming out, she hasn’t been cancelled, so I do wonder what’s going on here.

Naomi Novik: Spinning Silver – This came as a pair with the next book which is the one I was wanting. This said, I’m not against retellings, far from it!

Naomi Novik: Uprooted – I should’ve read this years ago, it’s been on my list for ages, so when a Booktoker recommended it to me when I asked about fairytale retellings, I bought it.

Rebecca Yarros: Onyx Storm – I haven’t read Iron Flame yet, but Fourth Wing was brilliant.

Samantha Sotto Yambao: Water Moon – An author I’ve been reading since her debut, I’m thrilled to see Samantha Sotto publishing in the UK for the first time. This is her fifth book and it’s a bit different – she’s added ‘Yambao’ to her pen name to show the genre difference from sci-fi/magical realism to straight out fantasy – but very good.

Sarah Brooks: The Cautious Traveller’s Guide To The Wastelands – That story about me wanting to buy Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s Stay With Me in hardback and then having to track down a used copy later? I didn’t want to do it again. Having walked around Waterstones Chelsea (it’s lovely) with this book but ultimately putting it back on the table because of cost, I bought a copy some months later.

What books have you acquired recently?

The good thing is that I’m finding a routine. The bad thing is I’m not yet great at it and so I’m behind on my usual end of year and start of year housekeeping. That said, I have spent enough time thinking about what my goals should be that I’ve come to a firm decision about Vanity Fair, the book that has been languishing on my reading list, moved from year to year with no reading movement.

I suppose the first thing to say, before continuing on my Thackeray decision, is to say that, broadly, I’m going back to a reading goal I had some previous years – I will read as much as I comfortably can. In looking at past goal posts I noticed I haven’t written one since 2021, which makes sense though still surprised me – I think, even now, I’m starting to forget just how stressed I was – and, more of a surprise was the fact I’d actually listed some goals. I thought I’d said ‘read as much as I comfortably can’ more often.

That dealt with, then, Thackeray – I have decided to leave his tome on my 2024 reading list and not carry it forward. I know – unthinkable! But it’s time. I have chosen to deliberately leave it in its unfinished…glory?… on that list instead of removing it as I usually do if I decide I haven’t read enough of a book to carry it over from one year to the next. Let it stand as a testament to my on-off history with it and also, if I do end up reading it some time, I think considering that new time to be a blank slate would be best. This all said, you may be surprised by the following. While I don’t want to make any hard and fast goals, I like the idea of some things I’ll aim to do if I can:

1) Here it goes: I’m going to see if I can read Vanity Fair, as though it’s new to me. I’m going to keep it in mind for when my reading time is not too busy and have a ponder.
2) I would like to finish Drums Of Autumn which I barely started in December. For all my talk of it being a tradition for me, I failed to read Outlander at Christmas.
3) I’d like to go back and finish the Venatrix Chronicles, my favourite fantasy series that I flew through right until the seventh and final book where I stopped because I wasn’t ready for it to end. I do not want to do another The Amber Spyglass and wait for years – that way leads to too much anticipation which will render any successful ending not good enough. (Not that I found the Pullman to be any objective success.)
4) I want to read more fantasy. TikTok and the romantasy trend is helping and I have some very popular books on my shelves waiting to be read.
5) I would like to re-start and read the whole of Burney’s Cecelia. I was very into it, in fact I checked my Kobo and I was 70% through volume one, but, likely, rabbits… Actually, the thing that concerns me most with Burney is that I don’t remember much at all of Evelina even though I found it an okay enough read. Please don’t tell Jane Austen.

And that’s plenty. If I do the above, great, if I don’t, I’ll have read other great things.

What are your reading goals for this year?

I’ve had a tiny moment of celebration with each book finished this month, especially as two were on my non-podcast reading list. I have one book left to read from that list and then I get to make a brand new one. It’s been a good experiment.

Amy Jordan – It’s 2024 and retired DI Julia Hart is called back to the Irish police force because a current murder case has echoes of one Hart solved in 1994. We also get that narrative from 1994 wherein Julia became traumatised, lost her marriage or her husband (we don’t yet know) and dealt with sexism. This is an excellent thriller.

Gabrielle Zevin – Sam and Sadie met as children when Sam was in hospital after an accident and Sadie was there because her sister has cancer. They bonded over video games but a conflict separated them for many years. We join them in adulthood as they decide to start a game development company. It lacks emotion, but the last quarter of the book was exceptional.

Gill Paul: Another Woman’s Husband – In the 1940s, Mary watches her childhood friend Wallis burn one marriage, not appreciate another, and start a relationship with the Prince of Wales. In the 1990s, Rachel and Alex are witnesses to Princess Diana’s death and while Rachel has her boutique to get back to, Alex is determined to create a documentary on what really happened that fateful night. A very good read.

So, it’s been a good month. Amy Jordan’s book may make my best of list; of Zevin’s I found the two main characters impossible to read but a third character was wonderful and had me quite emotional; and of the Paul, I personally preferred the Wallis Simpson narrative as it was mostly factual and fascinating, but there are parts where Rachel’s chapters shine through.

I ‘actively’ carried over two books into February, Orlando Ortega-Medina’s Emerald Road, and Samantha Sotto Yambao’s Water Moon. Yes, the same Sam Sotto whose work I’ve loved for years. This latest book is her UK debut and I’m thrilled for her. I’m also hoping to get to book 10 on my non-podcast list, Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne, as well as Kate Packman’s You Can See The End Of The World From Here. And of the ‘not actively’, Drums Of Autumn I’m going to read slowly. I have officially decided to stop carrying Vanity Fair over – it would’ve been year 13 this time. I’ll try and start it another time – who knows, maybe leaving it off my list now will help me get back to it.

Episode 115: Éric Chacour (What I Know About You)

Charlie and Éric Chacour discuss Egypt in the 1970s for the Levantine community and LGBT people, the famous French-Egyptian singer Dalida, Romeo and Juliet, Éric’s use of the second person, and author and translator working together on writing that had been in place for 15 years.

If you’re unable to use the media player above, this page has various other options for listening as well as the transcript.