How could I resist a book with such an unusual title set on an island about which I know nothing (cows, right?) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a charming novel of 1946 London and Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands. London based writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a ... [Continue Reading]
Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
If you are a fan of The Crown and enjoy Royal gossip, I recommend Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret, which for lack of a better description, is an unconventional biography. Brown has assembled in no particular order ninety-nine vignettes of the controversial princess taken from ... [Continue Reading]
The Crown in Crisis, Countdown to the Abdication by Alexander Larman
I was disappointed in The Crown in Crisis, Countdown to the Abdication, a day-by-day account of the last month of King Edward VIII’s reign. The author claims to have unearthed unseen archival material and interviews about the crisis in which the king renounces the throne for the woman he loves, the ... [Continue Reading]
Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner
For Fans of The Crown Anne Glenconner had an idyllic childhood. In her memoir, Lady in Waiting, she describes growing up at Holkham, the 27,000-acre estate of her father, the 5th Earl of Leicester. Her boon companions were the Princess Elizabeth and the Princess Margaret. There were Christmases ... [Continue Reading]
The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
Post-war England In 1945, the tiny village of Chawton is coping with the after effects of WWII. Its most famous resident, Jane Austen, who lived in an estate cottage belonging to her brother Edward Knight, is a faint and increasingly diminishing presence. Recognizing the important of the ... [Continue Reading]
The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
A novel of the final four years in the life of Thomas Cromwell and the court of Henry VIII, The Mirror & the Light is historical fiction, but like Mantel’s earlier books in the trilogy, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, it bears no resemblance to traditional historical fiction. There are no ... [Continue Reading]
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
Given the enormous number of Churchill biographies, especially of the war years, one might wonder about the necessity of yet another. Eric Larson, author of narrative nonfiction bestsellers, The Devil in the White City and In the Garden of the Beasts, takes the vast mountain of Churchill material ... [Continue Reading]
The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes
The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes With Mitford mania in perpetual bloom, it was only a matter of time before some enterprising author wrote a mystery series featuring the Mitford sisters. And not surprisingly that someone is Jessica Fellowes, author of five companion books to the Downton ... [Continue Reading]
Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard Do we really need another biography of Winston Churchill? Well, yes, when it is written by talented Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic. In Hero of the ... [Continue Reading]
Victoria, The Queen by Julia Baird
Don’t let the frumpy photos fool you-- Queen Victoria was a piece of work. As Prime Minister William Gladstone said with feeling, “The Queen alone is enough to kill any man.” Victoria was self-pitying, stubborn, highly critical (especially of her children), partisan, humorless, selfish, prudish, ... [Continue Reading]