Kate Forsyth is one of Australia’s most treasured storytellers. On today’s edition of What Katie Read, she gives us the rundown on all of the best books she’s been reading lately …
The Nine Tailors
by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Nine Tailors is the ninth book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series by British writer Dorothy L. Sayers, and was published in 1934. I have been reading my way through her oeuvre in order of publication, and was very glad to reach this one as it’s always been one of my favourites. It’s been interesting to witness both the growth of Dorothy L. Sayers as a novelist and the growth of her amateur detective as a character. This is another intriguing mystery – something she does very well – but the vividness of the setting and the warmth and realism of the minor characters all lift The Nine Tailors above the ordinary.
The story is set in the village of Fenchurch St. Paul on New Year’s Eve. Lord Peter Wimsey is stranded there after his car runs into a ditch, and is invited to stay by the vicar. Peter then helps ring a nine-hour peal on the church bells after one of the ringers is struck down with influenza. Lady Thorpe, the wife of the local squire, dies the next morning. Their family has been impoverished for years after a valuable emerald necklace was stolen 20 years earlier. The family’s butler was blamed, tried, and convicted, along with his accomplice, but the necklace was never recovered.
When the squire dies the following Easter, his wife’s grave is opened so he can be buried beside her. To everyone’s consternation, the corpse of an unknown man is found within. The vicar calls on Peter to investigate, which he does with his usual acuity and flair.
At the heart of the book is the art of campanology, or bell-ringing. I have always loved the sound of church bells, and I found the descriptions of the bells and their central role in the story absolutely fascinating. A lot of people don’t, I know, and so they skip the passages where Dorothy writes about campanology – but then they find the mystery baffling. My advice – read every word. You still won’t guess who the murderer is, but you will enjoy the sheer beauty and poetry of Dorothy’s writing and when the mystery is finally solved, it will make perfect sense. Here is a sample – be aware that all bells are female and all bells have names:
“The bells gave tongue: Gaude, Sabaoth, John, Jericho, Jubilee, Dimity, Batty Thomas and Tailor Paul, rioting and exulting high up in the dark tower, wide mouths rising and falling, brazen tongues clamouring, huge wheels turning to the dance of the leaping ropes. Tin tan din dan bim bam bom bo–tan tin din dan bam bim bo bom–tan dan tin bam din bo bim bom–every bell in her place striking tuneably, hunting up, hunting down, dodging, snapping, laying her blows behind, making her thirds and fourths, working down to lead the dance again. Out over the flat, white wastes of fen, over the spear-straight, steel-dark dykes and the wind-bent, groaning poplar trees, bursting from the snow-choked louvres of the belfry, whirled away southward and westward in gusty blasts of clamour to the sleeping counties went the music of the bells–little Gaude, silver Sabaoth, strong John and Jericho, glad Jubilee, sweet Dimity and old Batty Thomas, with great Tailor Paul bawling and striding like a giant in the midst of them. Up and down went the shadows of the ringers upon the walls, up and down went the scarlet sallies flickering roofwards and floorwards, and up and down, hunting in their courses, went the bells of Fenchurch St. Paul.”
Buy it here
Gaudy Night
by Dorothy L. Sayers
The tenth book in the Lord Peter Wimsey detective series by Dorothy L. Sayers has been called ‘a literary masterpiece’, perhaps because it is the longest, the slowest and the most introspective. It cannot rightly be called a murder mystery, as there is no murder. It is set in an all-woman’s college in Oxford, where a malicious person is sending anonymous poison letters and destroying property. Harriet Vane, Lord Peter’s love interest, agrees to help the college because it is where she did her degree – the story that follows is as much about the psychological makeup of a wide variety of characters as it is about the solving of the mystery.
Most fans of Dorothy L. Sayers agree that the books which include Harriet Vane are among her best. This may be because Harriet humanises Lord Peter, making him vulnerable and fallible. In some of the books, he is all glitter and glam – a wealthy aristocratic bachelor driving fast cars, buying rare first editions, drinking the very best wine, a virtuoso pianist, a fine athlete who can do a perfect swan dive and a backflip (no less). Harriet Vane is much more real. She is a detective novelist who struggles with her craft, a scandalous woman who was accused of poisoning her lover, an independent soul who wants to live life by her own terms. She first appeared in Book 5, Strong Poison, where Lord Peter falls in love with her at first sight when he sees her standing in the dock accused of murder. She appears again in Book 7, Have His Carcase, where she discovers a young man with his throat cut on a deserted beach and calls on Peter to help her find the culprit.
You must read those books before tackling Gaudy Night, the third book in which she appears, as the slowly unfurling romance between Harriet and Peter is the source of much of the pleasure of the book. The character of Harriet Vane also seems to give insight into the psyche of Dorothy L. Sayers herself – she was one of the first generation of women to receive an Oxford education, graduating BA with first-class honours in 1915 and as an MA in 1920, and she too had troublesome relationships in which she struggled to balance the expectations of society with her own desire to write.
This book is also interesting in the history of Golden Age crime, as it was one of the first to focus on the human psychology of the mystery, rather than just presenting a clever intellectual puzzle to unravel.
Buy it here
Angel of Ruin
by Kim Wilkins
As a special birthday treat to myself, I chose to re-read a favourite book every year. This year I chose Angel of Ruin by Kim Wilkins, one of my favourites of her books. It’s a dual timeline novel (one of my favourite genres), moving between the story of Sophie Black, a freelance journalist struggling to make a living in modern-day London, and the lives of the three daughters of John Milton, famous for Paradise Lost, a long poem about heaven and hell. The two timelines are both vivid and real, and skilfully woven together, unlike many novels with a similar narrative structure where one thread is much more engaging and readable than the other.
Angel of Ruin is one of those books where it’s difficult to write a précis of the plot without spoiling it. I will do my best! The tale begins with Sophie, heartbroken and broke, trying to think up a good subject to write about so she can bring in some quick cash. Halloween’s coming up, so she thinks a piece on modern-day occult worshippers might sell. She inveigles her way into a small group who call themselves the Lodge, hiding her scepticism so she can watch some of their ceremonies. The only thing that piques her interest is the mention of an old woman who tried to tell her life story to one of the members. The group is afraid, and conduct various cleansing and protection rituals, warning Sophie that she must be careful not to go anywhere near the old woman. Sophie is intrigued. She decides to find out more.
The narrative then moves back in time to the seventeenth century where the blind poet Milton is labouring away on his great epic poem. His three daughters assist him, with varying degrees of love and respect. One day they summon an angel named Lazodeus, and their lives are changed forever. Gradually, step by step, they are drawn into desire, betrayal, black magic and murder, while London suffers through the coming of the plague and the Great Fire.
This book is such a beguiling mix of history, romance, and the supernatural – I loved it all over again.
Buy it here
The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett & Inga Moore (Illustrator)
Every year on my birthday I re-read a beloved old children’s book, one I haven’t read for a while. I take a while choosing it, gazing at the antique dresser in my front hall where they take pride of place, pulling down one or another, turning over the pages, re-discovering and remembering. Then I choose one, find somewhere warm and comfy, and settle down to read. It’s my favourite birthday ritual.
This year I chose The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published in 1910. I have a few different editions of it, but my favourite is a gorgeous big hardback illustrated by Inga Moore. Her art is so beautiful and so perfect for the story.
The Secret Garden has one of the most intriguing and unusual first lines ever:
“When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.”
Mary is not a sympathetic character – she is thin, sour-faced, and selfish. Born and raised in India, she has lost both her parents in a cholera epidemic. She does not grieve very hard, though, for they were both distant and unloving. She is sent to live at her uncle’s house, Misselthwaite Manor, which is located in the wilds of Yorkshire. It is cold and damp and misty, and she is all alone. She wanders about the huge house and garden, talks to a few of the servants, and one night hears a child sobbing somewhere in the house.
A gardener tells her about a secret garden, hidden away somewhere in the grounds. It belonged to her uncle’s wife, and she loved and nurtured it so that it was always full of flowers. But one day she dies there, and Mary’s uncle locked the garden up and hid the key. No-one has seen it since.
The idea of a secret garden fascinates Mary, and she longs to find it. One day a robin shows her the way. As the garden begins to wake and come back to life, so does Mary. She discovers she has a cousin hidden away in the house, and shares the secret with him. Along with the delightful Yorkshire boy, Dickon, they work together in the garden and both are transformed and healed by the magical workings of nature. I love this book so much – I think it’s one of the things that gave me such a deep love of gardens which has been a source-well of joy all my life.
Buy it here
The Ride of A Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership
by Robert Iger
I don’t read many business books, but a friend of mine recommended this to me and I was interested in the story of how Bob Iger was able to reinvent the Disney brand so dramatically. This book is part-memoir and part-entrepreneurial guidebook – both were interesting, though I would have liked a little more of the former and less of the latter.
Bob Iger became the CEO of the Walt Disney Company at a very challenging time. The nephew of Walt Disney had made a vote of no confidence in the existing CEO, there’d been a major board reshuffle, profits were down and many thought Disney’s movies was old-fashioned, cloyingly sweet, and conservative in their values.
Twelve years later, Disney had somehow managed to re-position itself as the largest media company in the world, having joined forces with many of its most feared competitors including Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox. The story of how Bob Iger affected this transformation is truly inspirational – basically he believes in innovating and taking risks, inspiring through strong leadership, ensuring a fair, just workplace, knowing your core brand but being prepared to seek new markets, and having belief in yourself (he is certainly reaping the rewards of this belief, apparently earning a staggering $65.7 million annual salary – though this is not, of course, mentioned in the book).
It gave me a lot to think about!
Buy it here
The Marriage of Convenience series
by Anne Gracie
Anne Gracie writes charming, warm-hearted Regency romances which never fail to make me laugh. They are the perfect reading for a cold, wet weekend when I was feeling worn-out and tired, overwhelmed by work and all that is going on in the world and in my life. I had read the first two books before, but had been waiting for the final book in the series to be released. I read them over the course of a long weekend – they are like chicken soup for the soul.
Marry In Haste is the first book in the series and tells the story of a British soldier-turned-spy who unexpectedly finds himself hampered with a title, a vast estate, numerous aged retainers and a handful of wilful half-sisters and a niece who never do what they are told. Floundering helplessly, he turns to their former school teacher for help. But Miss Emmaline Westwood has her own dreams, and turning governess is not one of them. Life has other plans for her, however, and soon the mismatched couple are marrying for convenience’s sake, much to the disapproval of his irascible Aunt Agatha, who must always have the last word. (Buy it here)
Marry in Scandal is the story of one of his sisters, Lily, who struggles with dyslexia (though that word had not yet been invented). Her inability to read lands her in deep trouble; she is kidnapped by a cad who intends to force her into marriage. Lily manages to escape, and is helped to get home by one of her brother’s best friends, but the ensuing scandal means they must marry. Lily is in love with her new husband, but is afraid he resents her and does not care for her. She must find some way to understand him, while not letting him know that she cannot read, a handicap of which she is deeply ashamed. (Buy it here)
Marry in Secret is centred on the older sister Rose, who married her childhood sweetheart in secret just before he was sent away to fight in the Napoleonic wars, only for him to be killed soon after. She has nursed her grief silently for all these years, and is about to marry a cold remote duke for the sake of practicality when her first husband turns up alive. (Buy it here)
Marry in Scarlet, the last in the series, has their strong-willed unconventional niece George – who is the same age as her aunts – falling in love with the duke despite all her best intentions. (Buy it here)
The four books are all very readable, with lots of humour and pathos, and the added delight of featuring cameo appearances from well-beloved characters from another of Anne Gracie’s Regency romance series, The Chance Sisters. I particularly love Anne Gracie’s sparkling dialogue – just delightful!
Flyaway
by Kathleen Jennings
Kathleen Jennings is an Australian writer and illustrator, best known for her beautiful fairy-tale inspired art. She actually created the exquisite cover of The Silver Well, the collection of historical fantasy stories that I co-wrote with Kim Wilkins a few years ago. I have the original of one of her illustrations for that book hanging on the wall in my study. Having known her for years, I was keen to read her first novel, Flyaway, which is being released later this year.
It’s the story of a young woman named Bettina who lives with her mother in a small country town in the north of Australia. Her father and two brothers disappeared some time ago, and Tina is haunted by their absence. Her mother exerts a subtle but unbreakable control over her; their lives seem highly ordered and perfect on the surface but dark currents lurk below. The town seems to exist on the edge of something strange and terrifying and supernatural – there are stories of schools swallowed by invasive plants, powerful shape-shifting monsters that roam in the bush, and people mysteriously vanishing. Tina sets out on a road trip with her two former best friends to try and solve the mystery of her missing brothers, but her own lost memories and the eeriness of the setting create an atmosphere of ambiguity and mistrust, so that the reader is never quite sure who to trust.
The result is a dark and delicate fairy-tale-infused mystery set in a hot, dry, dingo-howl haunted Australian landscape – such a fresh voice and intriguing tale!
Buy it here
Kate Forsyth
Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel aged seven and has now sold more than a million books worldwide. Her new novel, The Blue Rose, is inspired by the true story of the quest for a blood-red rose, moving between Imperial China and France during the ‘Terror’ of the French Revolution. Other novels for adults include Beauty in Thorns, a Pre-Raphaelite reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, Bitter Greens, which won the 2015 American Library Association award for Best Historical Fiction; and The Beast’s Garden, a stunning retelling of the Grimms’ Beauty and The Beast set in Nazi Germany.
Kate’s books for children include the collection of feminist fairy-tale retellings, Vasilisa the Wise & Other Tales of Brave Young Women, illustrated by Lorena Carrington, and the fantasy series The Impossible Quest. Named one of Australia’s Favourite 15 Novelists, Kate has a BA in literature, a MA in creative writing and a doctorate in fairy tale studies, and is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. She is a direct descendant of Charlotte Waring Atkinson, the author of the first book for children ever published in Australia.
Find out more about Kate Forsyth here
The Blue Rose
Moving between Imperial China and France during the ‘Terror’ of the French Revolution and inspired by the true story of the quest for a blood-red rose.
Viviane de Faitaud has grown up alone at the Chateau de Belisama-sur-le-Lac in Brittany, for her father, the Marquis de Ravoisier, lives at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles. After a hailstorm destroys the chateau’s orchards, gardens and fields an ambitious young Welshman, David Stronach, accepts the commission to plan the chateau’s new gardens in the hope of making his name as a landscape designer...
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Terri Windling and Kate Forsyth on Flyaway | Kathleen Jennings