45 - The Governess Wendy Holden (Audio) The story of Marion Crawford the Scottish Governess of the title to a very young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. When I started listening to this our Queen was very much alive and by the time I'd finished she had died, a death that given her age could have come at any time but nevertheless still quite out of the blue. The book as expected dwells very much on their growing up years before, during and after Edward V111's abdication and the following war years before MC made the massive faux pas of publishing her memoirs and became persona non grata 
It all seems so tame now given what's currently flying off the shelves in various recollections which sometimes differ 
46 The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn. An excellent debut novel I believe , set in rural Dorset between the wars, the story of a large country house and a young girl with a passion for amateur dramatics who constructs an outdoor theatre from a poor dead beached whale's ribcage The setting and parts of the narrative reminded me of several other books I'd read in particular The Cazalet Chronicles and Atonement both sprang to mind. When the war breaks out the young heroine of the book joins the War Office and volunteers to be parachuted into France behind enemy lines to join the resistance, ostensibly as a spy having perfected her knowledge of French, but also with the aim of looking for her missing brother, deeply sad at times.
47 The Radleys - Matt Haig (Audio) Having read his The Midnight Library and not liking it all I thought I'd give him another go when I saw this prominently displayed in the audio section of my local library. I didn't read the blurb very thoroughly but gathered it was about a family with hidden secrets, which I put down to a few skeletons in the cupboard. However it was to emerge that The Radleys were a family of suppressed vampires. If I'd known it was about vampires I probably wouldn't have picked it up. Having said that once I got into it, I actually enjoyed it and found it darkly funny in a tongue in cheek sort of way.
48 A Line to Kill Anthony Horowitz The author has developed a series of crime books in which he puts himself in the story along with his Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne. In this they both travel to the Island of Alderney, of all places, for a literary festival to discuss a book they have collaborated on together. Whilst there, one of the sponsors is murdered. Very Christiesque in that almost all the major characters had a motive to kill the deceased. Cosy crime, good escapism.
49. The Blackbird - Tim Weaver Crime again. I've read most in the Missing Person investigator David Raker series, I've really enjoyed some, others less so. This one falls between the two, fast moving with umpteen twists, ultimately quite a preposterous plot leaving a loose end overlap into what will inevitably follow in his next book which no doubt I'll read too when it's out.
50 Late in the Day Tessa Hadley I like Tessa Hadley from the couple of other books of hers I've read, this one is about two long term couples who have been friends since they were very young thrown into turmoil when one of the quartet dies suddenly. Quite good although a bit dismal, her writing reminds me of Anita Brookner at times.
What to read next, my husband has just finished the Ink Black Heart, I loved Galbraith's last book Troubled Blood, but like that one this is also over 1,000 pages with a lot of on line three way conversations, confusing at times I'm told. It's going to take me a while to get through it, oh well I've done the 50 now so I just might!
A whalebone theatre sounds as though it might be a bit smelly, Terribull! 
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