21-Dishing the Dirt-M C Beaton
Another lighthearted murder mystery for Agatha Raisin to solve, in fact there is more than one murder to solve this time.
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Books/book club
It's that time of year again, out with the old in with the new.
Boy, the past year has whizzed by, it seems like no time at all since I was starting up the 2024 thread.
So here it is, our brand new one for the coming year and welcome back to all our stalwarts, I do hope you will all keep posting away, giving your invaluable feedback and recommendations.
For those of you who happen to be newbies, this is a dedicated thread for books lovers. Our aim is try and read 50 books by the end of the year, for some that's a piece of cake, for others, depending on what's going on in life, or time constraints, 50 books may seem a daunting number However, that number is merely an aspiration, please do join in even if you feel you may not reach 50, or if you think you may just dip in and out from time to time.
Your choice of books is entirely up to you, they can be fiction, non fiction, biographies, whatever floats your boat. They can be a physical book, or on a Kindle, or Audible.
If you don't want to commit to the challenge, but books are your thing and feel you would like to share your thoughts on something you've read and enjoyed........or alternatively something you thought was quite abysmal and only suitable for lobbing in the bin 
then do park yourself right here and tell us about it, where I'm sure you'll have a captive audience.
To regular posters who would like to look back on your best reads of 2024 and list them, there is a separate thread for that.
So all that remains is to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy 2025 and may all your books be good ones or at the very least not bin lobbers!
I'm posting early, in case I feel the need for a 2025 lie in
16. 29 Seconds, T M Logan
A university lecturer is being harassed and bullied by her boss at work. When she intervenes to save the daughter of a Russian gangster from being kidnapped on a lonely road, he offers to repay her by making one person in her life “disappear”. Will she take the opportunity? It’s an interesting read, with lots of twists.
I was halfway through Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson, and
The Girlfriend by K L Slater, and thoroughly enjoying both. Sadly I’ve had a busy couple of weeks and my e-library loan expired on the first, then my Audible trial ended and I lost the second. Serves me right for not being more alert - I’ll catch up with them both later.
21 Lady's Maid Margaret Forster
I've always loved MF's books, but hadn't read any for a while, this was one of her best known ones I think. The Lady's Maid of the piece is, Elizabeth Wilson, maid and confidante to Elizabeth Barrett, who after her marriage to Robert Browning was later to be known as Elizabeth Barrett-Browning. The book, some 500 pages long, initially quite slow when "Wilson" as she is known to her employers throughout the book, moves from her native Newcastle down to London's Wimpole Street to take up the appointment of lady's maid to the sickly Elizabeth Barrett who spends much of her life languishing in bed, her closest companion being her dog Flush. Both of the women's existences are quite mundane, that's until fellow poet Robert Browning takes to calling on her, leading to a clandestine budding relationship. Given EB's weird father has forbidden marriage for his daughter, Wilson is instrumental in smuggling her mistress out of the house to her secret wedding to RB. After that the book moves to Italy where the Brownings take up residence in Florence, mid 19th century a haven for poets and writers, a climate more conducive to the health of EBB's addled lungs. Much of the story continues in the vein of the household moving to and fro between Italy and England with occasional prolonged stays in France between the two. Back home, Wilson has bereavements to deal with when several of her sisters and her mother to whom she is very close die. Meanwhile back in Florence after several miscarriages, EBB finally gives birth to their only child a son, known as "Pen" Wilson, or Lily as she is known to their beloved son becomes as close to the child as any mother. In due course over the course of the early part of the narrative, after several "walking outs" with what could have turned out to be prospective husbands, only to fall by the wayside, she does in fact meet and marry handsome Italian Ferdinando who is also employed as chef and general factotum to the B-B's. However, when it is known she has become pregnant with her own child, this causes conflicting loyalties with her employers who are none too pleased with that scenario. Whilst in England where she gives birth she leaves that child with her sister and brother in law, hoping to bring him back to Italy at a later date, but in that she is thwarted when her sister becomes too attached. Another son is to follow again causing consternation with her employers, who decide to pay her off and cease her employment with them, although her husband continues to work for them. With that money she sets up a boarding house in Florence nearby. Although still a visitor to her former employer's household, their son Pen loves her dearly, she is never quite able to rekindle the easy relationship she had with her former mistress. Although, EBB, reputedly had a social conscience, part of the widening gulf between the two women is one of where she, EBB, had no real understanding of what it was like to be without the safety net of money and to be dependent on the benevolence of an understanding employer. However, it was her lady's maid who she wished to have with her, along with her husband and son during her dying days. Upon her death Robert Browning feels he has to leave Florence with their son as it reminds him too much of their life together. Wilson's fortunes ebb and flow, she and her Italian husband have drifted apart, he can't ever countenance the idea of living permanently in England where eventually she returns to, to run a boarding house in Scarborough. Margaret Forster's notes at the end of the book gives a resume as to how the rest of her life was to pan out. The English boarding house venture having failed she returns to Italy destitute, she does eventually regain custody of her oldest son and eventually when the Barrett-Browning's son reaches adulthood his devotion to his former much loved "nanny" causes him to take care of her for the rest of her days.
It was an excellent read, I really enjoyed it and gave me the impetus to Google much about the Barrett-Browning's lives and where they lived, in particular trying to find out a bit about Barrett's house in Wimpole street. I had to persevere with that because I kept getting "Barrett's the builders" but did get there in the end.
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