England Books

It is entirely possible to read and enjoy Jane Austen's novels without appreciating her standing as a literary pioneer, but you shouldn't. 2004's "Searching for Jane Austen", by University of Wisconsin Professor of English Emily Auerbach reads a bit like university lecture, but what excellent lectures they must be! Auerbach provides an entirely readable and enjoyable survey of the perceptions of Jane Austen as an author and of her pioneering work as a novelist.

Jane Austen's family, in the years after her early death in 1817, went to some lengths to create an image of her as a demure, sheltered, and almost saintly maiden aunt that conformed with then-current standards of lady-like behavior. Some more recent biography has suggested that she was sexually frustrated and unhappy. In fact, as Auerbach documents, both these images are a put-down that hide a fascinating and surprisingly modern person from our literary acquaintance. Miss Jane Austen, in life, was very likely a confident, capable, and ambitious author with a keen and even subversive sense of wit, who, if she was unfortunate in never marrying, managed to carve out a satisfying life nonetheless.

Auerbach initially describes how Austen's image has been manipulated over the years, then plunges into an extended examination of her works. The Juvenalia and each of the published novels are dealt with in the likely order of composition. This approach allows Auerbach to bring out the unique highlights of each individual novel and to emphasize the growth in Austen's literary technique. Auerbach pays particular attention to the heroine of each novel and how their personal growth drives the various outcomes.

The general reader may tend to avoid literary criticism, but Auerbach's is well worth reading. For example, Mansfield Park's Fanny Price is perhaps the least honored of Austen's heroines, but Auerbach establishes her place in Austen's thinking about morality and manages to make her far more interesting as a character. As another example, Auerbach's discussion of the leading character of "Emma" gets well beyond the obvious romantic comedy aspects of the novel to investigate some subtle role reversal.

"Searching for Jane Austen" is very highly recommended to fans of Jane Austen, who will find a vigorous discussion of her literary abilities and some fresh insights into her novels.

"Searching for Jane Austen" is a wonderful read for any (even casual) Austen enthusiast. My first contact with this work was at a literary festival where Emily Auerbach spoke about her research--and her lecture was so compelling that I read the book quickly, and it encouraged me to learn more about Jane Austen's works.

The book manages to shed light on both biographical/historical/cultural subjects (how the Austen family tried to mute the image of the writer after her death, and how some (male) scholars have denigrated Austen's work throughout the decades) while also discussing interesting themes and interpretations of Austen's cannon. [Each Austen heroine, hero, and villain gets proper time and scrunity.]

"Searching for Jane Austen" is well-organized, with each of the six novels getting its own chapter, in addition to beginning and concluding sections about Austen's life and legacy. The book made me appreciate each of her novels in new ways (even ones that are often underappreciated or not discussed, such as Northanger Abbey), and even though this work is scholarly, it was fun reading. Auerbach dissects her subject fairly, but she treats Jane Austen's works with such admiration and care that you want to read Pride and Prejudice (or Emma, or Persuasion) all over again.

I got this book from the public library, read it, and felt I had to have it, though I already have shelves of Jane Austen materials. The censoring and shaping of Jane Austen and her writings started after her death, and continues today. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Northanger Abbey.

Emily Auerbach may be in danger of being drummed out of academia for writing a book that is so well-researched and so detailed, and yet so readable. Auerbach's concern is the attempts by Austen's relatives and earlier literary critics to present Austen as a meek and mild cardboard saint. There is nothing particularly new in this idea, but it is very well and thoroughly done. While several biographers have made similar arguments, none is a thorough and convincing as this specialized monograph.

Auerbach pays particular attention to the representations of Austen. She seems to feel that the portrait by Austen's sister Cassandra is the only valid image. Well, arguably it is the only portrait that shows her face. Auerbach does not examine other representations of doubtful authenticity. While I see what she is driving at, I think this is perhaps a trifle overdone. Cassandra's portrait is rough and unfinished, and I wonder whether it would have been used prior to some of the aesthetic changes of "modern art", even if JA looked timid and pious. The two most commonly reproduced engravings really don't strike me as such terrible revisions of Cassandra's portrait, with the significant exception of removing the lines around the mouth, and in one case, adding a wedding ring. I don't think the ruffles are a serious distortion: it's not like JA was in the habit of dressing like a man or a particularly no-nonsense Puritan. She may have had ruffles: CA's portrait is too unfinished to assert that she didn't. At least she is still wearing her habitual cap, unlike the portrait that shows her with her hair fashionably dressed. The issues of the lines around the mouth does reveal one tension in the book (and in several recent works about JA): Auerbach is rather annoyed that Valerie Myers describes JA as looking like a peevish hamster in CA's portrait. I would have said guinea pig was more like it, but what if she does? One the one hand, Auerbach seems to want warts and all, and on the other she seems to want to insist that there were no warts. I am not certain what Auerbach is saying about the picture that represents JA sitting by a Hollywood swimming pool talking on her cell phone, but I love that particular picture -- I think it's a hoot.

But, forget trivial cavils. The most important distortions are in the written record; Auerbach has obviously done heroic research and thoroughly supports her opinions about written materials. The critiques that she has made of certain books that I liked make me want to rush back and reread them in the light of her remarks. At one point, Auerbach begins an indepth analysis of the poem from which a quote is taken. I was originally somewhat dubious about this: sometimes when I quote a line out of context, I mean it to be understood out of context, but she carefully show how the quotes throughout the book complement and support one another. I was converted to her point of view.

Auerbach believes in my favorite Jane Austen; almost terrifyingly perceptive and well aware that life is complex and there are few simple answers. Auerbach seems to have a thorough understanding of the literature and was very taken with most of her arguments.

The book has numerous blank-and-white illustrations.

I would recommend this to any Jane Austen collection.

I have read so many essays and articles and books re Austen's works-- talk about searching for Jane Austen. Auerbach's book is not only more comprehensive, but, to paraphrase Elizabeth Bennett, 5 TIMES as spot on as any of them. Really more like 100 times. I feel that for the first time someone really understands her. It is such a tremendous relief and such a great pleasure to read, when I can relax and know I'm in the right hands. Get this book if you love Jane Austen.

Kate Maloy has the life I want to live. We have similar backgrounds, including age, gender, past marriages, Quakerism and more. So perhaps I should seek that life -- it's out there, she proves so in this book.

This is not a light or superficial book -- it is rich and shines with deep thoughts and reflection. She includes all the wrinkles, twists and lines that real life brings to us. In this book she shares the kinds of things you might think about, but not speak, the contents of a personal journal, introspective and quite true.

She has managed to make the most of her life, and this book is a wonder to read. Her writing style is one that invites the reader along, and I felt (as you probably will) as if this was part of a conversation with a close friend, part with myself, part simply a life viewed through a warm and inviting window.

She writes about so much, this book is incredibly full -- I'm not done yet reading it again and again.

A quote I love, "Long before I ever met Alan, I wondered if any man of my generation could love a woman his own age, could feel passion (and compassion) for her aging, vulnerable flesh, could open himself to a soul-deep love even as he himself loses muscle tone, stamina and hair -- could well and truly stand naked in front of another and not be ashamed. Now I know there is at least one such man on the planet."

Sigh. This Friend speaks for me.

An uplifting, warming reading for cool nights and warm days, too.

I'm not a Quaker and I've never attended a Meeting. Although I consider any religion that calls its practitioners Friends a step in the right direction, my motivations in reading SBN were strictly secular. I was first drawn to the book because I have enormous respect for the publisher. The cover also spoke to me. The simplicity and purity of it. A single stand of snow covered trees. And I've always been intrigued by bridges as metaphors, so the title was perfect. There's no doubt that SBN is a book of the spirit in the sense that it's a look at the effects of Quakerism in the writer's life. And this is a strong theme of the book. To say otherwise would be misleading and disingenuous. But the book is so much more than that, too generous with its reach, too honest in its outpouring of contemplations, too bighearted and open-minded to be pigeonholed as a theological dogmatic text. It is indeed a soulful book, but it offers its deep solitude, silence and solace to all. For some unknown reason I dipped into the book haphazardly, rather than reading it linearly, which did not ruin the experience for me. Covering a rapid and transitional year in her life, it alternates between journal-type entries and short and long meditations on all things human: emotions, food, television, our education system, everyday life, and even the internet, which becomes another form of metaphysical uplifting for the author. It turns out she's met her new husband on the web. Some of their communications back and forth, via re-mail, are included in the book. That atypical love story is just one of the truly fine, honest - and surprising - things that the author reflects on. They all conjoin into the story of a lifechange. An intelligent, quietly passionate, appealing, and insightful story of the process of continuing to make oneself a better person through faith in life and in each other.

I'm another reader of this book who is not a Quaker, nor do I play one on TV. That said, I was fascinated and moved by Ms. Maloy's memoir spanning 10 very significant months in her life. For readers contemplating any major life change, this book provides both inspiration and wisdom.

I'm Kate Maloy's ex-husband. She speaks about me in her good book, A Stone Bridge North, anonymously, because she was considerate enough to try to protect the guilty.

Because I figure in her book, but not in especially complementary terms, I figure that potential buyers or readers of her book might be interested in my take on it.

It's a captivating story of emotional venture and spiritual adventure, with author-centered but gifted, exquisite reflections on the meaning of the struggle - in terms with which anyone can empathize - to enrich a life, a marriage, a sense of self, one's soul.

It's also a guarranteed page-turner, a compelling story of the roles of reflective struggle and the mystery of grace in amazing turns of life.

The story of how Kate found the wonderful man who became her soul-mate and new husband is, simply, amazing by any standard.

Any person who ever wondered how - by concerted effort or by gentle grace - life can, indeed, take magnificent turns needs to read this book. And take heart.

Kate Maloy has written a lovely and moving book. To attempt a memoir is one thing; to write it without me-me-me is a true art (not to mention a reflection on the selflessness of the writer). Not once during this read did I hear ego or judgment and I never had the feeling that the author was in therapy and was compelled to write this book. Instead, I felt as if the life she lived... and the discoveries she made perhaps moments before writing... were what she chronicled. She lived, she learned, and then she told us about it. The author spared us the angst, but not the profound revelations generated by that angst.

Cris Mazza has for many years now been on the radar of readers who admire technical skill and innovation. Her latest, Waterbaby, demonstrates the same technical mastery of her earlier writings, but adds an imaginative dimension to result in her most satisfying effort to date. She begins, not unusually, with a character flawed in body as well as spirit. Tam suffers from epilepsy and has been tormented since childhood by the memory and consequences of a seizure during a swim-meet. She would have drowned had her athletic brother Gary not saved her--or possibly he selfishly used her to appear the hero, in the process dahsing Tam's own girlhood dreams of athletic excellence. Tam has been haunted by this early memory and its consequences for the long forty-something years before the novel begins. Through another series of mishaps (also perhaps resulting from personal failings) she ends up in the rich setting of a Maine lighthouse, haunted by her memories, by a hard-luck single mom and kid she chooses to harbor, by a distant ancestor she researches, and, finally, by an actual ghost. Mazza pieces the various stories together in a pastiche of different verbal media (including letters, emails, websites, and traditional past tense narrative). So much for the technical mastery, which is accomplished and assured as usual. The great achievement of Waterbaby is the investment the reader comes to feel in Tam, in wanting her to accept/transcend her past and become a more whole person. The magnetism of this main character keeps the many different quirky minor characters, asides, episodes, from eroding reader interest.

"Waterbaby" is somewhat of a departure for Cris Mazza. While she generally sets her stories in Southern California, or at least populates them with people from that region, this novel takes place in a Maine coastal town. The other side of the country though has some similarities to the hardscrabble desert; the landscape becomes a character as much as any person in this novel. The continuity of the rocky shore and lobster industry across generations makes up a large part of the main character Tam's dilemma. As she tries to find her place in her own family, the various family dynamics of past generations intrudes on her psyche as well. The story then incorporates several lost baby stories as Tam investigates her ancestors and her relationships with her family, especially her brother. As in several of Mazza's works, the theme of regret and the conflict that arises from trying to negotiate being a woman play a large role in the novel. Additionally, like other American writers (i.e. Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx, Faulkner), Mazza merges style and place in a masterful way. Family relationships, sex, and self-reliance might be as dangerous as the rocky shore of Maine. Mazza does a wonderful job of portraying these dangers with honesty and engaging storytelling.

What a deliciously conceived novel about personal redemption! The protagonist, Tam, suffers her first epileptic seizure at 12. Her condition will steal her swimming career and estrange her from her brother, Gary. But it will not impede her journey into her troubled family's complicated past, a journey that takes her to the Maine coastline, going back to the early nineteeth century. Here tales of thwarted love and shipwrecked babies haunt the landscape. Tam will unlock more than one story, connecting newspaper acounts, oral history and her own search for understanding until she unfolds a broad historical panorama, a fascinating past. Particularly terrific is Mazza's interweaving of contemporary tools of communication, from websites, to blogs, to email mixed with archival accounts. Reading Waterbaby is a thrilling intertextual adventure that feels immediately ours, but simultaneously layered with a fresh understanding of nineteenth century economic and legal conditions for women and their children. As always, Mazza, is a wise voice, deeply concerned. This novel is a thrilling non stop read.

Filmmaker Werner Herzog has written, "There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization."

Cris Mazza takes this one step further with her seductive book Waterbaby, giving us a protagonist who seeks to create a present by recreating her past -and the possible pasts of her ancestors as well. Tam not only attempts to piece together her ancestor's lives through research and genealogy, she delves into lore so thoroughly she finds herself literally recreating the sea-legends that are intertwined with her own familial history. Mazza is able to juggle the various stories and mix them with imagined pasts and historical pasts, even using the occasional cutaway page of a blog or an electronic archive. Links between legend and historical fact--as well as Tam's personal past and her family's history--begin to accumulate pretty quickly, leaving the reader dazzled by Mazza's ability to keep all the plates spinning without wobble.

All this plus Waterbaby is a funny and compelling page-turner to boot.

The greatest pleasure of "Waterbaby" is the sense of being in the hands of a master storyteller. The voice alone, deceptively simple and straightforward, intrigued this reader to relax and let it take me. This is a rare quality, quite independent of compelling character or driving plot. Yet "Waterbaby" provides characters and plot aplenty. It has been called a ghost story, which it is, even an erotic ghost story; but of a surprising post-9/11 kind. (One character, a search-and-rescue professional, is more than haunted by what he and his search-dog find in the still-burning ruins of the World Trade Center.) In Shakespeare, ghosts are the past penetrating the present. In Mazza the present invades, recreates the past, in every sense. One ghost, Tam, the main character herself, a relatively young (late 40's) retired stockbroker, takes imaginative and spiritual possession of an unremembered, long-dead ancestor who once helped keep a light-house on the dark and stormy coast of Maine. Family is the mysterious presence disturbing Tam - not only the hostile "hero" brother who disappears to pursue her, but all the alien great-great aunts and uncles, grandfathers and grandmothers who never knew her but now will not leave her in peace. Central to her exploration of who they were and how they persist in her are a shipwrecked baby, a newborn found in a toilet, and a drowned woman whom the locals continue to see walking at twilight the light-house rocks. Not the least ghostly of the people leading Tam into her terra incognita is the graveyard lover who insists she play the drowned woman - for prospective renters of the modernized light-house. No one writes with more comic poignance about the guerilla warfare of intimacy between women and men than the author of "Your Name Here_____" and "Is It Sexual Harassment Yet?" But I have long hoped she would enlarge her canvas and here she does: reaching out to the loves and wars of siblings, children, and parents - Maine to California - and 21st century back to 20th and 19th, with assurance, depth, compassion, and inexhaustible, penetrating wonder.

This book is one of the most exciting and gripping books I've ever read! Amanda and her family are very real characters in very real situations. Michael Phillips has done a fantastic job with this series. I can't wait to read the next one! If you haven't read this series, I really recommend it. It will change you and your outlook on life. It has real characters, real plots, and a history lesson too!

I appreciate how much detail about the way characters think Phillips includes in the Heathersleigh series. I've realized many things about God through my reading of these novels, and that's a rare gift.

However, sometimes the message can obscure the plot and the action bogs down in a mire of feelings, questions, thoughts and sermons. So this book isn't just light reading -- some parts made me think. You can only really understand the point of all the action if you understand the growth the Rutherfords are going through, and that understanding will vary from person to person.

I can't wait to read the final two books in this series.

this book is rich in historical value and vivid characters. After the first book, this came as a refreshing surprise. It definately shows you the inside scoop of World War One and how the Fountain of Light persuaded and blinded its many followers.

In two weeks I have read books 2,3 & 4 of the Heathersleigh series. I am purchasing #1 to read. I got so involved in the characters of the series. The thing which impressed me was that, in the process of reading them, I began to be aware of people in my life - and myself - who suffered the same spiritual afflictions as the Rutherfords and their friends; and more painfully so, was brought to a point of reassessing myself and my motives in life. I would think "how could amanda be like that" and a gentle nudging of the spirit would remind me that I, too, have allowed such pettiness in my life.. Not only entertaining and full of historial and geographical knowledge, but full of spiritual awakening.

Out of all of Michael Phillips' books, this one is my favorite! I haven't been able to put it down because it is so fasinating and captivating! If you want an excellently written book that has explicit research, this book is for you. The characters are interesting and very real, whether it is Catharine and George exploring Heathersleigh Hall, the McFees visiting, or Amanda with her seemingly endless problems. I studied World War I in school this year and all the events that happened previously are in this book, which makes the book very interesting for me as well. There is nothing in this book I did not like! Read it yourself!

Happy to report that (from my perspective) the previous enthusiastic Amazon reviews of "White Corridor," which led me to buy the book, were right on the money. So thanks to those eight and let me add my own applause for this book which is throughly inventive, original and engaging from the first page. Author Fowler has a real knack for the slow revealing of clues that ultimately solve/resolve the several mysteries at work in this book. Also of real interest to me were the wonderful character sketches provided in the book. There are a lot of players here and even the secondary participants are well described and presented for the reader.
This was altogether a great find and encourages me to try other books in the series.

WHITE CORRIDOR represents an advance on the formula of previous Bryant and May books and doesn't depend so directly on their Alistair Sim like charms and the mere fact of their being so old and stubborn. Instead author Christopher Fowler bifurcates the space of the novel into four "white corridors," each with its own puzzle. Two of these dominate most of the detective work. In one, we follow the story of Madeline Gilby, a grocery checkout girl and single mother of a restless young son Ryan. Madeline flees an abusive husband and tries to find life again in the south of France, along the Riviera, in the off season. In the warmth of the sun, Madeline comes back to life and responds to the amorous advances of Johann, sort of a Karl-Boehm-in-Peeping-Tom kind of stud who murdered his mother way back when after enduring a childhood of torment and abuse. Uh-oh, not the perfect guy for Madeline, who has incidentally tried developing her psychic powers to weaken men under the guidance of London's notorious chiseler Kate Summerton.

In the second storyline Bryant and May decide to leave the Unit for a holiday in which they plan to attend a psychics convention in the wilds of England, but the worst snowstorm ever to hit a detective story strands them on a lonely stretch of highway in conditions too perilous to proceed further in. The delicious warmth and sun of the Riviera in the first section here gives way to bonechilling cold and a creeping terror as a madman is apparently stalking the snowbound cars one by one and committing terrible murders whenever his fancy calls him. Will Bryant and May be next?

In the third plot, back home at the PCU, crotchety forensic nut Oswald Finch is found horridly murdered inside his own morgue, and all the doors locked from within. Without their two chiefs, the pressure drops on the younger members of the unit, charged with clearing up the case before the visit of a minor royal princess and a judgmental entourage out to dismantle the archaic PCU. This threat to the PCU doesn't have as much built in suspense as Fowler must think it does, for really, who cares, but in all other respects WHITE CORRIDOR is an immense improvement over last year's TEN SECOND STAIRCASE, with interesting characters, a rollicking Steve Coogan like humor, the most picturesque writing this side of William Trevor, and a genuinely new locked room problem.

I wound up giving Christopher Fowler a lathering last year when STAIRCASE, his "Highwayman" novel, failed to meet my impossibly high standards. Mr. Fowler wrote me a forgiving note that touched me, and now I regret having written from my high horse. I asked him if he were a Buddhist, since in my limited experience who else would have gotten up so amiably after having his arse kicked to the curb, but Fowler replied that he wasn't a Buddhist, only an Englishman LOL.

As with all the Bryant and May mysteries, I have to say that I mostly enjoyed it. In fact, I think I enjoyed White Corridor more than some of the previous volumes in the series. For one thing, the solutions to both cases seemed to be more logical, less beyond the realm of believability.

But something disturbed me...

*** SPOILER WARNING!! Stop reading if you haven't finished the book!! ***

What happens to Ryan?! I was dreadfully concerned about that poor little boy, and at the end, it seemed he was abandoned by both the characters and the author. I'm assuming they didn't leave him out in the cold, alone, but you'd never know it from the rest of the book.

First Sentence: NOTICE: THE PECULIAR CRIMES UNIT WILL BE SHUT FOR ONE WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 19th FEBRUARY

While the Met's Peculiar Crimes Unit is closed down for repairs, Detectives Arthur Bryant and John May had off for an international convention of psychics. Caught in a blizzard and stuck in their van, they are tasked with solving two crimes. Back at the office, the retiring pathologist is found dead within his locked autopsy room. A woman, who escaped her abusive husband with her young son, now finds herself on the run from a man who admitted killing his mother.

One of the things I love about this series is the creativeness of the plots, and there are so many elements I enjoyed in this book. First, I love the characters; the quirkiness of Bryant and the protectiveness of May. The sense of place was excellent; you felt them stuck in that blizzard and dreaded every time they had to get out of their van and into the cold. I appreciated their helping their colleagues solve the case back at headquarters and the approach that they wouldn't always be there to solve the cases. Fowler took what could have been a cliché story line of the woman running from a stalker and gave us something new with it. I am a definite fan and end each book eagerly awaiting the next.

If Ken Bruen's east London crime novels featuring the brutal and boorish Inspector Brant are literature as rugby, then Christopher Fowler's mysteries of the aging Brant and May detective duo are symphonies. Both entertaining, but Bruen is jarring and violent where Fowler is refined, cultured, and subtle. Fowler writes the classic British mystery: dryly humorous, understated, unadorned, and intelligent. In this outing, inspectors Arthur Brant and John May, the irascible and unorthodox heads of London's Peculiar Crimes Division, find themselves stranded in a freak blizzard on the moors of southern England, leaving Sergeant Janice Longbright in charge to solve the ultimate "murder in the inside-locked room" mystery of the team's chief forensic scientist. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the loose in the snowdrifts, keeping our discerning duo occupied between cell phone-assist calls to Longbright and her short-handed crew. But despite facing simultaneous murder investigations and answering some nagging questions about the apparent drug overdose death of a young woman whose body occupies the morgue, the real terror facing the PCU team is the looming stationhouse tour of an insufferable princess and PCU nemesis Oskar Kasavian, the London PD bureaucrat bent on shutting the renegade crime-solving unit down.

Rich in allegory and clever forensics, contemporary crime fiction's most eccentric inspectors plough through deliciously convoluted threads of seemingly unrelated mysteries, taking a few keenly twisted turns before arriving at a clever and, at least for me, a totally unexpected climax. Brilliant character development and sharp, witty, dialogue add up for one of the year's most engaging and enjoyable crime novels. If you haven't met Brant and May yet, this is as good a place as any to start - and chances are you'll not remain a stranger.

I've just finished reading this wonderful book a few days ago. It was sweet and simple, yet Mary was obviously such an elegant lady. I took my time reading each page, savoring every moment she described of her life in CT. I truly didn't want this book to end. How I wish I had personally known Mary and had been able to sit down and have tea and cake with her. I can't stop thinking about Mary, her 1st and 2nd husbands, and her friends and family. Most of all, I keep thinking about Smoky, her precious German shepherd. I cried about Smoky, and then I cried about Mary when I found out she had passed, also. This was an extremely memorable book.

To the reviewer from Modesto - please email me, I know Mary would love to hear from you.

Mary's book read like a conversation between friends as she reminisced about the challenge of making a barn into a home and then adjusting to life as a single woman upon the death of her husband. Although for me it was reminiscent of similar experiences as I was her neighbor, living just over the hill, everyone will enjoy her style. In her telling of the love and support she found among neighbors, she reminds us all of a life and time many of us knew but now has been lost.

This is one of the best reads I have expereinced. Must admit that I am partial because I live in CT and much of what she describes I have seen. It is a touching love story. A book about the value of women learing to be independent well before her time. It is richly written. Our book club will be reading this book next month. I'm looking forward to the second reading. A must read in my humble opinion!

Mary was delighted to hear your raving reviews of her book. I am sad to tell you that she passed away August 18, 2001 at the age of 96. She was in the process of completing a sequal to "The Widow Down By The Brook". Had her body not given out, believe me, her mind would have finished it. I was fortunate to have spent the past year trying to keep up with her. The immediate personal connection you feel reading the words in her book are the same feelings you had meeting her. She found humor in every day. She was a delightful woman, a precious one that got away. She will be truely missed.

Other than the Bible, I rarely would read a book twice. I've read this entire series at LEAST four times! It is the best!

I am a fan of sigmund brouwers and these are some of his best books. The book is very intriguing and exciting. I love the whole series and read three of the books in two days. Read this and you won't regret it.

This is a really great book, and the first of an equally fabulous serries. The characters are engagin, the plot is facinating. On an educational note, the book is very historically accurate and well-researched. This book will leave you wanting the read the rest of the serries.

I could read this book over and over and not get tired of it. The Winds od Light books are some of the best books I have ever read.

This book is book is a awesome book. It is just amazing. I read it in 5 hours. That is how good it was. Buy it and you will not regret it.

Caroline Graham is a wonderful author and makes the English countryside come to life. Or death as it is for someone in all her books. She's a great read!

I love the books by Caroline Graham. I like all the books on which the Midsomer Murder series are based.

I am a big fan of Caroline Graham, and I love her characters - Barnaby and Troy. This book has a pretty good puzzle. Some of the characters were quite well drawn, but I found the book faintly depressing. I wonder if the whole side bar with Brian was really necessary to the story? I found that part of the book quite distasteful actually. There comes a time when storylines like that one can be thought of as sensationalizing since they do not really add to the story. But other than that I enjoyed this book. The dust jacket says that Caroline Graham shows humour and pathos in her stories, and I think that is really true. Barnaby is a really appealing main character, and I want to continue to read in order to get to know him better.

Caroline Graham has never let me down. I'd put this book right up alongside "The Killings at Badgers Drift" as the best of a brilliant series. A reviewer thinks the loathsome Brian got too much print, but I loved every word of it. I've known men like him and I just knew he was going to get his in the end, and what a beautiful ending it is. It's hard to recommend one Graham mystery over another but don't miss this one.

I have loved Caroline Graham's books for some time now and I think this is her best. The characters are expertly drawn; Graham has a way of making you feel as if you are in amongst them and yet watching from a safe distance. The roller coaster ending was a complete surprise to me and I highly recommend this book to mystery readers.

I very much enjoyed this book for many reasons, not just that it provides information you will never find anywhere else. The book covers many sites that I was familiar with and many that I have heard of and didn't know were accessible and many that I have never heard of. I will definitely take it with me on my upcoming trip, my 18th to London.

I like the style of the book, just casual enough to let you know the authors are real people (and have really been to the sites), but not overdone, which can get annoying with other authors. In fact, I skimmed through the entire book at one sitting, reading many parts entirely, as I found it interesting.

I have a few minor criticisms. (I'm still giving a five-star rating, especially since there is no other book quite like this, so invaluable.)

A few things people should know in advance: there is one general map at the beginning -- the authors state you need to pick up a map in London as this is not an easy city to navigate (I use London A-Z) -- and there are no floor plans of the sites. This is good (smaller size and price) and bad (toting and flipping from book to book or purchasing high-priced on-site guides). I'm sure it would be impossible to locate a floor plan for some of the more obscure buildings, so really can't blame the authors.

My main complaint (not major) is there is not a rating system, formal or informal, for sites. I know a lot of what is "worth seeing" depends on a person's individual interest, but, well, just because a site exists doesn't mean it's worth taking time out for if you just have a week or so in London. There's a big difference between "don't miss this hidden treasure" and "seek this out if you are in the neighborhood" or "best for those with a special interest in Edward IV, or stained glass windows, or gothic arches, or whatever."

Once again let me state that a major plus is the feeling that the authors have really been there and know what they are talking about.

By comparison, many years ago I bought a guide to London by a very well known guidebook publisher. I made a bed-and-breakfast booking on their recommendation of a charming hotel with a bright, cheery breakfast room. I won't tell you the full horrors of the place, other than to mention the tiny rooms with plywood walls and door, and the very dark basement breakfast room done up like a dungeon, complete with instruments of torture on the walls. And one shared toilet per floor, which sometimes actually flushed. I didn't just check out -- I escaped. It was very obvious that the authors of that other book had never set foot in the place, and I have more or less ignored mass-produced guidebooks ever since.

I've never known a lot about medieval and Tudor history, but a friend gave this book to me to help me plan a trip to England. Now I can't wait to see the places described in the book. These authors have a fan in me.

I've never known a lot about medieval and Tudor history, but a friend gave this book to me to help me plan a trip to England. Now I can't wait to see the places described in the book. These authors have a fan in me.

For anybody who wants to know more about the history of places they want to see in England, this is the guide book for them. I learned alot of interesting things and had alot of fun reading this book. I like the authors' style very much. They make the history easy to read and understand.

Travellers on the trail of history in London know how frustrating it can be to locate Tudor and medieval places still in existence in that busy, crowded, vibrant, thoroughly modern city. Last year we spent a week with this guide in hand, feeling a bit Sherlockian in our quest. Even with the detailed directions provided by the authors, finding most of these hidden, nearly forgotten sites was a challenge. But with persistence and patience, our efforts were rewarded. What fun! Couldn't have done it without this guide. But if you aren't particularly interested in the places, the era, and the difficult pursuit, better not bother.

My wife enjoyed the book very much, very enlightening and educational, well done and presented. Worth the cost and more!

This book is a box collectors dream come true. Excellent detailed photos combined with informational prose.I am glad I purchased it.

Good information on the periods, materials and types of antique boxes most frequently collected. Photography excellent and item pricing accurate. I love this book and it's helped me enormously.

One does not have to be an expert to love this book. It is a treasure trove of information on all kinds of English boxes from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Packed with photographs and intelligent text, it is simply the best, most informative, most comprehensive book on the subject. It's easy to tell the writers are not only experts with vast experience but lovers of these boxes too.
I'm particularly interested in writing boxes, and I could wish for more chapters on these, but that is purely out of a sense of greed. The whole book is fascinating, whether one is browsing or studying. Thanks.

Look I stipulate that this is most likely the best book currently on tea caddies and box's and such, but these reviews are so gushing. This book is not prefect, the font is poor and it is overpriced at 90.00 U.S. I think it is well worth 50.00 U.S., but for 90.00 I expect more pages and better quality. I was expecting the Holy Grail when I ordered this book, the reviews where hailing this as the burning bush; what I got was a good book, a very good book on tea caddies and box's, but not the end all be all. If you love tea caddies and such you will immediately enjoy this book, but the sticker shock may take a bit longer to get over.