Louise Brooks
The Bolter by Frances Osborne
Lady Idina
Sackville was one of those individuals who only the English seem to produce. While
not a natural beauty, she stood out in Edwardian England with her exquisite gowns and black Pekingese named Satan by her side. Her later abandonment of
husband and children for life with another man in Kenya made her
infamous and earned her the nickname “the Bolter” (well known to fans
of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love
and Love in a Cold Climate). She
would become a member of the notorious Happy Valley set and marry many more
times yet this biography, written by her great-granddaughter, shows that
Sackville with all her apparent disregard for societal rules really just wanted
to be loved.
Cover Her Face by P.D. James
This is the first
in a long line of mysteries starring detective Adam Dalgliesh. Set in a small
Essex village, the story opens at a dinner party hosted by the Maddox family in
their manor house where the conversation at the table turns to Sally, the pretty servant who is an unwed mother. On the day of the church
fete, Sally scandalizes everyone by showing up in the same dress as the Maddox daughter and later announcing that the Maddox son has proposed to her.
The next day Sally is found murdered in her bed and it is up to the observant Dalgliesh to find the killer. P.D. James is an great writer and it was
fun to revisit this mystery, which I first read many years ago. Even if you
don’t want to dive into all of the Dalgliesh books, this can be read as a
stand alone.
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson
Let me start by
saying that Kate Atkinson is a brilliant writer. I had read all of her
novels when her first mystery, Case
Histories, appeared. And this latest tale of semi-retired private
investigator Jackson Brodie does not disappoint. One of the best things about
an Atkinson novel is the seemingly unconnected characters and story lines that
all merge together in one cohesive meeting by the final chapter. This time
round Brodie is following up on a request from a woman to help track down information about her birth parents. Brodie winds up stumbling upon a
30-year old cover-up, a kidnapped child, and a dog who becomes his companion
and, in one scene, his rescuer.
Vivien: The Life of Vivien Leigh by Alexander Walker
An in-depth look at
Vivien Leigh, the strikingly beautiful actress forever associated with Gone With the Wind. Alexander Walker does a good job telling Vivien’s story from her childhood in India and England
to her stage and screen roles, including her memorable depictions of Scarlett
O’Hara and Blanche DuBois, to her relationships, including her tumultuous
marriage to Laurence Olivier. Throughout the book, Walker traces the early signs of and later destruction caused by her manic depression. Yet while some of the book's passages paint a colourful portrait, for example a description of a weekend at the Oliviers’ home Notley Abbey, others fall flat.
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