Renishaw Hall: The Story of the Sitwells - Desmond Seward

Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire has been the seat of the Sitwell family since 1625. Its remarkable story is only matched by that of the family who have dwelled there, and with whose fortunes it has risen and fallen, only to rise again.

Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell were some of the brightest stars of 1920s literary society. They counted among their friends and acquaintances some of the greatest writers and artists of the age, many of whom came to love the beautiful Renishaw Hall (Whistler and Evelyn Waugh were frequent visitors).

Infested by ghosts as some houses are by rats, Renishaw has had colourful owners since it was built by a Cavalier turned Roundhead a Regency Buck who hunted a tiger with his hounds then added the great rooms. The creator of today s Renishaw was eccentric Sir George, who laid out the beautiful gardens, bought the Italian furniture and had Sargent paint his family, but was belittled in his son Osbert's biography. Recent restoration has revealed the spell that caused Rex Whistler to call Renishaw 'the most exciting house in England'.

But the story of the house does not begin or end there. In telling the tale of the Sitwells through the centuries, Desmond Seward also takes us on a tour through English history, to the house s restoration at the end of the twentieth century, and the return to its former glory as a jewel of British heritage.

What did I think?

I had never heard of Renishaw Hall or the Sitwell family before reading this book, but now it is on my list of places to visit.  It was really fascinating to read about the family as it brought the Hall to life.  They are such a colourful family and yes, they were eccentric, but also very kind and generous – offering their hospitality to so many famous visitors - from authors and artists to royalty.

Renishaw Hall meant so much to the Sitwells, despite some of them almost bringing it to wrack and ruin, and this was evident in the reporting of the ghosts of dearly departed Sitwells appearing at the front door.  Perhaps the most interesting haunting being the Boy in Pink, namely Henry Sacheverell, who drowned in 1726 and is reported to awaken ladies with a kiss - there was even a complaint that one lady visitor was not woken by the ghost.

I really enjoyed reading the snippets of old letters as it gave a real insight into their personalities.  I must quote my favourite excerpt from the book, in light of our 21st century recession, following Francis Sitwell's letter to his father in 1720 after the South Sea Bubble burst:

"Well, since so great a Burden is fall'n upon the people, I wish it may light as much as possible on those who are best able to bear it; but more especially on the chief authors of their mischief, I mean those Knavish stock-jobbers by whose artifice people have been thus bubbled to their ruin." 

Desmond Seward goes on to say: 

"He was not alone in his opinion: one MP advised Parliament that bankers should be tied in sacks filled with snakes, and thrown into the Thames."

I was fascinated to read about Lady Ida who went to prison for fraud in 1915 after falling into debt.  I admired her principles when she refused a visitor to the prison as it was someone she wouldn't have received had she been at Renishaw.

I think the most colourful section of the book was the Sacheverell, Edith and Osbert literary circle - cunningly surrounding themselves with acquaintances who wouldn't criticise them and rivalling the famous Bloomsbury set.  Perhaps the most famous member of their clique being Evelyn Waugh, although he and Osbert seemed to envy each other.

Desmond Seward successfully brought Renishaw Hall to life in this fascinating book.  It was no surprise to learn that he had been a frequent visitor to Renishaw as a guest of the late Sir Reresby Sitwell, as his writing shows great admiration and respect for the Sitwell family.

I received this book from the publisher, Elliott & Thompson, in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

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Us - David Nicholls

David Nicholls brings to bear all the wit and intelligence that graced ONE DAY in this brilliant, bittersweet novel about love and family, husbands and wives, parents and children. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014.

Douglas Petersen understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself' now that their son is leaving home.

He just thought they'd be doing their rediscovering together.

So when Connie announces that she will be leaving, too, he resolves to make their last family holiday into the trip of a lifetime: one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son. One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again.

The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed.

What could possibly go wrong?

What did I think?

I snapped this one up out of the library as I've never read a David Nicholls book before but I thoroughly enjoyed this so I will be adding Starter for Ten, The Understudy and One Day to my reading pile.  It was beautifully written and so easy to read that I didn't want it to end.

The characters were defined brilliantly and I liked the interspersing of chapters with little snippets from their past.  Right from the first few pages we are launched straight into a crumbling marriage when Connie drops her bombshell on an unsuspecting Douglas.  Despite their intention to separate, they agree to go on a Grand Tour of Europe with their 17 year old son, Albie.  Albie's relationship with Douglas is very fraught to say the least, I thought he was just a troubled teenager but getting the insight into the past meant that we could see the deep rooted distance between Albie and Douglas compared with the closeness between Albie and Connie.

When they first met, Connie and Douglas appeared to be complete opposites but there is no doubt that they loved each other through all the ups and downs of married life.  I was therefore a firm believer that the Grand Tour would bring them back together, until Albie threw a spanner in the works and ran away!  Douglas surprised me by going to look for Albie while Connie went home - I felt it was symbolic that the family were divided across Europe, as fragmented as they were whilst living in the same house.  Without spoiling the story, it was rewarding reading about relationships being both broken and mended.

This is a lovely story of family life and how it often goes wrong and despite everything we do always love each other but may not always show it.

My rating:

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The Other Side of the World - Stephanie Bishop

Cambridge 1963. Charlotte struggles to reconnect with the woman she was before children, and to find the time and energy to paint. Her husband, Henry, cannot face the thought of another English winter. A brochure slipped through the letterbox gives him the answer: 'Australia brings out the best in you'.

Charlotte is too worn out to resist, and before she knows it is travelling to the other side of the world. But on their arrival in Perth, the southern sun shines a harsh light on both Henry and Charlotte and slowly reveals that their new life is not the answer either was hoping for. Charlotte is left wondering if there is anywhere she belongs, and how far she'll go to find her way home...

What did I think?

This book was so vivid I felt I was there in the stormy tempestuous English countryside and the sticky hot Australian sun.  The passages involving the children were so clear and emotional that I did gasp out loud on several occasions, especially the part about the untangling of Lucie's hair where I felt every brush stroke and heard every scream.

I can understand why Henry wanted to leave England, with the cold and damp causing health problems for his children, and it was easier for him as he was originally from India.  Charlotte, however, had roots in England - it was and always would be her home, but to keep the peace she agreed to emigrate to Australia.

At the start of the book, Charlotte finds out that she is pregnant with May.  She's not overjoyed at the news as she never really bonded with Lucie.  I found her quite detached at times, a little bit unhinged and perhaps suffering from post-natal depression but her actions started to become more disturbing as time went on.  She didn't seem to be cut out to be a mother and, suffering from homesickness, can't stop thinking about returning home to England.  A dream that does become a reality, at a startling cost.

Henry seems oblivious to Charlotte's suffering, in fact he seems oblivious to everything including the fact that he is not white.  The racism is cleverly hidden by the perpetrators as they dole out their injustices and Henry's Australian dream doesn't live up to the description in the brochure.

It's a really interesting book about fitting in to a new place of work, a new country or even within your own family.  It's beautifully written and did pull at my heartstrings, despite my disappointment in Charlotte's decisions.

I received this e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.

But isn't it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so?

In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible...

What did I think?

On a rare day off from work, I popped into my local library and snatched this book off the shelf - it must have just come in as I was the first person to check it out.  I had already read Fredrik Backman's second book, My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises, and loved it, so naturally I had A Man Called Ove in my wishlist.

I really love the cover of this - it almost tells the story in its own right.  Grumpy old man and the Cat Annoyance.  I felt that the cat was a bit of a Jiminy Cricket for Ove, turning up at just the right moments and "saying" just the right things with its actions.  I think of Ove as a bit of an egg (and not just because the name Ove reminds me of the word "oeuf") hard and solid on the outside but soft on the inside. It was lovely to see the cracks starting to appear, brought on my Ove's relationships with the cat, his pregnant neighbour Parvaneh and the local youth Adrian, to name but a few.  There were some very funny and poignant moments in the book and I won't spoil any of them here - you'll just have to read it for yourself.

To me, it's very much a modern telling of It's a Wonderful Life.  Ove thinks he's on his own and has nothing to live for and nobody to miss him.  I loved reading about Ove's interactions with every single character in this book, it's clear from the wonderful writing that Ove has touched many lives.  He is such a principled man, with almost a childlike innocence at times - like when he meets Adrian's friend and boss, Mirsad, he certainly won't win any awards for political correctness!

I did shed a few tears when I was reading this book, but it has left me with a lovely warm glow around my heart.  I think sometimes we see grumpy, miserable, or angry people and make an immediate assumption, without questioning the reasons behind their attitude.  It's a wonderful portrayal of the human spirit and I think deep down we all have a bit of Ove in us.

The kindest grumpiest guy I expect I'll ever read about.  I absolutely loved it!

My rating:

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The Morning After Memoirs - Kate Michaels

A smart, irreverent slant on modern dating, Kate Michaels’ sexy, laugh-out-loud debut reimagines the world of Sex And The City with the biting realism of Lena Dunham’s Girls. Twenty-nine-year-old Jess wakes up on New Year’s Day a touch hungover and a whole lot confused. The man in bed next to her is not her boyfriend, Ben. In fact, she doesn’t even remember Not-Ben’s name. It won’t be the first time she finds herself in a questionable situation in a year that proves her new single-in-the-city lifestyle is far from the glamorous, Sex And The City world she’s been promised on TV. Between hacking through last year’s leg hair, accidentally snogging someone who may well be her cousin, getting hit over the head with a sex toy that isn’t even hers, and ending the night with a walk of shame into her parent’s garage, Jess’s single life is turning out more cockroaches than cocktails. The Morning After Memoirs is the story of one woman’s search for love, meaning, and a low-calorie alternative to wine.

What did I think?

I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end.  It was written with so much underlying humour and I frequently laughed out loud at not only the antics of Jess but also of her parents.  I chortled, guffawed, and giggled my way through it in no time at all - leaving me wanting more!

I had an instant affinity with Jess as she gives names to people like I do (Not-Ben, Hot Waiter Number Two, Tweedledum and Tweedledumber) and even used one of my frequent phrases - stranger danger!  Jess was an immediately likeable character because she's not perfect and seemed a bit clueless - a bit more Bridget Jones than Carrie Bradshaw, but a perfect mix between the two.  She's a normal girl who makes mistakes and struggles with her weight like most normal people - there's an extremely amusing reference to fat jeans!  Amusing to those of us with said fat jeans at the bottom of our wardrobe, or not so amusing to those of us with them on our bottoms!

The book starts and ends at consecutive New Years with a hilarious look at a year in the life of Jess in between.  Jess goes through a breakup, moves house, finds a new job and turns 30 - all with very amusing results.  I liked how every time a new character is introduced they get a dating website style mini bio, often with irrelevant information but that's what makes it funny.  Chris - 5ft 8", brown eyes, likes pugs...nope, Jess doesn't have a pug!

In my opinion, this was better than Bridget Jones' Diary as it was more realistic and completely my brand of humour.  This ain't chicklit, it's so much better - a funny, sassy look at the life of a modern woman living in London.  Don't get me wrong, this isn't a comedy but with so many water bombs of comedic excellence dropped in, it was definitely a 5 star read.

A great read for Bridget Jones and Sex and the City fans or anyone who's ever bought an exercise dvd and sat on the sofa to watch it!

I received this e-book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

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A Game for all the Family - Sophie Hannah

Justine thought she knew who she was, until an anonymous caller seemed to know better...

After fleeing London and a career that nearly destroyed her, Justine Merrison plans to spend her days doing as little as possible. But soon after the move, her daughter Ellen starts to seem strangely withdrawn. Checking Ellen's homework one day, Justine finds herself reading a chillingly articulate story about a series of sinister murders committed at the family's new house. Can Ellen really have made all this up, as she claims? Why would she invent something so grotesque, set it in her own home and name one of the characters after herself? When Justine discovers that Ellen has probably also invented her best friend at school, who appears not to be known to any of the teachers, Justine's alarm turns to panic.

Then the anonymous phone calls start: a stranger, making accusations and threats that suggest she and Justine share a traumatic past - yet Justine doesn't recognise her voice. When the caller starts to talk about three graves - two big ones and a smaller one for a child - Justine fears for her family's safety. If the police can't help, she'll have to confront the danger herself, but first she must work out who she's supposed to be..

What did I think?

I was a bit disappointed with this one.  I have had Sophie Hannah on my radar for a while and this was the first book of hers that I have read.  The idea was good but I didn't like any of the characters.  Justine just seemed to charge about everywhere swearing her head off; her husband, Alex, travelled a lot as an opera singer and to be honest I didn't notice whether he was there or not most of the time; and her daughter, Ellen, was a bit of a silly sulky teenager.

I struggled with the chapter numbers of the story that Ellen was writing being out of sync with the chapters in the book - I'm odd like that!  I did quite like the story that Ellen was writing about the family called the Ingreys - they were much more interesting than the Merrisons.  Ellen's story was quite dark at times and gave a Victorian gothic type feel to the book.

The book did get more gripping towards the end as the mysterious Anne Donbavand appears and we approach the final showdown - although I was expecting someone a bit more scary than crazy.

Although I wouldn't particularly recommend this book, I will still look out for some other Sophie Hannah books.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

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You Belong To Me - Samantha Hayes

The compelling new psychological suspense novel featuring DI Lorraine Fisher, from the author of Until You’re Mine and Before You Die. Perfect for fans of S J Watson and Sophie Hannah.

Fleeing the terrors of her former life, Isabel has left England, and at last is beginning to feel safe.

Then a letter shatters her world, and she returns home determined not to let fear rule her life any more.

But she's unable to shake off the feeling that someone who knows her better than she knows herself may be following her.

Watching. Waiting.

Ready to step back into her life and take control all over again.

What did I think?

This was a really good psychological thriller.  It was really creepy at times and I found that I was becoming suspicious of everyone, even the police.  I could feel the tension building with every page turn and when Felix was introduced my suspicious mind went into overdrive!

This was the first Samantha Hayes book I have read but it is the third containing the character DCI Lorraine Fisher.  I didn't feel like I needed to have read the two earlier books as I immediately liked Lorraine.  We are introduced to her as she is being treated for stress, which shows her as a normal person rather than a superwoman police officer.  I think she is a great character, a strong woman who lives and breathes each case she is given, to the point that she continues to work a case when she is supposed to be off work relaxing!

It's quite difficult to review this one without giving away any spoilers.  There are some nice twists in the book, some I did see coming and others I didn't, but even though I guessed some things I still enjoyed the book immensely.  The writing was excellent as I really couldn't put the book down, I didn't know what was real or who was crazy, and my interest was held from start to finish.  So much so that I'll definitely be looking to read more books by Samantha Hayes.

I received this e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

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