THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON by KATE MORTON

THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON

BY KATE MORTON

THE BLURB:-

Summer 1924

On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.

Winter 1999

Grace Bradley, ninety-eight, one-time housemaid at Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and old memories- long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind- begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret begins to emerge, something history has forgotten but Grace never could.

THE REALITY:-

This was the first of Kate Morton's novels, the first I read (back at the end of 2013, before I began blogging) and, in my opinion, the worst. But, I felt that I needed to re-cap so, when I found it in a charity shop in Boscombe, I thought I'd give it another go. I couldn't remember that much about it, apart from there being some kind of- spoiler alert!- fake suicide.

I'm not quite sure why this wasn't my favourite book by this author, as it had all of the ingredients guaranteed to please: it's a tome, it's set in a dreamy country estate, two of its main characters are society sisters, it compares modern times with the past, etc. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy it, just that it didn't grab me as much as other works by this author did, which is only normal- everyone is going to have a best and worst loved, by any artiste.

I did race through to the end, though, so the novel certainly had a gripping element... or did I just become a bit bored with Hannah, after she married? I also wanted to shake her out of allowing the likes of her sister in-law, Deborah, to control her, though, so the story obviously aroused some feeling in me. I'm glad Hannah managed to find her mojo, via her affair.

The characters developed well and I did like the way the story was not quite in order, as we have some reminiscing by Grace, before finding out how the final scene actually played out. It all came together like a jigsaw in the end. The concept of a three-person game was a clever theme throughout, and a kind of structure, and I think that Hannah chose wisely in the end. Read the book and you'll see what I mean, although it's a shame she had to choose at all. The story, as a whole, came across as a bit of a strategy and the theme of secrets featured and added intrigue. We had to turn the pages to find out what Grace's long-kept concealment was all about, and why her lack of knowledge of shorthand was important. We found out more about Ursula's real involvement, Grace's parentage, and I was glad to see Alfred make a reappearance, in a very pleasing way.

Riverton came across as such a lovely place to live, in a time when class boundaries were changing. This was another book where World War I featured and we got to see how death and shell shock affected the whole estate and equilibrium of both individuals and society.

Despite my moaning, I can't say that I didn't enjoy this lovely work!

TOMORROW, JERUSALEM by TERESA CRANE

TOMORROW, JERUSALEM

BY TERESA CRANE

THE BLURB:-

1907: THE EARLY YEARS OF THE CENTURY OF CHANGE...

Living a hand-to-mouth existence in London's teeming docklands, Sally Smith knows little of the working-man's fight for a living wage, even less of a woman's battle for the vote, nothing at all of Europe's march towards war.

Yet these things will affect her as profoundly as she is to affect all those whose lives touch hers: Toby, the urchin she rescues from starvation; the Patten family, stimulating and eccentric, whose orphanage becomes her first real home; and Phillipe van Damme who, briefly and with love, shows her a world she has never known before...

From the squalor of the East End slums to the dreams of glory and the carnage on the fields of Flanders, Tomorrow, Jerusalem is a stirring evocation of a lost generation and the passionate story of one woman's fight against the odds.

THE REALITY:-

I have to say, I was quite uninspired by the title of this book, so it was put to the bottom of my reading pile. Then I kind of fancied reading a tome (this book was written in the eighties, when tomes were acceptable- nowadays, if a book doesn't fit neatly into the 'around 400 pages' ballpark, then agents and publishers baulk at you. Prats!) so I picked it up. The title is actually inspired by a hymn (even a heathen like myself realised that!) and it's a hymn I quite like and, as I began to read, I realised why- 'England's green and pleasant land' is the idealist's dream for many of our characters as they go through their own personal struggles and try to create a more ideal society.

The novel begins with Charlotte's story, and it was this person whom I thought was going to be the heroine of the story. I was quite surprised when it turned out to be Sally, instead. It's very interesting how a shocking event turns Charlotte's life around and changes her persona completely. A bit of schadenfreude here- I actually found it quite funny how un-maternal she was towards her daughter. I shouldn't laugh, but I did and I can understand her lack of love, but I'm not going to be supplying you with a spoiler. Some of the characters changed, some stayed exactly the same and the writer gave us a very satisfactory selection.

This book was a slow-burner for me. It wasn't totally gripping; but then I read it at a very busy time when I couldn't have devoted my days to reading anyway. Some of history had been very really well-researched and was brought to life. It's interesting that I read about the struggle for women's suffrage when the papers were full of celebrating 100 years of women having the vote. The First World War documentation, as you would expect, was grim. I kind of expected Sally's flight from Belgium to be more harrowing (this was an exciting part of the book, when the story really picked up pace) but it wasn't, and I was quite glad for Sally. So, the characters did manage to touch me! I wanted to shake Ben, for his rigid ways, but I kind of got that there would be no point in doing so. Sally did all she could do regarding the situation there.

I learnt a lot from this book (including some new words) and I thoroughly enjoyed doing so. The First World War was truly horrific but it bought people of all classes and backgrounds together in their common cause and this was cleverly depicted throughout. Life in Holloway Prison for the suffragettes (I've read about this subject before) was also highly unpleasant and was described so earnestly that you could almost SMELL the place...  Did everyone get a happy ending? I think so (although Peter had to make the best of a truly harrowing situation) and also, the only ending they all could have had.

Would I read more by this author? Yes. It was published in the 1980s and was quite typical of the blockbuster quality of the time and I quite like that, and hope the author has come up with more delights of the same ilk.