MISS ELAINEOUS VISITES HIGHGATE CEMETERY (AGAIN!)

My second visit to Highgate Cemetery was slightly different from my first, as last time the West Cemetery was only accessible via a guided tour.  Following the pandemic, they've experimented with self-guided tours and it looks like they're staying.  However, I'd recommend that anyone who hasn't been before does the guided tour, as our guide was very knowledgeable, took us to graves I might otherwise have walked straight past and told us many interesting snippets.

As a student (the first time) I worked as a cashier in six betting shops around Archway station and the Holloway Road, so am familiar with this area.

John Betjeman described the cemetery as a "Victorian Valhalla" and I would describe it as a stunningly evocative necropolis.  I do find it a very peaceful place to be (at least the occupants aren't noisy😉) and it seems to have an almost magical, mystical, ethereal quality about it. 

Here's the link to my previous blog, which was one of the first tourist attraction blogs I did, but I actually prefer my photos from that day.  This time the sun was really bright for this time of year, and many of my piccies appear to be in full or partial silhouette. 

http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2017/02/miss-elaineous-visits-highgate-cemetery.html

And a clue as to a certain singer's whereabouts?  Like the ending to Agatha Christie's long-running play, The Mousetrap, I'll keep it secret...  But I'll maybe offer you up a riddle from the port side of the naked artist, and pass whilst seeking out other New Desperate Romantics...

  The walk up Highgate Hill was a real fifteen to twenty minute killer for the legs (I've never been inside a gym and never will- I had enough trouble getting out of P.E. at school and anyway, the world is one giant gym!)  

You have to cut through pretty Waterlow Park...

The sun streaks through the lovely autumnal trees, and I like the way the glare has given me a mini-rainbow!

Duck pond, and weeping willows (my favourite tree.)💚

The Colonnade is the entrance point to the West Cemetery.  The cemetery is one of London's "Magnificent Seven;" built after local churchyards were becoming too full to accommodate more bodies.  Highgate was the third of such cemeteries to open, and first began welcoming the dead in 1839.

This is the triangular mausoleum of General Sir Loftus Otway (1775-1854) and his family, which has skylights on the top.  Otway was a cavalry commander who served under Wellington in the Peninsular War

Alexander Litvinenko (1962-2006) was a Russian intelligence agent who defected and was granted asylum in Britain.  He was poisoned by means of polonium-210, and a public enquiry concluded that he was murdered by two suspects "probably" acting under direction from the Russian Federal Secret Service, with the approval of president Vladimir Putin.

I saw graves that look like a stack of rocks a lot, especially those that consisted of a rock plinth with a cross on top.

Does anyone know what the stacked stone effect represents?  Is it representative of a cairn, which is a man-made stack of stones used to represent boundaries, landmarks, trails and burial sites?  Is it a modern cairn which is a memorial?

I'd be grateful if someone could enlighten me.

The dark, pointed grave to the right is that of British actor Bob Hoskins (1942-2014).  The grave is covered with (intentional) foliage, so I can't make out his name, but I knew what I was looking for!  It's in a private area, and there were grave diggers around, so I couldn't get any closer.

Professor Man Fong Mei (1946-2014) was a pioneer of Chinese medicine.  He lived in London and was passionate about East-West exchange, inventing the world's first disposable traditional acupuncture needle at a time when the practice of reusing acupuncture needles was creating controversy, due to the risks of cross contamination.

Beautiful actress and singer Jean Simmons (1929-2010) was British, started her career over here and then gravitated to Hollywood.  She was known as one of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young ladies."

I can't read the inscription on this, but took a photo because I liked the modern swirl design, which has an aura of peace about it.

George Michael's grave is on an intersection and is unmarked by a headstone and not marked on their map- but it's easy to find if you know what to look for and where to find it.

There is a sign saying that no photography is allowed, but naughty little me took a sneaky piccie whilst prying eyes (there were gardeners in one direction, and grave diggers to another) were otherwise occupied.  Nature had the last laugh as I didn't have time to adjust my camera settings or take measures to counteract the bright sunlight, and this photograph is not the best.

The grave looks both simple and beautiful.  The cross is engraved with George's mum's name; her daughter Melanie is to her right and George is to her left.  Incidentally, both George (1963-2016) and Melanie died on Christmas Day.😢  

Ironically, George's corner (I won't be cheesy and nickname it "A Different Corner"😉) was the one I passed the most, whilst looking for the graves of other famous people.

Jane Arden (1927-82) was an actress, film director, singer and songwriter, as well as a poet.

Artist Lucian Freud (1922-2011), and someone has placed a jam jar and paint brush on top of his tombstone.💜  

He was the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and whilst studying on my art foundation course I visited Whitechapel Art Gallery, where a display of his striking nudes was showing.

The Egyptian Avenue was created when the cemetery opened, due to a contemporary interest in Egyptology (owing to the fact that many objects had been taken from that country and rehoused in the British Museum.)

It's a gentle ascent up this passageway of solemn grandeur.  It was once enclosed like a tunnel, but is now open to the sky.  That eerie gloominess did not prove popular, and in Highgate Cemetery's 1965 guidebook it's referred to as a "cold stony death palace."

There are eight vaults on each side, and each vault can contain up to 12 coffins- but the Egyptian Avenue is not full to capacity; as happens when families move away or die out.

The avenue leads into the Circle of Lebanon...

The cemetery featured in the 2009 film Dorian Gray, and you can see Dorian walking around the circle...

Nature reclaiming back headstone space on the outskirts of the circle...

Carl Rosa's (1842-89) tomb.  This impresario was born in Germany and founded the popular Carl Rosa Opera Company.  His second wife, Josephine and his daughter, Violet, are also buried here.

The Columbarium came into being after the cemetery gained a licence, in 1888, to inter cremated remains.

Columbaria are little compartments for the storage of cremated remains, and the word derived from the Latin for dovecotes, which is "columba."

I can just about make out the name Caitlin...

(Marguerite) Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943) was a poet and novelist.  A lesbian during a a time when it was considered scandalous (this is a vanished world- nowadays two women can marry) she often went by the name "John" and dressed in trousers, as well as wearing monocles and hats, which were the fashion for gentlemen of the era.

Climbing the steps out, and the Circle of Lebanon once had a great cedar tree right in it's centre, but it had to be felled in 2019 as it was diseased.  It predated the cemetery, was in the grounds of  Ashurst House (sold in 1830 and demolished) and was thought to be over 100 years old when Stephen Geary (architect and founder of the London Cemetery Company) first drew up his design. 

It may have been the idea of David Ramsay (the cemetery's landscape architect) to conserve the tree as a feature.  It has been replaced by a new tree, but it will be years before this rather spindly thing will reach the magnificence of its predecessor!

The Beer Mausoleum was erected by Julius Beer (1836-80) and was modelled on the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Wealthy Beer, who'd made a fortune on the London Stock Exchange actually had this built for his younger daughter, Ada Sophia.  She died five years before him at just eight-years-old.

The Terrace Catacombs were built in 1838-9 and are lit by oculi (circular windows).  It consists of a long gallery (80 yards) with recesses, each large enough to take a single coffin end-on

You can only enter the Terrace Catacombs by means of the guided tour, so I have been inside before.

Imposing bird on one side of the Egyptian Avenue, with St. Michael's Church in the background.

Walking further round the upper circle, and the graves here seem almost regal, although to my knowledge no members of the royal family are interred in this cemetery.

They are in Kensal Green Cemetery, along with a "who's who" of Victorian society.  Here is the link:-

http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2018/11/miss-elaineous-visits-kensal-green.html

I'm not sure what the stone birds sitting atop the Egyptian Avenue exit are- doves are apparently found in graveyards a lot, as they represent peace, and are considered to be messengers of God, but these look more like eagles.

Thomas Sayers (1826-65) was a hugely popular bare-knuckle fighter.  His faithful dog "Lion" rode right behind his cortege, as chief mourner, after his master's early death due to ongoing bad health and excessive drinking. 

This horse grave is used as a guiding reference point on their map...

I adore this grave (I would, I'm a Leo!) which is the memorial to successful travelling menagerie owner George Wombwell (1777-1850).  By 1839 he had 50 wagons touring with his collection of giraffes, leopards, lions, elephants, monkeys and zebras.

This is a statue of "Nero," who would have nothing to do with the rather unsavoury entertainment of lion-baiting, preferring to lie around doing nothing.  Good for him!💗

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was a chemist and physicist, considered to be a great scientific discoverer; possibly of all time.

Safety warnings dictate that you're not to walk in this area, and I can see why!

One of these is the grave of charismatic, Irish-born Presbyterian minister, Rev. Josias Wilson (1799-1847) but I'm damned if I know which- I couldn't even make out all the inscriptions as I stood there.

Nature always wins, and I believe I have a photo of this grave being covered by the grasping "hands" of a tree in my previous blog.

A beautiful, solemn angel, and the shaft of sunlight made me think of a stairway to heaven...

 Elizabeth "Lizzie Siddall" (1829-62) lies here, with her details inscribed on the flat stone in front of the biggest upright gravestone.  She was the wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a member of the Pre-Raphaelites- a group of painters, poets and art critics.  This grave was famously opened when Rossetti wanted to exhume his erotic and sensual poems, which he'd buried with her!  He is not buried here- he's in a churchyard in Kent.

An artist, poet and artist's model, she was Rossetti's primary muse, although the most famous painting she posed for was John Everett Millais's 1851-52 painting Ophelia.

Christina Rossetti (1830-94) is also here.  She is considered to be one of the Victorian era's finest poets and was Dante Gabriel Rossetti's sister.

Here you can see how an old grave is literally taped upright to secure it.  The tape serves as a warning of an unstable structure...

Strolling out past a terrace of mausolea... 

Beryl Bainbridge (1932-2010) was a psychological fiction writer from Liverpool,  best known for her macabre tales set amongst the working class of Britain.

Ugo Ehiogu (1972-2017) has appeared since the last time I was here, and was only 44 when he passed.  He was a professional footballer and Tottenham Hotspur coach.  I'm not an expert on footy, so had to quiz the SuperDean about him. 

I took a photo of this sweet angel monument simply because I liked it.  Angels looking down signify mourning and the loss of the deceased from the living world.  Angels looking up represent the resurrection, and indicate that the soul is on its way to heaven.

The War Memorial commemorates 257 personnel from the First World War and 59 from WWII.  The graves are scattered throughout both the West and East cemeteries.

This is known as the Goldhammer Sepulchre.  It was commissioned by the wife of a late American businessman, completed in 2019, and is the only 21st century mausoleum.

Behind the cross is the headstone of Elizabeth Tennyson (1781-1865), mother of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the Poet Laureate.

Only three mausoleums exist in the East Cemetery- this one belongs to Thomas Pocklington (1860-1935).  He was a property developer who founded the Thomas Pocklington Trust- a charity which supports blind and partially sighted people.

Davison Alexander Dalziel (1852-1928) was a Baron and newspaper owner who introduced motor cabs to London.

Anthony Shaffer (1926-2001) was a playwright, screenwriter and novelist, as well as an advertising executive and barrister.  His most notable work is the play Sleuth.

Anna Mahler (1904-88) was an Austrian sculptress who moved to London in 1938.  Her work was not just about the exterior of the body, but also about the intelligence and feeling within.  It is unclear whether she designed her own tombstone.

Writer Douglas Adams (1952-2001) is best remembered for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Fans leave pens on his grave, paying homage to his talents.

This is a not the best of photos- someone was standing right in front, and I had to kind of edge in from the side and zoom in from a distance.  I do like the lumpen grave with its swirly writing next to him as well.  Both graves are a good indication that sometimes less is more.

Corin Redgrave (1939-2010) was an actor, political activist and part of the famous Redgrave acting dynasty which spans five generations.

Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880) was known by her pen name, George Eliot.  Female writers were published under their own names during her lifetime, but she wanted to escape the stereotype that existed, which limited women's writing to light-hearted romances.

Karl Marx (1818-83) was once buried with his wife in a small side grave.  His ideas formed the basis of modern international communism, and in 1954 the Communist Party launched the Marx Memorial Fund.  Both bodies were then exhumed and rehoused in a more prominent location and this imposing bust was added.

It was hard for me to get a good photograph as someone was standing nearby and refusing to budge for (what seemed) quite some time. 

Gloria Jones (1915-64) was a Trinidadian-born journalist, civil rights campaigner and communist who wanted to be buried near Karl Marx (she's to his right).  She was thrown out of the USA for her beliefs and settled in London, where she continued her work and was one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival, following the race riots of 1958.  She's remembered as "the mother of the Notting Hill Carnival."

I do like the head sculpture (I'm assuming it's a likeness of the bloke in the grave...)

And this one too...

My favourite grave in the East Cemetery is that of pianist Henry Thornton (1883-1918) who died during the flu pandemic of 1918.  His grave must have been restored, as I've seen photographs of it with the lid missing.

Malcolm McLaren (1946-2010) was an impresario, musician, performer and clothes designer, probably best known for managing the Sex Pistols and creating the famous Chelsea boutique SEX, with then-girlfriend Vivienne Westwood.

Credited as being the godfather of punk, I love his epitaph: "Better a spectacular failure, than a benign success."

The guy next to him was not famous but loved travel, and I like his modern grave with its intriguing inscriptions.

Sheila Gish (1942-2005) was an English actress who appeared in many TV dramas as well as some films, but who is probably best remembered for her stage roles.

The London Fire Brigade memorial dates back to 1934 (at that time there were 97 firemen already buried in the cemetery).

Jeremy Beadle (1948-2008) was a television presenter, most famous for his prank show "Beadle's About," where he'd stage wind-up scenarios on unsuspecting members of the public.   He was also a writer and a fountain of information when it came to obscure facts.

I had a VERY blonde moment when discussing the graves of the famous people- I've been before and said to the SuperDean: "Everybody's in the same place..."

Well, I suppose they would be, wouldn't they? I know Beadle's about, but I very much doubt he crawls out of his coffin to perform a bit of grave swapping for his own amusement!

Modern painter and printmaker Patrick Caulfield (1936-2005) was known for his bold canvases.  He designed his own grave, and I love it!💚

I'll finish with a quiet view over part of the East Cemetery...

I actually did my tour in sandals (it's not cold enough for closed toes just yet and anyway, I'm wired up wrongly- my hands and feet are always my last bodily parts to get cold) but will order walking boots so that I can have a trek over rougher ground next time.

I also have some other viewings to fulfil- some of the Dickens family are here (not Charles; he's at Westminster Abbey, but his daughter Dora and wife are) as are the Caffell twins, murdered by their uncle, Jeremy Bamber.  He tried to pin the blame on his unstable sister (I do think he's guilty- it's written all over his face- but the evidence which convicted him is shaky) and her ashes are buried with them.  These graves are not marked on tourist maps and are off the beaten track, so I will have to do my research then come and investigate.

Until them,

TTFN

The Miss Elaineous

XXXXX

XXX

X

MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS THE GREAT YARMOUTH OBSERVATION WHEEL...

I normally visit Great Yarmouth once a year, usually staying at Haven Caister in a Prestige caravan, and this was my 12th visit as an adult.  I was brought up on the other side of Norfolk, so I came twice as a tourist as a kid- once with my parents and another time with my summer youth group; and once more at the age of 15 for a very unsuccessful interview at the now-defunct Great Yarmouth College of Art.  The less said about that the better, but on the plus side I based a story around my disastrous experience for one of my MA Creative Writing projects- and achieved good marks.😁😁

I have blogged about Great Yarmouth before.  This is the link to a huge post containing details of the Tolhouse Gaol, the Nelson Museum (now sadly closed forever), Caister Lifeboat, the Waterways and the Pleasure Beach (amongst other things):-

http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2019/09/miss-elaineous-visits-great-yarmouth.html

Here is a smaller blog about Nelson's Monument, Anna Sewell's house and the Victoria Arches:-

http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2020/02/miss-elaineous-visits-great-yarmouth.html

I'll start my blog with a walk through the rose pergolas at the holiday camp...

I have to say, the gardens looked a tad unruly, but perhaps a wilderness was their intention...

We decided to walk down the beach to Caister Lifeboat  (which we always try and support).  These two stone lions at the end of Beach Road fascinate me- from the perspective of "why are they here?"

Do they have names? Shall I be unimaginative and christen them Lenny and Leo?!

A bit of Googly research reveals that they guard a gap in the concrete sea wall; built as a defence to tidal erosion in 1950.  There is some dispute as to whether Great Yarmouth is gaining land from the sea, or the opposite.

Once the essential wall was complete, the Engineer to the Sea Defence Committee, Mr S W Mobbs, presented the two lions to adorn the entrance to the Gap at Beach Road.  Lions are featured in Great Yarmouth's coat of arms.

We decided to go on the Great Yarmouth Observation Wheel.  Originally this wouldn't have been possible, but this travelling wheel decided to extend its stay, and it coincided nicely with our visit.

All the pictures are taken through the glass (to try and stick a camera through the door gaps would have been sheer folly) so I apologise for any quality issues.

Here we are looking down on neighbouring Wellington Pier, with the remnants of the older section of pier, left alone during its 1971 restoration, clearly visible...

For £8 you get three revelations plus it stops near the top for a couple of minutes, to allow you to get a good view.  Here's a similar angle, showing more of the road, and you can see Great Yarmouth Power Station to the centre right of the land line, and Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour jutting out to sea...

The 30 V80 turbines of Scroby Sands Wind Farm are visible to the right.  The area is famous for its grey seals, and sometimes they can venture onto Caister Beach.  We went looking, but sadly didn't see any.

The Britannia Pier is in the distance, and the nearby contraption is called the SlingShot ride and appears to be some kind of bungee bouncing thingumajig...

It was a very blue day, and you can just about make out a ship floating across the horizon.  We enjoyed our one-off wheel experience...

The Great Yarmouth Tower is the oblong building that looks like it has square eyes to the right.  It's a complex containing a number of tourist attractions.  Great Yarmouth Minster is visible in the centre of the photograph.

Looking towards the River Yare.  A word of warning- book via the wheel website as it costs less.  If you do decide to use the machines underneath the wheel, then put in your pin number when using your card rather than just tapping.  The SuperDean tried the latter, the payment was declined but ended up in his "pending transactions" for days- he had to ring his bank to sort it out.  I mean, now difficult would it be to hire a person to sit in a ticket office, rather than being lazy skinflints and relying on (sometimes unreliable) machines?

I tried to crop SuperDean's big fat swede out of this photo, which shows the former Windmill Theatre (now used for indoor crazy golf) but for some reason my computer is not saving my endeavours.  Oh well, he gets to be famous...😉

The lighting installation down Regent Road represents wind turbine blades, symbolising this local source of renewable energy- but some people thought they were Mercedes-Benz badges!😂

It was opened in May this year, and I rather like this photo peering the other way- up Regent Road from the seaside to the town.  I love the way the lights disappear into the sunset.

We popped into the Sea Life Centre, and I didn't take much in the way of photos (I do want to actually observe things, and not see life (ha ha, see life, geddit?!😁) at one remove away.

But I just had to take a piccie of these adorable penguins.😊

I loved this display of hanging witches in Cobholm Miniatures, which is being used to promote a book.

Macabre little moi would....😈

Skull nail varnish courtesy of Belzart, a gothic/ witchcraft shop down in Great Yarmouth Rows, and £1 necklace a gift from the SuperDean from the charity shop section of Caister Lifeboat.  The necklace was falling to bits (hence the reason it was in the cheap "tut" tray), had a weak link between two of the diamante emblems and when I tried to mend it it sheared- but I solved the problem by sewing it back together with a discreet application of cotton.  Inventive, aren't I?!😁

How big can hoop earrings be before they're considered chavvy?!  SuperDean treated me to these delights from Martyn's Walk Round Store and I love 'em!😁😁

 Great Yarmouth, I will return...

Until then...

TTFN

The Miss Elaineous

xxx

xx

x

THE POISON TREE by ERIN KELLY

 THE POISON TREE

BY ERIN KELLY

THE BLURB:-

I have given up so much and done so many terrible things already for the sake of my family that I can only keep going.

I do not know what us going to happen to us. I am frightened, but I feel strong.

I have the strength of a woman who has everything to lose.

In the sweltering summer of 1997, strait-laced, straight-A student Karen met Biba- a bohemian and impossibly glamorous aspiring actress.

She was quickly drawn into Biba's world, and for a while life was one long summer of love.

But every summer must end. By the end of theirs, two people were dead- and now Karen's past has come back to haunt her...

THE REALITY:-

I'd seen the television adaptation of this- which differs slightly- so therefore it was never going to come as much of a surprise. The author has been criticized for her use of long words and “purple prose,” but I quite like that- I managed to pick up a couple of new words on the way, which I am always pleased to do.

It's been commented by reviewers that none of the characters seem to be nice people. They have a point, but I do believe that these non-whiter-than-white characters are true to real life (in my opinion, everyone has the propensity to be horrible, selfish and disdainful, given the right circumstances) and make for a better story. In particular, Biba is one irresponsible character who is impossible to warm to, and I think she deserves the (spoiler alert!) sticky end Karen conjures up for her. I totally understand Karen's need to protect the family she has (another spoiler alert!) perhaps wrongly (but also did she have that much of a choice? Yes, she could have been honest, but isn't Alice perhaps better off having her as a mother than her natural mother, Biba, or ending up in the social services system?)  I can relate to Biba- she's someone who was abandoned too early on by her parents, and people like that always seem to expect the world to parent them, in absentia parentis.

I can also easily relate to the 1997 summer time frame, as I too was completing my finals (the first time around- at fashion college) then, and worked not far from the area in which Biba and Rex's house is situated. I also totally get Biba's bohemian dress sense, being a fellow boho babe, kitted out in vintage and charity shop finds rather than (often) sub-standard and boring chain store offerings.

With a beginning, middle and an end, this story was well plotted, and it was interesting to see Karen's awakening turn into a slippery slope into tragic disaster, and what the consequences of that were. I would recommend this author, and in a way wish I hadn't seen the TV adaption beforehand.

THE LOVE CHILD by RACHEL HORE

THE LOVE CHILD

BY RACHEL HORE

THE BLURB:-

It is 1917 and nineteen-year-old Alice Copeman is pregnant. Unmarried, she is forced by her parents to give up the child as soon as it is born.

A childless couple, Edith and Philip Burns yearn for a baby of their own. Adoption appears their only choice. As little Irene becomes part of the family, she grows up sensing she is different. But will anyone tell her the truth?

While Alice strives to make her mark in the world of medicine, Irene leaves her Suffolk home in search of answers. As two extraordinary stories intertwine across two decades, will secrets long-buried at last come to light?

THE REALITY:-

I finished this in a very short space of time (in contrast to the Katherine Webb I just read- I had too many problems to attend to to be able to rush through that one), so it must have had something going for it. And yet it didn't touch me deeply. I discovered Hore's work at the same time as I discovered Webb's, and find the latter's offerings more detailed and complex, and in a way more gripping. But A Place of Secrets, by Hore is probably the best offering of these two writers, who by coincidence I have kind of entwined in my mind.

The Love Child did come across as a kind of diary of events, so it made for easy reading, and the characters were very real and easy to imagine. They were true to the beliefs of their time, and I enjoyed the way Alice's striving for the independence of a career was explored. The settings of London and Suffolk offered up enough to be meaty, and yet what I liked most about the book was the way in which relationships were explored, and how people's ideals change as time marches on- most evident in Irene's adoptive mother, Edith, with her initial lack of warming towards the child her husband chose, shifting on to her fear of rejection towards the end of the novel.

I suppose this was, in its own way, a fantastic read; it was just more subtly nuanced than possibly works for me (gimme some drama!) and no great joys or despairs seem to have been documented- although they must have existed within the circumstances of the characters, especially little adopted Irene, although you can sense her childhood confusion. I think it was Fergus who came across the most strongly- you do get a sense of struggle between his beliefs and how he's forced to adapt.

I'd still recommend this, though. A pleasant, rainy afternoon kind of read.

THE ENGLISH GIRL by KATHERINE WEBB

 THE ENGLISH GIRL

BY KATHERINE WEBB

THE BLURB:-

Will the girl who left England for this beautiful but dangerous land ever find her way back?

Joan Seabrook, a fledgling archaeologist, has fulfilled her lifelong dream to travel to Arabia and has arrived in the ancient city of Muscat with her fiancé, Rory. Desperate to escape the pain of a personal tragedy, she longs to explore the desert fort of Jabrin and unearth the wonders held within.

But Oman is a land lost in time, in the midst of a violent upheaval, and gaining permission to explore could prove impossible. Joan's disappointment is only eased by the thrill of meeting her childhood heroine, Maude Vickery, and hearing the stories that captured her imagination as a child.

The friendship that forms will change everything. Both women have desires to fulfil and secrets to keep. As their bond grows, Joan is inspired by the thrill of her new friend's past and finds herself swept up in a bold and dangerous adventure of Maude's making. Only too late does she begin to question her actions- actions that will spark a wild, and potentially devastating, chain of events.

THE REALITY:-

What a wonderful setting- the desert! As a kid I used to view my dad's pictorial atlas with delight, poring over pictures of parts of the world's vast terrain. The bit that fascinated me the most was the Sahara Desert, with its miles and miles of undulating sands. I pictured myself crossing them, and imagined the bliss of peace and quiet (not for one moment understanding how unforgiving this environment can be.) This book is set in the Empty Quarter- part of the Arabian Desert- and the author certainly brings this location to life, in vivid detail. I loved the reference to Arabian folklore heroine Scheherazade (what a wonderful name!) and totally got both Maude's (she's born in 1882), and Joan's (she's born 50 years later, in 1932 and Maude is her heroine) need to escape and do something “different” to the life that's expected of them.

This book has been wonderfully researched, and it's interesting reading some of the author's influences as it's future reading material for myself- perhaps. Maude is obviously based upon intrepid explorer Gertrude Bell, who was born into undeniable wealth. The lives of both Maude and Joan come alive on the page, although I feel the character of Joan could have been better explored. Her back story did seem a bit bland- but perhaps that was the idea, and explained her need to break free. Islamic culture and speech patterns seem accurate and give the story credence, as do the mannerisms and ways of the British protectorate forces abroad (although the latter do seem ever-so-slightly stereotyped.  Mind you, I've always known that stereotypes exist for a reason.)

I didn't get the ending I wanted- I would have liked (spoiler alert!) Maude to have gone after Nathaniel and pull him up for what he'd done to her in terms of his betrayal, and make it public, claiming what was rightfully hers. But sadly there wouldn't have been a story if she'd done that; and as is pointed out (and expressed throughout the novel) things were different for women back in the main story time frames of both 1908 and 1958. The way times have changed also features in the way we have three homosexual characters who've hidden their true selves.

The term “God willing” features a lot; a reference to the Muslim beliefs of the Omanis who look after Maude (or perhaps I should say “inshallah” instead.) I don't consider myself a spiritual person. In fact, I did the VIA Character Strengths Survey and spirituality came right near the bottom. But in looking at some of the signs that have spread up throughout my life, I have come to believe that sometimes we do have to trust in fate a little. Or more than a little.  For that I thank this book- for putting me in touch with the mysterious, spiritual world.

The ending did come across as a bit bland- but maybe that was intentional, as it reflects the fact that Joan is on a life mission that even she doesn't quite understand herself.