September, we were hoping for spring weather in the Southern hemisphere, but it’s been wetter than usual. Time to curl up with a good book, or even time to try and write one! My reviewing philosophy is,if I didn’t finish a book, or disliked it, I don’t review it.Taste is personal and what appeals to me, may not appeal to you. That’s fine, well have differing expectations and experiences we bring to our reading.

I’m 92,000 words or so into the memoir and Im hoping to send it to my editor shortly. Briefly, it tells how when my marriage broke up, I started working as bus conductor in 1960 Britain

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven By Juno Dawson

If you look hard enough at old photographs, we’re there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple.

At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls–Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle–took the oath to join Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she’s a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.

Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven.

My Review

Initially I enjoyed reading  this and the concepts it explores .Women are so often simply  a foot note to history, marginalised or ignored. A story about women and not just women , but women with extraordinary powers was  appealing. The empathy Niamh shows was very relatable.  However, because  I was reading it over a few days I gradually got confused about  who each character was.

  The concept of a ‘cursed child’ is often the stuff of fantasy so that too was relatable. Gradually, I began to experience less enjoyment in reading, feeling  I was reading a polemic. I finished the book and  decided that although the story remained unfinished, I wouldn’t read  further volumes. It wasn’t for me; it may be for you.

Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly.

A brilliant, illuminating reassessment of the life and work of Jane Austen that makes clear how Austen has been misread for the past two centuries and that shows us how she intended her books to be read, revealing, as well, how subversive and daring–how truly radical–a writer she was.

In this fascinating, revelatory work, Helena Kelly–dazzling Jane Austen authority–looks past the grand houses, the pretty young women, past the demure drawing room dramas and witty commentary on the narrow social worlds of her time that became the hallmark of Austen’s work to bring to light the serious, ambitious, deeply subversive nature of this beloved writer. Kelly illuminates the radical subjects–slavery, poverty, feminism, the Church, evolution, among them–considered treasonous at the time, that Austen deftly explored in the six novels that have come to embody an age. The author reveals just how in the novels we find the real Jane Austen: a clever, clear-sighted woman “of information,” fully aware of what was going on in the world and sure about what she thought of it. We see a writer who understood that the novel–until then seen as mindless “trash”–could be a great art form and who, perhaps more than any other writer up to that time, imbued it with its particular greatness.

My Review.

Jane Austen subversive. Jane Austen deliberately employed the despised novel not just to entertain, but also to inform her readership ,about so much that was going on in her time. The idea of Jane,  a spinster, who hadn’t travelled far, as a country mouse is far from the truth. She had five brothers , men who were involved with the church, the military and the war. Doubtless she heard and understood plenty ,from the conversations around her and formed her own opinions. She had sisters in law whose pregnancies she observed, and she knew that this was a dangerous time for a woman as many died in childbirth. Of course her thinking permeated her novels-but she still wrote to tell an entertaining story, or who would buy her next book?

The Radio Hour: A Novel by Victoria Purman.

From the bestselling author of The Nurses’ War comes this charming, funny, pointed look at the golden years of radio broadcasting in post-war Australia, celebrating the extraordinary unseen women who wrote the radio plays that held a nation captive. For readers of Lessons in Chemistry.

Martha Berry is fifty years old, a spinster, and one of an army of polite and invisible women in 1956 Sydney who go to work each day and get things done without fuss, fanfare or reward.

Working at the country’s national broadcaster, she’s seen highly praised talent come and go over the years but when she is sent to work as a secretary on a brand-new radio serial, created to follow in the footsteps of Australia’s longest running show, Blue Hills, she finds herself at the mercy of an egotistical and erratic young producer without a clue, a conservative broadcaster frightened by the word ‘pregnant’ and a motley cast of actors with ideas of their own about their roles in the show.

When Martha is forced to step in to rescue the serial from impending cancellation, she ends up secretly ghost-writing scripts for As The Sun Sets, creating mayhem with management, and coming up with storylines that resonate with the serial’s growing and loyal audience of women listeners.

But she can’t keep her secret forever and when she’s threatened with exposure, Martha has to decide if she wants to remain in the shadows, or to finally step into the spotlight.

My Review.

I’ve just finished reading The Radio Hour,  I enjoyed it so much and  it really resonated with me. Maybe young women today will realise how far women have come and how easily those gains could be lost .

All this happened in my lifetime. It pains me to think how disparagingly women and girls were treated. Underappreciated, underpaid and the hard working glue that often held companies together. Casual sexism was a way of life.

The Vintage Village Bake Off by Judy Leigh.

Now in his seventies, Robert Parkin is stunned to find himself the unlikely sex symbol of the village gardening club.

Living in happy solitude with his cat Isaac Mewton in the Devon village of Millbrook, entertained by his mischievous chickens and goats, Robert has never figured out the rules of romance. But as the local ladies vie for his company, it soon becomes clear that Robert’s Victoria Sponge cake is the lure, and as his baking prowess grows, so does his confidence.

Cheesecakes, meringues, puddings, Robert can do it all, but his real masterpieces are his scones – ginger, rosemary, coconut, fruit, his recipes are inspired and soon come to the attention of the local media. Which county does the best cream tea – Devon or Cornwall? It’s time for an age-old debate to be settled with a competition.

Robert’s sisters Bunty and Hattie are both at crossroads in their lives, so news of their brother’s baking competition is the perfect excuse to bring them to Millbrook. And as the siblings relish each other’s company, and Robert relishes being at the heart of his community, a summer of scones may just light the way to long-lasting happiness for them all.

My Review.

I’m surprised the blurb for the book starts with Robert, as he only appears halfway through the story. Initially, we are introduced to Hattie, who is regaining her confidence after her controlling husband left her. It’s a delight to see her venture into new territory ,encouraged by her good  neighbour.Then Bunty arrives, having left her marriage and Hattie had to assert herself. Robert  lives in Devon and is a doyenne of the local gardening club. His sense of humour is revealed in the names of his  animals, but his romantic senses are lacking. The local ladies vie subtly and not so subtly for his attentions. The cookery competition between rival counties is a highlight. Mouthwatering concoctions are mentioned and it’s a shame the book didn’t include a recipe section.