Perfect summer read

Title: Jane and the Waterloo Map by Stephanie Barron
5 Stars *****
Publisher: Soho Crime        320pp
Genre: regency mystery, historical fiction, Jane Austen, mystery series
Author: Francine Stephanie Barron Mathews (b 1953)  is a mystery writer and has written several series. As Francine Mathews,  Merry Folger is a police officer in Nantucket while the Caroline Carmichael series are spy thrillers based on Mathews CIA analyst career. Her descriptive writing was influenced by one of her Princeton professors, John McPhee (one of my favourite non fiction writers!). As Stephanie Barron she writes the Jane Austen mysteries, presented as lost diaries edited by Barron. They are extremely well researched, witty, charming and a lovely homage to Jane Austen. I cannot believe it has been 20 years since the first novel. Worse, this novel takes place in November 1815 and Jane died in 1816. Barron writes for the thinking reader. These are gentle, entertaining mysteries with careful staging and intricate characters. You will enjoy the wit, charm and satire of Jane Austen in this beautiful homage. There are many Austen spin offs: Barron is my personal favourite.
Story line:
Being the 13th novel in the series.
The battle of Waterloo has left the British economy in shreds, and Henry Austen is nearly bankrupt. Jane is editing her proofs of Emma while nursing her beloved brother in London. There are wonderful quotes from Emma throughout.  Jane hears the two words Waterloo Map from the young, dying Calvary officer Col McFarland and sets out to unmask the poisoner. Jane's keen observations and wit provide interesting details of social conventions, daily life, and personal reflection that make this a wonderful period piece. Misdirection gives a nice twist at the end.

I still miss Lord Harold Trowbridge, her previous romantic interest and fellow sleuth (5 books ago) but delighted to see her reacquainted with the fascinating artist Raphael West. This is a rather fast paced two weeks in her life.  Persuasion is next!
Read on:
Laurie King's Mary Russell mysteries as period diaries
For period mysteries : Nicola Upson, Jacqueline Winspear, Deanna Raybourn, Barbara Cleverly, or Anne Perry.
For intricate historical novels, Diana Gabaldon, Susanna Kearsley,
Quotes:
Opening line: There can be few things more lowering to the female sensibility than to be caught in a shower of rain at exactly the moment one desires to appear to advantage.
Closing line: But as I watched West's equipage pull away from Hans Place,mi felt a blank pit of loneliness just below my heart. And hoped, for all of us, in the promise of spring.

Received as an ARC ebook from Netgalley, as well as purchased hardcover

Think Spring: Gardening!

Title: The Red Book of Primrose House by Marty Wingate
Publisher: Random House/alibi.  pp
Genre: cosy, mystery, English historical mystery,
3.5/4 Stars ****
Author:
Marty Wingate is the author of The Potting Shed mysteries: The Garden Plot, The Red Book of Primrose House, and Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Her new mystery series, Birds of a Feather: The Rhyme of the Magpie will be published June 2, 2015.
Marty writes about gardening in the PNW and travel (she also gives European garden tours). She can be heard on A Dry Rain (adryrain.net), a free podcast available on iTunes. Wingate is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, as well as the Royal Horticultural Society and the Garden Writers Association.
Story line:
The Potting Shed Mysteries take place in England, where Pru Parke has transplanted herself to find herself and become a head gardener. In the first book, Pru (short for Prunella, a lovely garden weed in my yard) of course finds a body in her odd job but is introduced to DCI Christopher Pearse. There is a charming developing romantic relationship as both characters are in their 50s. In the second book on Primrose house, they have a long distance relationship as she has found her dream job at an 18th century Manor house in Sussex, near the spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells. She is to restore the 1806 garden design by Humphrey Repton, for opening day in 6 months time. Some comic moments occur with ghastly gardening ideas from the owner (emails, postits) who want to add personal contemporary ideas to complement the original plan. But then another body mars the landscape after vandals seriously delay the project. Murder and mayhem don't help deadlines either. There is a side plot involving locating her mother's family.
Pru is a curious and interesting protagonist. Her relationship with Christopher is also a plus. These books are the definition of cosy: fast easy reads, delightful secondary characters, solvable mystery and fun. There  is a nice blend of history, gardening and romance. I would have loved a garden design and plant details.
You will want spring to come soon with all the gardening. I would be tempted to wait for the third book and read them all in a row as a summer beach read. I was glad I had read them in order.
Read on:
If you like Rosemary and Thyme or Agatha Christie
Quotes:
Pru wouldn't be surprised if Davinia seized on a fairy garden or a collection of gnomes next.
Her longing for some family relation in England has led her to dream up all sorts of connections.
He shook it firmly, with a good gardener's grip...it's always easy gardener to gardener...
...and wondered if there was a point to showering at all these days, as she seemed to be in dirt more than out of it.
You can never have too many cups of tea...it's an especially fine conversation lubricant.
It was just one cup of tea and a generous slice of bakewell tart, but it was a restorative visit.
She reminded herself to check back in about fifty years to see how it was doing.

Read as an ARC from Netgalley

The Hermit in the Garden

From Imperil Rome to Ornamental Gnome by Gordon Campbell
Oxford University Press (October 2012, recently on book tour in the USA)

Campbell is a noted historian, distinguished Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leicester and has an impressive list of literature, art and history books authored and edited. (I thoroughly recommend his book “The story of the King James Bible”)

This is a magnificent historical account of Hermits, Hermitages and English Garden design, especially Georgian. Hermitages have recently enjoyed a minor renaissance recently, with old ones restored, new ones built and even job offers with increased tourism. I think the popularity of hobbits might have helped too. Although he claims that gnomes are a logical evolution of the hermit they are still banned at Chelsea Flower show! “Garden hermits evolved from antiquated druids and eventually declined into the garden gnome.” He illustrates four types of hermitages- religious, secular or court, Elizabethan and earlier British hermits (he often states English hermits, while showing them in Scotland and Ireland). Many early garden hermitages were in southern Europe, Italy, France from the 1400s, although the first might have been at the Roman villa of Hadrian. Campbell also recounts the fascinating history of hermitages in Spain.

But the heyday of Hermitages was arguably in 18th century Britain where grand garden designs brought follies into the landscape. Follies often included hermitages with or without hermits (not religious but secular). Britain has had hermits since pilgrims of Christianity, but I was astonished at the list of 750 cells and names of 650 hermits in the 1800s (Rotha Mary Clay). These were places of contemplation, which allowed “pleasurable melancholy” and deep thought, sometimes following a retreat after personal crisis. Hermits have been romanticised but in actual fact the austere living conditions were primitive at best – and sometimes had required conditions of not cutting hair or nails (for up to 7 years). Not all hermitages were spartan. They were also fads/fashionable as recounted by nobility (hermit and lady hermit) “pretending to be peasants” enjoying the simple life. The OED defines simple life as ‘doing without servants and luxuries’! The affinity for nature and solitude had a quite different expression in America with Muir, Thoreau and Emerson. NB. The plantation home of Pres. Andrew Jackson nr Nashville is called the Hermitage, but refers to the original log buildings. I had over 25% of the book highlighted with interesting facts (and “oh” moments).

I found the descriptions both beautiful and tragic, for so many gardens and hermitages lost over the centuries.  I have space in my garden: gnomes need not apply.

Appendix has a list of interesting hermitages, several I have visited: Dunkeld, Dalkeith park, Craigieburn, Taymouth castle
Some good illustrations, mostly black and white photos and drawings in my e-copy (contents say 63 color plates, 304 pp)
Bibliography and List of Hermitages in the World (country and county)
Now I must visit the Ermitage at Arleshein, Switzerland – it sounds idyllic and has the last surviving ornamental hermit.

Read on to (preferably in your garden)
Edith Wharton (short story) Hermit and the Wild Woman
Tom Stoppard Arcadia
Seamus Heaney (1984) poem The Hermit

Read as an ARC
4.5 stars