Some of the books that I read whilst on holiday

In reply to my last post, as to what to blog about, Campfire suggested writing about books read recently. This did start out as a bookish blog, but when one has been reading at the rate that I have over the last few years (although things have dropped off since mid 2011), it was just eating too much into my reading time to write about them all.

But anyway, here's a round up of some of the books that I read whilst on holiday.

I treated myself to the Greyladies Publication of Summer Pudding by Susan Scarlett, aka Noel Streatfeild. Greyladies have been republishing the Susan Scarlett novels and I always buy them. They're much lighter than the adult novels that she wrote under her own name, and to my mind they feel a little bit like her childrens books only for grownups. This one, penned in 1943, tells the story of a girl bombed out of her London office who goes to join her mother and sister evacuated to the countryside and how they all become involved in village life. Immensely readable.

At the airport, I bought the new Joanna Trollope, The soldier's wife, which was an extremely topical novel from the eminent novelist. This kept me occupied (with breaks for naps) for all of the 4 hour flight to Tenerife so was quite a good investment. I'm interested to know more about the research that Trollope did as this struck me as something which was probably quite true to the experiences of women married to men in the armed forces - one of my friends was for a time married to a Royal Marine, so that is the understanding that I have had. As usual, there is a good strong plot with various sub plots that make it engrossing to read along with the sense, not always present in her novels, of learning about something new.

I reread Enid Blyton's The secret Room - it's ages since I'd read one of the Five find outer books. The last Enid Blyton I reread left me cold as I remembered the plot line far too easily but this was excellent - it's the one where they discover disguises and much amusement is had by the unpolitically correct Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip and Bets, not to mention Buster the dog, and of course they manage to solve a mystery and outwit Mr Goon by the end of the book too.

I also enjoyed reading Lorna Hill's The secret which is the last in her Wells series. I'm still trying to track down a copy of Vicki in Venice (ideally in the Girls Gone By edition), but had had this on my shelves for over two years and just couldn't wait to get hold of the predecessing book before reading this. I didn't think it was quite as enjoyable as the early books - I like the way that some of the characters crop up again, but really I'd love to hear more about Veronica and Sebastien and the people from the early books!

Anyway, the husband is now home, and as he's got a quick turnaround before he goes out to band practice tonight I should probably go and feed him. A food related post later in the week I think.*


* Yes, I am struggling without cake and ate 2 sports flapjacks last night to compensate.