The Godwits Fly by Robin Hyde

A New Zealand Classic

Spanning the years 1910 -1928 The Godwits Fly is a semi-autobiographical novel which tells the story of a young girl, Eliza Hannay, growing up in the suburbs of Wellington.

The title refers to the migration of the godwits which every year leave the northernmost tip of New Zealand and fly north to Siberia.

"Later she thought, most of us here are human godwits; our north is mostly England. Our youth, our best, our intelligent, brave and beautiful, must make the long migration, under a compulsion they hardly understand; or else be dissatisfied all their lives long. They are the godwits. The light bones of the mother knew it before the chick was hatched from the eggshell."

Eliza grows up a New Zealander but confused as to where she really belongs because of her mother's longing for 'home' and the strong British influence of her education.

" You were English and not English. It took time to realize that England was far away. And you were brought up on bluebells and primroses and daffodils and robins in the snow. One day, with a little shock of anger, you realized there were no robins and no snow, and you felt cheated."

Robin Hyde was a poet and her lyrical prose is beautiful especially when describing the physical background of her youth and as a journalist she had a perceptive eye for the social attitudes and patterns of change within New Zealand but the novel is not always easy reading. Dealing with the subject of disconnectedness it becomes itself rather wandering and disconnected. 

Written in the early 1930's it's importance to our literature lies more in that Robin Hyde had never taken the godwit's flight - while her early work was heavily influenced by the Victorian Romantics in The Godwits Fly she found her inspiration in the imagery of her own country.

On a more personal level reading this book has been both a nostalgic and a thought-provoking experience. This is the era and the place that my parents grew up in and it's also the place where I grew up a generation later. The author's descriptions of places are not just words.....

Day's Bay c.1930

" Day's Bay sand is smooth and warm, honeycombed with tiny airholes in which hide the blue crabs.........the water is marled, pale and transparent, full of thready green veins like those in jade.........the macrocarpas have dipped the tips of their plumes in white dust."

Memories! Our primary school's annual picnic at Day's Bay was always a highlight of the year. 

Like Robin Hyde, my father came to New Zealand as a baby prior to WWI and although I never knew my grandparents my third-generation mother always described them as 'very English'. It was my Dad who fostered my love of reading and history - 'very English'. Plantagenets, Dickens , Enid Blyton .....to be fair I don't think there was a New Zealand alternative in the 1950's.

I've never really thought about it until now but I am a godwit. I may not be able to travel physically but I constantly fly north in thought.
I yearn for England as much as , I think now, my father did. I only have to look at my Classics Club list to know that - and I'm feeling a bit guilty. I need to read more New Zealand authors and I need to write about those books so others can learn about our literature and our beautiful land.

The author: Iris Guiver Wilkinson (1906 -1939)

One of New Zealand's most significant writers of poetry and fiction and, as a journalist, she did much to challenge the boundaries of women's writing.
Following the death of her newborn son, Robin Hyde, she took his name as a pseudonym.
Her personal life is a tragic story which culminated in her taking her own life in 1939.
Read a full biography.
Read The Godwits Fly online.

The Classics Club

I've been reading.....crime fiction

A quick mention for two crime suspense novels I had on hand for commercial breaks while watching the Olympics.

Collecting Cooper by Paul Cleave

Cooper Riley, a psychology professor, doesn't make it to work one day. Emma Green, one of his students, doesn't make it home. When ex-cop Theodore Tate is released from a four-month prison term, he's begged by Emma's father to help find his daughter. What neither of them knows is that a former mental patient is holding people prisoner as part of his growing serial killer souvenirs.

A New Zealand crime fiction author, Paul Cleave writes darkly disturbing thrillers with macabre twists and gruesome events that make for compelling reading........if you like that sort of thing. I do and this is one of the best I've read for a while. Recommended!

The Black Path by Asa Larsson

The frozen body of a woman is found in a fishing hut on a frozen lake in the far north of Sweden. The body is quickly identified, raising hopes of an open-and-shut case. But when a six-month-old suicide suicide is disinterred, Rebecka Martinsson and Anna-Maria Mella find themselves investigating corruption at the heart of one of Sweden's biggest mining companies.

First-rate Scandinavian crime fiction which combines investigation into a murder with the back story of the victim and her close relationships and their involvement with corruption in a mining company with interests in Uganda. A complex story and not as fast-paced as the other book I read by this author but I really enjoyed it. Also recommended!

Review: The Circus of Ghosts by Barbara Ewing

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Sphere, 2011

520p

"Bring her to me, she is mine."

London, late 1840's.......memories fester in the mind of an old and vicious duke of the realm who plots with an unscrupulous lawyer against the mother and daughter: to kill one and abduct the other.

Cordelia and Gwenlliam Preston have fled from his evil intentions to the exciting young city of New York where they have found sanctuary and employment in Silas P. Swift's circus. Here they hide their own painful memories and excite audiences in the Big Top: Cordelia as a mesmerist who can heal people and Gwenlliam as an acrobat and tightrope walker. But very soon their security will be threatened and their lives will become entangled with New York gangs and the Police Department.

New York - " expanding, bustling, prosperous, wild, thrilling, new-world New York".

From elegant mansions on gas lit streets to the seething and sinister underbelly of the Bowery where vicious gangs rule: Barbara Ewing excels at capturing the essence of great cities, and in this book writes in a bold and exuberant style with larger than life characters to match including Cordelia and Gwenlliam's ' family' - a London detective who is Cordelia's husband,the elderly Frenchman who is her mesmerism teacher and mentor, her best friend and two elderly ladies. Real life people are also woven into the story - the Fox sisters, a 19th century phenomenon who began the cult of table-tapping and claimed to talk to the dead. Gallus Mag, a well-known figure in the underworld of New York gangs and the colourful Mrs Ray from the Royal Theatre in New Zealand.

The central narrative moves from New York to the Californian goldfields and the back to New York as mother and daughter attempt to elude their pursuer in a story that is full of adventure, romance and excitement but the historical background provides equally as much interest. In the mid 1800's the world was going through great changes as the old made way for the new and New York is the perfect choice to reflect these changes. A city where new ideas and new inventions were welcomed - the telegraph, anaesthestics, daguerreotypes are a few of the subjects mentioned which make fascinating reading.

There's never a dull moment in The Circus of Ghosts. It's a wonderfully entertaining and interesting book that  I recommend to all readers. 

I loved it!

Historical Fiction Challenge

Review: No Simple Passage by Jenny Robin Jones

The Journey of the 'London' to New Zealand, 1842 


'Wednesday 29th December 1841


First, Introductions. I'm your great-great-granddaughter, Jenny. You begat Mary Ann who begat Eva who begat Barrie who begat me. So I'm creeping onto the London with you, Rebecca, hiding under your skirts, a wraith of the future. I'm sidling up the gangplank, glad to leave these murky London waters.
      The voyage to Port Nicholson will take four months, so I'm going to keep a diary for the 124 days until you and your husband, John Remington touch land again, and I'll try to beguile you during some of those weary hours with stories of your lives to come.'


Those are the opening lines of a book that definitely had me beguiled from start to finish. It's non-fiction but written in a narrative style that makes it as fascinating as any historical fiction. Using the journal of the ship's surgeon and that of a cabin passenger the author has created a daily record of the lives of the 258 steerage emigrants on board the ship 'London' bound for New Zealand in 1842. Each chapter begins with a journal entry and it is the doctor's that make the most heartbreaking reading.

"Henry Edwards much worse, diarrhoea still continues, child evidently dying."

Day after day the entries record the sick and the dying - children lose parents and parents lose children. The conditions were appalling, cramped and unsanitary accommodation and  poor food meant sickness and disease was rife. As the journey progresses the author breathes life into names on a passenger list ; we discover the lives they left behind and share their dreams for the future. Who will flourish , who will founder and who won't even make it to their new homeland?

Jenny Robin Jones has researched the families and moved ahead 20 years to answer those questions and give an account of how the emigrants will fare as they struggle to survive in the early days of the founding of Port Nicholson (now Wellington, our capital city).  Fascinating to experience major historical events and natural disasters like floods and earthquakes through the eyes of ordinary people rather than detached accounts in a history book.

The book is enlivened with delightful pen and drawings, some lovely photographs of paintings and at the back there is a list of notes, illustrations, an index and a bibliography.

A lovely book which was a pleasure to read and high on my list of favourites for 2011.

Publisher: Random House, 2011
Non-Fiction - Dewey No 304.893
350p

Review: Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier

Magical storytelling!

Child of the Prophecy brings to a conclusion the original Sevenwaters trilogy. Early in 2010 I read the the first, Daughter of the Forest, a book I'll always think of as one of my all-time favourites, and one which took me from being a reader not particularly enthused about the fantasy genre to finding the sort of fantasy I really loved. Then I read the second, Son of the Shadows, but it's taken me until now to finish the series.

The central character in this story is Fainne, the child of the ill-fated lovers Niamh and Ciaran who were forced to leave Sevenwaters and make their home far away in Kerry. Losing her mother at an early age Fainne is raised in isolation by her druid father who passes on to her his druidic knowledge and trains her in the art of magic.

When she is sixteen her grandmother appears , the evil sorceress who will go to any lengths to destroy Sevenwaters and the people who live there. Fainne is an essential part of her plan and she forces the young girl to bend to her will by threatening the well-being of the father she loves.

Fainne is sent to live at Sevenwaters burdened with a terrible task. She must use whatever powers she has to prevent the Fair Folk winning back the Islands, no matter what the cost. But as she learns to love the family she has never known so the weight of guilt and fear grows forcing her to confront terrifying choices.

" Had I just proved my grandmother right? She had told me I bore the blood of a cursed line, a line of sorcerers and outcasts. It seemed I could not fight that: it would manifest itself as it chose. Were not my steps set inevitably towards darkness? I turned and fled in silence."

Once again I was enchanted by the ability Juliet Marillier has to weave words into patterns of beautiful descriptive prose and vivid characterisation ; her writing has an emotional intensity that never fails to move me to tears.  I particularly liked the skill with which she portrayed Fainne's inner conflict with  good and evil , the greater focus on the arts of sorcery and magic than in the previous books because of Fainne's gifts.......and the heartbreakingly beautiful ending.
Highly recommended!

What's In A Name Challenge 4 ( a life stage in the title)

Once Upon A Time Challenge V

La Rochelle's Road by Tanya Moir

 Publisher: Black Swan/Random House NZ,2011
Genre: Historical Fiction
269p

Synopsis: In 1866, Daniel Peterson and his family give up their comfortable life in London for a farm on Banks Peninsula, New Zealand. Daniel has a vision of making his fortune growing grass seed but the land he foolishly buys unseen is not the gentle flat fields he imagines but steep , rugged hillside covered with scrub and tree stumps with a run down old cottage for their new home.

Penniless, the Peterson's find themselves at the mercy of the land, the weather and their few neighbours - a motley, suspicious assortment of old whalers, escaped convicts, wary french settlers and true-blue Tory squatters. While Daniel and his wife, Laetitia, struggle to cope with the hostile environment, their children with youthful resilience find it easier. Fifteen-year-old Robbie finds freedom and friendship with a Maori family living in the bay below and eighteen-year-old Hester consoles herself with writing long letters to her friend in England. When she discovers the journal of Etienne La Rochelle, the man who once owned the land, it leads her on a journey into a world of beauty, darkness and illicit love - a path which eventually she may follow herself.

Pigeon Bay, Banks Peninsula, Canterbury, New Zealand

My thoughts - It doesn't happen very often but it's always a pleasure to read a book set in my own country and if at first the cover lead me to assume this would be more of an historical romance I was mistaken. La Rochelle's Road is excellent historical fiction which captures the essence of the Canterbury landscape, the vagaries of the weather and the difficulties the early settlers faced . The themes are quite dark - loss, betrayal and disillusionment but touches of humour and hope prevent it from becoming depressing.

I liked that the story focused on an ordinary family. It made me realise how often it must have been that a man had a dream and his family had no choice but to follow him and how hard it must have been for the women. Of all the characters it was Letitia I most connected with and it was painful to read of her daily drudgery and my heart ached for her as the small daily disasters slowly broke her spirit.

"A powerful scent of English violets is rising from Letitia's bedroom floor. She tries to coax the precious liquid back into its broken bottle. But it is no use. The last of her London luxuries is gone, dripping through the cracks in the boards, swallowed up by the dirt below."

An impressive debut novel with my only complaint being I wish it had been longer but I'll certainly be looking for more from Tanya Moir in the future.

Historical Fiction Challenge

Classics Circuit: Ngaio Marsh

Today's post is for the Classics Circuit tour The Golden Age of Detective Fiction and the obvious choice for me was to feature New Zealand's Dame Ngaio Marsh, one of the four great Queen's of Crime from this era. I read two books, one a biography and one Ngaio Marsh mystery.

Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime by Joanne Drayton

A beautifully presented and well written biography of a woman with a huge public image and a fiercely protected private life. Even the autobiography she wrote in the 1960's revealed almost nothing not already known and she destroyed all her personal papers and letters before her death.

In New Zealand she is recognised more for her services to the theatre , a huge contribution for which she received her 'dameship' as she called it, and much of the book follows her career in that area. I was more interested in her writing and the chapters on this are interesting and informative not only about the books but also as a glimpse into the rise and fall of this golden age of detective fiction. Her first book was written in a London flat in 1930 - nineteen years later she would receive the ultimate distinction when her publishers released the 'Marsh Million' , 100.000 copies of ten of her titles on to the world market.
In 1932 , a family tragedy brought her home to New Zealand and from then on her life would be divided between the two hemispheres, between passionate relationships at home and abroad, and between the world of publishing and her life as a stage director.

It becomes clear that her writing self belonged in England. Her Detective Roderick Alleyn was upper class British, educated at Eton and a former member of the diplomatic service - a reflection of the sort of people she mixed with in both countries. Of her 32 novels only four are set in New Zealand which is not surprising considering a British detective could hardly be taking a six week boat trip to the other side of the world too often. I chose to read the first of these published in 1937.

Vintage Murder by Ngaio Marsh

The story follows the classic structure of these murder mysteries. It begins on a night train on which a touring English theatre group is travelling ......as is Detective Alleyn who is in NZ on holiday following an illness. When one of the actors claims someone has tried to kill him by pushing him off the train Alleyn is brought into the action and the reader is introduced to the standard assortment of characters .
Everyone then arrives at the town where the group are next playing, preparations are made for the performance and also for the birthday party of the leading lady......and the murder!
In later years Ngaio Marsh was to earn a reputation for highly original and slightly implausible murder methods and this one is no exception. Suffice it to say it involves a bottle of vintage Moet. From then on it is investigation and interrogation and the usual red herrings until the murderer is revealed - none of which I found particularly enthralling.
The author's knowledge of the theatre is evident and there is some nice descriptive prose which show her love of New Zealand's natural beauty but they don't make up for what I really didn't like about this book.
She uses her main characters to portray social issues and attitudes of the time - Maori/Pakeha, New Zealander/Englishman - and she does it in a way that I found quite awful. Detective Alleyn , while appearing genuinely sympathetic to a different culture on the surface, reveals himself in letters home to a friend as a condescending snob. New Zealanders spend all their time mumbling crikey and blimey in 'that accent', the Maori Dr.Te Pokiha is acceptable because he's Oxford educated until he loses his temper and then he's a savage and the racist comments are appalling. Too close to home, maybe, but it spoiled any entertainment value the story may have otherwise had.

I might have appreciated her writing more if I'd chosen a different book but I'm definitely not inspired to read anything else written by Ngaio Marsh.
At least the biography was interesting and worth the time spent reading it.

Review: Hearts Blood by Juliet Marillier

Challenge 9: Same word, different book.

Challenge Description: Find two books that have the same word in the title. Read both books and write about them. (Worth 2 entries because you have to read two books).

My word is blood - the books I've read are Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier and Blood Royal by Vanora Bennett. Here is the review of the first .....

 
Title: Heart's Blood
Author: Juliet Marillier
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Publisher: MacMillan, 2009
 
405p



A haunted castle. A cursed castle. A girl running from her past and a man who's more than he seems to be. A tale of love, betrayal and redemption........
Whistling Tor is a place of secrets, a mysterious wooded hill housing the crumbling fortress of a chieftan whose name is spoken throughout the district in tones of revulsion and bitterness. A curse lies over Anluan's family and his people; the woods hold a perilous force whose every whisper threatens doom.
And yet the derelict fortress is a safe haven for Caitrin, the troubled young scribe who is fleeing her own demons. Despite Anluan's tempers and the mysterious secrets housed in the dark corridors, this long-feared place provides the refuge she so desperately needs.

As time passes, Caitrin learns there is more to the broken young man and his unusual household than she realised. It may be only through her love and determination that the curse can be lifted and Anluan and his people set free............

I love Juliet Marillier and I wasn't to be disappointed with her latest offering for once again she has taken the threads of myth and fairytale, history and mystery, and woven them into beautiful and magical tale .

Heart's Blood is set in Ireland during the time of the Norman Conquest in the 12th century and has a darker atmosphere than the other books I've read by this author - a Gothic story filled with strange and spooky supernatural forces that surround Whistling Tor and lurk within its walls. Victims of black sorcery, the ghosts are anguished and suffering and like Anluan have given up hope that life can ever be anything different.

The arrival of Caitrin brings hope. When she found the courage to flee her abusive aunt and cousin she took the first step towards understanding that the power for change lies within her own hands. As she battles to overcome her fears a strong and independent young woman begins to emerge who is determined to help and heal the inhabitants of Whistling Tor. The love between her and Anluan develops gently and with a great many misunderstandings - both have wounded hearts and must learn to trust again and to speak the truth of their thoughts and feelings.

There are some wonderfully individual, and suffering,  supporting characters as well and I found myself as much concerned for their welfare as I was for Caitrin and Anluan.
Inspired by the fairytale Beauty and the Beast  those familiar with the true tale will recognise familiar elements such as the garden, the library and the mirrors but with a new and unique twist from the pen of a magical storyteller. It wasn't hard to pick the villian early on and the middle is a tad slow moving but that's not a complaint - the sheer pleasure of reading Juliet Marillier's evocative and captivating prose is enough for me!

Highly recommended for lovers of fantasy and fairytale.

Once Upon a Time IV Challenge.

The Moon Spun Round by Elinor Gill

Title: The Moon Spun Round
Author: Elinor Gill
Genre: Mystery/Supernatural
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2008

303p

The cat went here, and the cat went there,

And the moon spun round like a top,

And the nearest kin of the moon,

The creeping cat looked up.

............W.B.Yeats

The grey cat with eyes as clear as iced moonlight was there when Sally first came to the stone cottage. It looked small and harmless.

Sally Lavender has been betrayed. With the sharp, jagged remains of her life still capable of drawing blood, she takes refuge in the village of Hallowfield, a place of peace where she lick her wounds. Slowly her pain is eased, the emptiness filled - where she expected solitude, she finds friendship, and a strangely insistent sense of connection.

As the moon slowly turns, Sally discovers how strong and deep are the ties that bind her to this place and to the five very different women who take her under their protection.

When one of the five is murdered those ties demand retribution .

A contemporary murder mystery.

Wiccan spirituality.

Past life memories.

History of the persecution of  'witches'.

.............and a small grey cat casts a long shadow in this gripping tale of love, hate and envy.

Loved that cat!

Loved the story!

Cat Book Challenge

Four Month Reading Challenge

Show Me 5 Saturday:A Year To Learn A Woman by Paddy Richardson

Currently hosted by Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here

1 Book I read : A Year To Learn a Woman by Paddy Richardson

2 Words that describe the book : Psychological suspense

3 Settings where it took place and/or characters met:

1. The book is set in present day New Zealand.

2. The main characters are Claire and her 16 year-old daughter Annie. Claire is a freelance journalist who is asked to write a book telling the story of a convicted serial sex offender while Annie becomes involved with an American student , Savannah, new to her school.

3. Travis Crill - the quiet, privileged young man who no one would have suspected could commit such crimes.

4 Things I liked and/or disliked about it:

1. I liked the New Zealand setting and that it was written by an NZ author- it makes a nice change to read about places you're familiar with.

2. I liked the quiet way the suspense built up. At first I thought the story seemed to be too much about Claire and Annie's personal relationship but really it's not. Their stories are separate but connected by the fact that each of them comes under the influence of a destructive and controlling person who is outwardly charming and friendly. They both begin by thinking they are in control of their lives but as the story develops each of them discovers how they've been deceived and it all builds to a terrifying climax.

3. I liked the first person narrative from different characters. Not only Claire, Annie and Travis but also some of Travis's victims tell of their horrifying encounters with him. Serial rape isn't a pleasant subject but it's not presented in too graphic a way and gives the reader enough to feel understanding and sympathy.

4. I liked the writing style and the pace- it certainly kept me turning the pages

5 Stars or less for my rating:

I'm giving it 4 Stars - overall I thought it was very good and I will be looking out for her next book which I understand has just been published.

Suspense/Thriller Challenge

Review: Magpie Hall by Rachael King

Title: Magpie Hall

Author: Rachael King

Genre: Gothic/Ghost

Publisher: Vintage 2009

263p

There were two rumours surrounding my great-great-grandfather Henry Summers: one, that his cabinet of curiousities drove him mad; and two, that he murdered his first wife.

Rosemary Summers is an amateur taxidermist and a passionate collector of tattoos. To her, both these activities honour the deceased and keep their memory alive. After the death of her grandfather, and struggling to deal with a failing relationship and a stalled thesis, she returns alone to Magpie Hall to claim her inheritance: Grandpa's own taxidermy collection, started more than 100 years ago by their ancestor Henry Summers. As she sorts through Henry's legacy the ghosts of her family's past begin to make their presence known.

The story moves smoothly between two time periods : the present day Rosemary and her great-great-grandfather Henry and his wife Dora in colonial New Zealand. Secrets and mysteries aplenty in both eras and a fascinating look at the unlikely subjects of tattooing and taxidermy.

Rachael King uses words sparingly which in this case is not a fault but an example that sometimes less is definitely more. Her style has a uniqueness that is a pleasure to read and her writing is descriptive and atmospheric . There were moments when I wanted to read out loud in order to savour each word. A totally unexpected twist at the end provides a great finish to a captivating and beautifully written story.

Rachael King is a New Zealand author - her first book 'The Sound of Butterflies' was a Montana prizewinner. As yet I don't think Magpie Hall has been released outside NZ - her website

http://www.rachael-king.com/ will no doubt have updates on that so do put it on your TBR lists because it's well worth reading.

Rating 4+