Tower and Town, May 2023 (view the full edition)A Good ReadThere are historical novels which are simply stories set in the past, historical fiction in which actual happenings and people are 'novelised' and, my favourite, a blend in which fictional characters meet, engage with or are witness to real people or events. The Misadventures of Margaret Finch by Claire McGlasson is one such, set in the late 1930s. Our heroine works for the recently created Mass Observation project as an observer of the 'working classes at play' in Blackpool. One of the attractions on offer is the defrocked Rector of Stiffkey, the 'Prostitutes' Padre', who is engaged in a campaign to clear his name. Margaret becomes caught up in his mission, initially sympathetic, later more sceptical, as she and the novel both begin to question the nature of celebrity, notoriety, and who exploits who? I have a minor quibble with the title of this book, 'misadventures' sounds jaunty, comic even, but this is a poignant and occasionally uncomfortable story of class insecurity and snobbery, and the challenges of maintaining detached accuracy - and of course, the grim, true story of Harold Davidson's dramatic, public demise. By coincidence, a prostitute causes the downfall of another Mr Davidson, in Rain, one of W Somerset Maugham's best known short stories. Maugham is a central character in The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng, my book of the month. It weaves together stories of marriage, betrayals and secrets, colonial life in 1920s Malaya, Sun Yat-Sen's struggle to overthrow the Qing dynasty in China, and a (real) murder trial that rocked Penang society. With a wealth of detail it's extraordinarily evocative and convincing, fact and fiction combining seamlessly, and it feels like one of Maugham's own stories, read on a verandah, with the wind susurrating through the casuarina trees. Set much further back in history, Christina Hardyment's The Serpent of Division is her first novel, though she has an extensive back catalogue of biography and social and literary history. Set in the late C15th, the central character is Alyce Chaucer (grand-daughter of Geoffrey). Thrice married, lady-in-waiting to Margaret of Anjou, she was connected for good or ill to most of the main players in the Wars of the Roses. Only the bare facts are known about her, so the author admits she has given her imagination free rein, and created a mystery story, seething with political manoeuvering and ruthless characters. Finally, non-fiction - Lucy Easthope's When the Dust Settles is eye-opening and disturbing, also heart-warming, humane and important, I'm sorry it took me so long to get round to it. Debby Guest |