3-4-Friday - Serpents, Wickedness and Watery Secrets

With two heavyweight books out this week - one in paperback, one in hardback - we thought it was great opportunity to start putting together our pick of the best fiction that you'll be wanting to read over the coming months (yes, OK, we admit it - we've called it 'The Summer reading Table')

Yes, Summer is some way off. And yes, we've a few big 'events' politically to navigate our way past in the meantime. But it looks to be a bumper crop of books out over the next few weeks, so we thought we'd better start early.

So for today's '3 4 Friday' #FridayReads here's our starter-for-3...

With one of last year's biggest books 'The Essex Serpent' by Sarah Perry coming out in paperback, here's what Nicki wrote as her review last year. It's a book that we wholeheartedly recommend from one of this country's most brilliant new writing talents.

The friends of newly-widowed Cora Seaborne in Victorian England are indulging their passions for science, medicine and social reform. Cora is just happy to be out of an abusive relationship and finding herself both independent and wealthy, she is determined to follow in the footsteps of her heroine, Mary Anning, and discover fossils.

Her amateur geology draws her to a tiny village in Essex and rumours of a giant sea serpent, perhaps still living from prehistoric times. Science and Darwin have yet to penetrate the mud and the salt marshes and fear and rumour about the serpent means every crop failure, every death, is attributed to the creature. Local pastor, William, is having trouble convincing his flock and not allow myth and hysteria to take over.

A finely-tuned cast of characters get drawn to the beguiling Cora and her quest for science to be able to answer every question with reason. They all do battle on her behalf as she argues against superstition, pagan fear and religion. But whether it’s a community increasingly troubled by fear of the unknown, or the urban squalor Cora’s friends back in London are struggling to reform, the ideals of science have much to contend with in this rich and wonderfully human story of the clashes of the Victorian age.

As rumours and sightings of the serpent persist, will the ideals of science triumph in this rich and wonderfully human story of the clashes of the Victorian age?"

Out on May 2, Paula Hawkins follows her bestselling ‘The Girl on the Train’ with another claustrophobic tale, this time about the pressure of long-kept secrets...

'Into The Water' is set in the water-centred community of Beckford, where teenagers and families go to the water, sometimes to play. But it's best-known for being a famous suicide spot. Nel Abbott is writing a history of the many deaths and the narrative is shared between all of those living in the village who have been affected by a drowning – and no-one is left untouched. This leads to the central question that Nel is probing – is it a place where people go to die – or is it a handy place to cover up a murder?

Some of the deaths are none too so recent, so the narrative swoops between times as well as people as the hidden connections and secrets, like all good detective fiction, are slowly uncovered. The threads that tie everyone together are also tested to breaking point. A twisted story of secret affairs and the damaging effect of too many lies in a community makes for a compelling, claustrophobic thriller and a brave new direction to follow up the monster hit that was ‘The Girl on the Train’.

It's difficult to believe that it has been six years (!) since we welcomed author Kate Summerscale to Abingdon the day after her triumph at the British Book Awards with 'The Suspicion of Mr Whicher'.

Here latest book 'The Wicked Boy' is another forensic examination of a true-life murder that shocked Victorian society, but - on closer examination - isn't quite the story that you first think it is.

It's both horribly compelling, but also thought-provoking, and has lesssons to teach us about empathy and ethics, and the responsibilities that wider society has to its most vulnerable members.

Over the next few weeks we'll be picking more of our Summer reading choices, but for now - come in and browse our picks on the table!

Treatment of disposal wives: Mrs Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale - review

Kate Summerscale, author of the fabulous and gripping ‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher’, has published her latest book and turns her attention to another case which scandalised Victorian society.

Kate Summerscale previously uncovered the truth behind a sensational case from one of the very earliest days of professional detectives, now she turns her attention to another area of life where private middle class affairs could be suddenly thrust into the public arena.

A relaxation in the laws of divorce brought a flurry of scandalous cases to the courts in the second half of the nineteenth century as divorce became a possibility for not just the rich, but for the middle and lower classes. 

Enter Isabelle Robinson, lonely and isolated, bored in her marriage to Henry, who was often away on business, and who had a mistress and other children. Not surprisingly, lonely Isabelle became infatuated with a married doctor – and poured all her thoughts and passions into a private diary.

The diary formed the basis of their infamous divorce case, with every detail of her imaginings probed over, to see whether the diary really convicted Isabella of adultery and answered the question ‘Did she or didn’t she?’

But of course this is much more than a salacious story of an intelligent, passionate woman who desperately craves society, kindness, and to be loved –  and her unloving husband who seizes his chance to be rid of her.

The divorce courts became symptomatic of the way women were treated in Victorian Britain, a time when wives were ‘chattels’ – if a wife brought money into the marriage it usually went straight to the husband. Now, with the relaxed divorce laws, all a husband had to prove was infidelity and he could cast off his wife with no further need to provide for her – even if the money was hers in the first place.

Summerscale uses the case to throw a spotlight on just how wretched the role of wife could be in a society that tolerated behaviour in men that in women led not just to disgrace, but to loss of one’s children and all income and wordly goods, often on very little evidence, such as Isabella’s diary. Or in one case evidence that was no more than the witnessing of a few kisses and an arm around her waist.

There are plenty of familiar stories about men’s treatment of wives they no longer wanted –  the ease with which women were declared insane and confined to institutions (leaving husbands to remarry) meant this had been the usual route to dispose of unwanted wives, until divorce became a possibility.

Isabella turned to people she respected for help and this brings another fascinating thread to this story – the perceived threat in Victorian times of a woman’s sexuality.

It is the early days of understanding the mind and Isabelle was advised to plead insanity on the basis that even to have written such thoughts down proved she was insane. 

It is a vivid portrait of an age that treated women scandalously – and deserve to be as widely read and enjoyed as the hugely successful ‘The Suspicions of Mr Whicher’.

Buy securely from Mostly Books now - or reserve and collect from the shop for £3 off the RRP (£13.99):

UK price (inc postage) £16.99 GBP Outside UK (inc postage) £17.99 GBP

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

Last year, before any shortlists had been published, and on the basis of how much we and our customers loved her book, we approached Bloomsbury to invite Kate Summerscale to Abingdon for the Arts Festival. The date was picked essentially at random, and when Bloomsbury replied positively, I don't think either of us could have foreseen it would have been the day after the Nibbies - and that Kate would have won the top award. So - we were very lucky, but there was nothing lucky about the award. It was extremely well deserved. We are extremely grateful that Kate honoured her commitment - I'm sure getting on a train to darkest Oxfordshire after what I assume was a reasonably late night (!) can't have been that joyous, but we're so glad she did because it was a very special event for us.

I will blog in more detail when I'm not so shattered (we did a great event with Mousehunter Alex Milway at lunchtime, and it was Timothy's second birthday today to boot, so a 'busy day' as they say) but Kate was eloquent, poised, informative - and for many of those there who are big fans of the book and did so much in the early days to boost its reputation by word of mouth, something to savour and feel slightly smug about.

Thanks very much to Tony Presland for permission to use these pics this evening - there are more on at least two cameras, so hopefully after a good night's sleep I'll be up for blogging in this in more detail tomorrow. Thanks to the Mostly Booklovers for helping stage such a great event, for Ali who delivered Kate safely to and from Didcot Station, to Alison for stepping in with an emergency PA system - and to everyone who came and made it such an event to savour. Night, night!

Obama, Summerscale and the British Book Awards

I just had a thought - Obama is up for a British Book Award this evening - and by a curious coincidence happened to be in the country yesterday (helping Gordon Brown 'save the world' - ahem). Now, I appreciate he's now in Strasbourg, but - Michelle might be staying behind to pick up one on his behalf? Just a thought... Obviously a big 'good luck' to Kate Summerscale, who we are hoping will win one of the two (possibly three) awards that she's up for, as we are welcoming her to Abingdon for a Mostly Booklovers event the next day... We've also got Mousehunter Alex Milway giving a drawing masterclass earlier in the day - so it's another busy Saturday for us here in Abingdon...

Festival Envy

It’s festival season again - if there is such a thing as a festival season. The Bath Literature Festival has already finished, the Oxford Literary Festival takes place at the beginning of April, Hay is in May, and then after various other festivals in Edinburgh, Harrogate, Dartington, we finish up in Cheltenham in October. So which one is pre-eminent? Well, mischievously, I typed ‘Literary Festival’ into Google and you get the following order: Hay, Oxford, Ilkley, Manchester, then - interestingly - Henley (not bad for a festival in its 3rd year). Of course, type in "literature festival" and Bath comes out on top. "Book festival" delivers Edinburgh, but when you type in "Reading (rhymes with 'leading') Festival", and you bump up against the marvellous ambiguity of the English language... Anyway, I think it's safe to assume that Hay is the Daddy. But like every other area of publishing, the growth in book events and literary festivals has been nothing if not explosive since Hay began twenty odd years ago. (If you want to see the frightening number of festivals that do take place every year - go take a look at the British Council's master list - it's by no means comprehensive). The outcome of this has been increased competition for authors, and whilst the top-tier events probably have their pick of all the hot authors, those lower down the pecking order probably have to work incredibly hard to entice authors to come. Especially if they have no budget to pay them. In a world in which something like 95% of published authors ‘can’t give up the day job’ literary events must seem a great way of making a bit of extra cash, and get your name out there. The reality must be though that the big names get the fees, the lesser known names are obliged to do it for free. It will be interesting over the next few years if squeezed budgets mean some of the smaller events have trouble getting the authors in. Anecdotally, I know this has happened with two festivals elsewhere in Oxfordshire. From the festival side, having a track record of staging good events definitely helps. Pretty much every author I've spoken to about this has a 'war story' of some horrendous event they attended - badly organised, badly attended - which has left them scarred and reticient about saying 'yes' automatically to anything that comes up. Even the bigger festivals can sometimes be guilty of scheduling snafus, and it can be bad luck you if you find yourself scheduled at the same time as a Melvyn Bragg or Jodi Picoult. As in retail (and business generally I guess), if you are not a big or established player, the key is going for a defined niche - and ensuring that you are firmly plugged in to the local community. We have our own Abingdon Arts Festival which kicks off this Saturday, and is relatively middle-aged in festival terms, having been established for over ten years. Last year we dipped our toe into the water with a series of events - including the wonderful Barbara Trapido - and this year we have an equally great line up. Not only are we selling books at one of the kick-off events this Saturday (the extremely funny Dr Phil Hammond) but we also have events with Professor Richard Fortey, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher author Kate Summerscale and an evening of Cornish language poetry and song with Tim Saunders - with backing singers! (Thanks to the boys at Wood Green for that introduction). We're particularly chuffed with the two children's authors coming over the fortnight. Tommy Donbavand is an ex-clown and author of Scream Street (he's coming this Saturday at 12.30pm) - and we will also have Mousehunter author Alex Milway, last seen covering Crow on the Hill with his weird and wonderful mice. That's on April 4th... Anyway, PR puffs aside, and despite the current economic climate, everyone seems to be very happy with ticket sales for their events. Even though we won't have the promised Festival banners flying in the market square (due, apparently, to unforeseen 'planning' restrictions - ho hum), the Abingdon Arts Festival committee have done another superb job, and I hope you - reading this - can find something to titilate and amuse amongst all the events on offer over the coming fortnight...