This book is billed as a ‘homage to P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975)’. Anyone who enjoys Wodehouse’s numerous comic novels and short stories will not be disappointed with Faulk’s tribute. It features Wodehouse’s two most famous characters, the bumbling aristocrat Bertie Wooster and his highly intelligent manservant, Jeeves. All the usual escapades are there, as well as Jeeves cryptic allusions to English literature that, of course, go way over Wooster’s head. This book is more than just mimicry though. Somehow or other, Faulks manages to mirror Wodehouse impeccably and yet keep his own authorial voice. Ask me for a specific example and I cannot give it. As with a conjuror, you know it’s not magic but you still cannot work out how they do it. Faulks is simply a master of language who knows exactly what words to put where.
'Brings the peerless Jeeves and Wooster barrelling back to life' Daily Mail
A gloriously witty novel from Sebastian Faulks using P.G. Wodehouse's much-loved characters, Jeeves and Wooster, fully authorised by the Wodehouse estate.
Bertie Wooster is staying at the stately home of Sir Henry Hackwood in Dorset. He is more than familiar with the country-house set-up: he is a veteran of the cocktail hour and, thanks to Jeeves, his gentleman's personal gentleman, is never less than immaculately dressed.
On this occasion, however, it is Jeeves who is to be seen in the drawing room while Bertie finds himself below stairs…
The old adage that you cannot judge a book by its cover certainly works for this one: It features a simpering blonde in a dodgy crown and the words ‘Her beauty fuelled a war. Her courage captured a king’. Hickson’s novel is so much better than that. Catherine of Valois, the future wife of Henry V of England, and her faithful servant Mette, live through the dangerous and uncertain years following the catastrophic French defeat at Agincourt in 1415. Mette is Hickson’s own creation, constructed from a passing mention of a retainer called ‘Guillemot’ in a contemporary English chronicle. She narrates the story of her mistress’ travails and somehow the reader is made to care about their fate in a way that is rare in historical fiction. There is a sequel, The Tudor Bride (Harper, 2014).
The best-selling novel about the queen who founded the Tudor dynasty. 'A bewitching first novel...alive with historical detail' Good Housekeeping.
Her beauty fuelled a war. Her courage captured a king. Her passion would launch the Tudor dynasty.
When her own first child is tragically still-born, the young Mette is pressed into service as a wet-nurse at the court of the mad king, Charles VI of France. Her young charge is the princess, Catherine de Valois, caught up in the turbulence and chaos of life at court.
Mette and the child forge a bond, one that transcends Mette's…
When I was a teenager, I read this author’s The Earl (1971) which was published in the UK as Hammer for Kings. Set in the reign of King Stephen of England (1135-54), it did not really engage me. So when I came across this later work I hesitated. The lead up to the battle of Hattin and the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 is fairly well-trodden ground, not least by Ridley Scott’s 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven. As it turned out, Holland gives a marvellous evocation of the time and the place and succeeds in building up the tension even though most of her readers will know perfectly well what is going to happen. So perhaps I was just too young for Hammer for Kings.
The extraordinary author of The Bear Flag and Pacific Street returns to print at last with a remarkable novel. Set in the Holy Land in 1187 A.D., Jerusalem is an epic of war and political intrigue, of passion and religious fervor.
Constantinople 1024: few people can remember a time before Basil II. The emperor has ruled for nearly fifty years, has never married and has no children. He scorns the opulent vestments that go with his rank and delegates his ceremonial duties to his indolent brother. He is more feared than loved and is merciless and vindictive to his enemies. No one dares to challenge his power, for he leads his armies to war in person, rather than leaving it to his generals. He has no counsellors, takes no advice and knows everything that goes on in his empire. That at least is what they say in the streets. But this is a world where nothing is ever quite as it seems.
