Reviews

‘I opened this book with high expectations. They have been admirably fulfilled.  Here we have a stand alone thriller about two lonely people who pursue a relationship of monthly weekends together in remote spots.  Suddenly one of these two fails to get to the rendezvous-vous and the other realises how very limited her knowledge of her  companion is . . . Gradually the reader pieces together some of the facts as an atmosphere of rising tension envelops everything. The intelligent way Jay, Lisa and others plan their actions is enjoyable and the suspense of the tale is palpable.’

- MYSTERY PEOPLE

Singled Out

Posted on Mar 2, 2015 in Elizabeth Goudge, Elizabeth Jenkins, Gertrude Caton-Thomson, Mary Grieve, Rosamund Essex, Singled Out, Uncategorized, Virginia Nicholson | 8 Comments

I’ve very much enjoyed Virginia Nicholson’s Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War. It is the kind of gossipy, anecdotal history that is very easy to read. Nicholson has done an enormous amount of research. The pages throng with remarkable women who managed to find meaning in life without a […]

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Miss Marple: Proto-feminist? Scarcely, and yet . . .

Posted on Feb 23, 2015 in Agatha Christie, crime fiction, Miss Marple, Singled Out, The Thirteen Problems, Virginia Nicholson | 2 Comments

I’ve been reading with great pleasure Virginia Nicholson’s excellent, Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War. In a chapter on the stereotype of the spinster I was interested to come across this as an example: ‘Agatha Christie’s knitting detective Miss Marple incarnated the spinster sleuth.’ Last week I was reading The […]

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