The Dress Diary of Mrs Anne Sykes - Kate Strasdin

 

Description

The hidden fabric of a Victorian woman's life - from family and friends to industry and Empire - told through her unique textile scrapbook.

In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes.

Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album's pages.

Piece by piece, she charts Anne's journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions and the terrible human cost of Britain's cotton industry.

This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear.

Review

I loved the beginning of this book and the story of how the dress book came into the author's possession. It was certainly fortuitous, as the author was obviously the right person to own the book and share it with us all. 

I found out a few things that I previously had no idea about. Such as the ban on cotton imports when the trade in England was suffering. The book is littered with not just the story of the dress diary but research by the author of the textile trade and fashion throughout this period.

The book I found to be one that is to be dipped in and out of, although in sequential chapter order to fully appreciate the timeline of events. 

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for this ARC to review. 

Must Love Books - Shauna Robinson

 

Description

‘A heartfelt and exciting debut . . . a wise and honest story of how it feels to be a young woman in search of yourself’

Taylor Jenkins Reid, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Meet Nora Hughes – the overworked, underpaid, last bookish assistant standing. At least for now.

When Nora landed an editorial assistant role at Parsons Press she thought it would be The Dream Job. But after five years of admin and taking lunch orders, Nora has come to the conclusion: Dream Jobs do not exist.

With her life spiralling and unable to afford her rent, Nora does the only thing she can think of and starts freelancing for a rival publisher.

But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling author (who also happens to be quite attractive), is thrown into Nora’s life, she must decide where her loyalties lie, and whether she’s ready to choose herself and her future over her job…

Your next book club read touching on mental health, happiness and the ups and downs of being a young woman trying to figure it all out.

Review

I've really enjoyed being a part of the #MustLoveBooksReadalong with @onemorechapter this week, thanks for the invite.

This is not your usual romcom read. It's so very down to earth - in the main - and has some very real and relatable characters, especially in the office.

We join Nora recruiting a new member of staff. This gets her thinking about her own journey into publishing, and the not so rapid ascent within it. She's been at the publishing house for 5 years and is still taking lunch orders while all around her people are being laid off and she's lumbered with some of their work. She has an idea to get her ahead and stay afloat by working for two publishers at the same time. This had the makings of a disaster written all over it and I could hardly bare to read, waiting for a car crash. Actually it worked pretty well until it didn't! Can't say more on that one.

With witty repartee between Nora and one of the authors and some great friends (if only she realised) the book bounces along nicely in between the fractious thoughts of how Nora is going to get promoted, find her life purpose and pay the rent.

Nora has a lot going on in her head and part of that is a reoccurring thought that she might not need to live anymore. I was really willing Nora to hang on in and find someone who she could really connect to and help her through all her issues. The ending wasn't one I was expecting, but it's maybe the right one considering how complicated Nora and her life choices are.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley and onemorechapter for the ARC to review.

Mrs P's Book of Secrets - Lorna Gray

 

Description

Mrs P’s Book of Secrets will be published in the US as The Book Ghost.

The Cotswolds, Christmastime 1946: A young widow leaves behind the tragedy of her wartime life, and returns home to her ageing aunt and uncle. For Lucy – known as Mrs P – and the people who raised her, the books that line the walls of the family publishing business bring comfort and the promise of new beginnings.

But the kind and reserved new editor at the Kershaw and Kathay Book Press is a former prisoner of war, and he has his own shadows to bear. And when the old secrets of a little girl’s abandonment are uncovered within the pages of Robert Underhills’s latest project, Lucy must work quickly if she is to understand the truth behind his frequent trips away.

For a ghost dwells in the record of an orphan girl’s last days. And even as Lucy dares to risk her heart, the grief of her own past seems to be whispering a warning of fresh loss…

There are no white shrouded spectres here, no wailing ghouls. Just the echoes of those who have passed, whispering that history is set to repeat itself.

Review

Set in 1946 this novel reads as if the characters just left the film Brief Encounter. You need to be prepared to read a very stylised form of writing.  

Lucy is a widow at 26 and has left Bristol to work and live above the printers her Uncle owns. She has publishing experience but does not get to use it, as a newcomer is the editor and she types, does the books and makes tea.

A lot of the book is taken with the inner thoughts of the main character Lucy - Mrs P. She also describes the inner thoughts of other characters which I found a little over the top. Although she does have some sort of sixth sense, so maybe she did know what everyone else was thinking.

There were glimpses of an intriguing plot and I did finish to find out how it all ended.  Reading more like a gothic novel to me than one set post war I found it very hard going. Veiled romantic interactions and yet then an outright relationship between two unmarried people in a small village in this time felt unrealistic.

It wasn't really for me. I never became invested in the characters and Lucy herself was so dramatic and I thought belonged in a Wilkie Collins story.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.