Book Reviews

 

Rainbow’s Orange Book of Poetry

by Lily Lawson

In her introduction to her latest collection of poetry, Lily Lawson says ‘Orange means passion, and my two passions are music and writing, the constants in my life’. She goes on to describe how, as a child who found poetic language inaccessible, a teacher’s decision to use Paul McCartney’s lyrics for the song ‘Yesterday’ proved to be the key that opened up her subsequent love of the genre and her desire to write poems that made use of everyday language. As always, this new volume in the rainbow series is full of poems that are simple and sincere, heartfelt but without the veil of unnecessary complexity that often obfuscates rather than illuminates, and that puts many readers off.

         In the very first poem, we find lines that sum up her approach. Poetry, she writes:

 

‘…finds its way

through tiny nooks,

to people with no time

for books’

 

This has long been Lily’s strength as a poet, in my view: her work has a refreshing directness, a sometimes confessional honesty. In this collection, however, while we still get that openness and conversational style, there is more technical mastery, more confidence in the use of rhythm and rhyme, and more philosophical reflectiveness. Her use of metaphor is more complex and striking, often drawing from the occupation of writing itself: life experiences are visualized as ‘unnecessary signage/proclaiming no returns/doors closing behind me as I go’ . Relationships are embodied in the physicality of the written word: ‘There’s no rewrite,/no second draft./They remain published in original format'.

         This volume contains a lot of contemplation on the nature of poetry and of being a writer. ‘My words fall onto the page’, she writes, ‘knowing their place better than I’. This is something many writers will recognize, and this slenderest of volumes will appeal to the writer in all of us. It will also appeal to the general reader who might not think of themselves as poetry-readers, but who might find themselves pleasantly surprised.

***** Highly recommended

 

Rainbow’s Orange is available on Kindle for 99p and in paperback fpr £3.99 from Amazon.co.uk

***

The Myrtlewood Mysteries Series 

by Iris Beaglehole

Books in series:

Book 1:    Accidental Magic

Book 2:    Experimental Magic

Book 3:    Combustible Magic

Book 4:    Celestial Magic

Book 5:    Delectable Magic

Book 6:    Bountiful Magic

Book 7:    Formidable Magic

Book 8:    Unspeakable Magic

I was drawn to this series by the author's name. I mean, Iris Beaglehole? It seems unlikely, doesn't it, but shows how an unusual name can draw attention to itself on a bookshelf. According to her website, Ms Beaglehole is as eccentric as her heroine, Rosemary, being 'a self-identified druid, witch and aspiring astrologer' who grows herbs and owns several cats. She looks fairly 'normal' in her author-photograph, and she has a good sense of humour, so I'll forgive her for the astrology stuff.

The Myrtlewood Mysteries are definitely worth a read if you like light-hearted fantastical tales full of quirky people. And if you don't mind frequent careless errors - extra words in sentences, punctuation and even spelling errors, weirdly constructed sentences. The books often read as if they haven't really been proof-edited at all. For example, Chapter Four of her spin-off book The Crone of Midnight Embers begins:

"The Cleric flinched as he heard the sound of loud footsteps echoing down the hall towards him. The door to the sanctum burst open, the sound echoing off the stone walls."

This is the sort of careless repetition that people in my writing group would pick up on immediately, and Beaglehole does this sort of thing frequently. Her writing improves as the books progress, however [though this example is from a later one]. It makes me wonder whether we're all too picky in the writing group!

I'm finding myself becoming increasingly tolerant of this sort of stuff actually, as you get used to it when you read modern genre fiction, particularly on Kindle. It's a pity, however, because the errors give a slightly amateurish quality to a writer who is actually pretty good at writing in her chosen genre. She isn't as funny as Jodi Taylor, as scary as Sarah Painter, as gripping as Ben Aaronovitch, but I'd put her on a par with writers like Liz Hedgecock (what is it with the names of these writers?!) and C.J.Archer.

Rosemary Thorn and her teenage daughter, Athena, have had a tough life. Rosemary's relationship with her highly religious parents broke down after she married Dain, her feckless ex [and, we later discover, a fae prince]. Rosemary has struggled financially but has managed to bring up her daughter pretty well, even though they've lived in awful places with only the occasional packet of Jaffa Cakes for comfort. 

However, after the death of her grandmother, a powerful witch, they inherit her large and magical house, Thorn Manor, in the weird and wonderful village of Myrtlewood, They also find out that Granny Thorn was murdered, though she sometimes appears to them as a rather grumpy and unhelpful ghost, and that she cast a memory-loss spell on Rosemary in her early life to keep her granddaughter safe. It turns out that Rosemary too is a powerful witch - she just didn't realise. And Athena too, being the daughter of a powerful witch and a fae prince, has her own kind of potent magic.

Living in the wonderfully sentient mansion, having inherited Granny Thorn's wealth and position, the Thorn women begin a new life in Myrtlewood. They make peculiar and lovable friends, such as the oddly unemotional Ferg, the motherly Marjie, the handsome vampire Perseus Burk who becomes Rosemary's love interest, Liam the werewolf and Sherry who was stolen by the fae as a child. They also meet some less friendly types, including Rosemary's snooty, rich and jealous cousin Elamina, the corrupt mayor Don John, the incompetent and suspicious PC Perkins, and the evil Bloodstone Society led by a creepy child vampire called Genevieve. Rosemary sets up a chocolate shop, and Athena joins Myrtlewood Academy and makes her own set of friends.

Think a combination of The Gilmore Girls and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and you're not far off, though the books are not as good as either.  These stories are nevertheless very readable and have an enjoyable streak of humour running through them reminiscent of Jodi Taylor (though again not as good). Rosemary faces the mundane problems of being a single mother in her late thirties with all the hang-ups that entails, not least her constant anxiety about her daughter's safety, while also discovering her often alarming magical skills and saving the village from catastrophe on a regular basis. Myrtlewood itself is, like Star's Hollow, a charming place full of odd but endearing characters, and the books are an engaging mixture of mildly sitcom-ish domestic drama and supernatural fantasy. 

Each book in the series is set around one of the annual pagan celebrations, and Celtic gods such as Cerridwen and the Cailleach, Beltane, The Holly King, Brigid, etc, feature heavily, along with all manner of supernatural creatures. The plots don't always stand up to close scrutiny, but they are entertaining nonetheless if you like this kind of cosy fantasy.

*** Good to read before bed - relaxing but not overly gripping

https://www.irisbeaglehole.com/

Books in other series set in same universe:

The Myrtlewood Crones Series

Book 1:    The Crone of Midnight Embers

Book 2:    The Crone of Solstice Flames

Dreamrealm series

Book 1:    River of Dreams

Book 2:     Quest of the Dreamcharmer [prequel]

Standalone book:

The Mysteries of Hollowway Road [Myrtlewood mystery set in New Zealand]