Review: The Forgotten Village by Lorna Cook

Over the Bank Holiday weekend I thoroughly enjoyed reading Lorna Cook’s novel The Forgotten Village. The book is set in the village of Tyneham in Dorset, which was requisitioned during the Second World War and the villagers were evicted, never to return, and has a dual timeline.

One story plays out during the last days of Tyneham as the villagers prepare to move out and Lady Veronica looks to seize her only chance to escape from her violent and brutal husband, Sir Bertie — only to be thwarted at the last minute by the arrival of Bertie’s brother. In the present, newly-single Melissa and handsome celebrity historian Guy meet for the first time on a visit to the forgotten village, find a photograph of the old days and set out to track down the story behind it.

The concept — dual timeline, lost village, past secret unearthed in the present — isn’t original but I did find Lorna Cook’s telling of her tale appealing. The older story had everything. There was drama, there was passion, there was betrayal, there was death, all playing out against the background of war and a sense of impending doom.

The present day story couldn’t hope to match it, and for me the book suffered a little from that, as Melissa and Guy’s tribulations seemed very frivolous compared to those that had gone before. I’m afraid I didn’t really engage with either of them in the way I did with the hapless Lady Veronica and I tended to race through the modern scenes to focus on the compelling story in the past.

The book bills itself as: “the most gripping, heartwrenching page-turner of summer 2019” and I felt that it was overselling itself a little. The way one story overshadowed the other made it feel a little unbalanced: I would have liked a little more action — and drama — in the present. Melissa’s relationship problems passed with little more than a shouting match and a lot of internal agonising while Guy’s (I can’t give detail without spoilers) mostly played out off the page.

So in short, I think I would have liked an added dimension, but I did enjoy the story of Tyneham in the 1940s, so much so that I think it would have made a terrific novel in its own right, with the opportunity for a little more development of the characters involved. That apart, it was most definitely an enjoyable read, well-written and nicely set.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Book Review: Witchcraft and Secret Societies in Rural England by Nigel Pennick

I don’t quite know where to begin with Nigel Pennick’s Witchcraft and Secret Societies in Rural England, except to say that I really enjoyed it. It’s not like any other book I’ve ever read, and I suppose it did have its limitations, but in a bizarre way it was fun and I learned a lot. 

The book’s a bit of a slow starter. It’s almost a quarter of the way through before we actually got to any secret societies and witchcraft, and much of the opening was taken up with a detailed description of the area of eastern England on which the book is focussed. Some might find that frustrating. I didn’t. I found it completely fascinating, and the book took me longer read than it might have done because I was busy looking up all the places in Google Maps. (That’s  good thing, by the way.)

When we got into the meat of the book, it was intriguing. Some might find the rituals of Plough Monday and the secret initiation rituals of the Horsemen, never mind the magic spells of the toadmen, to be irrelevant in this day and age but the book contains a wealth of information on traditional rural ways. 

Two things about it astonished me. The first was how long these traditions persisted in parts of East Anglia — right up until the early part of the last century in some cases — and the second was how many apparently unconnected pieces of knowledge already in my head fell into place as I read. 

If the book lacked anything, it was a slightly more rigorous examination of exactly how the rural witches managed to hoodwink their contemporaries — for example, the author makes a reference to certain substances being used to stop horses in their tracks but doesn’t go into detail — but other than that it was an absorbing and enriching read. I’m not sure it’s the book for everyone, but if you’re interested in traditions then yes…you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Thanks to Netgalley and Destiny Books for a copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Book Review: Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver

On a long train journey over the weekend I sat down with Michelle Paver’s Wakenhyrst, and I devoured it at one go.

There. That’s probably all you need to know but I feel I ought to make a bit more of an effort to tell you what I loved about it, and the book certainly deserves it. It’s a complex, compelling, dark, twisted, wonderful, readable book.

It’s set in the early part of the twentieth century and it’s the story of Maud, a child when the story begins. Stuck in a house on the edge of the fens with a wealthy but eccentric father, an irritating younger brother (who, being a boy, is granted seniority) and a long-suffering mother whose endless pregnancies almost all seemed destined to end in miscarriage or death, Maud has a grim coming of age.

I quote from the blurb. “When [her father] finds a painted medieval devil in a graveyard, unhallowed forces are awakened. Maud's battle has begun. She must survive a world haunted by witchcraft, the age-old legends of her beloved fen – and the even more nightmarish demons of her father's past.”

There was so much to love about this book. The sinister fenland with its lingering spirits is drawn as a place that would drive anyone mad. Even Maud, a practical young woman, begins to believe in evil things that creep around the corridors of Wake’s End, the house, at night. The characterisation is wonderful, the story telling extraordinary, so that I was drawn into it and just kept reading and reading and reading.

If there was one thing I didn’t like about it, it was the prologue and epilogue that brought the story into the 1960s. Yes, there was information there that tied up the loose ends of the story, but I didn’t feel it was necessary and slightly weakened the whole thing for me. Not much, though, and certainly not enough to stop me recommending it to anyone looking for a darkly satisfying read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.