Friday 28 July 2017

Rose Macaulay

Oh dear, an acute attack of FOMO came over me in a Bloomsbury bookshop a few weeks ago. Well, where else would I end up with Darlene when she's visiting from Canada - and there on the shelf was a whole stack of Rose Macaulays in their original, but much tattered jackets.
Darlene had already bought one. I only vaguely remembered having read The World my Wilderness a couple of years ago (but I've just checked on what I wrote at the time and now it comes back to me how very much I enjoyed it). In fact, Rose Macaulay does rather seem to haunt us because on Darlene's last visit I remember worrying that her determination to get a photo of Macaulay's blue plaque was going to get her run over.
Those books were saying, 'Buy me.' So, of course, I bought two. FOMO. (I still feel a bit guilty for having split up the collection. Somebody 80 years ago must have really enjoyed Rose Macaulay.)
However, I've just finished reading Going Abroad. It sounded so promising; a comedy about middle-class English tourists who get themselves kidnapped. There's a bishop and his bluestocking wife; a diplomat; a pretty girl; an unhappy woman whose looks have been ruined by facelifts ... all the ingredients of an Agatha Christie murder mystery. But no Miss Marple. And very, very heavy-handed  comedy. And a most tiresome group of hearty young God-botherers going on and on about religion. No, some books go out of print for good reason and Going Abroad has not stood the test of time, despite its grubby, pretty yellow and green cover. Better luck, I hope, with Dangerous Ages, my other purchase.

4 comments:

Dark Puss said...

"Some books go out of print for a reason" - you are so right! I have read quite a number of novels and especially detective stories from the so-called golden age, where I rapidly found myself wondering why they were even published let alone became fairly well known. Of course I am sorry you bought a book that failed to be what you hoped. It is the great advantage of borrowing from a library as you return it after ten dire pages with a clear conscience and no £ lost.

Mary said...

Some of those British Library crime classics have made me wonder, Dark Puss. Wonderful jacket designs but the novels don't stand the test of time. I have curbed my book-buying in recent years - it was either that or move house! Nearly eerything I read these days is from the library.

Cosy Books said...

You've inspired me to give my Macaulay purchase a go, Mary. Fingers crossed we get on better than you and your book. By the way...I had to google FOMO - thanks for the education.

Mary said...

Good luck, Darlene. Maybe she's variable, the first one I read was much better. I've just started Tirzah Garwood and am enjoying it as much as you promised.