High jinx on the High Seas - NEW ZEALAND, MADEIRA, SOUTH AFRICA

Close to the Wind by Zana Bell set in New Zealand, Funchal and Cape Town

"It doesn't seem fair that New Zealand should have quite so many beautiful corners tucked away...." (from Close to the Wind)

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The year is 1868. This is the story of Georgiana da Silva, living with her Aunt, and betrothed to Jasper. But she soon overhears a conversation that turns her world on its head. Her brother Charlie is, it seems, terribly ill in New Zealand, and based on what she has heard, she determines to flee to his bedside, as he could be in mortal danger - it is the time of the Gold Rush, and Jasper and his cronies certainly have a plan to make the gold theirs.

From England, she leaps aboard the 'Sally', disguised as a young lad. First land stop is Funchal, where she beings to bond with handsome Harry, the captain in command of the rather rickety ship, and now the dance of romance can begin. On to Cape Town, and the final stop, via Christchurch, is Dunedin. Oh, the vagaries of true love, handsome men, whose muscles ripple and whose bodies are as 'taut as a drawn bow'. Horses, adventure, rakish pursuers, swashbuckling fights and fisticuffs, blind alleys, and villains who are rotten to the core - the story, as it moves along, is told with aplomb. Formulaic in plot progression, it nevertheless offers a comforting, feel-good factor as our heroine marches forward with determination and sharp thinking.

Georgie is a charming and feisty heroine, Harry is a morally upstanding beau. Much of the novel takes place on the high seas, but offers delightful vignettes of period life in Madeira and South Africa, as well as the final destination of New Zealand. On the cover of our copy, it does says 'Love, Passion and Adventure in 1860s New Zealand', which is actually rather misleading, as arrival in the country only happens about three-fifths of the way into the book.

If you like romps that cover the world via the high seas, we have reviewed another novel, also from the ChocLit Uk stable, and it's here on our archive: The Gilded Fan by Christina Courtenay.

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Sprite (not the fizzy beverage) and the PACIFIC NORTHWEST

This review can now be found on the new TripFiction website here

Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide

A collection of novels to evoke the feel of the River Thames:

The Thames stretches from the beautiful Cotswolds to the heart of London and beyond, and as we have been researching the novels for TripFiction we have come across several books that hugely evoke the bustle and busyness, and the variety of life along the river; in our featured novels the river almost become a character in its own right. It has been such an important feature of life in the South of the England, since time immemorial, so much history, and so very essential to everyday life. Indeed it is the longest river in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. So it deserves a blogpost in its own right.

Tideline by Penny Hancock first sowed the seed for this idea, a gripping tale of life along the banks of central London, where the Thames itself grew to be a character in the novel.

Marie Claire puts it succinctly: "A clever, creepy thriller about misplaced affection and abduction, with a riverside location as an eerie backdrop"








Our next choice is Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd.

One May evening in London, as a result of a chance encounter and a split-second decision, the young climatologist Adam Kindred loses everything - home, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, money - never to get them back. With the police and a hit man in merciless pursuit, Adam has no choice but to go underground, joining the ranks of the disappeared, struggling to understand how his life has unravelled so spectacularly.

The Daily Mirror captures the feel of this novel: 'A storm of a story ... London has never looked so threatening' 

Downriver by Iain Sinclair is constructed as twelve interlocking narratives, in which Iain Sinclair traces the ruins of Margaret Thatcher's reign through the lens of a fictional film crew that has been hired to make a documentary about what's left of London's river life. The Thames may still flow through the heart of the capital, but life along its shores has changed dramatically. It is a savage, satirical quest to understand how people's lives, a government's policies and a legendary waterland conspire together in a boggling display of self-destruction.







Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald is the winner of the 1979 Booker Prize. 

Offshore possesses perfect, very odd, pitch. In just over 130 pages of the wittiest and most melancholy prose, Penelope Fitzgerald illuminates the lives of "creatures neither of firm land nor water"--a group of barge-dwellers in London's Battersea Reach, circa 1961. 

'Fitzgerald is adept at evoking the atmosphere of late 1960's London with rich period detail' Elizabeth Day, Observer

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens' most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Haversham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip's good-hearted room-mate Herbert Pocket and the pompous Pumblechook. As Pip unravels the truth behind his own ‘great expectations’ in his quest to become a gentleman, the mysteries of the past and the convolutions of fate through a series of thrilling adventures serve to steer him towards maturity and his most important discovery of all - the truth about himself.

And it's over to Deptford with Penny Hancock's latest thriller The Darkening Hour 

A middle class woman at her wits' end. A struggling migrant worker with few options for survival. When tensions boil over, who will be the first to snap? Will it be Theodora, finally breaking under the pressure? Or Mona, desperate to find a way out? Two women. Two stories. Who do you believe?

And we will sign off with a couple of lines attribute to Shakespeare: "The River Thames, that by our door doth pass, His first beginning is but small and shallow: yet keeping on his course, grows to a sea."

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1923: Maps from "Father Thames" by Walter Higgins via http://thames.me.uk

We have brought together only a few books that conjure up life along the Thames. Please add your suggestions in the Comments Box below!

BERLIN Fabrizio Collini goes to trial

The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach set in Berlin

The review can now be found on the new TripFiction website here.

'wisteria froths and frills over the terrace' in ZAKYNTHOS

Swimming Pool Summer by Rebecca Farnsworth set in Zakynthos

This post is now on the new TripFiction website here

OXFORD + NEW YORK: "The right cocktail of people, the perfect blend for calamity"

Black Chalk by Christopher J Yates set in Oxford and NYC

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Rough Road Trip SOUTH AFRICA

Call it Dog by Marli Roode set in South Africa

Marli Roode is a 29 year old South African writer who has lived in the UK since she was 17. She studied writing in Manchester and ‘Call It Dog’ is her first – and very impressive – novel.

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The heroine of the story, Jo, has a similar background to Marli (but I hope the story is in no way autobiographical – I wouldn’t wish Jo’s father, Nico, upon anyone…). She returns to South Africa, as a journalist, after 10 years in the UK to cover the Alex race riots. She is contacted by her father and they set off on a road trip across South Africa – ostensibly because he needs her help to clear himself of a charge that he murdered a black man 25 years before. The relationship between the two of them is tense, dysfunctional and complicated – leaving us wondering whether Jo is, in fact, his captive or willing accomplice on the trip. He confiscates her mobile phone, drugs her with sleeping pills, and is generally a vicious – but fascinating – character. She ‘sort of’ goes along with this – there are certainly times when she could have escaped. The descriptions of the South African countryside they drive through are truly impressive and well written – and draw the reader into the story. We feel the heat and the oppression…

In parallel Jo is having an intense affair with Paul, whom she met at Jo’burg airport on her arrival in the country – and with whom she went into Alex to cover the riots. Their meeting was a ‘chance’ one, but as the story progresses – and after Jo has finally split with her father – the truth about Paul then emerges… and his position in the plot becomes clearer.

The plot of ‘Call It Dog’ is not its strongest point. Bits of the book seem to ramble – but this does not in any way detract from the setting – both geographical and in a country seeking to resolve its bloody history and establish a new democracy. The ‘Rainbow’ nation may well be an idealist view of what is actually the case – and Marli brings this out quite brilliantly. Her writing is remarkably mature and insightful for someone of her age. No doubt that she is a real talent, and we are pleased to be able to report that her second book is in creation. 

Tony on behalf of the Tripfiction Team

If you fancy reading more books set in South Africa, then click here And to your right you can find further blogposts featuring novels 'set in' - just choose your location and you will find our reviews and suggestions!

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