Tagged: classism

Farthing by

Small Change : book 1 Eight years after they overthrew Churchill and led Britain into a separate peace with Hitler, the upper-crust families of the “Farthing set” are gathered for a...

A Wrinkle in the skin by

AKA The Ragged Edge. Read for the 2014 Sci-Fi Experience In the 1960s a wave of earthquakes brings destruction around the globe. Isolated off the British coast Matthew Cotter thinks that...

The Little Stranger by

Read for this year’s RIP event. Part of The Estella Society’s readalong, although a much delayed addition. The story opens with a happy scene at Hundreds Hall, our narrator is remembering...

The death of grass by

Read for the Not just for Stormtroopers sci-fi challenge It is the 1950s, and a devastating virus is sweeping Asia. It attacks grass, and grass feeds the world. Wheat is grass....

Tooth and claw by

Bon Agornin has led a successful life in many ways. He has improved his status, and his elder children are well on their way in life. But his three youngest need additional help. The two younger daughters need dowries if they are to marry well, and his youngest son needs in the city. And so Bon Agornin has decided that his wealth is to go to them, with the rest of his family merely taking a token, for remembrance and tradition. And by his wealth he means his treasure and his body, for in dragon society it is practice to eat the dead. But his son-in-law does not agree, believing that Bon Agornin meant only his gold. He and his family take much much more of the dead dragon’s body than one token bite.

Justice Hall by

I do love these books.

This the sixth in the series returns our heroes to their present after the flashback that was O Jerusalem. That sentence doesn’t really make much sense, but figure it out, think of it as a challenge :) Holmes & Russell have just returned from The Moor and are settling back in at home when their comes a disturbance at their door. Ali Hazr has shown up, with a head wound and wanting their assistance. He needs their help with Mahmoud, his “brother”. Of course Holmes had already pointed out that neither of the two arabs they were travelling with were actually from that region, but it is, nevertheless, a surprise to learn where they come from and just what an aristocratic name both bear.

The Remains of the Day by

It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been occupying my imagination now for some days.

The Remains of the Day is about Stevens, a butler in a “grand old English house”. He spent his life trying to be a “great” butler in the service of Lord Darlington. With the death of Darlington he remains in Darlington Hall working for the new owner a rich American, Mr Farraday. It is at Mr. Farraday’s suggestion that Stevens, our narrator, first begins thinking about taking a short trip out into the English countryside, and to see Miss Kenton. Now Mrs. Benn she recently sent him a letter, hinting, Stevens thinks, at her unhappy marriage and her wish to return to service in Darlington Hall. On his journey Stevens reflects over his life and the changes he has seen.