The Nine Tailors

A mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, starring her main protagonist, Lord Peter Wimsey. A gentleman with an eye to solving the most improbable mysteries, he draws inspiration from Sherlock Holmes and is assisted by his butler and right-hand man, Bunter.

Stories about Wimsey typically involve a typical old-English setting and a crime occurring in an out-of-the-way neighbourhood. The crimes themselves appear to be simple at the outset (in this case, a fresh body discovered in an old grave) but quickly present many difficulties. With proper British bulldoggedness, and more than an ounce of British humour a la P.G. Wodehouse, he solves the improbable, with twists all the way up to the final pages.


What makes this book interesting is its vivid and technical description of change ringing. The story is set around the Rectory of a small English village and much of the action revolves around the bell-tower, magnificently described. A lot of effort is put into describing the different methods of ringing, as well as the different types of bells and their pitches.

A delightful English mystery infused with a good dose of an obscure topic - good reading with a bedside light on a rainy night.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I think my sister bought this to read, around the time she bought Mitch Albom's books. They're along the same lines, but a touch more bittersweet. Kim Edward's first novel, by the way, and I'm going to keep an eye out for forthcoming works if this is anything to go by.

A doctor, forced to participate in delivering his wife's babies, delivers twins. However, the girl manifests with Down's Syndrome. Foreseeing a poor prognosis and anticipating his wife's grief, he sends the baby away with his nurse with instructions to leave it at a nearby hospital to be cared for.

Thats the premise. What held me till the last page was the depiction of a family dealing with an unspoken secret. Parallel descriptions of both twins bring up the question: will they meet? Ultimately the emotions surrounding loss come to the fore. Loss of opportunity, loss of loved ones, loss of purpose. Kim has managed to tie everything together, making this a very readable book, and not the emo-fest cum Dallas drama it could have been.

Or maybe I just wanted to see how the story would end.

My Family and Other Animals

This is a delightful book best read in the summer while sipping a cool drink (or, in my case, a tiramisu-flavored bubble tea). While some may recognise the name Durrell from the Alexandria Quartet, this is by no means a complex account of that magnitude.

Written by Gerald Durrell, a renowned naturalist, this book tells of his family exchanging the dust and dreariness of 1930s England for the sea, sands and sun of Corfu. I expected a boring read, punctuated by needlessly detailed accounts of flora and fauna at every turn and was pleasantly disappointed.

From the start, Gerald, or 'Gerry' as his family called him then, engages with the reader effortlessly. Introducing us to his family is done with great description and humour, via instances such as what each family member packed on their move to Corfu. This is carried on throughout the book, resulting in readers commiserations with his long-suffering mother and laughing with him at his elder sister and her frequent train of suitors.

In between the colourful descriptions of family doings, Gerry finds time to describe some of the insect, plant and animal life he observes. He takes us on trips together with his dog, Roger, and together, we explore the marshes for snakes, the walls around his villa for scorpions and the islands around the coast of Corfu for porpoises. We laugh together at the antics of the many pets he brings home; from Achilles the tortoise who 'waddled down the garden path with a bemused look of goodwill' to Geronimo the gecko who fought a ferocious battle with a praying mantis.

Light reading at its best, and a must for plant and animal lovers. Myself being not much of either, it managed to draw me in with the many cheery descriptions of friends and family, a healthy dose of humour, and some of the most engaging depictions of nature I have read in a long while. A book with much in common with Three Men In A Boat.

As a side note, if anyone is interested in getting a copy, try for one with illustrations by Paul Cox, which really bring life to the words.