debodacious63 | May books etc

Serpents In Eden - ed. Martin Edwards Another British Library Crime Classics and as always a mixed bag. Ethel Lina White's The Scarecrow gave me the (most enjoyable) creeps and I also particularly enjoyed Inquest by Leonora Wodehouse (stepdaughter of PG). I believe Greyladies are planning to publish an Ethel Lina White novel; it will be interesting to see if she can sustain the suspense over an entire novel. And yet again I am promising myself that I will seek out more of Anthony Berkeley's Roger Sheringham stories, after enjoying Direct Evidence in this collection.

Black Plumes - Margery Allingham A non-Campion novel centred on three generations of the Ivory family with their somewhat dodgy mental health, and their prestigious gallery. For me her books are a bit hit or miss - I love some of the Campions but not all, and this left me a bit underwhelmed.

Millions Like Us - Jenny Hartley A study of British women's fiction of the Second World War and therefore right up my middlebrow mid-twentieth century street. As I have said before I would have loathed living through it but I find the lives of women during this period endlessly fascinating, both in fiction and in fact. So from this I moved on to

Hearts Undefeated ed. Jenny Hartley which is an anthology of women's non-fiction writing during the Second World War - diaries, letters, articles and books. Some are amusing, some horrific and some unbearably sad but I found almost all of them enthralling and was moved by the bravery and dedication of these hard working women. I even found myself approving of ghastly old Barbara Cartland's scheme for buying up second hand wedding dresses to loan to wartime brides.

Other than this paltry amount of reading my May has been utterly devoid of cultural activity. All my TV programmes have come to an end and I was particularly displeased to learn that Home Fires will not have a third series despite ending on a massive cliffhanger.

The Splendid Sampler is growing nicely. My patchwork remains a bit wonky and I will never get my head (or fingers) round foundation paper piecing but I think I am improving a bit. Here are

two of this month's blocks. I adapted the one with the dress to an applique rather than the aforesaid FPP and was actually quite chuffed with the result.

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