I will be catching up with rounding up reviews soon – sorry I’ve had rather a hectic week! – but I also wanted to do a post about other books I’ve read 1951. Where there are links, they lead to review, but I haven’t written about all of them. (Still three more reviews to come from me this week, hopefully!)
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Quite a few people are reading this one, and I think it’s brilliant – you can hear Rachel and me talk about it in an episode of Tea or Books? that is, I should warn you, rather spoilery.
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
His books are all so different – well, that’s true of the four I’ve read – but this story about an affair and the person observing it is heartbreaking and brilliant.
Here’s How by Virginia Graham
I love both Say Please and Here’s How by Virginia Graham – this is a faux instruction manual for everything under the sun, from how to play the piano to how to plumb. Follow that link for some hilarious examples!
They Came To Baghdad by Agatha Christie
I never hate an Agatha, but I will say that They Came To Baghdad is pretty far down my list… it’s one of her novels where she doesn’t concentrate on a domestic scene, and it all gets a bit overblown and silly for my liking.
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
Her second novel, and perhaps her oddest – not really in terms of what happened, but in her rather disjointed prose style. It makes for very interesting reading, particularly if aligned with her biography, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a good place to start!
A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor
My review is very short, and suffers from the odd quotation formatting that all my old reviews got when I moved to WordPress – but I remember struggling with the first half of this novel, then getting it, and then being wildly impressed by the writing.
My Turn To Make The Tea by Monica Dickens
The third in her autobiographical series – she is a journalist, and she is funny about it, but it doesn’t live up to One Pair of Hands or One Pair of Feet, where she writes about her time as a cook and a nurse respectively.
The Letters of Elizabeth Myers
Elizabeth Myers was married to one of the Powys brothers, and I really loved this collection of letters that I picked up as a whim. She died young – in her 40s, I think – and the book is organised by correspondent, so you have to keep coming up against her death. It’s oddly poignant.
* * *
It turns out I own more than thirty books from 1951, and I’ve quite a few unread – but, from the ones I have read and am reading, it turns out it’s a rather intriguing year with plenty of gems. And the 1951 Club keeps bringing up more!
I’m sure I’ve read many books first published in 1951 but what hard work it would be to find them all! The only book on your list which I’ve reviewed (briefly and part of a much longer post on Elizabeth Taylor) is A Game of Hide and Seek, possibly my favourite Taylor novel.
Today I reviewed The End of the Affair (here). Unlike you, I didn’t enjoy it – but Greene’s writing is always so good.
I read The Hangman a few weeks ago and found it utterly puzzling — I had no idea where it was going and what it all meant. I’m sure lots of people will be reading My Cousin Rachel this year because of the movie release.
I’m impressed by how much you’ve read from 1951 Simon! I can’t be sure – but I read so many books pre-blog that I’ll never know without weeks of research! But I *do* keep turning up unexpected titles – which is fun! :)