March 2016 - The Marlowe Papers - Ros Barber

This was a full length novel written in blank verse- specifically iambic pentameter- modelled on the writing of William Shakespeare or possibly Christopher Marlowe.

The tale purported to be the story of Christopher Marlowe in exile as a heretic and atheist, at a time when religious extremism was rife under Elizabeth 1. He travels under a range of aliases often carrying out espionage missions for the Queen. He continues to write the entertaining  plays for which he gained renown and popularity in England ; but must now write under a nom de plume as he escaped from England having been helped to stage his own death. He steals the name of William Shakespeare an aspiring author who rarely leaves his country home.

Although some of us opened this book with some trepidation, we found it readable once we got into it. This was helped in some part by the way the verse was laid out on the page so that it was usually clear who was speaking. It helped too, that there were clear chapters often with helpful headings and some of them very short. The chronology of events, though, was not always easy to follow.

I'm not sure that any of us were convinced that CM was in fact WS but we all acknowledged the huge
amount of research underpinning this work. We recognised many of the historical figures included.

The Marlowe papers prompted an animated discussion, during which we were reminded that the written works of the Elizabethan and earlier periods grew out of an oral tradition.

Comments included:
I enjoyed it more than expected but could only read it in bite size chunks.
Enjoyed it but not something I'd usually read for pleasure.
Clever. I learned from it. A satisfying read
I loved it. It flowed over me. The love scenes were beautifully written.

Several of us admired the effort behind it and the ability to sustain the medium of verse in such a long work.
One person did not enjoy it as much, being concerned about the historical accuracy. And found it took a lot of reading to extract the story.
The scores:6;7;6;7;5;7;8 = 6.5

April 2016 - The Great Stink by Clare Clark

A first novel, and the title puts you off. Of the six of us at the meeting, only 3 had read it, and one had tried. One found the thought of William cutting himself very gruesome, and didn't think he would have come home from the Crimea with the wound that he had. Self-mutilation in the sewers would surely have infected and killed him back in London.  We read for pleasure, not to be dragged through London's sewers, but the actual story  was quite good.

There are two stories here, one about William May the engineer on the London Sewer project, and the other about the poor man Long Arm Tom and his dog, who roams the sewers collecting rats for the rat fights.  William specifies the bricks for the new tunnels against the desires of his boss Hawkes who has the builder English  bribing him for the contract. When William insists that the contract goes elsewhere, English is found dead and William fitted up for it. William has periods of madness and is sent by his employers to an Asylum, but  then taken to the hulks to await trial. His wife cannot take the madness and is trying to forget him, despite the reduction in her circumstances.

Tom meanwhile sells his dog to the 'Captain' who gives him a written contract to supply the rest of the money in two more instalments, but then defaults. He is bitter about this, as he and the dog had a very close relationship, probably the only one of his life. Tom cannot read, so doesn't know what this contract actually says.

Both  William and Tom have hidden stuff in the brickwork of the sewers.

In trying to prove William's innocence, his lawyer is in the sewers when Tom comes down with the Captain to recover the bill of sale, which is actually a bill of sale for some straw that will prove Williams innocent and convict Hawkes. This is where the two stories come together as the Captain and Hawkes are actually the same man.  William is freed while Hawkes goes to the gallows.

William is reunited with his wife, and moves to the county to become a gardener. And Tom has his dog.

A mystery right through until the only good news at the end.

It is not Dickens- there is too much descriptive information about the sewers that is continually repeated.  Here is the pumping station that William was working on before he went to the asylum: http://www.crossness.org.uk/index.html.

As the author was an academic, and it was remarked that she had done a lot of research and couldn't bear not to use it.

Marks were 1,6,5,6  giving 4.5 as an average.