Escaping into Fiction

Because we need to, now and again

Pull Up A Chair is a weekly newsletter containing all the things I’d like to be chatting about if we could hang out together in real life. Every week, I start with three things I’ve enjoyed, and then write in more detail about something I’ve been thinking about. 

• 📕 Penelope in Retrograde by Brooke Abrams. This was full of the romance-novel tropes we (okay, I) love - home for the holidays, fake dating, trapped in a small space with an ex, eccentric grandma - but the author subverted them as often as she lived up to them, and I really enjoyed this. I’d especially recommend it if you’re someone who celebrates Thanksgiving or generally feels a bit nervous going back to where you grew up. And, per one Amazon reviewer: ‘ yes there was a bit of wokism there but not too much’, which I think we have to take as a glowing review in this time of polarisation 😉 (Amazon | Bookshop.org - ad, affiliate links)

• 🧁 Smitten Kitchen’s spiced applesauce cake. I had made this recipe before, so when I realised the 24 hours I was going to spend at my parents’ house this week overlapped with my mum having her dog-walking friends over for coffee (I know, how disgustingly wholesome), I knew I had to bake this. Applesauce as part of desserts isn’t so much a thing in the UK, so I had to buy multiple of the small condiment-sized jars in the supermarket, but as they were only 60p a jar, that was bearable. And I continue to be in love with the autumn-spiced cream cheese frosting. (This time around, I made the recipe as big chunky muffin-sized cupcakes; the recipe made 12 and I baked them for about 17 minutes at 175 Celsius in a fan oven).

• 📺 Daisy Jones & The Six. Now the writers’ strike is over, I think I can talk about the TV and films I’ve been enjoying this summer? I finally started the adaptation of Daisy Jones & The Six last month, and it was fantastic. You could see just how much money had been spent on it - worth watching for the clothes and hair alone.

I’m specifically not talking about current events this week - they’re really scary for everyone lately and I hope we can see peace soon.

Last weekend, I went to the final event of Bath Children’s Literature Festival, featuring the wonderful Jo Nadin and Laura Wood to talk about historical fiction and love stories in particular. I’d been meaning to buy a copy of Nadin’s A Calamity of Mannerings for ages, so was very glad to take the opportunity to get one signed, as well as to soak up all the wisdom she had to share with us. Joanna Nadin is currently working on her one hundredth book - let that soak in - and her writing career to date has included all sorts of interesting things like speechwriting for politicians.

Laura Wood, though - I have talked about her books on this newsletter before, but not for a while - and I thought it was time to rectify that, and to tell you all about my absolute favourite of her books.

As well as middle-grade fiction (for readers aged about 8-12), Dr Laura Wood (I always forget she has a PhD, but she’s so terrifyingly intelligent it isn’t a surprise) has five swoony Young Adult novels, another coming next spring, and, most excitingly, her first adult romance coming out next summer. The five currently available YA novels are: A Sky Painted Gold, Under A Dancing Star, A Snowfall of Silver, A Single Thread of Moonlight, and The Agency For Scandal. One thing I especially love about Laura’s novels is that they prove the point that romance novels don’t have to have any on-page detail (these are shelved in the teen section, after all) to be incredibly sexy and steamy. Steam without spice, perhaps?

More about my favourite: A Snowfall of Silver.

The book’s blurb is as follows:

A snow-dusted love story.

In the Autumn of 1931, eighteen-year-old Freya Trevelyan runs away from her home in Cornwall to follow her dream of becoming an actress. When she is invited to join a theatrical company about to head out on tour, Freya thinks the path to success is clear, and, amidst all the glamour and bustle of stage life, she finds - for the first time - a place to belong.

But can reality ever live up to her expectations? What if her life - and falling in love - turn out to be nothing like she planned?​

An enchanting coming of age romance about following your dreams - even when they aren't quite what you expected.

The gorgeous thing about fiction set in this interwar period (like I Capture The Castle) is that, even as storm clouds of World War 2 are looming (most obviously shown in Under A Dancing Star), the characters think they’re living in a ‘post-war’ period. Although the 1918-9 flu pandemic doesn’t tend to appear in fiction itself, the hard-partying attitude - and determined attempts to enjoy themselves - that characters in 1920s-and-30s-set fiction have is undoubtedly a response to that and the ‘Great War’ before it. As part of that, the characters take for granted that the world they live in is modernity - and there are some aspects of it that feel incredibly similar to our world today (while being totally historically plausible).

The gorgeous thing about this book in particular is that it’s set in the theatre. I am a sucker for a theatre book, and there just aren’t enough of them out there (am I writing a romance set backstage in the pantomime at the moment? Well, I’m not not writing it… 😉). This novel is full of the scent of greasepaint and the sense of slight debauchery, while being infused with the optimism its characters have that the world will continue getting better for creatives like them. I loved it. (And I really need to re-read it!).

The world is unrelentingly grim at the moment, so if you’ve not read any of Laura’s books yet - this would be a great time to pick them up. Her next books are available to pre-order: A Season For Scandal (the follow-on to Agency, featuring a florist named, delightfully, Marigold Bloom!) and Under Your Spell. (And if anyone from Scholastic or Simon & Schuster is reading… I’d love a review copy 😜)

Speak soon,

Lily

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