Julian Fellowes’s Belgravia is a new book/audiobook/app series from the creator of Downton Abbey. It is set in the Belgravia quarter of London in 1841 with a prequel set in Brussels in 1815. The lives of two families, the rich, titled Bellasis family and the nouveau riche Trenchards are brought together at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball and the effects are felt down the years. It is available in ebook format, as an audiobook and as an app. I believe a hard copy of the entire story will be released on July 5th. As an aside, isn’t that a gorgeous cover? What I liked The serialisation. Fellowes made the decision to release his story in instalments, with one chapter each week in the style of Charles Dickens or Alexandre Dumas. Usually the chapters would end on a cliffhanger to encourage you to come back the following week. I thought it was a really interesting idea, even if I didn’t follow it in practice. Although one chapter hit my Audible download queue as regularly as clockwork each Thursday, I actually ended up listening to it in a couple of marathon sessions. As with most Audible pre-orders it hit my queue at…
Hello and welcome to another reading roundup. I’ve clearly been on a bit of a social history kick lately – all of the books I’ve read and/or listened to in the last couple of weeks have had social change as a strong theme. Let me tell you about them. [book-info]The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson is a slice-of-life look at an English town in the summer of 1914, just before the First World War. This conflict had a profound impact on British life, especially in terms of the class system and women’s role in society and so this particular period of time about which Simonson writes is a real turning point. The author clearly has a strong knowledge of and interest in social history and it comes across very well in the book. Add to this wonderful, engaging characters (I’m heavily invested in our protagonist Beatrice Nash and young Snout) and this is a great read. I’m about two thirds of the way through the audiobook and enjoying it very much. Fiona Hardingham is undertaking narration duties and does an excellent job of distinguishing all the characters. [book-info number=1]The second social historical audiobook I’m enjoying is Julian Fellowes’…