Book worm reviews

In each 'Book worm' post, I review all the books I have read the previous month, no matter how varied. I am looking forward to discovering what takes my attention in a year. Coming up are the books devoured in April and May 2010:

Calvin and Hobbes - Scientific Progress Goes ‘Boink’
Mr Toppit, by Charles Elton
The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton
The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
Cat Among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie
The Birds and Other Stories, by Daphne du Maurier
The E Before Christmas, by Matt Beaumont

APRIL 2010

Calvin and Hobbes - Scientific Progress Goes ‘Boink’, by Bill Watterson
First published in the USA by Andrews and McMeel 1991
This edition published by Warner Books 1993

Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip drawn by Bill Watterson from 1985 to 1995, explores very human foibles and dreams through the eyes of the protagonist, six-year old Calvin, and his tiger Hobbes, a toy to everyone except him. It can be poignant yet very funny, and Bill’s artistic talent shines through the panels, almost drawing on German expressionism for the use of shadow and and strange angling. He also is a brilliant poet and executor of words – you don’t often get alliterative haikus within cartoons - and has a very original way of thinking that perfectly suits the nature of Calvin. I absolutely love this comic strip, and although I am sad that Bill Watterson ‘retired’ Calvin and Hobbes in 1995, I am very pleased he didn’t sell out as he surely could have done, and plastered their images on everything plastic that could sell. Very commendable, and I admire his principles.


Mr Toppit, by Charles Elton
First published by Viking 2009
This edition published by Penguin Books, 2009

This is Charles Elton’s debut novel and the idea is excellent – a father writes a fictional book based on his child which becomes a cult way-of-life, but causes destruction for the author's family. There are obvious parallels with how the book of Winnie-the-Pooh affected the life of the real Christopher Robin, and perhaps even how Harry Potter took the world by storm, but although the parallels are there this story stands up nicely on its own, and gives an eye-opener into the book publishing world, as well as a fantasy glance as to how a child might cope with their father immortalising them forever on paper.

But someway along the line this book seemed to morph into something else completely, almost if it was unsure of the original audience/intention and thought it needed to insert a bit of Jackie Collins / chick-lit to liven it up. I didn’t believe in the metamorphosis of one of the characters, Laurie, and actually she was more interesting a character in the first rendition. Likewise Rachel’s character was drawn too paper-thin, and I couldn’t believe (nor care) about her either. Some of the characters’ reactions seemed a bit off to the situations around them; they would say or do things that made me wonder if a real person would really act that way. Sometimes I couldn’t quite tell what year the situations were set in – the surroundings were modern yet the reactions seemed to belong to a much earlier age.

This is me being awfully picky of course, probably because I loved the idea, and as I was reading I was disappointed when the focus seemed to slip and change. But I will read this again at some point, and think perhaps my liking may grow on a second read-through.


The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton
Published by Pan Books, an imprint of Pan McMillan Ltd, 2007

As I finished this book I immediately thought of the film ‘Atonement’ – adapted from the 2001 bestseller book by Ian McEwan. It is an unfair comparison in many ways as this book does stand on its own but there are similarities – however, this could be purely because both are set in the same era in a grand house, and both use water (pond/fountain) as one of the main plot settings. So let’s put that to one side for now.

The sheer size of this book put me off at first – I have not read this author’s work before and to plunge in for 393 pages was a big commitment. I was very glad I did though, as it is a skilfully written book that was a pleasure to read, and definitely helped transport me from the commute to an earlier age of innocence, class, and posh houses in the country. There are a lot of divisions in this book – the ‘upstairs, downstairs’ aspect of life in the grand house, the flicker between present and past as the main protagonist, Grace, tells her story. But it is seamless – nothing jars, everything flows as it ought to, and you find yourself caring about the characters, especially Grace.

My only note of criticism would be that the main plot device - the crux of the actual ‘secret’ - isn’t big enough for the build up. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I was expecting a bigger secret as the pay off for the length of the book.

I would love to see a film of this book as I think it would be shot so beautifully, but I wonder if that is impossible because of the success of Atonement. It would be a clever director to highlight the differences between both stories on screen. However, as a debut novel, Kate Morton certainly delivers a good story, and I would definitely look out for her name again.