We live on the outskirts of a fantastic town, called St Just,
about 9 miles from Penzance, (the best train station to come in to), in
Cornwall, UK. It is the most wonderful community, with amazing people, fabulously,
useful shops, heavenly cafes, and just so much to do! In July, we made a 13ft
Snow White out of willow/withies, and paper, for our local festival, Lafrowda,
to promote Pendeen Pantomime. Anyway, I am digressing…in our lovely town, there
is a post office, which also sells second-hand books for 20p (money going to
Cancer Research). I always find treasures in that pile of books, and one of
those treasures helped me discover a new author, who I hadn’t read before:
Susan Wittig Albert (https://susanalbert.com/),
a best-selling author in America, but not one I had heard of in the UK, which,
if you read the rest of this post, you may find truly surprising!
So I started off with “The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber
Tree”, (one of a series of 5 books), and I loved it. It isn’t deep, but it is
engaging, entertaining, and educational. It is set in the 1930s, in a small
town called Darling, and is about the members of a gardening club, The Darling
Dahlias, who unravel the story behind the mysterious death of a local blond
bombshell. Being a small town, there are lots of rumours, leading to
speculation and drama. The story is full of wonderful characters, and at the
start of the book, there is a brief biography for each one. For example, Miss
Dorothy Rogers, is Darling’s librarian. She knows the Latin name of every plant
and insists that all the garden club members know them too! The author writes
really well, and clearly researches her topic, because there are useful details
about gardening, and at the back of the book there is a section called “Makin’
do: 12 ways to stretch whatever we have”, which is full of useful advice, still
relevant in today’s society. For example, “Save
old letters and envelopes and use the backs or notes and lists. But be careful
not to use a letter you don’t want someone else to read.” Finally, there
are recipes, along with interesting facts, from food that is described in the
book, for example, Florabelle’s Soda Bread, and Euphoria;s Peanut Butter
Meringue Pie. The author seems to include recipes in all her books, some more
appetising than others 😊
Once I had finished that book, I was intrigued to know more
about this author. I soon found that she has written lots of books. Two series
are along the same lines as the first Darling Dahlias book, set in small American
towns, with lots of gossipy and earnest characters. But she has also written a
series of books which feature Beatrix Potter as a character, and not only in
her capacity as an author, but also as a sleuth! Now, being a huge fan of
Beatrix Potter, I was a little concerned about an American author turning the
most wonderful Beatrix Potter into a detective, so I ordered just one of The Cottage
Tales of Beatrix Potter series of 8 books. I started off with “The Tale of
Briar Bank”, and it was absolutely charming, and so clever. The author portrays
Beatrix Potter, just as one might imagine her, describing her life in the Lake
District, the challenges she faces with her family, and being a new farmer in a
man’s world, and her growing romance with Will Heelis, whom she eventually
married in real-life, I believe. It is so well-researched, it is difficult to
tell what it fact and what is fiction. I really love this series of books,
because it not only presents such a brilliant picture of what it was like in
the Lake District at that time, but it also integrates Beatrix Potter’s
characters so well, alongside new animal characters. So, you have wonderful
human characters, along with the original Beatrix Potter animals who meet new
ones created by Susan Wittig Albert. Beatrix Potter is still a successful
author, but is also a very well-respected part of the community, with many
friends and admirers. In these stories, she has a knack of being very
perceptive and manages to resolve any issues between other characters in the
book. And this proves very useful, because in this series, there are many
problems which need a calm and fair person to find a resolution. But, on top of
the usual village goings-on, there is also a mystery to be solved, and in this
book, someone is killed, and treasure is involved. Beatrix Potter does solve
the mystery, along with Brock the Badger, and Rascal, a Jack Rascal Terrier, and
in the two books I have read of this series, the answer is not at all what I
thought!
The second book I read in this series, is The Tale of Hawthorn House,
another mystery, about an abandoned baby, and the sad demise of a farmer. The
villagers, suspect fairy-folk involvement, but Beatrix Potter, despite having
such a wonderfully creative mind, figures out what really happened, and ensures
that everything becomes right with the world again. In this book, you are
reminded of the story of poor Jemima Puddleduck, who just wanted to raise
ducklings, but everyone thought she was too fickle to remember to look after
them. In this book, the story continues, and you find out what happens next to
Jemima. There is quite a troubling section about badger baiting, which I didn’t
like, because it explained it quite thoroughly, but it did also make me
understand quite a bit, so I found that very educational. Once again, at the
end of each book, there are useful additions, including a list of resources,
which the author used to inform the book, recipes from food mentioned, and a
glossary to explain the dialect. I am not from the Lake District, so I don’t
know how accurate it is. If you like Beatrix Potter, then I think you might
like this series. The books are so well-written, magical, informative, and I
really treasure them. I have managed to track down another two, which I will
read once I have
At 79 years of age, Susan Wittig Albert is still going
strong, and has another book published this year – “A Plain Vanilla Murder”. The
common themes to all of her books are that they involve natural history in some
way, they have strong female and feminine leads, they contain recipes and
other, useful supporting material, and they are just a very good read. Let me
know what you think!
