Wednesday 12 December 2012

WWW Wednesday - The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp, The Anatomy of Ghosts



I've just finished reading a vintage copy of Charles Terrot's The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp, it was my weekend read. A story about a beautiful girl who appears in a London pawnshop with a full-sized harp to pawn and what happens to the people whose lives she changes. It is completely and utterly charming and I highly recommend it.

The book was made into a black and white film in the 1950's which I'm hoping to see soon, in the meantime there are Youtube clips.



I'm currently reading The Anatomy of Ghosts; an inquiry into the distressing circumstances surrounding an alleged apparition lately recorded in Cambridge. Set Down for the Curious in the Form of a Novel by Andrew Taylor, 2011. (Tuesday Teaser here) Completely different to The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp it is equally enthralling in an entirely different way:

"The ghost of murdered Sylvia Whichcote has been sighted prowling the grounds by Frank Oldershaw, a disturbed fellow commoner. When his anxious mother employs John Holdsworth, author of The Anatomy of Ghosts - a stinging account of why ghosts are mere delusion - to investigate the sighting, the uneasy status quo at Jerusalem is rapidly torn apart.

Holdsworth grows to realise that the sinister Holy Ghost Club governs the privileged life at Jerusalem with a rigour far more effective than anything the Master, Dr Carbury, could muster. And when Holdsworth finds himself haunted - not only by the ghost of his dead wife, Maria, but also Elinor, the very-much-alive Master's wife - his fate is sealed. He must unravel the circumstances surrounding Sylvia's death ... or the hauntings will continue."

 I have quite a few books in my "to read" pile but I'm thinking I might read this next : The Tudor Secret by Christopher Gortner.

It has rather mixed reviews from good

" The Tudor Secret is a story of intrigue, swordfights, scandal, schemes, lies, mysterious murders, opulent palaces, dark fortresses, secret loves, evil dukes, beautiful princesses, brave knights, clever spies and intrepid heroes. When I was a child, I was obsessed with The Three Musketeers. I couldn't honestly say how many times I read it and it’s still one of my favourite novels. The Tudor Secret belongs to that genre; a true swashbuckling melodrama – unputdownable, wholly improbable and fantastically addictive." Gareth Russell

to bad
 

"I'm afraid this book did not live up to my expectations.
I found the content uninteresting and the time line of a few days ridiculous!
The book centres on a naive country bumpkin coming to to London for the first time and suddenly he's a top spy with the ability to fight off experienced soldiers and win the trust of a future queen and all within hours!"  GinaS


 I wonder what I'll make of it? 

This is a WWW Wednesdays hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…


• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

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