Monday 21 October 2024

The Comfort of Ghosts (Maisie Dobbs #18) - Book Review

 

The Comfort of Ghosts
(Maisie Dobbs, Book 18)
by  Jacqueline Winspear (2024)
Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
Audio book, 10 hrs and 6 mins



Jacqueline Winspear was born in 1955 and raised in Cranbrook, in Kent, England. She emigrated to the United States in 1990. She has stated that her childhood awareness of her grandfather's suffering in World War I led to an interest in that period - and to writing the Maise Dobbs series. 

Her character Maisie Dobbs was born a working class girl in England, but received an unusual education thanks to the patronage of her aristocratic employer, who took her on as a housemaid from when she was just in her early teens. During WWI Maisie worked as a nurse, and after that set up her own business as a private investigator. She grows older throughout the series of novels; and the stories and cases that Maise gets involved in reflect the times, from WWI through WW2. 

This 18th novel in the series is set just after the end of WWII, and I suspect it may be intended to be the last. Anyway it sums up quite a lot from the whole time period, and the ups and downs of Maisie's own life.

London, 1945: Four adolescent orphans with a dark wartime history are squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion—the owners having fled London under heavy Luftwaffe bombing. Psychologist and Investigator Maisie Dobbs visits the mansion on behalf of the owners and discovers that a demobilized soldier, gravely ill and reeling from his experiences overseas, has taken shelter with the group.

Maisie’s quest to bring comfort to the youngsters and the ailing soldier brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning Maisie’s first husband, James Compton, who was killed while piloting an experimental fighter aircraft. As Maisie unravels the threads of her dead husband’s life, she is forced to examine her own painful past and question beliefs she has always accepted as true.


As I have read all of the earlier books (some borrowed, some in paperback, some on Kindle, and some as audio books) over a period of 20 years, it's hard for me to guess how this last novel might come across to a new reader who has not read any of the previous ones. There is quite a bit of repetition of details in this one though, so perhaps it might actually work as an "independent" read as well. 

For my own part, I'm thinking of going back and maybe get additional audio book editions of some that I don't already have in that format. I think they have all been recorded by Orlagh Cassidy now; and I like her narration.


Sunday 20 October 2024

Just Weird

Out walking (around the old cemetery), from the corner of my eye, across a fence, I became aware of Something Blue that just did not fit in among the natural autumn colours...

I haven't got a clue what it's supposed to be. I uploaded my photo to Google Image Search and various images of weird art projects came up, as well as just rubbish dumped in nature. This definitely looks "made" rather than just dumped, though.

 

The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and vinyl. - Dave Barry


"I think winter wear is communal. You get some gloves and a scarf from a lost-and-found box, wash them, wear them for a while until you lose them. Then somebody else does the same thing."
- Adrian Grenier

 

 

Friday 18 October 2024

Autumn Gold - Weekend Reflections

 “Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.”

Two more photos from Thursday this week,
for Weekend Reflections

Thursday 17 October 2024

How Beautifully Leaves Grow Old

“How beautifully leaves grow old.
How full of light and color are their last days.”

– George Burns

Another sunny afternoon today, and after lunch (at home) I felt inspired to take the bus to the shopping centre "across town". Once there, however, I found that I had quite lost the inspiration for any actual shopping. After just a very quick look into a couple of shops, I just decided on a long walk back home instead.


 Passing by Jaume Plensa's House of Knowledge sculpture at the Textile Fashion Center.


Ooops... The bridge I'd normally have passed over on my way back is being re-constructed, a job that is not only currently causing major traffic chaos in that part of town, but not even allowing pedestrians to walk that way now...


 Sitting down to rest for a while on a bench, and staring at these... well, whatever they are... (Looking magically "silvery" in the backlight this time of year, anyway...)

 

Reching the city centre, I decided that my usual walk through the park, along the river, and across the old cemetery was undoubtedly still the nicest alternative (avoiding other various construction work going on here and there).

 Some trees have dropped all their leaves now.
Others have quite a few left still.


Autumn leaves floating on the surface of the river.

Wading ankle-deep in leaves in the old cemetery (not everywhere, but in some places).


Linking to Skywatch Friday

Wednesday 16 October 2024

Leaf Blowing Season

 


View from my window this morning

Probably a bit of frost during the night, followed by a bit of wind this morning... Now the leaves are dropping fast from the trees! Leaf blowers were already hard at work on the lawns outside my buildning when I got up today.

For me today was laundry day, so spent mostly indoors. But I was able to get started an hour early, so also finished early; and had time for a sunny afternoon walk afterwards. Today I enjoyed that special autumnal feeling (and sound!) of literally wading in dry leaves practially all the way around the old cemetery...


 


Certain trees have lost practially all their leaves, while others still have plenty left.



A comment on my previous post reminded me of a report that was published back in September, to do with which of the 20 largest cities in Sweden are the "greenest" - as in having the most trees and the most green areas etc. Comparing a number of different parameters of that kind, a study showed that BorĂ¥s has the greatest tree cover in relation to its surface area (52 percent), but is also at the top when it comes to the percentage of inhabited green space (58 percent). In total, we ended up as No 5 on the list. Although all the greenery is one reason that I like living here, I don't think I would have guessed!

Tuesday 15 October 2024

"Autumn is a Second Spring"

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower"
– Albert Camus

Yesterday after lunch I walked into town to get my seasonal flu + covid shots. My health care centre is in that building behind the trees. Things were well organised this year: No problems neither with registration, nor having to wait too long; and the procedure itself went smoothly and quickly (but without feeling rushed). There was a bit of light rain when I walked back, but no wind to speak of, so that was no problem either (I had an umbrella).
 

After a bit of rest at home, I went out again later for a shorter walk to the nearby branch library to return a book and borrow another. As I've mentioned before, we just recently got a small library back to my part of town, after it's been gone for a number of years. Probably only back temporarily but I intend to make use of it while it's here...  

Unfortunately it is difficult for me to read books with small print these days - one I returned now I ended up also borrowing online as audiobook to be able to finish it... (A Swedish book not available in English, so no use going into details here.)

I still like to browse around for a while when I'm there, though, because what I still find easier among "tactile" books is to just browse around without a clue what I'm looking for!


Today I woke up with two sore upper arms after the injections, but otherwise feeling okay. (No fever etc.)  After a lazy morning och some lunch, I went for a walk to the supermarket for just a few items, and on the way passed these magnificent RED rowan trees...





"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." - George Eliot
 

Sunday 13 October 2024

Just Walkin'





Above: Friday - walking around the old cemetery

Below: Saturday - walking into town and back




On Saturday afternoon I also spent some time preparing a post on my blog Greetings from the Past, for the Sepia Saturday October theme "Special Times". You can read that post here. It goes a bit beyond my personal family history - but it was my grandfather who took the photos!

Friday 11 October 2024

Autumn Reflections

Sunday 6 October

 

Tuesday 8 October

Wednesday 9 October

 

Wednesday 9 October

The past week here offered several opportunities for river reflections combined with autumn colours. :)

Wednesday 9 October 2024

This & That

 

Walked into town today for an appointment with my dental hygienist, just a routine checkup and treatment, and all went well with that. The sky was grey, but it did not rain, and there was no wind either - the river was almost like a mirror. 

 

Weather forecasts for the next couple of days here have changed a bit and now it seems that storm Kirk probably won't be affecting the area where I live much, but will follow the east coast up north . Will still be raining here tomorrow, but no special warnings issued.

Got a message that flu (+covid) vaccinations are starting here already this week; which is almost a month earlier than usual. Logged in for further info and managed (I think!) to book an appointment for that on Monday. Last year I remember it all got rather chaotic with long queues at the health care centre in spite of pre-booked appointments - I can only hope they've managed to organise it better this year... 

 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...