Julia in Ireland - Ann Bridge

Well, I've come to the end of the Julia Probyn series by Ann Bridge. Julia in Ireland is the last book in the series, published in 1973, just a year before the author's death. I've enjoyed the series very much & although there are no more Julia Probyns, Bloomsbury have also reprinted several of Ann Bridge's standalone novels. Enchanter's Nightshade has been recommended to me by a friend so that may be my next Ann Bridge.

Julia in Ireland is almost a coda to the series. It's quite different from the earlier books. There's none of the espionage & excitement of the rest of the series in this book. It begins, as several of the books begin, at Glentoran, the Highland estate of the Munro family. Julia has been a widow for several years & working for British Intelligence in Morocco. She visits Glentoran accompanied by Gerald O'Brien who wants to marry her. Julia's son, Philip, is being brought up at Glentoran & Julia, unsure about marrying Gerald, wants the two to meet. Gerald is aware of Julia's indecision & wants her to visit his home in County Mayo before she gives him an answer.

Julia goes to Ireland & stays with her friends the O'Haras, visiting Gerald at weekends. She becomes involved in stopping an unscrupulous developer from building a casino & hotel on an unspoilt part of the coast.  In the process, she gets to know Gerald & to love the beauty of his home. She also, in typical Julia fashion, has lots of ideas for improving his home with her own furniture & pictures. Julia is still essentially Julia - confident, decisive, clever & determined once she has an idea in her head. There are some very funny scenes. Julia arrives to visit an old lady who has been inveigled into agreeing to sell her land to the developer. As she arrives, £5 notes are blown all over the drive. She gathers them up to find the crafty old lady trying to count the deposit she's been given for the land. More idyllically, Julia & Gerald spend a golden day salmon fishing that helps her to decide what she really wants to do about his proposal.

The Julia Probyn novels are an appealing mixture of suspense & travel. Julia runs rings around most of the people she encounters, including agents working for several countries. That's what I love, the fact that in the 50s & 60s, there was a female heroine who was virtually James Bond without any of the silly gadgets & catchphrases. Of course, she does speak several languages & can drive any car ever made but she does it with such charm. Julia is always at least two steps ahead of the goodies & the baddies, organizing everyone around her & yet she's not annoying, she's just quietly efficient. She usually sorts out a few personal difficulties for friends & family along the way as well. Her uncertainty & diffidence when it comes to her own emotions is very appealing. It makes her more believable. I'm very glad I had the chance to make her acquaintance.

Ann Bridge was a diplomat's wife & lived all over the world. She used her husband's postings as settings for many of her novels & her beautiful descriptions of place & history are testament to the fact that she just soaked it all in. Her books remind me of Mary Stewart's novels of romantic suspense. Bloomsbury have just started reprinting Jane Aiken Hodge's novels &, although I mostly remember her historical romances, I've downloaded Strangers in Company, which sounds more like a Stewart or Bridge novel. A woman on a Greek holiday encounters danger & suspense. I'm looking forward to reading it.

The Episode at Toledo - Ann Bridge

The Episode at Toledo is the 6th book in the Julia Probyn series of novels by Ann Bridge. I'm so pleased that Bloomsbury included these books in their wonderful Bloomsbury Reader list of e-books as I've loved reading them. There are only two more in the series & I was very tempted to go straight on to the next one last night when I finished this. It's that old dilemma - do I space the books out so that they last or rush on to the next one & finish the series knowing there will be no more?

Hungarian Countess Hetta from The Portuguese Escape has married British diplomat Richard Atherley & they're now living in Madrid. When an American admiral arrives to inspect the location for a NATO base, Hetta is horrified to recognize a Hungarian Communist acting as his chauffeur. The chauffeur, Luis, was involved in the expulsion of the nuns Hetta lived with in Hungary during the Soviet invasion & she recognizes him even though he's changed his name & now has American papers. She discovers a plot to assassinate Admiral Luxworthy but in foiling the attempt, the chauffeur, Luis, recognizes her & her life, & that of her unborn child, are in danger.

Hetta retreats to Gralheira, the Portuguese estate of the Duke of Ericeira, along with the Duke's daughter, Luzia, who is hoping to become engaged to Nick Heriot, the young man she met while living with Julia in the previous book, Emergency in the Pyrenees. Even at Gralheira, Hetta is not safe, as the Spanish members of the Communist cell follow her & make another attempt on her life during a partridge shoot. Again, it's unsuccessful & the gunman is captured. He attempts suicide & Hetta's quick thinking means that a Spanish speaking priest is available to give him comfort & hear his confession. However, as he's a Communist, he refuses to confess yet tells the priest vital information before his death. Even after the Atherleys return to Madrid, Hetta has to overcome further danger before she can retreat to Glentoran to spend the few months before her child is born in safety.

This is much more Hetta's story than Julia's. Julia is living at Glentoran, the Highland estate of her cousins the Munros, with her son while her husband, Philip Jamieson, is on an assignment in the Middle East. She starts the ball rolling by contacting an old friend in British intelligence when she receives letters from Hetta & Luzia with cryptic information. She also arranges Hetta's retreat to Scotland with her usual efficiency. Hetta has grown up considerably since we last met her. Where she was once a headstrong girl with very definite ideas about right & wrong, she has learnt to modify her opinions a little in the diplomatic circles she now moves in. Her relationship with the worldly priest, Monsignor Subercaseaux, shows this very well. Hetta disliked the Monsignor when they first met because she had very austere ideas of how priests should live. She discovers in this book that a priest can be wise as well as worldly & the Monsignor's connections are vital in helping to expose the Communists & prevent an assassination attempt on another American official.

As always the main delights of these books is not really the espionage plot but the setting & the recurring characters. I loved the few scenes set at Glentoran, meeting Mrs Hathaway again & especially the scenes at Gralheira, the Ducal estate in Portugal. Nick Heriot arrives to meet Luzia's father, the Duque & they are soon great friends. Nick is eager to learn about the estate which will be his home & he has some ideas of his own about modernising & improving life for the estate workers as well as the family. Nick's parents, Lord & Lady Heriot also arrive for a visit & the Duque is soon eagerly showing them the wine pressing & arranging a partridge shoot.

Hetta & Luzia are the driving forces behind all the detection. The local security forces & even Richard Atherley & the Ambassador, just trail around in their wake trying to catch up. They're energetic & determined young women - assassins & Communist plots haven't got a chance. The Episode at Toledo is an exciting, adventurous story with engaging characters & beautiful settings. I loved it & I don't know what I'm going to do when I get to the end of the series.

The Dangerous Islands - Ann Bridge

After my little e-reader hiccup, I'm glad to say I've been able to get back to reading Ann Bridge's series of novels about Julia Probyn. The Dangerous Islands is set in Scotland, Ireland & the Scilly Isles & involves sailing, espionage & romance in equal measure.

Julia is at Glentoran, visiting her cousins the Munros. On a sailing trip around the Hebrides, Julia & Colin Munro discover a suspicious installation on a remote island. They suspect it's a radio transmitter, planted by the Russians to transmit satellite positions & other information to Moscow. This is 1963, so the Cold War is raging, & Colin's job in the Secret Service means that he needs to pass the information on & have it investigated. Philip Jamieson is dispatched from London to investigate. Jamieson, with help from Julia, is able to locate several more transmitters on remote islands. They also keep running into three Russians pretending to be Scandinavians on a trawler that has no legitimate reason to be there. Jamieson disables the transmitters & the search for more leads them to Ireland & the Scilly Isles.

Julia's friend, Mary Hutchinson, is concerned about her old friend Professor Burbage. The Professor has been acting suspiciously & his archaeological excavations seem to be taking place very close to the locations of the transmitters. He seems nervous when Julia meets him & his reputation is already under a cloud because he's suspected of helping the Russians when he worked in the Middle East. Julia's affection for the Professor makes her very protective of him & Jamieson's determination to do his job regardless of personal feelings complicates their personal relationship, especially when it becomes obvious that he's falling in love with Julia. Julia's feelings about him are equally romantic until she hears a rumour about his personal life that disconcerts her. The climax of the story on the Scillys is exciting & tragic but, as with all good adventure stories, right prevails & the good guys (mostly) live to fight another day.

The Dangerous Islands is another rollicking adventure for Julia & her friends. I've always loved reading about Scotland & the first section of the book involving the sailing trip around the Hebrides, is very exciting. I know it's a product of the period when the book was written but Julia's cousin, Edina, now married to Philip Reeder who we met in the first book, A Lighthearted Quest, spends a lot of time on the boat cooking & cleaning. Julia does much more in the way of sailing & exploring. When you think that Edina was practically running Glentoran single-handed in the first book, I was a bit annoyed to see her so diminished by marriage into a galley slave! It reminded me of the Famous Five - George the tomboy out there with the boys & Anne already in training as a good wife & mother. This kind of domestic stereotyping doesn't usually bother me as I read a lot of books of this period & earlier but I thought it was very marked here. Maybe I haven't read enough thrillers.

Julia herself is still a very attractive character. I enjoy the fact that she's independently wealthy & can just race off at a moment's notice on a trip to Ireland where naturally she has friends with a beautiful estate. She ingratiates herself with the locals wherever she goes & even when she visits the Scillies for the first time, has no trouble in finding out any necessary information. She's a natural intriguer & spy, if the Secret Service ever decide to employ her officially, instead of being content with her unofficial help. For all Julia's outward confidence, she hasn't been particularly successful in her romantic relationships so far. Her relationship with Philip Jamieson seems promising but there are four more books in the series & I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to them next.

As always in this series, the locations are important. All the island settings are beautifully described, the scenery, history & local legends are a part of the story & really add to the atmosphere of a very exciting plot & a cast of characters that I'm looking forward to meeting up with again.

The Numbered Account - Ann Bridge

I've just raced through the third book in the Julia Probyn series. I'm completely addicted to Ann Bridge & I can't thank Bloomsbury Reader enough for bringing her books back into print. I'm even downloading non-Julia Probyn books even when there's no synopsis & I have no idea what they're about. That's the definition of true addiction for me. Bloomsbury have just completed the Julia Probyn series by releasing The Episode at Toledo (the further adventures of Hetta from The Portuguese Escape) & I've also downloaded The Tightening String & Enchanter's Nightshade. If anyone has read these & can tell me what they're about, I'd love to know.

The Numbered Account is set in Switzerland. Julia goes to Switzerland to accompany her great friend Mary Hathaway's maid, Watkins. Mrs Hathaway is ill & staying with a friend. She wants to relieve his household of the burden of her care & Julia agrees to take Watkins, a nervous traveller, out to Switzerland to look after her. When her cousin, Colin Munro, hears about her trip, he asks her to look into a little problem of his own. His fiancée, Aglaia Armitage, has just become a wealthy heiress after the death of her grandfather, Greek tycoon, Orestes Thalassides. His money is safely stowed away in a numbered account in a Swiss bank & can only be accessed by a representative with the appropriate documentation & bona fides. Mr Thalassides' will is a little vague as to his intentions & Aglaia's mother has just sent her on a trip to South America so Julia agrees to visit Aglaia's godfather, a Swiss pastor, get all the necessary passwords & retrieve Aglaia's money.

Of course, it's not that simple. Julia has no trouble with the Swiss pastor but on her way, she discovers that a girl impersonating Aglaia, along with two men calling themselves her godfather & fiancé are also on their way to dupe the bank out of the money. Blueprints for a top secret & very valuable oil transportation system are also at stake & soon British Intelligence are involved as well as the imposters & some very sinister Germans. When the bank hands over the money & the blueprints to the imposters, Julia is soon on the trail, befriending the false Miss Armitage & crossing swords with John Antrobus, British Intelligence's man on the spot.

This is another exciting adventure set in an exotic location & I loved it. Julia visits Aglaia's godfather in his idyllic country parsonage, picks wildflowers on mountainsides with Antrobus, rides a funicular railway to a mountaintop & sweet talks her way in & out of several very tricky situations. In a way, the locations are the real stars of this series. Ann Bridge must have been a great observer on her travels as she makes the countries she writes about come alive. Julia is her usual supremely confident self, although her personal vanity takes a hit when she meets her match in John Antrobus.

As a lover of all things Scottish, I'm especially looking forward to the next Julia Probyn adventure, The Dangerous Islands, set on the west coast & islands of Scotland. My dilemma is, do I just gulp the whole series down by Christmas or should I try to make them last all summer? I do have those unknown Ann Bridge novels to look forward to & there's always the chance that there will be more to come, including, fingers crossed, Illyrian Spring? Decisions, decisions!

There's a copy of The Numbered Account available to buy at Anglophile Books.

Bloomsbury Reader

I was beside myself with excitement to discover Bloomsbury Reader, a new initiative of Bloomsbury Publishing to resurrect some fantastic authors in print on demand & e-book editions. Simon at Stuck in a Book posted about this last week & I couldn't wait to whiz through their list here. I'd read some months ago about Bloomsbury reprinting Monica Dickens who has enjoyed a little mini revival with Persephone reprinting Mariana & The Winds of Heaven in recent years. Then, when I saw the list & realised that I could download my choices onto my e-reader instantly, I was even more excited.

There are a few downsides to the Bloomsbury Reader website. There's no rhyme or reason to the listing. It's not alphabetical or any other order I can make out. There's no way to limit your search just to e-books so the same titles pop up twice in both formats but not together. There's no subject listing, not even fiction & non-fiction. You can search by author but you need to know who's there to do a usable search. There are no blurbs - well, there were no blurbs on any of the titles I looked at. With 57 pages to go through, it's a bit frustrating.

However, all is not lost. I pasted the ISBN into the search engine at The Book Depository & there are blurbs for most of the titles I was interested in. AND, the e-books are around 40% cheaper than the RRP so that makes them around $6.60AU. Much more reasonable than the print on demand physical books which I think are expensive at around $18 & I'd have to wait for them to arrive in the post. I can buy the Virago edition of Rose Macaulay's Told by an Idiot for $18 so why would I choose a POD edition instead?

So, I've had a little splurge & bought 9 titles. Personal Pleasures & Letters to a Friend by Rose Macaulay, Faster! Faster! & Late & Soon by E M Delafield, The Queens & the Hive by Edith Sitwell, Company Parade & The Road from the Monument by Storm Jameson, Kate & Emma by Monica Dickens & A Lighthearted Quest by Ann Bridge (because I read Fleur Fisher's review here & it sounds wonderful & if I enjoy it, the whole series is available from Bloomsbury Reader. So, quibbles about the website aside, I'm thrilled with this new venture & hope it's a success & that Bloomsbury keep adding authors to the list (in some sort of order & with blurbs please).

I'll leave you with a question. Margaret Irwin is one of the authors on the list & I loved her historical novels which I read many years ago. Does anyone know anything about another of her books called Still She Wished For Company? It looks contemporary rather than historical from the only cover I can find on the internet but I can't find anything on the plot. I'm also tempted by Phyllis Bentley's novels. I always remember her from Vera Brittain's diaries of the 30s. They had a tentative friendship wrecked by Vera's superiority & Phyllis's lack of self-esteem & touchiness. She was famous for her historical, regional saga, Inheritance, & there are more of her novels on the list. But, I have enough to be going on with at the moment. At least the tbr shelves on my e-reader are invisible.