Short reviews catch-up – Susie Dent, Fred Sirieix, Barbara Pym, Michael Findlay

Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent

Popular broadcaster and lexcographer Susie Dent has written her first novel, after writing a handful of books all about words, and jolly good fun it was too. (I went to see her talk about it back in August.) And where else would a lexicographer choose to set their murder mystery but in the rarified world of dictionaries, and in Oxford. This, naturally, gives Dent the opportunity to introduce us to many words that will be new to the reader – not just in those with their definitions that top each chapter of the novel, but those that occur to the employees of the dictionary as they muse or use them in their lives – most are defined in the text without it becoming over-didactic. One word that has particularly stuck with me is ‘Onomastics’ – defined as ‘relating to the study of the history and origin of proper names.’

The plot revolves around the disappearance of Martha’s sister ten years previously, and mystery letters steeped in references (mostly, but not all Shakespearean) with fiendish cryptic clues, that start arriving at the Clarendon English Dictionary where Martha is the new head. Martha has a delightful set of quirky colleagues, young, old, disaffected, enthusiastic and so on – an inclusive bunch considering their ancient environs. There are some great twists and turns along the way – I was pants at solving the clues, beyond recognising some Shakespearean references, but did guess who was sending them in the latter stages. Slightly long, but an excellent first mystery from Dent.

Source: Own copy Zaffre hardback, August 2024, 416 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s or Amazon UK via my affiliate links.

Sirieixly Seriously British by Fred Sirieix

Sirieix, who is rarely off our screens these days, has now lived longer in the UK than in France. As a Francophile, I couldn’t resist seeing what Anglophile Fred, one of our many adopted Frenchmen, (whose daughter won a bronze medal for the UK in diving at the Olympics) has to say in praise about us Brits. His really entertaining book is full of his exploits and some insightful comparisons between British and French ways. Reading the book, it’s exactly as if he was talking to you – fast and direct, with a superb mastery of the English language.

A bit of a rebel, Fred arrived from Limoges with two suitcases off the ferry in 1992, aged twenty as soon as he finished his catering baccalaureat. A friend got him a waiting job at La Tante Claire, a French restaurant in Chelsea with three Michelin stars. He learned the business there and went on to La Gavroche etc etc. He lived in Peckham, loving the multicultural life and food, cycled to work, and later met his current Jamaican partner known as ‘Fruitcake’ there.

In each chapter Fred takes on a British quality that the French often mock, and explores the similarities and differences between the two nations. From sex and the British reserve to style, food and wine to the countryside, he debunks them all with total enthusiasm. It was great fun to read, quick too, easy to devour and be entertained by.

Source: Own copy. Bloomsbury hardback, Sept 2024, 270 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s or Amazon UK via my affiliate links.

Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym – Book Group read for Sept/Oct

In our Flora and Fauna A-Z, ‘G’ ended up being for Gazelle and Pym’s first novel, written in the early 1930s but not published until 1950. This tale of fiftyish spinster sisters, Belinda with her unrequited love for the horrid Archdeacon who married a better connected woman rather than her, and Harriet with her loving attention to assorted curates, has village rivalries to the fore to, but was found to be rather tedious by our group – a couple of whom commented that it needed a good murder to liven things up! Else it just goes on from chapter to chapter, going round in circles ending, after countless rejected marriage proposals, where it began with a new curate for Harriet to attend to, and Belinda to find solace in poetry. The most memorable scene involved cauliflower cheese complete with a juicy caterpillar hiding in it.

It is, reputedly, Pym’s least good novel, but did get her started… I’ve only read one other which I rather loved, Quartet in Autumn, from 1977. One of her last, and Booker nominated, it follows the lives of four sixty-somethings, nearing or just at retirement.

Portrait of the Art Dealer as a Young Man by Michael Findlay

My latest review at Shiny New Books is of this super memoir. Findlay, a young arts-loving Scot, arrives in NYC, via some time at a Canadian university on a scholarship, in the 1960s. He gets a job in a gallery and is on the ladder to eventually becoming an art dealer and gallery owner himself. He brings the art-scene of the period to life vividly (Yes Warhol is in it), and talks about the art, the artists, the collectors, the dealers in detail alongside his slightly wild life! Written with self-deprecating wit, this memoir was entertaining and a good introduction to many lesser-known artists of the time, supported by great illustrations.

Read my full review at Shiny HERE.

Prestel hardback, 288 pages, illus. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK P&P)