Sadler's Birthday is the very first novel from Rose Tremain back in 1976. All alone is his big mansion, Jack Sadler is 76 and another birthday is on the horizon. The book is obviously full of his memories, particularly from when he first came to the house as a butler at the beginning of the second world war. Here are the elderly Colonel and his wife Madge, together with Vera the housemaid. But now they have all left or died. On his own, Jack is feeling his age: "he's been old it seemed for so long", a typical case of "senile decay"? "An awareness of your mediocrity".
But suddenly we are back to when his mother Annie was sixteen and living with her father Greg, a piano tuner. Annie is "far too timid and shy", but who would not be with her looks. But she does marry although all the family connections are sometimes vague. You have to work them out. Annie has been left with Jack, just a child then, and finds employment as a housekeeper. Jack leaves at fourteen to find his own path.
But it's Jack's memories of wartime in the big house that are the most interesting, especially when they take in a boy. Jack and Tom become close. Then watching the coronation on TV when a phone call is what makes the day memorable. But now Sadler has been on his own for twenty years with just visits from his housekeeper Vera. Feeling his age, thinking about his own mortality, he needed someone there but could not face another person living in that house. Rose Tremain gives us a poignant story for her first novel, one I was glad I found. Especially an old hardback from 1989 in such great condition.
Having mostly enjoyed eight of Mick Herron's novels, I cannot pretend that this was equally good. A story that revolves around a government enquiry with too many tedious interviews, is not what I expected. It starts off with familiar Herron action with Max Janacek escaping from his isolated cottage in the middle of the night following a home invasion. However we are then pitched into the Monochrome Enquiry Day 371 where civil servants Griselda Fleet and younger Malcolm Kyle have been installed to chair a bunch of oddballs (including an espionage novelist) who listen to various witnesses about the goings on in the security services. But with nothing special to say.
We soon know that this is actually a satire with all these nonsense interviews. The story backtracks to Day 279, but the witness is just a cleaner talking about malpractice at GCHQ when really it's just about the canteen! But the crux of these interviews makes up the main part of the book when who should appear as a witness but one "Alison North". We guess that is not her real name, and search our memories of previous books as to who this could be. She talks about her time in Berlin in 1994 where she has been posted by one David Cartwright (a familiar name) to spy on the service's team there. And to dig the dirt on one "Brinsley Miles" (head of station?) who could also be someone from other novels.
Now this could have been interesting, but somehow it isn't. It just seems to go on and on, going nowhere. The writer seems to indulge himself in long tedious goings on. All for the ending to be like one of those old Agatha Christie stories where everything comes thick and fast at the end where you fail to grasp who was who, what actually happened and who was to blame. So the book is about the investigation, not the realisation. And it was too long.
Not long into the first of these short stories we start to understand the nature of then title of the book. They veer into the realms of fantasy which is not my favourite genre.
The Void
It starts with "the old man" who we gather is Barbara's father and grandfather to Genevieve. It is the latter who takes up the story of a world wide apocalypse that is shown all over the TV. "The greatest disaster since the dinosaurs".
Dogs in Jeopardy
Now this is a really witty story about Franklin who is touring the race courses of the north. His mother's "racy" friends included the latest stepfather called Ted. ("Franklin's favourite by many lengths"). Now Franklin, despite being handsome and having lots of girlfriends, is now thirty eight and unlucky in love? We learn his father was "immolated" three weeks before he was born. (Think Grand Prix).
Blithe Spirit
Mandy is dead. There are actually some things she can still do, but others she cannot. Like being stuck in the North. She can remember her life but not her death. Her boss Jonathon had told her "paperwork never sleeps". It did when you are dead. Suddenly she is watching her own autopsy (that's different) and finds that she has been shot. It gets more and more surreal.
Spellbound
A queen in a fairytale is not really what this story is about. It's about Florence who has four sisters and one tiny brother. He father is a country vicar, services are mainly deserted except for weddings. The church is very beautiful.
The Indiscreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
We are back to Franklin. He meets Connie and they immediately are having an affair. This leads to him meeting her well to do family. (He is completely out of their league). Connie's sisters are Patience, Constance and Faith. The lunch is hilarious. He stays the night!
Shine Pamela, Shine
Pamela has retired from teaching at the local primary school. Divorced from Colin (no surprise there). Her son Nicholas is a waster and still living with her. Shocked when arriving home one evening to find a coven of book club women.
Existential Marginalisation
No, I have no odea what that means. The story is equally bonkers.
Classic Quest 17 - Crime and Punishment
Franklin and Connie are back, this time meeting the vicar prior to their wedding. But things go downhill for Franklin at yet another lunch.
Puppies and Rainbows
Skylar is a young American film star over here making a new movie. But a troubled person. This story just seems to be a description of a succession of different drugs. A little adventure during some time off has a sad ending.
Gene-sis
Kitty is single and a "creative" at an advertising agency. She likes lists, "Primogeniture: an evil word". "She liked bright, sparkling things. She had a bit of magpie in her. Also some Indian elephant, a morsel of bat, a scrap of sloth and a few strands of wolf. All useful on occasion". But who is she really, inventing the world? See title.
What If?
Of course it's Franklin in the last story, ferrying some mad woman to the studio. Will they ever get there? It's as surreal as the others. I was not impressed.
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