Territorial Rights, missing the midnight and Slough House

 

Once I got over Muriel Spark showing off her knowledge of Venice, I warmed to this gentle farce with a wonderful set of characters. Having recently re-read Sarah Winman's "Still Life" and watched "Don't Look Now" I feel as if I know the city so well. A canal is described as "a narrow lane of Venetian water". It is Robert who seems to be the main character, a young man escaping events in Paris, but then he disappears half way through. His much older friend, the American (who insists of being called "Curran") becomes involved when Robert's father turns up with his lady friend in tow. There is stacks of brilliant dialogue and trademark Spark wit. I loved it.

The first in this collection of short stories, that gives this book it's title, was by far the best. It was first published twenty seven years ago in "The Oldie" magazine. A young woman is boarding a packed train on Christmas Eve, on her way home from a university where she has failed her exams, and lost an older lover. Was this affair the cause? On her way to a family who despise her and whom she herself despises. Forced with her loads of luggage into a first class carriage (is she not going back to Uni?) she is joined by a young couple and a priest, a father of one of them. How will she get from Kings Cross to Watford without any money? No, she does not borrow or steal. We find out at the very end. Just ten superb pages.

There is one short story called "Old Filth". This was published in 1996, and was the germ of the idea to which the author returned in 2004 with the novel of the same name, that turned into a prize winning trilogy and three of my favourite books of all time. So this short story was very familiar as the ex-QC Filth (Failed in London Try Hong Kong) is now eighty plonk and retired to Dorset. I cannot remember if this story actually told us his real name, but the novel obviously does. A recap about his career in the Far East and about his wife Betty, who now has died. His hated adversary Veneering has actually moved in next door, and avoided for a couple of years at all costs. Until .....

There are some stories that are strange and fantastical but not to my taste. Then "Soul Mates" is a spooky story about a retired couple meeting new friends at a hotel on holiday. Again, an unexpected ending. The last, much longer, story called "The Green Man" is another weird concoction of the myth. "Now you see him, now you don't".

Before reading Slough House, I found that my review of Joe Country, the previous book in the series, had noted "I quite enjoyed the first half of this book, however when the violence started I couldn't wait to finish". Slough House is exactly the same. There is some great stuff about the characters who return from the previous novel, lots of great dialogue, but I have to skip the violence. This time there is a sense of dread early in the book that turns out to be only too real. Just don't get me started on the ending.