THE PERFUME GARDEN - a guest post by Kate Lord Brown

This story has been ten years in the writing. In 2000, we moved to Valencia in Spain, and settled in a small whitewashed house in the orange groves. My husband was training to be a pilot, and I had the chance to concentrate on writing full time. Well, I say ‘full time’ - my daughter was born in Valencia, and I wrote when she slept. It felt like full time after years of squeezing my writing in around a day job in London – I used to get up at 5.30am to write for an hour before getting ready for work, my keyboard balanced on my husband’s sock drawer in the corridor of our tiny flat.

In Valencia, I finally had peace, and space, and time. I fell in love with the place, pushing a pram through the orange trees, the scent of neroli on the warm breeze coming down from lavender mountains. While my husband studied, I explored the city, walking for miles with the baby. Valencia is known as Spain’s third city – tourists generally head to Madrid or Barcelona, but they are really missing something.

I wanted to know more about the history of the place we had made our home. Even young friends would clam up and quickly change the subject if you asked them about the Spanish Civil War. Valencia played a key part – it was the last place to fall to Franco’s forces. The more I researched the devastating history of the war, the more I understood the temptation to try and forget the past.

‘The Perfume Garden’ is filled with so much I loved about Spain, and everything I have learnt since talking to historians, and reading the accounts of people who lived through the war. It weaves together the contemporary storyline of a young mother building a new life there, and the tragic events her family experienced. It wasn’t easy living with the research for years – there were plenty of times when I wondered how I could face learning about yet another atrocity, or terrible battle, but I hope that this story is redemptive, and shines with the remarkable strength of the human spirit, and the extraordinary sacrifices ordinary people make for democracy and freedom.

 ‘The Perfume Garden’ by Kate Lord Brown is published by Atlantic on June 1^st 2012

http://perfumegarden.blogspot.com/

www.katelordbrown.com

Book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qViezOftdpM

Available at Amazon, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfume-Garden-Kate-Lord-Brown/dp/1848879334

The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown

High in the hills of Valencia, a forgotten house guards its secrets. Untouched since Franco's forces tore through Spain in 1936, the whitewashed walls have crumbled, the garden, laden with orange blossom, grown wild. Emma Temple is the first to unlock its doors in seventy years. Guided by a series of letters and a key bequeathed in her mother's will, she has left her job as London's leading perfumier to restore this dilapidated villa to its former glory. It is the perfect retreat: a wilderness redolent with strange and exotic scents, heavy with the colours and sounds of a foreign time. But for her grandmother, Freya, a British nurse who stayed here during Spain's devastating civil war, Emma's new home evokes terrible memories. As the house begins to give up its secrets, Emma is drawn deeper into Freya's story: a story of crushed idealism, of lost love, and of families ripped apart by war. She soon realises it is one thing letting go of the past, but another when it won't let go of you.

There are two stories in The Perfume Garden. The story of Emma, set in 2001, and the story of Freya (Emma's grandmother), Rosa and Macu, set in 1937. Emma is going through a difficult period in her life. She separated from her long term boyfriend, Joe, after finding out that he was cheating on her with a close friend and business partner. Her late mother left her company to the three of them and the two then decided to sell it without consulting Emma.. To make matters worse when her mother died, Emma and Joe gave in to the unresolved feelings between them and Emma is now pregnant. When Joe is killed on 9/11 Emma feels it is time to make a fresh start and prepare to receive her baby. Armed with a box of letters that her mother wrote to be opened after her death she decides to move to Spain, to Valencia, where her mother left her a house, the Villa del Valle.

  

In 1937 Freya and her brother Charles are in Spain to help fight fascism. She is a nurse caring for the wounded on the Republican side and he is a photographer and a soldier. It's through their eyes that we see many of the famous characters of the time: Hemingway, Capra, Gerda Taro... all fascinating people who were risking their lives fighting for a cause they believed in and to tell the world what was happening in Spain. In fact some of them lost their lives doing just that... Rosa is Jordi del Valle's girlfriend, she has fought with him in Madrid for the Republican side but she is pregnant and he decides to take her to Valencia and leave her in the care of his brother Vicente. Macu is there to help her around the house and they form a friendship that will later include Freya.

 In modern day Valencia, Emma realises that there is some sort of secret about the house she is now living in and renovating. Her grandmother Freya doesn't want to talk about the house or about the time that she spent in Spain, and the people she meets in Valencia also don't seem too eager to tell her about who lived in the house. At the same time, the woman that Joe left her for, finds out that she is pregnant and decides to follow her to Valencia

I loved it how Kate Lord Brown slowly feeds us the information about what happened to the characters during the Spanish civil, I loved how it is obvious that she made a great deal of research and managed to share a wealth of information through what her characters did, felt and suffered. I have to say that I was much more interested in what was going on in 1937 than what was going on with Emma. But the author managed to take Emma on a journey about rediscovering her roots and it felt as if I was right there with her finding out, bit by bit, what had happened to Rosa and Jordi and Macu. When Emma finds Macu, she doesn't realise that she is the one that can tell her all the secrets, but we do. And I kept wishing that they would finally sit down and actually talk about the past, especially when Emma starts to realise that those secrets have something to do with her.

  

I highly recommend this book to everyone who likes a good story with strong female characters and I especially recommend it to those with an interest in modern Spanish history. The Civil War and what happened afterwards are still open wounds in Spain's society. I don't think that having a "pact of silence" about it helped. The victims and their families deserve to be remembered, not forgotten. And keeping the memory alive, in historical records as in historical fiction, is one way to prevent the past from repeating itself.

Grade: 5/5

Hemingway Cutthroat by Michael Atkinson

A literary twist on what really happened while Hemingway was in '30s Spain, developing the story of For Whom the Bell Tolls and solving a murder with John dos Passos When one of Fascist Spain's political officials is found dead on a hillside, his own government colleagues suspiciously take little interest in finding the culprit. Hemingway, in the country as a journalist, can't let the murder go. Despite the other deaths everywhere around him--it is wartime, after all--he sets out to discover not just who killed the man but also the reason for the cover-up.


Written with wit and charm, Hemingway Cutthroat is equal parts classic espionage thriller and literary origin story for one of Papa's most famous novels.

When offered the chance to review a book that was a mystery, set in the 1930s in Spain and with Hemingway as the main detective I couldn't really say no. It seemed like the most interesting story! This is actually the second book in a series of mysteries with Hemingway as the main character but it can certainly be read as a stand alone.

There seems to be a trend in historical fiction about using real people as fictional detectives. Besides Hemingway I can think of Elizabeth I, Jane Austen and Josephine Tey but I am sure that there must be others out there. It doesn't really bother me nless when it clashes with the idea I have on my mind of the person involved. In this case Hemingway is just how I imagined him - loud, larger than life, a womaniser and a bullfight lover! I had every intention of rereading some of his books before delving into this one but, as if often happens, time flew and I didn't.

In Hemingway Cutthroat, Hemingway is in Spain with his friend, and fellow writer, John dos Passos. On a break from writing, he just wants to enjoy the easy life, he likes drinks and women and he seems set on getting as much as he can of both. But do Passos is worried, their friend José Robles has disappeared and he feels like they should investigate what really happened. It takes some time for Hemingway to decide to go investigating but when he does nothing can stop him!

They eventually find Robles' dead body and the unexplained circumstances behind it make Hemingway more determined to find what happened. He bribes and threatens his way around the Spanish police to discover whose side was Robles on. I quite liked the answer wasn't immediately obvious and that the motives were directly linked to what was being prepared at the time - the story is set in 1937 -  and what was one of the most famous bombings during the Spanish Civil War.

While I found the beginning a bit slow there were still some humourous moments to keep me interested and after the action progresses to the murder investigation I was completely hooked. Not only because of the mystery itself but also because of all the information provided of the situation in Spain during that time. And, since Atkinson's idea of Hemingway matches mine, I thought he made quite a believable detective. A very lucky one too, because on more than one occasion it seemed that his excesses, both of action and language, would land him in jail if not worse, but in the end all's well that ends well and this made for a satisfying read.

Grade: 4/5

I would like to thank the author for sending me a copy for review. This book was released on July 20th.

The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner

Teddy's thoughts:


Juana, daughter of Queen Isabel & King Ferdinand of Spain was raised to be a pawn. She was betrothed as a toddler to Philip of Flanders, heir to the Hapsburg throne, to improve political alliances with Spain.

At 16 she was sent with her attendants to Flanders, to marry Philip. She did not want to go but knew it was her duty. Once she met Philip and saw how handsome he was, she fell in love with him. Their first years together were romantic and happy one's. Juana had a daughter and then a son, which made Philip very happy.

Juana was given an education, as a child she was raised to be a good wife and to gently persuade her husband to agree with Spain on issues that may arise. However, after a few year of wedded bliss, Juana's brother and the sister and nephew died. She was next in succession to the Spanish throne.

Though she was not raised to be Queen, she knew it was her duty. However, this created a power struggle with her husband. She also had to struggle with other men of power to take her rightful place as Queen.

This is an enthralling story of greed, lust, power, loyalty, and friendship. C.W. Gorther keeps the story going in perfect pitch! His vivid re-telling of the last Queen of Spain is quite believable and you can tell he really did his research to keep historical facts accurate.

I could not put this book down and it kept me up into the wee hours of the morning. I highly recommend this wonderful book. If you love historical fiction, you must read this book!

5/5


Marg's thoughts:



As much as I love reading historical fiction that is set in England, every now and again I really appreciate a change of location and characters. If that sounds a bit like you, then you can't really go wrong with The Last Queen by C W Gortner.

Whilst a lot of historical fiction fans will be familiar with the life and times of Catherine of Aragon, I must confess that I knew very little about any of her other family members. In this book, the author focuses on the life of Juana, Catherine's older sister who married into the Hapsberg family, to Phillip of Flanders (known as Phillip the Handsome). What started out as an arranged marriage quickly turned into a passionate, loving marriage but just as quickly turns into a passionate marriage of what can be a far stronger emotion - loathing and hate.

Due to a series of tragedies that hit the Aragonese royal family, Juana becomes the rightful heir to the Castilian throne. She is however forced to fight for her birthright against not only against her husband who was determined to claim the throne for himself, but also against the church, her own remaining family members, and against the distrust of the idea of a queen reigning.

As husband and wife engage in political power plays to try and gain the upper hand, as family members betray each other, and as mother becomes separated both physically and emotionally from her children, we are left with a portrayal of a woman who many would have envied as having everything, but who is left with nothing. Some of the choices that Juana did make seem somewhat foolhardy and yes, slightly mad, and the author does not shy away from these events. The portrayal of Juana is handled with sensitivity and perceptiveness, and yet as a reader, it is quite easy to be swept up in the drama and the emotion of the story.

I am glad to have been introduced to this fascinating character who in some ways is a footnote in history for many non-Europeans. I will definitely be looking forward to reading more from C W Gortner.

Rating 4.5/5

The Last Queen by C W Gortner

Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne, is an enigmatic figure, shrouded in lurid myth. Was she the bereft widow of legend who was driven mad by her loss, or has history misjudged a woman who was ahead of her time? In his stunning new novel, C.W. Gortner challenges centuries of myths about Queen Juana, unraveling the mystery surrounding her to reveal a brave, determined woman we can only now begin to fully understand.

The third child of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain, Juana is born amidst her parents’ ruthless unification of their kingdom, bearing witness to the fall of Granada and Columbus’s discoveries. At the age of sixteen, she is sent to wed Philip, the Archduke of Flanders, as part of her parents’ strategy to strengthen Spain, just as her youngest sister, Catherine of Aragon, is sent to England to become the first wife of Henry VIII.

Juana finds unexpected love and passion with her handsome young husband, the sole heir to the Hapsburg Empire. At first she is content with her children and her life in Flanders. But when tragedy strikes and she inherits the Spanish throne, Juana finds herself plunged into a struggle for power against her husband that grows to involve the major monarchs of Europe. Besieged by foes on all sides, her intelligence and pride used as weapons against her, Juana vows to win her crown and save Spain from ruin, even if it could cost her everything . . . .

With brilliant, lyrical prose, author and historian C. W. Gortner conjures Juana through her own words, taking the reader from the somber majesty of Spain to the glittering and lethal courts of Flanders, France, and Tudor England. The Last Queen brings to life all the grandeur and drama of an incomparable era; and the singular humanity of this courageous, passionate princess whose fight to claim her birthright captivated the world.

As much as I love reading historical fiction that is set in England, every now and again I really appreciate a change of location and characters. If that sounds a bit like you, then you can't really go wrong with The Last Queen by C W Gortner.

Whilst a lot of historical fiction fans will be familiar with the life and times of Catherine of Aragon, I must confess that I knew very little about any of her other family members. In this book, the author focuses on the life of Juana, Catherine's older sister who married into the Hapsberg family, to Phillip of Flanders (known as Phillip the Handsome). What started out as an arranged marriage quickly turned into a passionate, loving marriage but just as quickly turns into a passionate marriage of what can be a far stronger emotion - loathing and hate.

Due to a series of tragedies that hit the Aragonese royal family, Juana becomes the rightful heir to the Castilian throne. She is however forced to fight for her birthright against not only against her husband who was determined to claim the throne for himself, but also against the church, her own remaining family members, and against the distrust of the idea of a queen reigning.

As husband and wife engage in political power plays to try and gain the upper hand, as family members betray each other, and as mother becomes separated both physically and emotionally from her children, we are left with a portrayal of a woman who many would have envied as having everything, but who is left with nothing. Some of the choices that Juana did make seem somewhat foolhardy and yes, slightly mad, and the author does not shy away from these events. The portrayal of Juana is handled with sensitivity and perceptiveness, and yet as a reader, it is quite easy to be swept up in the drama and the emotion of the story.

I am glad to have been introduced to this fascinating character who in some ways is a footnote in history for many non-Europeans. I will definitely be looking forward to reading more from C W Gortner.

Rating 4.5/5