Miranda Emmerson

‘’And I know I don’t really fit in but someone has to ask the questions.’’

Anna Treadway embarks on a quest in what many consider the ‘’shady’’ parts of London, to save a young man from being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Aided by Barnaby and the wife of a sketchy MP, she will come face to face with secrets and prejudices that a significant minority is unwilling to abandon even today.

I won’t say much because the plot is rather intricate and I’d hate to spoil the slightest thing with my blabbering. What I can safely say is that once again, Miranda Emmerson’s attention to detail and the spirited writing create a story that is exciting, poignant and very, very moving. You will walk within the heart of London during the late 60s. The city ‘’like a thousand villages joined together by mistake’’ is calling like a darkly enchanting siren. Lower Regent Street, Piccadilly, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Carnaby Street. London’s mystery beckons as we follow Anna and her friends within the capital’s underbelly and the corruption found in high places.

I’ll just leave this extract here:

‘’Up towards the palace, down towards Horse Guards Parade. In St James’s Park spots of faint light illuminated the trees and paths, the kicked-up, churned-up grass. Along the Mall, the Union flags hung limply from their posts. Very far in the distance, mostly obscured by trees, Buckingham Palace glowed myriad shades of cream and brown and grey.’’

I mean, hello Perfection!

Interspersed with vivid details and references to the British pop culture of the era, Anna’s new adventure is narrated in a voice that is as fresh as it touching. With an exceptional cast of characters and an honest, bold, piercing depiction of the darkest aspect of the ‘liberating’’ era, Miranda Emmerson’s A Little London Scandal is a beautiful gem of a book.

‘’Somewhere out of time. I think it’s the dark. All the buildings melt away. All the details. You could be anywhere. There was a book when I was a child…About breaking into the garden of a castle at night and sometimes there were dinosaurs and sometimes princesses. Night has that feeling…slipping between time.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/… (altro)

‘’Everything can be given a price if someone chooses’, her mother said. ‘It doesn’t have to make sense to us, Anna. So little of the world makes sense.’’

Iolanthe Green, an American actress, goes missing while on a very successful series of performances in London. Unwilling to admit defeat, Anna searches London high and low to find her. Aided by Aloysius, her efforts will bring her to a path away from the capital as a journey to a troubled past and a problematic, yet hopeful, present unfolds.

‘’London seemed romantic, with its twisting parks and grime-covered frontages; its dark-stained river flanked by rictus-mouthed fish who held with their tails a trail of softly glowing lights: the epitome of grand metropolitan strangeness. It was a shifting city of light and dark; of strange shadows cast across the Thames at twilight, of grimy dark underpasses and roads which shone like sheets of metal on a summer’s day.’’

I could write pages after pages about Miranda Emmerson’s beautiful, evocative writing that revives the atmosphere of Soho during the enchanting Swinging Sixties, the capital that comes alive in front of our eyes. We witness London during the busy mornings and the colourful nights, we walk down its streets accompanied by sounds and perfumes, we experience its unique beauty, its joys and sorrows. I could talk to you about the literary and cultural references, from 60s music to the Bradley and Hindley case, in an outstanding depiction of the era. And this chronicle is seamlessly united with moving commentary on issues that continue to concern us. Racism, discrimination, mental health, social expectations. Violence and cruelty. And hope. And love.

More importantly, I could write volumes on the perfection of Anna and Aloysius’s characters. She is superb, he is unique. Their determination, their bravery, their kindness. I could see myself in Anna for various reasons and their interactions are a true literary treat. Supported by an excellent cast of characters that are the epitome of the (cliche but accurate) phrase ‘’jump right off the page’’, Anna elevates this novel into a different bookish realm. And I am not exaggerating. I am just excited and thrilled that I had the chance to read this gem.

Don’t let me tire you. Read Miranda Emmerson’s creation and I am sure that when you read the last page, you’ll wish you could turn back time to savour the novel all over again, absorbing each paragraph. I cannot wait to read A Little London Scandal.

‘’Amesbury Avenue. Hillside Road. Palace Road. The vast houses flicked by, marking time and space. There were no cars on the roads now. The living-room windows shone yellow and orange in the darkness. Here and there Anna was aware of faces pressed to the glass, watching the snow fall, watching a black man lead a white woman through the streets.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/… (altro)

Rent boy Nik has been on the streets since he was thrown out of home aged 15. His years in London have taught him to be streetwise but nothing could prepare him for the accusation of murder. A fellow rent boy found dead in the grounds of an exclusive gentleman's club and an MP with scandal attached to his name there on the night. Connecting the two is Anna Treadaway, friend to Nik, acquaintance of the MPs wife. Anna believes Nik is innocent but to prove it she needs to stretch her morals.
A second outing for Anna Treadaway and Emmerson is really hitting her stride with her tales of the seedier side of swinging London. Here the contrast between the middle class lifestyle and the more bohemian are played out and the sordid secrets of those in power are exposed. Emmerson isn't afraid to explore big issues, racism in the first novel, here homosexuality, but all is done with a real sureness of touch.… (altro)

Set in London during late 1965, Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson is mystery about an American actress who disappears after her performance at a local theater.

When Iolanthe "Lanny" Green fails to show up for work Monday afternoon, her dresser, Anna Treadway, is concerned but she is certain Lanny is just running late. However, when she misses the next day's performance as well, she is reported missing and the local newspapers run with story. Detective Sergeant Barnaby Hayes is assigned to the investigation but he is making little headway as he searches clues that will help him locate the missing actress. When public interest wanes, Anna takes it upon herself to do a little amateur sleuthing on her own and she finds some very interesting details about Lanny but will the information she uncovers help her find the missing woman?

The investigation into Lanny's disappearance is interesting and takes some very unexpected twists and turns. Unfortunately, the bulk of the storyline is not focused on the mystery surrounding the missing woman. Readers are instead introduced to a number of people whom Anna either already knows or she meets during her search for Lanny. DS Hayes is the only person in an official capacity trying to find Lanny and even he is facing prejudice from the people he works with. The unfolding story is a little convoluted and disjointed and feels more like social commentary for the diverse characters who are involved in the search for the actress. Each of the characters' issues are interesting and thought-provoking but the mystery element of the story quickly feels like an afterthought.

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson is a fascinating peek into lives of an eclectic and diverse set of characters in London during the mid 1960s. The mystery surrounding Lanny's disappearance is quite intriguing and all of the loose ends about what happened to the actress are completely wrapped up by the novel's conclusion.
… (altro)