Andee S. Davis

This is the third of the “Diary” books that I have read.  My favorite was Mr Knightly’s Diary. 

Colonel Brandon’s Diary takes us into the Point of View of one of my favorite Austen heros, though I think that I like him as much as I do because of the favorable representations of his character in recent Sense and Sensibility movies.   In this book, Ms. Grange goes back into Colonel Brandon’s history to his first love, his father’s ward, Eliza.  Amanda Grange fills in ‘what might have been’ with enough insight for us to deveop an understanding of the colonel’s psyche.  Staying close enough to Jane Austen’s original story to keep most Janeites happy, the author adds some satisfying final scenes, as one of my very few criticisms of Miss Austen is that her books leave us wanting more.  No, not a criticism, really, but a longing to find out what happens after the last word.  (As we know, Jane Austen wrote no sequels.)  I appreciated how well Grange had Brandon care for his ward Eliza Williams and her baby.

I’m rating Colonel Brandon’s Diary an 8.5 out of 10 just in comparison to Mr. Knightly’s Diary and Mr. Brandon’s Diary, which I liked better.

I’m glad I gave Julie Garwood another chance.  Last year I borrowed her The Wedding from the library, having seen it recommended as her best novel.  It was my first by this prolific author, but I couldn’t make it past the first several chapters.  My disappointment came as a result of the unnecessarily graphic scene between the hero and heroine.  That’s just not what I want to read about. 

But Shadow Music was better.  Though there was eventually a scene between the protagonists, (they were married by then) it was less graphic and near the end of the book.  Personally, I find reading sex scenes tedious and a little ludicrous.  When I read a historical romance, much of my interest is in the setting and the characters.  A great plot helps, but what goes on behind closed doors…or in the forest…does not enhance the story for me. 

In Shadow Music, Ms. Garwood provided enough interesting characters and a plausible plot, to keep me interested.  And of course, in addition to Highland warriors, a princess, royal secrets, monks and an abbey, there were castles!  What didn’t I like?  Two pesky little boys who needed a good spanking and never got one.  They did eventually advance the plot, but not until the end.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I will rank it a 7.

Some thoughts on English castles.

I have been doing some arm chair studies of castles in England…ironically while my sister takes a cruise around the British Isles… and have rapidly come to three initial conclusions.  Medieval castles were dark, cold, and smelly.

Dark… My first obvious observation is in the construction of castle windows.  Since castles were built primarily as fortresses against attack, the windows on the lower levels by necessity had to be very narrow to keep invaders or their weapons out.  Higher up, the windows were considerably wider and allowed in more natural light.  All the same, the lighting was an issue, exacerbated by England’s penchant for cloudiness.  At night, huge fireplaces and dozens of strategically placed candles gave uneven lighting where needed.

Cold… This, too, varied.  Unlike in my northern state, England hasn’t the extremes that we experience here, and preliminary research suggests that the weather during the Middle Ages was milder in England than it is now.  Nevertheless, acquiring fuel for fires was a constant job; warming the stone fortresses ever only partly successful.  In living quarters, tapestries were for more than adorning the walls…they kept out the cold, as well.

Smelly…  Needless to say, our modern flushing toilets were centuries away. Higher-ranking castle-dwellers had their garderobes, which resembled stone outhouses, built over shafts in the castle wall.  The waste was periodically cleaned out of the cesspool by mudator latrinaurm or‘gong farmers.’  Oddly, the odor was thought to kill germs, and the garderobes were used to store clothing, for sanitation purposes.