Welcome to this month's book reviews from the team at Kemps

The Great Passion – James Runcie

James Runcie is an award-winning filmmaker, playwright, and literary curator. He is the author of twelve novels that have been translated into twelve languages, including the seven books in the Grantchester Mysteries series. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

The Great Passion is a beautiful Bildungsroman set in the early-eighteenth century, written from the perspective of Stefan Silbermann who is sent away to school in Leipzig for a year after the death of his mother. Despite his initial unhappiness, due to the cruelty and bullying of his fellow pupils and the indifference of his teachers, Stefan's singing ability catches the interest of the cantor Johann Sebastian Bach and he soon becomes immersed in both his music and his family.

Runcie's writing skilfully brings eighteenth-century Germany alive, a place in which faith was deeply entrenched in every aspect of daily life. His portrayal of Bach is that of an affectionate father and loving husband, but this is tempered by the somewhat overbearing expectations he places on his family; music comes first. His characterisations of the rest of the family are also excellent, especially that of Bach's second wife Anna Magdalena who is an exceptional musician herself but is not permitted to perform in church because of her gender. The dialogue can tend towards the wordy and is peppered with musical and biblical references, but this does not detract from the novel's charm. Moreover, Bach's sermonising is in keeping with the novel's depiction of faith as a ubiquitous part of daily life, and it is in his homilies that many of the most powerful lines about grief and healing can be found. This is a deeply moving re-imagining of the events leading up to the composition of arguably one of the most extraordinary pieces of music ever written.

Published by Bloomsbury ISBN 9781408885512 Hardback £16.99

The Lost Whale – Hannah Gold

Hannah Gold's debut children's novel The Last Bear has recently been crowned the winner of the 2022 Blue Peter Book Award and was the biggest selling debut children's hardback of 2021. Following hard on the heels of its success, Gold brings us her latest offering The Lost Whale.

The Lost Whale is centred on Rio, a lonely and troubled boy sent to live in California with a grandmother he barely knows, and the relationship he forms with White Beak, a very special grey whale. Rio's mother is struggling with her mental health, and it is best for everyone if she goes into hospital to get the help she needs while Rio stays with his grandmother. He is desperately lonely and, missing his mother terribly, does not warm to his grandmother who is a virtual stranger, cue the discovery of his mother's sketchbooks and their connection to White Beak, a whale with whom both he and his mother share a bond. Rio needs to learn how to be a child again after years of the responsibility of caring for his mother and so we join him on a journey of learning, on which he learns not only about the whales but most importantly about himself.

The Lost Whale is sensitively written and tackles important issues of mental wellbeing and ecology, alongside characters that you really care about. It is a clarion call to humankind to start being more thoughtful about the planet, a subject very close to Gold's heart. She currently lives in Lincolnshire with her husband, cat, and tortoise where she is usually found thinking about her next animal story and practising her roar. She is passionate about writing stories which share her love of the planet and animals, and this passion shines forth in her beautifully written novels.

Published by Harper Collins ISBN 9780008412944 Hardback £12.99

Once There Is A Queen by Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman

Sir Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain’s most celebrated children’s authors whose uncomplicated style speaks clearly and sensitively to young people, often setting his stories against the backdrop of war and taking resilience, survival and humanity’s relationship with the natural world as themes.

His characteristically quiet yet magical style is the perfect fit for the story of Queen Elizabeth II who celebrates her platinum jubilee this year. Sir Michael explains that this story is ‘not a fairy tale’ but the true story of our Queen: a young girl who could have been a fairytale princess but instead became, ‘much more herself’. Acknowledging, but rarely dwelling upon, the trappings of royalty – ‘That crown of hers looks heavy’ - this tale follows our ‘granny-Queen’ from childhood to the Queen we know today. It is a story that emphasises the value of simplicity and highlights the consistent loves in her life: her family, her animals (especially the ponies and those corgies) and the people across the world she has served. The enduring serenity of the natural world is mirrored in her unchanging presence in our lives.

This is not only a beautifully written book but it is also accompanied by charming illustrations from Michael Foreman whose watercolours respond to the subtle changes in mood and tone as the story unfolds. A particular favourite has to be the beautiful picture of the Queen as we know her now stroking one of her ponies with the clouds in the background outlining the shape of a horse with its rider. This is a wonderful tale of a remarkably (extra)ordinary lady; it is told with simplicity yet also great depth and, for this reason, it is our pick of the Jubilee memorabilia.

Published by Harper Collins ISBN: 9780008541613 Hardback £12.99

Walking the Invisible: Following in the Brontës by Michael Stewart

In Walking the Invisible, Michael Stewart sets out to understand better the wild and working landscapes that shaped the Brontë family’s lives and literature. With his canine companion, Woolfie, Stewart travels by foot over moorland, along coastlines, up fells and through cities, walking along the paths and trails that the Brontës would have trodden. Along the way, he describes the sights, sounds and smells of the post-industrial landscapes he encounters and he imagines these landscapes as they would have appeared to the Brontës and their contemporaries.

Reflecting upon his early encounters with Wuthering Heights, Stewart comments on the power of Emily Brontë’s novel, to reach beyond the classrooms and lecture halls to a socially diverse audience and sees in it, ‘something of the folk tale…[which] grabbed my young mind’. For him, their writing is placed not only within the English literary tradition but it can also be read within an equally strong tradition of stories coming from the landscape and people of Yorkshire. Walking the Invisible quietly reclaims the Brontë stories by celebrating the shared heritage and mindset of the folk who have lived in this landscape for centuries. It also highlights the immense popularity of the Brontë sisters across the world as Stewart writes of others who, like himself, discovered the novels despite never having read them at school.

Stewart is a convivial guide. It is clear he has a deep knowledge of the Brontës, their works and the social and historical settings of their literature. This expertise is fed through the lens of a walking guide thereby giving the chapters an intelligent yet easy-going style; it also infuses the writing with enjoyable descriptions of the natural (and sometimes not-so natural) world that is encountered along the way. It is part walking-guide, part literary and social history, part cultural commentary all unified by one well-informed voice and it seems to incarnate the spirit of its subjects’ fierce independence. In short, Walking the Invisible is a refreshing and charming insight into the lives and literature of some of our best loved authors and it is a book that is sure to appeal to many readers.

Published by Harper Collins ISBN: 9780008430221 Paperback £9.99