Of Honest Fame by MM Bennetts

[Robert Low]

I thought The Emperor's Gold one of the best Napoelonic-based whodunnits of the year - I know Manda rates this highly and with good reason, for it is Smiley's People with a Brummel cravat. Of Honest Fame is every bit as good, with the added grit of seasoned realism borne from an absolute awareness of place, especially the high and low of 19th century London. The use of language is also brilliant - you know the idioms used are just as were spoken (my favourite is unrepeatable here) - and even the occasional lapses into conversational French are excusable; even if you don't speak it, the scene itself reveals the gist of it.

It is Dr Zhivago meets Jane Austen and the wonderfully-drawn characters perfectly compliment the Byzantine plot. I won't go into that, but it is every bit as gripping as any Le Carre - I got this on my birthday (thanks for that - best present of all) and I have not been able to put it down since.

The best of her characters is simply called Boy, because he is one. Readers encountering Boy may raise an eyebrow at some ragged urchin being able to read, write, play and notate music, understand umpteen languages and still blend in with London's riff-raff and pick locks. But those who know their era better will recall that any eleven-year-old midshipman arriving in HM Navy was expected, in three years, to have learned  Chronology, Navigation, Astronomy, Latitude, Longitude, Marine Surveying and Geography among others - not to mention how to use a boarding cutlass, a flintlock and the finer points of dancing. So he is not unusual - even if he does know a Maestro I presume to be Beethoven - also a spy for the English. I liked that touch and have to presume the Maestro's identity because you weren't hammered over the head with Famous Historical Personage syndrome - the only clue was Boy's solicitous inquiry regarding the Maestro's hearing.

I simply love this book and now I want to read the other one, called May 1812. I am told the author is a woman and, though it does not matter, I am curious as to why this fact is never acknowledged, either in the website blurb or on the book jacket. Is there advantage in being thought of as a man writing a book like this? I wouldn't have thought so.

This deserves to be a huge success. I am sorry none of the mainstream publishers seem to think so and, as the characters would say, 'cock' for missing it. One of the Top Five books I have read this year.

Robert Low

[Annis]

You've solved a mystery for me, Rob- I hadn't been able to work out whether MM Bennetts was a male or female author, though I tended towards the female option - not that it makes any difference to me as a reader, I'm just naturally curious! She is extremely cagey about this detail - perhaps there's a worry that male readers will bypass her books if they know they're written by a woman- and don't scoff- I work in a library and more men than I can count have asked me to recommend "a good book, as long as it's not written by a woman"! I know, idiots

The amount of research Bennetts puts in is astonishing, and she has a great blog http://www.mmbennetts.com where she talks about her books and their background-  amongst other things, providing the information that the title Honest Fame "is taken from a line of poetry in Lord Byron’s Don Juan:  'The drying up a single tear has more/Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore…'  Written in 1816, it seemed particularly appropriate given that the British were fighting one of the bloodiest military dictators of all time, Napoleon."

[Robert Low]

It raises an interesting topic, mind you - Ms Bennetts had advice from someone in the business regarding making herself at least androgynous and Robyn Young, of course, does the same. Manda did her Boudicca series as Manda Scott - but the Rome ones are M. C Scott. Is there a perception that writing 'hardcore' historical fiction (without the thrust of it being about a female character) will sell better if is a man writing it?

I suppose there must be, though I can't see it myself; if someone wants to take rape and pillage Vikings on a tour of the Dark Ages I really don't care if a man or a woman writes it, as long as it is written well.


Robert Low

[Annis]

I happily read books by both male and female authors, and I'm always attracted by a well-written action story.

It's clear to me in my reader advisory role at the library, that male readers on the whole are not interested in stories focusing on nuances of relationships (in fact, regard them with something akin to horror), but want action, though good psychological fiction like Alan Furst's spy novels, will often appeal. They want a (male) hero they can identify with. As I said, many men tell me outright- "I don't want anything written by a woman"! And boys will rarely relate to a book which has a female protagonist, whereas girls are happy to have either male or female heroes.

It may not be PC, but that's just the way it is  Vive la différence, and all that!

[unclearthur]

Female-written historicals are romances - that's the perception. Far from true, of course, but we're talking old-fashioned gender bigotry, like Annis said.

And about a publishing industry with at least one foot nailed firmly - if you'll forgive the phrase - in the past.
A bit like saddlery, really, where until 2001 the straightness/level of trees (the frame the saddle's built on) was judged solely by eye.

I kid you not.

http://cavalrytales.wordpress.com

[Ruth Downie]

Re. author androgyny - I've heard the same thing about crime novels,  tho' less so in the USA. I was encouraged to be RS Downie here but stayed as Ruth over there.

Incidentally, it's also said you have to have 2 initials. So if you haven't got a middle name I guess you have to invent one.

RS
(second attempt to post this, sorry if it appears twice)