Royal Reads

Fans of Downton Abbey, The Crown, Bridgerton, and all the videos of Princess Diana that have recently started up in your Facebook feed (No? Only me?) –  this month’s theme is for you: Royal Reads. Otherwise known as books where the eccentricities of British upper classes reign supreme with a smattering of royalty thrown in for good measure. Fittingly, but inadvertently, today was also the wedding of The Duke of Westminster, who is worth over 10 billion pounds and owns half of Mayfair.

But first, something I’ve been noticing ever since I got this feedback from an inaugural ATK Reads reader, who saw the need for Gentle Reads as real! She said:

“I have not had the bandwidth to read anything heavy or complex for a while. Life can be heavy enough at times. I also feel the push to be better, do better, find yourself, realize yourself etc. is just stressing most of us out as we are already doing that to the best of our ability. I thought we were supposed to be leaving stupid, unattainable perfectionistic guides for women behind, but it’s just wrapped in new age speak…end rant.” 

Not that there’s anything wrong with growth and complexity if that’s what you’re in the mood for, but what is wrong with reading what you enjoy for fun, for relaxing, for a break from the unattainable quest for perfectionism? 

Her note echoed a conversation a friend and I recently had with the proprietor of Iron Dog Books (if you’re in Vancouver and haven’t been there, I highly recommend you visit; they have a whole section called “Feel Good Books”) about the trend towards Virtue Reading, aka virtue signalling that you're reading something meaningful.

All of which is to say, read what you want to read.  And if you’re in the mood to read about how the other half lives (and it’s definitely not virtuously), then do I have some good recommendations for you:

If you ever wanted to judge a book by its cover, then definitely start with India Knight's gorgeous book, Darling. A modern-day retelling of the Nancy Mitford classic, The Pursuit of Love, Darling adheres closely to the plot of the original while giving the story a more modern spin. Darling is the short, funny, engaging – and ultimately sad – story of Linda, the daughter of an English boho-artiso family, who dreams of love. The book begins in Norfolk with a liberal dose of teenage angst as Linda is marooned in the family farmhouse where she can't even get a mobile signal and moves to London and through the loves of Linda's life. While the book wouldn't pass any Bechdel tests, it's literally all about men and love, the characters and setting are beautifully rendered. Knight brings them to life so vividly that the story unspools like a movie in your mind. Linda's father, who hunts his children as a game, much to their delight, is just one example of a memorable character from the book. It's also worth reading, or listening to, the original after you've finished Darling, as you'll get insight into why there's only so much of the modern woman that Knight can bring to the character of Linda.

As someone with a double-barreled last name, I appreciated the wealth of double (and even the occasional triple) barrelled last names in this funny, satirical debut mystery introducing detective Caius Beauchamp. Charlotte Vassell's The Other Half gives you a glimpse of…well…how the other half lives. And dies. There's wealth, privilege, socialites, peers, influencers, sociopaths, and lots of people who did classics degrees at Oxford. The story starts with an upscale party in a McDonald's (really!) that results in a murder, and the police have to untangle what really happened while interviewing suspects who don't feel they owe the truth to anyone, especially anyone not of their class, and who all have lots to hide. The Other Half is a satisfying read that's not quite a cozy. It has a whiff of Agatha Christie and the tiniest smidgeon of Donna Tartt about it in the very best way. I'm eagerly awaiting the second book in the series, The In Crowd, which apparently involves rowing on the Thames and boarding school.

I rarely read autobiographies, but I was travelling and had planned badly and ended up with nothing to read. luckily, Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown was on the shelf where I was staying, and I picked it up to flip through it and was immediately hooked. As Stefan would say - this book has everything! There's drama, heartbreak, a coronation, Mustique, the Rolling Stones, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth...The author, Anne Glenconner, formally Anne Veronica Tennant, Dowager Baroness Glenconner, was Princess Margaret's lady-in-waiting and was one of the Queen's maids of honour at the coronation. She was also married to the man who turned Mustique from a mosquito-ridden, cotton-farming, nearly deserted island into the exclusive hot spot it still is today. Glenconner, who's in her 90s, has a great Instagram account where she shares exclusive photos from her albums, displays her beautifully preserved wedding gown and the Norman Hartnell gown she wore to the Queen's coronation, book signing events and more. She was also Debutante of the Year in 1950, which will feel very "the diamond" if you've been watching Bridgerton.

My little something extra this month is a shout-out for Vintage Flowers Vancouver. Holly, the woman behind VFV, is a farmer florist who grows her flowers in her cottage garden in the heart of the city, which means her offerings are super seasonal. Her operation is low-tech and hyper-local; you order through Instagram DM, or you can email her. I discovered her flowers IRL rather than online when I won an Instagram contest she ran early in the spring. Both I and a friend were the lucky recipients of bouquets (pictured) that she leaves for you to pick up on her doorstep. We agreed they were probably the most beautiful bouquets we’d ever received. And this friend and I have been known to discuss our favourite florists at length, so this wasn’t a pronouncement we made lightly.

I’ve also launched an ATK Reads Instagram to keep all my reading-related content in one place. And feel free to pass this email along to a friend you think might enjoy it!