Sunday, March 29, 2015

A quiet holiday adventure in the Hebrides

Stormy Petrel, Mary Stewart

I knew from reading reviews (like Helen's here) that this late book is a very low-key story.  Rose Fenemore, an English tutor at a college in Cambridge, sees an ad in the Times: "Ivory tower for long or short let. Isolated cottage on small Hebridean island off the coast of Mull."  On an impulse, she rents it for her upcoming holidays and invites her brother, a doctor and an avid bird-watcher, to join her.  He is delayed by a train accident.  Alone one stormy night in the cottage, Rose wakes up to find that a man has left himself in with a twin to her own key.  Later, another man arrives, a camper whose tent was blown away, seeking shelter from the storm.  A braver woman than I am, Rose eventually goes back to bed and leaves the two men to sort themselves out.  A low-key mystery develops around who each is, and what he is doing on Moila.  It was obvious to me fairly early on who was the Good Guy and who the Bad.

This is a short book without much suspense, really, but it was a pleasant read.  As usual Mary Stewart wrote very vivid descriptions of the scenery, which made the small island and its neighbors come alive.  One of the nearby islands, Eilean na Roin, is home to a colony of seals, as well as a wealth of seabirds.  I am a sucker for any story with seals or otters (which doesn't involve hunting them).  Rose is equally entranced, as are other visitors.  I also enjoyed the stormy petrels of the title that sweep over the islands.  I recognized the name but had not realized they are "Mother Carey's chickens."  It was interesting trying to find more information about them on-line.  A Google search turned up pages of school mascots, as well as links to this book. I had better bird results searching for "storm petrel."

I think this is the only book of Mary Stewart's that I have read where the heroine has a brother (even if he is absent for much of the book).  I learned that she herself had a brother (but no sisters).  Like Rose, she was also a teacher and lecturer for a time. And while Rose is a published poet, she also writes very successful science-fiction under the name "Hugh Templar."  Part of the reason for choosing this "ivory tower" for her vacation is to have a quiet space to write.  The scenes where Rose sits down to her work, both prose and poetry, made me wonder if they came straight from Mary Stewart's own experiences:
     I got back to work, by which I mean that I got my papers and notes out, and then sat looking at them for what seemed like a dreary lifetime, and was really probably only twenty minutes.  The words I had written - and had almost, in the interval, forgotten - mocked me and were meaningless.  My notes told me what was to happen next, but my brain no longer knew how to move plot and and people forward.  Block. Complete block. I sat and stared at the paper in front of me and tried to blank out the present and get back into my story - forward, that is, into my invented future, and out of the world of queries and vague apprehensions.
     From experience, I knew what to do. Write. Write anything.  Bad sentences, meaningless sentences, anything to get the mind fixed again to that sheet of paper and oblivious of the 'real' world.  Write until the words begin to make sense, the cogs mesh, the wheels start to turn, the creaking movement quickens and becomes a smooth, oiled run, and then, with luck, exhaustion will be forgotten, and the real writing will begin.  But look up once from that paper, get up from the table to make coffee or stir the fire, even just raise your head to look at the view outside the window, and you may as well give up until tomorrow.  Or for ever.
     It was the rain that saved me. . . And in another light-year or two I was through the word-barrier, and the book had suddenly reached the stage - the wonderful moment to get to - where I could walk right into my imaginary country and see things that I had not consciously created, and listen to people talking and watch them moving, all apparently independent of me.
I have read advice from writers that sounds just like that second paragraph.

12 comments:

  1. Lovely review ...this is one of the few of her books I have not yet read and now I shall look it out thank you!

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    1. Val, I hope you enjoy it! I still have several of her earlier suspense novels, and the last two Arthur books, to look forward to.

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  2. That bit about her writing about writing was my favourite part of that book - it seemed a bit ho-hum otherwise, mostly, I suspect, because I can't feel the attraction of birds or, especially, the sea. I can't not think about how sick I would be... ;-)

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    1. I would be OK on the ferry taking me to the island. I love ferry rides, even the 10-minute ones around here! And I'm a rank amateur as a bird watcher, but I do enjoy it.

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  3. I visited the Hebrides as a child, and I've always loved islands and the sea, so I was so wrapped up in that side of the book that the writing side of things drifted past me. Clearly this is a book I need to visit again.

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    1. Trips by ferry through the San Juan Islands on the way to British Columbia were a highlight of my childhood, and I love the sea as well. I only live 50 miles from the coast but don't get down there too often.

      The commentary on writing felt very much like MS's own voice - and she wrote poetry, some of which she used in her Merlin books.

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  4. 'A pleasant read' is exactly how I would describe this book too. I prefer her earlier, more suspenseful novels, but I did like this one. The beautiful descriptions alone made it worth reading!

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    1. The later books do seem to fall into this category! But I have enjoyed them all - I think Thornyhold is my favorite.

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  5. I enjoyed reading this one a few years ago and like you it's her descriptions of the scenery which I loved. Ideal holiday reading or for when you can't concentrate on anything too taxing.

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    1. Yes, it was definitely a "comfort read" after a long day - and the history book I was reading was a bit too thick.

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  6. This is one of Mary Stewart's books I have enjoyed, as I've not enjoyed all of them, or even tried all of them. Mind you, it's a very long time since I read it, but the memory of enjoying it has stayed with me.
    Margaret P

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    1. Margaret, I haven't read all of them either, and I am doling them out, because I'll be sad where there are no more to discover, though I know I'll be re-reading them regularly.

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Thank you for taking the time to read, and to comment. I always enjoy hearing different points of view about the books I am reading, even if we disagree!