Seven books by Mazo de la Roche (Pan, 1962-1966)

File these under, "I don't like the books, but oh boy, do I like the covers!"  Someone must have loved the series back-in-the-day however, because I found these as a set on a charity bookstall.

Morning at Jalna (1963)

1863 -

South of the Canadian border from Jalna, the American Civil War rages.

Into the peaceful, budding Ontario settlement come intriguing visitors with the polished manners and soft accents of Old Carolina—

Are these elegant newcomers genuine fugitives from war, or, far more alarming to Philip and Adeline Whiteoak, are they agents of the slave-trading Confederate States?

Whiteoak Harvest (1962) 

RENNY and his wife ALAYNE—their marriage near disaster...

FINCH and SARAH return from their honeymoon to upset the household with Eden Whiteoak's love-child... 

WAKEFIELD, engaged to Pauline Lebraux, but tormented by religious doubts... 

A complete and captivating story in its own right, Whiteoak Harvest is one of the famous WHITEOAKS series—world sales total over twelve million books!

Wakefield's Course (1963) 

'You must tell her who she is—and that you can't marry her'

Two star-crossed lovers face an agonizing decision in this surging episode of one of fiction's best-loved families—  

The Whiteoaks of Jalna

Young Renny (1962)

'I thought I was dead to men till you came along' 

A strong and compelling story of the Whiteoaks of Jalna—of a bitter feud, and a shattered love—and of Renny in his fiery youth and first passion.

Finch's Fortune (1962)

YOUNG FINCH—AND $100,000

At twenty-one Finch Whiteoak, proud, sensitive, reckless, becomes the bewildered inheritor of his grandmother's fortune.   

In this enthralling episode from the Whiteoaks saga, the ever generous Finch takes his two Uncles to England, and against a lovely Devonshire background, falls in and out of love with the bewitching Sarah Court—suffering all the youthful agonies of disillusion and frustrated passion.

Mary Wakefield (1965)

EARLY DAYS AT JALNA

Second of the world-famous, world-loved "Whiteoaks" novels, MARY WAKEFIELD tells of the beautiful young governess who came to Jalna in the warm summer of 1893 and of the struggle that awaited her with the pillars of the Whiteoak family, still dominated by the matriarch Adeline... 

Soon Mary became the centre of a family dispute, and it was not until a flood of emotions both violent and tender had been released that life at Jalna could resume its fertile course.

Whiteoak Heritage (1966)

The New Master of Jalna

Captain Renny Whiteoak returns from World War I to find a challenging heritage:

His father and step-mother have died.

The old uncles, Ernest and Nicholas, have been running the estate with a blissful disregard of economics. 

Young Eden, now a student, is involved in a strange and damaging love affair.

To help put Jalna on its feet, Renny employs a brash and beautiful horse-woman, and soon finds that he too is in love... 

Old Adeline wants to see Renny happily married—but who can fill the role of mistress of Jalna?

The Blind Side by Patricia Wentworth (Hodder and Stoughton, 1955)

Ross Craddock had not been on the best of terms with his relations.  More than one of them had reason to wish him dead, as Ethel Bingham was pleased to inform Detective Abbott and considering the number of residents of Craddock House, who, for one reason or another , withheld information, this prying old maid was just the answer to a policeman's prayer.

Lots of people wanted Ross Craddock dead... and sure enough, he's murdered by page 49!

It's a truth universally acknowledged, that the victim in a Golden Age whodunnit is invariably a loathsome person.  This serves two purposes.  Firstly, it lets the reader enjoy the puzzle without worrying about the person who has been murdered.  Secondly it gives the author plenty of suspects to bamboozle the readers with!

The Stars are Dark by Peter Cheyney (Pan, 1948)

I found this at the Lifeline bookfair:

Its a bit of an oddity, because it's a paperback with a - gasp! - dust jacket!  I've never encountered one like this before, and I suspect I won't find a second one in a hurry.

THE STARS ARE DARK belongs to Peter Cheyney's 'Dark' series, by which word he denotes his stories of Secret Service and counter-espionage. His books are always based on fact, to an extent that would alarm his readers if they believed it; indeed, he only forsakes fact when it would be a little too incredible to be presented as fiction.  Here he gives a glimpse of some of the strange and deadly things that are perpetuated in the name of war; his characters are the men and women who wore no uniforms and won no medals, who were prepared to sacrifice everything, who stood to gain precisely nothing.  The story is told in that tense, gripping style that is his hallmark.

A sailor has arrived in Britain from Nazi-occupied Morocco, and says he has some intelligence on enemy troops stationed there.  The question is: can he be believed?  Or is he peddling misinformation?  This is what our agents set out to discover, and the plot involves several layers of deception, and more than one double-cross.

As far as spy stories go, this book stands a lot closer to John Le Carré than Ian Fleming.   There's no glamour here, no travel to exotic locations, no high-tech gadgets.  Instead The Stars are Dark is set in wartime Britain, and the action takes place in some decidedly un-glamorous locales.  What's more, two agents are killed in the course of this story, and a third appears to be sliding slowly into depression as he realises the long-term cover he has adopted has left him isolated from everything he holds dear.

However—this book was first published in 1943, and for obvious reasons the author couldn't let the Nazis win.  So there is a happy ending of sorts: most of the protagonists survive, and the villains are thwarted.  One character even gets to escape the world of espionage which is the best anyone in The Stars are Dark could hope for.

The Green Brain by Frank Herbert (Ace, 1966)

An unexpected treasure from the Green Shed:

 

In an overpopulated world seeking living room in the jungles, the International Ecological Organization was systematically exterminating the voracious insects which made these areas uninhabitable.  Using deadly foamal bombs and newly developed vibration weapons, men like Joao Martinho and his co-workers fought to clear the green hell of Mato Grosso.

But somehow those areas which had been completely cleared were becoming reinfested, despite the impenetrable vibration barriers.  And tales came out of the jungles... of insects mutated to incredible sizes... of creatures who seemed to be men, but whose eyes gleamed with the chitinous sheen of insects...

Here is a vividly different science-fiction novel by the author of DUNE.

Every once in a while I pick up a book and I find myself thinking, "What was the author on when he wrote this?"

Need I add that this is one of those books?

It was probably at least partly inspired by Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring, a study of the ecological effects of pesticides which first appeared in 1962.  (In fact the eco-rebels mentioned in The Green Brain are called Carsonites—clearly a tribute to The Silent Spring!)  A story about pesticides and overpopulation?  That was both relevant and timely in the mid-sixties.  It fits neatly into the tradition of science fiction both as speculative fiction and as dreadful warning: If you keep doing this, this will happen....

On the other hand... things get weird in this book.  In some ways it reminds me of those "nature takes its revenge" movies that became popular in the 1970s, but "nature" in The Green Brain includes sentient hive minds capable of creating imitation human beings to act as their agents in a plot to take over the world.   There is simply no rational way to get from "here" (overuse of pesticides) to "there" (sentient insects)--and to be fair, Frank Herbert doesn't even try.

At least the heroes of seventies "B" movies only had to deal with plagues of tarantulas or incursions of giant rabbits!

Lastly I've got mention that I'm disappointed with the cover of this paperback.  It's messy, a bit generic, and doesn't convey anything in particular about the characters, the plot or the setting of the story.  The covers of science fiction books went through a bit of a rough patch in the late sixties after the glorious pulpiness of the fifties.  Fortunately for lovers of the genre, things picked up in the seventies!

Murder Most Foul by John Creasey (Corgi, 1973)

Grabbed, with a bagful of miscellaneous stuff, at the last Lifeline Bookfair:

Felicity Deverall, Patrick Dawlish's fiancee, was missing, presumed kidnapped.  The note had told Dawlish to go to the Ley Farm Cottage fast--and alone.

Dawlish hesitated: it could be a trap...but he decided to go and find out and climbed into his car.  He was reaching for his ignition key when he heard a voice through the open window: "Don't start your car.  Don't start your car."

Then a car drove off.
Puzzled, Dawlish sat holding the wheel, then he got out, walked to the front and lifted the bonnet.
It was a small container, no bigger than a matchbox, but had Dawlish turned the ignition, it would have blown him to bits.
A PATRICK DAWLISH THRILLER

 I've got to admit I bought this one just for its cover.  The dark woods in the background, the bright green grass in the foreground and the lonely figure sneaking across the centre of the picture drew me straight in.  It's nice to see that in an era when tacky photo covers abounded, there were still publishers prepared to release paperbacks with proper cover art!

Skylark of Valeron and Skylark DuQuesne by E.E. "Doc" Smith (Pyramid, 1967)

The last two volumes in the "Skylark Series"!

STAR WANDERER

As the mighty spaceship Skylark roved the intergalactic world, scientist Richard Seaton and his companions uncovered a world of disembodied intelligences.  A world of four dimensions where time was insanely distorted and matter obeyed no terrestial laws... where three-dimensional intellects were barely sufficient to thwart invisible mentalities!

My Ally, The Enemy

Dick Seaton and Marc DuQuesne are the deadliest enemies in the Universe -- their feud has blazed among the stars and changed the history of a thousand planets.  but now a threat from outside the Galaxy drives them into a dangerous alliance as hordes of strange races drive to a collision with mankind!

Seaton and DuQuesne fight and slave side by side to fend off the invasion -- as Seaton keeps constant, perilous watch for DuQuesne's inevitable double-cross!

More adventures of Dick Seaton and his merry chums, as they blithely invent new and improved weapons of mass destruction and impulsively leap into interstellar wars.  I could suggest that this is a metaphor for something--but instead I'll just say that the Boys' Own Adventure style of this series and some of the views expressed by the author jarred upon my modern sensibilities.

Like the previous two books in the Skylark series I bought these at the Woden Seniors' Club book fair.  They were printed a few years earlier than The Skylark of Space and Skylark Three and it shows in the cover design.  It also shows in the cover price--which rose by a whole fifteen cents between 1967 and 1970!

The Nutmeg Tree by Margery Sharp (Pan, 1952)

More Lifeline treasures!

THE NUTMEG TREE, written with the light touch and bubbling humour that are characteristic of is author, is a joy to read.  Ex-chorus-girl Julia Packett, windowed in World War I after her brief marriage into a County family, wisely allowed her 'in-laws' to take full responsibility for her daughter Susan's upbringing, while she herself, improvident and indiscreet, returned to the stage-life she adored.  Now, verging on middle age, she is almost penniless when Susan writes begging her to join the family in France, for, says the letter, "I want to get married and Grandmother objects."  So Julia, prepared to behave as a lady should, yet ready to pounce on any crumbs of advantage that may fall in her path, sets out for the mountains of the Haute Savoie.  On the Channel boat she involves herself, rather indecorously, with a troupe of trapeze artists, and actually stays in Paris to take part in one of their performances.  Installed in the French villa she finds that Susan's young man is clearly unsuitable for Susan, but is a kindred spirit to herself and is unscrupulously  ready to exploit her delicate position if she opposes him.  Complications follow the arrival of Susan's guardian, the handsome Sir William Waring.  Julia flutters away--but of course not too far away!

I've mentioned before how much I love vintage Pan paperbacks, and how the  bi-annual Lifeline Bookfair lets me buy 'em by the bagful without worrying whether I'd actually enjoy reading them or not.  And sometimes I get lucky--very, very lucky.  This is one of my lucky finds.  It's a romantic comedy, with an unconventional heroine, by an author I've only vaguely heard of.  It's not at all deep and meaningful (there's no way I'm going to say It Changed My Life) but it's fun.  Just the sort of book to while away a Summer's afternoon--or to curl up with by the fire on a cold Winter's night.