Book Description
To Londoners, the years 1840 to 1870 were years of dramatic change and achievement. As suburbs expanded and roads multiplied, London was ripped apart to build railway lines and stations and life-saving sewers. The Thames was contained by embankments, and traffic congestion was eased by the first underground railway in the world. A start was made on providing housing for the "deserving poor." There were significant advances in medicine, and the Ragged Schools are perhaps the least known of Victorian achievements, in those last decades before universal state education. In 1851 the Great Exhibition managed to astonish almost everyone, attracting exhibitors and visitors from all over the world. But there was also appalling poverty and exploitation, exposed by Henry Mayhew and others. For the laboring classes, pay was pitifully low, the hours long, and job security nonexistent.
Liza Picard shows us the physical reality of daily life. She takes us into schools and prisons, churches and cemeteries. Many practical innovations of the time—flushing lavatories, underground railways, umbrellas, letter boxes, driving on the left—point the way forward. But this was also, at least until the 1850s, a city of cholera outbreaks, transportation to Australia, public executions, and the workhouse, where children could be sold by their parents for as little as £12 and streetpeddlers sold sparrows for a penny, tied by the leg for children to play with. Cruelty and hypocrisy flourished alongside invention, industry, and philanthropy.
Customer Reviews:
The Victorian influence still lives in London.......2007-09-02
The author writing style is clear and scholarship. The book combines the explanations with anecdotes that help the reader to make it more amazing. She set out this journey along the past introducing the readers on how life was in London in the 1840's and how much it changed during the following thirty years.
London was overcrowded and there were not enough facilities to cover inhabitants' needs. In fact, there was a lack of an appropriated sewer and drainage system. London's streets, especially in the slum districts, accumulated heaps of dump and dung in every place. Cholera brought down thousands of people. Besides there was no governmental reaction since the matter affected the high-class and the Buckingham Palace.
Moreover, at the end of the nineteenth century United Kingdom was living its second industrial revolution as well as they controlled the main trading routes overseas. Then it was time to progress.
Throughout the book all changes are described plainly. At last, it provides you a general outlook of the Victorian London. Indeed it was the capital of the realm and the most important buildings and infrastructures were built there.
When I bought this book I never expected to be an expert. I just wanted to comprehend the Victorian influence over London. In fact, today many buildings has outlasted to modern changes. If you feel the same way, then I recommend you to read it because it may bring off all your expectations.
In Flanders' Field.......2007-07-02
Were it not for the availability of Judith Flanders' "Inside the Victorian Home", Ms. Picard's treatment of the subject period would definitely be worth the read. But compared to "Inside", this book is neither as well written nor as comprehensive in its treatment of the day-to-day lives of our Victorian forebears.
Most readable book on the subject of Victorian England.......2007-03-22
I've been reading about the Victorians for a number of years. I tend to consume subjects, reading book and book, until I've satisfied my curiosity. Picard's Victorian London is the best written of them all and answered my most pressing questions concerning the Victorians. Her order is logical and her descriptions memorable. I had previously read a lot of descriptions of the Crystal Pavilion but only Picard's book walked me through the exhibition. The book also helped me realize I no longer wish for a time machine to transport me back to a simpler time. I think the Thames is just lovely now and it sounds as if it was rather nasty 150 years ago. I highly recommend the book.
Queen Victoria's Legacy.......2006-09-06
I stumbled on Liza Picard's books quite by chance. After looking at the publishing date in some of the books it is apparent some of them have been around for several years. I am now recommending them to anyone and everyone and I am so glad I stumbled across the first one I read on a rainy afternoon, lonely and far away from home. I have now read them all.
As soon as you start to read the book it becomes apparent that the author is passionate about her subject and wants the reader to enjoy the reading experience as much as she has in the writing of it. Liza Picard presents an enthralling picture of how life in London in the Victorian era was really lived. The Victorian era covers a large span in years and was a time when the world was changing more quickly than at any period in its history. A magical, mystical period in the history of a great City.
Liza Picard was born in 1927. She read law and qualified as a barrister but did not practice. Quite where she gleaned all this information from I am not sure. That it was a labour of love is obvious to anyone who reads her books and I for one am grateful.
The Smells, sounds, society and daily life of Victorian London explained in readable prose.......2006-07-16
Liza Pickard is a barrister with a mighty pen. She has authored several books about London. These Include: Life in
Elizabethan London: Restoration London; Dr. Johnson's London
and now this fourth book in the series.
Picard has done her homework: her reading of first person diaries and sources; periodical articles from the age. She includes
excellent secondary sources giving the reader an accurate view of
life when Victoria reigned the British Empire. The little Queen
ruled for 64 years from 1837 to her death in 1901.
Picard's chapters deal with such topics as:
daily life for the poor, middle class and wealthy;
the smells and the sights of London;
male and female fashions;
church life and the judicial system of Victorian England;
Amusements from opera strolling in the park to riding a horse
on Rotten Row.
Household appliances and the chores of childrearing;
Disease and Death traditions. Medicine made progress.
the growth of the railroads and road construction;
the Great Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851;
Education expanding its opportunities through Ragged Schools
and church schools.
There are many other topics but you get the idea. The book is
not thrilling but it is essential to a student of English history or literature who wants to sample life for the average
Londoner living from 1840-1870.
Average customer rating:
- Even if you don't love history, you'll love this book
- A totally engrossing, amazing achievement
- As a guide to how we londoner's lived our evryday lives
- This book is informative, witty, insightful, and fun!
|
Restoration London: From Poverty to Pets, from Medicine to Magic, from Slang to Sex, from Wallpaper to Women's Rights
Liza Picard
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
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Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840--1870
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Victorian London
ASIN: 0312186592 |
Customer Reviews:
Even if you don't love history, you'll love this book.......2000-12-11
While it's obvious that Ms. Picard, as she herself is careful to explain, is not a historian, she has accomplished something quite professional in this book. "Restoration London" aims at the social aspect of the times, and dives into the details of everyday life that really tell us what it was like to be there. What did people clean their teeth with? What chances did you have of surviving surgery? What happened to people too old to work? What expressions and words appeared in everyday speech around that time? Ms. Picard tells us all this, and more. The book is entertaining and written in a sort of smartly ironical style - but it's also serious, and you can see that a lot of research has gone into it. I strongly recommend it to everyone.
A totally engrossing, amazing achievement.......1998-10-03
I am a published novelist completing a trilogy set in 17th century London and when I first heard of this book, I said, looking at my groaning six foot bookcase which contains only English history, "No, I do not need this book! Heaven help me if I buy another social history book!" I was so wrong. Nothing is better to understand daily 17th century life. I am almost finished my second reading. She writes with the wit and energy and wry humor of the period. Bravo!
As a guide to how we londoner's lived our evryday lives.......1998-08-24
I enjoyed this dipping in to this book ever morning on my short ride into work, untill one day, when I left it behind on an underground train. Liz Picacd was great at answering those questions that you didn't even know you wanted to ask about life in a large city 350 years ago. Things like 'how did you wash your clothes?', 'were did you go for a good time?' and 'what was the food like?. Altogther a 'must read' for all those interested in the small, but important facts in history, that give us a idea of what eveylife was really like back then.
This book is informative, witty, insightful, and fun!.......1998-06-26
Marvelous! If you are a social history fan, a Restoration bug, a 17th Century nut, or you just love learning through insightful and witty prose, this is a book you will get lost in. It's not unlike "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew"--but more gracefully written, with a fine wry view of the era. Pepys would have loved it! And so would Charles II. Don't delay--it's worth the bucks. Does anyone know anything about author Liza Picard? She's delightful.
Book Description
Liza Picard immerses her readers in the spectacular details of daily life in the London of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). Beginning with the River Thames, she examines the city on the north bank, still largely confined within the old Roman walls. The wealthy lived in mansions upriver, and the royal palaces were even farther up at Westminster. On the south bank, theaters and spectacles drew the crowds, and Southwark and Bermondsey were bustling with trade. Picard examines the streets and the traffic in them; she surveys building methods and shows us the decor of the rich and the not-so-rich. Her account overflows with particulars of domestic life, right down to what was likely to be growing in London gardens.
Picard then turns her eye to the Londoners themselves, many of whom were afflicted by the plague, smallpox, and other diseases. The diagnosis was frequently bizarre and the treatment could do more harm than good. But there was comfort to be had in simple, homely pleasures, and cares could be forgotten in a playhouse or the bull-baiting and bear-baiting rings, or watching a good cockfight. The more sober-minded might go to hear a lecture at Gresham College or the latest preacher at Paul's Cross.
Immigrants posed problems for Londoners who, though proud of their nation's religious tolerance, were concerned about the damage these skilled migrants might do to their own livelihoods, despite the dominance of livery companies and their apprentice system. Henry VIII's destruction of the monasteries had caused a crisis in poverty management that was still acute, resulting in begging (with begging licenses!) and a "parochial poor rate" paid by the better-off.
Liza Picard's wonderfully vivid prose enables us to share the satisfaction and delights, as well as the vexations and horrors, of the everyday lives of the denizens of sixteenth-century London.
Customer Reviews:
Elizabeth's London.......2006-09-06
I stumbled on Liza Picard's books quite by chance. After looking at the publishing date in some of the books it is apparent some of them have been around for several years. I am now recommending them to anyone and everyone and I am so glad I stumbled across this one on a bookshop shelf. I have now read them all, but this one was the first.
As soon as you start to read the book it becomes apparent that the author is passionate about the subject and wants the reader to enjoy the experience as much as she has in the writing of it. How apt that the author starts the book with the life blood of the great City of London. Meandering like a great artery through the heart of the City. It moves on to the streets, houses and gardens; cooking, housework and shopping; clothes, jewellery and make-up; health and medicine; sex and food; education, etiquette and hobbies; religion, law and crime.
Liza Picard was born in 1927. She read law and qualified as a barrister but did not practice. Quite where she gleaned all this information from I am not sure. That it was a labour of love is obvious to anyone who reads her books and I for one am grateful.
Great bottom-up history.......2005-08-18
This book does a very good job at portraying how ordinary people lived their lives in the time of the Good Queen Bessie, from what they ate and wore to their furniture and sewage conditions. The only complaint that I have about it is that it is very difficult to visualize the descriptions of the clothing, and when referenced to one of the pictures I still didn't know what part of the outfit she was talking about. I would have rated this a 5 out of 5 if it would have included labled diagrams of the clothing.
History as Daily Life.......2005-05-02
This book is unique in that it doesn't deal with the great sweep of history and its players so much as dwell on day to day life. In particular, the daily life of ordinary people who, in their own way, were not players on the larger stage. Rather, these people were those folk just going about their life.
Any moderately well read student of the 16th century would be familiar with the world of Henry VIII, Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada. Yet how many of these students would be familiar with the gardens, religious beliefs, medicine, fashions and diets of the era? Yes, many would have a smattering of knowledge but Liza Picard has done a fine job in providing many of these details of life plus a host of others. Who, for example, would be familiar with such amusements as bull, bear or even lion baiting? Imagine the spectacle of setting a lion in a pit with a team of dogs for a fight to the finish; unthinkable today but of the greatest sport during Elizabeth's time.
Liza Picard's book is an unusual work of history. She has chosen to deconstruct a different world to that of most historians. Her focus has been upon the ordinary rather than the glamorous. Ms Picard has chosen a different road to travel but one that is very fulfilling for the reader. Elizabeth I was, in my opinion, the most important woman to ever live. This book goes some of the way to providing background to an extraordinary woman living in an extraordinary age.
Book Description
Liza Garrett is the first child in town born in the twentieth century--whose life in many ways mirrors the turmoils of England itself. The tough, severe, but very real and recognizable world of women is put to the most strenuous tests, and Liza, at eighty-four, is proof that loyalty, fortitude and humor survive.
Customer Reviews:
Endless Cups of Tea.......2000-12-07
This was my first Pat Barker novel and I have to admit, that while I found it quite uneven, I did find parts of it quite charming as well.
Barker seems intent on investigating the end of a woman's life in The Century's Daughter and, in this respect, she does an admirable job. Set in working-class northern England, The Century's Daughter is not a provincial book, however, but seeks to embrace the grand tradition of political fiction instead.
Set in 1984-85, the book deals with the final year in the life of its protagonist, Liza Wright, who is the same age as the century, almost to the second. In this sense, The Century's Daughter is reminiscent of Salman Rushdie's Mignight's Children, a book that follows the lives of a group of babies born at the stroke of midnight on the day of India's independence. While Midnight's Children, however, focused on the politics of Indira Ghandi, The Century's Daughter focuses on the politics of Margaret Thatcher, a woman Liza is vehemently trying to forget.
One of the things I found most charming about this otherwise flawed book was the fact that Barker wisely eschewed any attempt at glamour, fast-paced adventure, wealth, adultery and all the other trappings that many readers of today's "commercial" fiction seem to demand. This is a book about the beauty inherent in everyday life, and that is, to its enormous credit, one of the story's strongest points.
Liza, who is now eighty-four, lives with her old parrot, Nelson, a mere four miles from where she was born, in the ramshackle row house she has occupied since 1922. Decrepit, unsafe and surrounded by the squalid Clagg Lane housing project, Liza's home is now scheduled to be torn down. This sets the stage for the entrance of Stephen, a twenty-nine year old social worker who is sent to persuade the very reluctant Liza to move into a nursing home.
The conflict centers on Liza's recalcitrance. When Stephen tells her she would have other elderly people around her in the nursing home, Liza tartly tells him that people her age don't make friends.
Predictably, Liza remains in her row house and she and Stephen become the best of friends. Liza's story is engrossing and it does reflect the century's own misfortunes. Liza Wright has lived an English working woman's life with all its attendant restrictions and woes. The daughter of an angry mother who bore a total of fifteen children, Liza seeks an early escape from her life at the age of seventeen. It is an escape, however, that doesn't lead exactly where she expects it to.
Although Liza, herself, can, at times, be a persnickety but charming elderly woman, The Century's Daughter is more often than not filled with dreary stuff: babies being born into misery and squalor; elderly people dying alone and in filth; the all-pervading dampness so redolent in northern England; the endless cups of tea meant to ward off the chill. To her enormous credit, Barker tells her story with vibrancy, optimism and life. So much so, that Liza, despite her precarious health and dreary circumstances, is a much more optimistic character than is Stephen, who is really not fully-fleshed out.
Despite his rather wooden quality, it is Stephen who is bestowed with the book's most poignant moment as he attempts to find a working phone when his father, Walter, is hospitalized.
I found the writing in The Century's Daughter to be rather uneven at best and jarring at worst. At times, Barker seemed to be rushing her story and at other times she seemed to gloss over things we wanted to know more about. Many of the book's scenes are arbitrary and the ending, in particular, is totally out of keeping with what went before.
The Century's Daughter has its moments, few though they are, and the best thing about it, I think, is the author's unbridled energy and enthusiasm. While I would not really recommend this particular book, I definitely would not write Barker off. She is obviously a woman with talent.
Familiarity Breeds Contempt.......2000-11-27
I have read 5 books by Ms. Barker recently. Reading a number of works in succession by a writer that is new to me is a frequent event. There was a recurring problem within what could have been a very good book that made this the weakest book of Ms. Barker's I have read. In fairness, had I read this first, my opinion would have been different, but then her later books would have suffered the same repeated flaw.
The story began with a charming premise, a young male social worker, meets an 84 year old woman who must be moved from her home, where she has experienced the greater part of her life. She is virtually the last occupant in this neighborhood of memories and wraiths. Her memories are all she has left of what has been a long and painful life. Her sole companion is an eccentric Parrot, which again could have been an interesting facet/a nice aside to the story. The social worker Stephen is characterized as being gay, unlike the World War I trilogy when a main character's lifestyle was a central part of the story, a character trait that was a large part of what defined him, in this book it was meaningless. If it had merit it was far too subtle for me to grasp.
The book's failing is that many stories within the book, or metaphors that are memorable, not only appeared here, they also appeared verbatim in the other books I had read, or were so slightly changed as to be nearly indistinguishable. World War I experiences are related here and then in the trilogy, metaphors that are memorable, again appear here and again in the trilogy. It does not happen once or even 5 times, but many times. The result is this reader kept thinking about the other books I had given such high marks to, but I now know I was reading recycled ideas from an earlier work.
The exposition of Liza's life, and the shifting back and forth to present day, and the life that is Stephen's is clumsy at best. Far from being seamless, they are incongruous, jarring, and prevent any sort of cadence from developing for the reader.
Stephen's relationship with Liza pretended to be the Grandmother to this young man who had come into her life to serve bad news, but became someone she was fond of in spite of the change he represented, as Grandmothers tend to do. However, the end of the book while not predictable, makes a mockery of all that has gone before, destroys the structure of what had been written, and is so out of character with the balance of the book as to be absurd. The actual event will leave you with strong feelings about many people and issues, but none that would bring you back to Ms. Barker's work, were this the first you had read.
This is book number 5 for me, and the first 4 I still enthusiastically recommend.
On this one, pass.
Average customer rating:
- Meet, Anna Lee: British PI
- Very mysterious and suspenseful
|
Dupe
Liza Cody
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0684171538 |
Product Description
Winner of Britains John Creasey Award for Best First Novel of 1980 Anna quit the London police force because it was a dead end for women, but her job with Brierly Security isnt a whole lot livelier. Her boss doesnt much approve of female investigators, and her assignments tend toward the frustratingly genteel. The Jackson case doesnt look like a big improvement. Ambitious, unpleasant young Deirdre Jackson has died, the apparent victim of a car accident on a lonely stretch of highway, and her parents want to know what their black-sheep daughter was up to in her last few months. Annas job, she knows, is to ask a few questions, write a report, and collect the Jacksons check. But the more questions she asks about Dees life, the more questions arise about her death. Answering them could land Anna in the hospital . . . or the morgue. But it could also be her ticket out of the pink-collar ghetto.
Customer Reviews:
Meet, Anna Lee: British PI.......2003-09-13
If one enjoys the American sisterhood of hard-boiled private investigators, check out Liza Cody's Anna Lee, for the UK version. Anna is a hard working single, surrounded by quirky but likeable supporting characters,who help and hinder, British style. In this case, a young woman is killed in what may be an accident, however, the girl's parents insist there was foul play. With true British determination Anna deals with suspects, criminals, and uncovers another mystery that appears to tie in with her case, involving the pirating of American films. She is unaware of some serious danger ahead. Some American readers may find the liberal peppering of British slang an acquired taste, but it's not difficult to decipher and makes Cody interesting to read. Anna spouts off some strong opinions about the rich and powerful Hollywood film industry, but it merely adds another dimension to the humble sleuth. In this book, there is not intense suspense, but rather the methodical gathering of evidence until the climax, which was sudden, but handled rather well. I liked the British investigator, Anna Lee. Great snowy,icy,windy and miserable English winter ambience. I want to read the next in the series.
Very mysterious and suspenseful.......1999-11-05
Anna gets a job to find out the death of Deirde Jackson. While trying to find out she meets different people and answers many of her questions.
Book Description
The practical realities of everyday life are rarely described in history books.To remedy this, and to satisfy her own curiosity about the lives of our 18th-century ancestors, Liza Picard immersed herself in contemporary sources - diaries and journals, almanacs and newspapers, government papers and reports, advice books and memoirs (including, not least, those of foreign visitors such as Casanova) - to examine the substance of life in mid-18th century London: houses, gardens, transport and traffic; occupations and work, pleasure and amusements; health, medicine and hospitals; sex and food, clothes and fashion; education, manners and etiquette; crime and punishment.By 1750 London was the biggest city in Europe.The 'west end' was expanding fast onto green-field sites, while the City still represented wealth and power.The opulence of the rich and the comfort of the 'middling sort' contrasted sharply with the backbreaking labor and pitiful wages of washerwomen and coal-heavers, silk-weavers and the climbing boys employed by chimney sweeps. With philanthropic help, new teaching hospitals were established, but the advance of medical theory hardly affected the treatment of patients, which was often bizarre.Executions were rated one of the best amusements, but there was bullock-hunting and cock-fighting too.There was also the lottery, the craze for which among the poor was as disastrous as gin.Crime, from pickpockets to highwaymen, was rife, prisons were poisonous and law-enforcement rudimentary, although it began to improve with the appointment in 1749 of Henry Fielding and later his blind brother John as magistrates in Westminster.This book spans the period 1740 to 1770 - very much the city of Dr. Johnson, who published his great Dictionary in 1755.It starts when the gin craze was gaining ground and ends when the east coast of America was still British.While brilliantly recording the strangeness and individuality of the past, Dr. Johnson's London continually reminds us of parallels with the present day.AUTHORBIO: Liza Picard was born in Essex in 1927, the youngest daughter of the village doctor.She read law at the London School of Economics but chose not to practice despite qualifying as a barrister.Her first book, Restoration London, was published by St. Martin's in 1998.
Customer Reviews:
Dr. Johnson's point of view, expressed via Liza Picard.......2007-06-28
I'm enjoying this book! I'm almost done with it and I am finding the information very interesting.
I've always wanted to know what London was like back in the pre-Victorian days and this book attempts to do just that.
Since the excerpts were taken from actual written documentations (eg: Dr. Johnson's diaries,etc.)---in other words, a person that was actually there. Liza Picard was merely the person that compiled all the information for this book.
Therefore, I'm reading this book by keeping this fact in mind.
The language expressed in this book may sound "old fashioned" because most of the excerpts were written by a pre-Victorian Era person, and also that person lived in London. Thus, there is a difference between reading a book written today in modern English, as opposed to the written English style of a century ago. (I actually enjoyed reading the written "old fashioned" English excerpts).
There are not alot of photos in this book, so if you are looking for a picture book ,then this book may not be of your liking.
Instead, this book is categorized into various chapters regarding pre-Victorian London (ie:such as the political occurences of the times, or for example the medical view points of a century ago, etc...). Each chapter discusses the aspects of "old" London, as seen through the eyes of the people that were there at that time.
Eminently Readable History.......2007-01-09
New to Liza Picard's writing I so enjoyed this very readable historian I ordered the rest of her titles. The book portrays the lives of the common 'man in the street' as well as many facts of the period.
As a regular reader of History, I find Liza's slightly lighter approach refreshing - even her footnotes are humorous and enlighten the reader, rather than confuse.
A fascinating insight to a city I love.
Eighteenth Century London: A facinating place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there!.......2007-01-04
This book looks deep beneath the surface of London society during the Age of Enlightment and describes in minute detail what life was really like for one and all, from the lowest street urchin to the royal family. The daily struggle for existence by London's residents is covered -- all those unsavory things you probably didn't learn in history class. Overflowing cespits, Orphans apprentenced into professions where an early death from industrial pollutants was a near certainty, bakeries that regularly adulterated their bread with caulk, these are just a few of the many examples found on these pages. No detail is overlooked: What they wore, what they did for fun, the cost of living, the cost of dying, the capricious justice system under which a significant number of lawbreakers managed to avoid punishment, even for murder, while an unlucky few were hanged for crimes that today would draw only a small fine.
I highly recommend Dr. Johnson's London to anyone who is looking for an in-depth look at Georgian London.
London 1740-1770.......2006-09-06
I stumbled on Liza Picard's books quite by chance. After looking at the publishing date in some of the books it is apparent some of them have been around for several years. I am now recommending them to anyone and everyone and I am so glad I stumbled across the first one I read on a rainy afternoon, lonely and far away from home. I have now read them all.
As soon as you start to read the book it becomes apparent that the author is passionate about her subject and wants the reader to enjoy the reading experience as much as she has in the writing of it. Liza Picard presents an enthralling picture of how life in London was really lived. The book is about the period from 1740 to 1770 when many great men walked the streets of London, among them Hogarth, Fielding and Dr Johnson. Names that are well known in history, but the author puts meat on the bones and brings these people to life for the enjoyment of the reader.
Liza Picard was born in 1927. She read law and qualified as a barrister but did not practice. Quite where she gleaned all this information from I am not sure. That it was a labour of love is obvious to anyone who reads her books and I for one am grateful.
About the era of Samuel Johnson, not about Johnson himself.......2005-08-15
Picard covers an era of British social history, the 1700s, that has received relatively little attention. The book is divided into four parts: The first part covers London's infrastructure, and the other three parts cover the three major socioeconomic categories: poor, "middling," and rich, although the rich get rather little page space. There are over 50 illustrations.
This book is reminiscent of an encyclopedia: For each heading there is a description of one-to-five paragraphs, making this an easy book to jump around in as the spirit moves you. A less charitable description would be to say that the style is disjointed. The amount of detail is impressive, and the reader is given a thorough introduction to daily life of that era. The author often launches into remarks that are intended to be humorous. I imagine this was done so the book would not be dry reading, but her comments often seem gratuitous or disruptive to the flow of the material. There is very little here specifically about Samuel Johnson; this is a book about his era, not about him.
I preferred a very similar book, "1700: Scenes from London Life" by Maureen Waller. Waller's book covers the identical material (50 years earlier) and has a more cohesive style of writing.
Average customer rating:
- I Want To Read More About Eva
- Irresistable, Unforgettable Herione!
- Easy escape light reading
- Come back, Bucket Nut!
- More . . .
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Bucket Nut
Liza Cody
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Customer Reviews:
I Want To Read More About Eva.......2003-12-06
Eva Wylie is a wrestler with ambitions of becoming a World Champion. She lives in a trailer as a security guard in a spare parts yard with two vicious guard dogs. She has very definite ideas about all aspects of life and if you don't agree with them, well, you can just sod off.
This was an extremely interesting book for a couple of reasons. The first is that the protagonist is not your usual likable character who wins us over despite a couple of flaws. She actually challenges us, time and again over decisions she's made and thoughts she's had. She's abrasive, rude and continually "narked", and for all of that you still feel yourself cheering for her. The second is her job, or jobs actually, a wrestler, a part-time security guard, a part-time courier for a shady character and a part-time bouncer. There's never a dull moment when Eva's around.
Bucket Nut is the first of only three books in the Eva Wylie series, a bittersweet fact. Only 3 books in the series will have me wishing there were more, but I'm pleased to have the other 2 books ahead of me. This is definitely one of those books that leave you wanting to read more.
Irresistable, Unforgettable Herione!.......2002-09-06
I wish there were more Eva Wylie books. This heroine views life from her own desperate background, and her viewpoints are endearing. Her vocabulary is entertaining, with the London slang. It is the character that makes the book, even more than the story. Read all three Eva Wylie books: Bucket Nut, Monkey Wrench, and Musclebound.
Easy escape light reading.......2002-06-15
This was a hard to put down book that takes you to a real world you only want to visit through reading. I would recommend this to anyone who wants time for light getting away from it all reading. Excellent
Come back, Bucket Nut!.......2001-04-04
Liza Cody has created an unforgettable character in Eva Wylie. She's as tough as the junk-yard dogs she lives with in her trailer. She's funny too, and vunlnerable and her life is a glimpse into a world most of us would not care to inhabit. But, another visit to her world would be looked foreward to with anticipation. Come back, Bucket Nut! We love you!
More . . ........2001-01-28
I want more! More of Eva books, more of Cody books!
Average customer rating:
- Bucket Nut Comes Back!
- a wild and crazy ride... can't wait to read the next...
- Found Money's A Curse
- Too bad this is the last Eva Wylie book!
- An absolutely BRILLIANT creation
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Musclebound
Liza Cody
Manufacturer: Mysterious Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
British
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Similar Items:
-
Gimme More (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)
-
Monkey Wrench
-
Dupe (Anna Lee Mysteries)
-
Bucket Nut
-
Backhand
ASIN: 0892966017 |
Customer Reviews:
Bucket Nut Comes Back! .......2006-12-13
I had previously devoured the other 2 Bucket Nut books, but only recently found Musclebound on the shelf at my library. Here is more of the irresistibly gritty and heart-wringing tough girl Eva Wylie, who was first introduced in Bucket Nut. Eva's down on her luck, banned from what she lives for - the wrestling ring - and drinking herself into the pit. Then things start to develop, with Eva right in the middle of it all.
I cannot understand why people keep calling the Eva books mysteries, and her a sleuth. Or moral. Hah!! Eva is your ultimate surly street survivor. She may be in the middle of a mystery, but she isn't trying to straighten anything out but her own life - and not necessarily by legal means. Stubborn, hard-headed, big and mean, Eva is her own worse enemy. But she is as tough and determined as they come, and she is going to take care of herself - and her crew of big and mean junkyard dogs - come what may.
Eva finally develops a dream - Musclebound, a gym of her own - and life hands her an advance toward her dream on a platter, then whisks it away. But the dream manages to live on. As all the Eva Wylie books are, this one is sad and funny, and gut-wrenching and just plain impossible to put down. And it also has another of Eva's absolutely smashing wrestling scenes in there, a dose of pure adrenaline-dripping fabulous reading! Not for the squeamish or faint of heart.
a wild and crazy ride... can't wait to read the next..........2005-08-13
Just finished "Musclebound", having previously read "Monkey Wrench" (reviewed separately). I am even more confirmed liking this character and series.
Eva Wylie is an unusual character, to say the least, and I won't go into the plots as these are available in the other reviews. It's the character that appeals.
The novels are told in first-person narrative. You feel like an older, wiser counselor looking over Eva's shoulder, being inside her head. You see what's going on WELL before Eva does, like when she finds a bag full of money in this story but does not realize it's counterfeit 'til WAY after the reader does.
It's not about how smart Eva is, but how gutsy. She's been knocked down over and over but she gets back up every time. By the end of each novel Eva has grown a bit further by paradoxically staying herself AND learning some things new. Eva has friends and supporters both true (including THE ENEMY, her nickname for another character in the book) and false (but we're still figuring that out along with her).
It's a wild and crazy ride, each novel, and I can't wait to read the next!
Found Money's A Curse.......2004-06-29
Liza Cody is responsible for a highly entertaining series of books featuring an extremely tough protagonist in eva Wylie. Unfortunately the series only runs to 3 books (at least so far) and Musclebound is the 3rd book. Eva Wylie is a tough woman who defiantly narrates her story. She doesn't tell us the story so much as she drops it in a sodden heap at our feet and then says, "Well what are ya waiting for, read it".
She is a raw, in-your-face professional wrestler who holds a night watchman job at a car-wreckers. At least, she was a professional wrestler, known as the London Lassassin until she was banned from the ring. Now she just works nights with her dogs, Ramses, Linnekar and Milo.
At the start of the book, Eva is down on her luck, out of work, often drunk and getting tossed out of pubs. But she's still the same tough character. She brooks no nonsense from anyone and will loudly tell you where to go if you cross her. Her put downs and sarcastic comebacks range from crude to blatantly abusive and are a feature of the story that I find hugely entertaining.
After getting kicked out of a pub late one night, she spots a car at a service station just begging to be "borrowed". She barely hesitates before jumping in and speeding off, only to be shocked when the owner of the car shoots out the passenger windows. She is even more shocked when she later discovers that sitting on the back seat of the car is a bag full of cash. Naturally Eva takes the cash, pleased with her unexpected change of fortune. But she finds out that having money can cause almost as many problems as having none.
Her easy life is suddenly disrupted by a procession of unwelcome visitors as can be imagined when coming into possession of that much many in dubious circumstances. There's Keif, a fellow wrestler who virtually adopts Eva and vows to train her back into shape, Fish Face, Droopy-drawers, The Enemy (Anna Lee, Cody's other protagonist) and God Greg, not to mention Wozzizname and the police. They sound like weird names, but only because Eva tends to christen people with her own nicknames and then refers to them only by their new nicknames, no matter how derogatory they may be.
Among the unwelcome guests who visit her home comes a visitor who is very definitely in the welcome category. Her sister, Simone appears one day much to Eva's joy. For the duration of the first two books, Eva has had a burning desire to find Simone but her mother continually refused to tell her where she was. Simone's introduction to the story is an interesting one because it enables us to finally see another side of Eva, one where she is desperate to please somebody else.
What makes this book so enjoyable is the total consistency of Eva's hate. She doesn't discriminate, if you tick her off she will give you an absolute gob full and that's where the fun begins. She also has an interesting philosophy on life one that is, shall we say, unconventional, and she updates us with it as we follow her story.
Too bad this is the last Eva Wylie book!.......2002-09-06
I wish there were more Eva Wylie books. This heroine views life from her own desperate background, and her viewpoints are endearing. Her vocabulary is entertaining, with the London slang. It is the character that makes the book, even more than the story. Read all three Eva Wylie books: Bucket Nut, Monkey Wrench, and Musclebound.
An absolutely BRILLIANT creation.......1998-06-20
Eva Wylie is one of the most unique, fascinating, and memorable characters created in mystery fiction to date! Cody does a terrific job of letting us see many sides to Wylie, and the effect is that Wylie "sticks with us" long after we have put the book down. Wylie is at once rock-hard tough, pitiable, and intelligent (in her own way), and Cody's translation of Wylie's thoughts are at once no-nonsense and brilliantly subtle. The Eva Wylie series is perhaps the best, funniest, and most unique series I have read in a long, long time! Well worth reading all three, and looking forward to many more.
Average customer rating:
- delightful contender!
- Eva Breaks The Mold
- Unforgettable, Irresistable Heroine!
- A tour de force
- Mysteries look different to a professional wrestler!
|
Monkey Wrench
Liza Cody
Manufacturer: Mysterious Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
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| 18th Century
| 19th Century
| 20th Century
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Similar Items:
-
Musclebound
-
Bucket Nut
-
Backhand
-
Gimme More (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)
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Head Case
ASIN: 0892966009 |
Customer Reviews:
delightful contender!.......2005-08-01
Just came across this and I'm going to read the next one in the series immediately! The other reviews explain this unique female lead and her environment. I like the book because it is quirky, consistent, a bit of an inspiration, and slyly humorous. Eva Wylie is a contender!
Eva Breaks The Mold.......2003-12-15
Eva Wylie returns in her 2nd book and once again she's up front about her outlook on life. In fact her philosophy is summed up right there on page 1 of the book when she says:
"What's the point in being nice to someone who can't remember how nice you've been? Tell me that. The only point in doing someone a favour is if they remember and do you a favour back."
She's no saint and is happy to let everyone know. You get a pretty good idea how she came about that philosophy when she actually does a favour for someone and then is promptly plagued by one problem after the other as a result. When a local prostitute is murdered, the girl's sister and a few of the other local prostitutes come to Eva to ask her to teach them self defence. They figure Eva would be a good choice owing to one of her jobs as a professional wrestler, where she fights under the guise of The London Lassassin. Of course, Eva's first response is a resounding "Sod off!!" until the mention of a financial incentive is forthcoming. In a very entertaining chain of events, Eva's life begins to crumble around her.
This second book admirably complements the first (Bucket Nut) with Eva's defiance still the overwhelming emotion. Liza Cody's heroine from her other series of books, Anna Lee, becomes a little more prominent in this book, much to Eva's disgust. Although for the most part, the story is a humorous one, there is an underlying tone of desperation and the beginning of despair. But it doesn't seem to matter what's thrown up against her, Eva still manages to get by with her own unique rationale.
Unforgettable, Irresistable Heroine!.......2002-09-06
I wish there were more Eva Wylie books. I would read them non-stop if I could! Eva is so loveable and funny even with all of the tragedies of her life. She views life from her own desperate background, and her viewpoints are endearing. Her vocabulary is entertaining, with the London slang.
A tour de force.......2000-08-19
A jacket quote notes that the LA Times reviewer called this book a tour de force, and I have to agree. Liza Cody does a wonderful job of telling a story from the viewpoint of a lower class, not-very-bright, abused-as-a-child, female professional wrestler in London. The narrator is simultaneously sad, horrifying and funny. I'm sorry the book is out of print. I'd like to read more by Liza Cody, and especially more with the one-of-a-kind character of Eva Wylie. If you want a unique point of view and a good read, keep and eye out for this one.
Mysteries look different to a professional wrestler!.......1998-04-04
The usually simple formula of a detective story has been hopelessly convoluted by dirty reality, and Eva Wylie's slightly twisted perception of it. I've
never met a protagonist so ugly, tough, and stubborn,
and she's female!
Eva's arms look a lot better than
her face; the wrestling fans don't call her Bucket Nut (Bucket
Head) for nothing. But underneath her hard-as-nails
exterior, she's way more vulnerable than she wants
to be. Eva ends up using her muscle and street know-how
to try to even up the score in one of the oldest
battles known to the city scene. Prostitutes in the
area are getting brutally killed, and one of them
happens to be the sister of her old sidekick, Crystal.
Crystal wants justice for her sister, and she doesn't
hesitate to manipulate Eva into helping out. Eva
just wants peace - a few good workouts, a wild
fight in the ring now and then, and hanging out
with her junkyard dogs. But Crystal has the tenacity
of a Monkey Wrench, and won't let her be until she
feels her sister is avenged.
It's a non-stop ride
through the seamiest streets of London, with the
most unusual, nasty, oddly laughable and ultimately
admirable heroine I've
ever read. Go, Bucket Nut!!
Average customer rating:
|
Under Contract: An Anna Lee Investigation
Liza Cody
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
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| 18th Century
| 19th Century
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| Classics
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Stalker
ASIN: 0684187809 |
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