Claire McGlasson

Set just before WWII in Blackpool, Margaret Finch has just taken up the position as a ‘researcher’ for the ‘Mass Observation’ project. She encounters the disgraced Reverend of Stiffkey who has started a campaign trying to clear his name. Margaret is determined to get to the bottom of the situation and find out whether the claims are true or not. She discovers more than she bargain for.

This is a lovely story which I read via the Pigeonhole app. I loved Margaret and thought she was a great character. She’s a bit of an odd bod but fascinating nevertheless. The plot itself is something of a slow burner. However, I found it intriguing and interesting, leading me to eagerly turn the pages. Truth is stranger than fiction, they say, and that certainly seems to be the case with this book. It’s a mix of fact and the imagination. I enjoyed the descriptions of Blackpool, they really transport you to the time and place. I haven’t been to Blackpool myself, apart from from a trip in my parents’ car at nighttime to see the illuminations, but I could still visualise it all quite easily. An engaging and captivating read, I’m going to miss Margaret et al enormously.… (más)

The Misadventures of Margaret Finch. First of all, what a title! That was what drew me in initially: what has Margaret Finch been up to? Then I read the synopsis, and the setting of 1930s Blackpool and a Mass Observation project had me really intrigued.

Margaret is there to observe holidaymakers' habits and dialects, to see what they eat, which activities they choose to do and so on, and it turns out she's rather good at the stealth observations and making detailed notes for her research. Through her work she meets Harold Davidson, the defrocked Rector of Stiffkey and she finds herself drawn into his case, trying to work out whether he's really guilty or not.

Margaret is an unusual character and her time in Blackpool led to what I felt were quite unexpected situations for a well-brought up girl in 1938, but I think it was a sort of rebellion for her and a gradual understanding of the kind of life she really wanted.

Where this book excels for me is the sense of time and place, the carefree holiday destination for so many families but with the prospect of war looming over them. I loved Margaret's exchanges with her landlady, and I particularly liked her interactions with her colleague, James. Sometimes I felt quite frustrated with Margaret but then I remembered that she had lived a fairly sheltered life and had very bravely set off for a new experience and a role that was very important to her.

Some of the book is based on fact and Harold Davidson did really exist. They say the truth is stranger than fiction and his story is quite bizarre and fascinating. I thought this was quite a quirky read, which took me a little settling into whilst I got a handle on Margaret and where the story was going, but which drew me in and got me really interested in the characters and the lives they were leading.… (más)

Based on a completely fascinating bit of history (which I'd never heard of before)- this novel is a fictionalized look at Bedford's Panacea Society.
In the aftermath of WW1, numerous psychic / religious sects grew up, as the bereaved sought meaning for their sufferings. In 1920s Bedford, the widow of a clergyman- Mabel Barltrop - reinvents herself as Prophet Octavia. With a number of devotees - mainly female - we enter a strange world of holy water (rendered thus by soaking a square of linen on which Octavia has breathed); anticipation at the foretold opening of Joanna Southcott's box of wonders and much self-criticism, signs from above, a conviction of their immortality...and that the garden is on the site of the Garden of Eden....
Narrated by the Prophet's daughter Dilys (a troubled, apparently anorexic soul) this was sufficently intriguing to cause me to order a biography of Octavia.
The story here is about a *3. There's a LOT of lesbian longings for the (entirely fictional) servant Grace (no evidence that Dilys actually had any such feelings.) And Dilys' beliefs about the religion seemed confused- on one hand "seeing through" it, yet a feeling of being tied (partly due tothe leader being her mother.) And again, history indicates she DID return to the society. But a highly intriguing topic. I hope the biography will clarify how something so patently out-of-kilter wiith the Scriptures (and whose Prophet was actually once in a lunatic asylum) managed to attract such a following.Certainly the novel indicates it was no kind of spiritual haven, with a second-in-command seeking power at all costs, and Octavia herself prey to headaches and fault finding if her followers ate too noisily or irritated in any way....… (más)

It's healthy to be reminded, ever so often, that history can be stranger than any fiction. Claire McGlasson's debut novel, which will be published on 6 June, brings to life an odd slice of British history from 1926, when the Panacea Society flourished in Bedford. Largely made up of women who had lost husbands, brothers or sons in the Great War, the Society is centred on the figure of Octavia, a prophetess and self-proclaimed Daughter of God, who claims to have been sent to pave the way for the return of Jesus. While Octavia's convictions inspire many of her followers, the Society's youngest member Dilys finds the cult atmosphere increasingly stifling. Dilys has never experienced any of the visions or visitations described by her fellow members and has concluded that God has no plan for her. But, when she introduces a new member to the community, Dilys dares to hope that maybe life will start to have a purpose after all.

For the full review, please see the link below (going live on 8 May 2019):
https://theidlewoman.net/2019/05/08/the-rapture-claire-mcglasson… (más)