According to Sharon Paiva Stephan, the talents of 19th-century artist, businesswoman and writer Celia Laighton Thaxter will always find readers and viewers. It was her special skills at gardening, turning commonly used objects into works of art, throwing parties, and writing. As ONE WOMAN'S WORK says, Thaxter could, just as well, grow flowers, paint them onto china, put them in vases, or turn them into poetry.

Other than a semester at Mt Washington Female Seminary in Boston, Thaxter learned what she knew by home schooling and by painting lessons with Boston Impressionist Childe Hassam. Just plain observing nature also had a lot to do with her delicately detailed style. She was often seen carrying magnifying glasses and sketchbooks. The sketches usually showed up later in her book illustrations and her hand-painted china designs of olive branches, poppies, scarlet pimpernel and seaweed.

Also, Thaxter's sketches probably joggled her memory for writing. AN ISLAND GARDEN ended up among the best autobiographical garden books from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That work alone grouped her with respected women garden writers Helena Rutherford Ely, Mrs Francis King, Anna B Warner, and Louise Beebe Wilder.

Thaxter moved into gardening and writing naturally, out of admiration for John Audubon. She was an early protector of endangered birds. Because of what she did and wrote, much of the Isles of the Shoals, off coastal Maine, became bird sanctuaries. Specifically, Appledore island, where she ran a successful hotel business, became a summer research spot managed by Cornell and New Hampshire universities.

Her garden of mainly Burpee and Dreer seeds was destroyed by fire in 1914. Not destroyed was the garden information in Hassam's paintings, many old photographs, and Thaxter's writings. So John M Kingsbury of Cornell University brought back, in time for the United States Bicentennial, the Thaxter garden of asters, hollyhocks, larkspurs, lilies, love-in-a-mist, mignonette, sweet rocket, verbenas, and wildflowers.

During her life Thaxter's garden kept on going, beyond the sweet pea-covered fence, in one direction up vine-covered walls, into the house. There every spacetop had vases, each with 1-2 blossoms. In another direction poppy seeds were left, unweeded after May, to bloom wildly down the bank right to the sea's edge!

Late 19th-century dress tended towards colors too. But Celia Laighton Thaxter stood out in blacks, grays or whites. Photographs in the garden often showed her covered up in a white duster. For other such information, and an even more personal portrait, there's Julia Older's ISLAND QUEEN and Rosamond Thaxter's SANDPIPER.

Mrs. Fiske has carefully sorted through early documents and developed a thorough and friendly history of the Thomas Cook line. She presents new thoughts, supports them with evidence, and makes this book a very valuable resource for those working anywhere along this line. Two fat! volumes may be obtained (be sure to tell Amazon which, or both, that you want) and you'll learn more than you ever dreamed possible about the Cooks. There are a few errors as can be expected in a work of this size (Grandpa's middle name was Orlando, not Oleander) but they appear minor in relationship to the vast number of entries.

First-time novelist David Pirie deserves kudos for doing
something a little different along the lines of a Sherlock
Holmes pastiche. His characters are Dr. Bell and Conan Doyle
themselves. On the other hand, he runs off the rails pretty
early on, with a perfervid yet elliptical style that is more
along the lines of Anna Katherine Green than Dr. Watson, and
with (oh, no, not again!) standard pastiche plot B.

There is no chemistry (or even friendship) between Dr. Bell and
Dr. Conan Doyle, and their cases--- "real life" incidents that
are close parallels to Holmes-Watson adventures such as
"The Speckled Band" and "The Solitary Cyclist"--- tend to
be more annoying or unsatisfying than interesting.

The usual problem with standard pastiche plot B is that the
behavior of a central character is necessarily totally
inconsistent with his actual aims--- here the problem is
magnified, since there are at least three and maybe four
characters whose behavior throughout the "adventure" makes no
sense whatsoever in terms of their eventually-revealed
motivations.

Conan Doyle's overheated style continually sets the reader up
for "a revelation more terrifying than mere mortal flesh can
endure," and then follows up with, more often than not,
no payoff at all, or a payoff that amounts to an empty
pay envelope. At the end of the very episodic "novel," Dr.
Conan Doyle hints that in the next adventure, we'll encounter
Jack the Ripper (whom CD and Bell have seemingly matched wits
with years before during Watson's medical school days).
It's a promising setup, but we've been burned so often in
the present book, I wonder if it is worth checking out the next
in line.

Everyone who loves a good Sherlock Holmes mystery MUST read this book! This is the difinative fictional book on the Master's creator.

This is a terrific read - fast paced and complex. I read it in a single sitting, then leafed back through. It's a "keeper" that won't get cycled through the used book store - it'll be read again and again, especially as Pirie promises more in the series. The next in the series will be released in the U.K. in Oct. 2002, and I await it with pleasant anticipation.

Perkins had some interesting ideas here. Hoare is a potentially intriguing character: nearly muted by a spent musket ball and constantly having to fight over insults to his surname, he could be something different. And the setting, early 19th century British aquatic, while hardly untrodden, is a good one. The female lead character is refreshingly robust in several senses.

However, this book reads like a rough draft. The plot is that of a mystery, and rather than letting the reader discover the characters and events for him/herself, Perkins lets everything out fast in a rush of exposition. Nothing here unfolds slowly. Scenes which should be dramatic, such as the explosion of a frigate, are so rushed that the reader feels deprived of the opportunity to participate. The author badly needs to learn to "show" rather than "tell". The book has a slight, inconsequential feel, so despite occasional nice touches like Hoare's ship, which the hero gives a different name in every chapter, I cannot recommend it.

There is something about the expanse of the Napoleonic Wars that invites a series; whether it is Bernard Cornwell's wonderful Richard Sharpe or Patrick O'Brian's finely crafted tales of adventures on the high seas.The canvas is too vast to limit to one book, unless it is War and Peace!

HOARE AND THE PORTSMOUTH ATROCITIES marks the beginning of a promising new series by Wilder Perkins. Naval Lieutenant Bartholomew Hoare, reluctantly sentenced to shore duty due to an incapacitating injury, finds himself emeshed first in the murder of a Naval Captain, which leads to even darker deeds of sabotage and espionage which cost the British Navy hundreds of lives. Hoare is drawn deeper into danger -- more danger than he had faced in battle, but he perseveres, and wins the day despite his handicap.

The mystery facing Hoare is intriguing enough, but I found the characters even more involving. Hoare is a wonderful hero; not perfect, but so human,and so vulnerable, that he is utterly charming. He loses his heart early in the novel to the equally charming Eleanor Graves, who is not beautiful,but intelligent and resourceful. I can see a fruitful partnership of hearts and minds in the future.

HOARE AND THE PORTSMOUTH ATROCITIES moves along briskly, wrapping up several mysteries in just over two hundred pages, but the flavor and charm linger in the readers' mind much longer. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

As a British naval officer in the Napoleonic War, an assignment on shore is like exile. Mr. Bartholomew Hoare is permanently in that state at the beginning of "Hoare and the Portsmouth Atrocities," when a spent musket ball took away his voice, and an officer incapable of shouting orders is of no use to the Royal Navy. So the naval lieutenant is given work as an assistant to the port admiral of Portsmouth. Hoare has few compensations for his lonely life. His reduced responsibilities may introduce a discordant note to the reader. We have here a maritime mystery that never sails beyond sight of England. "Hoare" wends its way through the story like a ship sailing amid contrary winds, as the lieutenant encounters a woman being set upon by two ruffians on a beach, a mysterious clockwork device found in a small barrel on shore, and at one point investigates the murder of a captain on board his own ship. There's quite a lot happening, and author Wilder Perkins crams into little more than 200 pages no less that three possible life-changing events for Mr. Hoare. The story adheres close to the conventions of the mystery genre, especially at the climax, and it seems that the operations of the conspiracy at the heart of the matter is too complex for its own good. But Perkins has a fine grasp of the Napoleonic era, with its jolly tars, its devotion to a just cause and its officers at home more on board their quarterdeck than on land. One only wishes that Perkins gave us more time to enjoy the experience.

This book probably has limited appeal, but is valuable in that it shows a parting view of an authentic New England fishing village that vanished when the hotel on Star Island was built in the 1870s. The text and photographs of the fishing village are priceless for those who have visited Star Island. A fascinating bit of history.

An insight into a complicated man's mind. This book is for historians who are trying to put together their own pictures of John Paul Jones. Most people would find this book dull and for them I would recommend one of the many books written about the founder of the American Navy.

This a simple read about simple times in the once bustling fishing village on Portsmouth Island in North Carolina. Anyone who has ever visited the historic fishing village or camped on Portsmouth Island can appreciate these tales.

The stories recount the history of the island and some of it's inhabitants before the last resident moved off the island and before the National Park Service took it over in the 70's.

These stories are for those who long to escape the hustle and bustle of contemporary life and read about simpler times. Highly suggested reading for anyone who has ever visited Portsmouth Island, or is planning to visit in the future.

I have enjoyed the whole series of Jane Austin mysteries. I think this one is a bit weaker than the earlier ones, but entertaining nonetheless. My main concern here is that the action in this seems a little farfetched. I know that the time of Jane Austin was much more liberal more women than the Victorian age, but I have a very difficult time imagining that Jane would actually have been able to do all the things that she does here. Rowing out to a burning prison hulk and nursing French sailers in a military prison seem unlikely, even for a character of Jane's pluck.

There is plenty of action here--the story is engaging and the characters are good. I continue to like the way this series is developing.

Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House is the sixth book in Stephanie Barron's series based on discovered material supposedly written by Austen herself. This time around the action takes place in Southampton and Portsmouth and involves a naval captain who has been accused of murdering the captain of a captured French ship. What follows is a somewhat tangled plot as Jane and her brother Frank attempt to discover what really happened. The only thing missing is an appearance by the Gentleman Rogue, although this lack is somewhat made up for by the introduction of Etienne Laforge. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am eagerly anticipating the next in the series!

In 1807, novelist Jane Austen is in Southampton with her brother Frank as he attempts to secure himself a ship. When one of his friends and fellow officers in the British navy is accused of a particularly foul murder, Frank flounders, certain of his friend's innocence yet unable to determine a plan of action. Fortunately for Frank, and for Frank's friend, Jane is only too willing to take on the mystery. Before long there are suspects for a frame and dead bodies, all in the context of proper Jane Austen manners.

Author Stephanie Barron does an excellent job describing England at war with Napoleon, on the verge of the industrial age, and in the transition to the modern world. Manners, position in society, and inherited wealth still play major roles, and marrying the right man is the ultimate goal for the proper woman. Barron is obviously sympathetic with her heroine, a novelist whose personal life is far from ideal, while not attempting to give Austen unduly modern attitudes.

Mixed in with the pleasurable historical view and literary references, Barron manages to deliver an exciting mystery as well. With a prisoner of war camp, a dramatic rescue at sea, and plenty of evil and simply naughty red herrings on the scene, Austen has all she can do to keep her senses and sensibilities about her and help prevent a terrible injustice. JANE AND THE PRISONER OF WOOL HOUSE is a lot of fun.

This is a typical old British zigzagging slow-motion thriller(?) that needed you to read along with an English housekeeper's patience. I prefer Forsyth, Follett and Archer's modern English more than this Grand Diamond Dagger Master's, and would like to skip it anytime possible; just a personal thought.

Michael Gilbert, while a master of the short story, is still putting out excellent novels. I sometimes feel he is the most traditional of English authors and may lose some non- anglophile readers. As he has aged his work may have lost a step but this book is still first class reading and opens up a view of the first World War many Americans do not know.