Regular readers will know that I don't often review books. Only when I love them very much. And Miss Blaine's Prefect, created by my friend Olga Wojtas, certainly comes into that category, although this isn't really a review - more a paean of praise for the whole series, a phrase of which Shona McMonagle, with her 'finest education in the world' would no doubt approve.
Olga's novels are entertaining, clever, and very, very funny - but virtually indescribable. It's like trying to describe some delicious dish of many subtle flavours. (Lobster a la Riseholme, to quote another fine comic writer.) I remember when Olga first started out on this series. Very few writers can tell you what their books are 'about'. I can't. It's the question all writers dread.
I remember Olga diffidently saying that she wasn't quite sure how to describe that first book. Now we know. These wise, witty and frequently hilarious novels are completely original. I've come across nothing quite like them. Stella Gibbons has been mentioned and you certainly find yourself laughing out loud in the middle of a page at the sheer comic cleverness of a phrase. Jane Austen too, and there's just a tiny drop of acid here and there, but it's more gentle than Austen's. There's generosity and fun too. I often read on my Kindle, in bed, and keep spluttering in an effort not to wake my husband by laughing out loud, usually at a reference whose wit only strikes me a few seconds later and then delights me.
If you were to describe the premise, you'd think it wouldn't work. But it does. At the behest of her former headmistress, Miss Blaine, Shona travels back in time (and place) to right wrongs, which she succeeds in doing more by good luck than by good management. It works because of the wit, and because of the sheer depths of knowledge and accurate research that lies behind the apparent simplicity. The books have been described as 'cosy crime' but I think that gives the wrong impression. There are crimes, but these are comic novels in the traditional sense, with razor sharp wit and intellect behind them. To use a pair of good Scots words, usually with opposite meanings, Olga manages to be douce and gallus at the same time, although given that the latter description usually has a flavour of Glasgow about it, I doubt if Shona would approve. I find the novels utterly delightful.
Imagine my pleasure then when Shona's latest adventure arrived through the post - Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Parcel of Rogues - with an acknowledgment for yours truly. Olga and I had shared a lunch in Glasgow and talked about Robert Burns among much else. Some years previously, I'd written about Rab's wife, Jean Armour, in The Jewel, and fell in love with the poet as I was researching and writing it. Few women were impervious to his undoubted charm, even though he frequently misbehaved. Will Shona be charmed too? Read the book and find out. A different perspective on Burns, certainly, but one with a great ring of truth to it.
It's difficult to name a favourite in the series. If pushed, I'd have said that Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Weird Sisters was top of my list. But then along came The Parcel of Rogues set in 1788 Edinburgh, with a lovable incarnation of Rab, not to mention young Wally, eighteenth century Barbie and a group of highly intelligent Scottish Enlightenment women. Perfection.
Read them all!
