Chapter Ten #2
“It’s got a sad ending though,” piped up Alison, the leader of the group.
“Happy sad,” Diana told her. “Happy because she feels empowered as a woman, looking after her children first and foremost,
and seeing her pirate king sometimes.”
“Exactly,” Petra chipped in. “It was the only good ending she could have gone with, I’ve always thought. Bittersweet.”
“Are we allowed sad endings, though?”
“Of course! Sad endings are sometimes the right ending, don’t you think?” asked Petra diffidently. Diana had told her Alison was a romance writer, so she would normally bow to Alison’s expertise, “But we can do a ‘Happily Ever After’ list? Totally.”
“Let’s just see what comes up,” suggested Alison.
“The Thornbirds!” suggested Jess next, putting her hand up first, because she worked a lot in schools.
“That’s another one for a sad ending,” said Mungo as Flo wrote it down.
“Twilight,” suggested someone else, to general sounds of approval.
“Fun fact: E. L. James’s Fifty Shades started off as fanfic for Twilight,” said Jess.
“What on earth is fanfic?” asked Flo, her marker pen hovering over the flip chart.
“Fan fiction—online writing, shared for free,” Petra told her. “Very often it’s homage—existing characters created by someone
else—but with new adventures. Apparently, there are huge amounts of fanfic for Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes too.”
“I didn’t know that,” chipped in Diana wonderingly. “I must investigate. I always wished Conan Doyle had written more Sherlock
Holmes stories.”
“Okay, so just to be aware,” Petra said hastily, “a lot of it’s quite steamy, with Holmes and Watson in a relationship.”
“That won’t faze me,” said Diana. “I’d always assumed Conan Doyle meant us to infer that anyhow.”
Mungo nodded. “The filthier the better, for this one,” he remarked.
“Absolutely,” Diana agreed. “Speaking of which, I thought Fifty Shades of Grey was great, but people love to have a pop at it, I know.”
“You can’t argue with sales of more than one hundred and fifty million. I doubt E. L. James weeps bitter tears over her detractors,” Petra agreed.
“If she does, at least she can wipe her eyes with her very nice royalty statements,” concurred Mungo. “I think Fifty Shades should be on our list as well.”
“Okay,” said Petra, making a mental note not to order too many paperback copies even so. Not everyone would want to signal
publicly what they were reading, hence the benefits of e-readers.
“And if we’re talking delicious literary comfort food,” said Flo, “I think the late, great Jilly Cooper deserves a slot on
the list.”
“Definitely,” said Petra. “I just absolutely adored Riders.”
“Which one was that?” asked Alison. “I still re-read the ones with the girls’ names; they’re my idea of perfect little romances.
She’s my biggest writing inspiration, actually.”
“I love the girls’ names ones too,” agreed Petra. “But the Rutshire ones are amazing.”
“Yes!” sighed Jess, her hand on her heart. “Rupert Campbell-Black versus Jake Wotsisname. Heaven.”
“We should have that and the latest,” said Mungo, “and Riders deserves a place on the list, for sure, because they’ve just made a TV series of it, haven’t they? That’s got to boost sales
of the book.”
Petra nodded her agreement. She barely watched television these days, as she only had her laptop and the flat’s wonky internet
connection.
Flo wrote down Riders, and then—“the latest, whatever it’s called,” and then looked around the group for the next suggestion.
Quickly, they all agreed on Colleen Hoover’s All Your Perfects, because it wasn’t the one that sold the most copies, but it was the most romantic. Jilly Cooper’s first romance, Emily, made the list, as did David Nichols’s One Day.
“Glad to see a male writer on the list at last,” said Mungo. "We men are not completely devoid of romantic sensibility.”
“Yeah, but you mostly are,” teased Petra. She loved Mungo. “Remember all those women who had to get their books published
under men’s names,” she told him reprovingly, as if it were his fault. “Talking of which, I’m going to vote for Jane Eyre because it’s—well—because it’s amazing,” she went on.
“Can’t argue with that,” said Flo, writing it down.
“If we’re doing the classics—and, let’s face it—they’re classics for a reason,” said Diana, “I don’t see how we can leave
out something by Jane Austen.”
“Agreed,” said Petra, “but which one? My vote goes for Sense and Sensibility,” she proffered.
“That’s my favorite too!” piped up Alison. “That Colonel Brandon . . . just a quietly good hero, all the way through. Honestly?
I think I prefer him to Mr. Darcy.” She clapped her hand to her mouth.
Sacrilege indeed.
“Let’s have votes for Sense and Sensibility versus Pride and Prejudice,” suggested Petra. So far, this list was making her want to buy and re-read every single one of them.
“Can I make it even more complicated and suggest Persuasion too?” piped up Diana.
Mungo and Flo groaned. “We can’t have three,” said Flo firmly.
Pride and Prejudice narrowly took first place in a show of hands, but Petra was seriously wondering whether to get stocks of both, as she loved Colonel Brandon too. After all, they were going to have two Jilly Coopers.
“This list is starting to get out of hand,” she observed. “Let’s just agree on a couple more and then get onto our Jill Mansell.”
They had all read the latest Jill Mansell in advance, and Petra had loved it.
Eventually, they agreed on The Great Gatsby as the best example of doomed infatuation. This pleased Mungo enormously as it was another male writer. There was talk of
Atonement too, but—in the end—the final place on the list went to Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game, to Petra’s delight, as she thought it was the most perfect rom-com she had read in a long time.
“Oh, except, hang on,” said Petra, as they refilled glasses in preparation for their literary discussion on the chosen book.
“This is the Beach Reads Book Club, so we can’t not have its inspiration, The Beach Reads Book Club by Kathryn Freeman.”
“Absolutely!” they all chorused. “Another book about books,” sighed Diana happily. “I bloody love those.”
“That’s my reading list sorted for the next few weeks,” agreed Mungo. “Petra, please put me down for copies of the whole lot.”
“Perfect,” said Petra, making a note.
“But, darling, we’ve got most of these at home,” said Diana. “In fact, when I moved in with you, I think I brought my own
copies, so we’ve probably got jolly nearly two copies of them all.”
“No matter,” said Mungo firmly. “I want new, beautiful copies,” he told Petra. “The most lovely edition of each, please. Hardback
preferably.”
“Good idea,” said Petra, who had been thinking the same.
People were already going to have these books.
Beautiful new editions were the way forward, she thought, remembering Ross’s first present to her—that beautiful edition of Jane Eyre.
She treasured it. And Valentine’s Day was about buying romantic presents for each other, not just books for one’s self.
Speaking of which, she already had her eye on the Virago Modern Classics clothbound women’s literature edition of Frenchman’s Creek.
She might treat herself.