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Published January 1, 1955
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Elizabeth Eliot
14 books7 followersElizabeth Eliot was the author of fiction, mainly romantic mysteries, that were most popular in the 1950's. Elizabeth Eliot was the pen name for Lady Germaine Elizabeth Olive Eliot.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 20, 2021
If you don’t know anything about horses or racing or the associated betting jargon, this book is likely to be incomprehensible. For this is a novel for horse lovers and racing aficionados. If you know the joy of rising at 6 am to muck out and exercise, if you do morning stables just as willingly in the depths of winter cold as you do on a bright warm summer’s morning, if you can’t resist the whicker of any horse and want to rub his nose over the stable door while he nuzzles you for treats, then this is the novel for you, and like me, you will gallop through it.
Racing isn’t just a background profession. It permeates the whole book as it does the protagonists’ lives. They live and breathe horses. The stable lads’ morning routine, the names, breeding and race history of every horse, the ever present background of gambling - they are the pulsing life blood of this novel.
The story begins with a long exposition establishing how the racing and gambling fraternities interact in order to explain how later events work out. Not a word is wasted, and each flamboyant racetrack character is drawn with a masterful few brush strokes. The scene is crowded with racegoers, the air ringing with bookmakers calling the odds and tipsters offering certain winners for a price, and anxious trainers have their eyes locked onto the blur of horses in the far distance.
As the year progresses, the social and financial background of the characters is filled in and the situations which constrain them shape the events of the novel. Eliot often enters into the characters’ thoughts as part of the narrative using free indirect speech which gives the prose great immediacy and enhances the drama. This is a dynamic and pacy novel.
As the disaster which engulfs Tony progresses he moves away from centre stage. I believe it is a mistake to remove him from the forefront of the novel while the investigation grinds slowly on. He is distanced and people are acting for him. This feels very passive and makes the novel sag in the middle after the dynamic introduction and early events of the novel. Thankfully the pace picks up again in the final furlong and the investigation surges into the home straight for a clean win!
The main romance relationship was sensitively handled. Both characters understood each other well enough to realise that the easy solution wasn’t going to be good enough and worked their way through the thicket of obstacles in their path. I found it hard to believe in the sub-plot romance after he openly suspected her father and especially after he sold the filly. But both relationships survived and the ending was upbeat.
The final chapter was a mirror image of the first comprising the apt central image of a horse unbeaten in spite of all the handicaps placed on him. A wonderful novel which I greatly enjoyed - but possibly only for those who love horses.
NB I learnt the original meaning of the term “spiv” from this novel!
Racing isn’t just a background profession. It permeates the whole book as it does the protagonists’ lives. They live and breathe horses. The stable lads’ morning routine, the names, breeding and race history of every horse, the ever present background of gambling - they are the pulsing life blood of this novel.
The story begins with a long exposition establishing how the racing and gambling fraternities interact in order to explain how later events work out. Not a word is wasted, and each flamboyant racetrack character is drawn with a masterful few brush strokes. The scene is crowded with racegoers, the air ringing with bookmakers calling the odds and tipsters offering certain winners for a price, and anxious trainers have their eyes locked onto the blur of horses in the far distance.
As the year progresses, the social and financial background of the characters is filled in and the situations which constrain them shape the events of the novel. Eliot often enters into the characters’ thoughts as part of the narrative using free indirect speech which gives the prose great immediacy and enhances the drama. This is a dynamic and pacy novel.
As the disaster which engulfs Tony progresses he moves away from centre stage. I believe it is a mistake to remove him from the forefront of the novel while the investigation grinds slowly on. He is distanced and people are acting for him. This feels very passive and makes the novel sag in the middle after the dynamic introduction and early events of the novel. Thankfully the pace picks up again in the final furlong and the investigation surges into the home straight for a clean win!
The main romance relationship was sensitively handled. Both characters understood each other well enough to realise that the easy solution wasn’t going to be good enough and worked their way through the thicket of obstacles in their path. I found it hard to believe in the sub-plot romance after he openly suspected her father and especially after he sold the filly. But both relationships survived and the ending was upbeat.
The final chapter was a mirror image of the first comprising the apt central image of a horse unbeaten in spite of all the handicaps placed on him. A wonderful novel which I greatly enjoyed - but possibly only for those who love horses.
NB I learnt the original meaning of the term “spiv” from this novel!
February 28, 2023
The book opens at a race meeting, where trainer Tony Brandon has several horses running including Benefit, who has won many races. Tony is in love with the beautiful Francesca, who has never been to a race meeting before but is fascinated by the new world she finds herself in. Tony has financial problems and is struggling to keep his stables going, his wealthy father, who wanted Tony to go into the family business, won’t help him. Francesca has money of her own, but Tony of course is too proud to accept help from her. Then something happens which makes Tony’s life even more complicated, and seems Francesca may have to help him after all. This is a very enjoyable novel about the world of horse racing, told from the point of view of various different characters. Perhaps a little more detail about some of the characters would have been nice, several characters are introduced who we learn very little about and they just disappear after a while. It probably helps if you are interested in horse racing, but I’m not particularly, but still enjoyed it. Quite different from her previous novels.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews